Royal Caribbean does bread very well, except for biscuits.

[footzz]

Royal Caribbean does bread very well, but just can't seem to get their biscuits right, unless your idea of a good biscuit is nicely browned hockey puck. This isn't just an isolated incident either, the biscuits have been aweful on all of the cruises we've been on fleet wide. So, on our recent cruise I asked the Head Waiter why they couldn't get the biscuits right. His reply was that most of the cooks/bakers are from India. I told him that would explain why their Roti bread is so good. I suggested that maybe they should start serving Roti at breasfast. They also pair well with honey and gravy.

 

 

Edited September 15 by footzz

[shipgeeks]

I've concluded that the biscuits at breakfast are purely for biscuits and sausage gravy.  They are not meant to be eaten with marmalade and butter.  Other cruise lines seem to do the same. 

[neverbeenhere]

I don’t think Royal does bread well at all. But, yes, the biscuits are particularly bad. 
 

[gumshoe958]

3 minutes ago, neverbeenhere said:

I don’t think Royal does bread well at all. But, yes, the biscuits are particularly bad. 
 

It does bread exceptionally well in 150 Central Park.

[George C]

1 hour ago, footzz said:

Royal Caribbean does bread very well, but just can't seem to get their biscuits right, unless your idea of a good biscuit is nicely browned hockey puck. This isn't just an isolated incident either, the biscuits have been aweful on all of the cruises we've been on fleet wide. So, on our recent cruise I asked the Head Waiter why they couldn't get the biscuits right. His reply was that most of the cooks/bakers are from India. I told him that would explain why their Roti bread is so good. I suggested that maybe they should start serving Roti at breasfast. They also pair well with honey and gravy.

 

 

Celebrity also has biscuits about as hard as hockey pucks.

[footzz]

52 minutes ago, shipgeeks said:

I've concluded that the biscuits at breakfast are purely for biscuits and sausage gravy.  They are not meant to be eaten with marmalade and butter.  Other cruise lines seem to do the same. 

Perhaps they're really just occupying an otherwise empty space on the breakfast steam table.  Although, they do work well, if you ever need to level out a wobbly table.

[loman]

I dont think i have ever eaten bread on a cruise . 

I may have had a bun when i tried a hamburger but that is very rare too.

[OldCaver]

I rarely bother with bread in the Food Jammer, but when I've been offered a basket of bread in the Dining Room, I've found the pumpkin seed bread to be so awesome I wasn't sure I should save room for the actual food.

 

[TheMillenniumRider]

The vast majority of people do biscuits very poorly. It isn’t just cruise lines. 

[UPNYGuy]

On 9/15/2024 at 10:54 AM, neverbeenhere said:

I don’t think Royal does bread well at all. But, yes, the biscuits are particularly bad. 
 

Agree. The croissants are the worst I have ever had. MSC and Carnival can get them right, but Royals are like rubber

[silentbob007]

I always wondered if they were actually premade ones though I would suppose that would take up too much space.  It's probably like the pancakes ... they are all thrown together by recipe (butter instead of frozen butter) and then overmixed by machine.  

[shipgeeks]

1 hour ago, UPNYGuy said:

Agree. The croissants are the worst I have ever had. MSC and Carnival can get them right, but Royals are like rubber

We found the MSC ones meant to be eaten only with the sausage gravy next to them, just like the RC ones.

The only tender biscuits we've found were at afternoon teas on X and Cunard.

[smokeybandit]

Biscuits and gravy on a cruise ship just seems to be begging for some instant karma.

[BND]

Biscuits really aren't hard to make but you do have to do them right.  They aren't like bread/rolls which require kneading.  Biscuits require folding to get the correct layering.  They ought to just buy frozen Pillsbury Buttermilk biscuits and serve those.  They're the closest to homemade I've found.  Born in TX and my mother and grandmother make/made great biscuits using real buttermilk.

Edited Monday at 10:09 PM by BND

[PaperSniper4]

14 hours ago, UPNYGuy said:

Agree. The croissants are the worst I have ever had. MSC and Carnival can get them right, but Royals are like rubber

Oooh, that makes me sad! For morning cabin service, we always ask for a couple of croissants with our coffee. I know what you mean about bad ones; we love cruising Princess but in the early years there awful croissants were the worse we'd had. I agree, even Carnival makes a good croissant, and I recall Celebrity and HAL also. Maybe our experience on the upcoming Brilliance cruise from NOLA will be better.....sure hope so.

 

 Doug

[UPNYGuy]

3 minutes ago, PaperSniper4 said:

Oooh, that makes me sad! For morning cabin service, we always ask for a couple of croissants with our coffee. I know what you mean about bad ones; we love cruising Princess but in the early years there awful croissants were the worse we'd had. I agree, even Carnival makes a good croissant, and I recall Celebrity and HAL also. Maybe our experience on the upcoming Brilliance cruise from NOLA will be better.....sure hope so.

 

 Doug

My wife and I just did a Brilliance cruise to Alaska, and the croissants were acceptable for Royal Caribbean.  The food was a bit better than we usually get on them too.

[Ocean Boy]

On 9/15/2024 at 10:54 AM, neverbeenhere said:

I don’t think Royal does bread well at all. But, yes, the biscuits are particularly bad. 
 

I think RCI's focaccia bread is quite good.

[footzz]

15 hours ago, silentbob007 said:

 (butter instead of frozen butter) and then overmixed by machine.  

Silentbob007 knows what it takes to make good biscuits.

[zap99]

On 9/15/2024 at 3:02 PM, footzz said:

Royal Caribbean does bread very well, but just can't seem to get their biscuits right, unless your idea of a good biscuit is nicely browned hockey puck. This isn't just an isolated incident either, the biscuits have been aweful on all of the cruises we've been on fleet wide. So, on our recent cruise I asked the Head Waiter why they couldn't get the biscuits right. His reply was that most of the cooks/bakers are from India. I told him that would explain why their Roti bread is so good. I suggested that maybe they should start serving Roti at breasfast. They also pair well with honey and gravy.

 

 

First time we visited USA, we wondered why they called Scones...biscuits.🤣

[UPNYGuy]

It’s really funny, but the best croissants we have ever had on a ship were on this last sailing DW and I did, on Carnival Celebration. We agreed that they were actually better than MSC’s.

[dazadelaide]

To us aussies biscuits and gravy is VERY weird.

To us biscuits are what you call cookies and gravy is a thick brown sauce you put on roast meat!

Daz

[PaperSniper4]

23 hours ago, UPNYGuy said:

My wife and I just did a Brilliance cruise to Alaska, and the croissants were acceptable for Royal Caribbean.  The food was a bit better than we usually get on them too.

Thank you for your experience. Well, no exactly a winning endorsement, but I'll take it that their croissants will at least be tolerable. ☺️

Did you by any chance use cabin/room service for lunch or dinner? We have some issues for our next month cruise that could make that necessary for us, although we have never used that service on a ship before. If you did, how was the wait time, food quality, temperature, etc.

 

Thanks

[Ergates The Ant]

I’ve certainly been offered some very odd looking scones in the US, more like rock cakes. And then very surprised to see what looked just like scones (although a bit saltier) labelled as biscuits! 
As for the Yorkshire puddings on our last cruise, quite weird! All they needed to do was follow an American recipe for German oven pancakes, or Dutch baby pancakes, but leave out any sugar. Very similar to a properly cooked Yorkshire pudding.

[goldfish65]

Biscuits as we call them in southern USA are far better when freshly baked; on a ship they will have been sitting and getting hard. 

[shipgeeks]

At the risk of repeating myself, the biscuits on RC breakfast lines are only meant to go with the adjacent sausage gravy, to make one of the most popular items at a chain restaurant such as Bob Evans, and many diners across the country.

They are not intended to be tender and flaky.