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First RCCL Cruise: Terrible Disappointment


Oxman
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I think that it may be worth mentioning that the OP embarked on his cruise on the 14th and he posted this on the 15th.

 

However, they are writing in the present tense. It could be the second day.

Edited by minn0315
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Well I´m gad to see prove this Forum serves a purpose.

 

Leave her alone. She is writing an excellent review about her week on the Jewel, and that gives you a MUCH better picture of who she is, as opposed to whatever you have assumed on this thread.

 

:(

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Don't delay !

 

I booked Anthem last April for 10/2016. Prices have already risen such that the cheapest Inside is now higher than our balcony:eek:

 

I was looking at Anthem for my birthday next October. It sails the day before my birthday and I would have loved being on her. I checked out the prices for the single inside cabin (as I am a solo traveler) but all of those room (how few they are) have been sold out for that sailing. So now, I am looking at (I don't believe I am about to say this) sailing on Carnival for my birthday. An outside cabin with a balcony for a single, is the same price for an inside with a virtual balcony. Being that this is probably my last cruise, I think it's ironic that I started out cruising Royal and will probably end up on Carnival. Whodathunkit?

 

P.S. I know I still have Anthem in my signature. It's because I am hoping and wishing I will still be able to sail on her for my birthday

Edited by onyourtoes
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Not sure how RCCL changed the menu for Asia, but I can see how people used to central Luzon cuisine would be disappointed with cruise food. All the good Filipino food is saved for the crew.

 

So...I wonder if they could ask their server if they could get some Filipino food? Like we've asked nicely if we could get Indian food, because often that is so much tastier than what's on the menu. We've been told on DCL and RCCL that the food is made by the Indian chefs for themselves, and if they have notice ahead of time they can make more and share it with us.

 

Since the OP has been living in the Philippines it might make them happier to have that food.

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We have found that the food on every ship we've sailed has differed from other ships in the fleet and even seen differences on the same ship a year apart. We had a couple great cruises on the Rhapsody with good food. Then, horrible food on the Splendour of the Seas. It was so bad we stayed away from RCCL for many years. We had great food on the Voyager and decided to try it a second year in a row and it was just so so. Then we did the Mariner and it was fantastic. Then we cruised on the Navigator and both food and service was so bad in the MDR the first night that we ate in either Chops, Giovanni's Table or Sabor every night. Got off that ship with a $400 bill for food for the 3 of us.

Another RCCL ship may be more to the OP's liking.

I have to say I am Diamond on RCCL with 80 nights and Diamond on Carnival with 208 nights and Platinum on Princess.

I have found the food on Carnival and Princess to be just as hit or miss as it is on RCCL depending on the ship. But, I have found Carnival's service to be as good or better than the service on RCCL, but neither line stacked up to our cruises on Princess in the service dept.

 

Actually, the best food and service we have had in years was on MSC Divina in April 2015 in the Yacht Club.

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Carnival cruises I've been on were monkeys throwing organic matter at each other. I joked with a buddy as we were heading to port about my bad first Carnival and that cruise for us was worse. I think the toddlers got free alcohol packages, too!

 

NCL was my favorite for short cruises until I had two bad experiences that left me really disheartened. And I have almost no expectations other than food not being frozen when served (NCL) and some semblance of lounge chair maintenance (Carnival) to reduce chair hogging.

 

Celebrity actually had me and a CSR swearing at each other and the First Officer stepping in and yelling at her for lying to me on the record. My pops is a Celebrity fanatic so I still cruise twice a year with him but that one experience just made me unsteady. Never had a CSR actually starting yelling at me because I was confused about a committed perk.

 

RCCL has never dropped the ball on me. One time I thought it was happening but a quick call to guest relations (not to complain, just to inform them about a concern) had it resolved 500% beyond any fantasy solution.

 

I also prefer RCCL's co-addicts. So many sweet and extremely charitable Pinnacle cruisers has me pretty loyal. These folks have helped me turn a 6.5/10 into an 8.5/10 just by being decent humans.

 

Never did Holland America, yet. Never did Disney, yet. RCCL has been for another dozen cruises at 20-30% below my expected budget, so let's see if the next 100 cruise points allows them to screw up.

 

Please don't do Holland America. I really like RCI and it doesn't take much to please me, I always make the most out of any holiday, even a caravan holiday. But when I went with Holland America I actually could not wait to get home.

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I agree but as another poster said, I think in most cases it takes a little smack talk to get other's fur up.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

I've talked my share of smack and listened to my share in my day and have never taken it personally the way that some on Cruise Critic (not just the RCCL forum) seem to take it.

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I sailed on the Legend in 2010 from Hong Kong to Singapore (13 nights repositioning) and the only downside was the main dining room. The food was very poor, slow service, limited menu and often only just warm. So we ate in the buffet most nights. The buffet was great - good choice, hot food, really enjoyed the Indian curries and the asian dishes. We complemented the staff and the buffet food got better each day! This was the first time we have ever avoided the dining room in favour of the buffet, but on this cruise it worked for us. On this cruise the mix of passengers was very international, no one country dominated.

 

My next Asian cruise on RCI was in 2014 on Voyager from Singapore to Tokyo (10 nights) - a repositioning cruise where a large party of Chinese (approx. 800) boarded in Hong Kong. The main dining room food and service was generally good. However, we were seated with two senior travel agents from Singapore, who made it very clear regarding the standard of food and service they expected, so we may have benefitted from that! We did notice a change when the Hong Kong party embarked - the bars were very empty and the buffet and casino very busy. The ship staff did seem fed up, probably due to lack of passenger interest in some of the main venues.

 

I am looking to do Asia again next year - either out of Singapore or Hong Kong, but neither Voyager nor Ovation are showing up for booking yet, other than one Ovation cruise from Beijing in November.

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We have found that the food on every ship we've sailed has differed from other ships in the fleet and even seen differences on the same ship a year apart. We had a couple great cruises on the Rhapsody with good food. Then, horrible food on the Splendour of the Seas. It was so bad we stayed away from RCCL for many years. We had great food on the Voyager and decided to try it a second year in a row and it was just so so. Then we did the Mariner and it was fantastic.

 

Correct, that is why we should not compare Carnaval vs NCL vs RCCL or even Princess... what I can only vouch as the best in the industry is RCCL's loyalty program.

 

The reason to treat them as equal is the standards are not fixed, it really differs from ship to ship and from time to time. Because operationally crew works via contract and either they rotate ships, go on vacation from tiem to time or move to other cruise lines.. e.g. if Voyager is in Asia, the crew is replaced by mostly Chinese crew, then once it enters Sydney for the Australian season, many Filipino crew came in and the Chinese crew gets transferred elsewhere.

 

Meaning not only food, but even policies change once an officer got rotated, so if an excellent executive chef is on board, then you get superb food.. but once he goes on vacation or gets transferred elsewhere and a not so good executive chef comes in, then the food quality suffers.

 

Let me share my actual experience: Being just taken Voyager last Oct 10, I tend to agree with the OP as Voyager's food in my last sailing is the least ideal among my 3 sailings, since the OP sailed Voyager right when I just got out, likely the same chef is on board.

 

but just last Sept 2014, my first Voyager sailing in Asia that stayed over night in Okinawa, the food was one of the best I have tasted in an RCCL cruise, comparable to Allure, considering I am Diamond and have taken many cruises. It was so good that Voyager became my favorite ship and sailed her 3X already... even the British couple sharing the table with me are raving about the food.

 

then my next Voyager sailing last May 2015 that went to Sapporo... they maintained food quality I was raving about, so this led to my 3rd Voyager cruise last Oct 10.

 

But sadly this time, the food quality went down, partly coz that sailing is 90% chinese so the food lineup totally changed to cater to the Chinese palate (might be the head chef on my last 2 previous sailings is on vacation)...like the popular key lime pie is no longer the RCCL standard and I still missed the fall off the bone rosemary lamb shank I had in my 2 previous Voyager sailings.

 

Same case with Mariner, unfortunately my first and only sailing with it last Sept 2012, the food was most horrible I had in my entire cruising life (and it was also mostly Chinese guests on that sailing)... so bad that I avoided Mariner till now.... but one of the Voyager crew told me to give Mariner another chance as likely, the many of the crew have already been changed in the last 3 years.

 

Then it was just written above that Mariner's food is now fantastic.... oh well.

Edited by roquejo
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Please don't do Holland America. I really like RCI and it doesn't take much to please me, I always make the most out of any holiday, even a caravan holiday. But when I went with Holland America I actually could not wait to get home.

 

We have done 4 recent Hal cruises and enjoyed them, some ships are better than others , but I do prefer RCCL, there specialty steak restaurant Pinnacle is much nicer than Chops

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Please don't do Holland America. I really like RCI and it doesn't take much to please me, I always make the most out of any holiday, even a caravan holiday. But when I went with Holland America I actually could not wait to get home.

 

We have done 4 recent Hal cruises and enjoyed them, some ships are better than others , but I do prefer RCCL, there specialty steak restaurant Pinnacle is much nicer than Chops

We do most of our cruises on HAL, some on Celebrity. If you are looking for FlowRiders and climbing walls, don't book HAL, but if you want excellent smaller ships, great itineraries and don't mind a slower pace on board, it's a great choice. DW and I have no hesitation rebooking - we have bookings on both Celebrity and HAL for next year - but for a family cruise including our grandkids, we wouldn't consider either one suitable and have booked the AOS. It's all about matching your tastes/needs with the varied offerings of different lines.

Edited by Fouremco
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  • 1 year later...
I found NCL's food to be terrible. Although amenities may be similar, RCI is miles ahead in terms of ship design and flow. YMMV.

 

I agree that the food in the MDR on NCL is not very good, but I found the buffet on Epic, to be as good as most.

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This may sound like an ignorant question, having never been on a TA...but with the ships being in different countries, is the food supply from those countries?

 

In other words, here in the US, most of the food is supplied by the vendor Sysco....American food. So, what I am getting at is, can the quality and types of food be very different than what we are used to?

 

On all of my cruises in Europe the food has been standard American food. Each line has certain foreign dishes they excel in, which is great, but most is to American tastes. Haven't cruised in Asia.

My first European cruise was on Sun Lines Stella Solaris. I expect sophisticated European dress, and European food. Big disappointment. The food was good, but included turkey and dressing, etc. No European food except for the galley tour including a tray of baklava.

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I (finally) noticed that this was a 2 year old thread BUT I also realised when I checked the OP dates that we were also on that cruise from Hong Kong to Singapore. It was not our first, and hasn't been our last, but I have to admit that the service on that Voyager cruise was not what we have experienced previously, either sailing from Florida, or when cruising Europe. We have since been on a cruise on Quantum from Shanghai, and the Asian cruises are certainly a little different.

It didn't put me off RC, we're sailing transatlantic in November which will be our 17th, and I've just booked Shanghai to Japan for next year.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

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One look at my cruising history - there's reasons why we only cruised on one Carnival cruise...pretty much matches very close to what your reasons were for not wanting to cruise RCL again - but one specific thing that amped me on the CCL cruise was us showing up dressed to the nines for formal night - and seeing people wearing shorts - even flipflops, so to us, Carnival was "the walmart of cruise companies."

 

"Walmart and the Walmart Foundation Announce up to $20 Million Toward Hurricane Harvey Relief and Recovery"

 

 

 

I guess being compared to a company that over the years has donated more money to charity than any other company in the world isn't a bad thing. Maybe stay off the rock walls on the shopping malls known as RCI

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Brilliant.... on that same cruise in October, here's hoping.. :D

 

All of our previous cruising has been on Carnival. Based in no small part on information/discussions on this website, we were expecting a new level of enjoyment.

 

Unfortunately, aboard Voyager of the Seas from Hong Kong to Singapore, we have been experiencing a terrible letdown.

 

The food and service are, in a word, horrific.

 

There is no organization in the dining rooms, the food in Windjammer is tasteless and unappealing, we didn't even have a room service menu in our cabin. Our cabin steward is spread over far too many cabins; he doesn't manage to get our cabin made up until very late in the afternoon.

 

In addition, our Meet and Mingle party has vanished into non-existence. We have received no information about a place/time. Nobody on board even knows what I'm talking about when I ask.

 

We were certainly looking forward to adding RCCL to our cruising toolkit. However, if this ship and voyage are what the company is putting forward, count this as my LAST cruise on this brand. EVER.

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Two year old thread.

 

I've never understood why that matters to some people. As long as people aren't answering a question that is old, if they pick up on something and have comments that gets the thread started again, who cares?

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I've never understood why that matters to some people. As long as people aren't answering a question that is old, if they pick up on something and have comments that gets the thread started again, who cares?

 

I hear you. And half the time if someone DOES start a new thread about a subject, it's almost guaranteed someone else will search and link to something else and be all "Search next time!"

 

Can't win for losing!

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