RCCL - Food Poll

[hac82]

To the moderators, I understand that there is a food forum, but I ask that this thread remain on this RCCL forum because it is specific to RCCL.

 

I just got off the Explorer of the seas for the 7/14 cruise and thought that the food was very good. I have seen other posts to the contrary. What I am interested to find out is what others have felt about the food on their cruise and why.

 

There were some items that I had that needed special recognition: Steak, done perfectly every time; shrimp risotto, osso bucco, escargot (truly the best I had anywhere), vidalia onion tart and cream of vidalia soup.

 

Fair: Cheese cakes were a little dry, coffee creme brule was so-so, beef consumme was salty, grilled pork chop tasty but a little over cooked.

 

When you make your comments, please make them based only on your own experience and yout tastes. Please do not be critical of anyone as you would not want anyone to be critical of yours. This is just to share thoughts and let anyone who read this, to make their own judgement.

[lyndamarie6]

we just got off the 5 night Enchantment and have to agree totally by everything you say here to the tee.

 

I made a point to try as much as I can. I hated all the soups, the tomato soup tasted just like marinara sauce (I am italian and know), I love chilled soups all their chilled soup, pear, melon, strawberry was not creamy at all in fact the worse I ever had. The cheesecake was too dry and it was not true NYCheesecake, Desserts were fair only with just three selections (plus ice cream and sherbert but I can have this any time) the first evening the best dessert on the menu was apple pie a la mode! What kind of dessert is that I can get pie anytime, it totally shocked me. The only time where the dessert was good to very good was only 1 night out of the 5 dinners the key lime pie was probably one of the best I ever had, the baked alaska is good can't go wrong much on that other than the merigne was not the best and the cream brulee was horrible!!

As far as the meals at dinner, our beef dishes were always cooked to perfection and we all eat our meat from medium rare to medium to mediam well. They were always tasty. The only soup that I found was decent was the onion soup. The escargot was excellent even my daughter who is 14 loved it. The mahi mahi was breaded with this thick crust, living in south florida and dining in seafood restaurants I never seen mahi mahi fried with such a thick batter, I had to get it taken away. The shrimp was also good, there was no choices on salads just a plain mixed salad that looked like it came out of the plastic bag and there was a very good caesar salad offered each evening but it was always the same.

 

I can't complain it was just good but the presenation was not very good at all in fact I was a bit surprised at the lack of presentation compared to other cruise lines. Carnival's presentation is excellent I have to say that, this is why I was quite surprised on the lack of presentation on the meals.

 

The beverage service during dinner was too too slow and waiting for the espresso and cuppachino took forever to a point our desserts were already finished, after the 3 evening we didn't even bother to ask for the cuppachino as it took forever.

 

The buffets I have to say were all good with decent choices I was very pleased with the buffets. Desserts could be improved overall on this particular ship but I thought the food was very good overall at the buffets and just good at dinner. I did like the choice of breads offered each evening.

[hac82]

lyndamarie6, thank you for responding with comments. This is exactly what I am looking for.

 

I hope that others will add their comments as well on what they did and did not like and why.

[RCCLCARIB]

I have never had a bad experience of food on any Royal Caribbean Cruise/Ship.

 

Chops was excellent and so is the Main Dining Room. My soups are always hot and tasty, salads are crisp and fresh, meet is cooked perfectly, appetizers have great flavor, and the desserts are superb!

 

-Just my Opinion I I hope I don't jink myslef!!

 

By the way, how do you create a poll like this?

[cb at sea]

We were recently on Brilliance--and I have to say the food was NOT up to our previous experiences! I don't know if this was a "rule" from the chef, or specific to our waitress, but we had great trouble getting our beef cooked the way we like it. We were given a choice of rare, medium rare, or welldone. We argued and argued to get medium well--10 days and it was never acheived. The vegetable selections were no better than Applebees, or the like. Mixed stuff--almost every night. That had NEVER happened on any of our other cruises. Paltry amounts some nights--and (I think this was our waitresses fault) we had a hard time getting anything extra--like a serving of mashed potatoes--she insisted we had to have another whole entree. All in all--the food was ok, taste-wise, but not up to their previous standards, and the overall dining experience was lacking.

[cruiselovers]

We returned from Explorer a few weeks ago. My observations as follows:

 

The portions are smaller

 

The food is not as good as it used to be, but ask your waiter what he/she would order, and they know which one or two entrees are better-every time. They will answer your question within 2 seconds....

 

Portofino's is excellent...the waiters there would tell you all the entrees are great, and they are correct...A great bargain for the money.

 

RCCL earns huge profits margins and has a terrific product. Travel agents would tell you if you like RCCL ships, you will be disappointed in the Carnival experience, but Carnival consistently gets higher ratings for their food...Not sure why RCCL doesn't have a little more pride here...But overall, the ship experience, entertainment, Cruise Directors (all of them are always rated very high on these boards), always a great vacation in my opinion.

 

Celebrity has the best food we've seen, after cruising with RCCL, Princess and NCL...Hands down, no contest. Unfortunately, they do not have many ships in the caribbean in the summer.

 

I do wish RCCL would spend more of those profits on food and return the bigger portions, but I still love to vacation on their ships and will not stop because of the food quality.

[Reijo]

I also felt that the meals on Mariner were great. I believe much of the problem with the meals is that people expect a 5 star restaurant. If you get that, wonderful............but, don't go expecting it. Expect a nice meal served by exceptional (in my opinion) waiters and I doubt you'll be dissappointed. There will be some meals that are better than others but that happens in ANY restaurant. :o

[Li2240]

We returned from Explorer a few weeks ago. My observations as follows:

 

The portions are smaller

 

The food is not as good as it used to be, but ask your waiter what he/she would order, and they know which one or two entrees are better-every time. They will answer your question within 2 seconds....

 

Portofino's is excellent...the waiters there would tell you all the entrees are great, and they are correct...A great bargain for the money.

 

RCCL earns huge profits margins and has a terrific product. Travel agents would tell you if you like RCCL ships, you will be disappointed in the Carnival experience, but Carnival consistently gets higher ratings for their food...Not sure why RCCL doesn't have a little more pride here...But overall, the ship experience, entertainment, Cruise Directors (all of them are always rated very high on these boards), always a great vacation in my opinion.

 

Celebrity has the best food we've seen, after cruising with RCCL, Princess and NCL...Hands down, no contest. Unfortunately, they do not have many ships in the caribbean in the summer.

 

I do wish RCCL would spend more of those profits on food and return the bigger portions, but I still love to vacation on their ships and will not stop because of the food quality.

 

Perfectly said.

[Nick Needs To Know]

I'm always leery about changing cruise lines because of the varying reports on food. We'll be sailing RCCL for the first time this Christmas and, I'm just hoping it isn't a let down after Carnival, Celebrity and Princess....so I'm eagerly reading the posts and the poll every time someone posts here...

 

Nick

[Robinob]

While I don't cruise for the food, I will add a few comments.

 

Portofino can not be beat!!!!! I have never had anything there that was not excellent.

 

Dining room. The Mahi Mahi that the previous poster described was in a tempura batter and very good. Tempura is a bit thicker than a regular frying batter. It said Mahi mahi Tempura on the menu. I really can't complain about the food because if you do get something that you don't like, you may order something else. I had the duck which was a little greasy, not the best but good, pork chop was good, Chicken Picatta was excellent, Lobster was cooked just right, appitizers were good. Soups a bit salty, desserts were OK. Nothing great in the dessert department (except in Portofino). The coffee was awful. If you wanted a good cup you had to go to the cafe Promanade and get Seattle's Best.

 

Cafe Promanade was really good. Sandwhiches were fresh as were the pastries and cookies. Coffee here was great.

 

Windjammer/Island grill was OK. You don't expect excellent at a buffet. I only had a few things that I didn't care for. Breakfast was good. Lunch OK. Never ate dinner there.

 

Johnny Rockets was very good. (Worth the 3.95 that many complain about).

 

Breakfast in the dining room was passable. We ate there twice for breakfast and lioked the Windjammer better.

 

I think that RCCL bends over backwards to try and please the passenger. As I said before, If you get something that you don't like...reorder.

[lv2cruisgrl]

I'm always leery about changing cruise lines because of the varying reports on food. We'll be sailing RCCL for the first time this Christmas and, I'm just hoping it isn't a let down after Carnival, Celebrity and Princess....so I'm eagerly reading the posts and the poll every time someone posts here...

 

Nick

We have done Celebrity (1) and Princess (1) but mostly RCCL (10). We thought Princess was good, I though Celebrity was ok but I like the food choices of RCCL best.

[wrp96]

I've had a few items over the years in the dining room that weren't the best. One time the waiter warned me not to order it, and I did anyways.

 

The windjammer buffet though is always hit or miss for me, but part of that may be because I don't like buffets (I think it's a mental block from having to eat cafeteria food for several years in college).

[hac82]

RCCLCARIB, to put a poll on a thread, when you are ready to post a new thread, scroll to the pottom of the screen and there is an option ot add a poll to the thread and abox to enter how many questions the poll will have. Submit it and then another screen comes up so you can enter the questions and the options on how the poll is to run and how long you want it to run.

 

A comment was made about asking the waiter for recommendations. Our waiter, Engin, made recommendations every night as soon as he handed out the menus. Some nights he even told us what would be on the menu the next night so we could be prepared. He was also very conscious of what was not eaten and asked why to make sure that everything was okay and if he could get us something else to replace it if we did not like it. We were very fortunate to have him.

[Happy ks]

I had to post average, although I've had both wonderful food and horrid food on RCI. For me, the best part of dinner is always the appetizers. I love a good salad, but theirs are always a bit lackluster.

 

Food is so subjective for everyone, I may love a dish and the person next to me will hate it. I frequently read people saying they are picky eaters or their kids are, I consider myself a picky eater, but because of the opposite reason of them. Most "picky eaters" will limit their choices to only the familiar, while I enjoy a wide range of food, but I like it all fresh, not pre-prepared, frozen or out of cans or bags. I can tell the difference between freshly prepared soup and canned, also fresh vegetables in salad vs. bagged.

 

However, I don't fault the line as one that has average food, just that it is difficult to prepare food of any real quality for masses of people. We've been on several cruise lines and I have to say, it's pretty much the same across the board. The best food on any ship has always come from the specialty restaurant.

 

I steer clear of the buffet on any ship, even land based buffets, too much like cafeteria food and I enjoy being served, not having to wait on myself.

 

All that said, I've never gone hungry on a cruise ship and the big plus is I'm not shopping, cooking, serving, or cleaning up after all of it:)

[cb at sea]

I also felt that the meals on Mariner were great. I believe much of the problem with the meals is that people expect a 5 star restaurant. If you get that, wonderful............but, don't go expecting it. Expect a nice meal served by exceptional (in my opinion) waiters and I doubt you'll be dissappointed. There will be some meals that are better than others but that happens in ANY restaurant. :o

 

 

See, that's the problem--in years past, the food, service and presentation WAS like that of a 5-star restaurant! That's the whole point! Things have changed, and not for the better! They used to have real silverware,(and a utensil for every course and food group!) molded butter pats, and nice cut-glass or crystalware. Now they use stainless steel, 2 forks (one's not even a salad fork!), regular everyday glasses, wrapped butter (what is this, Denny's????) The superb dining was part of the excitement of cruising--now they're just feeding us-- It's like going from Morton's to the Outback!!!!

[hac82]

I have only had 2 cruises and both with RCCL so I have nothing to compare with. However, with that said, let me also toss out this "thought". Is it possible that some of the drop in service that people tend to indicate has occured in the cruise industry, especially in the area of ood, is a result of the incread capacity of the newer ships and the need for speed in order to feed as many as 1,600 people in a 2 hour span?

 

I am looking at the numbers and to me they are staggering. A typical cruise ship has to prepare 12,000 to 15,000 meals a day for the passengers and crew. I did take the galley tour last year on Voyager and even though it was not at a time they were serving meals, it was packed with chefs, line chefs, assistants and the like all getting food prepped for the next meals. When you have to add the waiters running in and out to get the meals, I can imagine that it gets pretty hectic back there.

 

I am not saying that this is a valid reason for some of the cutbacks but that it is only a thought I have had. Personally, I am not offended that there was not a salad fork although I did question it in my own mind. Wrapped butter pads do not disturb me because personally, for sanitary reasons I prefer it. Water, sode, wine, etc to me tastes the same if it is cut crystal or a basic glass.

 

When I am on the cruise, I look at the fact that 1) I am not shopping for the food 2) I am not cooking the food 3) I am not cleaning off the table 4) the meals are a time to share experiences with my table mates and to relax for the next event, show, excursion, etc.

 

I guess I am just not that hung up on the food experience and just go with it. If anything really offended me (taste, overcooked, etc), I would definately say something, and the same for the service. Otherwise I just go with the flow.

 

As many have said, a cruise is what you make of it. If you expect 5 star and do not get it, you are dissapointed. If you go in expecting average and get better, you are pleased. For me it is always expaecting low and thus always pleasantly surprised.

 

I would be interested in hearing comments on this as well as the food experences.

[Happy ks]

I've read that the butter pats are a part of food safety issues, not of budget ones. Regulations.

 

I've only been cruising since 1998, but never do I recall any 5 star dining, with the exception of the specialty restaurants. My husband cruised several times in the late 70's, early 80's (before we were a "we") and he warned me ahead of time, the food on cruise ships was more similar to a banquet than a fine restaurant. He was right, I don't see how they could prepare 5 star food with thousands of meals that are kept in warmers.

[vermontvoyager]

My wife and I sailed on Voyager for our first cruise in 2002 and found the food in the dining room to be excellent and was presented well with fairly large portions and found that the food in the Windjammer and Johnny Rockets was real good also.

No complaints about food on our Voyager cruise at all.

Our Mariner of the Seas cruise in 2005 was a different experience in the dining room and the Windjammer.

We found the food in the dining room to be alright on this cruise. The selections were lacking and the food just was not as good as it was 3 years prior.

Smaller portions that were on the cold side a lot of times and the caesar salad was small and was mostly lettuce with very little sign of other veggies.

The Escargot kicked butt like it did on Voyager along with the Lobster Tails. Everything else though was just mediocre compared to our first cruise.

The desserts were not as decadent either on the Mariner.

Some choices were all gone, we had late seating and that could be why, but you ended up having a lousy selection to choose from and they started bringing out half melted vanilla ice cream for you to eat, even though you did not order it.

Just did not care for the overall dining room experience this cruise.

We went to Chops one night and the food was excellent from beginning to end.

Windjammer was good some days and cold and tasteless on other days.

Ate at Johnny Rockets once this time and it was very good.

We are sailing the Navigator this December, we love the Royal Caribbean experience even though the quality of food has seemed to gone down hill.

We always had plenty to eat and the service was excellent and we really enjoyed our cruise.

Bob:)

[Nliedel]

Truth? I don't sail to eat and if I did I would be a sad woman. The food is good, but I'm a better cook. Of course I'm not feeding 3000 people at a pop and on a cruise I'm not cooking at all so the food is not as imporant as it could be.

[broberts]

See, that's the problem--in years past, the food, service and presentation WAS like that of a 5-star restaurant! That's the whole point! Things have changed, and not for the better! They used to have real silverware,(and a utensil for every course and food group!) molded butter pats, and nice cut-glass or crystalware. Now they use stainless steel, 2 forks (one's not even a salad fork!), regular everyday glasses, wrapped butter (what is this, Denny's????) The superb dining was part of the excitement of cruising--now they're just feeding us-- It's like going from Morton's to the Outback!!!!

 

In the days that you are talking about most average people couldn't afford to cruise. You can still get 5-star fine dining on a cruise. You just have to spend an amount appropriate to that level of service.

[M. St. Louis]

Coming from Carnival, our first RCCL food experience was a definite disappointment. Nothing blew me away, even lobster night was simply average. Not terrible, it's not like I had to send anything back, but Carnival was like dining out at restaurants that I can't usually afford to go to. RCCL was like dining out at my normal restaurants.

[WECoyote]

We have sailed with RCCL for well over a decade. On our first cruise, when the Monarch of the Seas was still king, 5 star service and 5 star food was the norm. Eating on a cruise was an experience in itself. As the cruise lines have grown, become more popular, and more affordable, the degradation in the dinning rooms has been noticeable. I believe it is due to serving more customers at one time on the larger ships and also due to a somewhat lower expectation by today's typical cruiser. As an earlier poster said, if you want 5 or 6 star, you can still get it, but you are going to have to pay for it. The food is still good, enjoyable, and most of all, still served to me.

[DonnaK]

I have never had a bad experience of food on any Royal Caribbean Cruise/Ship.

 

 

I echo this. My family and I have absolutely no complaints about the food. It's always been wonderful if your expectations are reasonable.

[billylen]

Truth? I don't sail to eat and if I did I would be a sad woman. The food is good, but I'm a better cook. Of course I'm not feeding 3000 people at a pop and on a cruise I'm not cooking at all so the food is not as imporant as it could be.

 

HAHAHA! I agree (well except the sad woman part..I'm a guy) I am a single dad and I think I am a pretty good cook...and over the years I have fed many kids who have stopped by for dinner, but imagine feeding 3000, 3 times a day! Some would say that is no excuse, but I beg to differ. How many banquets have you attended with a few thousand where the food was 5 star. I have attended a couple, but only a couple and believe me the cost to attend thoses events was through the roof!

 

RCCI does a fine job. Is it all perfect, nope, but I have found that one of the factors that makes a difference for me was the server. How timely were they? Did they offer good suggestions? How willign were they to accomidate "reasonable" requests? That makes up for a lot in my book.

 

Heck, I even had a new server who obviously had his hands full with doing his job, but you know what? He was the best because he worked his a:: off the get it right!

[Rala]

Just an FYI to Vermont Voyager (in case he/she orders Caesar salad again). Caesar Salad typically is made with only lettuce (usually romaine). There are usually some croutons and sometimes anchovies and/or grated or shaved Parmesan cheese and, of course the classic Caesar salad dressing. I'm sure there have been variations invented by some creative chefs, but the above is the standard in my experience.