bobert

Excellent review! Enjoying the read, especially since I also have avoided the "big ship" so far and I have just booked our first one on the Allure in November. Very interested in the rest of your review.

The 11/10/18 Adventure roll call has also disappeared.

We also love to share a table and listen to the stories that other people tell. We usually ask for a large table and then get table mates, but the last several cruises we have had a number of weeks with no one or almost no one at our table.

For me it took about a half dozen refreshes to make it work.

I also bring singles and try to always at all bars tip $1 per drink and I usually take care of the Concierge separately on the last night but sometime I have also tipped them up front if there are specific things I know I want them to do for me.

We were on the ABC 9 night that left the day this thread was started and yes we did have some issues, but our cabin attendant, waiter and the Diamond Lounge Concierge were among the best I have ever had. Yes MD service is never really fast, unless you ask for it to be so. We had excellent service in Chops both times we were there but there were service/coordination issues. For example on the last night I heard several people complaining that they had booked based on a discounted rate in that days Compass but the waiters were not aware of it and made the people feel like they were doing them a favor to honor the discount, which made for some angry reactions. If you publish a rate then it shouldn't be a surprise to the staff of the restaurant. Overall the ship looks pretty good but I must say that we had issues with our cabin. Neither the TV nor the sliding door to the balcony worked and it took three days of complaints to get them fixed, and it was our cabin attendant that kept telling us if they didn't fix it properly the last time then call again and again and again until they finally fixed them on day three. We must have had at least six visits from maintenance before someone finally resolved the issues. I must say that we were not lucky with the quality of meat we got in the MDR for either of nights that we tried the Prime Rib, the Fillet of Beef or the Steak Diane, despite the fact that I heard other people specifically praise these dishes. So I think it is a matter of taste and also the luck of the draw. Overall the MDR food was not as good as some others this year but Chops was definitely the star as Giovani's was good and Izumi was not. I will comment that I have never been one to eat in the Windjammer for dinner but I did look in most nights and on several it clearly would have been a better choice for food at dinner if we had eaten there instead of the MDR. While my food impressions were not great overall I must praise breakfast in the Windjammer. They had two big pluses as far as I am concerned, the bacon was much better than it ever has been and they were making fresh hot waffles that were among the best I have ever had in my life. So while this is not a health or weight endorsement, a breakfast of fresh hot waffles, and thick crispy bacon was a real treat for me each morning. So while this cruise had some major issues we are booked again on her for this itinerary this time next year.

On our 1/19/18 sailing I only found the Peekaboo bridge open twice and I looked in many times. I also thought that the CP pizza was better than other recent cruises. I was also surprised at the multiple locations for the soft serve ice cream and its relatively good taste. Now the over all MDR food quality was another matter altogether. This was the first time I have sent back a filet and the steak Diane. My DW even got a fatty rack of lamb in Chops but other wise Chops was excellent. That said we booked NOS again for next February. I believe that is just after it's next dry dock and I hope that it still has its Cigar Lounge and both the Diamond and Concierge Lounges, has I should have access to both for the first time in almost a decade, since the last time they took Concierge Lounge access away from my status level. My next cruise will be my first as Diamond Plus.

Have any of you gone into the main dinning room on formal night and had the man across from you, wearing a very nice Tux, start to chew Tabaco and pull out his spit container to spit out his Tabaco juice, while you were eating your filet of beef. I can say that I have now had that experience.

1. Sailing on Navigator tomorrow.

Thanks again this is most helpful.

Thanks so much for the great review with of it's wonderful info. I will be doing this itinerary leaving this Friday and really enjoyed reading and experiencing this through you perspective. I was trying to see if I could figure out the order of the menus from your review and got a little lost. I believe that the last two nights are Jasmine and Pomodoro. And the first two were Mojo and Saffron. But where I get lost is what night was ****ake, since it looked like Pimento, Basil,Tarragon and Chive were consecutive in that order. I know if could well change but I was doing a little menu planning to decide which four nights were the best to skip for Specialty Dinning. So if you could let me know what the correct order from your cruise was I would really appreciate it thanks.

I have been on FOS twice this year including last month. While I will say that the food on Royal in general is not what it used to be, I didn't see anything out of the ordinary as to the food. I must confess that we were given a gift of the ultimate dinning package and while we did enjoy it I will not do it again on the next cruise. What I have noticed on my last several cruises is that the Windjammer dinners seem to have improved as the MDR has diminished. I thought the bedding and service overall were quite good. So I really wouldn't worry too much about someone else who was unhappy with their experience, as yours will be different and you should make the absolute best of it.

We have eaten at Sabor on Navigator in the past and it was excellent but we just ate at Sabor on Freedom this month after the menu change and we were very disappointed in the selections. It used to be a fine dinning Mexican restaurant and now it is a taco stand. I could no longer recommend it although the staff was still very pleasant.

I was on Freedom also last week and the only time I was in a pool was immediately after it was opened in the morning. This was not an intentional strategy but after reading this I guess it should have been. Makes me appreciate my own pool and hot tub at home where I am the only one that goes into them. Thinking back I was a lifeguard for years at a hotel pool and amazingly we never had this problem back in the 70's and I have no idea how we were so lucky since most of our crowd was highly intoxicated.

As another one of the lucky ones to be boarding tomorrow, I can't thank you enough for the care and effort you have put into this review. Having the opportunity to enjoy your cruise as I wait for mine, has been amazing. Thanks again and enjoy every minute you have.