chickychubs

The pricing of these cruises are pretty unattractive to me especially with these repetitive itineraries. I think this is due to the lack of choices in Singapore as RCCL and Genting are the only companies with ships home ported here. Until things change, I'd rather go for land tours in Malaysia or Thailand instead which would offer better itineraries,accommodations and food at a far more competitive price.

I agree that the drop in ingredient quality is a significant factor. From my observation, the kummelweck used to be made with the ribeye cut which has now changed to cheap round cuts. The bread used to be more varied and high quality to now having the same dinner rolls with just different toppings sprinkled over. Desserts changing from using dark chocolate to cheap cocoa (if it is even cocoa) to something that tastes artificial. The escargot which now uses a blend of oil and butter instead of pure butter. Some say that taste is subjective but that refers to flavour profiles of the food prepared not the cause of declining food quality caused by cheaper ingredients.

I have to concur with your opinion after my last cruise on Spectrum in March. I had an absolutely awful starter at chops grille and left most of it on my plate. When the waiter came and cleared it up, I mentioned to him that the starter was awful and he simply cleared it without even offering to replace it. Worse off, we were limited to one starter per person despite having multiple during previous cruises. I'm not sure if this is the norm moving forward. To concur with your statement, my experience too with the steaks in the MDR were of such low grade beef that I couldn't even bring myself to finish it. In both specialty dining and the MDR, waitstaff kept stressing about the end of cruise review and giving high scores that it left a bad taste on my mouth. The interactions with staff felt extremely forced and a little unnatural. This is in stark contrast with our cruises on Royal in the past where staff felt genuinely friendly and happy. Crossing my fingers that I will not regret going forward with the 12n on Anthem next year.

We have sailed on Royal since 2012 and I have to agree that food is indeed going downhill. In the past escargot and prime rib used to be extremely consistent ship to ship and have always been a staple on our cruises. Desserts on Legend (RIP) used to be so enjoyable, especially the chocolate torte. We sailed on Quantum in 2022 was still decent with standouts being the kummelweck but desserts were a far cry from the past. Most recently, having sailing 5 cruises on Spectrum from 2022 to now, I can say that food quality has declined dramatically be it in the buffet with even hash browns being soggy and pancakes so stale I couldn't stab through them with a knife to the kummelweck being dried out and tough like shoe leather. Food in the MDR has become extremely disappointing with cheap cuts of sirloin devoid of flavour to the once staple prime rib being tough and tasteless and the escargot being greasy and flavourless. We are extremely disappointed with the QC and coincidentally these cost cuts seem to have happened after the new CEO took over. We have currently booked 2 more royal cruises next year including a repositioning on Anthem to Japan and a Princess cruise to New Zealand. We hope that these changes aren't a sign of things to come.