Things aren’t so bad

[zimmerman]

I’m a novice cruiser (had only been on one cruise before, in 2018).

 

In the lead up to an Alaskan cruise (Serenade of the Seas) I frequented this forum. It made me apprehensive about what to expect in terms of food and service. Had we made a massive mistake?

 

I can only say that the whole experience matched our previous experience. The food was just as we remembered it from our previous cruise and the service was still tip top.

 

Maybe we got lucky?

 

Either way, we loved it and have another RC cruise scheduled for 2023.

 

[Coralc]

That is wonderful to hear! I think that some of us that have cruised previously have higher expectations.

[sgmn]

Good to know,  we're on Serenade next year. You don't get to hear much feedback from the smaller ships 

[blueslily]

Thanks so much for posting. 

[brillohead]

I'm hopeful that as time goes by and COVID / vaccination becomes less of an obstacle, staffing levels can return to where they were in The Before Times. 

[shipgeeks]

Z, We echo your sentiments.  We have done two cruises this year, after the l-o-n-g break, and had a wonderful time. Food, service, condition of ship were all top-notch.  We currently have three more booked.

[PolicromaSol]

I always say to never believe the excessively good or bad reviews.

 

There was a thread here about a supposedly terrible experience, particularly the main dining room's food. The strange thing is... I'd already seen a series of youtube videos of a family going on the exact same cruise. (The subject matter of the youtube channel is usually different stuff and I'm not entirely sure how I found it.) Parents with kids, all crammed into an ocean view that was as small as an interior using pull-down bunks. (I didn't even know that particular room existed.) They were very clearly cruising on the cheap. And, well, they were just lapping up the entire experience, especially the MDR food. (Come on, watching kids eat escargot is always a little amusing.) But the whole thing made me curious if something more had been going on that had led to the "terrible" experience on the same cruise. The real answer is likely somewhere in the middle.

 

In more personal experience, booked a suite in one of the hotels on the strip in Vegas this spring. We were getting excited to go. Didn't look at the reviews until after the booking, and they were terrible. People were claiming the rooms were disgusting and dirty and that the service was terrible.

 

We got there... The furniture was old, there was a decorative table that was falling apart, wood chips coming off most of it, and ancient burns from cigarettes on the nightstand....but the rooms were clean, the bed was comfy, and the service was great. They kept hauling things up to my room I expected to have to run down and get myself. (Like a roll-a-bed for the kid.) Left a middle-of-the-road honest review with suggestions, so others could have a more realistic expectation. Most of the middle-of-the-road reviews were the same: Good service, clean, old furniture.