When we were on Riviera in late November 2023, we encountered a lot of issues in each and all of the dining venues (except for Red Ginger, where we did not dine), almost every time. It took a very long time for our food to arrive, and when they arrived, it looked like it was sitting somewhere for a long time (cold and lifeless, in some cases). The servers, especially those in the Grand Dining Room and Polo Grill, looked visibly stressed. When we encountered a problem, there was a lot of finger-pointing (server blaming the kitchen, manager blaming the slow internet (*****???), etc.). The quality of the food served was clearly inferior to what we have seen on Crystal and even on Celebrity....though our last cruise on Celebrity was a long time ago. We've never encountered something like this on any of the cruises we have taken, and we have taken cruises from a fairly wide range of lines (NCL all the way up to Crystal, including their 62-passenger yacht).
We are truly hoping that this was an isolated incidence (though I don't think it is the case), and that when we do our Baltic cruise on Vista that we will not see any of this nonsense. However, I'm starting to wonder really outstanding food and service are now only available on true luxury lines and that all cruise lines are basically declining in quality, especially in the area of food and service.