Awful food on Harmony of the Seas

[Sigyn]

Just got off of Harmony of the Seas. I was surprised at how bad the food was. We've cruised Carnival and Norwegian and the Royal Caribbean food was on par with Carnival. Which is to say, not good. Norwegian's food is quite good, and the specialty restaurants on Norwegian are as good as fine dining restaurants in the real world, but Royal Caribbean is just blech.

We did the Unlimited Dining Package and ate in specialty restaurants much of the time to try to overcome the yucky food factor, to no avail. Chops, 150 Central Park, Sabor...the food was all pretty meh. Jamie's was delicious for lunch one day, but the very same dish - prawns with linguine - ordered for dinner another night was dry and disappointing as if it had been sitting out for hours, waiting for someone to order it and then they'd heated it up again. The pasta carbonara was a favorite of my son's every time he tried it, fortunately. If I had to pick a decent specialty restaurant, I'd opt for Jamie's, since sometimes it was good and some dishes were tasty. The lamb chops at dinner were very good. But the eggplant parmigiana, not so much. 

At Chops, the steaks were tough and overcooked. The bacon appetizer was a strip of fatty, wet pork. The mushroom soup was a win, however. At 150 Central Park, the pork belly was literally a blob of crispy fat with not a speck of actual meat within it. The tenderloin for two was overcooked. The lobster thermidor was chewy and meh. We cancelled a second dinner we had scheduled at 150 Central Park out of disappointment from night #1. The ceviche at Sabor had to be sent back. It was bland and the texture was weird. The shrimp tacos were overly salty. But the guac was good. Wonderland was fun, but only half of the dishes tasted good. On and on...we did formal night in the MDR and were completely underwhelmed.

 

On the positives, the hibachi restaurant was very good, and we thoroughly enjoyed that but it was no different than any hibachi restaurant you'd find at home. The Izumi sushi restaurant was good, too, but it wasn't outstanding, just a regular sushi restaurant. But since we'd had such awful food until that point, we were happy to have edible food we could enjoy. I did really like the Greek salad I had on CocoCay from the snack shack on Chill Island. That was very good and completely surprised me. 

 

We did Windjammer for breakfast each morning and that was actually okay. Funny that the buffet was the best thing we did. Maybe because I just ate yogurt and fruit  and my son ate pastries and waffles. Altho the coffee was lukewarm. My son enjoyed Sorrento's Pizza, but I didn't try it. 

I was so disappointed in the food. I had hoped it would be better and that everyone's complaints were overblown. They were not. 

Edited April 9, 2023 by njsmom

[Ret MP]

3 minutes ago, njsmom said:

Just got off of Harmony of the Seas. I was surprised at how bad the food was. We've cruised Carnival and Norwegian and the Royal Caribbean food was on par with Carnival. Which is to say, not good. Norwegian's food is quite good, and the specialty restaurants on Norwegian are as good as fine dining restaurants in the real world, but Royal Caribbean is just blech.

We did the Unlimited Dining Package and ate in specialty restaurants much of the time to try to overcome the yucky food factor, to no avail. Chops, 150 Central Park, Sabor...the food was all pretty meh. Jamie's was delicious for lunch one day, but the very same dish - prawns with linguine - ordered for dinner another night was dry and disappointing. The pasta carbonara was a favorite of my son's every time he tried it, fortunately. At Chops, the steaks were tough and overcooked. The bacon appetizer was a strip of fatty, wet pork. The mushroom soup was a win, however. At 150 Central Park, the pork belly was literally a blob of crispy fat with not a speck of actual meat within it. The tenderloin for two at 150 Central Park was overcooked. The lobster Thermidor at 150 Central Park was chewy and meh. We cancelled a second dinner we had scheduled at 150 Central Park out of disappointment from nigh #1. The ceviche at Sabor had to be sent back. It was bland and the texture was weird. The shrimp tacos were overly salty. But the guac was good. Wonderland was fun, but only half of the dishes tasted good. On and on...we did formal night in the MDR and were completely underwhelmed.

 

On the positives, the hibachi restaurant was very good, and we thoroughly enjoyed that but it was no different than any hibachi restaurant you'd find at home. The Izumi sushi restaurant was good, too, but it wasn't outstanding, just a regular sushi restaurant. But since we'd had such awful food until that point, we were happy to have edible food we could enjoy. I did really like the Greek salad I had on CocoCay from the snack shack on Chill Island. That was very good and completely surprised me. 

 

We did Windjammer for breakfast each morning and that was actually okay. Funny that the buffet was the best thing we did. Maybe because I just ate yogurt and fruit  and my son ate pastries and waffles. Altho the coffee was lukewarm. My son enjoyed Sorrento's Pizza, but I didn't try it. 

I was so disappointed in the food. I had hoped it would be better and that everyone's complaints were overblown. They were not. 

Decent review with a little positive along with the negatives.  Good job.

 

Cruise on her again in a few weeks/couple of months and the culinary staff/team will probably have changed and the food MAY be the best you've ever had on a cruise line, MAYBE!  It's the people, not the ship that prepares and presents food.  And the food providers/sources/distributors may change as well.  

 

We'll be on her in January and hope we have the good culinary staff/team and suppliers.  

 

 

[Charles4515]

4 minutes ago, njsmom said:

 

We did Windjammer for breakfast each morning and that was actually okay.

It is hard to ruin breakfast.
 

Royal Caribbean has the lessor quality  dining  of any of the mass market cruise lines in my opinion. I only book Royal these days with a group I cruise with. Royal is good for groups because of entertainment and activities. 

[Tatka]

5 minutes ago, Charles4515 said:

It is hard to ruin breakfast.
 

Royal Caribbean has the lessor quality  dining  of any of the mass market cruise lines in my opinion. I only book Royal these days with a group I cruise with. Royal is good for groups because of entertainment and activities. 

 

Eh.. we have multiple cruises with all massmarket lines (8 lines) and especially when we talk about RCI (26), NCL(10), Carnival (3) ... it is up and down with each of them. On our first cruises with all 3 food was weak. Especially on NCL Spirit.

 

We mostly cruise with RCI now with occasional Celebrity, NCL, Princess. I hear complaints about food worsening from every line cruisers.

 

Must be linked to pandemic losses (RC corp lost 21 billions) and raging inflation.

[jetta8300]

We cruised Harmony in July and we were very disappointed in the Windjammer for lunch.  Mainly with the lack of choices that we were used to.  The last cruise we went on was the Carnival Horizon, which had 5x the amount of choices and much better quality.

 

The glaring issues was the lack of variety, other than the indian food station...that was the only station that seemed to rotate.  Other than Indian food, they had burgers/dogs, pasta (sauce was bad), tacos/nachos (the meat tasted like wendy's chili, not mexican), a few very odd sandwiches, and then the salad/fruit.  That was it.  Every day.

 

Noticibly missing was any kind of cheese, (there was no cheese to be seen anywhere on the ship unless ordered online), the lack of toppings for salads, and the absolutley foul mac and cheese that I have never had that bad mac and cheese anywhere.  It tasted like a gummy mixture of flour and milk, with no cheese in it.  It was horrific.

 

The main dining room food was the same as previous years, but this was before the new menus.  it was ok, just sort of banquet food.  With a few really good dishes (muchroom risotto, chicken parm) and a few really bad ones (any kind of steak).  But we were satisfied with the MDR for dinner.

[Charles4515]

6 minutes ago, Tatka said:

We mostly cruise with RCI now with occasional Celebrity, NCL, Princess. I hear complaints about food worsening from every line cruisers.

People have always been complaining about the food worsening since I started cruising in 1996. It is not recent. Nothing to do with Covid or inflation. Mass markets lines are not cooking to order. It is banquet food on a mass scale that must satisfy the mainstream demographic. People’s expectations get somewhat unrealistic. 

[Charles4515]

4 minutes ago, jetta8300 said:

 

The glaring issues was the lack of variety, other than the indian food station...that was the only station that seemed to rotate. 

A lot of the chefs these days are Indian. That is why I think the Indian food is usually good. 

[firefly333]

8 minutes ago, jetta8300 said:

We cruised Harmony in July and we were very disappointed in the Windjammer for lunch.  Mainly with the lack of choices that we were used to.  The last cruise we went on was the Carnival Horizon, which had 5x the amount of choices and much better quality.

 

The glaring issues was the lack of variety, other than the indian food station...that was the only station that seemed to rotate.  Other than Indian food, they had burgers/dogs, pasta (sauce was bad), tacos/nachos (the meat tasted like wendy's chili, not mexican), a few very odd sandwiches, and then the salad/fruit.  That was it.  Every day.

 

Noticibly missing was any kind of cheese, (there was no cheese to be seen anywhere on the ship unless ordered online), the lack of toppings for salads, and the absolutley foul mac and cheese that I have never had that bad mac and cheese anywhere.  It tasted like a gummy mixture of flour and milk, with no cheese in it.  It was horrific.

 

The main dining room food was the same as previous years, but this was before the new menus.  it was ok, just sort of banquet food.  With a few really good dishes (muchroom risotto, chicken parm) and a few really bad ones (any kind of steak).  But we were satisfied with the MDR for dinner.

I did a b2b liberty end of march 2022 which didnt have many cheeses. .. your cruise last july probably same issue. We didnt have carrot cake, didnt have cream cheese or some others. 

 

I did 3 carnival and the steak was so full of gristle and lack of Mdr dinner choices I quit booking carnival.,

 

I just got off a cruise and was pleased with the food 80%. Steak was especially awesome. 

 

I have a 14 day carnival cruise next January and have been worried about dinner. I expect to eat a lot of pizza. Lunches were good but not dinners. Dinners were so  bad on carnival I did pay restaurants 6 of 7 nights which isnt like me. 

 

It's clear quality and what they are short of varys week to week.  ..and what someone had months ago probably isnt what is served now.

Edited April 9, 2023 by firefly333

[Ret MP]

1 minute ago, Charles4515 said:

A lot of the chefs these days are Indian. That is why I think the Indian food is usually good. 

I'm not saying that that is not the case.  But, I would like to think that the Mothership and home port distributor food availability sets the menu, at least the minimum.  But, I don't know.  

[Charles4515]

3 minutes ago, firefly333 said:

 

It's clear quality and what they are short of varys week to week.  ..and what someone had months ago probably isnt what is served now.

I posted recently about a couple of cruises I took on Crown Princess some years ago out of different ports the same year. The spring sailing the food and service were great. The late year sailing it was very disappointing. The crew including the head chef had rotated off. Who the head chef is can make a difference. 

[jetta8300]

12 minutes ago, Charles4515 said:

A lot of the chefs these days are Indian. That is why I think the Indian food is usually good. 

 

I've heard that it's also what the crew eats.  So they tend to keep those ingredients on hand, and they serve it at the crew buffet.

 

We aren't picky eaters, and enjoy indian food.  However every single indian dish was at least a 4/5 spice level.  WAY too spicy, so for us unfortunatley it was inedible.  Disappointing considering it would have been very tasty otherwise.

Edited April 9, 2023 by jetta8300

[Tatka]

16 minutes ago, Charles4515 said:

A lot of the chefs these days are Indian. That is why I think the Indian food is usually good. 

 

I am not an expert in Indian food, but working with many Indian colleagues (IT) I know that Indian restaurants and buffets vary greatly in quality even though cooks there are ALL Indians.

European, American, Mexican, Indian etc food can be prepared with variable quality by Indian cooks I suppose.

[jetta8300]

20 minutes ago, firefly333 said:

I did a b2b liberty end of march 2022 which didnt have many cheeses. .. your cruise last july probably same issue. We didnt have carrot cake, didnt have cream cheese or some others. 

 

I did 3 carnival and the steak was so full of gristle and lack of Mdr dinner choices I quit booking carnival.,

 

I just got off a cruise and was pleased with the food 80%. Steak was especially awesome. 

 

I have a 14 day carnival cruise next January and have been worried about dinner. I expect to eat a lot of pizza. Lunches were good but not dinners. Dinners were so  bad on carnival I did pay restaurants 6 of 7 nights which isnt like me. 

 

It's clear quality and what they are short of varys week to week.  ..and what someone had months ago probably isnt what is served now.

Honestly we found most MDR food on Carnival, Royal, and Norwegian to be very similar quality.  But we still think Carnival was the best if we had to choose.  I don't think we have ever had a good MDR steak on any cruise line, ever.  I would rather have a good ground beef dish than a bad steak.  Cruise lines need to consider what they can do WELL.  And I think that's what Carnival has done with Guy's Burgers, Blue Iguana, Pig and Anchor and Shaqu's chicken... they have found a way to make people eat cheaper food but the restaurants are done very well.

 

People will pay extra for burgers and bar food at Playmakers, which shouldn't cost extra, when they are serving lobster for free.  It doesn't make sense.  So cruise lines should fill their menus with food that they can actually do well rather than trying to put fancy dishes on the menu that are terrible cuts of meat, chewy lobster, etc. that everyone complains about.

Edited April 9, 2023 by jetta8300

[smokeybandit]

Did you tell this to the staff when they served your food? Or did you just save it all up for a message board rant after the cruise?

[pcur]

Anyone who has not cruised on RCCL since January 14, 2023 should not be criticizing the OP for their opinion about RCCL's food offerings.  

 

I have been on 5 RCCL ships from January through March this year, and the changes in the food are dramatic.  I won't go into detail on this thread, because I've gone into detail on others on this board.  But, we are not criticizing based on personal preferences, but a standard that RCCL set decades ago.

 

Yes, the menu selections HAVE been cut in BOTH the Windjammer and Main Dining Room.  

 

Yes, it appears on some ships the food prep staff in the kitchens has a LOT of newbies.

 

Yes, there are issues with the suppliers, too.

 

I was suspicious about specialty restaurant food, because it appeared the staff were sometimes going to either other restaurants, or the main dining room kitchen, for certain dishes.  But, I did not find the food in any of the specialty restaurants to be lacking.  I purchased the UDP on the Vision for 10 days, and was very happy with all the food in Chops, Giovanni's, and Izumi.

 

The Windjammer on the Anthem was outstanding.  The Windjammer on the Vision was terrible.  

 

I adapted in the Windjammer over these 3 months by sticking with fish, sauced chicken, vegetable dishes, making up my own dishes with what was offered:  making a Greek salad for myself in the Windjammers, for instance.  Desserts in the Windjammers were especially mediocre, so I didn't waste the calories on them.

[ONECRUISER]

35 minutes ago, Charles4515 said:

A lot of the chefs these days are Indian. That is why I think the Indian food is usually good. 

Funny thing my Daughter been ordering eating Royal off Menu Indian since she 90's when was 8. Does it now at least 1-2 times a Cruise. She eats and even cooks own inc Asian Foods. She likes all things my stomach cant handle anymore, Spice, sodium, Garlic. Wonder if some point it'll catch up to her like did me

Edited April 9, 2023 by ONECRUISER

[pcur]

14 minutes ago, jetta8300 said:

 

I've heard that it's also what the crew eats.  So they tend to keep those ingredients on hand, and they serve it at the crew buffet.

 

We aren't picky eaters, and enjoy indian food.  However every single indian dish was at least a 4/5 spice level.  WAY too spicy, so for us unfortunatley it was inedible.  Disappointing considering it would have been very tasty otherwise.

According to one of the Windjammer waiters (from India) I talked to on the Vision, he said the Indian food onboard was like "the McDonalds of Indian food".  He could hardly wait to get off the ship at some point and find good Indian food.

[jetta8300]

2 minutes ago, pcur said:

According to one of the Windjammer waiters (from India) I talked to on the Vision, he said the Indian food onboard was like "the McDonalds of Indian food".  He could hardly wait to get off the ship at some point and find good Indian food.

That's very interesting, we have a lot of Indian, Thai and other asian restaurants around my house and most indian dishes onboard were almost as good.  Maybe not quite as good but they had quite a bit of flavor, unlike the other choices at the Windjammer.  But the dishes were all extremely spicy.

[Merion_Mom]

1 hour ago, njsmom said:

 

On the positives, the hibachi restaurant was very good, and we thoroughly enjoyed that but it was no different than any hibachi restaurant you'd find at home. The Izumi sushi restaurant was good, too, but it wasn't outstanding, just a regular sushi restaurant. But since we'd had such awful food until that point, we were happy to have edible food we could enjoy. I did really like the Greek salad I had on CocoCay from the snack shack on Chill Island. That was very good and completely surprised me. 

 

 

@njsmom  I take your review very seriously, and give it full credence.  My kids (on a family cruise last month on Anthem) splurged on dinner at Chops.  They told me all about it, and it was not good.

 

BUT...................if hibachi was good and no different from hibachi at home, and Izumi sushi was good but not outstanding..............that's a win.

 

Do they need to be "better than home" or "outstanding" to be good choices on a cruise?

[jetta8300]

18 minutes ago, smokeybandit said:

Did you tell this to the staff when they served your food? Or did you just save it all up for a message board rant after the cruise?

It's not always something you can complain to the staff about.  I will tell staff if I get a dish that's wrong, or incorrectly cooked, etc.  But when it's simply the issue that they have poor quality ingredients to work with in the first place, there's nothing they can do to correct the issue.  There's a general lack of quality ingredients and seasoning in every single dish.    That's the kind of thing that could only be changed by word of mouth complaints by the masses, or complaining directly to royal headquarters, or taking our cruise dollars elsewhere.  People speaking up about the bad food choices is justified, and I think people are hoping that if enough people complain online where higher ups may see, that changes will be made.

Edited April 9, 2023 by jetta8300

[pcur]

1 minute ago, Merion_Mom said:

 

@njsmom  I take your review very seriously, and give it full credence.  My kids (on a family cruise last month on Anthem) splurged on dinner at Chops.  They told me all about it, and it was not good.

 

BUT...................if hibachi was good and no different from hibachi at home, and Izumi sushi was good but not outstanding..............that's a win.

 

Do they need to be "better than home" or "outstanding" to be good choices on a cruise?

I think the comparison is to an equivalent land-based restaurant's quality and pricing.  I know that on the Vision they accidentally charged us in Giovanni's when we had the UDP. The full price, including gratuity, was $53 per person.  So, for Italian food, I would expect it to equal what I would eat in a San Francisco Italian restaurant, like SwissLouis on Pier 39.

[firefly333]

26 minutes ago, jetta8300 said:

Cruise lines need to consider what they can do WELL.  And I think that's what Carnival has done with Guy's Burgers, Blue Iguana, Pig and Anchor and Shaqu's chicken... they have found a way to make people eat cheaper food but the restaurants are done very well.

 

People will pay extra for burgers and bar food at Playmakers, which shouldn't cost extra, when they are serving lobster for free.  It doesn't make sense.  So cruise lines should fill their menus with food that they can actually do well rather than trying to put fancy dishes on the menu that are terrible cuts of meat, chewy lobster, etc. that everyone complains about.

So you made my point. What carnival does well is LUNCH.  Not dinner. The places you mentioned a few have breakfast but mainly lunch... I said lunch was good but not dinner on carnival. So you reply agreeing with me? Listing LUNCH places. 

 

Mardi gras and its sisters have more dinner choices but not out of Galveston. I couldnt find decent dinners on carnival except pay restaurants.  I'm at 197 pts on carnival so not a newbie. I starved for dinner or paid. This is why I changed to mostly rcl out of texas. .. no good free dinner options.

 

I got off radiance last Thursday 3 days ago, and my steaks were perfect. Every time. My lobster was decent sized and my fish and chips the fish was crispy. Every dinner was good. They were running out of some things by the end of the cruise. Vs carnival my free dinners in Mdr were terrible. 

 

People on carnival are also complaining about cut backs. It's all lines. But i had a excellent cruise on radiance for 10 days onboard. Quality does seem to vary. I've had some less than stellar meals on both and tastes vary.

 

But I booked the carnival for the better ports. Always a upside. 

 

I dont doubt the OP opinion. I had the fillet on oasis in Giovanni and they ruined it for me by putting gravy not garlic butter on it. Couldnt wait and send it back. Rcl needs to ask before assuming which you want. Oasis did the same to my steak in Mdr...put gravy on it without asking. Oasis for me was a bust. Radiance a win. I had the best ever steak on radiance cheers with a officer. On allure what I had was not edible. They need to get quality right every time. 

 

 

 

 

[sfaaa]

1 hour ago, Charles4515 said:

A lot of the chefs these days are Indian. That is why I think the Indian food is usually good. 

Agree except I can't eat Indian for 7 days in a row. A bit too spicy for my digestive system.

[sgmn]

2 minutes ago, firefly333 said:

 They need to get quality right every time. 

 

Agree, the quality should be the same on all ships irrespective of size.  The staff should be trained to the same level to produce the same standard of meals.

And for the very high cost of their specialised meals the food should be outstanding, especially as you've already paid for a standard meal in your cruise fare already.   

[Charles4515]

3 minutes ago, firefly333 said:

 

People on carnival are also complaining about cut backs. It's all lines. But i had an excellent cruise on radiance for 10 days onboard. Quality does seem to vary. I've had some less than stellar meals on both and tastes vary.

 As I said people on all the mass market lines have been complaining about cutbacks since I took my first Royal cruise in 1996. None of the mass market lines have been consistent over that time. Royal, Carnival, Holland, Celebrity, Princess or NCL lots of variations meal to meal ship to ship, year to year. The only cruise lines I have been on that were consistent were Azamara, Cunard and Oceania. All the meals on those cruise lines were not amazing but I was rarely disappointed.