globe9

. Problem is some cheapskate posters expect 4-5 star quality products for nothing and if they don't get what they want, they come here to trash the cruise line like calling the food cafeteria quality. Hardly an objective and fair review.

I ordered Caeser salad & steak in MDR and requested medium rare. Took about 25mins to receive salad. Then another 30 to get our main course and it was gray. The entire steak. It was like it was frozen then microwaved. I finished the veggies and we left. No point in waiting longer. The service was extremely slow. Like 15 mins between refilling our drinks slow.

Happened several times during breakfast in MDR as well. Tables on either side of us got drinks and refills while we sat waiting. Finally got up to get our own water. Head waiter must have seen and told us to leave glasses and he'd get someone to fill. Still took about 5 mins and he explained no one knew who's section we were in. We didn't seat ourselves. We were shown to these seats.

Windjammer wasn't any better. Bland, lukewarm foods and basically the same selection every night.

Felt like a cafeteria, only I've had better food in some cafeterias. I'm not expecting 4 or 5 star cuisine at all. I like simple, good food. Nothing fancy. Good food doesn't have to be difficult. I think their food sources are low quality (explains the brown iceberg lettuce every single day on buffet... Carnival uses Romaine btw). Last day there was no lettuce at all... Just purple cabbage. I was like ***?

Just disappointing. Carnival is a cheaper cruise usually and Blue Iguana, Guys, Mongolian grill blow RCCL away.. I hardly think any of that is 4 or 5 star meals.. it's just good.

We did not. After we gave up on lunch in the Windjammer, we tried to go to Johnny Rockets, but were told it was a 45min to 1 hour wait. We just went down and had protein bars in the cabin.

Should have mentioned that we're on a low carb diet, so mostly what we could eat was meat, non starchy veggies, cheese etc.

I found myself making salad with a bunless burger on top often however salad was a pain in the butt. One bar would have lettuce, cauliflower, raw broccoli... But no cucumber, boiled egg, bacon bits etc.... Would have to go to the back right side to find the cucumber and mushrooms. Then would have to go to the other station on the left to get bacon bits (only available like twice all week). It became a scavenger hunt for salad toppings. Very frustrating.

Also one evening, they had giant pieces of actual bacon instead of bits. Grabbed some and they were actually raw. I don't think they'd even touched a pan.

Several instances of crazy stuff like that. Ketchup and mustard out one day on condiment bar near hamburgers. Just thousand island and honey mustard out the next. Got smoked salmon one morning and asked for cream cheese. Was told it was in a fridge in the back and she didn't have a key. I mean cream cheese shouldn't be a hard request.

Carnival is much better food wise. More variety as well. The Mongolian grill, Guys, superior pizza, etc.

I just got off Explorer today and I thought the food was terrible. On par with a cafeteria at a hospital or something and believe me, I'm no foodie.

Lettuce, which was iceberg, was brown. Food was always lukewarm or cold. Burgers were absolutely disgusting. I think I lost weight as I just skipped meals if nothing was good, so maybe a blessing in disguise.

Other than food though, I loved RCCL. Wish they'd increase the quality to at least that of a mid range chain restaurant.

Just back from Alaska on Explorer of the Seas. It's my first time back on RCCL since I was a kid in the late 80's on Song of America & Song of Norway.

I've been using NCL & Carnival primarily as it's most convenient from my home port of New Orleans.

We were expecting a lot based on comments I've heard over the years bashing Carnival in relation to RCCL.

I did enjoy my cruise and loved the layout of the Explorer. Everything was convenient and the ship didn't feel huge. We especially liked all of the various bars and lounges tucked away all over the ship.

The staff was wonderful. Some of the friendliest I've ever encountered.

Embarkation was smooth and hassle free. We arrived at terminal by about 10:20am and was on ship by 11am.

However, the Windjammer wasn't open and there were LONG lines waiting to get in.

This was also the case on first sea day. We got our lunch, lapped the entire restaurant area 3 times and could not find an empty seat so we just gave up & put lunch down.

We then went to dining room where the service was unbelievably slow.

My main issue was the food quality at the Sapphire Dining Room and Windjammer. I'm no foodie by any means and I found the food absolutely terrible. Probably the first cruise I've lost weight on and actually went hungry a few times rather than eat what was being served.

We tried the dining room the first night. I ordered the steak medium rare. After waiting almost 45 mins to get it, it was gray! The whole steak was gray. I've never seen anything like it. Not even at a place like Applebee's.

We were really disappointed overall. Carnival and NCL's complimentary food options are much better. Most of the food was lukewarm, lettuce was brown, etc..

Really marred the cruise line imo. I'm not sure if maybe it was the ship?

Even though everything else was great, the food quality really has me questioning whether I'll retry RCCL again.

We'll be in Juneau in about 2 weeks on RCCL Explorer of the Seas.

I believe we dock at noon and leave at 9pm. We want to do Mendenhall Glacier & hike to Nugget Falls as well as Mt Roberts Tramway. Wife would also like some time in Juneau itself to walk around and shop for souvenirs and local art.

My plan is to take one of the $45 shuttles out to Mendenhall as soon as we are allowed off ship. Hike around for a few hours. Then take shuttle back to town for walking around, lunch, & shopping. I think we should do Mt.Roberts tram last as it will bring us right back to ship area when done.

Does this sound feasible? I'm not sure how long it's going to take to get off of ship .I know tours are allowed off first. Then I don't know how long it'll take to get on a shuttle to Mendenhall.

Any tips? Advice? Not trying to be rushing around like crazy people to fit it all in, but we're hoping it'll be easier than it sounds.

Will be in Alaska next month and I'm looking for recommendations on budget Friendly, small, lightweight binoculars.

I'm well aware that you get what you pay for with optics, but quite frankly I'm not looking to spend $$$ on something I'll maybe use for a week on the cruise and then never again.

Hoping to keep it under $50. Just a basic pair of Bushnell's? Seems like a lot of choices on Amazon. Any recommendations?

We arrive in Juneau at noon and depart at 9pm.

We'd like to go to Mendenhall Glacier, check out the visitor center and do a bit of hiking for a few hours before going into town for shopping, dinner, etc.

I've been trying to research the best & most affordable way for 2 adults to do this and have been getting conflicting answers.

1. Been told to take City bus for like $2 a person.

2. Told NOT to take City bus as it's only every hour and drops you off at mile from Visitor Center.

3. Told to take shuttle bus at $45 a person (so $90 RT).

4. Told that if I'm paying $90 for a shuttle bus, i'd come out cheaper renting a car and then I can do things on my own schedule.

5. Told renting a car would be a pain in the butt just for driving to Mendenhall and that I should just take a taxi.

6. I asked about cost of taxi and was told that it was $45. Then someone else said, nope, closer to $60.

At this point I'm really wishing I could just Uber. $90 for a shuttle bus that goes 10 miles seems outrageous to me. I'd rather grab a local, give them $25 and have them drop us off.

Has anyone done this trip to Mendenhall from pier? Any tips or advice? I'll be on RCCL Explorer of the Seas next month.

We will be in Juneau on Sunday 5/20. I'd like to rent a car to go out to Mendenhall and various other sites. I'm trying to determine which dock Explorer will use, hopefully it's not a tender port, and the best rental car agency to use for a 7-8hr rental? Anyone have any experience or tips?

Thanks!

They have all of the Johnny Walker's and 2 or 3 Dewar's types. Don't remember prices though and they may have had other brands as well.

I was on 10/8 sailing with 11am check in & got email saying to come an hour later. We ignored the email and got there about 10:55am. We were let right into terminal and only waited about 40mins to board

Oh, I'd definitely prefer a balcony, especially for Alaska, but not at almost double the price. We'd rather take another vacation that year. I've been to Alaska already and I'm sure we'll be back. We've got 3 other land based trips booked for 2018 so far, so I'm seriously considering downgrading from OV to interior since we'll be up on deck anyway.

Hard to answer your questions 1 & 2, as they are really a matter of personal preference. My opinion on coffee may not be the same as yours. Pretty sure the brand of coffee they served was Illy. I vaguely remember tea bags out when we were on Harmony last month. Hot tea wasn't already brewed. I don't drink any of the cold drinks (besides water) so I can't answer that. You can always brew your own ice tea with the tea bags if you want.

 

An Alaska cruise is on our bucket list, and we will definitely get a balcony. I'd love to sit on the balcony as we sail past glaciers. That view is unobstructed and you are partially shielded from the chill by the balcony dividers. From deck, you are either out in the open or you'l have a glass panel in front of you. But again, my personal opinion and ma not be another person's.

Went to sign up for this on our cruise last week on the Breeze. Was told at the desk that I should have booked online as they were all full up with a waiting list a mile long. I wonder if I was lied to. I was on pretty quickly with FTTF.

We were on Breeze last week and booked this tour at Excursion Desk as soon as we boarded... probably about 1:00pm-ish. It wasn't full yet at that point. It lasted about 3 hrs and was very interesting

The wife and I are booked in an OV cabin on Explorer OTS next May out of Seattle to Alaska.

I've been on several cruises throughout the years, but the 4 most recent have been on Carnival. Last time I cruised RCCL was in the early 90's as a kid.

With that being said I've got several questions:

1. How is the food? I've been reading conflicting reports. I'm on a low carb/high fat diet, so quality of meats/vegetables etc? Real eggs on buffet? A good variety? For reference, just returned from Carnival Breeze and found most food mediocre at best. We did enjoy the Mongolian Wok and Guy's Burgers, but the lido deck buffet overall was lackluster. MDR wasn't much better.

2. I see they offer a drink package that includes specialty coffees/virgin drinks/bottled water/soda etc. I'm fine drinking the free tea if it's actually brewed and tastes like iced tea at most land based restaurants. Carnival's tea was disgusting as it was more a "tea flavored" beverage than fresh brewed tea. Does RCCL have brewed iced tea?

How is their free coffee? I didn't care for the free coffee on Carnival so bought the Starbucks coffee from the Promenade deck cafe.

If RCCL has decent tea & coffee, I'm fine without the drink package.

3. We're currently booked in an Ocean view on Deck 3 mid ship. I'm debating on whether to downgrade to an interior and move up a few floors to be closer to the action? We normally get balconies on Carnival, but I think we are mainly out there for a total of 1-1.5 hrs total cruise. I'm beginning to think they're not worth the extra expense since we rarely use it. I was thinking interior for Alaska since we'll have to be up on deck outside anyway for good views/pictures even with an OV? Any advice?

4. Any recommendations on inexpensive excursions? With airfare to Seattle, hotel in Seattle, plus actual cruise, we're at about the top of our vacation budget since we like to do 3-4 vacations a year. I'm wondering if there are local tours we could take? Rent a car and go hiking? Etc...

That's all I can think of for now. Looking forward to this trip

Wife & I were on same sailing. We hated the scrambled eggs on lido. They were always watery and had a very strange consistency.

I actually liked the ship's water as well, but the coffee and tea were horrendous imo. I took to buying my coffee's at the Starbucks cafe on Promenade deck.

We actually did the Behind the Fun tour. Signed up at excursion desk as soon as we boarded about 1pm. I'm mentioning this b/c they take you to the crew's cafeteria where my wife made herself a hot latte with the free coffee machine down there and it was wonderful. She joked that she should slip our room steward extra cash just to bring us coffee from the crew cafeteria.

The Mongolian Wok was indeed wonderful although the lines were frustrating.

Overall we had a nice time, but we're going to explore other lines. I'm not a picky eater by any means but I do like good food. It was brought to my attention that it was next to impossible to get real orange juice on board. They were serving "orange juice flavored cocktail" at the Lido and dining room breakfast. This is just an example of the corners being cut. This wasn't the case last time I cruised Carnival about 6 or 7 yrs ago. We were pretty disappointed.

PART 3: Dining

 

 

• Room Service - We set out the room service card the first night for the next morning. This was the only night we did this and it came about 10 minutes after the time we had requested. No biggie. We did order room service 2 other nights for late night snacks. The first night was on Tuesday night and it took a long while. They apologized profusely and said they were swamped. DW and the kids ordered a snack another night while I was out and they had nothing bad to say. We always tipped a couple of dollars at least.
  

• Breakfast - We did Sea Day Brunch on the first sea day and it was delicious. I had the Huevos Rancheros while DW had the Salmon. We had done did put the kids in the kids club. It was good. DW did say she would have liked more sauce. We did the Sea Day brunch again on the next to last sea day and again, it was delicious.
  
• I had the Blue Iguana canting burrito one day. It was excellent. I didn't order what I wanted exactly thinking we would all share it. It was meant to be sort of a pre-breakfast appetizer.
  
• The rest of the time we ate breakfast in the lido. We would either take the kids for breakfast, drop them off at the kid's club and then we get our food later or we would take them there first, then eat and afterwards go get them for breakfast. We always found something we liked. There were 4 stations serving the same thing with 2 stations cooking omelets. There was also a station for pastries and fresh fruit cut up. There was always plenty of cold milk in cartons except for 1 day, we got there late and we got the last carton of chocolate milk and they weren't putting out any more. The dorks had to share it. They weren't happy.
  
• Someone on another page mentioned the scrambled eggs. They said they were powdery. I didn't taste this. I liked the eggs and normally I am not the biggest egg fan. They seemed more like liquid eggs.
  
• I had an omelet one day. It was delicious and the only reason I didn't ever get another was that I didn't want to deal with the lines, even though they were usually short.
  
• We got plenty of bacon. Always got more if we asked for it.
  
• I don't drink coffee but the wife said it was good, though she does doctor it heavily.
  

• Lunch - 1st day, we had Guy's burgers. My only complaint here was that you couldn't see the menu sign until you were ready to order and there was a ton of people in line behind you waiting on you to order and giving you the look of death. I got the plain cheeseburger both times I went there. They were good.
  
• Only had the Pig and Anchor once. The meat was flavorful but the sides left something to be desired.
  
• Never had the Blue Iguana for lunch or the Mongolian Wok so I am of no help there. Sorry.
  
• One day i did get the Tandoori Grill and it was delicious, beyond delicious. Probably one of my favorite places.
  
• I never did get Pizza either. They can really do better here. They don't make them fast enough and I never felt like waiting around for them to get one going. From what I could tell, they were of a good size.
  
• We got the dorks hot dogs from the deli twice and they seemed well made. DW got a Reuben once and wasn't really impressed.
  

• Dinner - OK, here is where I am going to lose some of you so be prepared. We had early seating at 6:00 pm. Our servers were Sugar (hey that is what he told us to call him. His real name is Sudarmanto. DW reminded me that he was from Indonesia. His 1st assistant was Juan and he was from the Phillipines. His 2nd assistant was Aleksandru and was from Serbia I believe. Really nice guys and they did do a good job. We usually got there at 6 or within 5 minutes after. The last night we were 10 min late due to dropping the dorks off at kids' slub. This last night it took over 20 minutes for them to acknowledge us. It turned out that the reason was they had pulled Aleksandru up to the lido to help there and so Sugar was shorthanded. They all loved our kids and were upset that they weren't there after the 2nd night. Even the Maitre'D and his assistant asked about the kids. I was very impressed with that. They had on the first 2 nights brought our kids banana splits which they loved.
  
• Appetizers were mostly delicious. DW had the Chilled Vietnamese roll the first night and she said it was ok but all it had in it were noodles, almost no vegetables. I never had a problem with any of the appetizers that I ordered. I had originally planned on running the ship out of shrimp cocktail but after the 1st night, never ordered them again.
  
• Entree's were where they lacked any kind of pizzaz. We were able to find something every night but they weren't all that great. DW had the flat iron steak the first night and didn't like it. It was gristly (sp). She ordered spinach side dish and it came out cold. I had the Mahi Mahi the first night and while it was decent, it wasn't great. Hard to explain. I got 2 lobster tails on 1st elegant night. Good but not great. 2 nights I had pasta dishes and they were excellent I wasn't disappointed. The desserts were at best an 8/10. The cheese cake was probly the best thing I had.
  
• On Belize night we went to the Farenheit 555 steak house.It was worth every penny. We each got 2 appetizers instead of an appetizer and a salad. The chef sent out this little tasting item made entirely of parmesan cheese. It was nummy. I had been dreaming of the Surf and Turf for years but when they described t, saying it came with a 4 oz portion of the filet I changed my mind and got the 18 oz Rubbed ribeye. It was all delicious. Wish I had the money to eat there every night.
  

Someone on another page said that the water on their ship was bad. I never had a problem with it on ours We didn't buy the soda package and had 2, 12 packs of water delivered to our stateroom. Our goal was to bring those water flavoring additives on the ship. However we didn't put them in the suitcase and we left them in the car. We could have kicked ourselves. I had insulated cups for the both of us and enough flavoring for her. I drank water most of them time. It was delicious. I always forgot to drink the bottled stuff. We ended up bringing a case home

So-so food on a cruise is still better than a week at work, in my opinion. Seriously though, I'm sorry to hear about the lackluster experience. We are departing on the Breeze in 6 weeks. I'm looking forward to Guy's Burgers and the Bonsai Sushi bar. And I agree...what is it with the Bacon Police???

The bacon police was in full force and she was not a happy camper at all. Guy's was good, but one can only eat so many burgers before they get sick of them.

I did try to get creative and ordered a pizza figuring I'd scrape off the cheese & pepperoni and just eat that. That plan didn't go so well since they now skimp so much on toppings.

The sushi bar must have been great as it was always packed. There was even a wait at times for a table. I did have the miso soup and that was fantastic.

Regarding food, good quality beef is a problem on most of the major cruise lines. Did you try the chicken and fish? I hope the Blue Iguana grilled choices are good. Did you do the seaday brunch?

 

Agree we can be spoiled by what we cook at home. True at about any affordable restaurant.

 

Thanks of the report.

I never could seem to find plain grilled chicken like they used to offer on the Lido grill back before Guy's Burgers. We did sea day brunch on the last sea day. I got an omelette and bacon. It was good. I'm not a big fan of fish, other than fresh tuna, which I did get as my app at the steakhouse. Guess I could just eat there every night, but I think I'm going to try other cruising options instead.

I guess I shouldn't complain too much as I probably lost 2 or 3lbs this past week since I just went hungry sometimes rather than eat sub par food just b/c it was "free". I've cruised Carnival 4 times prior to this, but 7 yrs ago was the most recent. I thought the food was fine back then. Nothing special, but decent. This experience was not that.

I'm in the car heading back to Dallas as I type this (don't worry, not driving).

My wife and I stayed in a balcony cabin on Deck 7 forward. We were near the "secret" deck. The cabin was adequate and I thought quite roomy with storage space. Our room steward, Christine, was wonderful. She did ask if we wanted our room made up in the morning or evening. We opted for both. She was more than happy to accommodate.

The balcony was standard but to be honest, I'm not sure I'll book another again as my wife wants it, but doesn't spend much time out there. This was our 3rd balcony cabin and we spent maybe 1.5 hrs total out there. Think I'll stick with an OV next time.

Entertainment was good. We saw Flick, the Motown Show, and the Country show. The entertainers were talented, but at times you could tell the songs given were beyond their capabilities, such as Adele's Skyfall and Aerosmith's Don't Want to Miss A Thing. No biggie. There's a reason they're performers on a cruise ship and not selling out arenas. They definitely gave it their all and the effects and production values were great. They've certainly come a long way since my last cruise 7 yrs ago.

Unfortunately though, it seems the food has gotten worse. I'm on a low carb diet and figured I'd have no issues avoiding carbs. Well the quality of meats left A LOT to be desired. The flat iron steak that was a staple on the dinner menu was inedible it was so bad and even though I ordered it medium rare, it was more medium well. I only made the mistake of ordering it once.

The eggs on the lido deck were watery and the consistency was disgusting. The bacon **** would dish out 2 strips and i'd say I'm on a low carb/high fat diet, so can I have plenty please? That would garner me another 2 strips. I didn't feel like having to beg the unsmiling, unfriendly bacon server for more bacon, so gave up on Lido deck breakfast. There were pork link sausages I liked on the lido deck, but they disappeared by Thursday to be replaced with some hot dog looking sausage that was not good imo. The pork links never returned.

The breakfast in the dining room was good, but the hours didn't always coincide with my sleep schedule, so I skipped breakfast altogether most of the time.

Ate most lunches at the Mongolian Wok skipping the sauces and noodles. That was very delicious, but the lines were always very long. Did Guy's burgers (bunless) a few times as well.

Something else I noticed is that the lido deck inside dining areas would fill up and it was VERY hard to find a clean table. There just weren't enough bussers to keep up. I saw tables sit dirty for 45mins at 1pm. That is just unacceptable to me. I'd bus them myself, but there was literally no where to put the dirty dishes. Guess the number of servers/bussers/waiters has been cut back? Seems like a mistake to me as I've never experienced poor service on any cruise I've been on until this one. I was only asked if I wanted a drink twice the entire cruise. I had to wait upwards of 20 minutes for a drink at the Atrium bar. Dinner service in Sapphire dining room was extremely slow and not as attentive as I'm used to. Like no one asked if we wanted drinks besides water with dinner. No one came by to ask how everything was. It took a good 15 minutes from time the hostess sat us until a waitress came out with the menus. We were sat twice(once at breakfast and once at dinner) at tables that weren't prepped for new guests. Overall just not happy with the service and believe me, I am not picky. Just smile and be friendly and I'll cut most mistakes some slack.

We ate at the steakhouse for my birthday and that was wonderful. The NY Strip was fantastic and perfectly cooked. Had the tuna tartare app which was delicious. And the cheesecake was still on the menu Yay!(yes, I did cheat on my birthday)

Speaking of my birthday, I did receive the $50 gift card to the spa. Never got a chance to use it. Also received a birthday cake in my room from the steakhouse. Our steward, Christine, also wrote Happy Birthday on the cabin mirror and made sure to tell me Happy Birthday and hug both me and my wife. It was very sweet.

She was definitely the bright spot in a mediocre cruise, but even a mediocre cruise is better than a week at home (except I cook better food with higher quality ingredients:D)

I think my wife and I, who are entering our 40's may have outgrown Carnival though. The lack of service and subpar food really stood out to me this time. We're booked on RCCL for Alaska, but I may begin looking into Holland America, Celebrity etc in the future.

I have several AARP Carnival gift cards and one Kroger bought Carnival gift card. I have all receipts and I remember someone telling me to hold onto them. My cruise is in 2 weeks and I'm getting all documentation together to bring with me. Do I need to bring the gift card receipts with me for any reason?

They don't serve plain roast coffee at the coffee bar. If you find that the regular coffee isn't to your liking, you may want to try a single shot Americano (basically 1 shot of espresso with a lot of hot water). My dad likes "just coffee" and had an issue when we sailed Celebrity and would visit Café Al Bacio. He found that the regular Americano (2 shots of espresso) was too strong but a 1 shot was perfect and tasted just like good, regular coffee.

Isn't the Javablue drip coffee regular coffee?

Hey globe9, didn't notice you were from New Orleans!!

 

All my football teams (and yours??) struggled last weekend. Hoping for a big bounce back tomorrow!!

I'm from New Orleans but I've got family in Crowley. My mom is a USL almunae:D

Yes, that's what I'm thinking! :(

Go Rajun Cajuns btw!:D

Regular coffee is available "free of charge". Try that first, before figuring out if you need to spend money.

From what I remember the free coffee is pretty bad. I like good, strong coffee and don't mind paying for it. Just trying to see what the cost is and what this refillable cup is about.

Someone mentioned in an earlier thread that decent coffee was available at the cafe on board. And that there was a refillable cup.

I just want plain medium roast coffee with Splenda and 1/2 and 1/2. How much is the refillable cup? Any idea on how much the price is for the equivalent of a grande regular hot coffee?

I like heavy cream in my coffee--it only takes just a little per cup--so I carry on a small carton and have never had a problem.

Good to know. I'm on keto diet so was wondering about heavy cream. I go through 3 qts a week at home. Someone told me they asked a waiter on Lido deck and he brought them a cup of heavy cream every day. I may not risk it though and bring my own. I'm also assuming Carnival will have real pats of butter? I can always put that in my coffee and make it bulletproof.

The wife and I(early 40's) are planning an Alaskan cruise RT out of Seattle. She reserved an ocean view on the RCCL Explorer of the Seas which is $2434.78 total(includes all taxes & fees). She reserved directly from RCCL.

I just got a cruise compete quote for HAL Eurodam for balcony room(cat VF)which would be $2802.64 with $50 OBC. It says this includes port charges and govt fees. Seems like a balcony cabin for only about $400 more would be worth it IMO. I also feel like HAL is the better line.

Anything I'm missing? I emailed the agency to make sure $2802 is the full price but haven't heard anything back yet.