FOTS - 8/28/11 - Critical Review with comparison to HAL and Carnival

[Queen of Oakville]

We are a family of 4. DH and I are in our early forties and we have a daughter who is 5 and a son who is 4.

 

I’ll try to position this as a critical review of the Royal FOTS with (where applicable) comparisons to recent sailings on Carnival Dream and HAL Eurodam.

 

Obviously this is based on my personal experience ... your mileage may vary and probably will.

 

Activities

There were an abundance of activities on board ~ almost too many. Granted you don’t have to do everything, but we found ourselves rushing from activity to activity and had to miss some due to scheduling conflicts between dinner and night shows. I would not say that it was a relaxing holiday but it was an enjoyable one.

 

I was happy to see that Royal had some family activities (family disco, family karaoke, family wii etc.). I would have been nice if those activities were also printed in the Adventure ocean compass too.

If I had to make any recommendations to Royal it would be to give more thought to scheduling of events and how those conflict with dinner times and kid’s club times.

 

They can’t please everyone though, and I recognize this.

 

Adventure Ocean

My kids were in the 3 to 5 AO club. This was the BIGGEST disappointment of the whole trip. Perhaps my kids are just mature, but I found the kid’s club to be very juvenile. I was really disappointed with the counsellors who appeared to be more babysitters than anything else. They mostly had very heavy accents which my kids found difficult to understand. Not one of them appeared to be enthusiastic, happy, or to love their jobs. On more than one occasion, I appeared to pick up/drop off my kids only to find a counsellor yelling at a child (fortunately not my child!). Despite the events that were posted in the compass, almost every time I arrived, the counsellors were reading a book and children were being lectured to sit quietly and listen. Now, I will admit that my kids came home with small crafts/coloured items, so they were definitely doing other things, but reading a book seemed to be the most frequent activity.

 

My kids did not LOVE the kid’s club and I do not blame them one bit. In comparison to other kid’s clubs (Club HAL and Camp Carnival), I found the general decor of the kids clubs to be depressing and not happy or stimulating. My kids went reluctantly only on the assurance that we were not going to leave them for a long time. I felt guilty every time I dropped my kids off. I will note that the counsellors (Chop Suey for example) in the next age group were much better.

 

In comparison, earlier this year we sailed HAL, and based on our experience, Club HAL was way better, which is surprising for a cruiseline that does not target young families. The counsellors were happy and energetic and very obviously loved their jobs. By day 2, they were greeting children and parents by first name. Yes, it is a smaller ship with fewer young families, but I would guess that they had about 40 kids participating in kid’s club.

 

Most of the parents I spoke to in the waiting area seemed to share my sentiments about Adventure Ocean.

 

I’ll also comment on the “Fisher Price” loot bag the kids received at the end of the cruise. OMG, my kids (4 and 6) outgrew Fisher Price a long time ago. Granted it was better than nothing, but I found the loot bag way too juvenile. When the kids left Club HAL, they received yellow nylon backbag bags, filled with all their crafts, chocolates, pencils, and lots of HAL giveaways. HAL was waaaayyyyy more generous with the give aways at every event and not just the final lootbag.

 

Service

Service was surprisingly good. We had the best Head Waiter we’ve ever had on a ship. We usually gripe about tipping the Head Waiter, but we actually tipped this guy a little extra. He came to speak with us every night to make sure we were happy and was really good at facilitating our character breakfasts and other requests. Our server (Colleen) was excellent. DH thought she was the best server we’d ever had (my vote goes to Yunis on Eurodam). However, with open seating for breakfast and dinner, the service was less than stellar. The breakfast and lunch waitstaff generally seemed grumpy. On one occasion, we had a breakfast waiter who was always grumpy when dealing with us (and no – we are not grumpy people) .... yet he had one of his dinner families seated right next to us ... and as he turned to deal with them, he would always put on his happy face/voice. IT was clear to us, that his gratuity was not based on how he dealt with us ... and so he certainly was not giving his best efforts for us. We give the overall edge for service to HAL. We had great service on HAL, everywhere by everyone.

 

Nut Allergies

Like most ships, Royal does a horrible job with allergies, specifically peanut allergies. For example, last year when we sailed on Grandeur,, I had an allergic reaction to the Apple Parcels which are offered on a sea day lunch menu. I alerted the wait staff on Grandeur and followed up with a complaint to Royal to advise them that the description on the menu should indicate the presence of nuts in the dessert. No action was taken and the Apple parcels still appear on the menu with no flag as to the item containing almonds. DH ordered one for our son for dessert, and fortunately, I stopped him. My son has tree nut and peanut allergies.

 

The entire chocolate breakfast (served at both character breakfasts) was OFF LIMITS for him. When the waiter dropped the plate of baked goods on the table, he said, “not for anyone with nut allergies” and then I called him back to elaborate. He then sent the Head Wait who explained that Royal Chocolate product has “may contain nuts” on the label, so they consider EVERY chocolate item to contain nuts. If that is the case, this should be stated on the menu. Also, on the first night after we advised both our waiter and the Head waiter of my son’s nut allergies, neither advised us of this “all chocolates contain nuts” warning. I know it is just Royal protecting their own butt. It would have been nice if I knew the entire chocolate menu contained or could contain nuts, and then I would not have read those items to him. Unfortunately, it was only after I got my son all excited about the chocolate banana bread, that I had to tell him that he could not have it. My little guy is a TROUPER though and does an amazing job of being told that he can’t eat something because of his peanut allergies.

 

Now, we generally, don’t follow the “may contain” as my son has a consumption allergy so we generally just specifically avoid anything that expressly contains nuts. Nevertheless, we erred on the side of caution. I offer this as a “heads up” for any families sailing with Nut Allergic children. Next time, I’m bringing chocolate chips from home so my son can enjoy chocolate chip pancakes. But I would think it would not be toooo much effort for Royal to source and reserve some nut-free chocolate for those patrons that specifically request it.

 

Characters

The kids loved the parades and the characters. I wish there were more though. From Shrek, we had Shrek, Fiona and Puss N Boots. From Madagascar, we had Alex, Gloria, and King Julian. My kids LOVE the penguins, and sadly they were not there (except in the video shown at the sail away party OR the inflatable ones in the dreamworks parade). (Despite seeing them on the FOTS videos on you tube). After booking the Kung Fu Panda package (more on this later).... we were surprised to see only 1 character – Po. That was a bit of a letdown. I know some of the characters were small (but I can’t help but think Disney would have found a way to do it). I would think that they could have at least had Tigress. We were also looking forward to seeing Hiccup and Astrid from How to Train Your Dragon, but they had just left for Oasis. I told my daughter that Hiccup and Astrid got married and they went on another cruise on their honeymoon, and she was happy with this explanation ;-)

 

I can’t understand why they don’t have all costumes on all ships. The only other thing was that we saw a photo op with Shrek and stood in line to meet him. Just as we got to the front of the line, they subbed out Shrek with Puss n Boots. My kids were really disappointed especially my son who was scared of Puss n Boots.

 

Kung Fu Panda Package (Pandamonium)

I think we were on the last sailing of the Pandamonium Package ... but I will offer this for anyone who buys a similar package in the future. Our package was to contain 2 soda packages, 2 cupcakes, 1 photo, and 1 exclusive meet and greet, and 1 pets at sea stuffed animal.

 

Having asked here about people who’d booked the Pandamonium Package, I had read about others who had trouble getting Royal to follow-through on the package; some waiting as long as mid-cruise before it was sorted out. So, I was determined to act quickly, and started asking about my coupons as soon as we boarded. Of course, we had problems too.

 

The “botch-up” might be rooted in the fact that we booked the Pandamonium Package on our initial cabin and then subsequently upgraded to a new cabin a few weeks prior to sailing. Our TA assured me (pre- and post trip) that she had verified with Royal that we would not lose the panda package with our upgrade. As luck would have it, the panda package did not make it to our reservation. On the first day, I had to really chase down our coupons, which we finally did receive just before midnight on the first day. Sonja at Guest Relations was excellent and took a personal interest in our plight.

 

We also missed the exclusive meet and greet with Po. It was supposed to happen on Day 5 at 5PM and while I knew this on Day 1, we forgot by Day 5. Invitations like those that are issued for the Meet & Greet would have been a nice and well-appreciated reminder.

 

Despite getting and using our coupons, we still got billed for everything that should have been included for free with our package. On the debarkation day, DH had to stand in line to get credited for all those charges. When Royal does credits, they have to contact the “head’ of that department to do the credit. When we left the ship, we had still not been credited for the pet at sea (stuffed animal), as that needed to be done by the kid’s club manager, and she was still asleep.

 

CC Meet & Greet:

Our meet & greet was well attended. We were late getting there because our breakfast ran late.. We had a great time meeting other CC members. We also had a Slot Pull which went well and we all walked out with a little extra pocket money. I highly recommend registering for and attending the meet&greet.

 

Dining Room (BLD)

We generally prefer to have all our meals in the MDR. Breakfast service was horribly slow. They now have a “breakfast buffet” self-service in the MDR. I think Royal wants to push people towards self-selection for breakfast. By the end of the cruise, we were eating breakfast in the Windjammer. The service was comparable and the food was a lot faster.

 

We were really disappointed by the food quality. Having just come off HAL, I think HAL food was better. The options on the kid’s menu were great, and my kids were always pleased. Presentation for our meals was lacking (okay, food does not have to look good to taste good). But I found the food to be mediocre at best. The food wasn’t bad per se; but we were certainly not wowed. Perhaps our tastes are becoming more discriminating as we age and we are just harder to please, not sure. I know DH generally orders 2 to 3 desserts if there is something he really likes, he will ask for more. There was not a single dessert that wowed him on this cruise.

 

I finally tried the vidallia onion tart that everyone raves about. It was not to my liking, but I’m not a fan of anything quiche-y or too egg-y. I was very disappointed that I did not get to finally try the lab shank. I’d been salivating over this ever since a table-mate ordered it on Grandeur last fall. Unfortunately, the lab shanks did not make it to the dock in time and we sailed without them (seriously.). So, the menu item was subbed with beef tenderloin, which although not terribly flavourfull was cooked perfectly. I found the ship did a very good job of cooking steaks to order. I could not get medium-rare on Carnival as it was supposedly against their policy (or it was against my waiters’ policy). I found if anything, Royal errs on the side of rare, but I will definitely take an under-cooked steak over an over-cooked one.

 

Wind-Jammer:

The food was “okay”. We’re not huge pork eaters, and I found some days, there were mostly pork options. I thought this was poor-planning on Royal’s part. I would assume that a fair number of passengers do not eat pork for religious reasons, and I found the pork-heavy menus somewhat exclusionary.

 

At breakfast, I found the “number” system for the omelettes, somewhat chaotic. I thought Carnival did a much better job with the buffet options on Carnival Dream especially their omelette station. They also had the noodle and pasta stations for lunch which were excellent options when one could not dine at the MDR.

 

Cupcake Cupboard

I was very disappointed with the cupcakes. I expected stellar cupcakes. Having taken the Michael’s cake decorating classes, I could churn out cupcakes of comparable decorating quality. But the cake/icing quality was really poor. They were extremely sweet and the cupcakes were lacking in any flavour. My kids each took a bite of theirs and didn’t want any more (and they love cupcakes!). Good thing they were free! I’m just an average home baker, but I’d bet I could outsell the Cupcake Cupboard in a bake sale.

 

Lakeland Airport/Niagara International

We generally fly Southwest out of BUF to MCO or FLL (depending on the cruise).

This flight we flew Direct Air out of Niagara Falls, NY to Lakeland, Florida. The flight was a lot cheaper so I cannot complain about that. However, we were nickel and dimed ... had to pay for every checked bag (hence numerous people trying to stuff their too large carryons into the overhead bins). Also, no free soft drinks or snacks. But in the end, it was still cheaper.

This was our first time flying out of a regional airport. I have to say that the lack of hustle/bustle was nice. Unfortunately, TSA had too much time on their hands and checked (should I say ransacked?) every bag. We had 4/4 bags checked on the way in and 4/4 bags checked on the way out. In all my flights out of BUF/MCO/FLL, I’ve only ever had 1 bagged randomly checked. TSA left many of my outer pockets open/unzipped and things were falling out as our bags were retrieved from the carousel. They also went through our stuff, and took things (like liquids) out of the poly bags, without re-zipping the bags. They even opened a bottle of pain meds without properly re-sealing the bottle, and the pills went everywhere. I was NOT happy about this. For this reason alone, I’d be more inclined to fly out of a major airport next time.

 

 

 

 

 

Despite the above, we did have an amazing holiday. As we continue to evaluate all the cruiselines trying to pick which one is right for us ....we’re trying to be critical in our assessment .... I’ve mainly posted my criticisms here to benefit others who use the same criteria to judge a cruise.

 

I’m not 100% sure that we would sale Freedom again .... but if we did, these experiences will qualify our expectations. Given that I found a $25 casino chip in my dryer .... I’m pretty sure I’ll be sailing Royal again in order to redeem it! Besides, we made Platinum this cruise, so that is a good thing!

 

Like I said above, this reflects our experience, and the experiences of others may vary.

 

I’d be happy to answer any questions.

Edited September 9, 2011 by Queen of Oakville

[Catperson]

Thank you for your review, Queen of Oakville, I'm from Oakville too, but I guess I'll have to settle for Princess of Oakville! I am very interested in the flight you took from Niagara Falls, NY to Lakeland, Fla. Where is the Lakeland airport in comparison to the Orlando airport and Port Canaveral? It looks like you got an amazing deal; I'd never heard of this before. Please clue me in!

 

Wish I'd known this sooner - I've already booked my flights using Airmile points but the taxes and insurance I had to pay out of pocket which were crazy-priced.

 

Karen

[Queen of Oakville]

Hey Catperson! We ALWAYS fly out of the US ... usually through BUF and with Southwest Airlines. I will NEVER pay air canada/west jet prices again.

 

The BUF airport is about a 45 minute drive .... you take the Fort Erie exit and cross at the Peace Bridge. I just booked our flight for our DREAM cruise in March, through Southwest and paid about 1300 for the four of us to fly (taxes in :)). This flight goes direct to MCO (Orlando international).

 

To get to the Niagara Airport, you would cross at Lewiston (405 exit) which typically has longer delays. [Next time I might cross at the peace bridge and take the 190 South). Direct Air does not fly into MCO though. THey fly into Lakeland Airport which is closer to Tampa. The whole drive frome Lakeland to Port was about 1.5 hours ..... whereas the drive from MCO to port canaveral is about 45 minutes.

 

Either way .... each border crossing/airport is approximately the same distance from Oakville.

 

Direct Air has their Friends and Family voucher deal on right now. You can buy a voucher for $169 which is a return flight to any destination including departure taxes. It's quite the deal, but Direct air only has one flight per day, and only flies Niagara to Lakeland on certain days. It would not have worked for us for our next cruise, as I would have had to hang around FLorida for a few more days in order to save on the flight.

[Queen of Oakville]

bumped for Maxy

[alexkrn46]

Thank you for your review, it will be interesting to see how other cruise lines meet your expectations. We have been on Carnival, Princess, NCL, and Celebrity but we come back to RCCL. But exploring other cruise lines is fun and I have never had a bad cruise yet.

[SRQfireman]

We are a family of 4. DH and I are in our early forties and we have a daughter who is 5 and a son who is 4.

 

I’ll try to position this as a critical review of the Royal FOTS with (where applicable) comparisons to recent sailings on Carnival Dream and HAL Eurodam.

 

Obviously this is based on my personal experience ... your mileage may vary and probably will.

 

 

Activities

There were an abundance of activities on board ~ almost too many. Granted you don’t have to do everything, but we found ourselves rushing from activity to activity and had to miss some due to scheduling conflicts between dinner and night shows. I would not say that it was a relaxing holiday but it was an enjoyable one.

 

I was happy to see that Royal had some family activities (family disco, family karaoke, family wii etc.). I would have been nice if those activities were also printed in the Adventure ocean compass too.

If I had to make any recommendations to Royal it would be to give more thought to scheduling of events and how those conflict with dinner times and kid’s club times.

 

They can’t please everyone though, and I recognize this.

 

 

Adventure Ocean

My kids were in the 3 to 5 AO club. This was the BIGGEST disappointment of the whole trip. Perhaps my kids are just mature, but I found the kid’s club to be very juvenile. I was really disappointed with the counsellors who appeared to be more babysitters than anything else. They mostly had very heavy accents which my kids found difficult to understand. Not one of them appeared to be enthusiastic, happy, or to love their jobs. On more than one occasion, I appeared to pick up/drop off my kids only to find a counsellor yelling at a child (fortunately not my child!). Despite the events that were posted in the compass, almost every time I arrived, the counsellors were reading a book and children were being lectured to sit quietly and listen. Now, I will admit that my kids came home with small crafts/coloured items, so they were definitely doing other things, but reading a book seemed to be the most frequent activity.

 

My kids did not LOVE the kid’s club and I do not blame them one bit. In comparison to other kid’s clubs (Club HAL and Camp Carnival), I found the general decor of the kids clubs to be depressing and not happy or stimulating. My kids went reluctantly only on the assurance that we were not going to leave them for a long time. I felt guilty every time I dropped my kids off. I will note that the counsellors (Chop Suey for example) in the next age group were much better.

 

In comparison, earlier this year we sailed HAL, and based on our experience, Club HAL was way better, which is surprising for a cruiseline that does not target young families. The counsellors were happy and energetic and very obviously loved their jobs. By day 2, they were greeting children and parents by first name. Yes, it is a smaller ship with fewer young families, but I would guess that they had about 40 kids participating in kid’s club.

 

Most of the parents I spoke to in the waiting area seemed to share my sentiments about Adventure Ocean.

 

I’ll also comment on the “Fisher Price” loot bag the kids received at the end of the cruise. OMG, my kids (4 and 6) outgrew Fisher Price a long time ago. Granted it was better than nothing, but I found the loot bag way too juvenile. When the kids left Club HAL, they received yellow nylon backbag bags, filled with all their crafts, chocolates, pencils, and lots of HAL giveaways. HAL was waaaayyyyy more generous with the give aways at every event and not just the final lootbag.

 

 

Service

Service was surprisingly good. We had the best Head Waiter we’ve ever had on a ship. We usually gripe about tipping the Head Waiter, but we actually tipped this guy a little extra. He came to speak with us every night to make sure we were happy and was really good at facilitating our character breakfasts and other requests. Our server (Colleen) was excellent. DH thought she was the best server we’d ever had (my vote goes to Yunis on Eurodam). However, with open seating for breakfast and dinner, the service was less than stellar. The breakfast and lunch waitstaff generally seemed grumpy. On one occasion, we had a breakfast waiter who was always grumpy when dealing with us (and no – we are not grumpy people) .... yet he had one of his dinner families seated right next to us ... and as he turned to deal with them, he would always put on his happy face/voice. IT was clear to us, that his gratuity was not based on how he dealt with us ... and so he certainly was not giving his best efforts for us. We give the overall edge for service to HAL. We had great service on HAL, everywhere by everyone.

 

Nut Allergies

Like most ships, Royal does a horrible job with allergies, specifically peanut allergies. For example, last year when we sailed on Grandeur,, I had an allergic reaction to the Apple Parcels which are offered on a sea day lunch menu. I alerted the wait staff on Grandeur and followed up with a complaint to Royal to advise them that the description on the menu should indicate the presence of nuts in the dessert. No action was taken and the Apple parcels still appear on the menu with no flag as to the item containing almonds. DH ordered one for our son for dessert, and fortunately, I stopped him. My son has tree nut and peanut allergies.

 

The entire chocolate breakfast (served at both character breakfasts) was OFF LIMITS for him. When the waiter dropped the plate of baked goods on the table, he said, “not for anyone with nut allergies” and then I called him back to elaborate. He then sent the Head Wait who explained that Royal Chocolate product has “may contain nuts” on the label, so they consider EVERY chocolate item to contain nuts. If that is the case, this should be stated on the menu. Also, on the first night after we advised both our waiter and the Head waiter of my son’s nut allergies, neither advised us of this “all chocolates contain nuts” warning. I know it is just Royal protecting their own butt. It would have been nice if I knew the entire chocolate menu contained or could contain nuts, and then I would not have read those items to him. Unfortunately, it was only after I got my son all excited about the chocolate banana bread, that I had to tell him that he could not have it. My little guy is a TROUPER though and does an amazing job of being told that he can’t eat something because of his peanut allergies.

 

Now, we generally, don’t follow the “may contain” as my son has a consumption allergy so we generally just specifically avoid anything that expressly contains nuts. Nevertheless, we erred on the side of caution. I offer this as a “heads up” for any families sailing with Nut Allergic children. Next time, I’m bringing chocolate chips from home so my son can enjoy chocolate chip pancakes. But I would think it would not be toooo much effort for Royal to source and reserve some nut-free chocolate for those patrons that specifically request it.

 

Characters

The kids loved the parades and the characters. I wish there were more though. From Shrek, we had Shrek, Fiona and Puss N Boots. From Madagascar, we had Alex, Gloria, and King Julian. My kids LOVE the penguins, and sadly they were not there (except in the video shown at the sail away party OR the inflatable ones in the dreamworks parade). (Despite seeing them on the FOTS videos on you tube). After booking the Kung Fu Panda package (more on this later).... we were surprised to see only 1 character – Po. That was a bit of a letdown. I know some of the characters were small (but I can’t help but think Disney would have found a way to do it). I would think that they could have at least had Tigress. We were also looking forward to seeing Hiccup and Astrid from How to Train Your Dragon, but they had just left for Oasis. I told my daughter that Hiccup and Astrid got married and they went on another cruise on their honeymoon, and she was happy with this explanation ;-)

 

I can’t understand why they don’t have all costumes on all ships. The only other thing was that we saw a photo op with Shrek and stood in line to meet him. Just as we got to the front of the line, they subbed out Shrek with Puss n Boots. My kids were really disappointed especially my son who was scared of Puss n Boots.

 

Kung Fu Panda Package (Pandamonium)

I think we were on the last sailing of the Pandamonium Package ... but I will offer this for anyone who buys a similar package in the future. Our package was to contain 2 soda packages, 2 cupcakes, 1 photo, and 1 exclusive meet and greet, and 1 pets at sea stuffed animal.

 

Having asked here about people who’d booked the Pandamonium Package, I had read about others who had trouble getting Royal to follow-through on the package; some waiting as long as mid-cruise before it was sorted out. So, I was determined to act quickly, and started asking about my coupons as soon as we boarded. Of course, we had problems too.

 

The “botch-up” might be rooted in the fact that we booked the Pandamonium Package on our initial cabin and then subsequently upgraded to a new cabin a few weeks prior to sailing. Our TA assured me (pre- and post trip) that she had verified with Royal that we would not lose the panda package with our upgrade. As luck would have it, the panda package did not make it to our reservation. On the first day, I had to really chase down our coupons, which we finally did receive just before midnight on the first day. Sonja at Guest Relations was excellent and took a personal interest in our plight.

 

We also missed the exclusive meet and greet with Po. It was supposed to happen on Day 5 at 5PM and while I knew this on Day 1, we forgot by Day 5. Invitations like those that are issued for the Meet & Greet would have been a nice and well-appreciated reminder.

 

Despite getting and using our coupons, we still got billed for everything that should have been included for free with our package. On the debarkation day, DH had to stand in line to get credited for all those charges. When Royal does credits, they have to contact the “head’ of that department to do the credit. When we left the ship, we had still not been credited for the pet at sea (stuffed animal), as that needed to be done by the kid’s club manager, and she was still asleep.

 

CC Meet & Greet:

Our meet & greet was well attended. We were late getting there because our breakfast ran late.. We had a great time meeting other CC members. We also had a Slot Pull which went well and we all walked out with a little extra pocket money. I highly recommend registering for and attending the meet&greet.

 

Dining Room (BLD)

We generally prefer to have all our meals in the MDR. Breakfast service was horribly slow. They now have a “breakfast buffet” self-service in the MDR. I think Royal wants to push people towards self-selection for breakfast. By the end of the cruise, we were eating breakfast in the Windjammer. The service was comparable and the food was a lot faster.

 

We were really disappointed by the food quality. Having just come off HAL, I think HAL food was better. The options on the kid’s menu were great, and my kids were always pleased. Presentation for our meals was lacking (okay, food does not have to look good to taste good). But I found the food to be mediocre at best. The food wasn’t bad per se; but we were certainly not wowed. Perhaps our tastes are becoming more discriminating as we age and we are just harder to please, not sure. I know DH generally orders 2 to 3 desserts if there is something he really likes, he will ask for more. There was not a single dessert that wowed him on this cruise.

 

I finally tried the vidallia onion tart that everyone raves about. It was not to my liking, but I’m not a fan of anything quiche-y or too egg-y. I was very disappointed that I did not get to finally try the lab shank. I’d been salivating over this ever since a table-mate ordered it on Grandeur last fall. Unfortunately, the lab shanks did not make it to the dock in time and we sailed without them (seriously.). So, the menu item was subbed with beef tenderloin, which although not terribly flavourfull was cooked perfectly. I found the ship did a very good job of cooking steaks to order. I could not get medium-rare on Carnival as it was supposedly against their policy (or it was against my waiters’ policy). I found if anything, Royal errs on the side of rare, but I will definitely take an under-cooked steak over an over-cooked one.

 

Wind-Jammer:

The food was “okay”. We’re not huge pork eaters, and I found some days, there were mostly pork options. I thought this was poor-planning on Royal’s part. I would assume that a fair number of passengers do not eat pork for religious reasons, and I found the pork-heavy menus somewhat exclusionary.

 

At breakfast, I found the “number” system for the omelettes, somewhat chaotic. I thought Carnival did a much better job with the buffet options on Carnival Dream especially their omelette station. They also had the noodle and pasta stations for lunch which were excellent options when one could not dine at the MDR.

 

Cupcake Cupboard

I was very disappointed with the cupcakes. I expected stellar cupcakes. Having taken the Michael’s cake decorating classes, I could churn out cupcakes of comparable decorating quality. But the cake/icing quality was really poor. They were extremely sweet and the cupcakes were lacking in any flavour. My kids each took a bite of theirs and didn’t want any more (and they love cupcakes!). Good thing they were free! I’m just an average home baker, but I’d bet I could outsell the Cupcake Cupboard in a bake sale.

 

Lakeland Airport/Niagara International

We generally fly Southwest out of BUF to MCO or FLL (depending on the cruise).

This flight we flew Direct Air out of Niagara Falls, NY to Lakeland, Florida. The flight was a lot cheaper so I cannot complain about that. However, we were nickel and dimed ... had to pay for every checked bag (hence numerous people trying to stuff their too large carryons into the overhead bins). Also, no free soft drinks or snacks. But in the end, it was still cheaper.

This was our first time flying out of a regional airport. I have to say that the lack of hustle/bustle was nice. Unfortunately, TSA had too much time on their hands and checked (should I say ransacked?) every bag. We had 4/4 bags checked on the way in and 4/4 bags checked on the way out. In all my flights out of BUF/MCO/FLL, I’ve only ever had 1 bagged randomly checked. TSA left many of my outer pockets open/unzipped and things were falling out as our bags were retrieved from the carousel. They also went through our stuff, and took things (like liquids) out of the poly bags, without re-zipping the bags. They even opened a bottle of pain meds without properly re-sealing the bottle, and the pills went everywhere. I was NOT happy about this. For this reason alone, I’d be more inclined to fly out of a major airport next time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Despite the above, we did have an amazing holiday. As we continue to evaluate all the cruiselines trying to pick which one is right for us ....we’re trying to be critical in our assessment .... I’ve mainly posted my criticisms here to benefit others who use the same criteria to judge a cruise.

 

I’m not 100% sure that we would sale Freedom again .... but if we did, these experiences will qualify our expectations. Given that I found a $25 casino chip in my dryer .... I’m pretty sure I’ll be sailing Royal again in order to redeem it! Besides, we made Platinum this cruise, so that is a good thing!

 

Like I said above, this reflects our experience, and the experiences of others may vary.

 

I’d be happy to answer any questions.

 

I see your daughter had a birthday while you were sailing.....did they do anything for your daughter other than the normal singing of Happy Birthday? She didn't mind be on a cruise for her birthday instead of being home with her friends?

It's too bad the kids program wasn't up to par....To think that Club HAL outshined RCCL is surprising....even you mentioned this.

You mention about most things not being up to par...what about the shows....you go to them? If so, how were they?

Hopefully your next RCCL will be alot better than this one. (and you can parlay on that $25 chip and turn it in to a couple of black chips ;) )

Edited September 12, 2011 by SRQfireman

[Queen of Oakville]

I see your daughter had a birthday while you were sailing.....did they do anything for your daughter other than the normal singing of Happy Birthday? She didn't mind be on a cruise for her birthday instead of being home with her friends?

It's too bad the kids program wasn't up to par....To think that Club HAL outshined RCCL is surprising....even you mentioned this.

You mention about most things not being up to par...what about the shows....you go to them? If so, how were they?

Hopefully your next RCCL will be alot better than this one. (and you can parlay on that $25 chip and turn it in to a couple of black chips ;) )

 

Ooops - that was a typo. My daughter is 5 1/2 and my son is 4. There were no birthdays during this sailing. I'm also posting simultaneously on a Disney board, where my daughter will be 6 at the the time we sail Dream.

[and if I gave my daughter a choice between a birthday party with all her friends and a cruise, she would choose a cruise hands down!]

 

As I noted at the onset of my review, it was mostly my intent to be critical and outline those areas where I thought Royal was above average and those were I thought they were below average. We still enjoyed our cruise immensely. The shows were pretty good. Having trouble remembering them now but I we had the following:

• Magician (who was a contestant on America's got talent. He was an illusionist and very good
  
• Royal Stage production (it was good but I can't remember anything about it) - it was your average cruise ship show.
  
• Royal Fairytale production (it was excellent, but they spent a lot of time on the first fairytale- Cinderalla- and then appeared to rush through the rest.). I thought it was fabulous (kind of like Moulin Rouge) where they incorproated modern music into the fairytale)
  
• Ice-show - very good, better than expected.
  

Went to all the shows and I think there was one more, but I can't remember what it was.

[Cruisegirl6]

Im sorry but I just got off the FOS two weeks ago and I disagree about this OP opinions regarding the food aboard this ship.

 

1- I been on the sister ship LOS handful years ago and the Monarch within the year also and I have to say the food on the FOS has improved especially regarding the buffets.

There are many "stations" of different types of foods left and right side thusly creating no lines, each time every morning and afternoon on the buffet line I never had more than 6 people ahead at me usually 3-4 and I ate at prime times. Breakfast buffet contains a ham carving also, corned beef hash, scrambled eggs, another type of scrambled eggs with something in it such as ham or tomatoes, sausage, bacon, black pudding, potatoes that were not greasy, lox, cheese platters, lunch meat platter, both pancakes and waffles, in addition to the regular cereals, danishes, breads, bagels, pastries, fruit, yogurt, oatmeal, grits, etc. This food was just fine nothing wrong with it and the omelet station each morning never had more than 5-6 people ahead of me, in fact, they had three trays of already made up type omelets such as veggie omelet, cheese, ham....so if you not wanted to wait you can choose one of those omelets, they also made up any eggs that you wanted fried, over medium, etc. and had hard boiled eggs already made.

 

Let me tell you something about me, we love to dine in finer restaurants such as Mortons STeakhouse, Capital Grill, Chart house high rated restaurants and I am a meat eater so I only expect quality meats:

 

Lunch buffet always had a meat carving prime rib, lamb, pork loin, leg of pork,roast beef, brisket, cannot recall the other days carving...every carving the meat contained little fat if at all and all were tender and perfectly cooked. There were days where they had another type of pork hot dish something like a sliced pork dish that was very good and they also had pork schnitzel another day....then daily they had another type of beef dish I recall two lunch buffets they had steak also....they always had two types of chicken dishes, always had a boneless white type fish for the seafood dish, always had some type of meatballs (not full of filler and very tasty, I am italian and very fussy about my chopped beef and how meatballs are made/fillers) these were always delicious, vegetable dishes, potato/rice side dishes, they always had 1-2 pasta dishes, one day they had roast beef sliders, there was a wok/oriental area, soup area, oriental soup area, meat and cheese platters, cold salads including greek salad and other cold vegetable salads, a very decent salad bar with many types of sides to choose from, fruit station, desssert area, bread area, burgers, fries, pizza, hot dogs, turkey burgers, panini, subs, etc. There is something for everybody nobody can say there was nothing they didn't like. I not understand the OP saying the food was just ok it was beyond good I have to say it was very good to excellent for a buffet serving mass quantity. The meat is tasty, not fatty and tender, and the veggies and sides are very good, there was a huge selection/variety of food to accomodate anybody's palate, I rate this buffet for lunch very good!

 

Buffet dinner- I have gone up four times to check it out never ate therre but they offered items that were also offered in the MDR plus additonal choices of beef, pork, chicken, etc. There was a huge selection including sides, soups, salads, fruit, desserts. I was very pleased to see this huge selection/variety at the buffet dinner in the windjammer.

 

Afternoon you will find in the windjammer cookies, sconces, fruit, muffins, pastries/desserts, chicken wings, burgers, hot dogs, pizza, fries, mexican food such as taco's to name a few things.

 

The cupcakes I heard others say the same they not good, I didn't try any of them.

 

About food allergies and such I have celiac disease which means I cannot eat any gluten. In the buffets I was able to find so many gluten free items and not once get sick at all. In the MDR my waitress offered to show me the menu and go over things for the next evening with my gluten problem I told her as long as I stay with meat, potatoes, rice and veggies and such I will be fine. One day I ordered ceasar salad which I was planning on taking off the croutons well she brought my salad to me without croutons, another two evenings she had a special gluten free dessert for me, one was wonderful cheesecake with strawberries, it was so good....another time i ordered french onion soup she brought it to me herself (was not going to eat the bread just the broth) without the bread, she watched out for me totally. They even had a gluten free bread which I did not find good but no gluten free bread is good. Other times at other buffets I would ask chef about gluten free items as some I was unsure (marinades and such contain gluten) and the chef himself came out and went over the items containing gluten, I applaud RC for this fine caring/service they provided me with my problem.

 

MDR was very good overall. I have to rate soups good, meats good to very good, vegetables and potato excellent, desserts good (I believe they have improved a bit), pasta excellent, I believe the best piece of beef I had was the NY Strip. I rate the dining room good to very good overall, you will never get five star quality unless you go on one of the five star quality cruise lines, these cruise lines have thousands of people to cook for and I must say out of the other cruise lines I have taken RC has cut back the least (not noticable at all) and how they cut back has no influence on our cruise overall, unlike other cruise lines. As far as food/selection/quality/variety RC remains on top of my list and I will only continue cruising on RC because of this and its overall excellent service.

Edited September 12, 2011 by lyndamr

[Queen of Oakville]

Linda - thank you for your comments. Food is completely subjective, and what one person loves, another will hate. That being said, I don't think your review was that far off mine. Selection in the WJ was generally good (except on those days I found the selection to be pork-heavy). I agree in that the lines in the WJ were never that long, despite crowding in those areas. You are also correct in that there were ready-made omeletes available (however, I always opted for a custom - egg beaters omelet). Having seen how the omelet system is done on Carnival Dream, I think that is a better set-up .... others might feel the Royal set-up is better allowing you to gather your other items while your omelet is prepared. I did learn after the first day that it was better to place my order, while I gathered food for my kids, and then return at the end to find my omelet prepared. The first day, I waited about 15 to 20 minutes for my omelet.

 

I don't know enough about Celiacs so I can't comment on how Royal handled your needs; but I am glad it met your expectations.

 

 

 

SRQFireman .... I remembered the other show. It was a musical impressionist. I thought he was good, but I'm also a huge fan of Andre Phillipe-Gagnon, who I consider to be a master in this genre, so my expectations were high, and I wasn't over-whelmed by the performance.

[im4clowns]

Just got off fos yesterday and I have to say overall the food has declined in the mdr. We also had coleen as our server and she was great especially with dd 33 months old. Our head waiter was great. But to me the food quality has gone down. My husband who had never cruised rccl stated he liked carnival and Disney better. He didn't go to the mdr last two nights as he liked windjammer better.

 

The nursery staff was great and I agree the production shows was great!

 

The cupcakes were not good at all in my opinion. Could be my expectations were too high. My cupcake lady won the cupcake wars twice on food network and her cupcakes ae out of the world.

[Queen of Oakville]

Ruthie - going off-topic here .... we are HUGE fans of cupcake wars (but we're only on Season 2 in Canada).... who's your cupcake lady?

[nicolen1101]

Do you remember the name of your fantastic head waiter?

[TonyFred]

Sounds like you should try Disney since most of your complaints involved your children. But thanks for the review.

[TonyFred]

Sorry, I see you have a Disney cruise planned. Hope it is a great one!

[BettyPC]

I read a review of Adventure of the Seas yesterday & the lady hated 99% of everything because of her 6 month old.....

 

Oh well. I'll keep reading the reviews!

[karajeboo]

Thank you for your review as we have FOTS booked for spring break in 2013! Having only cruised once (Disney) and have another Disney cruise planned, kids programs are a big deal to us. Our daughter is an only child so she loves the kids programs to make new friends and escape her parents! lol Of course Disney is great at this, almost too great as we rarely saw our daughter except for dinners and days in port!

 

But she will be turning 12 when we sail FOTS so hoping the tween/teen clubs work out well for her.

[GuavaTechAngels]

Nut Allergies

Like most ships, Royal does a horrible job with allergies, specifically peanut allergies. For example, last year when we sailed on Grandeur,, I had an allergic reaction to the Apple Parcels which are offered on a sea day lunch menu. I alerted the wait staff on Grandeur and followed up with a complaint to Royal to advise them that the description on the menu should indicate the presence of nuts in the dessert. No action was taken and the Apple parcels still appear on the menu with no flag as to the item containing almonds. DH ordered one for our son for dessert, and fortunately, I stopped him. My son has tree nut and peanut allergies.

 

Hi Queen of Oakville! Have you sailed RC recently and if so, can you comment if they are still horrible with food allergies? We're planning a family reunion and have two (child age) members with fatally severe peanut allergies.