The Fun Researcher

This conversation has gotten very specific 😂

Fred, it’s called research. This is not cheating. Just because a given party decides not to research their opportunities on a cruise doesn’t mean that those that do are cheating. I am guessing that most of those who book a guaranteed cabin are happy with just that, a guaranteed cabin. Anywhere on the ship in the category that they booked. So be it. Those that know that royal allows you to switch to other, albeit limited, cabinet locations within your category are not in the wrong. If it were so, Royal would not allow it. Plain and simple. Cheating. Pff, as if. We’ve never booked guaranteed cabins, but we’ve run into similar situation’s during our many Walt Disney World vacations where people think we are cheating for various reasons, but really it’s due to their ignorance and lack of research and planning.

Ok 😂

They are talking about vegetables in the MDR with dinner. So they should go to the Windjammer and carry vegetables with them into the MDR? How about you address the actual situation being discussed

I wish there was a thumbs down button(with regards to your post). If Royal Caribbean themselves allow this to happen, then that is the current policy, stated or not. Knowledge centers are historically wrong for big corporations. The data is not scoured and updated often enough to keep it relevant and fresh. They may not want to advertise the ability to change guaranteed rooms, but they do allow it

I'm just glad I have a cruise booked in March with a small group of 5 so I can prepare my extended family for the Alaskan cruise we have booked in July (with 16 family members spread among 6 balcony cabins). Hopefully we walk away from the Anthem in March feeling ok about the new menus, so I don' t need to be the bearer of bad news for our special (and dang expensive) July Alaskan cruise.

Yeah, we're on the Anthem in March with their stops at Port Canaveral, Nassau and Coco Cay nights 3,4,5 respectively which makes it easy to know the second "formal night" will be night 6. Wasn't sure if Anthem had other variable itineraries

Oh that would be so nice. I agree. We've always had the three kids connecting and yes it can be a real search at times to find rooms that work. We love having that open doorway. Makes the space feel so much larger and being able to share two full bathrooms is probably the biggest plus.

Most of the time you need to have the correct number of folks in a room for the connecting room to show up as bookable. For instance a connecting room that holds 3 or 4 persons won't show up if you are searching for two connecting cabin for 2 persons each. When the ship gets full enough sometimes the restrictions get lifted and you can book a 2 person in a 4 person room for instance. You probably knew all that, but as a family of 5, that has always booked connecting cabins (2 in one, 3 in the other) it gets tricky finding those room combinations. (and getting them to show up on the website as bookable) I do agree that I wouldn't book a connecting room if I could help it if it's just my wife and I sailing. Dan

What's the itinerary? Most likely night 6. Dan

Lobster, shellfish, etc is fairly common in French cooking and some other European cuisines so I'm not surprised that at least they offer it at a premium. I've never sailed from ports outside the US, but I was always under the impression that the lobster night was a North American thing with Royal Caribbean.

Yes, particularly bad season for the bird flu. Wiped out a lot of the egg producing chickens. I'm sure prices will go down once they get the stock of chickens back up, but I don't expect anything like we saw last year when they were dirt cheap. Egg prices are high enough now that we've cut back on buying them. Yes the egg suppliers might be making more margin now per carton, but I'm guessing that purchase volumes are significantly down due to the cost as well. Time will tell. We'll just have to wait it out.

“I’ll drink my lunch, thank you “

In all our Royal cruises we have yet to eat in a specialty restaurant. Been happy with the MDR. we are making a change and eating at Wonderland and Chops in March on the Anthem just to try something new. I’m sure we would still enjoy the dining room too. Hoping these new menus don’t screw that up.

150 gets a lot of love. Will need to try it on the next ship we have that restaurant on.

This. Gets you away from the madness of the buffet on embarkation day. I also like the idea (and have done it) of having an early lunch on shore prior to boarding.

I would guess it's going to take a month or more for lobster offering to be more consistent across the ships leaving from North America. I would hope that the $16.99 extra tail would consistently be a larger cold water tail versus the small warm water tails you normally get on formal night in the MDR. My big question is whether or not the first single tail you get will be the smaller warm water tails, or the larger cold water variety. Personally my bets are on the single smaller tails like we've been getting for years in the MDR, with the option to purchase another that is a nice cold water tail.

Wow, crazy! If you are that worried about others not wearing masks, don't go on a cruise. Simple. Welcome to 2023.

Wear them. Don't wear them. Who cares. Everyone is used to seeing others wearing masks by now. I still see quite a few in the supermarket, and from my coworkers now as well if they have a cold. Do what you want. I'm sure there will be very few onboard wearing them, but it doesn't mean you'll look weird if you do. People understand by now that some feel more comfortable wearing them. Dan

I would think that with 28,000+ posts under your belt, you know better. Why try to mislead and insinuate that this is a typical lunch buffet, which is is faaaaaaarrrr from. Dan

The original question was about possible Windjammer cutbacks due to what’s happened on Celebrity with their dinner buffet.

So drumexpert510, what are your general takeaways from your cruise with Royal on the Symphony versus what you're used to on other cruise lines? I'd be very interested in your thoughts. Dan

Check out the pdf document from suzyluvs2cruise about 17 posts earlier. In blue text it describes the order of how the menu works for various lengths and types of cruises. https://boards.cruisecritic.com/applications/core/interface/file/attachment.php?id=1293247&key=1aee828bd76e357f70a532fe72b9b344 Dan

I think it's perfectly valid for the OP to be asking about potential changes to the Windjammer based on what's happened with Celebrity. Celebrity is owned by Royal Caribbean Group after all, so it stands to reason that these changes may end up being implemented corporate wide. I hope not, but I've been wondering the exact same thing as the OP. We have a Celebrity cruise booked on the Equinox the week before Christmas but fortunately the dinner buffet scale back won't impact us because we eat our dinners in the MDR. Dan

I don't like these changes at all. Much more has been removed than added, especially some of my favorites like grilled lamb chops, scallops, escargot each evening, and the fallback to a "strip steak" if needed. However, I'll "deal with it". They definitely cheapened the menu with lower cost proteins for sure. Having said that, there are still a great number of very good appetizers and mains so I'll make due but who wants negative changes like this? Not me. It won't cause me to stop sailing Royal right now, but I just hope they readjust and add some of the more costly items back on the menu when eventually we catch back up to the inflationary pressures. Dan