Thanksgiving and Windjammer

[PAGA]

We are going on our 6th annual Thanksgiving cruise this year. In the past, we've always eaten our Thanksgiving meal in the MDR so I've never given any consideration to whether the Windjammer serves a buffet version of the traditional Thanksgiving meal...

 

For our upcoming trip, we have main seating and there is an excursion we're interested in that is scheduled to get us back to the ship at 6pm...even if we get back 15 minutes early, there is no way we can get 3 people showered and appropriately dressed for dinner in the MDR.

 

So what does Windjammer serve for dinner on Thanksgiving? Is it essentially the same as the MDR except that it's buffet style? And if you've eaten dinner in the Windjammer on Thanksgiving, how was your experience?

 

Also, please confirm whether we can use our Wine & Dine package in the Windjammer at dinner.

 

Thanks!

[bbvitus]

We are going on our first Thanksgiving cruise, What is unique to this cruise? Thanks Freedom 11/22

[PAGA]

We sailed on Freedom her first Thanksgiving. In addition to a special menu on Thanksgiving night (turkey, ham, pumpkin-apple soup, apple pie...but no pumpkin pie) we have usually experienced better than average guest entertainers (on Freedom, the group "Nelson" performed a show in the theater and also an acoustic set one day in the promenade...if you don't know them, they were a "hair" band in the late 80s/early 90s and are also the sons of Ricky Nelson). The other perk is that sometimes (not always) there are some Christmas decorations around the ship by the end of the week. We've also seen decorations up in some ports...the one that really sticks out in my memory is that the Havensight shopping area at the St. Thomas pier was decorated. Most ships have also made an effort to either broadcast football games in the staterooms and/or have designated a lounge for football viewing. Otherwise, it's just your normal cruise experience...keep in mind that only Americans celebrate this holiday, so for ship's staff, the many Canadians on typical Caribbean sailings, etc. Thanksgiving is just another day.

 

The one negative we remember about Thanksgiving on Freedom (and it has kept us from sailing that class ship again) is that our son had a terrible time in the Adventure Ocean program. IHe was in the 6-8 age group at the time. We never really figured out if the problems had to do with Freedom being new or the fact that more passenger capacity = more passengers with kids (especially on a holiday) and the staffing/facilities just weren't adequate for the number of kids. My son reported that many of the activities never happened because so much time was spent taking headcounts and sitting around being disciplined as a group. When they presented the youth circus in the promenade we witnessed how overwhelmed the youth staff were and more than one child was crying and begging their parents to return to the Adventure Ocean facility to check them out immediately. Hopefully this was just a one-off bad experience...this Thanksgiving will be our son's 10th RCCL cruise and we've never had an even remotely similar experience at Thanksgiving, New Years or otherwise.

 

Hope this helps...and if anyone out there has an answer to my original question about Thanksgiving dinner in the Windjammer, I'd love to hear from you!

[PAGA]

Bump

[JanineM]

Bump

 

Rather than bump the thread, have you checked out the cruise reviews here? Chances are good that someone has sailed on one of RCI's ships over Thanksgiving and has commented on the food in the buffet.

 

Just a suggestion! :)

[livylotte]

I'm not sure what Thanksgiving is so I can't help you with that but I can definitely confirm that you can request wine in the Windjammer from your wine and dine package. Just ask the waiter and he will arrange for the wine to be brought to you.

[PAGA]

Rather than bump the thread, have you checked out the cruise reviews here? Chances are good that someone has sailed on one of RCI's ships over Thanksgiving and has commented on the food in the buffet.

 

Just a suggestion! :)

 

Janine - Thanks for your suggestion. Yes, I did search before posting and found one related post that didn't completely answer my question...this is going to be my 19th RCCL cruise and my 6th consecutive Thanksgiving on an RCCL ship...and I don't know the answer. Therefore, I bumped.

[Bob-in-VA]

We are going on our first Thanksgiving cruise, What is unique to this cruise? Thanks Freedom 11/22

 

Please visit the Roll Call for the 11/22 Freedom sailing and don't forget to sign up for the Meet & Mingle!

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=903070