Best Steak Onboard was Extra Virgin?!

[raphael360]

My 2 steak experiences on this cruise on Scarlet are:

 

1. The Wake breakfast day one:  Good to excellent.

2.  The Wake breakfast day four: Un-edible.
 

I was unable to get a reservation for Extra Virgin. 

[cantgetin]

If you can't get a reservation somewhere that you wish to eat, get one elsewhere....then a little earlier than your reservation OR at about 6, do a walk up.  At 6, you can ask whether they can work you in about X time...or a bit before your reservation, ask whether they can take you.  If the response is positive, you just got in.  If not, you still have your back up reservation.

[CruisingWalter]

1 hour ago, cantgetin said:

If you can't get a reservation somewhere that you wish to eat, get one elsewhere....then a little earlier than your reservation OR at about 6, do a walk up.  At 6, you can ask whether they can work you in about X time...or a bit before your reservation, ask whether they can take you.  If the response is positive, you just got in.  If not, you still have your back up reservation.

 

Just heard from a colleague that she was turned away from all walkups this past week on Scarlet Lady. She booked this last minute so could not make reservations in advance. I mentioned that they usually have at least 40% of reservations available once onboard. Not this time.  From her: We tried to make reservations once being on board and was told that every restaurant was OVER booked. We tried to do a walk-up at 6 pm when the restaurants opened and also couldn't get in for the same reason, despite being told that we could do a walk-up.

[cantgetin]

11 minutes ago, CruisingWalter said:

 

Just heard from a colleague that she was turned away from all walkups this past week on Scarlet Lady. She booked this last minute so could not make reservations in advance. I mentioned that they usually have at least 40% of reservations available once onboard. Not this time.  From her: We tried to make reservations once being on board and was told that every restaurant was OVER booked. We tried to do a walk-up at 6 pm when the restaurants opened and also couldn't get in for the same reason, despite being told that we could do a walk-up.

Wow, that's quite awful.  THe Galley is good, especially ir your cruise has the nightly dinner specials, but a week of eating there would get old.

[CruisingWalter]

12 hours ago, cantgetin said:

Wow, that's quite awful.  THe Galley is good, especially ir your cruise has the nightly dinner specials, but a week of eating there would get old.

 

The Galley for Dinner is honestly not that good. We did that one night and it was disappointing. No Ramen, No Paninis, No Tacos. Basically burgers, breakfast, bento and salad.  The Dine and Dash did have butter chicken and a few other things, but the buffet on the MSC Seashore that we're just finishing up on had many more choices for dinner than The Galley. She was hugely disappointed after hearing so many great things about the food on VV and how casual the cruise line is. She had also heard that there were supposed to be many reservations still available when you got onto the ship. But nothing. I don't understand how that happened, but it sounded like the hostesses did not offer much help at all. Completely different than our Valiant sailing at Thanksgiving where people were walking up around 8 or 8:30 even on a sold out ship.

 

[Wildcatllamas]

Wow, I was on Scarlet from December 3rd through the 8th and there were several folks who did walk ups that I know about. The table next to me when I went to Pink Agave hadn't been able to get a reservation to there once they boarded but did a walk up a 6 pm with no problem. 

 

I would think that Virgin has numbers down for how many in each restaurant versus how many on the ship. But then many folks may not want to do Razzle Dazzle for dinner any more since the food was mediocre at best so now you have a virtually empty restaurant the night I was there and all those folks trying to get in elsewhere.

 

[cantgetin]

3 hours ago, CruisingWalter said:

 

The Galley for Dinner is honestly not that good. 

 

On each of our cruises, The Galley offered a dinner special that changed each night.  That day's special was listed in the paper version of the daily activities; I don't know if it was on the app (I never saw it there).  The Beef Wellington rivaled any restaurant I've ever eaten at.  I can't say that we tried a lot of the specials, but I was never disappointed in them.    These were totally different and separate from the lunch specials.

I don't know if this is common practice on VV as each of our cruises has been 8 nights or longer.  It may only happen on long cruises.

As to the comment about Razzle (above).  I have to agree.  RD went from being one of our favorite dinner restaurants to being "won't go there again" on our last cruise based on food quality and the new menu.  It is funny to see the restaurant quality change between cruises.  The Wake:  Cruise 1 steak dry, other selections just OK.  Cruise 2--food much improved but service awful.  Cruise 3--they finally got it together with good food and good service.  Extra Virgin Cruise 2--food was poorly seasoned and served COLD to the point that we got up and left when it happened the second time.  Service was good.  We went over to RD!   Last cruise, RD was meh

What I've learned for our 14-15 night cruises is to try each restaurant once ON THAT CRUISE, and change reservations for the remaining nights as needed based on the first experience.  It doesn't work to try to compare to the previous cruise on the same ship.

[jon81uk]

Whereas with the menu change this summer Razzle Dazzle went from not that great and style over substance to now being good modern American food. Nothing on the old dinner menu was must do for me but there are several nice things on the current after dark dinner menu, especially dessert.

[neverendingcruising]

I miss the pork pasta dish from old Razzle. The old bay wings appetizer and the “secret” burger are both great on the new menu. We tried the seafood boil as well and it was amazing but not sure I’d pay for it again (I think it was a $60 up charge?) 

[TheDarkestBlue]

Just wanted to add that on my early December sailing, the medium rare New York strip I had at Extra Virgin was the best I'd ever had, thick and juicy, cut like butter 🙂