Just off Mariner of the Seas..is this normal?

[jerseylily]

Hi just trying to verify if this is normal RCL cruising experience? We booked my time dining but was told not available so got allocated main seating. There were no food flourishes or garnish on any food presented in the main dining room other than dead parsley sprigs. NO alcohol could be brought on boarding day. Only 2 different films in screen room over 8 days. No special food on formal night. Is this normal? It was not the experience I was expecting on RCL looking at the brochures.

[jerseylily]

By the way food in the main dining room was awful! Worst of any cruise. I never thought I would ever say I would prefer the food in the buffet restaurant, but I did this time.

[jerseylily]

Any help gratefully received on this question

[roquejo]

My take... I've cruised both Mariner and Voyager in Asia.

 

Mariner has the worst food among all the 5 RCCL cruises I've took so far. Oops, I mean the worst food among all the cruise I've taken, other lines factored in.

 

But I've been wowed by its sister ship Voyager and has booked 2 repeat cruises with her.

 

My time dining is not available in Asia, I've booked my time in Voyager but was forced to change to early seating on board.

 

RCCL allows bringing 2 bottles of wine or champagne on embarkation day per stateroom. It is in the FAQ. No other alcohol allowed (no beer, no liquor etc) . So in case you are not allowed to bring either wine or champagne in Mariner, then you have a reason to complain.

[snorkelman]

My understanding is that the food served in the MDR is the same fleetwide.

[TBone2K]

Hi just trying to verify if this is normal RCL cruising experience? We booked my time dining but was told not available so got allocated main seating. There were no food flourishes or garnish on any food presented in the main dining room other than dead parsley sprigs. NO alcohol could be brought on boarding day. Only 2 different films in screen room over 8 days. No special food on formal night. Is this normal?

 

Others from the same cruise may be able to comment further. Don't know if I can answer every question, but here is what I can tell you from my experience:

 

1. MTD full: If MTD is not a choice your TA or RC should have told you when you booked.

2. Garnishes: You experience is a little odd. Most times I have found they use sprigs of rosemary. Sometimes too much IMHO. Did you ask the waiter or anyone? Maybe they couldn't get their usual garnishes for some reason.

3. No alcohol: That one I have not heard except for when they were being careful due to spring break. What were you trying to bring on? Sometimes gate security is clueless and I would be on their case about RC policy on that one.

4: Number of movies: No idea

5: No "special food" on formal night: They follow a set menu rotation. Although many ships schedule a particular menu for formal night, in my experience since the new menu I have never seen anything special served just becuase it was formal night.

Edited April 1, 2015 by TBone2K

[ryano]

My understanding is that the food served in the MDR is the same fleetwide.

 

The food is the same in the MDR fleetwide from my understanding as well. Preparation of said food certainly isnt and can make a HUGE difference! That is why it can vary from ship to ship IMO.

 

I do have to say though that I have never had "awful" food on any cruise ship though. Im pretty new at cruising though

Edited April 1, 2015 by ryano

[Big_G]

I thought the food varied by region. I know they don't have lobster tails in Europe so maybe there are some variations from North America to Asia too? :confused:

[cb at sea]

The "presentation" in the dining room has been awful for the last couple of years, IMO...dishes used to look too pretty to eat....now, it looks like a school cafeteria. Aside from a lobster tail on one formal night, I've never noticed a difference in the food...at least, since the '90's!!!

 

They've never had many movies, as far as I can tell...

[ryano]

so maybe there are some variations from North America to Asia too? :confused:

 

Could be. I have no idea where Mariner even is right now and sometimes forget that not all cruises are in the Caribbean. :o

[ryano]

The "presentation" in the dining room has been awful for the last couple of years, IMO...dishes used to look too pretty to eat....now, it looks like a school cafeteria. Aside from a lobster tail on one formal night, I've never noticed a difference in the food...at least, since the '90's!!!

 

They've never had many movies, as far as I can tell...

 

Not that you are going to come back and reply but I dont believe the OP is talking about presentation. :confused: Most people could not care less how "pretty" their food is as long as it tastes good. The OP said the food was "awful". I take that it had absolutely zero to do with how it was presented but everything with how it tasted.

[delirious9876]

I thought the food varied by region. I know they don't have lobster tails in Europe so maybe there are some variations from North America to Asia too? :confused:

A friend of mine who sailed Mariner in Asia said the food selections are different to the 'regular' MDR menus from USA, Canada, Europe etc.

[wotaripper]

My take... I've cruised both Mariner and Voyager in Asia.

 

Mariner has the worst food among all the 5 RCCL cruises I've took so far. Oops, I mean the worst food among all the cruise I've taken, other lines factored in.

 

But I've been wowed by its sister ship Voyager and has booked 2 repeat cruises with her.

 

My time dining is not available in Asia, I've booked my time in Voyager but was forced to change to early seating on board.

 

RCCL allows bringing 2 bottles of wine or champagne on embarkation day per stateroom. It is in the FAQ. No other alcohol allowed (no beer, no liquor etc) . So in case you are not allowed to bring either wine or champagne in Mariner, then you have a reason to complain.

I beg to differ but my time dining is available on Mariner in Asia we had it on two back to back cruises on her in February departing from Singapore.The Menu was a little different from what we experienced in the Carribean and the Med but still enjoyable.

[lalenalei]

I was on the 3/22 sailing, too. It was by far the worst experience I've ever had on a ship. 3,000 of the rudest, most unrefined, pushy, disgusting, loud, hoarding, bum-rushing people. No class. There were approx. 300 non-Chinese nationals on board. We bonded with the Cignal group from the Philippines and two super nice guys from Maryland.

 

There is no MTD on the sailings from Shanghai. The reason we were told is because the Chinese travel in large groups (sometimes the whole cruise is on giant TA group), and they like to sit together, so they have to do dining with times, but open seating. Our friends asked for the same server every night (they had 2nd seating, which is empty in China since they like to eat early). We only ate in the MDR once, because it sucked so badly. We had dinner in our room (RS) either ordering from the suite menu (which is same as MDR -- to me the good choices were very limited) and once I was able to get Giovanni's to send it to the room.

 

These sailings are very much catered to the Chinese market. That is why there were only two movies (they aren't going to watch them) and no bingo. Also, I asked a bartender one night about the sales (the Chinese also didn't drink). There were 37 swipes for packages (this includes everything from bottled water to soda to cocktails) and $130 in sales. Pathetic. Means no tips for them. I am a ridiculously huge tipper, so tried to overcompensate even more for them. I felt bad. RCI is apparently allowing them to bail from the Chinese market after one contract to go back to other areas to actually make money. They are actually given a "minimum" and if they don't meet it, RCI will cover the difference since they have realized that the Chinese market does not benefit the servers. The minimum was still horribly low, though.

[Ashland]

Hi just trying to verify if this is normal RCL cruising experience? We booked my time dining but was told not available so got allocated main seating. There were no food flourishes or garnish on any food presented in the main dining room other than dead parsley sprigs. NO alcohol could be brought on boarding day. Only 2 different films in screen room over 8 days. No special food on formal night. Is this normal? It was not the experience I was expecting on RCL looking at the brochures.

I am also recently off Mariner (March 19th) our cruise was the Singapore-Shanghai. And I do agree with you...the most disappointing cruise for many reasons we've had with RCI after 20+ cruises.

 

I knew and understood that this was going to be not the norm that we are used to...however...more than I imagined.

 

Wasn't happy either with the food. MTD or WJ. Really...no "yellow mustard" eventually someone sent some packets to our cabin and I had to take some with me everytime I would go to the WJ for lunch. One night I ordered a grilled cheese in JR's (no way they could mess that up) two pieces of barely toasted bread and one unmelted piece of cheese. Yes we complained and the chef refused and wouldn't understand when we tried to explain how to make a simple grilled cheese. After a trip to guest services they did take the charge off our SeaPass.

 

This is the first cruise we were totally bored while onboard. The lack of activities was :eek::eek: !!! And yes, the lack of a variety of movies was ridiculous...played "The Proposal" four nights in a row in the screening room..a bit better selection of movies played at the pool....but it was too cold at night on deck for anyone to be out there. Really Mariner you couldn't have opted to play some of those movies in the screening room:confused::confused:.

 

Luckily we found a Scrabble board game (three total) all dumped together in one box..the other boxes had been filled with a chinese tile game. So we took the time to sort through and organize one game...boxed it and left a note in it that it was a complete game....next night we went to play Scrabble again and found that our note was gone and it had been dumped back with the other games in one box. I would never have done this but by that time we sorted out another game and actually took it back to our cabin and kept it for the length of our cruise...playing it most every night out of sheer boredom !!!!

 

While we loved the ports on this itinerary it was hard not having the same cruise experience we have always had with RCI.

 

Sorry for the rant but this was our personal experience on this particular cruise...and may differ from other's.

Edited April 1, 2015 by Ashland

[Langley Cruisers]

One night I ordered a grilled cheese in JR's (no way they could mess that up) two pieces of barely toasted bread and one unmelted piece of cheese. Yes we complained and the chef refused and wouldn't understand when we tried to explain how to make a simple grilled cheese.

 

Same here, different ship! Explorer Johnny Rockets - "grilled" cheese - absolutely awful. There was no butter on the bread so it wasn't grilled at all. So disappointed. :( I often think about that and probably should have said something, but I am not usually confrontational.

[OfTheSeasCruiser]

The "presentation" in the dining room has been awful for the last couple of years, IMO...dishes used to look too pretty to eat....now, it looks like a school cafeteria. Aside from a lobster tail on one formal night, I've never noticed a difference in the food...at least, since the '90's!!!

 

They've never had many movies, as far as I can tell...

 

:rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:

Seriously? It's not nearly that bad. Give me a break...

[Ashland]

I was on the 3/22 sailing, too. It was by far the worst experience I've ever had on a ship. 3,000 of the rudest, most unrefined, pushy, disgusting, loud, hoarding, bum-rushing people. No class. There were approx. 300 non-Chinese nationals on board. We bonded with the Cignal group from the Philippines and two super nice guys from Maryland.

 

There is no MTD on the sailings from Shanghai. The reason we were told is because the Chinese travel in large groups (sometimes the whole cruise is on giant TA group), and they like to sit together, so they have to do dining with times, but open seating. Our friends asked for the same server every night (they had 2nd seating, which is empty in China since they like to eat early). We only ate in the MDR once, because it sucked so badly. We had dinner in our room (RS) either ordering from the suite menu (which is same as MDR -- to me the good choices were very limited) and once I was able to get Giovanni's to send it to the room.

 

These sailings are very much catered to the Chinese market. That is why there were only two movies (they aren't going to watch them) and no bingo. Also, I asked a bartender one night about the sales (the Chinese also didn't drink). There were 37 swipes for packages (this includes everything from bottled water to soda to cocktails) and $130 in sales. Pathetic. Means no tips for them. I am a ridiculously huge tipper, so tried to overcompensate even more for them. I felt bad. RCI is apparently allowing them to bail from the Chinese market after one contract to go back to other areas to actually make money. They are actually given a "minimum" and if they don't meet it, RCI will cover the difference since they have realized that the Chinese market does not benefit the servers. The minimum was still horribly low, though.

AGREE !!!! Some of the people on my cruise must have stayed on for yours. The public restrooms were some of the dirtiest I have ever seen on a RCI ship and many of the toilets weren't working and some of the sinks and many times water on the floor. I felt very sorry for the crew trying to maintain these.

 

RCI was/is so excited about the Asian market and I think it's a big mistake...all the highend shops that have overtaken the Promenade I never saw anyone actually shopping/buying in them. The only place that was busy and smoke filled was the casino..at times the smoke drifted up so heavy in the Promenade we avoided it. Thank goodness for the atmosphere in the CL & DL and our balcony...but really how sad we felt this way about our much loved RCI and the product they usually provide.

[Aquahound]

I was on the 3/22 sailing, too. It was by far the worst experience I've ever had on a ship. 3,000 of the rudest, most unrefined, pushy, disgusting, loud, hoarding, bum-rushing people. No class. There were approx. 300 non-Chinese nationals on board. We bonded with the Cignal group from the Philippines and two super nice guys from Maryland.

 

I've heard that from a few people now, and as long as RCI is putting new ships in that region, I'll never get to experience them because I'm not going to subject myself to that environment. And from past cruises where the embarkation port resulted in a ship full of rude people, I've learned that it directly effects the ship's service and quality. Basically, the crew gets worn down. I have a feeling Mariner is suffering from its current environment...at least, in a westerners eyes.

[Ashland]

Same here, different ship! Explorer Johnny Rockets - "grilled" cheese - absolutely awful. There was no butter on the bread so it wasn't grilled at all. So disappointed. :( I often think about that and probably should have said something, but I am not usually confrontational.

Neither am I...We are low key, keep to ourself usually asking for nothing special nonassuming cruiser's...but this (and the attitude of the JR chef) set the two of us off...:mad:

[Aquahound]

* Also, I will write a review later, but I want to add that I am Japanese-American, so it's not like I'm an asian hater. But my culture (I'm from Hawaii, which is very much Japanese and we are super nice and considerate) is way different from this. I will never go back. But I will go wherever Joel (the concierge) goes. He was the best part of our entire cruise.

 

Oh, no worries. I know very well the differences within the Asian culture...which range from extremely polite to extremely rude....and I know who is who. We're the same here. There are regions of Canada and the US that are very, very different...again, ranging from extremely polite to extremely rude. I hate that you had to jump on that grenade, but I thank you dearly for being honest about your experience.

[sjb317]

Not that you are going to come back and reply but I dont believe the OP is talking about presentation. :confused: Most people could not care less how "pretty" their food is as long as it tastes good. The OP said the food was "awful". I take that it had absolutely zero to do with how it was presented but everything with how it tasted.

 

Of course I can't speak for the OP, but when she complained about the lack of garnishes, I also assumed she was talking about the presentation. For some people, presentation is a big deal.

 

Sherri:)

[SonicShip]

My understanding is that the food served in the MDR is the same fleetwide.

 

It seems this was not a stanard Royal Caribbean cruise, but a Cultural Immersion cruise. On Cultural Immersion cruises the main language and food are normally in the local culture. Basically cruises for the local market. These cruises are often in Asia and South America.

[lalenalei]

It seems this was not a stanard Royal Caribbean cruise, but a Cultural Immersion cruise. On Cultural Immersion cruises the main language and food are normally in the local culture. Basically cruises for the local market. These cruises are often in Asia and South America.

 

Yes, the food was very Asian heavy. Not the normal menu, and not even what I would consider a "variety" of Asian food. Pretty much targeted the Chinese nationals completely.

[awhcruiser]

Which school?

The "presentation" in the dining room has been awful for the last couple of years, IMO...dishes used to look too pretty to eat....now, it looks like a school cafeteria. Aside from a lobster tail on one formal night, I've never noticed a difference in the food...at least, since the '90's!!!

 

They've never had many movies, as far as I can tell...

Edited April 2, 2015 by awhcruiser