Just off Allure..disappointed in MDR

[Ladymom30]

We had a wonderful fantastic week on the beautiful Allure. My only complaint was the MDR. The food was just lacking. The lobster was like a rubber ball. To top it off our servers left our drinks empty and never smiled. Out of seven cruises I never experienced anything like this. We actually went to chops twice and Giovanni's table once, just to get good food. I had an awesome room steward and I mentioned the dining room to him and I guess he passed our concerns on. Well the manager chased us out wanting to know what the problem was. I told him that we just felt the service and food were not up to RCCL standards and he said they no longer allow wait staff to tell jokes and entertain guests..they are just to focus on excellent service. I didn't tell him that I saw many servers doing magic tricks and taking pictures with the guests. I also didn't point out how excellent service includes refilling drinks during the meal. Many times I would smile and thank the assistant waiter and he never even acknowledged it. A couple we met has been on 55 cruises and they even mentioned how tasteless the dining room food was this time. They said it was the worst of 55. Hopefully this was just an off week, but I am almost looking forward to the dynamic dining now. I have never done a specialty restaurant until this cruise because I have always loved the MDR.

[TXMary]

I am on the Allure right now. We ate in the main dining room tonight and our food and service were excellent. I'm sorry you were disappointed.

[Yorkvillain]

We had a wonderful fantastic week on the beautiful Allure. My only complaint was the MDR. The food was just lacking. The lobster was like a rubber ball. To top it off our servers left our drinks empty and never smiled. Out of seven cruises I never experienced anything like this. We actually went to chops twice and Giovanni's table once, just to get good food. I had an awesome room steward and I mentioned the dining room to him and I guess he passed our concerns on. Well the manager chased us out wanting to know what the problem was. I told him that we just felt the service and food were not up to RCCL standards and he said they no longer allow wait staff to tell jokes and entertain guests..they are just to focus on excellent service. I didn't tell him that I saw many servers doing magic tricks and taking pictures with the guests. I also didn't point out how excellent service includes refilling drinks during the meal. Many times I would smile and thank the assistant waiter and he never even acknowledged it. A couple we met has been on 55 cruises and they even mentioned how tasteless the dining room food was this time. They said it was the worst of 55. Hopefully this was just an off week, but I am almost looking forward to the dynamic dining now. I have never done a specialty restaurant until this cruise because I have always loved the MDR.

 

Sorry to hear this. Hopefully you love Dynamic Dining.

[north29]

Excellent, good and not so good MDR service, on different cruises A few times on cruises we have actually(unusual for us to do this) discussed it with the Head Waiter, if the service was not as good as our local Carrabbas or even Chilies. Some times the servers are positioned, depending on tables etc where they just do not have the time to be efficient to everyone. I sometimes believe that the servers are afraid to say anything to the people in charge about a problem.

[sonicbuffalo]

We just got back yesterday from the Allure's Eastern Itinerary. We thought the food overall in Windjammer and the MDR sucked. The waitress we had was Marianna and she was absolutely brilliant. She did a fantastic job taking care of us! Too bad the Allure has crappy food.

[Ladymom30]

A lot of people complained about the food n the MDR last week. Beware Mary.. The first night was the best of the week. Please let me know how tonight goes. Also let me know if your waiter is friendly or if he talks and cuts up with you. I do not believe they are no longer allowed to do that as the supervisor said.

[Sherman793]

I really was hoping the tasteless food was a fluke two weeks ago on the Vision!! This is just a bummer for me!! I was already going to book two specialty restaurant nights looks like for sure now it will be three. All I can do is hope that they do something immediately with all the complaints I am hearing. I received a survey after the last cruise and I blistered them in the rating on the food.:(

[Ladymom30]

My cousin, who is the least picky person I know when it comes to food, could not eat the food. He ordered the tiger shrimp one night and just couldn't eat them. He didn't complain, just went to the park cafe and got a sandwich afterwards. Lobster night was a joke. First, we had to cut them out of the shell ourselves... Guess previous cruises spoiled me there. Secondly, omg, they were so tough and rubbery it made it almost impossible to do. Then chewing them was a job in itself. Very sad, that is usually the best night in the dining room.

[CntPAcruiser]

We had good service, but not so good food, on our Allure cruise last year. Particularly disappointing were the MDR lunches on sea days. The tutti salad bar was fine, but the items ordered off the menu were poor to outright bad! We got up and left after being served bad lunch dishes and went elsewhere.

 

Worst of all was the smell of cigarette smoke drifting into the MDR from the casino during meals.

[Sherman793]

No more shrimp on the tuti salad on sea days and also no more smoked salmon at the salad bar or in the Windjammer for breakfast. :mad:

[denamo]

No more shrimp on the tuti salad on sea days and also no more smoked salmon at the salad bar or in the Windjammer for breakfast. :mad:

 

Hmm...wonder if varies from week to week. There was shrimp at the tuti salad bar in the MDR during lunch the last week August. Never went to the Windjammer for breakfast, so can't report on smoked salmon. So tough when the things we've come to expect and look forward to on a cruise go missing. :(

[leisuretraveler223]

The included dining options are mediocre at best. Mass produced, cheap food, made to crank out for the masses. If you're looking for a quality meal, expect to shell out some extra $$ for it.

[KuffMUp]

Although one person mentioned Vision, the rest seem to be complaining about Allure. I wonder if there are just too many people on board for them to effectively manage food prep. I know many dishes have to be prepped in advance and then held. Which would explain tough, rubbery shrimp and lobster.

[jewel825]

We had a wonderful fantastic week on the beautiful Allure. My only complaint was the MDR. The food was just lacking. The lobster was like a rubber ball. To top it off our servers left our drinks empty and never smiled. Out of seven cruises I never experienced anything like this. We actually went to chops twice and Giovanni's table once, just to get good food. I had an awesome room steward and I mentioned the dining room to him and I guess he passed our concerns on. Well the manager chased us out wanting to know what the problem was. I told him that we just felt the service and food were not up to RCCL standards and he said they no longer allow wait staff to tell jokes and entertain guests..they are just to focus on excellent service. I didn't tell him that I saw many servers doing magic tricks and taking pictures with the guests. I also didn't point out how excellent service includes refilling drinks during the meal. Many times I would smile and thank the assistant waiter and he never even acknowledged it. A couple we met has been on 55 cruises and they even mentioned how tasteless the dining room food was this time. They said it was the worst of 55. Hopefully this was just an off week, but I am almost looking forward to the dynamic dining now. I have never done a specialty restaurant until this cruise because I have always loved the MDR.

 

We were on the Allure last year and felt the same way. We've always been so happy with the food and the service in the MDR on previous cruises but when we were on the Allure, it was not good. Everything else about that cruise was fantastic and we had an awesome time. It's just our MDR experience at dinner was lacking.

[ptcgal]

Although one person mentioned Vision, the rest seem to be complaining about Allure. I wonder if there are just too many people on board for them to effectively manage food prep. I know many dishes have to be prepped in advance and then held. Which would explain tough, rubbery shrimp and lobster.

 

We were on the Allure in June. 5800 pp on board plus crew. It was very full. I felt the dining room tables were squished together very closely and it was so busy for the waiters that they could have use roller skates to get around. They all seemed very stressed. No wonder they can't have great food trying to feed that many people at the same time. Specialty restaurants were great and waiters had a more relaxed attitude. I made a special point to tip extra to our MDR waiter and told him we appreciated all he had to deal with. I prefer the smaller more relaxed ships but it's great to experience the Allure at least once.

[alfaeric]

For the good of all Allure's future cruiser, please, please please put this in the survey. Give examples, specifically the food.

 

Seems to me that's the fastest way to make sure things change, other than sending an e-mail to the CEO.

 

I KNOW they taste the food before serving- having seen done a few times while touring the galley. So if something is wrong, they need to know about it and fix it. If the tasting isn't translating to the food served, that needs to be addressed.

[Aunt Sue]

do you think that the tasteless food now is because they have to go low sodium these days because of too many "salty" complaints? I think more people are on low sodium, especially older people (like me...so nothing personal folks). now one should just season at the table? we always loved the MDR every nite - have only been to the specialy restaurants a couple of times.

[Gopher1934]

We got off the Allure Sept 14th. We enjoyed the ship but thought the food was very poor. We had my time dinning which was fine but the food in the MDR and Windjammer was below par. For breakfast ended up going to Park Cafe for their egg muffin sandwiches they were always good. We ate at the specialty one night at Samba overall good food.

[KuffMUp]

We were on the Allure in June. 5800 pp on board plus crew.

 

That could work out to 2,900 meals at each sitting (discounting any folks who are utilizing specialty restaurants or Windjammer). That is a huge amount of folks to feed in a small space of time. I don't know how they could do it without sacrificing quality.

[debbs0723]

I've thought the food was relatively tasteless on the last 2 cruises I've been on which have been Disney 3 years ago and Royals Navigator of the Seas about 1.5 years ago. I just thought it was unfortunately the way it had gotten. We ate at the windjammer one night for dinner and were unhappy but overall I think that the Windjammers food can sometimes have more flavor than the MDRs food.

I do think specialty restaurants are better and we have done specialty restaurants before. However, this trip with 9 of us we have opted not to bother just due to schedules, kids, and expensive tours booked in ports. Maybe I won't gain weight this time ;)

 

Debbie

[pcur]

I really was hoping the tasteless food was a fluke two weeks ago on the Vision!! This is just a bummer for me!! I was already going to book two specialty restaurant nights looks like for sure now it will be three. All I can do is hope that they do something immediately with all the complaints I am hearing. I received a survey after the last cruise and I blistered them in the rating on the food.:(

 

I think it was a fluke. Perhaps a turnover in the kitchen with new staff. I was on a b2b on the Vision the end of July / beginning of August; 9 nights total. The food was excellent all 9 nights. We had MTD, and our servers were also very, very good.

 

We had some really obnoxious people at the table next to us 2 nights, but we would scan "our" table at the entrance and go later if we saw any of the "creepy" people next door.

[jndsilver31]

I guess food is TRUELY subjective. DW and I have been on the FOS twice and returned from the Allure on 9-28-14 and neither one of us had any complaints about the food in the MDR. The truth for us is that we had some things on the Allure that were much better then on the FOS. So again food is all subjective.

[Mrbp1]

On all of my cruises (7 total since May 2013) with RCI, the food in general has been sub par on every single cruise. Windjammer is really hit and miss but the dining room (scheduled and MTD) were even worse. The specialty restaurants, including Johnny Rockets, were good.

 

The wait staff were all outstanding so I know that was not the problem.

 

The food on Princess has gone downhill a little bit but the food there is still 5 stars compared to RCI.

 

I am scheduled for a November 3 cruise, on Legend, and if the food does not improve then it is time to just accept the fact the food is not good on RCI or just go to a different cruise line or back to Princess.

Edited October 7, 2014 by Mrbp1

[Paulette3028]

On all of my cruises (7 total since May 2013) with RCI, the food in general has been sub par on every single cruise. Windjammer is really hit and miss but the dining room (scheduled and MTD) were even worse. The specialty restaurants, including Johnny Rockets, were good.

 

The wait staff were all outstanding so I know that was not the problem.

 

The food on Princess has gone downhill a little bit but the food there is still 5 stars compared to RCI.

 

I am scheduled for a November 3 cruise, on Legend, and if the food does not improve then it is time to just accept the fact the food is not good on RCI or just go to a different cruise line or back to Princess.

 

You can read in other posts within this thread that others have felt the food on their cruise was very good. Food is a very subjective topic. Perhaps no matter what Royal does you will have a 'bad taste in your mouth' held over from your perceived past experiences.......and then in that case, you may be choosing a different line.

[CntPAcruiser]

No more shrimp on the tuti salad on sea days and also no more smoked salmon at the salad bar or in the Windjammer for breakfast. :mad:

 

do you think that the tasteless food now is because they have to go low sodium these days because of too many "salty" complaints? I think more people are on low sodium, especially older people (like me...so nothing personal folks). now one should just season at the table? we always loved the MDR every nite - have only been to the specialy restaurants a couple of times.

 

On our Allure cruise, there were shrimp on the tutti salad bar, but smoked salmon did not appear on the buffet (Windjammer) until later in the cruise. I asked about it on the first morning and was told they would bring me some, which they did--supposedly they had to go to the MDR to get it.

 

As for seasoning of the food and salt/sodium content, for us, it seemed that on the larger ships (Oasis and Allure, particularly), the food was not seasoned as well overall. It wasn't salt, but the flavors from proper seasoning, that was lacking. Even the desserts were bland, and we chalked it up to moderating expenses by cutting back on the ingredients that cost more but provide the flavor. This was not the case when we cruised on Adventure two years ago.