Food on Grandeur

We were on the Grandeur for 12 days this month and found the food in the MDR to be very good. The menu was a little different from our past cruises. The service was probably some of the best we've had in the recent past. We are not fussy, but we do enjoy good food:D. Also, we thought the crew on the Grandeur was extremely friendly. Go enjoy your cruise!!!!

We have been cruising for many years and have been on 6 different cruise lines .The crew on our recent Grandeur cruise were the nicest and most friendly of any ship we have ever been on.

Yes, there was lobster tails one night. My husband said it was very good and you can get more than one.;)

Thank you for the info! Very happy to hear that this free option has not disappeared. :)

Interesting - do you know if other RCCL ships are now offering such things as lobster in the MDR for an additional price? Did you have a night aboard ship where lobster was served (without an additional charge)? On RCCL ships I've sailed (European cruises & TA) there has always been a night where lobster was served in the MDR & it has always been free in the past - and we look forward to it. Sure hope that this is not a harbinger of things to come on all cruises/lines - must pay extra in the MDR.

typically the "free lobster in the MDR" night is the second formal night

Interesting - do you know if other RCCL ships are now offering such things as lobster in the MDR for an additional price? Did you have a night aboard ship where lobster was served (without an additional charge)? On RCCL ships I've sailed (European cruises & TA) there has always been a night where lobster was served in the MDR & it has always been free in the past - and we look forward to it. Sure hope that this is not a harbinger of things to come on all cruises/lines - must pay extra in the MDR.

I've only been cruising RCCL for 5 years but in that time there has always been upcharge items available on the MDR menu. Free/included lobster has been available on second formal night but only on US/Canada sailings - NOT European, Asian or Australian sailings. I'm surprised that you recall having it in Europe

I've only been cruising RCCL for 5 years but in that time there has always been upcharge items available on the MDR menu. Free/included lobster has been available on second formal night but only on US/Canada sailings - NOT European, Asian or Australian sailings. I'm surprised that you recall having it in Europe

I've only done European, Asia and TA cruises - nothing in the states unless you include the Caribbean on a return TA cruise. Yes, now that you mention it and if I recall correctly, it was served on a formal night. Can't remember all the times that I have had the lobster on cruises but I remember some:

I've had it on RCCL LOS - Barcelona to Miami

Celebrity Constellation - Ft. Lauderdale to AMS

You may be correct in that lobster is offered only on US sailings. I am now wondering if the sailings listed above would qualify as US sailings because both of the above either commenced or terminated in the US.

I also recall lobster sometime after leaving the port of Piraeus but fuzzy as to which cruise and when.

Guess I shouldn't be expecting any lobster nights on my upcoming cruises in 2017.

Interesting - do you know if other RCCL ships are now offering such things as lobster in the MDR for an additional price? Did you have a night aboard ship where lobster was served (without an additional charge)? On RCCL ships I've sailed (European cruises & TA) there has always been a night where lobster was served in the MDR & it has always been free in the past - and we look forward to it. Sure hope that this is not a harbinger of things to come on all cruises/lines - must pay extra in the MDR.

All of the ships (actually, I don't know about the Empress) sailing over here offer this.

I've only been cruising RCCL for 5 years but in that time there has always been upcharge items available on the MDR menu. Free/included lobster has been available on second formal night but only on US/Canada sailings - NOT European, Asian or Australian sailings. I'm surprised that you recall having it in Europe

We had lobster tails on The Serenade of the Seas Caribbean Cruise two years ago.

Like a friend of ours ate prime rib most nights for just an additional cost of $10 instead of what the menu was asking. It was prepared in Chops and not the MDR kitchen.

Len, someone posted the menu that shows a much higher price, how did your friend get this option for $10?

Do any of you have a link to the current Grandeur menus or any you can post?

Do any of you have a link to the current Grandeur menus or any you can post?

I board Saturday and will post the here:

https://getawaysfrom21044.wordpress.com/menus/grandeur17/

Roy

I board Saturday and will post the here:

 

https://getawaysfrom21044.wordpress.com/menus/grandeur17/

 

Roy

Thanks! I look forward to following your posts!

Laura

Len, someone posted the menu that shows a much higher price, how did your friend get this option for $10?

Not Len,

However, they were offering a reduced price for the filet mignon ($10) on two nights during the Dec. 9-22 sailing and would guess this is normal. Do not recall a "prime rib" special price being offered.

This all goes to show how subjective this is. We were just on Lady G (our favorite ship) and found the dining room food to be all over the place. Some dishes were good, but IMHO most were not. Disappointed that, in a 12 night cruise, they couldn't offer the mushroom puff pastry... but oh well. For those making the argument that maybe it's better because they're serving to a smaller crowd? Wouldn't that possibly mean the consistency would be decent? Because it wasn't. Items being left off plates, quality of food not consistent across plates, etc... and don't even get me started on the MUSHY strawberries in the desserts. Then there's the evening where liquid was dripping from the ceiling onto me... disgusting, but I will say they handled that quite well.

Food is such a personal thing. I'm on Grandeur now and have set dining. We usually sail Celebrity and this was our first RCI. I thought the food in MDR was as good or better than X! I'm vegetarian and every night the meal just blew me away. The muesli at b'fast was wonderful....the tutti salad at lunch was fantastic...and our servers were both attentive and efficient. Only complaint I have is at lunch when Chops rep would go from table to table hawking the menu! He didn't understand "no thank you" and was as relentless as a door to door salesman.

Have you posted the menus? Nothing shows up on your link.

We have always thought food on the GR was really good, always served hot, tasted good, etc. This last trip, most MDR meals were served warm, only some hot and some like pasta were never hot. Service was good as usual, but food quality and portion size has gone down. Also, Giovanni's wasn't as good as it has been.

I'm going to say what I've said every time quality issues come up and that is that people whine about the cost of cruising, demand lower prices and then are surprised when quality declines. Costs to the cruiseline are not going down so I'm not sure why some expect everything to stay the same for the same or lower cost. It doesn't work that way. It's called economics and the cost of doing business. Long time cruisers have posted that the cost of cruising hasn't really dropped over the last 30+ years, but quality and things included have. Well, that's because they are now catering to every man and costs go up. Cruising used to be something very few people did and those who did, didn't go every year. It was an experience and not a lifestyle for most. It was also something that only those with lots of disposable income did or for a very special occasion such as a honeymoon. Heck, cruising wasn't even on our radar when we got married in 1981. Flying to the Caribbean and staying somewhere for a week was a lot cheaper.

We have been on the Grandeur for the last 11 nights. The menus are all a little different than the Liberty last month. We are staying on the ship a while and I will start taking pictures of the menus.

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We've been on Grandeur several times, yes there are obvious cutbacks in food but we've been satisfied by the quality and service. As to portion size - order multiple appetizers and mains and share. Don't like something - order something else. Special needs - the staff is there to assist. Special treats - as of December, they had lobster tails on 2nd formal night (and you can order 2nds, 3rds, ...), lamb shanks 2 nights, and plenty of grilled dead cow to keep this carnivore happy. Other lobster and steak options in MDR for an upcharge (which was reduced some nights).

We don't go to the specialty restaurants, so cannot comment on their food or service.

I'm just back from the January 3rd 11-night Eastern Caribbean sailing. My last cruise on Royal was on the Grandeur in May 2014, and back then we found the food to be o.k., but the misleading menu descriptions were a regular feature of our MDR meals. I was disappointed to hear that some of my favorites, duck and lamb and prime rib, had all but disappeared from the menu since our last sailing, and some people reported that the Windjammer food was poor quality.

I can report that we had an overall positive experience with the food onboard. This being said, we never went to the MDR. We looked at the menus each day and often saw little that interested us. They have indeed removed duck, rack of lamb (we saw lamb shank on the menu once or maybe twice), and prime rib (they serve "strip loin" instead). We'd head up to the Windjammer and discover that anything that had sounded intriguing on the MDR menu was also available in the Windjammer--along with many other options as well. We even were able to get prime rib in the WJ when it wasn't on the MDR menu, and lamb chops appeared one day at lunch. We never did see duck, though...::(The food was generally appropriately labeled, and the temperature was o.k. There were some items available every night but I thought there was plenty of variety. We also liked being able to make a plate of cheese and breadsticks to take back to the cabin for a midnight snack. One negative was that there was inconsistent (and, when present, slow) beverage service, but I understand that's true in the MDR as well.

The scrambled eggs at breakfast are indeed disappointing, but one can get an omelet made to order. There were some fresh cinnamon and sugar crullers several mornings that were really delicious, but unfortunately refrigerator-cold--they would have been really amazing hot! The coffee wasn't awful. I wish we'd remembered before day 8 that we could get fresh-squeezed orange juice. That was really delicious.

Room service breakfast was just ok--the toast was cold and the eggs are the sad scrambled eggs. Much as I love having someone bring me my breakfast, we had much better options if we just went upstairs to the WJ. (I thought the room service coffee was a little less awful than the WJ coffee, though. Perhaps the pots in the WJ need cleaning.)

We also enjoyed the roast beef sandwiches in the Park Cafe for lunch, and the brownies from Cafe Latte-tudes are very nice as well. We certainly did not go hungry and had few complaints about the food overall.

I will say that I like my food really salty, and rarely had to pick up a salt shaker--which suggests to me that others might find the food too salty. The Indian curries were quite spicy, which I like, but others might not.

I didn't envision passing a whole cruise without a main dining room meal, but, honestly, I kind of liked it. Would do it again.

I have always loved the Grandeur and i just came back from the Jan 14-22 sailing and i have to say that this is the first time i have really had to complain about the food- it was mediocre at best and was barely luke warm and sometimes downright cold. This was in Chops, The Main Dining Room and the Windjammer. complained in all three venues as did my cabin mate and overheard several others complaining. This was addressed very quickly in the Windjammer by the Manager, Pilar who was wonderful- went immediately to the chef who came out, took small portions of food from different areas and i saw him actually touching it as he walked away and he was clearly in agreeance with the fact that it was barely warm. After that initial complaint- there were no more problems and the food in the Windjammer the rest of the cruise was very warm. Complained in Chops and they did not seem very interested other than offering to bring out more food. After how long we had waited to get out food we just opted to leave rather than wait longer. We did not return. No excuse was offered as the cool temperature (we could not even melt butter on the baked potatoe! In the main dining room, the maitre d was very concerned and actually had the head of the dining services come talk to us. We assured them it was not the fault of our waiter as we clearly saw the food come out from the kitchen and he immediately served us. It definitely sat in the back getting cold. Their fix was to send first a bottle of champagne to our cabin one day and chocolate covered strawberries the next then they made sure the rest of the cruise that our food was hot when brought to the table and made a big production of racing over to make sure it was ok. We told them it was fine and that we appreciated the attention but that the bigger issue is were they making sure that ALL of the passengers food was served hot as well. It was not just about our experience that we complained but rather for them to fix the problem for everyone! I was sorely disappointed and i said all of this again in the survey again post cruise. Bottom line is that i am booked again in one year and will give it another try and hopefully the same experience is not repeated. If it is then that is it for me.

Love Pilar! If it is the same person . . . In the main dining room a few cruises ago she made sure all was functioning at the highest level.

Love Pilar! If it is the same person . . . In the main dining room a few cruises ago she made sure all was functioning at the highest level.

she was the supervisor in the Windjammer this cruise and was exemplary- i would bet it is the same person- wonderful and very professional and kind!

We haven't sailed on Royal Caribbean in several years (mostly sailing on Celebrity) but have booked the Grandeur for a 12-night cruise for the end of March. Our final payment is coming up in a few days and I am concerned about some of the recent negative reviews about this ship, especially concerning the food which is an important part of cruising for us. I would appreciate any comments that recent Grandeur cruisers could offer concerning food. Also, is this ship using the "new" menus? Thanks!

 

Laura

We recently did a 12 night on Grandeur, we were very impressed with breakfast, lunch and dinner in the MDR. Top floor of MDR my time dining around 7:45 pm each night, Krystina and Kenneth were fantastic. Food was promptly served always hot, delicious. And the 2 assistant maitre des helped, ran a very good staff, ones name was Dan.

My favorite cruise line is celebrity, wife likes RCL, I would compare Lady G to celebrity service with food very close. Am breakfast in Diamond area of MDR were served by Leah and Austin, excellent remembered all our needs after a day or two. I can't say enough about the crew on the entire ship!

It's like an old school feel, many activities, Zumba, dancing etc.

January 2016 we were on the Anthem, ship was great, food and service lousy. The G restored our faith in RCL and we might cruise her again in 2018.

January 2015 we were on Celebrity Equionox, G is close to that level of food and service, activities were great and the fellow passengers were some of the most gracious and nice people we ever met!

i have been on G twice and several other RC ships,, and by far i enjoyed the service and food best on Grandeur . perhaps its due to the size of the ship or whatever. i also found the Cruise directors to be the best. now i havent been inside her for 2 years so not sure if things changed.

My favorite cruise line is celebrity, wife likes RCL, I would compare Lady G to celebrity service with food very close. Am breakfast in Diamond area of MDR were served by Leah and Austin, excellent remembered all our needs after a day or two. I can't say enough about the crew on the entire ship!