Quality of food on Royal Caribbean

[shanley]

For me it's not really the quality that I have an issue with, it's more about the lack of selection. I find the new menus don't offer much of a variety. Some nights I was hard pressed to find something I really wanted. That being said, if I didn't like it, the staff was quick to replace it.

 

Windjammmer is offering the same food at breakfast and lunch with little variety.

 

My other issue is calling things something that they are clearly not! Jello with fruit and cream is not trifle! I'm drawing a blank on the dinner items, but there were a few that did not match their titles.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[ckrobyn]

I reported LIVE from the Freedom in November, and as many did after me, they also were not impressed with the MDR. I remember the MDR on my first cruise more than 10 years ago.....it was a wonderful experience on both the culinary and the service sides, as we all know, times have changed. The cutbacks are sadly obvious - I remember in November being served an appetizer that was billed as a snow crab salad ( I ordered it because from previous experience I knew it came with a crab claw on top) however this time, not only was the crab claw blatantly missing, there wasn't a single piece of crab to be found anywhere in the salad :mad: Normally I mumble to myself about these kinds of things, but this time the Head Waiter just happened to be schmoozing our table, so I showed him the "crab" salad and challenged him to find a piece of crab - you can guess how this story ends right? No crab in sight.

 

That was just one example, but I think it illustrates the fact that RCI is clearly cutting corners, and the worst part is the customer is noticing!! I work in the hospitality industry (quasi anyways) and I am all to aware that budgets change and are always tied in to occupancy. There have been many times my organization has had to tighten our belts, but we do it in ways our customer won't notice. Surely there is enough culinary talent at Royal Caribbean that they can make macaroni and cheese a delicacy????

 

My next cruise is fast approaching - back I go to the Freedom, only this time I have the 2 night BOGO and for the first time ever, MTD. I can honestly say at this point that unless there has been a drastic improvement in the MDR, I will be enjoying the other options for the duration of my cruise. At the end of the day, food is not going to be a deciding factor of my overall enjoyment of a cruise, however I can't help but compare it to years gone by. If the ships are sailing full (which seems to be the case), and the prices are significantly higher than they were a few years ago......I just don't get the decline in the quality of the food.

[schlimazel_traveler]

I think it's telling that they are marketing the Embarkation Day specialty dining option as "First Night Done Right." The first time I heard that I thought, "Shouldn't I be able to get my dinner done RIGHT in the Main Dining Room that is included in my fare?":confused: Specialty dining should be "First night done fabulous/special/remarkable." It shouldn't require an upcharge to get your dinner "done RIGHT" any night.

[ladybugpug]

Just off of the Oasis a few days ago. This was our second cruise and our first RCCL.

 

Windjammer: We ate breakfast there twice. Just ok. The scrambled eggs were disgusting. They did have some decent offerings and I was thrilled to find actual over easy eggs.

 

We ordered room service breakfast most mornings. Same food as found in the Windjammer but at least I could eat on my balcony.:D

 

Windjammer Dinner: We tried this once and found it awful and never went back for dinner.

 

Wipe out Cafe: We grabbed a hamburger and fries here once for lunch. Decent hamburger and fries.

 

Johnny Rockets for breakfast once as it was recommended here on CC. It was not good at all. Worse than the Windjammer.

 

Giovanni: We ate here on Christmas Eve. It was good. Not sure it was worth the $75 a person but it was good and the service was excellent.

 

Silk MDR: Food ranged from ok to very good. Our service was outstanding. We ate in the MDR most evenings and enjoyed it very much.

 

My husband tried Sorrentos and said it tasted like frozen pizza.

 

We are not foodies and I am not hard to please. I don't expect gourmet food on a ship with 6000 some people. I did expect a little better fare but we had an amazing cruise and the food didn't really impact the trip.

 

We sailed NCL 5 years ago. I don't really remember much about the food to compare it.

[johnjen]

Food is very subjective, but from our first cruise on Grandeur to the latest on Anthem, I've seen a slight decline in the quality of the food. Then again, we've only sailed in the Caribbean and a New England cruise, but that was with Carnival.

 

Seeing our next cruise is in the Med - I'm expecting a difference in choice and quality - should I? Anyone see a difference in the food quality comparing a Med Cruise to a Caribbean?

[cruzgryphon]

Food is very subjective, but from our first cruise on Grandeur to the latest on Anthem, I've seen a slight decline in the quality of the food. Then again, we've only sailed in the Caribbean and a New England cruise, but that was with Carnival.

 

Seeing our next cruise is in the Med - I'm expecting a difference in choice and quality - should I? Anyone see a difference in the food quality comparing a Med Cruise to a Caribbean?

 

I don't remember much of a difference in a Med cruise vs. Caribbean. There are some differences in the menu - for example the last couple of times I've sailed in Europe (Baltics and Med) there wasn't any lobster tails. I hope you report back on your experience in the Med - I'm hoping things have changed.

[LXA350]

Quality wise since I began cruising 7 years ago for sure the Windjammer quality went down. Often today when you take a beef stew for instance the chunks you will find are full of fat or only fat, instead of real meat. Nevertheless both choice and quality is worse from USA / Caribbean than from Europe, Asia etc.

 

For MDR the worst service and food was on Allure, both when cruising on it in 2011 and 2015

[cruisinmom1]

I'll start off by saying I'm not an employee of Royal Caribbean, don't have any relatives who work for Royal Caribbean or anything like that. I just wanted to start this thread to get a feel for what others think of the food quality on Royal Caribbean.

 

I've been cruising for 10 years - predominantly with Royal Caribbean but have also tried some other cruise lines as well. Over the last couple of years it seems to me that the food quality in the main dining room (not the specialty restaurants) - variety, quality of food itself - has decreased on Royal Caribbean.

 

People who I've talked to onboard seem to feel the same way - new cruisers, cruisers who have cruised other cruise lines and loyal Royal Caribbean cruisers.

 

Do others find this as well? How does the quality of food compare to say Princess these days? Be interested to hear people's thoughts on this.

I agree- Food in the MDR and Windjammer are not as good- the quality is somewhat fair-poor. However; the speciality restaurants are very good!

[Formula280SS]

The RC MDR experience has been on constant decline in recent years.

 

Anyone who has been cruising for the last 10-20 years understands.

 

After my last trip, I cancelled 2 future cruises with RC mainly because of the poor quality and selection.

 

If you have to rate it on the fact that you are not prepping/cooking/cleaning than your expectations are very low.

 

Sure there is always something on the menu, but after paying thousands of dollars for your trip do you really want to settle for " I can find something"?

 

But I know people who eat fast food for dinner almost everyday......

 

 

 

Haven't cruised as long, but share your sentiments.

 

Our comments on our Harmony of the Seas cruise 12/3-12/10/16 re: specialty restaurants (pros and cons).

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2434367&highlight=harmony

 

We have deposits on BTB MSC Divina in March/April in the Yacht Club. Will give it a try, compare to NCL Haven (which is quite a bit more expensive, and was very enjoyable), and considering we've had to "visit" Sorrento's after a reserved mealtime (to get something we could eat), it appears if all else fails we can get a good pizza on Divina. :)

 

Seriously, since 2008, for us, our perspective only, we left MDR for specialty or better (Haven, for example on NCL). Now, we find "inconsistencies" in specialty as well as "food cost management" quality decreases (colossal shrimp in Chops looked like the one's in a 'bag of 32 frozen from the store and a really, really poor filet cut (I should, as others replied, sent it back)).

 

Another 'trending issue (again, for us) is the bar service; shot glasses and double trips to get a drink that is a drink.

 

However, love the sun, the breeze, the ships designs and activities. So, we'll keep at it.

[KiwiGal117]

Food is very subjective, but from our first cruise on Grandeur to the latest on Anthem, I've seen a slight decline in the quality of the food. Then again, we've only sailed in the Caribbean and a New England cruise, but that was with Carnival.

 

 

 

Seeing our next cruise is in the Med - I'm expecting a difference in choice and quality - should I? Anyone see a difference in the food quality comparing a Med Cruise to a Caribbean?

 

 

We have never cruised the Caribbean. Our last two cruises were Med. On Harmony this summer we found the food to range from okay (Windjammer) to truly excellent. Park Cafe was not great for breakfast but we gravitated there for lunch and snacks as it was amazing (we loved the Kemmelweck sandwiches - I know not everyone agrees) we certainly had a more positive food experience than others reported and my impression is that the quality of food on the Med cruises is better than the Caribbean.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[jetta8300]

I'll start off by saying I'm not an employee of Royal Caribbean, don't have any relatives who work for Royal Caribbean or anything like that. I just wanted to start this thread to get a feel for what others think of the food quality on Royal Caribbean.

 

I've been cruising for 10 years - predominantly with Royal Caribbean but have also tried some other cruise lines as well. Over the last couple of years it seems to me that the food quality in the main dining room (not the specialty restaurants) - variety, quality of food itself - has decreased on Royal Caribbean.

 

People who I've talked to onboard seem to feel the same way - new cruisers, cruisers who have cruised other cruise lines and loyal Royal Caribbean cruisers.

 

Do others find this as well? How does the quality of food compare to say Princess these days? Be interested to hear people's thoughts on this.

 

I haven't sailed Princess. But I have Carnival, Norwegian, and Royal Caribbean. Royal and Carnival had very similar quality of food in the MDR, however we thought Royal's buffet food was a bit better quality than Carnival. More selection too. The MDR food in both Carnival sand Royal was your typical large banquet/wedding type food. Mass produced and some dishes being better than others. Everything is perfectly edible but nothing extraordinary. Usually my husband and I ordered 3 entrees between the two of us since usually one dish wasn't very good and we had another to split. Having sailed on so many lines, every single line has people saying the same thing. That food quality has declined over the years so it's nothing exclusive to Royal Caribbean when you're talking within this price range.

 

Norwegian "complimentary" food was worse in every way. MDR, buffet, etc. It was all just bad. They truly try to push you to the specialty restaurants with Norwegian and we ended up eating at the specialty restaurants 4/7 nights of our cruise because the MDR food was so bad. Like inedible bad. So what they're doing is working for the short term, however we wouldn't sail with them again because of it.

Edited January 3, 2017 by jetta8300

[Stevedan]

We just got back from the Harmony 12/24 cruise. We were on the Anthem twice this year, and found the food on the Anthem to be very good. With the exception of two or three items on there Harmony, the quality of the food has really slipped. I don't know if this is fleet wide or if for some reason they put better quality food on the Anthem. I would think the food quality is standard throughout the fleet. I think we rated the food a 6 on the survey. This is no reflection of the excellent service we had. Food in the Windjammer was often cold and some looked like it had been sitting there for hours. I am used to cruising the way it used to be and therefore just have this thing against the uncharge restaurants. However, we ate at 150 Central Park one night and it was truly a memorable meal (food, atmosphere and service). I felt Chops when we tried it on the Anthem was a beautiful setting but the food nothing that special. However, we still all enjoyed the Harmony and are already booked on the Allure for 2017 holiday. The pros on RCCL ships outweigh the cons in the food department, but I think RCCL can certainly upgrade the food without increasing costs too much.

[mek]

As someone who has cruised for many years food has definitely changed. IMO, some things are better, (like burger joints, sushi bars, etc.),but in general food in the MDR has declined substantially. The extra charge restaurants are nice but the problems I have with them are:

 

Too much food is served.

 

I eat at nice upscale restaurants at home, but DH and I share a meal and rarely get dessert, or if we each want something different then we take leftovers home.

 

Neither of these options are possible on a cruise.

 

With the exception of a few ships there just isn't enough variety - I don't want to eat like that every night, so I pretty much have to settle for dining room food if I want to sit down and be served.

 

The food in the MDR for dinner on my Eurodam cruise a few weeks ago left a bad taste in my mouth, (no pun intended!) Two nights the food was just plain terrible. I'm finding this more common on other lines as well.

 

I don't buy in to the "I didn't have to buy it, cook it, or clean up, so it works for me" argument either. Why should anyone have to settle for that?

 

I'm not sure what the solution is, but I don't see things changing as long as the ships sail full.

[Biker19]

I think we rated the food a 6 on the survey. This is no reflection of the excellent service we had.

 

Did you read any of the threads about survey? Apparently the food rating reflects on the waiter(s) and your 6 would count against their service.

[NJporkroll]

I'll start off by saying I'm not an employee of Royal Caribbean, don't have any relatives who work for Royal Caribbean or anything like that. I just wanted to start this thread to get a feel for what others think of the food quality on Royal Caribbean.

 

 

 

I've been cruising for 10 years - predominantly with Royal Caribbean but have also tried some other cruise lines as well. Over the last couple of years it seems to me that the food quality in the main dining room (not the specialty restaurants) - variety, quality of food itself - has decreased on Royal Caribbean.

 

 

 

People who I've talked to onboard seem to feel the same way - new cruisers, cruisers who have cruised other cruise lines and loyal Royal Caribbean cruisers.

 

 

 

Do others find this as well? How does the quality of food compare to say Princess these days? Be interested to hear people's thoughts on this.

 

 

I'm quite perplexed by your need to quantify that you are NOT in any way associated with RCCL. Who would think that, especially since your stating the obvious? [emoji848]

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

[Stevedan]

Did you read any of the threads about survey? Apparently the food rating reflects on the waiter(s) and your 6 would count against their service.

 

I was not aware of that. However, I rated the service at 10 and put in the comments the name of the servers and that they were excellent.

[misterb25]

I agree. If people are willing to pay more for the specialty restaurants, it lessens their incentive to get the "included dining" back up to a better level.

 

I felt like the MDR used to be a pretty nice dining experience. If I compared the quality of steaks only- it used to be that the MDR would be like going to a Longhorn. Solid quality, but affordable run of the mill. Chops was like going to Ruth Chris. As people started shifting their focus to the specialty venues, the food folks made the MDR steaks like a Golden Corral steak and you paid the upcharge for a Longhorn steak. The waiters may dress like Ruth Chris, but the food is more Longhorn quality IMO. I don't care to spend extra money for what used to be the basic.

 

As long as people are willing to fork out the money for "specialty" the food in the MDR won't get any better.

 

I totally agree, I have only been cruising with Royal for 5 years, but in that time I have noticed a decline in the menu choices, appeal and taste of MDR meals. I recently cruised on Voyager and the meals in the MDR were so unappealing that if I was really hungry I would check out WJ, as least they had more choices. Although on several occasions we just decided to graze in the Diamond Lounge and gave the MDR and WJ a wide berth.

Last year my wife was so annoyed at the food quality she approached the food and beverage manager on Explorer to lodge her displeasure, but the guy was just so obnoxious and disinterested we knew nothing would ever come off people complaining.

Edited January 3, 2017 by misterb25

[misterb25]

I agree. If people are willing to pay more for the specialty restaurants, it lessens their incentive to get the "included dining" back up to a better level.

 

I felt like the MDR used to be a pretty nice dining experience. If I compared the quality of steaks only- it used to be that the MDR would be like going to a Longhorn. Solid quality, but affordable run of the mill. Chops was like going to Ruth Chris. As people started shifting their focus to the specialty venues, the food folks made the MDR steaks like a Golden Corral steak and you paid the upcharge for a Longhorn steak. The waiters may dress like Ruth Chris, but the food is more Longhorn quality IMO. I don't care to spend extra money for what used to be the basic.

 

As long as people are willing to fork out the money for "specialty" the food in the MDR won't get any better.

 

I totally agree, I have only been cruising with Royal for 5 years, but in that time I have noticed a decline in the menu choices, appeal and taste of MDR meals. I recently cruised on Voyager and the meals in the MDR were so unappealing that if I was really hungry I would check out WJ, as least they had more choices. Although on several occasions we just decided to graze in the Diamond Lounge and gave the MDR and WJ a wide berth.

Last year my wife was so annoyed at the food quality she approached the food and beverage manager to lodge her displeasure, but the guy was just so obnoxious and disinterested we knew nothing would ever come off people complaining.

[cruzgryphon]

I'm quite perplexed by your need to quantify that you are NOT in any way associated with RCCL. Who would think that, especially since your stating the obvious? [emoji848]

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

 

Probably comes from being in the corporate world too long as a consultant. I know some companies have teams of people who monitor and use social media with planted threads like this to gather feedback, sometimes as an opportunity to reply to the thread in a manner that defends the company while making it seem like it's not the company doing it that sort of thing.

[Driftwoodgal]

Gang throw in food allergies and your menu items really become challenging.

 

We recently cruised on Celebrity, our first, and must say the food was what I remembered on our first sailing on Royal in 2004. Our last sailing on the Liberty reminded me of our one and only cruise on NCL. That experience turned me into a believer of Royal. I am on vacation and love the thought of I am not cooking etc, but wondering how far loading salt on stuff will go with people.

 

Wondering if l book the cheapest cabin on Royal and book specialty restaurant packages, might even out.

[schlimazel_traveler]

Gang throw in food allergies and your menu items really become challenging.

 

 

I know, right?

We have food allergies in our traveling party, plus we don't eat pork or shellfish. So, scratch out 1/2 to 2/3 of the options right off the bat.

[Freehike]

 

 

 

My husband tried Sorrentos and said it tasted like frozen pizza.

 

 

 

I've eaten some crappy pizza before but Sorrento's is shockingly bad. I cannot believe how many people line up to eat that stuff. Those cheap "Tony's" pizzas out of the freezer section are better.

 

The only thing I've ever eaten on RCI that is worse is that garbage they serve on Labadee. That's the worst food I've ever had. There was a really, really skinny dog walking around and I tried to give it a hot dog off my plate (sue me, I'm a dog lover). It took one bite and dropped the rest on the ground and walked off. No, I'm not exaggerating either.

 

That stuff was brutal.

 

 

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Clarea]

... The only thing I've ever eaten on RCI that is worse is that garbage they serve on Labadee. That's the worst food I've ever had. ...

Haven't tried the hot dogs, but I liked the BBQ chicken and ribs.

[George C]

The positive thing is with this quality of food, we should not gain any weight during our cruise

[schlimazel_traveler]

The positive thing is with this quality of food, we should not gain any weight during our cruise

 

Oh, I think I'll find a way.