nanwel Posted January 17, 2014 #226 Share Posted January 17, 2014 WJ is not my reason to cruise. I prefer the solarium or ParkCafe food for breakfast if I do not have room service, and avoid it for lunch. Stopped for a late night snack last cruise - was awful - back to the park cafe. Hard to please all of us, but if I had to take my meals in the WJ all the time. I would not cruise RC. I have grabbed a snack the odd time and take it outside - do not like eating in there - but realize lots of people do - but then again, there are lots of restraunts that are very poplular on land that would go out of business if they waited for me to use them. But it would be a boring world if we all enjoyed the same stuff!! Each to their own - enjoy! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sanz Posted January 17, 2014 #227 Share Posted January 17, 2014 (edited) Really NCL and Carnival....... The worst food IMO The taste of food is subjective and at times can vary from ship to to ship on one cruise line and has varied throughout the years on the same line. - In my opinion to each their own taste. However - one of your past comments states that you are a "seasoned RC cruiser". When was "your season" on Carnival and NCL? When did you taste the food offered on these lines/ships? Edited January 17, 2014 by Sanz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrD Posted January 17, 2014 #228 Share Posted January 17, 2014 This statement makes little sense....the size of the ship (in this case you are referring to Jewel) has no bearing on what the kitchen has the capacity to cater. Every galley has the ability to effectively provide food services for the number of cruisers on board. Maybe. If dish is expected to be eaten by say only 1% of patrons, (maybe it's something weird) they prob wouldn't make it on a ship with a few hundred passengers as then only 2-3 people would have any. But on a ship with thousands of passengers, now maybe dozens will have some and thus it's worthwhile to make it. It's kinds of like netlix carrying movies that the local video store wouldn't, when your customer base is the whole country rather than 1 neighborhood it's more justifiable to stock a movie that will be ordered by only a small percentage. Anyway that's just a theory. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
houstoncruisers2001 Posted January 17, 2014 #229 Share Posted January 17, 2014 People go on and on about the Park Cafe, no offense, but honestly I just don't get it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
critterchick Posted January 17, 2014 #230 Share Posted January 17, 2014 You've jumped over to the dark side!!!;):DLooking forward to my up and coming WJ dining!!!:) I'm a little jealous - I'm sure we'll enjoy all that Allure has to offer, but I love Jewel's WJ and have a feeling that I'm going to miss that option. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
voyager70 Posted January 17, 2014 #231 Share Posted January 17, 2014 I 100% stand by my post. You are more than welcome to try and bully me all you guys want. Bullying? Hardly. And I 100% stand by my post. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
voyager70 Posted January 17, 2014 #232 Share Posted January 17, 2014 Love a good Cat Fight.... MEOW Sorry I'm a guy - no cat fight here ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lazeyey Posted January 17, 2014 #233 Share Posted January 17, 2014 People go on and on about the Park Cafe, no offense, but honestly I just don't get it. I agree. I don't get it either. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
voyager70 Posted January 17, 2014 #234 Share Posted January 17, 2014 I agree. I don't get it either. I love the salad bar, roast beef sandwiches & tuna paninis at Park Cafe. To each his or her own. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Giorgi-one Posted January 17, 2014 #235 Share Posted January 17, 2014 Just saw this post and I totally agree with the OP. One thing I really like about the Allure is that I don't have to eat in the WJ. Besides the food not being good, the WJ is always undersized particularly on the Oasis Class Ships. Eating goes something like this. You and your wife spend 10 minutes to find an empty table which has usually not been cleared. You let your wife go get her food. When she comes back you go get your food. Of course, by the time you get back your wife is almost finished so she watches you eat your food. I call it Shift Dining. I much prefer the Solarium Bistro for breakfast. For lunch we usually go to the Bistro or just grab a burger or hot dog. Go to the MDR on sea days. Of course the WJ is much less crowded on port days if you stay on the ship, but the food is still not very good. I always judge any restaurant by asking myself "Would I pay to come back to this restaurant at home?" If you answer yes to this for the WJ, you must live in a place with very bad restaurants! My daughter lives in such a place but I won't identify it to avoid a torrent of flames. Enough to say it is approximately 1000 miles west of Philadelphia. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wassup4565 Posted January 17, 2014 #236 Share Posted January 17, 2014 I'm very happy with the Windjammer for breakfast and lunch. It allows me to "sin" without really going overboard. I can have a small piece of bacon or two, maybe a small dab of eggs, and still make most of my breakfast fruit, grains and other healthy stuff. Same at lunch. I can have half a dozen fries, a teeny piece of chicken or fried fish, and mostly eat a giant salad with wonderful variety (I think the salad stuff at the WJ is outstanding). Best of both worlds, I say. We always dine in the MDR at night. Love the companionship and company at dinner tables, even if people are really different from us. We learn so much about different parts of the US and also from people's stories about previous travels. The food in the MDR is pretty good too. Not always fabulous, but usually pretty darned good. But I'm an eat to live person, not a live to eat person. Maybe that's significant. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
voyager70 Posted January 17, 2014 #237 Share Posted January 17, 2014 Just saw this post and I totally agree with the OP. One thing I really like about the Allure is that I don't have to eat in the WJ. Besides the food not being good, the WJ is always undersized particularly on the Oasis Class Ships. Eating goes something like this. You and your wife spend 10 minutes to find an empty table which has usually not been cleared. You let your wife go get her food. When she comes back you go get your food. Of course, by the time you get back your wife is almost finished so she watches you eat your food. I call it Shift Dining. I much prefer the Solarium Bistro for breakfast. For lunch we usually go to the Bistro or just grab a burger or hot dog. Go to the MDR on sea days. Of course the WJ is much less crowded on port days if you stay on the ship, but the food is still not very good. I always judge any restaurant by asking myself "Would I pay to come back to this restaurant at home?" If you answer yes to this for the WJ, you must live in a place with very bad restaurants! My daughter lives in such a place but I won't identify it to avoid a torrent of flames. Enough to say it is approximately 1000 miles west of Philadelphia. Good for you:confused: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare mac_tlc Posted January 18, 2014 #238 Share Posted January 18, 2014 The opinions are certainly varied on this post ! We thought the Windjammer on the Oasis and Allure were the worst we have had. Usually we go for breakfast, but after a couple days of crouton-toast, we stopped. We always do the MDR for dinner. 152 days at sea and we have missed 1 dinner in the MDR (our day in Egypt, got back too late from the tour). Even if the food is the same as the WJ, we enjoy someone else serving the food -- and not having to search for a seat. Looking forward to the Brilliance of the Seas in about 6 weeks, will report back on the WJ, if this post hasn't burst into flames by then :) mac_tlc Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alreadypacked Posted January 18, 2014 #239 Share Posted January 18, 2014 Okay, seriously fellow cruisers. I am a huge RCCL fan. I am a middle class american who hardly eats at 4 or 5 stars restaurants. I am just an "average Joe". I have taken many RCCL cruises, and by far this is the worst Windjammer experience. In the morning, pancakes, french toast, toast, etc were all cold! So bad there were a few times I couldn't even swallow it. The meat is ridiculous. The infamous CC honey stung chicken is as dry as a bone. The hamburgers are something that would be served in a school cafeteria. No quality meat at all. It takes the entire cruise to figure out what to avoid. I do give credit to the salad bar, it was nice. But even the dressing was so cheap. I had Blue Cheese dressing that squirted out of a bottle with a very small tip. So it was runny, not creamy or chunky like it should be. At what point are we going to all agree, the Windjammer is like eating at a local grocery store food cafeteria line. After you finish eating, you are full, but there is never anything you have to get seconds. It just wasn't good. Go ahead and flame me. But I wish they would use flames in the Windjammer to at least keep the food warm. I have to agree with you. I hadn't sailed Royal since 2006 but just got off the Liberty earlier this week. The Windjammer breakfast was ok, but the lunch and dinner was just awful. Food had either no taste or tasted horrible. Oftentimes, food that was supposed to be hot was nothing of the sort. I looked forward to the much-raved-about Honey Stung Chicken and was woefully disappointed. I know taste is subjective, so no dis to those who like it, but I simply did not care for it--too heavy breading and little to no flavor. I put the below food on my plate in Windjammer one day and other than the fruit, it was simply inedible: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alreadypacked Posted January 18, 2014 #240 Share Posted January 18, 2014 I should add that we had a great cruise! Entertainment was second to none--ice show, piano bar singer David Curtis, and all of the shows in the theatre were spectacular! After the inedible lunch in Windjammer, we realized we still had time to go to lunch in the MDR. They had a nice salad bar set up where you indicate to the employee beyond the counter what items you would like and then they toss it up for you. Salad greens and the various ingredients looked fresh and delicious. Unfortunately the dressing didn't live up to the salad. I requested the blue cheese dressing, which might as well have been ranch. It didn't taste like blue cheese at all and I could not find a single chunk of blue cheese in it. Royal does a lot of things right--entertainment, beautiful well maintained ships--but they need to get it together with the food. Decreasing quality of food had recently caused me to jump ship from Carnival. So far Princess and Celebrity (a Royal Caribbean company) wins regarding food. I don't really consider myself a foodie... BUT... I like food that is well prepared with quality and tasty ingredients. Liberty of the Seas' included food options just didn't fit the bill. I don't think I could do a 7 day cruise on Royal unless they improved the food. I told them as much in the guest survey they emailed me. Other than the food, I love Royal!! Salad at the MDR lunch (as well as prosciutto and brie which was good): Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AmyWrites Posted January 19, 2014 #241 Share Posted January 19, 2014 Just got off the Jewel. Windjammer was, I'd say, a solid 7 or 8 out of 10, MDR was so awful in every possible way, I prefer the Windjammer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zaknzoey Posted January 19, 2014 #242 Share Posted January 19, 2014 I've always found Windjammer to be...... eh.......... Not awful, but obviously not 5 star quality, or 4 star, or 3 st.... well, you get the picture. :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UNV-IT!!! Posted January 19, 2014 #243 Share Posted January 19, 2014 I eat at Everything from extremely fine dining in 5 diamond hotels to holes in the wall around the world. I still think windjammer is great for what it is. Quick service food. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paulette3028 Posted January 19, 2014 #244 Share Posted January 19, 2014 (edited) I eat at Everything from extremely fine dining in 5 diamond hotels to holes in the wall around the world. I still think windjammer is great for what it is. Quick service food. There is SOME validity to what you write, in that we need to view the WJ for what it is.....a way to have a less complicated, quicker meal service. Keeping that in mind, and realizing that 'judging food' is subjective.....so taste varies from person to person....food should still be hot (if it is supposed to be hot) and cold (if it is supposed to be cold). Most of the foods I have ever eaten at WJ, and I have done that quite a bit, have been fine and enjoyable....some I would not try at all (but that is me). Let's also remember that the food in WJ comes out of the same kitchens, as the prep for the MDR. Edited January 19, 2014 by Paulette3028 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ocean Boy Posted January 19, 2014 #245 Share Posted January 19, 2014 I've always found Windjammer to be...... eh.......... Not awful, but obviously not 5 star quality, or 4 star, or 3 st.... well, you get the picture. :D I'm not sure that the MDR, with its noise and commotion and food is 5 star quality, or 4 star, or 3 st.... well, you get the picture. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Localit Posted January 19, 2014 #246 Share Posted January 19, 2014 Just disembarked yesterday, wj was fine for breakfast and just for breakfast..agree with the OP....Quality of ingredients = low brow chain. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jtd724 Posted January 19, 2014 #247 Share Posted January 19, 2014 I like turtles! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UNV-IT!!! Posted January 20, 2014 #248 Share Posted January 20, 2014 There is SOME validity to what you write, in that we need to view the WJ for what it is.....a way to have a less complicated, quicker meal service. Keeping that in mind, and realizing that 'judging food' is subjective.....so taste varies from person to person....food should still be hot (if it is supposed to be hot) and cold (if it is supposed to be cold). Most of the foods I have ever eaten at WJ, and I have done that quite a bit, have been fine and enjoyable....some I would not try at all (but that is me). Let's also remember that the food in WJ comes out of the same kitchens, as the prep for the MDR. I seem to have good luck with food temps. It also helps once you've figured out which items you enjoy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
voyager70 Posted January 20, 2014 #249 Share Posted January 20, 2014 I eat at Everything from extremely fine dining in 5 diamond hotels to holes in the wall around the world. I still think windjammer is great for what it is. Quick service food. Agree +1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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