silversurfer53

Sure wasn't on 24th April cruise out of Southampton... And I thought the breakfasts were hugely disappointing....same old same old every day. We did get smoked salmon......fragments in scrambled eggs a few days, needed a microscope to find them though. I am going back to NCL!

That is correct there was no menu card for breakfast, it was a buffet, a very poor buffet to which you helped yourself. After that farce we always ate in the Windjammer but it gets very busy so we had to get in early , around 0815 to make sure we got seats and then went back to bed! You really should not have to do that on a £3000 holiday!

My wife and I were unknowingly on the first cruise post re-fit on Explorer of the Seas on 24 April. It was frankly little short of disgraceful. We paid a top price with a balcony state room and we got a 3 star cruise at best with food, entertainment, service and organisation sadly below par. A lot of staff seemed new or were they simply clueless? One poor girl was expected to run the Star Lounge bar all by herself so guess what.. The bar queue built up. Port Itinerary the worst of any cruise we have been on with only 4 hours in Lanzarote and 5 hours in Vigo. Communication also poor... Why didn't they tell their customers there were free shuttle buses at the Canary ports? Just not worth the £3000 we paid and we can never trust them again.

Oh they crammed in 88 new rooms raising capacity to 3288 I believe so don't be suprised to find nowhere to sit when you go to the Windjammer... Yes you do have to go there for lunch as the main dining rooms aren't open for lunch. If you take breakfast in the main Sapphire dining room you will be forced to sit where you are told and then you have to go help yourself to a very limited buffet, it's much the same food as the Windjammer only with less choice. My wife and I could not find a seat in any bar for the first three nights. Too many people and not enough seats makes for very unhappy cruisers, we won't trust RCL with our money ever again.... Cruised from Southampton 24th April...... And never will cruise with them again!

Cruised from Southampton on April 24. Menus look fancy food is disappointing. Portions small and many so called desserts are frankly misrepresentations of the real thing. Order Tiramisu or Key Lime pie and you get a pimped up mousse! Same with baked Alaska, nothing like the real thing. You won't get surf and turf unless you each cough up $40 extra. Yes you can get "aged New York Strip steaks" whenever you like but it's a kindergarten size portion, two bites it's gone! One of our reasons for booking with RCL was to get some quality. Well there is NO quality food, it's 3 stars at best. Food in the Windjammer rarely changes. We had better food with NCL. Oh and the chefs cannot make Yorkshire Puddings or meringues, that might account for why we never saw pavlovas on our menu cards! Sorry just not good enough RCL when we paid £3000 for our cruise. We will never sail with RCL ever again. Just totally disgusted!

My wife and I took our first cruise with RCL April 24th from Southampton, allegedly to Madeira, Canaries and Spain. Our fifth and most expensive cruise yet it was simply not worth the money. Ship is 4 stars but food sure ain't, 3 at best and while food in main dining room is presented well it hides the fact it's just not good enough for the price you pay plus you will be kept at your table for 90 minutes minimum ( some people kept there til midnight on first day of cruise!). Desserts hugely disappointing, mostly pimped up mousses masquerading as something else. We found no seats in any bar for the first three nights, finally found the Star Lounge had seats if you got in early. Never did find seats elsewhere. Ship was very full with just over 3000, very clearly RCL don't know or don't care that when ship is at sea that there is simply not enough room to eat or drink esp at key dining times like breakfast and lunch. Entertainment also very disappointing with only 2 good nights out of 10 and the last night was just so flat with a comic juggler as the "headliner act" ? Who in their right mind would ever pay to see a juggler? Which muppet booked this act for the last night? Didn't think much of the entertainment team at all, had they just escaped from Butlins? Yes ice show was great but you only see 1 show in 10 days, there must be more that could be done with this venue? Now for the port "days".... Hours more like. We had only 4 hours at Lanzarote and 5 at Vigo, that's just crazy and of course it created problems as people rushed on and off. Took us 45 minutes to get back on at Madeira and some people twice that. Surely a sensible thing to do would be to open two gangways? Seems RCL don't do being sensible! All in all I feel like I have been mugged and robbed. RCL clearly don't care about the customer experience and just wanted my money. I have had better cakes from UK supermarkets and better meals in Wetherspoons. Utter disgrace RCL and for the reasons posted here I will never ever cruise with them again. Food, entertainment, port itinerary and customer service and organisation simply not good enough for the £3000 we paid! We expected much better from what we believed was a good cruise company? The hell it is!