Royal Food

[ManfromFrance]

Has Royal changed the quality of food since the rollout has begun? 

 

[TytalusWarden]

I was in the MDR for one evening on the Adventure of the Seas, and I didn't think it was anything particularly special.  The food was good and I had no complaints.  Specialty dining was decent every night I had it, from steaks to appetizers to salads everything was pretty great.

 

Admittedly I don't have a body of experience across many years to work off of... one pre-COVID cruise, one post-COVID cruise, but I think it's roughly the same, for whatever that is worth.

[Biker19]

45 minutes ago, ManfromFrance said:

Has Royal changed the quality of food since the rollout has begun? 

 

Welcome to CC.

 

Food is a bit too subjective and personal to make such a judgement - the choices in the WJ seem to be better, for now.

[Joseph2017China]

51 minutes ago, ManfromFrance said:

Has Royal changed the quality of food since the rollout has begun? 

 

If the menu is exactly the same, how would the quality change?  Buying outdated chicken and bleaching it?  The food is going to be the same. 

 

[fla33023]

1 minute ago, Joseph2017China said:

If the menu is exactly the same, how would the quality change?  Buying outdated chicken and bleaching it?  The food is going to be the same. 

 

Jeez. I rarely post here and it's because of answers like this. Why can't a person ask a question and get an answer from someone who may know?  What does the same menu have to do with quality? Maybe they're using less-quality items to save a few dollars? I saw a post on the Carnival board about bacon only being served every other day on one of the ships due to a shortage. Maybe someone has an answer like that.

[ryano]

7 minutes ago, ManfromFrance said:

Has Royal changed the quality of food since the rollout has begun? 

 

 

There is a article called "what changes Royal Caribbean made to eating on a cruise since restarting?" on a certain RC blog that cant be mentioned here that you can draw conclusions from.  There does appear to be some changes fleetwide.  

[tserface]

I always think it's funny when people do reviews and sound like they couldn't find anything good to eat on a cruise ship.  It always makes me wonder what they get to eat at home that is so much better 🙂

 

I've looked through the menus for our upcoming cruise and the choices look pretty amazing.  I'm looking forward to not cooking, cleaning, and lots of bread.

[Itchy&Scratchy]

1 hour ago, ManfromFrance said:

Has Royal changed the quality of food since the rollout has begun? 

 

what rollout?

 

The menu on currently sailing ships looks to be the same as we had in April 2019 (Allure). It was good food - hot when it was supposed to be hot, cold when it was supposed to be cold, not plain, but not oversalted or underspiced. The recipes were basic, but the food was solid and enjoyable. We don't do specialty restaurants when cruising, so I am talking about MDR and buffets. Oh, and service was fantastic!

 

Yes, I am a glutton and I love food, but I am not exactly a food critic. When we want great cruise food and good entertainment, we cruise on newer Princess ships (Regal Princess and newer). When we want fun activities, great entertainment and are ok with good food - we cruise on RCI ships. When we want great entertainment, bad food and the smell of smoke - we cruise on Norwegian.

[Sunshine3601]

There are several dishes prepared in the MDR and the WJ that I really like and have missed these past 18 months.     

At this point just about anything will be good as long as I don't have to shop, plan, cook and clean.   

 

Let's a hope a bee doesn't buzz by and land on this thread😇

[Biker19]

12 minutes ago, fla33023 said:

I rarely post here and it's because of answers like this.

If you want the main info dish on CC, you may need to take a side of snark with it.

[Itchy&Scratchy]

10 minutes ago, tserface said:

I always think it's funny when people do reviews and sound like they couldn't find anything good to eat on a cruise ship.  It always makes me wonder what they get to eat at home that is so much better 🙂

 

I've looked through the menus for our upcoming cruise and the choices look pretty amazing.  I'm looking forward to not cooking, cleaning, and lots of bread.

I didn't think we'd ever have bad food on the cruise until we sailed on Norwegian Jade and Norwegian Getaway. It was bad (cold, oversalted, under spiced, dried out, simply inedible, undercooked or they simply ran out of it in the first hour and then you were out of luck - you name it, they had it). It was the one and only cruise on which we consumed inordinate amounts of french fries - an offence which I hope to never repeat while cruising. I make a point of never eating french fries on the cruise because there is always other GOOD or GREAT food available and lots of it, and I can eat until my eye pop out. Well, not on those two sailings (well, 1.3 sailings, since Jade broke down in the middle of the cruise and we had to go home). Even my DH who is not a glutton and is very plain in his food choices was thoroughly disappointed and said we'd never sail on Norwegian again. HE can cook better.

Oh, and by the way, NCI menus looked fantastic and drool-worthy, but when we ordered and got the food, it was bad, with very FEW exceptions. Free crepes were their saving grace.

 

RCI food was very good in comparison.

Edited August 18, 2021 by Itchy&Scratchy

[tserface]

4 minutes ago, Itchy&Scratchy said:

I didn't think we'd ever have bad food on the cruise until we sailed on Norwegian Jade and Norwegian Getaway. It was bad (cold, oversalted, under spiced, dried out, simply inedible, undercooked or they simply ran out of it in the first hour and then you were out of luck - you name it, they had it). It was the one and only cruise on which we consumed inordinate amounts of french fries - an offence which I hope to never repeat while cruising. I make a point of never eating french fries on the cruise because there is always other GOOD or GREAT food available and lots of it, and I can eat until my eye pop out. Well, not on those two sailings (well, 1.3 sailings, since Jade broke down in the middle of the cruise and we had to go home). Even my DH who is not a glutton and is very plain in his food choices was thoroughly disappointed and said we'd never sail on Norwegian again. HE can cook better.

Oh, and by the way, NCI menus looked fantastic and drool-worthy, but when we ordered and got the food, it was bad, with very FEW exceptions. Free crepes were their saving grace.

 

RCI food was very good in comparison.

We've never been on Norwegian because of stories we've heard, like yours.  We do sail on Royal Caribbean, Celebrity, and Princess depending on itinerary, but tend to do Royal most often.  I'm always amazed at how great the food is especially considering the numbers of people they have to feed.

 

The only complaint I have is the specialty restaurants are way overpriced these days.  $50 each for a steak is way more than we'd ever spend on land.  It used to be such a great deal and they used to take into account that you were *not* eating in the MDR so they were saving $$$ on that.  To top it off, at Chops they want you to pay $21 each additional if you want Lobster (there isn't a surf and turf option) so that means a 1+ lobster is $71 per person.  It's just crazy expensive.

[Cmackdaddy]

Speaking long term, I’d say the quality has declined a bit over the past 20 years. 

[LorraineP]

11 minutes ago, Cmackdaddy said:

Speaking long term, I’d say the quality has declined a bit over the past 20 years. 

Definitely. 

[LorraineP]

Quality has declined significantly over past 10 years. Even the specialty restaurants the quality has declined but still better than MDR. I don’t cruise for the food. 

[jsf]

17 minutes ago, Cmackdaddy said:

Speaking long term, I’d say the quality has declined a bit over the past 20 years. 

Make that 30 years that we've been cruising.

[ONECRUISER]

20 minutes ago, Cmackdaddy said:

Speaking long term, I’d say the quality has declined a bit over the past 20 years. 

Yes some decline, few areas some improvements over what was 10yrs ago. Comes down to it in 4 Decades never had issue finding Good Food on Royal. 

[firefly333]

I just want the Windjammer open for dinner again. Hard to complain when cant eat wherein usually eat.

[time4u2go]

2 hours ago, Joseph2017China said:

If the menu is exactly the same, how would the quality change?  Buying outdated chicken and bleaching it?  The food is going to be the same. 

 

By buying lower quality ingredients.

[loman]

I like RC food , in the dining room and the Buffet . I can always find something good to eat .

No complaints here. That roast beef sandwich is hit and miss though . 

[LorraineP]

Food is subjective & it’s what you’re used to eating. I rather have quality than quantity. 

[footzz]

24 minutes ago, time4u2go said:

By buying lower quality ingredients.

That, and who's in charge of the kitchen. I went on 2 cruises, 1 month apart on the same ship. The executive chef changed in between sailings, the menu stayed the same. While in both instances the food was good, the caliber of the food coming from the same kitchen and the difference between the two sailings was unmistakable. 

[Joseph2017China]

2 hours ago, fla33023 said:

Jeez. I rarely post here and it's because of answers like this. Why can't a person ask a question and get an answer from someone who may know?  What does the same menu have to do with quality? Maybe they're using less-quality items to save a few dollars? I saw a post on the Carnival board about bacon only being served every other day on one of the ships due to a shortage. Maybe someone has an answer like that.

well, if it the same menu, than the only way the quality will be different, if they buy outdated, and moldy food.  If they asked if the quality of food went down over the decade, than yes.  They downgraded the selection of food choices to a more simple, plain meal.  However from pre-pandemic to now, the menu is the same, therefore the quality is the same, unless they do as I said, either buy old chickens, or outdated food.  No one actually believes the Carnival bacon excuse.  I have seen people put a pound of bacon on a plate on some of those ships.

 

[smokeybandit]

The food is just as mediocre (in relative terms, better than what I'd cook at home, but I've been to much better restaurants) as it was before.

[tserface]

1 hour ago, firefly333 said:

I just want the Windjammer open for dinner again. Hard to complain when cant eat wherein usually eat.

 

I'd bet they are still kind of short staffed and with the requirement to have to serve the food it would take more people to do dinner.  Dinner in the MDR and other venues takes a lot of staffing.  We like eating dinner in the Windjammer on occasion as well, but understand the challenges they must be facing trying to reopen.  When they used to be able to just put the food out and let the people at it there wasn't a need for as much staff.

 

Ironically, the Windjammer was not always very busy at night.  It's quiet, dark, and easy to find a table.  The food is almost as good as the MDR and they used to often have things you couldn't get in the MDR.  You didn't have to dress up, and, you used to be able to go get more without any trouble or wait.  It was especially good if you have small kids since you wouldn't have to worry about them making noise or bothering anyone.

Lots of reasons to go there. I hope it's back soon as well.