Royal Caribbean New Menus - Expected on all ships by end of February

[nelblu]

2 hours ago, VTSKIandCRUISEGUY said:

Not just themed menus back then. They were also printed fresh for each night, so they had the date on them, and you could take them home as souvenirs.

Also, the entrees stayed mostly to the themed nightly menu. 
 

I found an old menu from the original Specialty Restaurant Portofino that puts the 2 Italian based restaurants ( Giovanni’s & Jamie’s ) to shame. 

 

[ticketsunlimited]

We are just off the 8 day Wonder cruise.  First week for the new menus.  We will be buying the full week dining package from now on and get My Time dining as usual if we feel the menu is to our liking that night we will try it.

We were very disappointed with the new format and only dined in the dining room the first two nights.  We did Giovanni's, Chops, Mason Jar, and Hooked for 4 nights and did our first ever Windjammer dinners the other nights.  They would not allow to "request" anything off the menu if it was not on there PERIOD.  I always ask for a wedge salad that first night and tell them I would love to have it every night there after and have never had an issue.  I was refused both times and did not want to ruffle any feathers.  Our waiters were told they could not divert from from what was on the menu and we left it at that.

It will not be for all and some will love it....new cruisers wont know the difference so I think it is what it is from now on.

Over all we had a great cruise and we where happy with all of our dinners. We also popped to the Diamond plus threshold during the cruise.  Back to Oasis in March.

[nelblu]

49 minutes ago, ticketsunlimited said:

We are just off the 8 day Wonder cruise.  First week for the new menus.  We will be buying the full week dining package from now on and get My Time dining as usual if we feel the menu is to our liking that night we will try it.

We were very disappointed with the new format and only dined in the dining room the first two nights.  We did Giovanni's, Chops, Mason Jar, and Hooked for 4 nights and did our first ever Windjammer dinners the other nights.  They would not allow to "request" anything off the menu if it was not on there PERIOD.  I always ask for a wedge salad that first night and tell them I would love to have it every night there after and have never had an issue.  I was refused both times and did not want to ruffle any feathers.  Our waiters were told they could not divert from from what was on the menu and we left it at that.

It will not be for all and some will love it....new cruisers wont know the difference so I think it is what it is from now on.

Over all we had a great cruise and we where happy with all of our dinners. We also popped to the Diamond plus threshold during the cruise.  Back to Oasis in March.

Too bad.  I was hoping to order French Onion soup every night as it fills me up.  Now as a fall back, need to examine multiple entrees on nights that the soup is not on menu.

 

Got an Anthem Feb. 4th sail and hoping the original menu is still in place.

 

In all of my sails I've never dined in the WJ as I consider the MDR a dining experience.  Have to reexamine my thinking.

Edited January 16, 2023 by nelblu

[manders175]

No more duck? Was my husband's absolute favorite. He will be crushed...lol. 

[chloe kitty]

It is OK, but I like to have the everyday menu to go back to.

[Tree_skier]

On 1/15/2023 at 3:19 PM, BND said:

The new menus appeared today for our April 8th 12 night Enchantment cruise.   They're rotating/repeating some of the menus to fill the 12 nights.  

Our Oasis March 5 has the new menu's but our Jan 30 Navigator has the old menu's. 

[TwinMamainMN]

2 hours ago, ticketsunlimited said:

They would not allow to "request" anything off the menu if it was not on there PERIOD. 

I'm sorry that was your experience and I hope it's not that way for everyone long term, but I can understand it from a food supply and preparation standpoint. Certainly, they will have to deviate from the posted menu for those with food allergies and/or celiac disease. Our son has celiac disease and typically orders dinner for the following night before leaving the MDR.

[poocher]

8 hours ago, graciekelli said:

Of course it's Royal's fault that they created a poorly designed menu.  They were't even consistent with the layout.  If the layout on the first night is set with the Chef's recommendations at the top and then the full menu below, including the Chef's recommended items, one would expect consistency on the following nights. Thus the reason why many who are commenting on this thread, missed certain items...like Lobster.

Sorry, it’s all there.  Don’t care if it’s upside down & backwards some nights.  READ the darn thing!!  Don’t just glance at it, don’t expect  it to be set up the same way every night, don’t expect someone to walk you through it.  Read the menu!

[Susan in Maine]

I have sailed on Carnival, RCCL, Disney, Princess and NCL. Whenever possible I chose RCCL, mostly because the food was so much better than Carnival and RCCL.

 

I've been on 3 cruises since Covid - 2 Carnival and Anthem. The food on Carnival Magic (both cruises) was really good. On the Anthem (4/22), it was mediocre at best. After seeing these new menus it's not worth it to me to pay an extra 20% to 25% to be on RCCL.

 

I'm sure I'll get 47 ways from Sunday for saying this.

 

[melbur]

19 hours ago, Itchy&Scratchy said:

I agree.

More Indian food choices which we don't eat, but the rest of it appears about the same but reshuffled by theme on our April 2 Oasis cruise. We'll be totally fine. At least I don't see the dreadful Beef Stroganoff with pickles on the menu.

The only thing I am very disappointed about is that Tiger Shrimp dish is no longer a garlic grilled shrimp, but an Indian curry spiced dish... Sigh.

Garlic tiger shrimp on Caribbean menu

[BND]

14 hours ago, ticketsunlimited said:

We are just off the 8 day Wonder cruise.  First week for the new menus.  We will be buying the full week dining package from now on and get My Time dining as usual if we feel the menu is to our liking that night we will try it.

We were very disappointed with the new format and only dined in the dining room the first two nights.  We did Giovanni's, Chops, Mason Jar, and Hooked for 4 nights and did our first ever Windjammer dinners the other nights.  They would not allow to "request" anything off the menu if it was not on there PERIOD.  I always ask for a wedge salad that first night and tell them I would love to have it every night there after and have never had an issue.  I was refused both times and did not want to ruffle any feathers.  Our waiters were told they could not divert from from what was on the menu and we left it at that.

It will not be for all and some will love it....new cruisers wont know the difference so I think it is what it is from now on.

Over all we had a great cruise and we where happy with all of our dinners. We also popped to the Diamond plus threshold during the cruise.  Back to Oasis in March.

Well, it does kind of defeat the purpose of streamlining the menus.  If they allowed everyone to order "off menu" people would just go back to ordering their old favorites and it wouldn't have changed anything.   Unless you have an allergy or medical reason, you're probably out of luck.  I do think there will be changes and adjustments as they get feedback.   

 

We're going on a 12 night in April so we'll get to try most of the menus more than once as they do repeat them on longer cruises.

Edited January 17, 2023 by BND

[BND]

20 hours ago, Mick B said:

Hi All,

I am on the Enchantment in May/June from Italy to Spain

I have emailed RCI to ask if the new menus will be on that ship and in what order they be so I can plan for things.

BTW At the moment, the old style menu's are showing on the app.

 

Here's what I got back from them today...

 

"Thank you for your email regarding your upcoming holiday.

Kindly note that we are unable to provide information about the dining menus. Please note that we are not able to confirm when or if the menu will be updated in the future".

 

Is it just me, or has anyone else noticed too, that since Covid took over the planet, just about everyone in a job that you ask a question to responds with the most unhelpful answer. 

 

As I have said in an earlier post, although I am OK, my wife has had several operations including Gall-Bladder removal and we would normally be able to plan our holiday so that my wife doesn't have any nasty issues. To put it bluntly, Some foods come out 12 to 18 hours later no matter where you are, so I would not want her to eat something that would cause her an upset the night before say climbing the leaning tower of pisa where there would be no loos.

 

In the past RCI MDR waiters have done a really great job of helping my wife choose dietary items from the menu, but now with the possibility of limited menu choices, I cannot yet see how they would now achieve this.

 

I really love my cruising and we have done at least 2 cruises a year for 3 decades and have 2 booked for this year, but my wife has now asked me not to book anything for 2024 onwards until she has made sure she is OK with the new menu, the one RCI cannot confirm is happening, although from what I see here, it certainly is.

Ironically, I am OK with the new menu, but possibly won't be cruising again after this year unless this gets sorted out properly and we are given the details of the new menus asap.

 

Mick.

 

 

 

 

Well, since the menus are supposed to be on all ships by Feb and our April 8 EN cruise has the new menus I'd say you will too.

 

BTW, lots of people have had their gall bladder out, including me and my DH and outside of knowing high fat can sometimes cause interesting results, that has improved over time to the point it rarely happens anymore.  It has never stopped us from eating what we want.  I'd say half the people onboard have had their gall bladders out.  It's one of the most common surgeries, particularly in women.

 

12 to 18 hours?    Everyone I know with issues from Gall Bladder removal have at most 1 hour before things sometimes happen without much warning.  12 to 18 hours is the normal amount of time to process food in your system.    BTW, there are medications to deal with it if it's interfering with her life.

Edited January 17, 2023 by BND

[sjinnj]

10 hours ago, poocher said:

Sorry, it’s all there.  Don’t care if it’s upside down & backwards some nights.  READ the darn thing!!  Don’t just glance at it, don’t expect  it to be set up the same way every night, don’t expect someone to walk you through it.  Read the menu!

Sorry if this gets your panties all in a bunch.  But any company's minimum business requirements are to be CONSISTENT.  Somebody in RC messed up setting up the menus, where some days it is listed one way and other days a different way.  That's on the company.  

 

Would you expect directions to put something together to change from metric to standard while doing different steps?  No of course not, you expect them to be consistent.

Edited January 17, 2023 by sjinnj

[melbur]

 

34 minutes ago, sjinnj said:

Sorry if this gets your panties all in a bunch.  But any company's minimum business requirements are to be CONSISTENT.  Somebody in RC messed up setting up the menus, where some days it is listed one way and other days a different way.  That's on the company.  

 

Would you expect directions to put something together to change from metric to standard while doing different steps?  No of course not, you expect them to be consistent.

I guess you would only know those directions changed if you actually read them

[Mick B]

Hi all,

Further to my last post, RCI have now sent me this e-mail...

 

"What I will be able to recommend as you mention your wife has had operations and require special food options is to send us a Special Needs request with the Dietary options she will need. I have sent you a Special Needs for on a separate email for you to review, fill out and sent to RoyalSpecialServicesUK@rccl.com.

We will be happy to assist you with your special meal requests."
 

So it looks like they may make allowances if you have medical issues.

To be honest, we have never had to e-mail RCI itself before, in the past the waiters have done a fine job at sorting the food choices.

 

Another thing that happens to my wife if she has the wrong food is that she gets doubled up in pain about an hour afterwards and I do not want that to happen to her. So far, this has not happened on a RCI ship because we have been able to sort the food with the waiters.

 

In due course I will ask her to complete the form RCI have sent and then see what happens when we get on board the Enchantment in May.

I will let you all know the outcome of that cruise later.

 

regards,

Mick.

 

 

 

[graciekelli]

14 hours ago, poocher said:

Sorry, it’s all there.  Don’t care if it’s upside down & backwards some nights.  READ the darn thing!!  Don’t just glance at it, don’t expect  it to be set up the same way every night, don’t expect someone to walk you through it.  Read the menu!

Thanks Poochie, your words of wisdom really hit home for me.

[tampadee]

On 1/10/2023 at 10:30 PM, OSUZorba said:

That generally means generic white fish.

Just ask.  I was told talapia.  We’ve been sailing since Sunday.  So far the new menus have been delicious.  I must admit I didn’t expect the food to be so good!

[time4u2go]

On 1/16/2023 at 2:01 PM, graciekelli said:

Of course it's Royal's fault that they created a poorly designed menu.  They were't even consistent with the layout.  If the layout on the first night is set with the Chef's recommendations at the top and then the full menu below, including the Chef's recommended items, one would expect consistency on the following nights. Thus the reason why many who are commenting on this thread, missed certain items...like Lobster.

Agreed.  If people on this forum are confused by it, others will undoubtedly be confused by it as well.

[LaceyJenee]

 I wasnt sure if I should create a new post or post here. I'm hoping to see pictures and reviews posted of the new menus. If there's an existing thread for them please direct me to it.

[OSUZorba]

49 minutes ago, time4u2go said:

Agreed.  If people on this forum are confused by it, others will undoubtedly be confused by it as well.

I have completely trained myself, likely do to ads online, to just completely ignore banners and boxes on pages. So I generally just completely miss things like the "chef's recommendations" on the top.

[GalvestonCruiserx3]

10 minutes ago, LaceyJenee said:

 I wasnt sure if I should create a new post or post here. I'm hoping to see pictures and reviews posted of the new menus. If there's an existing thread for them please direct me to it.

The pictures of the menus are in one of the first posts of this thread.

[The Fun Researcher]

Looking at 7 night menus.  Are the grilled lamb chops gone?  I can't find them and they are one of my absolute favorites.

 

I see Braised Lamb, but that's the shank right? I'm not as fond of this.  I want the chop.

Dan

[LaceyJenee]

Just now, GalvestonCruiserx3 said:

The pictures of the menus are in one of the first posts of this thread.

Sorry I meant pictures of the actual food. 

[Mum2Mercury]

8 hours ago, BND said:

Well, it does kind of defeat the purpose of streamlining the menus.  If they allowed everyone to order "off menu" people would just go back to ordering their old favorites and it wouldn't have changed anything ...

Eh, I don't see this as a big worry.  How many people will remember the old menu options?  And, if they do remember, how many people are going to think it's okay to ask for something off-menu? 

1 hour ago, tampadee said:

Just ask.  I was told talapia.  We’ve been sailing since Sunday.  So far the new menus have been delicious.  I must admit I didn’t expect the food to be so good!

No surprise it's Talapia -- that's kinda the cheapest of white fish. 

1 hour ago, time4u2go said:

Agreed.  If people on this forum are confused by it, others will undoubtedly be confused by it as well.

Agree.  I also missed the options in the top box.  I think I'd have been less likely to miss it if I were holding the paper menu. 

[Donsyb]

On 1/14/2023 at 12:45 PM, Tatka said:

Why would people order more and not eat them? 

Because they’re idiots? Greedy?  Have you heard the saying “your eyes are bigger than your belly” ?