Adventure of the Seas Food Quality

[stevetod]

Just off the Adventure of the seas today after a six day cruise to Maine and Canada. Although my wife and I enjoyed the cruise entertainment, bar service and housekeeping, the food quality in both the dining room and the buffet was below what we have experienced on other Celebrity cruises. The Buffet was cafeteria quality with no dishes that stood out at all. We kind of expected this from other friends who had traveled on this ship but were completely taken off guard by the Dining room food. the first night we were served cold fish but excused it off as a first night issue. What came next was worse. We ordered pasta with seafood. I was expecting the dish would taste something of the seafood in the sauce. Well what we got was pasta in a watery white sauce with a couple of pieces of small seafood thrown on top. It was obvious the seafood was just put on top and not part of the cooking process and the fish pieces were hard. A big clue they were not cooked in the sauce. We both decided we had enough of the dining room and ate out each port to avoid it. The last night we dined in Chops and it was very good. 

 

One other point worth mentioning is the ship is large and with the amount of people that were going to breakfast they were too much for each venue and caused people to wait on lines in the dining room. When we docked in Maine my wife and I headed to the buffet at 6:55 am to grab something quick and head out to the tender boats. Well there was 1/3 of the buffet closed off and no tables available anywhere. We observed several people holding plates of food with nowhere to go and yet they never opened the 1/3 of the buffet that had closed off. Not exactly great service.  I would like to know if this is common on Royal or was it a ship issue. Comments welcome as we are planning our next cruise and are hesitant to go near Royal again.

Steve

[kernow]

I think the quality of food on RCL varies massively from ship to ship and always has done since we began cruising with them in 2003. Although the menus are more or less the same  on every ship, the dishes themselves are not. We were recently on Indy and thought the MDR food was the best we've had on RCL for several years (and better than we had on Constellation in 2017). We're not big buffet fans on any ship but would rate Celebrity's buffet as a bit better than RCL.

 

We ate breakfast in MDR several times on Indy and were always seated fairly quickly.

[Biker19]

16 minutes ago, stevetod said:

  I would like to know if this is common on Royal or was it a ship issue.

Yes on both.

[Aunt D]

I have been on 5 RC cruises and have disliked  most of the free food with each cruise, with the exception of the Pizza .

I have felt like they are pushing the specialty restaurants so hard that this could be the reason of  undesirable “free food “.

With this being said, I am still Team Royal Caribbean due to the fact their ENTERTAINMENT is the best I’ve ever seen❣️

[ryano]

47 minutes ago, Aunt D said:

I have felt like they are pushing the specialty restaurants so hard that this could be the reason of  undesirable “free food “.

 

 

I think they are simply cost cutting, buying much cheaper quality food (especially meats) and taking as many shortcuts as possible to maximize profits.   Its been going downhill for years it seems.    My last RC "included" dining experience was not even close to my first.   Neither was the experience in Chops

 

Im actually thinking about getting the Unlimited Dining package for my Harmony cruise and only going to the MDR on rosemary lambshank night.  Hopefully they havent messed that particular dish up 

Edited June 14, 2019 by ryano

[stevetod]

Its a real shame they don't regard quality food as something that makes cruisers happy. I know food is subjective and what some people like and dislike can vary. That being said this was so poor it appeared they just threw stuff out just to have something to offer with no thought of providing even a decent meal.

[happyiam]

Sorry to hear this. We were on Adventure in April, Eastern Caribbean, and enjoyed all our meals in both the main dining room and the windjammer. In fact we even wondered how they managed to serve the veggies hot and not over cooked. Guess it's just luck of the draw, or a change in chef's?

[CapeGal]

We were just on Adventure in May and found the food in both MDR and Windjammer very good!  I know food is a subjective item, but I found this write up very negative.  I think each person must decide for themselves.  

[time4u2go]

4 hours ago, ryano said:

 Its been going downhill for years it seems. 

Agreed.  I've felt the same way about it with each cruise.

[Ashland]

The only thing (besides the itinerary) we liked about our one cruise on Celebrity was the buffet on Eclipse. I wish RCI would take a lesson from them. After 25+ RCI cruises it's going down hill fast it seems now...not the quality/taste it used to be.

[Maraprince]

We sailed on 5/31 down to the Carb. on Adv. of the Sea.  Buffet first day had food that you would find in a school cafeteria for kids -- hamburgers, hot dogs, mac and cheese, spag.  Fixings for burgers and not even potato salad, beets.  We , etc. that would expect to find to make a decent salad.  Every day chicken prepared 2 ways, but always the same dark meat parts except for the one port day that they had a whole roasted chicken and you could get some white meat.

 

Food selection was very poor.  By comparison the Explorer had more selections overall.  Having sailed on the Anthem a mere 7months ago --  no comparison, no way!  Plus, food options were limited to the buffet (in port) or Cafe Prom. where the food choices and pizza were better!  On sea days, we ate all 3 meals in the main dining room. And even in the dining room, the choices were more limited than on the Anthem.  At least we were able to have hot food and get out in about 1 hr. for breakfast.  We would go down around 10-15 mins. before the dining room opened for breakfast and have some coffe from the table set  up outside while we waited for it to open.    The last morning only food from the food trays on warmers  was available and it was either cold or not prepared well.  But on Anthem, the last morning they still made food to order.

 

Some tried to blame the fact that there were almost 600 kids on board for the poor food selection/quality.  Not so.  When you consider how much money you paid to sail on the ship, it is not unreasonable to expect food that is correcctly prepared, different daily menus.

 

Also, the pool area only had frozen yogurt and no food at all.  If you wanted to eat something, you had to go to the buffet area.  The burgers, dogs should have been outside in the pool area.  Too much space was wasted by it being in the main section of the buffet.

 

MARAPRINCE

 

 

Edited June 15, 2019 by Maraprince
addition

[stevetod]

As I stated before food is subjective and people who find this review to be negative are 100% correct. It's an honest assessment of what we experienced. That being said it turned out that this opinion was shared by many of the people we met on board and shared time with at various venues. Some of the people were so upset at the food quality that they bought the 3 night dining packages to not have to go back to the dining room.

[sjb317]

We sailed on Adventure the end of April and we thought the food was pretty good, so good that we did not do any specialty restaurants, just ate in the MDR each night.

 

Sherri🙂

[Wildcatfish]

Stevetod… we will be doing the New England/Canada cruise next year aboard Adventure.  May I ask where you ate in port?  We're always looking for good portside restaurants.

 

[stevetod]

In Bar Harbor we ate at the West street seaside grill. Had a complete Lobster dinner. Clam Chowder, whole lobster, Fries and slaw and exceptional piece of blueberry pie and Vanilla ice cream. Highly recommend it. In St John and Halifax ate Lobster again but cannot remember the names. If I do I will post back. I do recommend eating at the specialty restaurants to avoid the dining room. They have a 3 night package for $79 per person which would work. We ate at Chops Grille the last night and the food was really good as well as the service.

[John&LaLa]

Best ships lobster I ever had was on Adventure in January.  Maybe you gave up on MDR to soon.

[Wildcatfish]

Thanks for the suggestions Stevetod, and John&LaLa !

[Thorben-Hendrik]

On 6/14/2019 at 7:13 PM, stevetod said:

I would like to know if this is common on Royal or was it a ship issue.

Totally typical these days!🙄

[voyager70]

2 minutes ago, Thorben-Hendrik said:

Totally typical these days!🙄

 

Another reason to stay home 😉

[LXA350]

The buffet experience on Adventure was probably the worst I experienced fleetwide and this was on seperate cruises, one in 2013, the other in 2015 and last one in 2018. Concerning the MTD it was ok, not the worst but also not the best experience. The Chef last year was from the US, so that didn't help, however I am sure that each time I sailed on Adventure it was a different chef.

[Ashland]

21 minutes ago, LXA350 said:

The buffet experience on Adventure was probably the worst I experienced fleetwide and this was on seperate cruises, one in 2013, the other in 2015 and last one in 2018. Concerning the MTD it was ok, not the worst but also not the best experience. The Chef last year was from the US, so that didn't help, however I am sure that each time I sailed on Adventure it was a different chef.

I doubt it was any worse than the Vision I just got off of. So sad !!!!

[Thorben-Hendrik]

17 minutes ago, Ashland said:

I doubt it was any worse than the Vision I just got off of. So sad !!!!

They really seem to go for the cheapest quality poducts now!🤔🙄

[CRUISEFAN0001]

5 hours ago, voyager70 said:

Another reason to stay home 😉

🤣

[Maraprince]

If RCL reads Cruise Critics posts I hope they hear what is being said regarding the food quality and selection available in the buffet area and wise up that they are not fooling anyone even the first time cruisers.

 

 

MARAPRINCE

[time4u2go]

2 minutes ago, Maraprince said:

If RCL reads Cruise Critics posts I hope they hear what is being said regarding the food quality and selection available in the buffet area and wise up that they are not fooling anyone even the first time cruisers.

 

 

MARAPRINCE

I have a feeling that if they are reading these posts that they are extremely happy with what they are reading.  People are complaining about the quality of the food, and are thus buying the extra-cost dining options.  In any event, their ships are sailing full, so it's doubtful they feel the need to improve the quality or selection of food.

Edited June 16, 2019 by time4u2go