Food Quality From RCL Ship to Ship

[mcrcruiser]

Our daughter & her husband are sailing on Wonder of the Seas & reports back great food quality & assortment ,when they sailed on  Navigator if the Seas the report on food quality  was quite negative . 

What has beeb your experiences with RCL ships  with regards  to the food quality ,portion size etc 

[mitz18]

4 minutes ago, mcrcruiser said:

Our daughter & her husband are sailing on Wonder of the Seas & reports back great food quality & assortment ,when they sailed on  Navigator if the Seas the report on food quality  was quite negative . 

What has beeb your experiences with RCL ships  with regards  to the food quality ,portion size etc 

Like most restaurants anywhere in the world it depends on the night you go.  Quality of food and service can/will vary night to night & no doubt ship to ship.  For the most part, the last couple of RCL cruises we've been on the food has been good (we still set service aside due covid and staffing issues) & no real complaints.  Was the complain on Navigator with the main dining or also the specialty dining?  

[Chiliburn]

6 minutes ago, mcrcruiser said:

Our daughter & her husband are sailing on Wonder of the Seas & reports back great food quality & assortment ,when they sailed on  Navigator if the Seas the report on food quality  was quite negative . 

What has beeb your experiences with RCL ships  with regards  to the food quality ,portion size etc 

It does vary ,I think it’s the skills of the kitchen staff from ship to ship.

I find the first indication is the bread. If the bread is good most of everything else is good.

[mcrcruiser]

20 minutes ago, mitz18 said:

Like most restaurants anywhere in the world it depends on the night you go.  Quality of food and service can/will vary night to night & no doubt ship to ship.  For the most part, the last couple of RCL cruises we've been on the food has been good (we still set service aside due covid and staffing issues) & no real complaints.  Was the complain on Navigator with the main dining or also the specialty dining?  

It was the MDR

[mcrcruiser]

20 minutes ago, Chiliburn said:

It does vary ,I think it’s the skills of the kitchen staff from ship to ship.

I find the first indication is the bread. If the bread is good most of everything else is good.

You know that really seems to be true .We had great bread assortment  on  our 14 day ,B2B  Celebrity Soltice cruise .Wish RCL or Celebrity sailed out of San Diego ,our home port

[Chiliburn]

48 minutes ago, mcrcruiser said:

You know that really seems to be true .We had great bread assortment  on  our 14 day ,B2B  Celebrity Soltice cruise .Wish RCL or Celebrity sailed out of San Diego ,our home port

I wish the could hire some Vietnamese bakers,the French showed them how to bake and then the Vietnamese took to another level.

I like a good soup also as I try to diet a bit , it’s light and leaves plenty of room for booze LOL.

And when they have a good soup cook it makes a difference. If the simple things are good everything else just seems to follow.

[Surfguyxxx]

I do a lot of speciality restaurants and they too vary quite a bit.  We had done a b2b one time and the Carbonara in Giovanni's was amazing on the first sailing and was absolutely atrocious on the second leg.  You would think they follow a recipe but apparently not.  I usually don't send anything back but I did on this one as it came out more like a soup.

[lcpagejr]

We  loved the food on Odyssey this past November. Wife and I agreed the beef dishes may have been the best beef prep/taste  in our 20+ cruises

[Mom*3]

We sailed on Wonder about a month ago and felt the food was very good, maybe not quite as good as previous years, but still very good. And, our wait staff did not strictly follow the new protocol of “one dish at a time”. They brought out multiple appetizers, entrees and desserts. They brought items to share or items they thought we might like. (Very similar service compared to before the new menus.)

[AZ Squirrel]

We just got off Navigator, and agree.  The MDR was sub par.

[Sunshine3601]

We found the food to be very good on our recent sailings on Anthem.   

[taglovestocruise]

We recently did a 7 night Ovation, best food on any Royal ship we have ever sailed on.  Even the Dog House was far above average.

Three days later we boarded Quantum for a 10 night sailing, absolute worse food ever on any ship or cruise line.  Wife actually lost 1 pound on the 10 nights. 

that was MDR on both ships, Specialty on both ships was excellent.                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

[tllstaco]

Food is not very consistent from ship to ship..  On Indy in 2021, the food was delicious but on Liberty a couple of months later it was horrible. Didn't matter if it was the MDR, Windjammer or the specialty restaurants.  In 2022, we did a B2B transpacific and NZ cruise on Ovation.  On the transpacific leg, the food was delicious in the MDR and in the specialty restaurants.  My wife and I were pleasantly surprised.  On the NZ leg, the food quality changed and the MDR was not the same as the transpacific.  It was as if we got on another ship.  We asked a few of the staff and their comment was the chef had changed for the MDR.  According to our waiter that is not uncommon since each chef has their own touch on the recipes.  I don't know how much truth there is in that, but I do know something changed.

 

 

 

Edited April 15, 2023 by tllstaco
Corrected a sentence.

[mcrcruiser]

Thanks every one for your comments .So apparently it can be the head chef that can make the differences in the quality  

[smokeybandit]

1 minute ago, mcrcruiser said:

Thanks every one for your comments .So apparently it can be the head chef that can make the differences in the quality  

And supply chain. Navigator being in California vs. most other ships out of Texas and Florida can make a big difference.

[1josh777]

Just came back from the Liberty of the Seas. Both my husband and myself felt that the food was lacking taste. We have been on three Royal Cruises prior to this last sailing and this one was the lowest quality of all. 

[garywatson]

One thing which just occurred to me is that with the 8pm MDR time, if the food and/or service is horrible, you might not have enough time to go to the Windjammer before it closes at 9.  This is sub-optimal.

[Yinster]

Doesn't matter what ship or cruise you are on. What matters is the executive chef as the standard filters down from him/her. 

 

 

[chazzinator8]

On our last sailing, our wait staff in the MDR told us that early dining is the best bet for quality as the kitchen preps all of the food for the entire evening at the same time. This basically means a lot of the food served for MTD and the late seating has been sitting around for a couple of hours and they usually get more complaints from those guests.

[BennyandBo]

5 hours ago, chazzinator8 said:

On our last sailing, our wait staff in the MDR told us that early dining is the best bet for quality as the kitchen preps all of the food for the entire evening at the same time. This basically means a lot of the food served for MTD and the late seating has been sitting around for a couple of hours and they usually get more complaints from those guests.

Like I always say in threads with shorts in the dinning room debates. It's nothing more then cafeteria food in the end.

[DustFSU]

There are many factors that can play into this.  Sometimes the vendors might not bring them the same quality of food as the last cruise.  Also they have so many cooks back there trying to make a mass quantity of food.  That has to be very hard for all them to get it JUST right every time.  If you are looking for really good food then you must get the unlimited dining package unfortunately.  Anytime I am going into the MDR or the windjammer, I don't go in there with the mindset of being blown away from a dish.  All I am looking for is a nice sit down meal and to try new things.  Just be happy that you don't have to clean up the dishes or the table.  You just get up and say thank you and walk out and enjoy the rest of the night.

[BirdTravels]

On 4/14/2023 at 10:38 PM, mcrcruiser said:

Our daughter & her husband are sailing on Wonder of the Seas & reports back great food quality & assortment ,when they sailed on  Navigator if the Seas the report on food quality  was quite negative . 

What has beeb your experiences with RCL ships  with regards  to the food quality ,portion size etc 

The "intent" is to have identical food products across the fleet. With regard to the MDR, the food is mass produced and held for service so that they can do thousands of covers a night. You could get some veg that is freshly cooked or veg that has been sitting for service for several hours. All food has specific hold times, dictated by food sanitation... not quality. After which the food is thrown down the grinder to become fish food. Even in specialty dining, some food is prepared and held while some is cooked to order. 

[mcatmcat]

On 4/14/2023 at 11:10 PM, mcrcruiser said:

You know that really seems to be true .We had great bread assortment  on  our 14 day ,B2B  Celebrity Soltice cruise .Wish RCL or Celebrity sailed out of San Diego ,our home port

I had my first celebrity cruise this year after almost getting diamond plus with royal, omg what I was doing all these years. Millennials that love celebrity.

 

[JamesEM]

I just returned from a b-2-b on the Voyager out of PR., food in the MDR OK but some of the offerings in the Windjammer were terrible, don't know if this is fleet wide or the ship was out of PR.

[Steeler Nation At Sea]

On 4/22/2023 at 12:47 AM, JamesEM said:

I just returned from a b-2-b on the Voyager out of PR., food in the MDR OK but some of the offerings in the Windjammer were terrible, don't know if this is fleet wide or the ship was out of PR.

 

Voyager was far worse than Jewel on my S2S last September. This was true in the specialty venues, MDR and 'jammer.  The worst was the pork shank that I was served that had been cross cut and served with bony speers sticking out of mostly fat.  This lump of meat should have never been cooked let alone served! On Jewel, it was a beautiful and tasty shank.  Neither of these 2 ships held a candle to my cruise on Harmony prior to these though, but, I only did specialty on that one, so can't compare MDR or 'jammer.