Anyone enjoying the new menu selections?

[allyfree]

1 hour ago, Itchy&Scratchy said:

but MDR food is still a whole lot better than WJ...

It was ... but it sounds like that's debatable these days .... we're on Anthem a week on Sunday so time will tell !

[jcc1025]

19 hours ago, BennyandBo said:

Well there are those that are adamant that cut backs are understandable given the past few years and life everywhere right now. So with that mindset, automatic gratuitie cut backs may be necessary for my bottom line as well.

 

Also, I keep hearing about attitude from those hard working staff. Tude gets you zip from me. But unlike a cruise line, my tips operate on an individual basis based on performance after the fact. Not assumption of good service in advance or guilt that there employer doesn't pay them enough. 

I agree that a persons personal financial situation could impact their tip levels, however they are still taking cruise and so the cost of the tip is a small percentavge of what they were willing to pay for the cruise. 

Performace does count and I know that there are a lot of new crewmembers on the ships given that many of the past crewmembers did not return after covid. I happen to have worked in the service industry and tend to side on on how hard I know the work of the front line worker and their limited pay. 

My point still is, don't take your our objections with Royal on them. If you are mad at Royal or any other of the lines that are doing the sam thing, then vote with your feet and don't cruise, but taking your frustration out on the people who are trying their best does in tips does not impact the cruise line one bit. 

[Norwich Cruiser]

3 minutes ago, allyfree said:

It was ... but it sounds like that's debatable these days .... we're on Anthem a week on Sunday so time will tell !

Agree

 

Not convinced the main dining room food is better than the Windjammer.

 

 

[nelblu]

33 minutes ago, Norwich Cruiser said:

Agree

 

Not convinced the main dining room food is better than the Windjammer.

 

 

On Anthem, lunch in the WJ is better than the MDR.

[The Fun Researcher]

54 minutes ago, allyfree said:

It was ... but it sounds like that's debatable these days .... we're on Anthem a week on Sunday so time will tell !

 

15 minutes ago, nelblu said:

On Anthem, lunch in the WJ is better than the MDR.

We enjoyed the dining room far more than the wind jammer on the Anthem in March. However, we were comparing lunch in the WJ  to dinner in the MDR.  Pretty hard to compare apples to apples unless you go to both on the same night.
 

However, I felt a lack overall of quality proteins, especially in the Windjammer for lunch. Everything just seemed to be “cost out”. It was not a bad lunch, but not what I was used to in the Windjammer.

 

I also walked through the Windjammer on the second formal night. I was not very impressed. I went to the main dining room instead as usual.

Edited May 2, 2023 by The Fun Researcher

[allyfree]

14 minutes ago, The Fun Researcher said:

 

We enjoyed the dining room far more than the wind jammer on the Anthem in March. However, we were comparing lunch in the WJ  to dinner in the MDR.  Pretty hard to compare apples to apples unless you go to both on the same night.
 

However, I felt a lack overall of quality proteins, especially in the Windjammer for lunch. Everything just seemed to be “cost out”. It was not a bad lunch, but not what I was used to in the Windjammer.

 

I also walked through the Windjammer on the second formal night. I was not very impressed. I went to the main dining room instead as usual.

Thanks ... we were on her in September and although not as good as other ships we've been on, the food was ok ... I guess those of us who have sailed RCCL for years probably just expect better than we're being offered these days 

[cinnam0n]

Got off Grandeur a few weeks ago - our first cruise since COVID and obviously the first one with the new menus.  We ate in the MDR every night and I was pleasantly surprised at both the selection and the quality.  No complaints here.

 

[Katems75]

Do you think the guys in the video who kept getting cold food had a more likely chance of that since they had the 8:30 time slot?  I have 5:30 in two weeks on Harmony and am hoping that may increase my chances of getting hot food...

[Morecruisesplz]

22 minutes ago, Katems75 said:

Do you think the guys in the video who kept getting cold food had a more likely chance of that since they had the 8:30 time slot?  I have 5:30 in two weeks on Harmony and am hoping that may increase my chances of getting hot food...

No. It's poor training of cook staff letting food go out cold.

[time4u2go]

47 minutes ago, Katems75 said:

Do you think the guys in the video who kept getting cold food had a more likely chance of that since they had the 8:30 time slot?  I have 5:30 in two weeks on Harmony and am hoping that may increase my chances of getting hot food...

Interesting theory. That would imply that the food for both seatings is cooked at the same time, before the first seating. I would hope not.

[TwoMisfits]

12 minutes ago, time4u2go said:

Interesting theory. That would imply that the food for both seatings is cooked at the same time, before the first seating. I would hope not.

 

Or they planned to heat and plate X dishes per hour, and had too many show up (or too many requested and eaten) the 1st few hours, getting behind and having to cut short full heating times for the later diners...

[BennyandBo]

5 hours ago, jcc1025 said:

I agree that a persons personal financial situation could impact their tip levels, however they are still taking cruise and so the cost of the tip is a small percentavge of what they were willing to pay for the cruise. 

Performace does count and I know that there are a lot of new crewmembers on the ships given that many of the past crewmembers did not return after covid. I happen to have worked in the service industry and tend to side on on how hard I know the work of the front line worker and their limited pay. 

My point still is, don't take your our objections with Royal on them. If you are mad at Royal or any other of the lines that are doing the sam thing, then vote with your feet and don't cruise, but taking your frustration out on the people who are trying their best does in tips does not impact the cruise line one bit. 

I don't take anything out on anyone. But I tip what I want (based on performance) when I want. Not daily via a cruise line charging my card, in advance of a trip, or based on what anyone else thinks or feels. The end.

[TravelBluebird]

9 hours ago, Katems75 said:

Oh wow, I am on a laptop and NO ONE has signatures like that! I am very used to them on the DISboards so I thought I knew what you meant, it's just that no one's signature shows up at all, nor is there anything for me to click to show it...I don't have an 'expand signature' or anything.

 I’m pretty sure you have to turn them on in settings. I discovered the setting to turn signatures ON when I went to add my YoutTube channel to my profile page…I discovered that signatures existed, and so I made one and also turned them on so I could see everyone else’s!  You go to Profile, then pick settings, then on the left hand side of the page, signatures (as in the photo below); 

[BennyandBo]

6 hours ago, jcc1025 said:

I agree that a persons personal financial situation could impact their tip levels, however they are still taking cruise and so the cost of the tip is a small percentavge of what they were willing to pay for the cruise. 

Performace does count and I know that there are a lot of new crewmembers on the ships given that many of the past crewmembers did not return after covid. I happen to have worked in the service industry and tend to side on on how hard I know the work of the front line worker and their limited pay. 

My point still is, don't take your our objections with Royal on them. If you are mad at Royal or any other of the lines that are doing the sam thing, then vote with your feet and don't cruise, but taking your frustration out on the people who are trying their best does in tips does not impact the cruise line one bit. 

Been thinking about it.

I've said this here is the past.

People who tell other people why they should tip and/or how much, either or, are not helping those "poor hard working people" at all. The news and the world around you should have already taught you. The more people are told to do anything, the less likely they are to then do it. You only end up causing the opposite effect

[pcur]

On 5/1/2023 at 11:22 AM, nelblu said:

Sorry, misunderstood as I thought that you cooked and then refrigerated it and warmed it up the next day.😊

Well, that's better than what I thought you were thinking:  that I was baking, refrigerating, and serving it COLD!!!  Ewwwwwww...........

[lovesthebeach2]

18 hours ago, Norwich Cruiser said:

Agree

 

Not convinced the main dining room food is better than the Windjammer.

 

 

I’m definitely not convinced. Both have been going downhill at a quick pace, but at the same time the quality between the two is closing in. Therefore we have occasionally eaten in the WJ for dinner and never in all the decades we’ve cruised have we done that, except for the times when excursions made us miss dinner.

 

And BTW it’s not just Royal cruises that are going in this direction. Going out to a restaurant and having the quality of the food being equal to the prices they’re charging, is also been noticed by us.  I find I can cook much better tasting and way healthier for much less money at home.

So although I’m not happy about the quality of the food on the ships, I love everything else, so we’re going out to eat much less and we ever did, but still cruising 😁

[Itchy&Scratchy]

19 hours ago, toxicfairy said:

There use to be an appetizer that was scallops in a sauce. It came on one of the little metal dishes with a spot for each little scallop. Does anyone know if they still have that available? It was one of my favorite things to look forward to.

we had that on our cruise in 2022, I think. But I didn't see it on the new 7 day caribbean menu in April.

[Itchy&Scratchy]

15 hours ago, Katems75 said:

Do you think the guys in the video who kept getting cold food had a more likely chance of that since they had the 8:30 time slot?  I have 5:30 in two weeks on Harmony and am hoping that may increase my chances of getting hot food...

I don't think it's the time slot. We had MTD at 6:45 and our food was nice and hot on Oasis.

[lovesthebeach2]

15 hours ago, fredmdcruisers said:

No. It's poor training of cook staff letting food go out cold.

No because on our 10 night Serenade we got cold over salted food in MDR most nights and we had early dining. Worst food we ever had on a cruise ship 

[Max and Ruby]

On 5/1/2023 at 2:35 PM, The Fun Researcher said:

We had the new menus on the Anthem in March, and I would say my main takeaways are:

 

1. Food quality was the same.  Good temperature, well prepared.
2. I missed having the lamb chops, (my second favorite entrée behind the beef tenderloin)
3. There were just enough occurrences of the escargot and French onion soup to keep us moderately satisfied.  We did miss having those as daily offerings.
4. I miss the little tiny scallop appetizer they used to serve in the same dishes they use for Escargot
5. The "one lobster tail" restriction didn't bother us
6. Overall, if we didn't know the previous menus so well, we would have considered the current MDR offerings to be excellent.  I still think it's excellent, but there are a couple of things we each missed.

 

As a side not, not sure what sauce they were putting on the pork bao buns but it was terrible.  Not at all in line with the typical Asian flavor profile the other times we've had them.  Used to LOVE those bao buns, but couldn't even finish one.  Hopefully it was just a one off occurrence.

I also was on Anthem, but an April cruise.  I was actually dreading the MDR due to reviews, but was pleasantly surprised by some of the food. I'm not a big eater and honestly my daughter and I rarely ate an app, entrée and desert in 1 meal , but what we did eat for the most part temps were fine.  I thought the Indian was good, but I don't like spicy.  Have read that for REAL Indian food lovers, the entrées are too bland.

 

The weirdest entrée we did get was the "chicken breast".  My daughter got 2 very thick breasts that were overcooked as a choice 1 night.  There was fine print like if you didn't want Caribbean Chicken, you could get just a chicken breast. She ate some and then we stopped by Sorrento's later that evening.

 

Let me also add that our waiters were so good.  They kept asking us "is there something wrong with the food?" if we didn't eat all of it.  We said "No, we are just not big eaters."  

 

Edited May 3, 2023 by Max and Ruby

[dunrobbin]

23 hours ago, allyfree said:

My comment was about the decline in food standards turning people off from eating in the MDR .... I foresee they will still use the MDR space but that it will be at an additional cost; leaving only WJ and whatever other outlets they have on each ship for complimentary food - such as Cafe 270, etc.

I do not believe that there is enough room to seat and feed 5000 people if they closed the main dining rooms.  Unless they turned them in to more buffets!

[time4u2go]

Just now, dunrobbin said:

I do not believe that there is enough room to seat and feed 5000 people if they closed the main dining rooms.  Unless they turned them in to more buffets!

I suspect they would convert MDR space into more pay venues, as allyfree also suggested.

[Magicat]

We were on the Radiance in April.  We found the new menu in the MDR quite good.  I am a poor judge on food temperature as you can not make food hot enough for me.  However, I did ask our waiter to ensure my french onion soup was "Dragon hot" and he did his best to accommodate.  It was close and I enjoyed it.  The portions are the right size as we never left hungry and not stuffed to the gills.  We passed on dessert as we normally don't indulge.  

Wait staff were awesome and always trying to get us more food than we wanted.  Passed on the "lobster" tails, and looking over at other tables we were glad we did .  They did not look any bigger than they used to be.  I think it was the halibut the same night and that was very good and twice the size of the "lobster", if size matters to you.

We did have lunch at the Jammer one sea day and it was underwhelming.  I think if I would have just had a burger it might have been better.  Don't remember what I had but it was lackluster.  Doghouse was good.  Anyway this is our view of the food on the new menu.

Edited May 3, 2023 by Magicat

[taglovestocruise]

22 hours ago, Itchy&Scratchy said:

but MDR food is still a whole lot better than WJ...

10 nights on Quantum, MDR was the worst food of any cruise we have ever been on, food at two70 was equally bad.  Only decent food on the ship was WJ and the Bistro.  All specialty restaurants were outstanding.  Previous week we were on Ovation, all food venues including the Dog House were possibly the best food on any cruise ship or cruise line we have been on. Royal needs to get their act together. 

[Cmessier]

Sailed on Indy over Easter. Can't compare to before the change because it was my first cruise in forever. But I feel its only fair to RCL to say I really enjoyed a lot of the food in the MDR. My prime rib was good. My daughter's steak was good. The escargot was good. The shrimp cocktail was good. 

 

Sides were ...OK. not great. 

 

My other daughters fish was bland and mushy. Edible but not enjoyable. If it were served to me I would've sent it back and asked for something else. 

 

Dessert was very bland all the way around the entire sailing. 

 

I found plenty outside of the MDR I really liked. Fish N Ships was delicious. Sorrento's was pretty good. 

 

WJ was hit and miss but everytime I went there i was able to find something I really liked. Even the steaks were edible. Not the best I've ever had but they tasted good. No complaints. The roast turkey was friggin delicious. (I always get fatty dark meat, cant speak to the white meat). The butter chicken was great. There was plenty more that I really enjoyed. 

 

SO, all that to say, not everything was amazing, and I feel like bread and desserts are the big weakness. Thankfully I dont much care about either of those things. But there was an absolute TON of food I enjoyed, more than I could possibly eat even without spending anything extra. I didnt eat as much sorrentos as I would've liked because I was too full from other stuff. Same with fish n ships. 

 

OH! The shaved ribeyes on Coco Cay were GREAT! I know it's not on board but my whole family thought the food overall on Coco cay was fantastic and there again we didn't spend an extra dime. 

 

And I think cafe promenade is underrated actually. I thought the quality of the random little snacks there was high and they were very enjoyable. Come to think of it the fruit Danish from there was absolutely fantastic, so that's one bready-dessert type they really nailed. The little sandwiches were always good from there as well. 

 

I cant claim to have 30 cruises under my belt but I do love to eat and I cant wait to get on my next RC cruise (9 night on Liberty!)