I know I'm gonna get flamed, but Windjammer is AWFUL

[Jtd724]

To use the windjammer during lunch or dinner hours for cards is selfish. Use the card rooms that are on all ships. Hungry? Bring some snacks from the WJ to the card room.

[Thetrail]

Okay, seriously fellow cruisers. I am a huge RCCL fan. I am a middle class american who hardly eats at 4 or 5 stars restaurants. I am just an "average Joe". I have taken many RCCL cruises, and by far this is the worst Windjammer experience.

 

In the morning, pancakes, french toast, toast, etc were all cold! So bad there were a few times I couldn't even swallow it.

 

The meat is ridiculous. The infamous CC honey stung chicken is as dry as a bone. The hamburgers are something that would be served in a school cafeteria. No quality meat at all.

 

It takes the entire cruise to figure out what to avoid.

 

I do give credit to the salad bar, it was nice. But even the dressing was so cheap. I had Blue Cheese dressing that squirted out of a bottle with a very small tip. So it was runny, not creamy or chunky like it should be.

 

At what point are we going to all agree, the Windjammer is like eating at a local grocery store food cafeteria line. After you finish eating, you are full, but there is never anything you have to get seconds. It just wasn't good.

 

Go ahead and flame me. But I wish they would use flames in the Windjammer to at least keep the food warm.

But will say that when I see a post like this I almost always ignore it because I know better. When you have the volume of food and selection and someone says it was just so awlful, so cold, well I know this isn't true, so I have learned to hit the ignore button. That being said I will ignore your future posts simply because it is not a believable post in my eyes from past experience....:rolleyes:

[melbur]

But will say that when I see a post like this I almost always ignore it because I know better. When you have the volume of food and selection and someone says it was just so awlful, so cold, well I know this isn't true, so I have learned to hit the ignore button. That being said I will ignore your future posts simply because it is not a believable post in my eyes from past experience....:rolleyes:

 

If your experience is different, it doesn't make someone else's not believable or not true . .

maybe you should read this

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/announcement.php?a=360

[Thetrail]

If your experience is different, it doesn't make someone else's not believable or not true . .

maybe you should read this

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/announcement.php?a=360

If you have eaten in the WJ on the same cruise as another passenger all week and the food is acceptable, warm, etc. and everyone in your group agrees and people you have spoke with agree, then you see a post where one person says the food is inedible, well not believeable IMHO, sorry. Have eaten at every venue on every RCL ship and not only do I just take these type of posts with a grain of salt, I have a hard time really truly believeing the validity of these posts. Has zero to do with the "your experience may be different than someone else's"......:rolleyes:

[melbur]

If you have eaten in the WJ on the same cruise as another passenger all week and the food is acceptable, warm, etc. and everyone in your group agrees and people you have spoke with agree, then you see a post where one person says the food is inedible, well not believeable IMHO, sorry. Have eaten at every venue on every RCL ship and not only do I just take these type of posts with a grain of salt, I have a hard time really truly believeing the validity of these posts. Has zero to do with the "your experience may be different than someone else's"......:rolleyes:

 

right, your opinion, - doesn't make it everyone's opinion

[Thetrail]

right, your opinion, - doesn't make it everyone's opinion

But thanks anyway....:)

[campingman]

Were you on the Legend? Sounds like our experience in December. Great, freshly prepared food every night. We had busy port days, so decided to dine very casual every night -and so glad we did. In fact, we looked forward to dinner. Some nights they did a Mongolian stir fry with choice of fresh ingredients that was so delicious. We spoke with the Windjammer Chef several times and complimented him on the excellent food. Hope things don't change as we are looking forward to going back in March and will plan to skip the MDR just to experience great dinners again.

 

We have been on Legend 4 times and last April we were coming out Singapore of 15 days in voyage and Windjammer was disgusting.

 

I BELIEVE YOU,that it would of improved because of complaints that went in.

 

The new wonderful Park Cafe was absolutely wonderful and would get crowded because of the substandard WINDJAMMER FOOD.

 

The service on the ship was wonderful except for the Concierge Club, as near everyone stayed away, included myself because of the lazy Concierge at the time, in lieu we went to Diamond because of the exceptional service from Andrew Finegold.The lazy Concierge i note, that the wonderful new Luca Iorio replaced of the lazy Concierge after we there.

Two wonderful RCCL Concierge Crew on Legend, now i notice.Luca Iorio and Andrew Finegold are BOTH ***** STAR Crew that i have sailed with.

 

The Dining Room was excellent along with ALL the new Restaurants,include Chefs Table.

Other than the one i excluded because of laziness,all the crew were fantastic and the food that came out of WINDJAMMER at that time.

[Mapleleafforever]

Agreed 100%.

[Paulette3028]

Oh I agree that Promenade Cafe is a choice, and I'm certainly not implying that anyone HAS to use it. But you said WJ was the ONLY option; I was merely pointing out that that's not the case on some ships.

 

 

I have been on ships where there are tables in the solarium and there is a solarium snack bar....so that would be an option.....but if you want a more robust choice of food options, WJ may be IT.

[Paulette3028]

DW makes fun of my mother's cooking skills but I grew up eating well done and somewhat dried out food and I like it. I have been known to get 3 hamburgers from the Jammie and call it lunch - no rolls or condiments just a fork and a knife to cut them.:) Straight out of the low carb diet.

 

Different strokes for different folks.

 

Your mother must have gone to the same cooking school as my mother....my dad, loved her well done food. I can't say that I did, but that was just me. (LOL)

[Royalty X]

I've never eaten in the buffet, for lunch or dinner, on any of my cruises (they're normally fine for a quick breakfast). However, the Windjammer on the Rhapsody recently was brilliant! Not everything was great, but then neither is all the food in the MDR. For the first time ever on one of our cruises, we were really happy to eat lunch and/or dinner in the Windjammer due to such a great variety and, more often than not, very tasty food! :)

[Paulette3028]

To use the windjammer during lunch or dinner hours for cards is selfish. Use the card rooms that are on all ships. Hungry? Bring some snacks from the WJ to the card room.

 

FLASH -- there are selfish people on board. Look at all the 'chair hogs'....just one example. I am sure we can create a long list of the things the 'selfish' cruisers do, that if they did not do, could make for a much more enjoyable cruise for many other people.

 

When you put 3000 or more people together, there will be a percentage of selfish people in that mix. When they are paying for the trip and it is their hard earned money, a few who may not be selfish normally, adopt that characteristic. And when they feel they are paying for an upscale, elite type of vacation, they may even feel more entitled to engage in more selfishness.

 

I am glad I have not found too many people like that on the cruises I have gone on....some, yes....not too many.

[CruiseAddict1982]

But will say that when I see a post like this I almost always ignore it because I know better. When you have the volume of food and selection and someone says it was just so awlful, so cold, well I know this isn't true, so I have learned to hit the ignore button. That being said I will ignore your future posts simply because it is not a believable post in my eyes from past experience....:rolleyes:

 

I agree.

[Jtd724]

Paulette what exactly are you trying to tell me? I guess thanks for reinforcing what I already said.

Edited January 11, 2014 by Jtd724

[Ocean Boy]

i'm going on allure of the seas in two weeks and to be honest, I have 0 intention of eating in the windjammer. There are so many options to eat on the ship, why would i settle for anything less than the best? I get that many american people think a tomato is a tomato and are cost oriented rather than quality and thats fine to me to help keep the total cruise cost low by feeding the pigs their feed. I'm also doing my best to limit time as much as I can in the main dining room as this will be the next target as signs are already indicating on here (escargot, steak quality, lobster nights). I do agree with previous posts, once the level of quality hits a certain point, I will avoid that cruise line just as I will avoid vacationing at certain brands of resorts who try the same cost saving schemes and get the american masses in at low cost. RCI isnt too far away from a no fly list.

 

I'm not really sure what you are saying here but let me assure you it comes across in a really disgusting manner.

[Ocean Boy]

MOST of what you are complaining about RCCL has little to now control over such as.....it is always crowded -- well it is NOTa 'sit down dining room, for a specific number of people, so it CAN be crowded AT TIMES, but I have been there when it has been quite empty; it's NOISY -- you say....well when you put lots of people in ANY environment, that is a contained area -- it will be NOISY; people who don't look where they are going.....it unfortunately happen; tables being used by other cruises playing dominos or cards.....it is their AREA as well.

 

That is one of the reasons we stopped using the MDR, among other reasons, and started using the Windjammer for pretty much all of our meals and that especially applies to dinner.

[Cruising89143]

We thought the WJ on the Oasis and Allure was bad. Did not like the layout or the offerings. This past June we cruised on the Splendour and the WJ was as I remembered on the smaller ships. Food was varied and good. Our cruise had a lot of different nationalities on board as it was a European cruise. IMHO RCI did a great job with giving us all some very nice options to choose from.

 

IMHO I think that Celebrity had a much better buffet with their Oceanview Cafe on the Reflection which is an S class ship. I understand the M class is not that good due to setup and size.

 

My only complaint on any cruise line buffet. Scrambled eggs. They all use the egg mix from a carton. Not good!

[pcur]

I guess it all depends on your perspective. We started cruising with RCCL before there were Windjammers. Your non-MDR choice was a little walk-up grill on the pool deck that served hot dogs and hamburgers. Period. With fries.

 

Then, they added a little table with a salad selection and some cookies for dessert.

 

That was it.

 

Our first cruise with a Windjammer was in the very early 1990's. We were delighted!

 

We eat breakfast and lunch in the Windjammer now on every cruise. Breakfast is hard to screw up, but if it's cold then speak up. That's a huge no-no. They will go make you something fresh.

 

The pasta station is a huge favorite with my husband, and we really think the selection in most (not all) Windjammers is good.

 

I agree about the Rhapsody comment above. The best Windjammer we ever ate in was on the Rhapsody, and we had the delightful pleasure of eating there for 33 days on a b2b. We had the executive pastry chef on those cruises experimenting with new recipes. Unbelievably good desserts, and we usually skip desserts in the Windjammer since they have declined considerably in recent years.

 

The Independence had really boring and repetitive selections for afternoon snacks.

 

The Adventure's lunch selections were also ho-hum.

 

The Mariner was very good.

 

My point is it varies from one ship to another, and if you don't try out the varieties of dishes offered, then you will certainly be disappointed. The last thing I personally want to eat in the Windjammer is a hamburger and fries. I have choices on a cruise ship! I can get the burger/fries thing the other weeks I'm not cruising!

[dfishner]

Its a buffet period and there have been some WJ on RCL ships that do it better then other(Radiance class does a very good job from what I remember). As soon as that food hits the steam table it will continue to cook and cook unless they batch cook where the change out the pans more often to offer fresher quality. I never had a problem with the WJ it is what it is.

[houstoncruisers2001]

The more who hate the WJ food the better. Less crowds for me.:)

[Debde]

DW makes fun of my mother's cooking skills but I grew up eating well done and somewhat dried out food and I like it. I have been known to get 3 hamburgers from the Jammie and call it lunch - no rolls or condiments just a fork and a knife to cut them.:) Straight out of the low carb diet.

 

Different strokes for different folks.

 

Another one that can so relate to your post.:)

My Dad loves plain well done foods so that's how my Mom cooks and what spilled over to my knowledge of cooking!:o

Maybe that's why myself and entire family enjoy the food in the WJ and think its like gourmet style and also take most all our meals in there. We're fairly easy to impress in the food category.

But I would like to add that most of the time most or at least some of what is being served in the MDR can be found in the jammer that is true MTD and very quiet

 

I did not realize how many we had in the WJ club!!!:D I thought it was just the few of us founding members that sang its praise.;)

[Kellie Poodle]

We thought the WJ on the Oasis and Allure was bad. Did not like the layout or the offerings. This past June we cruised on the Splendour and the WJ was as I remembered on the smaller ships. Food was varied and good. Our cruise had a lot of different nationalities on board as it was a European cruise. IMHO RCI did a great job with giving us all some very nice options to choose from.

 

IMHO I think that Celebrity had a much better buffet with their Oceanview Cafe on the Reflection which is an S class ship. I understand the M class is not that good due to setup and size.

 

My only complaint on any cruise line buffet. Scrambled eggs. They all use the egg mix from a carton. Not good!

 

The European and other non-Caribbean cruises have better food. They also have a different demographic with people more interested in the ports than in partying. People dress nicer for dinner.

 

I am not a fan of Celebrity buffets, but we only sail M class and had sailed Century, in a class of its own. The hot dogs on the pool deck are the only lunch I eat on a Celebrity cruise. They have great hot dogs.

 

I go to the omelet station and ask for my scrambled eggs there. I hate steam table eggs, too.

[vermontvoyager]

This, exactly. Our best WJ experience was on Jewel - absolutely outstanding, the best ever, and we let those in charge know it. We gave a WOW card to the omelet guy! Fabulous!

 

OP, sorry you didn't enjoy it more.

 

I totally agree with you on Jewel having the best WJ in the fleet that is far superior than any other ship we have sailed on.

We have been on 12 different RCI ships.

[Thetrail]

The more who hate the WJ food the better. Less crowds for me.:)

Never thought of it that way, brilliant!....K.O...:)

[phish tales]

We eat all our meals in the WJ and have never had any issues. The one time we ordered room service it was cold. I say if people are unhappy with RCCL they should just leave and go elsewhere.

you eat all your meals in the windjammer????? you never eat in the MDR ??? IMHO boy you are missing a lot.....

Edited January 11, 2014 by phish tales