Symphony of seas May 14th review.

[steve thfc]

Food in main dining room awful. Service was fine.

 

Not usually fussy at all. Don't always dine in fancy places in Florida or UK. I'm fine with places like Flannigans or Toby Carvery in uk so not a food snob.

 

Soups runny and no seasoning.

 

Steaks always overcooked

 

Served pie with no potatoes orsoon.

 

Soggy fish and chips.

 

Deserts bland.

 

 

A obnoxious room attendant who told me what time my cabin would be cleaned each day. I ignored him and put the sign on until leaving room.

 

1 great shore excursion in Sorrento. 1 crappy Cinqe terre excursion. Used ferry instead of boat, guide lost 2 people and didn't have phone numbers.  

 

Did complain on board. No follow up besides apology from mdr manager. Too much cost cutting. Using crappy ingredients in mdr. Chops as usual was good.. Rc gone downhill fast. 

 

Have booking on Virgin for Greek isles on Virgin in Sept 

[steve thfc]

We've sailed Rc on Allure twice before pre covid. Cost cutting galore. They want to be like Carnival.

 

On formal night people wearing gym shorts and crocs in main dining room. Questioned maitre d regarding this. Says the guide is just a guide not enforced

If that's the case just put resort casual all week. I'm ok with that. Not wearing a suit next to some idiot in crocs and shorts..

[steve thfc]

Going on Virgin in Sept. Supposedly food is excellent. Will try Celebrity. All Royal seems to care about is bigger watersides.. The icon looks even more like a Carnival ship BTW 

[allyfree]

Just off Anthem today and have all the same issues ... that, and that from Sunday evening until Thursday afternoon the TVs never worked throughout the ship - not even for the RCCL channels/info and the internet kept dropping off every 10 minutes or so - you had to keep disconnecting and then reconnecting. Conflicting info from Guest Services, staff too busy trying to be zany & entertaining rather than actually doing their jobs efficiently ... sad!

Edited May 21, 2023 by allyfree

[sgmn]

Also on Symphony  14th. 

First RC since 2019 and first on O class  apart from a short cruise on Allure 8 years ago.   Definitely food isn't as good as before but it was ok. Think it's a inducement to buy dinning packages.  Felt our waiter and room attendant were under pressure.  They worked long hours but always cheerful. 

Great shows 

Surprised how casual most people were in the evening, even on formal nights.  

We walked off with our bags at 6am and was at check in at BCN airport at 6.45. BA moved us to the 0745 flight and we were at home in the UK by 1030.

[Moon Orchid]

Hi all, we sailed on Quantum last October and love this class ship so much that we booked another cruise with Ovation of The Seas ,May 2nd sailing.
It was the fist time that we didn't enjoy the ship. They didn't let us go to our cabin until 2 pm. No welcome water, and soda can in the room. Then  later in the evening a crew member with a case of water bottle knocked on our door " Here are your 4 bottles water ! ".  It didn't bother us because we know that they were very busy on first day.
Couple days later we got our welcome gift with 3 tiny chocolate and a baby strawberry😁.
Royal cut back way too much on everything on Ovation. Foods in Windjammer were terrible and limited selection.
 I know people will say that they lose so much money over the pandemic. Well, if they can affords to  building more and more  big, beautiful ships then they shouldn't be stingy this way. Lots of rice curry flavors , lots of stir fry vegetables, very few meat items . Foods in the school cafeteria maybe taste better.
Breakfast in Windjammer was the worse. Solarium was a little better.
We had My time dining for the first time and it was a mad house. It wasn't any different between walk in or have a reserved time. It was long lines and long wait.
Lunch and dinner in the main dining room wasn't that good either. We ordered fish dishes, after a long wait they brought out some totally different things and said " The chef apologize that we don't have that fish, here is different kind of fish and a meat dish". And it happened couple times at lunch and dinner.
It was like" Eat it or go hungry, it's your choice". 
We purchased 3 nights dining package, Izumi cut their dishes to half of what it used to be. $45 for 8 pieces of sushi ( 2 large plates ) is crazy .
Foods at Chops and Jamie were great but still same thing, " Oh sorry we don't have this or that" .
After 2 days on board, they announced that Diamond will no longer get that free daily specialty coffee ! I wonder if this will be the trend from now on ? 
Ovation has a great team of staffs, except some of people works at the service desk, not very friendly . We were going to stay couple days in Vancouver after getting off the ship. I stopped by one time to asked for how to fill out the customs declaration, and they were not very happy people !
And our Cruise Director ,Steve from Canada. He was the worse cruise director that we ever had, he always talks like he was an Auctioneer.
I have only 15 cruises under my belt and never had a bad cruise ,but this time we were very disappointed at the way Royal is heading to.
Cruise vacation used to be a good value. Not anymore. Beautiful and big ships doesn't mean a thing if foods are bad and very few choices.
My daughter sailed on Wonder April 30 with a big group ,she said same thing with Wonder , bad foods and not many choices to choose from, her group did not impress with Wonder either. 
Flame me if you want , I have always bragged to family and friends that cruise with Royal is the only way to go, but this time I really dislike Royal terrible foods and the way they practice now. 😊 

Edited May 21, 2023 by Moon Orchid

[steve thfc]

I never saw Mercedes the cruise director on Symphony. I sent Royal a pretty poor survey.  They are trying to be Carnival and capture that market. Trying Virgin in Sept. Cruised with Princess before. Will try Celebrity also.  No more Royal.  Luckily spent 2 days after cruise in Barcelona. All my favourite restaurants. 3 focs, 9 reinas still great 

[Nithas]

7 hours ago, steve thfc said:

I never saw Mercedes the cruise director on Symphony. I sent Royal a pretty poor survey.  They are trying to be Carnival and capture that market. Trying Virgin in Sept. Cruised with Princess before. Will try Celebrity also.  No more Royal.  Luckily spent 2 days after cruise in Barcelona. All my favourite restaurants. 3 focs, 9 reinas still great 

Saw her plenty of times. 'Hector is Magic', the Comedy Show, Captains Corner. Even hosted one or two shows in On Air. If you're in your cabin grumping all day, you might have missed her of course.