Tatka

You are saying it as if this is somehow 100% occurrence. For 12 days on Enchantment in March, 11 days on Anthem in January we had different quality staff (some were good, some were OK) , but we never had untrained staff. We had 5 last year and a year before. This year we also have Liberty in May and September and Anthem in November. Only 26 out of 57 our cruises are with Royal, so we can change lines if experience becomes horrible. 🙂 We always do My Time Dining and ask to be seated in various locations (on ships like Enchantments, Oasis) or restaurants (on Anthem) so we get many different waiters on every cruise. And ... we leave our comments in surveys most of the time about good, bad and ugly. By the way, speak to their managers right away you are upset.

I found Bay Scallop Gratin. It’s on this menu

I just don't think my opinion is any less important than other people opinions. Do you think yours weighs less? And it is not endlessly by any means. How many posts? By the same token I can ask you what is with all your posts here? What are you trying to achieve?

1. We miss lamb chop.. They dropped it about a year ago. There is a lamb, but it is with large bone and very fatty. There is no beef Wellington which I in some reason suddenly fell in love with just before it disappeared. Although we saw it in the buffet on Anthem one day. 2. I swear I saw Bay scallop gratin during 12 night cruise, but I cannot remember what themed night that was (we had 11 different menus on 12 nights, Italian repeated)

What a cute accusation. LOL Because I can. 🙂 I am arguing based on my experience and the fact that I am on cruise boards and other sites for a long time (you can check my profile) to know that at any time you can find tons of bad reviews. It does not mean your experience will be bad. I read absolutely horrible reviews about cruises we were on which we did not experience at all. However if we do not like something we complain right there on the ship. Of course it is always very polite, but firm. Most if not all things get fixed. One out of 8 companies we dropped completely realizing that we cannot expect something that is not there by design.

I am sailing with RCI since 2004 (just like with other 7 lines) just much more often lately. People are paying more now because many are still taking the first vacation after Covid break. RCI won't be able to keep prices risen in a long time, And even now there are ways to avoid paying much more and people use it (especially experienced ones). Increasing prices on extras also have limits because those items are not mandatory.

And in our case the very first time it made a difference. Meat was not medium well as my husband likes. Of course we did not film it. By the way I a have conspiracy theory. Yes.. from watching this video someone will change cruise line, however due to the other things which make RCI almost unique or unique people will just book additional restaurants more often. Who do you think will benefit from this?

This is a problem. Just because you are watching almost professional video you think it is somehow an absolute standard. It is not. And this is aside from the facts that 2-5-10 years ago quality of service on various ships of the same company (in this case RCI) highly dependent on particular stuff, Even food variety in buffet depended on the ship.

You can still send food back. If portion is not enough you can ask for the second entry. Any entry except for free lobster. We actually ordered two entries on several occasions in March.

If you are OK with doubling prices maybe you need to look at premium or even luxury lines? To expect that massmarket line can easily double prices for majority of cruises is just not reasonable. If you are OK with it, try Celebrity. They also have some cutbacks, but overall they offer better food as they focus more on it than on lets say entertainment. Also maybe Holland America. Princess was also usually better in food department than Royal. On land in All inclusives you also have limits, but hey, if they work better for you why not? We look for all components including geography/ship design, and Royal is the best for us now overall,

It is an industry cut backs. I'd say not only cruise industry, but overall hospitality. You of course know reasons for that. In our observations Royal improved greatly from 2000-x to 2010x. And we all know what happened in 2020. Right? But even losing money up to the last quarters of 2022 Royal tried really hard not to change things. No company will suddenly try to upset its customers for no reasons. Especially when competition is that fierce. As I watched Royal (and other companies) through tougher and better times I hope they and other lines will be able to correct issues. For now I am happy they survived. Btw while cruises were on hold in 2020 and 2021 we did what we have not done for 18 years... Went to good all inclusives. As much as it was a breath of fresh air, it was evident that they also experienced issues.

Please do not have any hope. Go with this expectation. It is almost feels like you will be upset if you get different result. 🙂 You will still repeat that you cannot believe your own eyes and mouth because you read (watched) bad reviews. Btw if you see my signature you should realize that we do not have any issues switching lines at any times.

You can call me whatever you want, although you seem to have an agenda here, but in my opinion it was a good temp. No different than in any other 10 cruises in last several years or on ones before.

We had food with good temps on recent Enchantment cruise. Maybe it is also subjective? Also I think quality of food... and temperatures could be specific to the ship.

What is your point? Are you worried about end of RCI because of YouTubers you like voiced their opinion? I do not even know what to say. For me they are not more credible than others, I trust my experience.

Have you cruised lately or is this all based on review? We did in January on Anthem and March on Enchantment, in a couple of weeks we will be on Liberty. We also pay for cruises 🙂 . We have not noticed any horrors. What I am saying is see for yourself. You may have different opinion. Also you are in restaurant. If dish is bad or cold you ask for another. You complain. I see no reason to stress badly before your cruise.

Your choice. I always make my judgement as I read horrible reviews about same cruises we were on. Complete opposite to what we witnessed. Menus did change, many people miss classic selections they are accustomed too. Anyway, have a nice cruise and hopefully you won't be disappointed.

I'd say go with open mind and see for yourself. In some weird reason the weakest food we had on Royal was in 2004 on Splendor and 2007 on Explorer. Food in 2010x especially in 2013 and onward improved greatly. Now I'd say it is a bit weaker than it was till 2023, but it is still enjoyable. Also quality depends on ship and chef. We cruise 5 times a year and we see a difference. Remember bad news sell well, so you read/hear complaints more than good opinions.

I am not sure this is still usable https://sargassummonitoring.com/ From what we saw and I see on line Antigua has a huge issues now. In March we saw it increasing in St Maarten.

We absolutely loved Edge (Apex sister) and not so much Silhouette. We LOVE Anthem due to amazing Solarium (and indoor pool for families. We do not have kids, but solves many issues in colder sailings) . We are not fans of Esplanade... at least we think that tables need to stay in stores as there is not enough space.

Odyssey should be good for Southampton during summers. Better than for Bayonne, NJ for November - April without indoor pool for families.

You are right. Odyssey and Spectrum probably don’t have it. We’ll find out next year 🙂 For me it’s unfortunately not the worst change for this class…

1) Voyager, Explorer, Navigator, Mariner, Adventure Freedom, Liberty, Independence have full-size outside promenade (but not teak) 2) Quantum, Anthem, Ovation, Odyssey, Spectrum have outside seating behind buffet. in terms of Solariums … First group has no roof solariums Second has most beautiful and unique among any cruise ship indoor Solariums. We live there 🙂 Unfortunately Ovation and Oasis (Allure, Symptoms, Harmony, Wonder) classes don’t have Viking Crown Lounges.

My dear husband makes me (as a phone addict) check our account charges from time to time. We only buy drinks in bars and in person though.

We used to book maybe up to 3-4 cruises ahead, now we have 7 and are watching 3 more. All from Bayonne and Baltimore though. We don’t cruise during summers except for cruises attached to Memorial and Labor Day. We feel we got pricing we won’t get after. Insides for Thanksgiving 2023 and January 2024 on Anthem are more expensive than obstructed balconies we got.