$14.95 for STEAK???

[twoputt.plusone]

And when the quality is no longer there, I buy a new brand of car. Would I feel guilty switching from a GM to a Ford or whatever? Not a chance.

 

2P.P1

[Lynnees]

And when the quality is no longer there, I buy a new brand of car. Would I feel guilty switching from a GM to a Ford or whatever? Not a chance.

 

2P.P1

Nope - and why should we - it's our money.

[PSCruiser]

Now YOU got it. :rolleyes: RCI is no different than any other business. If it costs more to provide the expected level of service, then you raise your rates accordingly. I say enough of this sneaky tactic where they're making the consumer feel guilty for expecting quality.

 

2P.P1

 

Well stated. Its not this single item that concerns me, its that RC might be using this as a foot in the door to a basic change in dining - possibly where the Windjammer is the only no charge dining. I've chosen cruises as my preferred vacation primarily because of its semi-all inclusive structure. If the cruise industry changes to a semi-ala carte structure, then I have many other choices to look at.

I'll be one to say, enough is enough.

[gandmaryann]

my wife will only go to chops 1 night on a cruise, she'll always go to portofino, i love steak and don't like the steak in portofino. she would be happy in the main dining room - so, as i see it, this is the perfect option for us. i get to eat a chop's strip and she can have what she wants on the dining room menu. this means i (personally) save money. of course, this is as long as this is a chop's quality steak. btw, i don't order the alternative steak in the dining room because it is not a great steak. great option for me and hope the next time we cruise i can order it in the dining room

[isujim]

Well stated. Its not this single item that concerns me, its that RC might be using this as a foot in the door to a basic change in dining - possibly where the Windjammer is the only no charge dining. I've chosen cruises as my preferred vacation primarily because of its semi-all inclusive structure. If the cruise industry changes to a semi-ala carte structure, then I have many other choices to look at.

I'll be one to say, enough is enough.

 

I agree with you..........we are very close ourselves.........after Explorer we are doing a land vacation, Princess and Azamara.......

 

One thing is certain in my opinion......it is becoming harder and harder to judge the REAL cost of a cruise vacation........and maybe that is what they are intending.....along with airfare for us in the midwest, it can easily become a very expensive proposition.

[curley23]

Now YOU got it. :rolleyes: RCI is no different than any other business. If it costs more to provide the expected level of service, then you raise your rates accordingly. I say enough of this sneaky tactic where they're making the consumer feel guilty for expecting quality.

 

2P.P1

 

What some seem to fail to understand is that RCI is a mass market line. If one wishes to pay more for better quality, etc, and have it included in one price, then one should look at different lines that fit their needs.

RCI is going to keep the base price of their cruises as low as possible, to fill ships. They are not going to price themselves out of the product. This is why they have other lines, Celebrity, and Azamura.

Since the specialty restaurants seem to be doing just fine, why not expand it in some form to the dining room. They are allowed to market any way they wish, if you don't like it, you don't have to cruise with them.

Some pax are just happy with the way things are. Some have the option to pay more and hopefully receive more. What difference does it make how one pays for it.

I don't understand what is so sneaky. Sneaky would be not telling you there is an extra charge, then charging you.

Just something else for people to complain about, as most cannot handle change.

[Tranquil Waters]

What some seem to fail to understand is that RCI is a mass market line. If one wishes to pay more for better quality, service,etc, and have it included in one price, then one should look at different lines that fit their needs.

RCI is going to keep the base price of their cruises as low as possible, this is necessary to fill ships. They are not going to price themselves out of the product. This is why they have other lines, Celebrity, and Azamura.

Since the specialty restaurants seem to be doing just fine, why not expand it in some form to the dining room. They are allowed to market any way they wish, if you don't like it, you don't have to cruise with them.

Some pax are just happy with the way things are. Some have the option to pay more and hopefully receive more. What more can one ask.

I don't understand what is so sneaky. Sneaky would be not telling you there is an extra charge, then charging you.

 

No - sneaky is offering a free steak alternative option for years in the MDR . And then quietly taking the free option away. No announcement. And substituting a $14.95 steak as the only steak alternative option. And you find out only after you havealready purchased the cruised, made final payment, and are onboard.

[Merion_Mom]

Also, it is not just $15 - it is $15 plus the cost of the meal you already paid for included with the cost of the cruise (figure at least $30-35).

 

I can see what is coming soon. For breakfast you can have oatmeal for free, but if you would like an egg it will cost $5 more. RCCL has already figured out a way to charge more for hamburgers. :mad:

 

Someone with a clearer memory on this point will help me if I am wrong.

 

The amount budgeted for food per person per day by Royal Caribbean is barely in double digits. You are completely off-base with the "at least $30-$35" description.

 

Anyone bought a "half gallon" of ice cream lately?

 

About two (?) years ago, all of the manufacturers downsized that to a quart and three quarters. AND RAISED THE PRICE.

 

I think that this is, indeed, a bellwether of things to come. Bad things.

 

HOWEVER.................

 

Once again, it's not a Royal Caribbean thing.

 

Did anyone read Schplinky's review of their 3 night cruise on the Norwegian Sky?

 

They ate in the fee-based restaurants. They paid the fee.

 

Once at table, they found that MANY of the items on the menu required an ADDITIONAL upcharge!!!!!!!!!

 

(It was that way on the Crown Princess two years ago, too. Fee for the Crowne Grille, extra for the lobster)

[curley23]

No - sneaky is offering a free steak alternative option for years in the MDR . And then quietly taking the free option away. No announcement. And substituting a $14.95 steak as the only steak alternative option. And you find out only after you havealready purchased the cruised, made final payment, and are onboard.

 

Yeah, a steak that most say isn't very good anyway.

I guess RCI is just out to get everyone.

BTW. Where does it say they can't change their menus, or offerings on the menu?? Is this written somewhere??

[twoputt.plusone]

I don't understand what is so sneaky. Sneaky would be not telling you there is an extra charge, then charging you.

Just something else for people to complain about, as most cannot handle change.

 

Sneaky to me is not telling your "valued" customer up front that things aren't the way they used to be. This is a fundamental change IMO and to accept bookings without full disclosure is to me sneaky. You call it what you like.

 

2P.P1

[Tranquil Waters]

Yeah, a steak that most say isn't very good anyway.

I guess RCI is just out to get everyone.

BTW. Where does it say they can't change their menus, or offerings on the menu?? Is this written somewhere??

 

So if someone doesn't like the steak, then being sneaky is OK.....

 

Yes, RCI is out to get whatever they can - as much as the market will bear, baby. :rolleyes:

 

BTW, don't recall anyone saying that RCI couldn't do it. Newsflash.... they have done it. Doesn't mean we have to think it is OK. :mad:

[EscapeFromConnecticut]

This is how I feel, too. I have never complained about their food in the past, not once. Their alternate steak has always been just fine with me. With my allergies, I have counted on it. This is NOT a good trend.... :( If I wanted Chops or Portifinos, that's where I would go.

 

 

Why is it that some people - like yourself - easily grasp this very straightfoward concept, while others continue babbling on about "choice"? It's astonishing. Truly, I begin to wonder if some posters aren't actually on RCL's payroll.:confused:

The $14.95 steak is the precise opposite of choice, and it's a clear signal of RCL's approaching assault on the value of cruising. Let's review:

BEFORE - If you wanted steak, you had a choice when you could either:

A: enjoy the steak in the dining room that YOU'D ALREADY PAID FOR through your fare .. or

B: if you really needed better, you could fork over still more cash and buy a Chops-grade steak.

NOW - If you want steak, you can:

A: fork over still more and buy a Chops-grade steak.

So ... BEFORE you had two choices. NOW you have one.

And ... one is less than two.

Therefore, if we connect the dots, we see .... the new system is not about adding choices! It's not an improvement, it's a rip-off.

[Catnip]

 

So ... BEFORE you had two choices. NOW you have one.

 

Therefore, if we connect the dots, we see .... the new system is not about adding choices! It's not an improvement, it's a rip-off.

 

 

 

Hear, hear!!!!!!! Very well said.

[snowbird1]

I'm still not clear on what is being offered. I understand that the Chops steak is now being offered as an option for $14.95 in the main dining room. Previously, a regular NY Strip was offered in the main dining room as a no extra cost option. Is that no extra cost steak still on the menu as an option, along with the other option of the $14.95 chops steak, or have they simply dropped reference to the free steak that has always been available every night, and replaced it with a reference to the optional $14.95 Chops steak? BIG difference between those two situations.

 

 

I got a feeling I know the long-term answer to this question and now I just saw Don's post to confirm it, well what a surprise. Honestly to me it is looking more and more like Cunard had the right idea and saw the future even though I thought it was crazy at one time. To me RCCL is headed rapidly to the different classes of dinning and paying more for them. This is the way to slowly work the system in and then suddenly down the road, it will happen. Food has gone downhill so fast in recent years in the DR that I almost wish they would just do it and have opportunity to have great meals in the DR the way you could in the 80's without having to go to Alternative places on the ship. This is just my opinion and I am sure it isn't shared by many.

[EscapeFromConnecticut]

I would like to think we would stand up and say enough is enough (I know I will), but from some of the posts here, I'd say there are too many people that are OK with the nickle-n-diming and paying extra and more & more surcharges. What a shame.

 

 

Exactly, Catnip.

It is easy to see why RCL's fatcat execs would love anything that brings in more revenue, regardless of how it affects passengers. After all, there's no reason in the world for them to care even remotely whether the customers enjoy their cruise ... just so long as the $$ keeps coming in. These are businessmen. Sadly, this current bunch appears to be the most ruthless and greed-minded of them all, but we're not going to change that.

What's incomprehensible is why supposedly rational and adult consumers would transform themselves into sheep and line up cheerfully for this fleecing. I've never had a problem spending money on vacations (as Diners Club would cheerfully verify), but I detest being scammed and cheated. And that's precisely what RCL is doing here - a long-term bait and switch.

The upscale restaurants onboard were, in fact, never about providing "more choices." Obviously, they were exclusively a business decision - and a direct revenue-based decision at that.

More importantly, they were also a way for RCL to skim more $$ from its food budgets. Consider a ship of 2,500 on a seven-day cruise - where 5 percent of the passengers dine at Chops or Portofinos on each night. That's 125 meals a night, or 875 during the course of the entire cruise.

The obvious $$-maker for RCL comes from charging those 875 people for dining upgrades. But the hidden savings is the 875 worth of food saved from the regular dining room's expenses -- 875 orders of fish, veal, chicken, etc. throughout the cruise. Does anyone really believe that money got plowed back into the dining room budget to upgrade the quality of food for the remaining passengers? Not a chance. That money made its way to the bottom line, with a share off the top for the suits on Caribbean Way who hatched this whole scheme.

And the REALLY hidden thievery of this scam is in the ever-worsening downward pressure on the main dining room budget.

Put yourself in the shoes of the RCL execs: You're making $$ at Chops and Portofinos, but the dining room meals are pure expense. So every greed-based incentive is going to drive you to steadily hack away at the executive chef's budget for the dining room ... because you figure hey, the upscale customers can pony up $$ for the specialty restaurants, and the rest of them can shut up & make do with dirt-cheap pasta or vegetarian offerings.

In fact, if you rip away a couple more bucks from the nightly per-pax allotment that the executive chef gets, you'll gradually force him or her to select shoddier suppliers, reduce portions or start loading up the menu with high-carb, low-cost buffet stuff masquerading as quality entrees. (I've got nothing against pasta or chicken, but there's a REASON you see more of this stuff on 2008 menus than we used to see in 2000. ) That's going to drive MORE business to the specialty restaurants. (Or, if you're RCL-level devious, you bring Chops into the dining room ... starting with the $15 steak)

The next move is to rig the main dinner menu to combine lots of cheapo entrees on the same night ... so three or even four offerings are low-cost fillers.

Meanwhile, the chef consolidates the more expensive and popular upscale entrees (sea bass, veal, scallops, lobster, prime rib, etc.) on fewer nights. So passengers see the same fancy names on the menu, but they'll get to order only a couple ... the rest of the nights, you're steering them toward the cheap stuff.

So in reality, the very creation of Chops and Portofinos was the start of the erosion of the dining room experience ... and what looks like a long-term plan to charge everything ala carte.

Now in gentler times with a more generous and customer-oriented executive corps, perhaps the specialty restaurants would have really been about new choices - but in this market with RCL's current exec lineup, it's simple scamming.

And note that all of this amounts to a hidden attack on value. By cutting out what they give you in exchange for your fare, RCL in effect RAISES your fare - at least in terms of value.

That becomes clear when you play this out ... as the Kool Aid Krowd says: "Just order the cheaper stuff."

Well, someday when all that's left on the traditional no-charge dining room menu is Spaghetti ala Mariner, Ziti Milano with a garnish of garlic, or Chef's Supreme Cabbage Rolls, then you'll realize you might as well have stayed home and eaten at Denny's.

That's the direction this is going in, and the current thread is an excellent indication of who is wise enough to catch on BEFORE RCL wields the hammer ... and who needs to wait for the actual RCL smack before waking up.

[GQuagmire]

Why is it that some people - like yourself - easily grasp this very straightfoward concept, while others continue babbling on about "choice"? It's astonishing. Truly, I begin to wonder if some posters aren't actually on RCL's payroll.:confused:

The $14.95 steak is the precise opposite of choice, and it's a clear signal of RCL's approaching assault on the value of cruising. Let's review:

BEFORE - If you wanted steak, you had a choice when you could either:

A: enjoy the steak in the dining room that YOU'D ALREADY PAID FOR through your fare .. or

B: if you really needed better, you could fork over still more cash and buy a Chops-grade steak.

NOW - If you want steak, you can:

A: fork over still more and buy a Chops-grade steak.

So ... BEFORE you had two choices. NOW you have one.

And ... one is less than two.

Therefore, if we connect the dots, we see .... the new system is not about adding choices! It's not an improvement, it's a rip-off.

 

Exactly! There is no choice now, unless you count 'pay up or go without' as your "choice" I don't.

 

If you want to spend $ on steak, go to Chops. I'd prefer to eat a free steak and spend my $ on drinks, etc.

[amybear912]

 

 

 

So every greed-based incentive is going to drive you to steadily hack away at the executive chef's budget for the dining room ... because you figure hey, the upscale customers can pony up $$ for the specialty restaurants, and the rest of them can shut up & make do with dirt-cheap pasta or vegetarian offerings.

In fact, if you rip away a couple more bucks from the nightly per-pax allotment that the executive chef gets, you'll gradually force him or her to select shoddier suppliers, reduce portions or start loading up the menu with high-carb, low-cost buffet stuff masquerading as quality entrees.Meanwhile, the chef consolidates the more expensive and popular upscale entrees (sea bass, veal, scallops, lobster, prime rib, etc.) on fewer nights. So passengers see the same fancy names on the menu, but they'll get to order only a couple ... the rest of the nights, you're steering them toward the cheap stuff.

 

 

Unfortunately, where you are wrong here is in thinking that the Executive Chef onboard has ANYTHING to do with choosing suppliers, products, or even menu creation... that's done at the top by a a fellow who sits in an office all day...

 

And I can't blame RCI for the choices they have made with regards to food quality lately... not with the amount of waste they are dealing with... Waste = money down the toilet or, quite literally - out to sea.... It's simply not cost-effective to continue to provide ultra-high quality food just so Joe Schmoe from Kokomo can "try" 3 entrees one night and barely eat 1/4 of what is placed in front of him...

 

"Lobster" was served our last night onboard last week and our waiter was literally pushing extra tails on us... brought out a plate of extras at the mere mention from someone wanting another one... Why??? Because otherwise, those tails were going to be thrown out... Granted, not quality tails by any means, but tails none the less... and tails cost $$$ - even the lesser quality, frozen variety...

 

The reality is that there are many who cruise who don't know the difference between high quality food and something that just sounds fancy and "exotic"... In a lot of cases, many who cruise don't have the opportunity to try "escargot" in their day-to-day lives... cruising allows them to do that, even if it isn't the best escargot available or prepared in the best possible way... the point is, they get to go home and say they tried something...

 

Those who do long for higher quality food have the option of specialty dining and will pay for it, once in a while...

 

Those who are truly into the food will adjust their budgets to afford a line that DOES provide a higher quality food product... but as RC caters more and more to families, it's just not about the food anymore...

 

If it is about the food for you, you have options... pay extra for specialty dining or pay extra to cruise on a line that caters to your gourmet tastes...

[2112]

Someone with a clearer memory on this point will help me if I am wrong.

 

The amount budgeted for food per person per day by Royal Caribbean is barely in double digits. You are completely off-base with the "at least $30-$35" description.

 

I'm not refering to the amount RCCL budgets for food (their cost for raw materials) but rather what the meal would cost if you were to buy it in a restaurant. I think that for a meal such as you get on a cruise ship in the main dining room, with soup, salad, appetizers, main course with sides and desert you would expect to pay $30-35 or more in a typical restaurant. Am I wrong on this? Just try to get out of Black Angus, Red Lobster or even Chili's for less than that these days.

[English_in_Spain]

I think it should be made clearer in the advertising and promotions of the cruises that these changes are being made. Only a small percentage of people going on a cruise read these posts so they would not know about the changes.

 

I have done 18 cruises with different cruise lines and, when I chose my next 2 cruises, I looked at the options being offered. If I had chosen HAL or Wind Star or P&O I would have not have had to pay $15 a day if I wanted a steak.

 

If you add this up, together with other extra charges, over the entire cruise RCI would probably not have been the cheapest. We are not comparing like with like.

 

Also, it is not fair to compare these meals with restaurants ashore in the US. I will be cruising in the Med and therefore I would compare the meal with a top restaurant in Europe and would never expect to pay the prices that have been mentioned in these posts.

[isujim]

I think it should be made clearer in the advertising and promotions of the cruises that these changes are being made. Only a small percentage of people going on a cruise read these posts so they would not know about the changes.

 

.

 

I'm sure RC is counting on that to some degree:)

[curley23]

Sneaky to me is not telling your "valued" customer up front that things aren't the way they used to be. This is a fundamental change IMO and to accept bookings without full disclosure is to me sneaky. You call it what you like.

 

2P.P1

So I guess if RCI had told you a year ago that next year they would not be serving the little crappy steak on the alternative menu, you would not have booked, or you would have cancelled before the final payment was due had you known??

[curley23]

Exactly, Catnip.

 

It is easy to see why RCL's fatcat execs would love anything that brings in more revenue, regardless of how it affects passengers. After all, there's no reason in the world for them to care even remotely whether the customers enjoy their cruise ... just so long as the $$ keeps coming in. These are businessmen. Sadly, this current bunch appears to be the most ruthless and greed-minded of them all, but we're not going to change that.

 

What's incomprehensible is why supposedly rational and adult consumers would transform themselves into sheep and line up cheerfully for this fleecing. I've never had a problem spending money on vacations (as Diners Club would cheerfully verify), but I detest being scammed and cheated. And that's precisely what RCL is doing here - a long-term bait and switch.

 

The upscale restaurants onboard were, in fact, never about providing "more choices." Obviously, they were exclusively a business decision - and a direct revenue-based decision at that.

 

More importantly, they were also a way for RCL to skim more $$ from its food budgets. Consider a ship of 2,500 on a seven-day cruise - where 5 percent of the passengers dine at Chops or Portofinos on each night. That's 125 meals a night, or 875 during the course of the entire cruise.

 

The obvious $$-maker for RCL comes from charging those 875 people for dining upgrades. But the hidden savings is the 875 worth of food saved from the regular dining room's expenses -- 875 orders of fish, veal, chicken, etc. throughout the cruise. Does anyone really believe that money got plowed back into the dining room budget to upgrade the quality of food for the remaining passengers? Not a chance. That money made its way to the bottom line, with a share off the top for the suits on Caribbean Way who hatched this whole scheme.

 

And the REALLY hidden thievery of this scam is in the ever-worsening downward pressure on the main dining room budget.

 

Put yourself in the shoes of the RCL execs: You're making $$ at Chops and Portofinos, but the dining room meals are pure expense. So every greed-based incentive is going to drive you to steadily hack away at the executive chef's budget for the dining room ... because you figure hey, the upscale customers can pony up $$ for the specialty restaurants, and the rest of them can shut up & make do with dirt-cheap pasta or vegetarian offerings.

In fact, if you rip away a couple more bucks from the nightly per-pax allotment that the executive chef gets, you'll gradually force him or her to select shoddier suppliers, reduce portions or start loading up the menu with high-carb, low-cost buffet stuff masquerading as quality entrees. (I've got nothing against pasta or chicken, but there's a REASON you see more of this stuff on 2008 menus than we used to see in 2000. ) That's going to drive MORE business to the specialty restaurants. (Or, if you're RCL-level devious, you bring Chops into the dining room ... starting with the $15 steak)

 

The next move is to rig the main dinner menu to combine lots of cheapo entrees on the same night ... so three or even four offerings are low-cost fillers.

Meanwhile, the chef consolidates the more expensive and popular upscale entrees (sea bass, veal, scallops, lobster, prime rib, etc.) on fewer nights. So passengers see the same fancy names on the menu, but they'll get to order only a couple ... the rest of the nights, you're steering them toward the cheap stuff.

 

So in reality, the very creation of Chops and Portofinos was the start of the erosion of the dining room experience ... and what looks like a long-term plan to charge everything ala carte.

 

Now in gentler times with a more generous and customer-oriented executive corps, perhaps the specialty restaurants would have really been about new choices - but in this market with RCL's current exec lineup, it's simple scamming.

 

And note that all of this amounts to a hidden attack on value. By cutting out what they give you in exchange for your fare, RCL in effect RAISES your fare - at least in terms of value.

 

That becomes clear when you play this out ... as the Kool Aid Krowd says: "Just order the cheaper stuff."

 

Well, someday when all that's left on the traditional no-charge dining room menu is Spaghetti ala Mariner, Ziti Milano with a garnish of garlic, or Chef's Supreme Cabbage Rolls, then you'll realize you might as well have stayed home and eaten at Denny's.

 

That's the direction this is going in, and the current thread is an excellent indication of who is wise enough to catch on BEFORE RCL wields the hammer ... and who needs to wait for the actual RCL smack before waking up.

 

Its nice to know that thre are watchdogs out there to makke sure we are not getting scammed. Does this mean we won't see you on any more RCI cruises?? Seems to me that would be the way to express your anger, instead of your ranting here.

[curley23]

I got a feeling I know the long-term answer to this question and now I just saw Don's post to confirm it, well what a surprise. Honestly to me it is looking more and more like Cunard had the right idea and saw the future even though I thought it was crazy at one time. To me RCCL is headed rapidly to the different classes of dinning and paying more for them. This is the way to slowly work the system in and then suddenly down the road, it will happen. Food has gone downhill so fast in recent years in the DR that I almost wish they would just do it and have opportunity to have great meals in the DR the way you could in the 80's without having to go to Alternative places on the ship. This is just my opinion and I am sure it isn't shared by many.

 

Your opinion is shared by probably more than you think, including me, however there are plenty who also do not share it. If RCI raised the fares to include all the gourmet food of yesteryear, then there would be many who would not cruise, due to not being able to afford it. The system of letting the pax choose what to spend their $$ on is just fine. If I want to spend an extra $50 a day on food, then it is my choice, not RCI's.

Unfortunately for some, this is the future of the mass market lines. If someone wants to go back 20yrs, then choose a line that caters to it.

[lysolqn]

"Lobster" was served our last night onboard last week and our waiter was literally pushing extra tails on us... brought out a plate of extras at the mere mention from someone wanting another one... Why??? Because otherwise, those tails were going to be thrown out...

 

Your waiter wasn't pushing extra tails because they would otherwise have been thrown out. While there's plenty of food waste on a ship, it usually occurs after food leaves the galley and is attribtable to overzealous passengers who take more than they can eat. Food preparation on a ship is a science and there's much less waste in the galley than you think. Lobster tails that never made it out of the galley would have been recycled - used for crew, for preparing stock, as part of some dish offered for the next day's lunch. Your waiter "pushed" extra tails because he knows passengers on every cruise look forward to them (just think of all the posts on CC inquiring about which night is lobster night on one ship or another?). He wanted to make his passengers happy, hoping that in turn, they would make him happy on tip night. Every waiter on every ship on every cruise line does the same thing.

[curley23]

Unfortunately, where you are wrong here is in thinking that the Executive Chef onboard has ANYTHING to do with choosing suppliers, products, or even menu creation... that's done at the top by a a fellow who sits in an office all day...

 

And I can't blame RCI for the choices they have made with regards to food quality lately... not with the amount of waste they are dealing with... Waste = money down the toilet or, quite literally - out to sea.... It's simply not cost-effective to continue to provide ultra-high quality food just so Joe Schmoe from Kokomo can "try" 3 entrees one night and barely eat 1/4 of what is placed in front of him...

 

"Lobster" was served our last night onboard last week and our waiter was literally pushing extra tails on us... brought out a plate of extras at the mere mention from someone wanting another one... Why??? Because otherwise, those tails were going to be thrown out... Granted, not quality tails by any means, but tails none the less... and tails cost $$$ - even the lesser quality, frozen variety...

 

The reality is that there are many who cruise who don't know the difference between high quality food and something that just sounds fancy and "exotic"... In a lot of cases, many who cruise don't have the opportunity to try "escargot" in their day-to-day lives... cruising allows them to do that, even if it isn't the best escargot available or prepared in the best possible way... the point is, they get to go home and say they tried something...

 

Those who do long for higher quality food have the option of specialty dining and will pay for it, once in a while...

 

Those who are truly into the food will adjust their budgets to afford a line that DOES provide a higher quality food product... but as RC caters more and more to families, it's just not about the food anymore...

 

If it is about the food for you, you have options... pay extra for specialty dining or pay extra to cruise on a line that caters to your gourmet tastes...

 

Very well said.