Be Careful RCL

[Paul65]

I'd like to try Portofino's one night, but DH is a pretty finicky eater and don't really want to waste the money on food that I know he won't eat. He's a farmboy and all about plain meat, potato and bread ;)

 

Well, then, tell him that the steak they offer in Portofino is outstanding.

[cgrout78]

Well, then, tell him that the steak they offer in Portofino is outstanding.

 

 

"but what's this...stuff...*poking at his potatoes* in these. I can't eat food with stuff in it"

 

It's REALLY not worth it for him...trust me. He will be the plain chicken breast and baked potato (if he can get that) everynight and pass the salt and pepper PLEASE.

[negc]

This thread reminds me of the dominoes commercials. You know the ones where they say something along the lines of, "We heard your responses and we want to offer NEW and IMPROVED pizza!"

 

And then I think to myself, "Man, I liked the old pizza just fine. What does that say about my taste buds?"

 

Same thing with RC. I like their food just fine. For what I'm paying for the trip, I think it's a great deal. But then all these people complain about how horrible it is, and how it sucks now compared to before, and I feel like I must not be on board with the rest of the population!

 

I get a similar feeling when I read restaurant reviews which rave about dishes and ingredients that, to me at least, are far too exotic for my taste. If I went by their reviews and didn't realize that even the fanciest restaurants often offer some menu items that I would consider ordering and enjoy, I'd probably never eat out. Sometimes the food and service offered in fancy restaurants is pretentious and overpriced but some folks think that because it is expensive and prepared by a "name chef", it must be excellent despite what their taste buds are telling them.:D

[Paul65]

True that, negc. :D

[cgrout78]

I for one, don't need fancy food. I just like food that tastes good and for hot foods to be hot (at least warm) and cold foods to be cold.

 

Plus I like good service and waiters with a good sense of humour who get to know me and my wants/needs over the course of a week.

[moviestar600]

As someone who cruises often, I have personally found my satisfaction of food in the MRD declining on both RC and X. I don't like having to pay extra to get better food and I don't think it is too much to expect that you will recieve the best the ship has to offer in the MDR.

 

So, I'll pose the question. If you think the food quality in the MDRs is declining, do you think it is so more people will pay to go to the specialty restaurants? Or is it a cost cutting measure? Or something else?

 

Funny you should say this joandian....My husband and I had this discussion on our Oasis cruise last week. We believe its both. The Oasis voyage was our 4th RCCL cruise andthe food in the MDR and windjammer was the worst we have had thus far. We ate at the Specialty restaurants 4 out of the 7 days. Primarily because we wanted to try them out and we enjoyed the intimacy and ambiance much better than the MDR...but also because the food was not as good and the menu never seems to change.

[sailawayjack]

Actually, it's the people who complain about how bad the food is who are out of step with the rest of the population. If you look at the overall ratings on Cruise Critic, you'll find that passenger ratings of dining on the Royal Caribbean ships all fall in the range of a 4.0 - 4.5 on a scale of 1 to 5+. The ratings of most Princess and Carnival ships are in the same range. Rating higher than a 4.5 are pretty much dominated by the truly upscale cruiselines. So, the average person does not think the food sucks, just that it is not as good as an upscale cruise line.

 

Since I can't afford a trip on an upscale line, and I'm not sure that would be my "speed" anyway, I'm OK with what RCI offers.

 

:cool: Many people who are cruising now could not afford to cruise 10-20 years ago when the food was much better. If you have nothing to compare to, you would think that the food in the MDR is good. BUT the issue in this thread is how the food tasts now compared to what it did years ago. The food is not bad, just not as good as it used to be, and to get that kind of food, you have to go to speciality restaurants:cool:JACK IS SAILING AGAIN :cool:

[Jolimont]

I will not boar you with the details

Thank you for the giggle!

[RevSmith]

I travel frequently on Royal Caribbean, and yes the quality and taste of the food has declined over the years when I first became a Royal fan. There was a time when I refused to go to the MDR, because the food in Chops and Portofino was so much better. But lately I have discovered something....

If you travel as frequently as I do, you can learn to adjust the meal to suit your particular tastes. As an example; the shrimp tempura that is usually served on the last day, with the stir fried vegetables and plum sauce...I order the vegetables on the side and the plum sauce on the side with just the two or three pieces of tempura shrimp on the main plate. That way my shrimp comes out crispy, and the vegetables are hot, because they are in a bowl, and I get to add as little as, or as much of the plum sauce as I would want.

Seems like a lot of work for just a simple meal, and admittedly, I should not have to make these adjustments, but if Royal is not able to make a meal that suits my particular tastes, I am very willing to teach them:D

[Cruzaholic41]

I don't get it....

 

There is no such thing as "game set match" pertaining to food opinion.

[windjamming]

If you travel as frequently as I do, you can learn to adjust the meal to suit your particular tastes. As an example; the shrimp tempura that is usually served on the last day, with the stir fried vegetables and plum sauce...I order the vegetables on the side and the plum sauce on the side with just the two or three pieces of tempura shrimp on the main plate. That way my shrimp comes out crispy, and the vegetables are hot, because they are in a bowl, and I get to add as little as, or as much of the plum sauce as I would want.

Seems like a lot of work for just a simple meal, and admittedly, I should not have to make these adjustments, but if Royal is not able to make a meal that suits my particular tastes, I am very willing to teach them:D

 

Rev, I like your style!

 

I find that my dining experience is greatly enhanced when I go in with the expectation that there may be a dish here or there that I will not enjoy as much as the others. That's ok. I simply have less of it - and my scale thanks me later! :)

[Paul65]

:cool: Many people who are cruising now could not afford to cruise 10-20 years ago when the food was much better. If you have nothing to compare to, you would think that the food in the MDR is good. BUT the issue in this thread is how the food tasts now compared to what it did years ago. The food is not bad, just not as good as it used to be, and to get that kind of food, you have to go to speciality restaurants:cool:JACK IS SAILING AGAIN :cool:

 

That's sort of what I'm saying. Unlike you, many people claim that the food is truly bad and even go so far as calling it inedible. Not as good as it used to be may be true, but the differences are often greatly exaggerated. And I have been cruising for nearly 20 years, and the main dining room food on Royal Caribbean has never been comparable to what I've had in specialty restaurants like Portofino. I think that is part of what accentuates the perceived "decline" in some people's mind. They eat at Chops or Portofino and convince themselves that the MDR used to be like that. I don't know about what it was like in the era of much smaller ships, but in the era of Sovereign class and above, there was never a Portofino-like experience in the 1000+ seat main dining rooms.

[MrsPete]

Hmm. Don't know about that. Even if I put all my faith in the opinions of one travel writer, as you seem to have done, I don't think the article really disputes the fact that the passengers' willingness, and perhaps even desire, to have a less formal dining experience may have played a roll in the changes.

I think you've got something there. People who proclaim the glories of the "golden age of cruising" tend to forget that back then dinner was very much the highlight of the day. Ports, the pool, shuffleboard were distractions . . . today that's changed. Today people cruise for a number of fun activities, and dinner is just one of the attractions. Speaking for my own family, we don't necessarily enjoy a lengthy sit-down dinner every single night; 4-5 full sit-down dinners/cruise are plenty for us -- and I thought our meal at Portafinos went on a bit longer than I would've liked. As I said in an earlier post, I think a great deal of it comes from the fact that we tend to eat out frequently these days -- something that was certainly not true a generation ago -- and eating out has become more ho-hum. It's not such a treat; thus, people's expectations have risen, and they're expecting the MDR to be a stupendous, once-in-a-lifetime experience . . . something it never was.

 

I also think people tend to remember things in extremes. A good experience -- ten years later, after many re-tellings -- grows to magnificent proportions in your mind, while a bad experience -- again, ten years later -- sinks to the depths of horror. And average moments tend to fade away. I think it's normal to remember things this way.

Same thing with RC. I like their food just fine. For what I'm paying for the trip, I think it's a great deal. But then all these people complain about how horrible it is, and how it sucks now compared to before, and I feel like I must not be on board with the rest of the population!

No, I think you're with the majority. I immediately discount anyone who says that everything was inedible, tasteless, or of school-cafeteria quality. It runs completely counter to my personal experience over multiple cruises.

 

I can't say that we loved everything we ate on Liberty last week -- some things were better than others, some were more to our personal taste -- but nothing was bad.

[Aquahound]

No, I think you're with the majority. I immediately discount anyone who says that everything was inedible, tasteless, or of school-cafeteria quality. It runs completely counter to my personal experience over multiple cruises.

 

Same here. If all RCI food was inedible, I wouldn't be cruising with them.

[MrsPete]

"but what's this...stuff...*poking at his potatoes* in these. I can't eat food with stuff in it"

 

It's REALLY not worth it for him...trust me. He will be the plain chicken breast and baked potato (if he can get that) everynight and pass the salt and pepper PLEASE.

Just so you'll know:

 

The MDR does offer the "alternative menu" every single night, and it includes a sirloin steak, a chicken breast, and a spaghetti plate. Last week I dined with four teenagers. They all did try new things, but at some point every one of them chose the simple things they know; my niece, for example, was dead-set on eating that sirloin steak every single night, even when better beef options like NY strip were available. Anyway, I had multiple opportunities to see these "alternative menu" options.

 

These plates aren't labeled or presented as "kid's plates", nor are they kid-sized . . . but they have a kid's plate feel to them. The sirloin is a low grade of steak (while the beef tenderloin on the main menu is quite good). One night the chicken plate was a bone-in, golden-brown chicken breast roasted with herbs (looked yummy, like something I'd cook at home), but later in the week it was a rather unattractive pale boneless chicken breast. My kids ate every bite of both, but I could see a difference. These meals tend to come with mashed potatoes and simple vegetables.

 

You can always order the main menu items without sauce, or with sauce on the side. They aren't all exotic, outlandish items. For example, the roasted turkey and dressing we had last week in the MDR was very good, and I'm sure that falls in the realm of simple tastes. Also, you can always ask your waiter for a description. My daughter wanted to try a curry last week, and we know that she isn't a hot-spicy girl, but she wouldn't hear it from us. When the waiter, whom she loved, asked her if she likes spicy foods, she changed her mind. The MDR dishes DO sometimes contain unusual ingredients like squid, but you'll have some warning.

[Jimnbigd]

i've got a B2B coming up next May on Freedom of the Seas and I am going in with no expectations. I'm sure all will be fine even if its not 5*.

 

Just note that the dinner menus will likely be the same for both weeks. Some of the shows will also be the same; hopefully not all of them. I wonder if you keep the same dining table and waiters? (Or do you do MTD?)

[cgrout78]

Just so you'll know:

 

The MDR does offer the "alternative menu" every single night, and it includes a sirloin steak, a chicken breast, and a spaghetti plate. Last week I dined with four teenagers. They all did try new things, but at some point every one of them chose the simple things they know; my niece, for example, was dead-set on eating that sirloin steak every single night, even when better beef options like NY strip were available. Anyway, I had multiple opportunities to see these "alternative menu" options.

 

These plates aren't labeled or presented as "kid's plates", nor are they kid-sized . . . but they have a kid's plate feel to them. The sirloin is a low grade of steak (while the beef tenderloin on the main menu is quite good). One night the chicken plate was a bone-in, golden-brown chicken breast roasted with herbs (looked yummy, like something I'd cook at home), but later in the week it was a rather unattractive pale boneless chicken breast. My kids ate every bite of both, but I could see a difference. These meals tend to come with mashed potatoes and simple vegetables.

 

You can always order the main menu items without sauce, or with sauce on the side. They aren't all exotic, outlandish items. For example, the roasted turkey and dressing we had last week in the MDR was very good, and I'm sure that falls in the realm of simple tastes. Also, you can always ask your waiter for a description. My daughter wanted to try a curry last week, and we know that she isn't a hot-spicy girl, but she wouldn't hear it from us. When the waiter, whom she loved, asked her if she likes spicy foods, she changed her mind. The MDR dishes DO sometimes contain unusual ingredients like squid, but you'll have some warning.

 

 

Actually...my quote was referring to Portifino's, and how it wouldn't be worth the extra cost for him to go there. He is well accustomed to the alternative menu, as it was all he ate off of on our previous cruise. He was disappointed there was not Salmon on the RCI alternative menu as there is on Carnival though, nor any chocolate melting cake.

[Mack2]

Since folks are speaking of the "Golden Age" of cruising...

 

My first experience aboard an RCCL (yes, it was RCCL back then) ship was on the Song of America, 1986... It was a small ship, I think less than 1000 passengers, with a "tween" deck... a deck that was sandwiched inbetween two other decks.

 

There was a midnight buffet every night... it was the first time I ever had real caviar (not the American Hackelback, like... sevruga or something)... I didn't like it (it wasn't until '96 aboard the Celebrity Mercury where they had a caviar/vodka bar did I learn to appreciate it, but by that time, I also found that I loved sushi)

 

The food was the star of the cruise... Back then, if you participated in some onboard activities, you earned "Ship-Shape" dollars... at the end of the cruise, you could buy items with the "Ship-Shape" dollars... like a T-shirt, lanyard, baseball cap... something small.

 

I found back then, I was actually pretty good at shooting skeet... as one of the activities was skeet shooting near the aft of the ship on one of the sides... They had that for a few years before there was a ecological thing about lead, clay, and the ocean (and probably safety)

 

The rooms were tiny, only a few suites along the top decks had balconies... the windows were tiny little port holes.

 

Still... 1000 people, the ship was one of the largest at sea at the time.

1000 people, 38,000 tons

Wikipedia says it's now 1575 passengers.

 

 

That cruise hooked us into cruising... I was 15 at the time.

After that, we'd been on the Monarch, Sovereign, Majesty (their inaugural years), Explorer (a few times), Adventure, Liberty...

I love RCI.

I just wish the food was the STAR of the cruise again.... I want to book a Radiance-class vessel... because I think maybe the kitchen will be able to pay more attention to the MDR since it serves fewer passengers... but the OP of this thread was complaining about the Brilliance... and that worries me.

[Paul65]

My first was 1993 on the Monarch. We did the ship-shape dollars thing and there was a midnight buffet every night, including the "Gala Buffet" one night of the seven, that featured all the fancy ice sculptures, chocolate sculptures, fruit carvings, etc.

 

I don't recall any caviar or skeet-shooting, though. I also don't really recall food being the star. The service in the dining room stood out more than the food itself. The only food item that was really memorable to me was the escargot, partly because that was something I'd never had before. But that's something they still have, and it still tastes about the same. The wait-staff to passenger ratio was higher, though. You had sommeliers, table-side preparations of cherries jubilee and a lot more entertainment by the wait staff (which some people liked and others thought was cheesy).

[Tranquil Waters]

My first was 1993 on the Monarch. We did the ship-shape dollars thing and there was a midnight buffet every night, including the "Gala Buffet" one night of the seven, that featured all the fancy ice sculptures, chocolate sculptures, fruit carvings, etc.

 

I don't recall any caviar or skeet-shooting, though. I also don't really recall food being the star. The service in the dining room stood out more than the food itself. The only food item that was really memorable to me was the escargot, partly because that was something I'd never had before. But that's something they still have, and it still tastes about the same. The wait-staff to passenger ratio was higher, though. You had sommeliers, table-side preparations of cherries jubilee and a lot more entertainment by the wait staff (which some people liked and others thought was cheesy).

 

I am so glad that I did not have the same head chefs 10 years ago that you apparantly had. I got the good ones! :D And as good as the wait staff was - the food was just as outstanding. :) Now, today, I will certainly agree that the service stands out more than the food. So we can agree on that anyway.

[Paul65]

I am so glad that I did not have the same head chefs 10 years ago that you apparantly had. I got the good ones! :D And as good as the wait staff was - the food was just as outstanding. :) Now, today, I will certainly agree that the service stands out more than the food. So we can agree on that anyway.

 

What's your obsession with proving that any good food I have on a cruise today can only be because of an unusually good chef, and any food 10 or more years ago that wasn't particularly memorable means I had poor head chefs? You're weird.

[Mack2]

One thing I found, from a few months ago... I was digging through old pictures at my parent's place... Pictures from the cruises we did when I was younger, skinnier, and nerdier.... A passenger list.

 

RCCL used to print a passenger list of all the people who cruised with you on that particular date. I thought it was neat... back when there were only about 1000-1200 people on the ship, and the cruise director knew you by name on the 3rd day.

[Paul65]

One thing I found, from a few months ago... I was digging through old pictures at my parent's place... Pictures from the cruises we did when I was younger, skinnier, and nerdier.... A passenger list.

 

RCCL used to print a passenger list of all the people who cruised with you on that particular date. I thought it was neat... back when there were only about 1000-1200 people on the ship, and the cruise director knew you by name on the 3rd day.

 

Yeah, the passenger list was pretty neat. I think people today are too paranoid about their privacy for something like that.

[cgrout78]

The passenger list thing makes me think of the movie "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" where Monroe's character is going over the passenger list of their ship and decides to sink her claws into "Henry Spofford the third" who turns out to be a child.

[Solstice23]

We just got back from the Briliance of the Seas on the Med. The ship and the service were great as usual... the ports .... amazing ..... the food .. very disappointing....

 

This is not met to be a complaint post but this cruise was my 5th on RCL so I do have a history with them and have been very satisfied in the past. I have noticed that the quality of the food is slipping and it was very noticable in this cruise.

 

Chops and Portifino was great and I do strongly suggest anyone to plan a dinner there. Since it was a 12 day cruise we were able to enjoy both. Now if RCL could just come close to that level of excellence in the MDR they would be the top line in the world.

 

I will not boar you with the details except to say it was across the board. I am not talking about a dish here or there but almost every dinner had issues.

 

One selects the cruise line based on ports, the ship and the food in no particular order. If RCL continues this trend with the food they will start losing people fairly fast.

 

Just an obervation from one that wishes they would take note and improve.

 

mark

 

We just Sailed the Equinox July 16th I think we might have docked beside you in Turkey! The food on our ship was outstanding and when we priced out our cruise it was a much better price for Aqua class then a regular Balcony on the Brilliance.

 

Keep in mind that each ship varies with food and beverage budget week to week and chefs, and also trying to cater to the european Market since the recession they have been pushing this...its hard to cater to everyones tastes in selection and seasonings. I am sure if you sailed the Oasis or another RCCL ship the same week the food would have been better. It just depends on many variables...

 

I am glad you still had a great cruise! We enjoyed our Equinox cruise it was outstanding!