Tatka

Nature of the beast is that this show is also changes. Repeaters won't rush to watch Mamma Mia or We will rock you for gazillion time, but comedy changes. I usually check who is performing.

Reservations are not tied to check-in I believe. Also try to use it in browser rather than app.

Not for Comedy shows on Oasis class. Venue is small and they do check your reservations and there is a chance you won't get in. For water shows on Oasis class you may not get into particular show to, but chance is less. In large venues chance to get in without reservations are even larger.

On some ships you always needed to reserve shows. For example Comedy show. For this show reservations are very important as venue is small. If you do not book let's say main show like Mamma Mia (on Oasis or Quantum class) you can just show up and there will be a space as theater is large and people already have been watching it for many years so repeaters are likely to show up. I think they even removed reservations for those (but not for two70 shows like Spectra's cabaret).

You don't have to buy package for kids. You cannot share yours with kids.

We sail year around from New Jersey. Odyssey is coming in 2024 in place of Anthem. Thankfully we don’t have younger kids anymore, but absence of that covered pool will be felt … I envision kids trying to get into solarium pools and colder solarium

I am also not sure. If you eat in buffet... to whom gratuities assigned?

It is certainly your choice. What I am saying "demands" of not wishing to wear pants in certain restaurants which require them do not matter. NCL enforces this rule.

They are demanding, but rule is enforced. My husband does not wear shorts to any restaurants for dinner with any line, but one time we were late for dinner on NCL Dawn(?) and we tried to enter aft restaurant which does not allow shirts. We were stopped.

Why do you need to designate a section of restaurant? Just show up wearing formal clothes.

Very interesting! I remember our very cruise from US (we moved here in mid-90s and started cruising in 2003). Our son then 11 (now 31) was so exited to see all the food when two of us got on board of Celebrity Century... I called my husband who stayed home at that time and then I turned around and found DS literally eating 4 cheeseburgers! At home we rarely went to fast food places so it was like a paradise for him. And yes... shrimp cocktail was a huge hit. At that time even Celebrity did not feature escargots daily. We only cruised twice a year till later when our DS was out of school and maybe even college. Then I discovered how to work on some days from the ship... especially ship like Anthem! and we cruise 5 year ever since (now I do not even need to work during cruises)

Celebrity is premium massmarket. My first cruise (2003) was on Celebrity Century. Food was amazing! I tried to get my DH on board and booked Mediterranean cruise on Splendor of the Seas for 2004, knowing that even if he hated a cruise he would love ports. Cruise was wonderful and DH got addicted, but food... It was really a shame. Breakfasts in WJ did not even feature homefries, only hash brown. All vegetables for dinners looked like canned food. Splendor of the Seas had design of MDR that would make you forget about food (huge 2 story windows) especially during sailaways ... All cruises withX had better food. I love Edge class concept of restaurants. It is somewhat like Dynamic Dining RCI used to have in 2016 on Anthem with different cuisine in each of 4 restaurants. However my friend just sailed recently on Millennium from Puerto Rico and she said they were really surprised with conditions of buffet... During evenings it barely featured any food.

Maybe, but RCI only switched to nightly escargots later in 2010... In 2000-x escargot was only offered during the first formal night, then Celebrity started offering nightly and then Royal switched, but it was still not offered on all nights. This is why I am saying that people think that something was always classic, but it was not. I can not say when it started being offered on constant basis. Till 2016 we only had 5 cruises with Royal. Splendor 2004, Explorer 2007, 2009, 2010 and Brilliance 2013 and escargot was almost like a lobster. Once a cruise.

Yes, looks like it is on longer cruises. I remember it from Allure in 2016 when I tried it for the first time, Back then there was no escargots nightly (or at all?). Then from 2017 escargots started appearing on first 4-5 days out of 7, 8-9 out of 12. From 2018 till this change I ate them every night. 🙂

You are saying it as if this is somehow 100% occurrence. For 12 days on Enchantment in March, 11 days on Anthem in January we had different quality staff (some were good, some were OK) , but we never had untrained staff. We had 5 last year and a year before. This year we also have Liberty in May and September and Anthem in November. Only 26 out of 57 our cruises are with Royal, so we can change lines if experience becomes horrible. 🙂 We always do My Time Dining and ask to be seated in various locations (on ships like Enchantments, Oasis) or restaurants (on Anthem) so we get many different waiters on every cruise. And ... we leave our comments in surveys most of the time about good, bad and ugly. By the way, speak to their managers right away you are upset.

I found Bay Scallop Gratin. It’s on this menu

I just don't think my opinion is any less important than other people opinions. Do you think yours weighs less? And it is not endlessly by any means. How many posts? By the same token I can ask you what is with all your posts here? What are you trying to achieve?

1. We miss lamb chop.. They dropped it about a year ago. There is a lamb, but it is with large bone and very fatty. There is no beef Wellington which I in some reason suddenly fell in love with just before it disappeared. Although we saw it in the buffet on Anthem one day. 2. I swear I saw Bay scallop gratin during 12 night cruise, but I cannot remember what themed night that was (we had 11 different menus on 12 nights, Italian repeated)

What a cute accusation. LOL Because I can. 🙂 I am arguing based on my experience and the fact that I am on cruise boards and other sites for a long time (you can check my profile) to know that at any time you can find tons of bad reviews. It does not mean your experience will be bad. I read absolutely horrible reviews about cruises we were on which we did not experience at all. However if we do not like something we complain right there on the ship. Of course it is always very polite, but firm. Most if not all things get fixed. One out of 8 companies we dropped completely realizing that we cannot expect something that is not there by design.

I am sailing with RCI since 2004 (just like with other 7 lines) just much more often lately. People are paying more now because many are still taking the first vacation after Covid break. RCI won't be able to keep prices risen in a long time, And even now there are ways to avoid paying much more and people use it (especially experienced ones). Increasing prices on extras also have limits because those items are not mandatory.

And in our case the very first time it made a difference. Meat was not medium well as my husband likes. Of course we did not film it. By the way I a have conspiracy theory. Yes.. from watching this video someone will change cruise line, however due to the other things which make RCI almost unique or unique people will just book additional restaurants more often. Who do you think will benefit from this?

This is a problem. Just because you are watching almost professional video you think it is somehow an absolute standard. It is not. And this is aside from the facts that 2-5-10 years ago quality of service on various ships of the same company (in this case RCI) highly dependent on particular stuff, Even food variety in buffet depended on the ship.

You can still send food back. If portion is not enough you can ask for the second entry. Any entry except for free lobster. We actually ordered two entries on several occasions in March.

If you are OK with doubling prices maybe you need to look at premium or even luxury lines? To expect that massmarket line can easily double prices for majority of cruises is just not reasonable. If you are OK with it, try Celebrity. They also have some cutbacks, but overall they offer better food as they focus more on it than on lets say entertainment. Also maybe Holland America. Princess was also usually better in food department than Royal. On land in All inclusives you also have limits, but hey, if they work better for you why not? We look for all components including geography/ship design, and Royal is the best for us now overall,

It is an industry cut backs. I'd say not only cruise industry, but overall hospitality. You of course know reasons for that. In our observations Royal improved greatly from 2000-x to 2010x. And we all know what happened in 2020. Right? But even losing money up to the last quarters of 2022 Royal tried really hard not to change things. No company will suddenly try to upset its customers for no reasons. Especially when competition is that fierce. As I watched Royal (and other companies) through tougher and better times I hope they and other lines will be able to correct issues. For now I am happy they survived. Btw while cruises were on hold in 2020 and 2021 we did what we have not done for 18 years... Went to good all inclusives. As much as it was a breath of fresh air, it was evident that they also experienced issues.