Mariner Dinner Entrees ( 3/11/07 )

[OliverTheCat]

Ok guys, jotted down all the main entrees that you can have in dining room on Mariner each night. Personally I did not care for the Sunday, Monday (formal) and Thursday (semi formal) menus. We ate in Chops for formal night and Portofino for semi/2nd formal night. THIS IS THE WESTERN ITENERARY, I have no idea if it changes for eastern!!

 

Ok, so these are the entrees only No details on them, but you can get the general idea:

 

SUNDAY:

 

Shrimp Ravioli

Stuffed Chicken

Prime Rib

Veggie Quesadilla

Cod

 

**I got the Quesadilla (awful) and husband got a very fatty unsatisfying tasting Prime Rib slab. He did not care for it at all. ***

 

 

MONDAY:

 

Wild Mushroom Alfredo Pasta

Sea Bass

Duck

Eggplant Tower

Filet of Beef with Peppercorn sauce

 

**We ate in Chops here. I have had the Eggplant Tower before and I did not care for it though. **

 

TUESDAY:

 

Pork Chop

Cheese Tortolini

Salmon

Lamb

Risotto

 

**I wasnt big on these choices, so I had the Penne with Marinara on alternative menu and it tasted like canned sauce and was very very bland. How I remember it on the Navigator and Legend too. Husband got the the Tortolini and loved it.**

 

WEDNESDAY:

 

This is a NEW MENU!!! They have completely gotten rid of the all hated caribbean menu on Mariner Wednesday. Server told me they had so many complaints on spiciness of food they have gone for a completely new angle. I LOVED this menu/change.

 

Turkey Tenderloin

Beef Shoulder Filet

Pasta with Marinara (tastier) with mussls, scallops, shrimp and lobster

Asparagus Tart

"Fresh catch of day"

 

***I had the Pasta and LOVED it. It was tasty because of the seafood. I also added some fresh pepper to mine for extra spice. Husband had the Turkey and said it too was tasty. The whole menu is good this day, appetizers to desserts (to us). They even served spinach salad with balsalmic vinegrette family style in middle of table. Very nice change. The dress was either smart casual or colorful caribbean attire. So you still can dress the part, but the menu wont match it. ****

 

THURSDAY:

 

Rigatoni with beef, sausage and peppers

Tiger Shrimp

Chicken Marsala

Vegetarian Chili

Lamb

 

***Ok, we ate at Portofino here. They call this their "italian night" I have had the chili and Marsala in past and didnt want to travel those roads again. Both were bad to us.***

 

FRIDAY:

 

Thai BBQ Chicken

Fisherman's Plate with Lobster tail and 4 shrimp

Prime Rib

Asian Tofu

Scallop Pasta

 

**Strange on this cruise how lobster is NOT on a formal night. Odd, so I asked the head waiter and he had no explanation as to why this is. I really think they should flip flop the menu. SO many people were absent this dinner for us because its Cozumel on West, and people are so drunk from Carlos and Charlies so many empty seats at dinner. Its a shame they miss the lobster and not the icky Chicken Marsala. Anyway, the Lobster was great and I was asked if I wanted another, so I did. So did husband. They have to wait until entire dining room is served before they are allowed, but seconds on any entree are ok if you want!! According to my server anyway....

 

SATURDAY:

 

Mahi Mahi

Salmon Pasta

Turkey

NY Strip

Indian Vegtable Curry

 

**We both had the NY Strip. Nothing special about it, but it wasnt bad. I did not get the bernaise sauce and used A1 instead, which my husband said he wished he also did. Didnt like sauce. There was a yummy onion soup on this night too and family style Caear Salad in middle of table.

 

 

So, overall there was one big change in dining room menus, which was elimination of caribbean menu. Also, the dining room is different on Mariner in that the servers only do a "show" at the end of the cruise. They dont do the native flag walk around they did on Navigator. The dinner was no shorter though lol. :rolleyes:

 

 

I liked the dining room experience on this cruise. I HATED the dining room experience I had on Navigator so this was a step up. We didnt even eat in dining room on Legend, because was hated Navigator's so bad. BUT Mariner definitely was better, just not stellar in any way. I just wish it didnt take 2 1/2 hours for a table for 2 to eat a dinner. Just too slow. I never get the overly friendly servers either. I think if we do another 7 day cruise with RCCL I will do buffet a few nights and speciality rests. the rest since WE LOVED LOVED LOVED Chops and Portofino, which I will touch on in my cruise review this week. That is just my opinion, but its hard to eat food as good as Portofino and then go back to canned tomato sauce in the dining room :)

[kato92]

Thank you so much. Looking forward to review.:)

[ken_nyc]

Thank you for the listing!!

[winncove]

Thanks so much! Doesn't sound very impressive & @ 1st glance still not sure when to make reserv. @ Chops. Appetizers & desserts are my favs anyway so will let DH decide this one. I have yet to go hungry! Is the C&A reception still on Wed. or any other conflicts that you can think of regarding the specialty restaurants?

 

Oops! Forgot this is for W. route which I'll need for next Feb. scheduling. Feel sure the menus will be the same for both routes [ going E. this Oct.] & thru Feb.

[brigittetom]

Thank you for the menus. I was also surprised by the lobster not being on formal night. I had planned on staying in that evening so I also missed it. By the time I found out it was too late to get ready for dinner.

You are not allowed to order lobster from cabin service which I understand because that would be too easy to abuse.

I just had the distinct feeling that it was done intentionally to serve fewer lobsters.

[marti2282]

Hi, Marissa (aka Oliver the Cat), Sorry we missed you guys at the meet n mingle. (DH and I were on the 3-11 Mariner also.)

 

We did dining room, Chops, and Portofino also. And since we did different days and different dishes, I will ad my 2 cents!

 

We also had a table for two--ours was on deck four and our waiter was Henry. We had a fantastic dining room experience and Henry was amazing. He paced the service totally around us. We were in and out in about an hour and a half each evening. The timing was perfect for us. In fact he asked after the first evening if the pace of service was too fast or too slow. It was perfect! We were never rushed, had plenty of time to enjoy each course.

 

Sunday

I had the Stuffed Chicken and DH had the Prime Rib. The Chicken was like cordon bleu and quite good. DH’s Prime Rib was cooked just the way he like it and although it was rimmed with fat (as RP usually is) there was plenty of lean meat. He enjoyed his.

 

Monday

I had the filet—it was VERY good. I never add any sauces. It stood very well on its own and was tender and cooked just right. DH had the fish and said it was okay.

 

Tuesday

We did the Mystery Dinner Theatre in Portofino. Dinner was amazing. The show was awful. Not anywhere near worth the $50 a piece they charged for it. The show was an unwelcome distraction from a beautiful meal.

 

Wednesday

We did Chops. I had the filet. Perhaps the best piece of meat I have ever eaten. DH had the lamb tenderloin. He made little moaning and cooing noises as he ate. For dessert, we shared the Mud Pie. YUMMY!

 

Thursday

I did the Chicken Marsala and DH did the Lamb Shank. Henry also brought the Tiger Shrimp for us to share. All three entrees were very good. We were so full at the end of this meal, we could hardly move!

 

Friday

This was our Cozumel day. We did the Mexican Cuisine Workshop—the best excursion we have EVER taken! Cooking on the beach with an open bar. So between the cooking and the drinking and getting back to the ship later than expected, we didn’t make it to the dining room for dinner. Hit Windjammers for salad and coffee.

 

Saturday

We did Portofino’s again. This time I had the seafood skewer – shrimp, lobster, scallops, and salmon. Not a salmon fan, but ate the rest. The skewers had been grilled and the flavor was great. DH had the filet here. The presentation was just like the one I had earlier in the week at Chops. He made the little moaning sounds again as he ate. Shared a dessert sampler after the meal. Just right!

 

Hope you all will approach the dining room with high expectations! We were not disappointed. Not everything was perfect, but it was still well above the ordinary!

 

Ciao! Marti

[Priusprof]

Marti:

Your input about the dining was great. I sent in my fax today to RCCL thanks to you.

David

[alwalaska]

Thank you so much for the information. Is there any way you can cross reference the dinners with the info on the Compass to see if they gave the dinners each a special name?

 

I am going on a 4 night Sovereign of the Seas cruise and I have the names of the dinners (Bon Voyage, Captains Gala, Venetian Feast and Feast of Nations) so I am wondering which dinners of your correlate. Obviously lobster night is out since it is a 4 night cruise. Other than that, I can't tell.

 

Thanks again for all of your info.:)

[diskris]

Don't you just love how one of the entrees is "Catch of the Day". Like they are fishing off the side of the boat. ;)

[MariaoftheSeas]

Thank you so much! I am sailing on the Mariner May 20th and can't wait!!

Looking forward to your review

[sbc98grad]

These were our menus exactly on AOS Southern Aruba route last week, so they may just be what RCI is sticking with for now. LObster was also not a formal night for us.

[ualtim]

Thanks for the menu!

 

We just booked on Mariner for next year and were wondering what the dinner menus were like.

 

Thanks again.

[firstcruise05]

I don't really remember exactly what we had on our Mariner cruise for dinner except that I had the Stuffed Chicken which I thought was excellent (that probably would have been a better choice for you that night)! And the fisherman's platter (AkA Lobster night).

 

One night we went to Portofino's and had an amazing Goat Cheese appetizer and I can't remember what for an entree but I remember being absolutely impressed.

 

One night we went to Chops and had steak of course...among lots of other things, ugh we were soooo full. The baked potatoes there are as big as your head, not really but they were VERY big.

 

Hmmmm, so that is 4 nights. One night, at least, we ate at the Buffet because my DH was so sunburned that he didn't want to dress up for dinner.

 

I'm missing 3 nights, can't remember for the life of me what we ate those three nights and your menu isn't ringing any bells so it is probably different than it was when I went.

[QTMichele]

Marissa,

 

The menus brought back memories! I cannot believe it's been almost a month since I was on the Mariner. I really need to book another cruise! :)

 

I can't believe your dinners were so long and you didn't get the "nice" waiters! Ours were nice (dinner length and waiters) - just over an hour long. I start getting "itchy" to move if I have to sit for long periods of time and am so thankful we didn't have the "3 hour dinner." I also think you hit the nail on the head with lobster night... so many people are out because of Cozumel that RCCL probably hopes they'll save money by not serving as many lobster tails. (Who knows?) SOOO glad you liked the specialty restaurants! They are definitely a BIG step above the dining room quality. (Although, we didn't have many issues with our meals in the dining room... we ate different main courses than you though - maybe that's the difference? I'm thinking our food was chain restaurant quality - Applebee's like.)

 

Thanks again for sharing your experiences with us! :)

 

Michele

[katiel53]

Thanks so much for posting the menues. I will go to Portofino on Wednesday again. Not a great night menu as far as I am concerned.

 

I think this cruise we will eat only a couple of dinners in the dining room. We are traveling alone and we will try the Windjammer at night once or so, and definitely Chops and Portofino. We love Portofino. Might even get there a couple of times.

 

Thanks again.

 

 

Katie

[alwalaska]

Thanks again for the menus, I am just hoping I can get some help on which menus will be the ones used on my 4 day Sovereign cruise.

[Hojo's redbeard]

Thanks to both of you for your takes on the menus. I LOVE lamb, so I'm very happy to see it a couple of nights and hear that it is good.

 

I'm in agreement on the opinion that Lobster was being moved to a slow dining room night as a way to save money. It's ridiculous what the stuff costs, and I really don't even like it. Guess I'm in the minority, I could care less.

 

We've always checked the menu in the morning (or whenever it is first posted) to help plan our day. If there is a menu that is not too appetizing to us, we'll make other plans.

 

We do plan to hit Portofino and Chops, hopefully they still are on the same rotation in September so that I know what nights would be our best bet.