Shameful vegan experience on Rhapsody

[Arubamoose]

While I am far from vegan - I have one DD who is vegetarian (and a trained chef) and another DD who is vegan. Accommodating their choices at home was a challenge but fairly easy to do to satisfy all persuasions.

 

My DD's are Platinum and Emerald so have been on quite a few RCCL cruises. We have had some dismal failures and some shining successes with procuring vegan meals on board.

 

It does really depend on the ship. Our last Oasis cruise was awesome....in fact too awesome!! The Maitre D brought TOO much good food for her. She felt guilty for not eating it all. And surprisingly we did MTD - but wound up with pretty much the same waitstaff each night. Plus Izumi was wonderful.

 

Our shorty cruise on the Majesty....awful. She had plain salads and plain pasta most nights. Maybe steamed veggies if she was lucky.

 

Please discount the haters....stupid is as stupid does. Yes - it is a choice. But if RCCL says they will accommodate special diets they should live up to their word without giving you the run around. I would raise heck!!!

 

Good luck. Let us know how it goes.

[NorbertsNiece]

While I am far from vegan - I have one DD who is vegetarian (and a trained chef) and another DD who is vegan. Accommodating their choices at home was a challenge but fairly easy to do to satisfy all persuasions.

 

My DD's are Platinum and Emerald so have been on quite a few RCCL cruises. We have had some dismal failures and some shining successes with procuring vegan meals on board.

 

It does really depend on the ship. Our last Oasis cruise was awesome....in fact too awesome!! The Maitre D brought TOO much good food for her. She felt guilty for not eating it all. And surprisingly we did MTD - but wound up with pretty much the same waitstaff each night. Plus Izumi was wonderful.

 

Our shorty cruise on the Majesty....awful. She had plain salads and plain pasta most nights. Maybe steamed veggies if she was lucky.

 

Please discount the haters....stupid is as stupid does. Yes - it is a choice. But if RCCL says they will accommodate special diets they should live up to their word without giving you the run around. I would raise heck!!!

 

Good luck. Let us know how it goes.

 

It really does depend on the ship..... On Freedom, following a debacle in Portofino's with my Gluten Free experience, they simply could not do enough for me and kept overfeeding in the MDR (MTD too) and leaving GF cupcakes in my cabin.....

 

Why they can't be consistent and achieve the high standards of all is beyond me.

[happy trailer]

Had my second meeting; it was also with the Hotel Director. HD did all the talking; F&B manager sat silent on the side.. They made the standard offer of a credit toward my next cruise, and I turned it down.

 

I told them it was not an issue of money, it was an issue of trust; that they had lost my trust and it wasn't money that would bring it back.

 

I said that in order for me to feel secure in sailing with RCI again there would have to be a way for me to feel confident that if a problem arose on a cruise that it would be dealt with immediately, and not by being brushed off as kept happening on this cruise. I suggested they raise my status, as I have friends with high status whose requests to meet with management result in almost immediate meetings. (Remember, I turned Diamond on this cruise; the HD asked me during our conversation if I had cruised with RCI before (which was really strange, since she certainly had looked at my account).

 

She told me that she was only authorized to offer what she had (she said she had been in touch with corporate), and she would notify them that I had turned it down. She said that I should contact the post-cruise dept when I got home. I told her I would also be in touch with my TA, that my TA had called RCI today.

(BTW, right before I went to the meeting I received an email from my TA saying she had called RCI, demanding that they set up a meeting with the HD for me, as the situation was totally unacceptable; the HD never mentioned that call.)

 

She kept offering to apologize and I kept responding that apologies offered on the last night of the cruise were empty gestures. I repeated that it was completely unacceptable that I had been brushed off by the F&B manager for 3 days.

 

They didn't argue with me. They agreed that something had gone wrong.

 

She asked if there was something they could do to make it up to me during these last few hours of the cruise. My response was that was another empty gesture as I would be on my way to the airport in less than 12 hours.

 

I'd say it was a civil conversation. They didn't seem particularly surprised that I turned down their offer; I'm not sure what they thought of my suggestion.

 

Oh- at our morning meeting, the F&B director agreed to cover my meals at Izumi. He didn't offer, I had to bring it up, but he agreed immediately. When I went to Izumi tonight (right after my meeting) they told me the F&B director had called and that I would not be billed.

 

Would love to hear all of your thoughts and reactions.

[champagne123]

Boy oh boy. What a way to spend a vacation/cruise.

[aimee0715]

vegan is ZERO animal products of any sort( to include by products such as milk/dairy eggs etc. no gelatin or consomme either) so that leaves out anything but a vegetable based broth and pretty much all versions of gravy.

 

vegetarian is easy( and often the best option on the menu) some vegetarians 'cheat' by consuming fish.

 

thing is a lot of vegetarian items are not really vegan.. and I don't mean because the ravioli is stuffed with cheese. I mean the tomato soup may actually have a beef bouillon foundation. hell my ancient family recipe for French onion soup starts off life as a hunk of bone marrow from Bessie.

 

LOL a tomato soup with beef boullion is NOT vegetarian. I am seriously astonished by what people on this thread think is vegetarian/vegan.

[NorbertsNiece]

You did good Ruth, despite the circumstances..... I honestly don't know how many bad cruiser experiences it takes to make the penny drop. They have to give a damn I guess. Guess they don't eh? Sigh.

 

Interesting how their default is always a monetary compensation..... like you'd risk repeating the experience..... Sigh.

[Diplomacy]

LOL a tomato soup with beef bouillon is NOT vegetarian. I am seriously astonished by what people on this thread think is vegetarian/vegan.

I know right? You'd think it would be easy, but nope. Not only were neither of his "for example things that would be vegetarian but not vegan" that thing, but then there is also the subtle implication that making a "pure" vegetable broth is a hard thing. Its really not. Boil vegetables, add seasoning, presto. You can keep that broth on hand for the entire cruise and you can use it to add flavor to almost anything.

 

I swear, between the people talking about vegetarians/vegans as if vegetables are and exotic things that cannot be had on short notice, and the ones who seem to think that the only criteria is that you put a little head of broccoli on the menu to make vegetarians smile, it's a little much.

Edited November 7, 2015 by Diplomacy

[BeachChik]

You did good Ruth, despite the circumstances..... I honestly don't know how many bad cruiser experiences it takes to make the penny drop. They have to give a damn I guess. Guess they don't eh? Sigh.

 

Interesting how their default is always a monetary compensation..... like you'd risk repeating the experience..... Sigh.

 

Any businesses standard offer is going to be money because 99% of the time that is what most people are looking for.

 

And I can't believe the op thought that asking for cruise status to be raised would be done. How would that fix the issue.

[Thetrail]

No, there aren't. There are vegetarian items. Veganism is but a type of vegetarianism (the most restrictive kind, shying away from any and all animal products, including dairy, eggs, honey, animal-derived gelatins, etc.) and something that's "vegetarian" may not necessarily be vegan. Looking at the MDR menus, for instance, the Artichoke-Filled Crepes au Gratin that appear on the Saffron menu, are marked as vegetarian. However, by virtue of having cheese in them, they would not be vegan.

That being said so very happy that I am not VEGAN.....:)

[Thetrail]

Any businesses standard offer is going to be money because 99% of the time that is what most people are looking for.

 

And I can't believe the op thought that asking for cruise status to be raised would be done. How would that fix the issue.

Raise my cruise status or else!!......:rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes: Edited November 7, 2015 by Thetrail

[Thetrail]

I'm a steakandbeeratarian. Life is good.

A smile has been put on my face!....K.O.:)

[poncho1973]

Most vegans feel that the consumption of honey is an animal rights issue, but there are discussions on the issue on vegan forums. In general, part of the issue is difficulties with any sort of animal farming. For a product to be labeled 'vegan friendly' it must not contain honey.

 

Vegans are also careful about wines, as many of the filtering agents used in wine production are animal based. Fortunately, there is a growing market of vegan wines :)

 

What about fruits and veggies that are grown using fertilizer? That has animal feces in it.

[happy trailer]

Any businesses standard offer is going to be money because 99% of the time that is what most people are looking for.

 

And I can't believe the op thought that asking for cruise status to be raised would be done. How would that fix the issue.

 

Raise my cruise status or else!!......:rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:

 

No need for cynicism- I was trying to make a point. I knew money would be offered, and that the amount of money that would be offered would not have been anywhere near enough to tempt me to try cruising RCI again. At no time did I give them an ultimatum; I turned down their offer and explained why I was turning it down.

 

I suggested they raise my status because to me, the only way at this point that I would consider another cruise on RCI is if I had a good degree of confidence that any possible future issues wouldn't be brushed aside, as they were repeatedly on this cruise. I have witnessed first hand the benefits of high C&A status when a meeting with management was requested. I never expected that the HD would have the authority to raise my status; as she acknowledged I will be continuing this conversation with RCI when I get home.

 

People have different criteria for what they want in terms of compensation when things go wrong, and yes, most people are looking for monetary compensation. But I'm looking for a way to continue cruising with RCI. During our meeting the HD asked me a few times if I had another cruise booked, saying she would call the ship and tell them that I required vegan food. I looked at her incredulously, saying that Rhapsody knew I was vegan before I got on the ship, and look what happened.

 

The message was just not getting through, which you have to figure was a significant part of why I had my far from stellar cruise experience.