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So what do you think of the new MDR menu they have recently rolled out?


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Here's my take on having dessert on the main menu and taking dessert orders with dinner orders: it cheapens the feel of the whole experience. It is like when there is Restaurant Week in NYC. Lots of restaurants participate in offering a price fixe menu for a reasonable price, even if they're a very expensive/fancy place. During this time, you are required to order your dessert with the dinner order. Because pretty much they don't want you lingering around a long time since you're not paying as much as other full price diners, and they are basically doing you a favor by offering you this cheaper menu so you can try this place maybe you would not have tried at full price. Who wants to feel like that on a cruise? There is no discount! Yet it is discount style service. Why do they think people will not notice this, or will not care? Perhaps it's a little thing to some people but all these little things add up and it's just a turn off.

 

 

Same here.

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Here's my take on having dessert on the main menu and taking dessert orders with dinner orders: it cheapens the feel of the whole experience. It is like when there is Restaurant Week in NYC. Lots of restaurants participate in offering a price fixe menu for a reasonable price, even if they're a very expensive/fancy place. During this time, you are required to order your dessert with the dinner order. Because pretty much they don't want you lingering around a long time since you're not paying as much as other full price diners, and they are basically doing you a favor by offering you this cheaper menu so you can try this place maybe you would not have tried at full price. Who wants to feel like that on a cruise? There is no discount! Yet it is discount style service. Why do they think people will not notice this, or will not care? Perhaps it's a little thing to some people but all these little things add up and it's just a turn off.

 

Bummer, the other Restaurant Weeks I have been to (Kansas City, Chicago, Atlanta, Wichita, and Dallas) don't make you pre-order dessert from my memory.

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Here's my take on having dessert on the main menu and taking dessert orders with dinner orders: it cheapens the feel of the whole experience. It is like when there is Restaurant Week in NYC. Lots of restaurants participate in offering a price fixe menu for a reasonable price, even if they're a very expensive/fancy place. During this time, you are required to order your dessert with the dinner order. Because pretty much they don't want you lingering around a long time since you're not paying as much as other full price diners, and they are basically doing you a favor by offering you this cheaper menu so you can try this place maybe you would not have tried at full price. Who wants to feel like that on a cruise? There is no discount! Yet it is discount style service. Why do they think people will not notice this, or will not care? Perhaps it's a little thing to some people but all these little things add up and it's just a turn off.

 

 

 

I commented on their Facebook page that this was a cutback and not popular. They replied that you didn’t have to order desert at the start of the meal so I replied, why ask then unless to save time for the servers.

 

If we all refuse to order desert when they take the order then they will abandon it!

 

 

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I've been on 25+ cruises. Yes there are cutbacks, but looking at that menu, if you can't find anything on that menu that you like you have a problem. Maybe cruises aren't for you. Find a Ritz Carlton Hotel and Fleming Steakhouse and pay $150-$200 just for a meal per night per couple.

 

Certainly true. The thing I notice that is potentially a problem for some, is what appears to be a cutback in the number of vegetarian options. That's no issue for me, but my grown son, who cruises with us occasionally (along with his family), IS a vegetarian. Looks like it might be tougher for him to find something interesting.

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I mentioned on their Facebook page that I don’t want to order dessert at the start of a meal. They replied that I don’t have to, so I won’t. I will wait to see how full I feel and what I fancy.

 

If everyone gives in to their changes then it will become the norm. I’ve never been asked for my choice of dessert at the start of a meal, anywhere, land or sea.

 

 

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I commented on their Facebook page that this was a cutback and not popular. They replied that you didn’t have to order desert at the start of the meal so I replied, why ask then unless to save time for the servers.

 

If we all refuse to order desert when they take the order then they will abandon it!

 

 

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If ordering for desert at the same time of appetizers n main course save me 30 mins or more of the mdr experience I’be happy to order the desert at the beginner

 

 

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Just got back from Anthem of the seas and found the menu not good. They removed 1/3 of the menu and replaced it with deserts. This means that there are 1/3 less appetizers and entrees to pick from. We found the food quality on the MDR/Grande on Anthem to be bland and poorly cooked, it was amongst the worst we ever had. Strangely the choices in the windjammer were many and outstanding, not sure I understand what is going on since I thought they use the same galley but nonetheless the choices in the windjammer were different then the MDR. The dining room was perhaps 3/4 full during the week and the crew said they are concerned about people not coming back for dinner in the MDR. We ate in the MDR 4 times for a 12 night cruise.

 

Mike

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Just got back from Anthem of the seas and found the menu not good. They removed 1/3 of the menu and replaced it with deserts. This means that there are 1/3 less appetizers and entrees to pick from.

 

 

 

Mike

 

 

 

and no always available Classic Entrees by the look of it. Do you know if you could still ask for the classic dishes?

 

 

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Just off Rhapsody of the Seas 3-11-18

After four days in the main dinning room we gave up and ate in the Windjammer the rest of the cruise where the food was better and you could cut your meat with a regular knife instead of needing a hacksaw. The only thing that was tender was the prime rib.If seems the menu rotates with the same items with a different meat dish thrown in each day. Like someone said before every time they change the menu it gets worse. The service was spotty to say the least. We still will cruise with RCL but our expectations of food is much lower then years past.

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We had the new menus on Freedom in February. I was disappointed in the entree choices. I noticed that the chicken and the steak on the menu each day were the same ones that were served in the warmers during lunch in the MDR. Since I do not each fish, my choices were limited, but I did manage to find something to eat. One night I ordered the braised short rib and couldn't cut it, even with a steak knife! Our waiter immediately saw I was struggling and quickly brought me something else. I really missed the sticky bread and butter pudding for dessert! The banana bread pudding was not good. The prime rib was good. Another thing I noticed was the new presentation of the caesar salad. I did not mind ordering dessert with dinner, but the whole process made us feel like we were being rushed. All in all, I did not go hungry, but I am not a fan of the new, more limited, menu.

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Here's my take on having dessert on the main menu and taking dessert orders with dinner orders: it cheapens the feel of the whole experience. It is like when there is Restaurant Week in NYC. Lots of restaurants participate in offering a price fixe menu for a reasonable price, even if they're a very expensive/fancy place. During this time, you are required to order your dessert with the dinner order. Because pretty much they don't want you lingering around a long time since you're not paying as much as other full price diners, and they are basically doing you a favor by offering you this cheaper menu so you can try this place maybe you would not have tried at full price. Who wants to feel like that on a cruise? There is no discount! Yet it is discount style service. Why do they think people will not notice this, or will not care? Perhaps it's a little thing to some people but all these little things add up and it's just a turn off.

While I agree that it does take a bit of the elegance out of the dining experience by asking you to choose your entire dinner at once (and in a more rushed manner), the benefit of this policy is that you hopefully finish dinner a little faster and then can move on to your planned evening activities sooner. For people who enjoy lingering over dinner and are not interested in going to a show or event immediately following the meal, then I can see this new way of doing things in the dining room would make the experience less special.

I have often found dinner to take too long, and I personally would rather finish sooner so that I can enjoy the ship's entertainment and activities.

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Ned11 can you expound about your friends experience with gluten free in MDR a little? DH is gluten free, soy free as well as some other sensitivities. But he does like to enjoy his food. I end up spending most of my time on cruise seeing that he gets appropriate, safe food that he can enjoy. Already dealing with special needs department. But would like to know what actually happens on the ship as the 2 do not always communicate well. Did they tweak some recipes for her? Or was she stuck with menu option designated gluten free each night. Husband likes seafood. If he has to skip that option each day if not prepared in a way he can have, he will still probably choose sometimes and suffer.

Last cruise Celebrity promised they would have soy free mayo on board for him and in his paperwork I listed thousand island salad dressing as his favorite though he would be happy with any soy and gluten free dressing. Shocked faces when they brought out his salad covered in catsup and pickles- which is thousand island dressing w/o the mayo. We sent it back. Just want to get a feel for the realities onboard. Individual amt. of salad dressing can be mixed up in a minute by any decent cook. They could even make their own mayo though do not expect them to go that far. He was fine with any soy free dressing but other things were harder. Finding places where he can get fries fried in an appropriate oil may be harder. Sounds like may have to order extra of any palatable dessert option to take to room so he can have as a snack the next day to keep him from wanting to snack on items that will make him suffer. When everyone else is enjoying so many treats, he hates to be stuck with just the bland ice cream options. On Celebrity, he was very satisfied by the wonderful ice cream and sorbet options offered free of charge in buffet area, and indulged heavily so his sweet tooth did not suffer. Hate no flourless chocolate cake. They really should have kept that for gluten free people. Anyone have anything to say about any of the no sugar added dessert options on the menu? Love to know if they know how to make any worth trying. I do pretty good job with stevia and erythritol, but do not know what to expect on the ship. Is the creme brûlée prepared with any cream? On Celebrity, while tasty, I have never had such a watered down creme brûlée. Tasted like make with lowfat milk.

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We just returned from a cruise on the Adventure of the Seas, and I was not impressed with the new menus. I felt like the selection was significantly reduced. While I found something to eat each night, I missed having more choices. I also missed having chilled fruit soup most nights.

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Just off Independence and had few complaints with the new menus. Each of the three courses has about 8 options, with roughly two in each category changing every night. I had most of the rotating dishes and the "available every night" options. I thought everything was above average, and liked giving my dessert choice up front (one less interruption during the meal). Escargot, calamari, prime rib, lobster, and NY Strip were standouts. The portions were smaller than typical American restaurants, but leaving the MDR without feeling utterly stuffed proved to be a good thing. MDR food is not what it was 35 years ago when I first started cruising, but we also didn't have rock walls, ice shows and Flow Riders. Things change.

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When we were on Oasis Feb 17, they were trialling new menus which we enjoyed and were supposed to be rolling those out across the fleet. However they seemed to have then reduced the menu options further and combined the desserts onto the one menu so didn’t complete the rolling out of the Oasis trial menu. H.O. would have an objective behind a menu change e.g. improve quality, better choice, refresh stagnant offerings but in this case this does seem to have been triggered by the ‘reduce costs’ objective again.

 

 

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Personally, I have no issues with the desserts being ordered at the start of the meal since I would already check on the menu on the screens outside the dining room and already planned my orders for the evening. Ordering them all together would save me some time which I appreciate.

 

It might be foreign to many to have desserts ordered together with your mains but in Asia, its quite common so this change suits me totally.

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Does Radiance to Alaska usually have a different set of menus, or does it share menus with the rest of the fleet?

Same menus as far as I've seen reported, though I'm not sure they have transitioned away from the spice menus yet

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