Just off Allure..disappointed in MDR

[JoseyP]

We were just on Brilliance of the Seas, and our food was hit and miss too. People are talking about lobster, well, we had NO included lobster night. And there was no smoked salmon at the Windjammer breakfast. Many people have commented about the declining quality of Royal Caribbean food. It was my first cruise on them in 9 years, so I really had nothing to compare it to on the same line. Overall, Carnival's food was much better, and I had delicious lobster, and desserts. on Royal, most desserts were nothing to write home about. I actually lost weight on my trans Atlantic cruise. Some of my husbands food was served cold also. Good think I could rely on a good shrimp cocktail every night.

[jewel825]

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.

 

I agree that food is subjective. I am one that is pretty easy to please with just about anything and I would always kind of roll my eyes when people would complain about food on a ship. Don't people have anything better to complain about?

 

Then I went on the Allure and it wasn't that the food was unedible. It was the service in the dining room that was nothing compared to our previous cruises. We had a team of waiters that did not engage with us, our location on the dining room was off to the side almost in a separate room and our food came out wrong or not at all every single night. It started to get comical as we'd discuss who wasn't eating that night. We had wrong dishes come out every single night or someone just wouldn't get food at all. Then when you could finally flag down your waiter asking where one of the plates was, he'd be annoyed and it would take another 20 minutes for it to come when the rest of the table was done eating. So in our experience, the food wasn't bad, it was the service and the way it was presented - if presented at all!

[alfaeric]

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.

 

I agree that most of the time the subjective nature of food can be part of the issue.

 

But I still think it's important to note issues on the survey.

 

All of the dining rooms are really big, and how they are served may impact the food. So it's possible that certain areas of the dining room are getting sub-standard food.

 

Since RCI knows what table you are eating at as well as who is serving you, they can put together all of the surveys and see if it's a specific region or time that has an issue.

 

If the issue ends up being a subjective thing, then the survey will be a normal random pattern of people's tastes.

 

So please be honest and specific on the surveys that you fill out.

 

"the food is just bad" doesn't help. "the shrimp on X menu was cold and chewey" does help. Just like - "service is terrible" vs. "we had long stretches were we didn't get our water re-filled"...

Edited October 7, 2014 by alfaeric

[Shay228]

This post is stressing me out. Going on the Oasis at the end of the month with a group of 6. I talked everyone into taking Royal Caribbean because the food is better than Carnival. From reading this post it sounds like the food is awful on several RC ships. I hope this is not the case.

[alfaeric]

This post is stressing me out. Going on the Oasis at the end of the month with a group of 6. I talked everyone into taking Royal Caribbean because the food is better than Carnival. From reading this post it sounds like the food is awful on several RC ships. I hope this is not the case.

 

Don't be stressed. Consider the number of complaints vs. the number of posters who are crusing. The number of food complaints are pretty small (abit very vocal) compared to the happy people who say nothing.

 

The food is fine.

 

If it's not- please talk to the head waiter in your area- they will try to do something about it immediately. That's their job.

 

Still, the odds of that being a problem are pretty slim.

Edited October 7, 2014 by alfaeric

[EbayCruiser]

We were on this same cruise. We did not eat in the MDR. We ate in the windjammer all but one night that we had reservations for Rita's Fiesta.

 

My DH is a very picky eater and does not like hardly any of the MDR food so we go to the windjammer for variation. We thought the windjammer food was better than our Oasis cruise a few years back but not fantastic.

 

We did not care for Rita's Fiesta - too much seafood in our Mexican food, several of the dishes had shrimp and we do not care for seafood so we would not do that again.

 

I was pleased that they had fried rice everyday in the windjammer & pretty good bread pudding (must have hired a chef that had worked on HAL because this was the best bread pudding I have tasted on RCI - although not quite as good as HAL).

 

All in all, we had a great cruise. Very relaxing - we had planned to get off the ship in St. Maarten but stayed onboard, we never left the ship for the whole cruise.

[denamo]

This post is stressing me out. Going on the Oasis at the end of the month with a group of 6. I talked everyone into taking Royal Caribbean because the food is better than Carnival. From reading this post it sounds like the food is awful on several RC ships. I hope this is not the case.

 

Food is so subjective. Probably good to go with an open mind and not predisposed to thinking the food is awful.

 

Sometimes wonder if food is not prepared the way the eater is used to then it is considered awful. One type of cuisine we always find interpreted interestingly is Mexican. Since we live on the border of Texas and Mexico, we are used to certain preps. Royal certainly does not deliver the way we are used to. Of course our preference is what we are used to. We don't consider their interpretation "awful" just awfully different. ;):)

 

If we want a taste of Mexican, we eat the ship's interpretation. I have many days to eat our favorite interpretation of Mexican. Wish it was the other way around since that would mean I'm on a cruise!! :D

[JoseyP]

Sorry, I've been on about 14 Carnival cruises and one very recent Royal Caribbean. The food is better on Carnival, by quite a bit, in our estimation. Of course, I still hope you have a great cruise, and report back as to how you think the food is on your ship. And food really is very very individual, and subjective a topic. It's not that ALL the food was awful, it is just that we were expecting somewhat better in the main dining room. SOME dishes were definitely under par for us, and food came out cold......there was absolutely no chance of getting beef cooked "medium". Either it was too rare, or over cooked.

Edited October 7, 2014 by JoseyP

[Ladymom30]

This post is stressing me out. Going on the Oasis at the end of the month with a group of 6. I talked everyone into taking Royal Caribbean because the food is better than Carnival. From reading this post it sounds like the food is awful on several RC ships. I hope this is not the case.

Please don't be stressed. There are many other places to eat on that ship. I do understand that food is subjective, but this was my 4th RCCL cruise. I have always ate in the dining room (with the same menus), and loved it. That's why the big decline in food quality suprised and disappointed me enough to start this thread. I recommend buying the specialty restaurant package where you buy three and get 30% off. Please let me know what you think when you get back from your cruise.

[pmmaurer]

We were on the Allure last October and was not impressed with the food. It was our first RCL cruise and we were disappointed with the food. If it wasn't for the cost difference we would be going back on Disney. Their food was great. Just cant justify the additional cost just for the food. We are going on the Navigator in May hopefully the food will be better.

[Paulette3028]

This post is stressing me out. Going on the Oasis at the end of the month with a group of 6. I talked everyone into taking Royal Caribbean because the food is better than Carnival. From reading this post it sounds like the food is awful on several RC ships. I hope this is not the case.

 

I was on Allure in July. We enjoyed the food in the MDR; if I did not like something I ordered something else. There were lots of choices. I can say I enjoyed dining in the MDR. We did eat at one of the specialty restaurants, Izumi. We enjoy Japanese food and Japanese food is not part of the main menus in the MDR.

 

Food is a very subjective subject. Some people probably are difficult to please when they go to a restaurant on land.

 

Go and ENJOY!

[A2Mich]

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.

 

Bingo!

 

So many people want these mega-monster ships with the populations of small cities - well, something's gotta give when all 2800 people in the dining room want their food at the same time. Sorry, but you're not getting cooked to order food with that number of guests at one time. If top-notch food quality is that important, book a smaller ship.

[Oxo]

Size of ship should not determine quality of food. Quality of food is determine by grade and cut of meat. Big ships are being built and have been for years. Been on RCI 2x and Celebrity 1x this year. Both ships were 138,000 and 122,000 tons. The food was OK, but not really like it was 5 years ago. Even in the Specialty Restaurants (SRs) the food was OK, not anything great. In fact, we consider the SRs now being the quality of the MDRs years ago.

Understand food is very subjective, however, when you are getting basically the same food such as steak, chicken, fish and pork, it should be good.

Normally on RCI the first night is the Pork Chop that is very thick and juicy. On Celebrity they had a Pork Chop that was very thin and dry. Lobster is very overcooked and rubbery now.

This is my opinion and we no longer cruise for the special dining food. It is not there. JMHO!

[jndsilver31]

DW and I went to "Chops" on our Allure cruise. My filet was just great. i would say that it was as good as any steak you would get at any fine steak house in Chicago, but then I am not a food critic or a Food Network star.

[daka]

We were on the ALLURE September 14 to 24, we found the food good. We are not expecting gourmet meals on these cruises, feeding 5,000 people in a few hours is quite a task.

We have been on quite a few Celebrity (Solstice class) cruises and find the food on those cruises a bit better, all are adequate.

The service has always been good....

We will be on ALLURE again November 30.

Edited October 8, 2014 by daka

[A2Mich]

Size of ship should not determine quality of food. Quality of food is determine by grade and cut of meat. Big ships are being built and have been for years. Been on RCI 2x and Celebrity 1x this year. Both ships were 138,000 and 122,000 tons. The food was OK, but not really like it was 5 years ago. Even in the Specialty Restaurants (SRs) the food was OK, not anything great. In fact, we consider the SRs now being the quality of the MDRs years ago.

 

Understand food is very subjective, however, when you are getting basically the same food such as steak, chicken, fish and pork, it should be good.

 

Normally on RCI the first night is the Pork Chop that is very thick and juicy. On Celebrity they had a Pork Chop that was very thin and dry. Lobster is very overcooked and rubbery now.

 

This is my opinion and we no longer cruise for the special dining food. It is not there. JMHO!

 

 

I would venture to guess that cutbacks have certainly been made, but when 2000 people sit down for dinner at the same time, and all want their dinner in a reasonable time, the galley simply cannot individually prepare that many meals at once. Food has to be prepared ahead of time and kept in coolers for cold foods, or hot boxes for hot foods. Food quality, especially with hot meals, tends to degrade based on it's holding times. To prepare several hundred steaks, 1000 lobster tails, etc takes time. Prep and cooking of dinner entrees begins a few hours before meal times, so much of the food has been sitting in a hot box for a while, becoming drier and more tough.

 

 

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[Oxo]

I would venture to guess that cutbacks have certainly been made, but when 2000 people sit down for dinner at the same time, and all want their dinner in a reasonable time, the galley simply cannot individually prepare that many meals at once. Food has to be prepared ahead of time and kept in coolers for cold foods, or hot boxes for hot foods. Food quality, especially with hot meals, tends to degrade based on it's holding times. To prepare several hundred steaks, 1000 lobster tails, etc takes time. Prep and cooking of dinner entrees begins a few hours before meal times, so much of the food has been sitting in a hot box for a while, becoming drier and more tough.

 

 

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Been through the Galley on most Cruise Lines. Regardless of the size of a ship, meals are not prepared upon request such as soups, salads, deserts, garnish, meats, fish and poultry. Regardless of the size of the ship and number of guests, there is a lot of prep done before you order. It is an assembly line in a sense with different areas for each type item such as soups, salads, deserts, meats, etc.

It will take longer to get the items from the Galley to the Table on bigger ships, but the ships are built and staffed with consideration to size/guests. With RCI the waiter goes to get the items from the Galley. Whereas,on other cruise lines the Asst. Waiter goes to the Galley.

Again, my point is that the Cruise Lines have cut back in quality, cut of meat, etc. Even in the Specialty Restaurants, when you talk to the people and read about the menus, cut backs are being taken. The size of the serving is smaller, no longer do they offer 3 or 4 vegetables that they use to bring around for you to choose.

We cruise 5 - 6 times a year on either RCI, Celebrity or Princess and see the same thing happening regardless of Cruise Line. Most people are saying the same thing that the food is of poorer quality. Suppliers have changed to save money. Cruise lines have to cut back in costs, too.

JMHO!

[A2Mich]

Been through the Galley on most Cruise Lines. Regardless of the size of a ship, meals are not prepared upon request such as soups, salads, deserts, garnish, meats, fish and poultry. Regardless of the size of the ship and number of guests, there is a lot of prep done before you order. It is an assembly line in a sense with different areas for each type item such as soups, salads, deserts, meats, etc.

It will take longer to get the items from the Galley to the Table on bigger ships, but the ships are built and staffed with consideration to size/guests. With RCI the waiter goes to get the items from the Galley. Whereas,on other cruise lines the Asst. Waiter goes to the Galley.

Again, my point is that the Cruise Lines have cut back in quality, cut of meat, etc. Even in the Specialty Restaurants, when you talk to the people and read about the menus, cut backs are being taken. The size of the serving is smaller, no longer do they offer 3 or 4 vegetables that they use to bring around for you to choose.

We cruise 5 - 6 times a year on either RCI, Celebrity or Princess and see the same thing happening regardless of Cruise Line. Most people are saying the same thing that the food is of poorer quality. Suppliers have changed to save money. Cruise lines have to cut back in costs, too.

JMHO!

 

I agree and have done the galley tours as well. There is simply no way that cruise lines can provide gourmet food on a massive scale, and hope that new/inexperienced cruisers realize all of the planning and work that goes into feeding people en masse. I don't doubt cruise lines are cutting back one bit. Consumers want (relatively) low prices on their cruises (for the mos part), and the cruise line has to keep prices low, all while trying to maintain a profit margin - something's gonna give.