Harmony food.

[Morecruisesplz]

5 hours ago, John&LaLa said:

 

Windjammer dinners were pretty good on Mariner this week. American on day 1, Mongolian stir fry day 2, Fajita bar day 3, and day 4 lunch had mixed carving station. Roast beef, Turkey, Ham, and Mahi. The turkey was the best I can ever recall.

 

No idea on day 4, we did Izumi.

 

So we never went to MDR for dinner 

 

And I forgot to mention they had a crepe station on night 1. Very well done. 

Wow!

[98TUNNER]

1 hour ago, bretts173 said:

My wife works in analytics for a large company in the travel sector and 95 of reviews on sites like these are negative. People who have a good time, happy with what they got just don't feel the need to comment.

 

In the grand scheme of things a few bad reviews is such a small percentage but usually are the loudest. Between myself and my family and friends who are mostly cruisers we have only positives to say about our experiences this year.

I'm not trying to give a negative review. That was not my intent at all. Was simply wondering if all of the bigger ships mainly the oasis class had sub par food. We enjoyed the ship but the quality of the food will steer us away from this class of ship, if they are all like this. 

[98TUNNER]

We try to cruise once a year with royal. But since this is our first oasis class ship, I'm simply trying to investigate for next year's reference. If I need to go down a class in ship to get back to the good food that we are use to I will. 

[bretts173]

21 minutes ago, 98TUNNER said:

I'm not trying to give a negative review. That was not my intent at all. Was simply wondering if all of the bigger ships mainly the oasis class had sub par food. We enjoyed the ship but the quality of the food will steer us away from this class of ship, if they are all like this. 

That's fine but my point is if the food was as you had expected or better this thread wouldn't have started, just pointing out to people how easy it is to hear one person's viewpoint and take it as gospel.

[loman]

So , i guess more cruisers will be packing a george foreman and do their own grilling on the balcony ? 🤣

 

I was planning a harmony cruise next year , but based on the reviews , i guess i will be brown bagging it. 😂

[as3369]

I have done 4 cruises since the restart... 3 Celebrity & 1 RCCL.  I can tell you that the food quality has gone south on all of them.  

[kernow]

We were on Ovation last cruise, lots of things poor on the ship but food wasn't one of them. We didn't eat in Windjammer(rarely do) but MDR, Solarium Bistro, Cafe 270, Fish n Ships, Sorrentos  were all good, I thought it was some of the best food we've had on RCL for years.

[bretts173]

1 hour ago, kernow said:

We were on Ovation last cruise, lots of things poor on the ship but food wasn't one of them. We didn't eat in Windjammer(rarely do) but MDR, Solarium Bistro, Cafe 270, Fish n Ships, Sorrentos  were all good, I thought it was some of the best food we've had on RCL for years.

Must be the good supply of fresh Australian produce.

[John&LaLa]

9 hours ago, 98TUNNER said:

I'm not trying to give a negative review. That was not my intent at all. Was simply wondering if all of the bigger ships mainly the oasis class had sub par food. We enjoyed the ship but the quality of the food will steer us away from this class of ship, if they are all like this. 

 

Honestly nothing to do with the class. Totally dependent on ships management. Now corporate controls what theyvreceive to a large extent, but what they can do with it is up to them.

 

FWIW, Harmony is my least favorite of the original 4 Oasis ships. We sail Wonder Friday, so I'll soon know them all.

 

Try Oasis or Symphony next. I think you'll prefer it.

[time4u2go]

9 hours ago, 98TUNNER said:

I'm not trying to give a negative review. That was not my intent at all. Was simply wondering if all of the bigger ships mainly the oasis class had sub par food. We enjoyed the ship but the quality of the food will steer us away from this class of ship, if they are all like this. 

It's not just the bigger ships.

[98TUNNER]

2 hours ago, time4u2go said:

It's not just the bigger ships.

That's unfortunate... might be time to find different vacation venues 

[George C]

Looking forward to harmony next November, dislike CK on all ships , have a grand suite booked and will buy UDP 😁😁.

[rbschultz]

6 hours ago, John&LaLa said:

 

Honestly nothing to do with the class. Totally dependent on ships management. Now corporate controls what theyvreceive to a large extent, but what they can do with it is up to them.

 

FWIW, Harmony is my least favorite of the original 4 Oasis ships. We sail Wonder Friday, so I'll soon know them all.

 

Try Oasis or Symphony next. I think you'll prefer it.

 

We decided against Wonder simply because there was no broadway show

[AtSeaAlways]

Just now, ldubs said:

Sounds like there is a problem on the Harmony.   

I think the fleetwide menus come from Corporate.  And the largest ships would have every possible choice? 

 

Windjammer on the Radiance has been lovely this week.  Lots of choices and all of them good.  The theme nights have been fun.  The fish has been amazing.  The soups and breads have been good.  Lunch today- seaside outdoors - chicken soup, noodles with cheese, vegetable biryani, fish.  

I have not been impressed by the variety at the salad bar though now that you mention it.  I had the idea to make my own wedge salad - no actual blue cheese.  And pre packaged frozen hash browns are fried at the factory first 🙂

 

There are so many entree and other options DW and I regularly miss our favorites on the first trip.  I just tracked down the F&B Director and thanked him personally.  We were both resisting going back up for thirds on freshly made waffles. 

 

On another line, on a very large new ship with a dozen exciting premium venues, I have seen the wheels fall off in the MDR.  The pasta was extra salty and table clearing ground to a halt.  It is like the story of the sea captain who would at least taste the meal in the crew mess every day 🙂

Edited December 6, 2022 by AtSeaAlways

[DaKahuna]

4 hours ago, George C said:

Looking forward to harmony next November, dislike CK on all ships , have a grand suite booked and will buy UDP 😁😁.

 

 We are just the opposite.  We book suites just so we can dine in CK.  The only time we eat more than once in a specialty restaurant  on a cruise is lunch in Izumi.   Our last B2B (14 days total) on Quantum we ate a total three times at Izumi and once in Jamie's.  

[Susa Beau]

We were on Harmony six day cruise over Thanksgiving and we only had lunch the first day in Windjammer so I can't comment on dinners there but on the whole I did not find the food to be of poor quality. We ate breakfast two times in MDR and four times in Johnny Rockets. Though Johnny Rockets doesn't have fresh fruit and the menu is more limited, the food is made right there and was good. I ate lunch in the Solarium (salad buffet) or Park Cafe (made to order salad) and was satisfied. I also found the MDR dinners good and our waiter was attentive and even offered two lobsters and a small tenderloin on lobster night. The Thanksgiving turkey dinner was good too. There were more than 6,000 guests (including 1,800 children/teens) on this cruise and I think considering all things that RCCL did a good job with the food. 

[PWP-001]

14 hours ago, Susa Beau said:

We were on Harmony six day cruise over Thanksgiving and we only had lunch the first day in Windjammer so I can't comment on dinners there but on the whole I did not find the food to be of poor quality. We ate breakfast two times in MDR and four times in Johnny Rockets. Though Johnny Rockets doesn't have fresh fruit and the menu is more limited, the food is made right there and was good. I ate lunch in the Solarium (salad buffet) or Park Cafe (made to order salad) and was satisfied. I also found the MDR dinners good and our waiter was attentive and even offered two lobsters and a small tenderloin on lobster night. The Thanksgiving turkey dinner was good too. There were more than 6,000 guests (including 1,800 children/teens) on this cruise and I think considering all things that RCCL did a good job with the food. 

 

I'm on Harmony now and had breakfast at the counter in Johnny Rockets yesterday.  The ONLY food "made right there" is toast, eggs, deep fried potatoes. 

• Pancakes were pre-made, pulled out of a hotel pan kept warm on the griddle and thrown on a plate.
• French toast is pre-made, pulled out of one hotel pan by hand, rubbed in something I could not see in another hotel pan and then sprinkled with powdered sugar after being put on a plate. 
• Sausage links cooked in advance, kept warm in a soup trunnion, are taken out an placed on a plate.
• Precooked bacon, with no attempt to keep it warm is in a slotted deep hotel pan and sitting on the prep counter.
• My burger from the PREMIUM section of the menu, was pre-cooked, tossed in an egg pan and warmed up (and certainly not hot when I got it) then slapped on a bun.  There was no sizzle on the grill.

There were several... "people"  whom it's hard to refer to as "cooks" that did nothing but assemble orders.

 

This is NOT what you'd expect to see in a show kitchen.  

 

I've actually considered writing and describing this to FAT Brands who owns the name because this presentation clearly tarnished their name and brand.

[PWP-001]

On 12/5/2022 at 10:37 PM, loman said:

So , i guess more cruisers will be packing a george foreman and do their own grilling on the balcony ? 🤣

 

I was planning a harmony cruise next year , but based on the reviews , i guess i will be brown bagging it. 😂

 

Ya know.... the George Foreman grill certainly sounds like a much more practical option than my Tovala oven and meals I've thought about packing for my 4 day Liberty cruise next week. 

 

I've already taken two short cruises on Liberty this November.  The first I purchased the UDP and either ate in the Italian or Steakhouse restaurants, and I've previously mentioned my bad experiences in each. 

 

The second cruise I went with a friend who wanted to have breakfast in WJ, and I wanted to be accommodating, so didn't object.  The food trough was a chaotic whirl of gluttony as people, mostly wider than tall, balancing a mountain of food on one plate --if not two-- as they navigated amongst each other, jockeying for an opening in the crowds around the food station they planned to attack next.  

 

After that first breakfast trauma my friend said:  "I don't want to eat there any more."  So the next morning in the MDR he was chastised by the waiter who told him:  "You don't want to order the omelet because that will take at least twenty minutes.  Order one of the express breakfasts."  He didn't.  A 20 minute wait doesn't seem like so long if you are enjoying a starter course of say a yogurt parfait as my friend ordered.  But our waiter decided to just drop that at the same time as the omelet.

 

But as for Harmony, one good word I can put in regarding the food is the true-to-menu preparation and presentation of the Eggplant Parmigiana.  This is a healthy dish given none of it ever hits a deep fryer.

[BND]

Food on Jewel wasn't very good in Nov either.

 

As for the subject of losing their food supplier, we were told that on Jewel by someone we met at Cheers with an Officer lunch who is a chef in FL.  He said the original supplier went out of business during the pandemic because most of their clients (if not all) were cruise ships.  I posted this before and got jumped on about our food experience.  Nov was the worst we've ever had.  Our previous cruises since restart were decent, but our Jewel experience wasn't good at all.

[BND]

1 hour ago, PWP-001 said:

 

I'm on Harmony now and had breakfast at the counter in Johnny Rockets yesterday.  The ONLY food "made right there" is toast, eggs, deep fried potatoes. 

• Pancakes were pre-made, pulled out of a hotel pan kept warm on the griddle and thrown on a plate.
• French toast is pre-made, pulled out of one hotel pan by hand, rubbed in something I could not see in another hotel pan and then sprinkled with powdered sugar after being put on a plate. 
• Sausage links cooked in advance, kept warm in a soup trunnion, are taken out an placed on a plate.
• Precooked bacon, with no attempt to keep it warm is in a slotted deep hotel pan and sitting on the prep counter.
• My burger from the PREMIUM section of the menu, was pre-cooked, tossed in an egg pan and warmed up (and certainly not hot when I got it) then slapped on a bun.  There was no sizzle on the grill.

There were several... "people"  whom it's hard to refer to as "cooks" that did nothing but assemble orders.

 

This is NOT what you'd expect to see in a show kitchen.  

 

I've actually considered writing and describing this to FAT Brands who owns the name because this presentation clearly tarnished their name and brand.

To be fair, restaurants all precook bacon and sausage (bake it).  It's too time consuming to cook for each order.  As for the rest, I agree shouldn't be made ahead.

[PWP-001]

1 hour ago, BND said:

To be fair, restaurants all precook bacon and sausage (bake it).  It's too time consuming to cook for each order.  As for the rest, I agree shouldn't be made ahead.

Yes, I know, given I filled in for the short order cooks at a private club in my late teens.  While we did broil the bacon ahead of time, we at least made it hot and crispy by throwing it on the flat top before it went on a breakfast plate.  At JR's there was no attempt to even keep it warm.

[as3369]

On 12/6/2022 at 9:47 AM, George C said:

Looking forward to harmony next November, dislike CK on all ships , have a grand suite booked and will buy UDP 😁😁.

We are scheduled on Harmony next month.  I have read several negative review on MDR food.  I'm keeping my eye out and if UDP has a "Christmas Sale", we will book it.

[bretts173]

51 minutes ago, as3369 said:

We are scheduled on Harmony next month.  I have read several negative review on MDR food.  I'm keeping my eye out and if UDP has a "Christmas Sale", we will book it.

Several negative reviews or just a few very loud ones from the same people who whine about everything. Several is quite a small percentage of the 100s of thousands that have cruised on her this year.

 

 

[George C]

1 hour ago, as3369 said:

We are scheduled on Harmony next month.  I have read several negative review on MDR food.  I'm keeping my eye out and if UDP has a "Christmas Sale", we will book it.

We really enjoyed UDP on allure last year about this time . Harmony has a couple we have tried yet, heard wonderland was really good.

[DaKahuna]

2 hours ago, as3369 said:

We are scheduled on Harmony next month.  I have read several negative review on MDR food.  I'm keeping my eye out and if UDP has a "Christmas Sale", we will book it.

 

 I hope you do a posting about your food experience, especially if you do not do the UDP.  We do not have the UDP but I did make a reservation for 150 on Day 5 of our upcoming 8 Day sailing in February.

 

We have heard good / great reviews about 150 on other Oasis Class ships but do not recall one specific to Harmon right now.  

 

Edited December 7, 2022 by DaKahuna