jetta8300

On 4/9/2023 at 5:55 PM, LobsterStalker said:

 

...Hmmm??

I’m not sure what you mean hmmmm?  I mean the Indian dishes were very flavorful and well done.  And if we had a high tolerance for spice they would be delicious. However we do not have a high tolerance for spice so they were inedible. I could take 2 bites and say “yum”! And then couldn’t eat more than two bites because we were on fire. 

34 minutes ago, firefly333 said:

So you made my point. What carnival does well is LUNCH.  Not dinner. The places you mentioned a few have breakfast but mainly lunch... I said lunch was good but not dinner on carnival. So you reply agreeing with me? Listing LUNCH places. 

 

Mardi gras and its sisters have more dinner choices but not out of Galveston. I couldnt find decent dinners on carnival except pay restaurants.  I'm at 197 pts on carnival so not a newbie. I starved for dinner or paid. This is why I changed to mostly rcl out of texas. .. no good free dinner options.

 

I got off radiance last Thursday 3 days ago, and my steaks were perfect. Every time. My lobster was decent sized and my fish and chips the fish was crispy. Every dinner was good. They were running out of some things by the end of the cruise. Vs carnival my free dinners in Mdr were terrible. 

 

People on carnival are also complaining about cut backs. It's all lines. But i had a excellent cruise on radiance for 10 days onboard. Quality does seem to vary. I've had some less than stellar meals on both and tastes vary.

 

But I booked the carnival for the better ports. Always a upside. 

 

I dont doubt the OP opinion. I had the fillet on oasis in Giovanni and they ruined it for me by putting gravy not garlic butter on it. Couldnt wait and send it back. Rcl needs to ask before assuming which you want. Oasis did the same to my steak in Mdr...put gravy on it without asking. Oasis for me was a bust. Radiance a win. I had the best ever steak on radiance cheers with a officer. On allure what I had was not edible. They need to get quality right every time. 

 

 

 

 

Yes I was actually replying to mainly agree with you.    I think I was just saying that we did find carnival's MDR marginally better than Royal, but it could just be the dishes we chose were more to our tastes etc.  I think the quality in general is about the same.  Although Carnival still has cheese and warm chocolate melting cake.  Cheese was missing on Royal, no cheese to be seen anywhere.

I'm simply saying that I wish ALL lines would take after Carnival's lunch changes, and apply that type of midset to dinner as well.  do cheaper ingredients better.  This is why people like the indian food at the Windjammer... it's cheaper to make but still tastes good.  I would rather have a good flavorful meal with a cheaper cut of meat (or no meat) in any MDR, than a poor quality meal with a traditionally more expensive cut.

18 minutes ago, smokeybandit said:

Did you tell this to the staff when they served your food? Or did you just save it all up for a message board rant after the cruise?

It's not always something you can complain to the staff about.  I will tell staff if I get a dish that's wrong, or incorrectly cooked, etc.  But when it's simply the issue that they have poor quality ingredients to work with in the first place, there's nothing they can do to correct the issue.  There's a general lack of quality ingredients and seasoning in every single dish.    That's the kind of thing that could only be changed by word of mouth complaints by the masses, or complaining directly to royal headquarters, or taking our cruise dollars elsewhere.  People speaking up about the bad food choices is justified, and I think people are hoping that if enough people complain online where higher ups may see, that changes will be made.

2 minutes ago, pcur said:

According to one of the Windjammer waiters (from India) I talked to on the Vision, he said the Indian food onboard was like "the McDonalds of Indian food".  He could hardly wait to get off the ship at some point and find good Indian food.

That's very interesting, we have a lot of Indian, Thai and other asian restaurants around my house and most indian dishes onboard were almost as good.  Maybe not quite as good but they had quite a bit of flavor, unlike the other choices at the Windjammer.  But the dishes were all extremely spicy.

20 minutes ago, firefly333 said:

I did a b2b liberty end of march 2022 which didnt have many cheeses. .. your cruise last july probably same issue. We didnt have carrot cake, didnt have cream cheese or some others. 

 

I did 3 carnival and the steak was so full of gristle and lack of Mdr dinner choices I quit booking carnival.,

 

I just got off a cruise and was pleased with the food 80%. Steak was especially awesome. 

 

I have a 14 day carnival cruise next January and have been worried about dinner. I expect to eat a lot of pizza. Lunches were good but not dinners. Dinners were so  bad on carnival I did pay restaurants 6 of 7 nights which isnt like me. 

 

It's clear quality and what they are short of varys week to week.  ..and what someone had months ago probably isnt what is served now.

Honestly we found most MDR food on Carnival, Royal, and Norwegian to be very similar quality.  But we still think Carnival was the best if we had to choose.  I don't think we have ever had a good MDR steak on any cruise line, ever.  I would rather have a good ground beef dish than a bad steak.  Cruise lines need to consider what they can do WELL.  And I think that's what Carnival has done with Guy's Burgers, Blue Iguana, Pig and Anchor and Shaqu's chicken... they have found a way to make people eat cheaper food but the restaurants are done very well.

People will pay extra for burgers and bar food at Playmakers, which shouldn't cost extra, when they are serving lobster for free.  It doesn't make sense.  So cruise lines should fill their menus with food that they can actually do well rather than trying to put fancy dishes on the menu that are terrible cuts of meat, chewy lobster, etc. that everyone complains about.

12 minutes ago, Charles4515 said:

A lot of the chefs these days are Indian. That is why I think the Indian food is usually good. 

I've heard that it's also what the crew eats.  So they tend to keep those ingredients on hand, and they serve it at the crew buffet.

We aren't picky eaters, and enjoy indian food.  However every single indian dish was at least a 4/5 spice level.  WAY too spicy, so for us unfortunatley it was inedible.  Disappointing considering it would have been very tasty otherwise.

We cruised Harmony in July and we were very disappointed in the Windjammer for lunch.  Mainly with the lack of choices that we were used to.  The last cruise we went on was the Carnival Horizon, which had 5x the amount of choices and much better quality.

The glaring issues was the lack of variety, other than the indian food station...that was the only station that seemed to rotate.  Other than Indian food, they had burgers/dogs, pasta (sauce was bad), tacos/nachos (the meat tasted like wendy's chili, not mexican), a few very odd sandwiches, and then the salad/fruit.  That was it.  Every day.

Noticibly missing was any kind of cheese, (there was no cheese to be seen anywhere on the ship unless ordered online), the lack of toppings for salads, and the absolutley foul mac and cheese that I have never had that bad mac and cheese anywhere.  It tasted like a gummy mixture of flour and milk, with no cheese in it.  It was horrific.

The main dining room food was the same as previous years, but this was before the new menus.  it was ok, just sort of banquet food.  With a few really good dishes (muchroom risotto, chicken parm) and a few really bad ones (any kind of steak).  But we were satisfied with the MDR for dinner.

I have tried asking this question in several areas and there's no telling why South Beach beds are available sometimes, and not others.  South beach beds are unavailable for our upcoming November cruise, but are available for our June 2024 cruise.

We like Breezy Bay actually better than Chill island.  I think the price difference is for a few reasons...

Chill Island is right by the ship, and the beach looks a bit more family friendly.  It's a very crowded stretch of beach though with a lot of kids, and from what everyone has said, it was the original beach from before coco cay was redone.

Breezy Bay is further away, but not by much.  And they are also close to the over water cabanas, so some of them have cabanas in the view instead of the ocean.  We liked this section better though because it's a little quieter, has a GREAT beach,  and is RIGHT by the pool.  So if you spend a lot of time in the pool its extremely convenient. There's also a snack bar right there. The Breezy Bay beds are also only two deep so you get a better view of the ocean without somoene being right in front of you. while the chill island beds are 3 deep so you can get a bed further back.  I would still choose the breezy bay beds even if the price was the same.

14 hours ago, CanHardlyWait4NextYear said:

This would be for Wonder next May. Plan is to rent car at port back to MCO. I'm ok with self assist if it gets me down the street to enterprise faster. Just want to make sure I can make 11:45 departure work. Otherwise it's another $400 each for later flight.

Do self assist.  We were off around 6:45.  They have shuttles waiting to take you to the airport, this was a much cheaper option and we were at the airport and through security by 9am.

On 9/7/2022 at 8:59 PM, OCSC Mike said:

 

4. I saw shorts at night on Harmony a few months ago, just like I see in the MDR.

 

5. Agree about the night one filet, it was excellent, but the rest of the dinners were only slightly better than the MDR (if that) IMO, not specialty restaurant quality.

Same, we did not find coastal kitchen to be really any better than the MDR.  Specialty restaurants are FAR better than Coastal Kitchen, and I'm surprised anyone would think to put coastal kitchen on par with those.

We really enjoyed having a cappuccino machine at our disposal, free alcoholic drinks in the evenings, being able to have a sit down breakfast, and a nice less hectic place to go and eat after boarding.  But the dinner food was mediocre at best, and it felt weird sitting in a more lounge like setting for dinner.  We ended up at the MDR after night 3.

I hate to be Debbie Downer, but we were not impressed with the food at Coastal Kitchen.  We sailed on the harmony mid July, and while the food at CK was a bit better than the MDR, it wasn't that much better.  In my opinion, the food at Specialty Restaurants is MUCH better than the food at CK.  

 A lot of The food at Coastal Kitchen for the most part had good flavor, and noodles were actually cooked correctly etc..  But the ingredients were no better than the food in the MDR.  We ordered a steak that was supposed to be a NY Strip or something, and it still tasted like pot roast.  It still tasted like "banquet food" or wedding food, while food at specialty restaurants tastes like something you'd have at an upscale experience on land.

We had a super mushy canneloni or something, and after 3 nights of coastal kitchen we went to the MDR for the last 4, which very much pleasantly surprised us. It was also a bit more boring atmosphere in the CK and the food wasn't worth going.  We have had the specialty dining package before and while we don't do it every trip, it's excellent food.

1 hour ago, reallyitsmema said:

 

Actually that is not true.  My DH and I both tested positive for influenza A on Anthem in February 2019.  We were quarantined in our cabin and both received a prorated FCC for the days we were quarantined.  We also did not have to pay the costs of our visit to medical and the Tamiflu we received because the Captain had announced there was a flu outbreak on the ship and anyone who was feeling ill would be seen for free.

They knew back in 2019 that most people with the flu are not going to go down to medical and seek treatment at the risk of getting their entire party quarantined.  Back then, I would have never unless i seriously needed medical intervention, which is unlikely for most people... and FCC is a lot different than a cash refund.

On 8/6/2022 at 3:06 PM, Lottie1974 said:

Thanks for providing your experience, we have insurance to cover the airfare. RCI provided no help with this .

 

It seems amazing to me how many people appear to think I have some how unjustified in requesting something I was told would happen by staff on board a ship - I didn’t ask about compensation they proactively told me the refund would apply to the wholeparty- I was too

upset at the time being separated from my husband on a cruise we had saved for and looked forward to sharing for two years.
Yet some of the responses to

my honest attempt to ask about other peoples experiences seem to be delighting in making me appear like a money grabbing unreasonable person . 

So thanks for the constructive answers like yours. I appreciate it

I don't think anyone is delighting in making you feel bad, but I think it's just sort of common sense that the person on board who told you this was either uninformed, or you somehow misunderstood.  It could also be that the person typing the letter out was incorrect, etc. Things are rapidly changing and what happens to one person one week, may be different the next.   There are all sorts of possibilities.  It just sounds uncommon that the entire party would be compensated. 

I think a lot of people think it is unreasonable to expect the whole party get refunded,  Since we all knew the risk we took sailing during covid etc.  However if this is actually a legit policy, good for you and I hope you get your refund.

We just got back from the harmony and I would agree about the food somewhat.  We were surprised mores o at the lack of variety in the windjammer, and some of the food was just bad.  I mean, I've never seen a cruise buffet without cheese.  Some things were downright inedible.

However we were pleasantly surprised at the food in the MDR, although some things better than others.  But the upcharging for specialty restaurants just bothers me.  Because it's no longer an "upcharge", its a FULL charge like a restaurant on land.  Unacceptable.  The covid protocols make zero sense, same as on land.  I don't understand being able to eat free lobster and then charging me for a hamburger at Johnny Rockets.  Carnival has better free food with Guys Burgers and Blue Iguana, no cruise line should charge extra for burgers or BBQ food.

We have sailed Carnival and Norwegian and most of your other points apply to them though.  Norwegian food was worse than royal and drinks were awful.  Carnival has good poolside food.

11 minutes ago, davekathy said:

Do you book your cruises far out from the sail date or closer to the sail date? What size class ships were your two RC cruises on? 

 

Speaking only about RC. That's why you need to book MTD time(s)as soon as it is open for your sailing in your CP. The early MTD time slots are taken fast. Once you get onboard head to the MDR for MTD or TD and select the table size you want. We have never had a bad experience requesting a table that we scoped out and then requested that table number for the entire cruise. I can't speak for others but know just from who post here on CC others have had the same positive experiences. Of course those without reservations (MTD) are going to be put in the waiting que. Especially now with a lot of ships starting MTD later than before the shut down. 

 

Even with TD, if you want a early dining time then book the cruises early. Especially on the lager ships. If not late dining or waitlisted will be your choices. Every dining request for table size has been a guarantee once onboard for us. We haven't been asked in years about table size when booking the cruise. 

 

 

Thanks for your reply, we have sailed Allure and Anthem.  But MTD wasn't an issue because back then, you could do MTD at 5:30pm.    Now it doesn't start until 6:45 at the earliest.  That's the whole problem.  MTD is no longer a good option if you want to see shows at 7-7:30.  And now you can't even see show times ahead of time to book reservations... or plan around them.  

We are sailing the Harmony next week and have nightly reservations anywhere between 6:45-7:30.  MTD has always been a giant cluster... on every single ship.  We would love to switch to early traditional dining.  But "show up and REQUEST A private table..." and "they will TRY and accomadate you" and "they will do 'their best' to get a table for 3" isn't the same thing as booking a private table with 100% certainty.  It's just odd they don't offer that option to choose when booking.

8 minutes ago, S.A.M.J.R. said:

We had MTD when we signed on for our upcoming cruise (next week).  I was able to go into the planner and pick dining times.  We had 7p every night except one on an 8 day cruise.  This was set up months in advance, and done online.   

 

Based on the posts regarding long waits to get into MTD even with reservations, we changed to early traditional dining.  

 

Now, when I selected our MTD dining time, the earliest possibility was 6:45.  I still don't understand why that is, and it's a moot point now, but I WAS able to schedule a set dining time.  Whether that would have worked once on board, I don't know. 

I'm not talking about MTD with reservations.  That's different.  I'm talking about set dining times where you choose the early or late seating.  When you choose the set early or late seating there is nothing to check online to guarantee a private table.  The "default" is that you sit with others, unless you call and request otherwise.  Most people have their request granted, and some do not.  I've seen several postings about people whose requests for private tables were not granted and ended up in the windjammer 🙂

We currently have reservations for MTD each night and all reservations are too late to see any shows.

25 minutes ago, c-leg5 said:

We have never experienced this problem. Like @rockmomwe have always been asked what size table we prefer when we have done set dining but we then we book through a TA. It has been a long time since we did set dining but I seem to recall there is a section on your profile. 

 

Our experience has been very similar to @rockmom

 

it is unclear from your posts whether you have actually had problems, or just read about other people’s issues. Since it is clearly important to you to request this in advance I would also suggest the above email. Whilst it is not a guarantee, and requests “get lost”, it may help in your quest.

 

Table location has never been high on our list of priorities but I know many people find it important to check out dining arrangements as soon as they board. We generally do MTD so if we are unhappy with location or service one night we simply ask to change the next. I realize it isn’t that simple with set dining but lack of flexibility is one of the inherent restrictions of set dining. This is not to say you can’t TRY to rectify it once on board but obviously it is an added hassle.

We have cruised 8 times so far and have never once been granted the same table and server with MTD.  Granted, only two of those times has been with Royal.  With Norwegian and Carnival, you do not make reservations with MTD.  So the likelihood of showing up and the table being available is very slim.  We have asked with Royal, and were usually met with annoyance, and were told we could wait for the table to come available but they obviously didn't know how long.  We have always cruised larger ships.  Also, for this cruise the same reservation time every night was not available.  So sometimes we are eating at 6:45 and then other times not until 7:30.  They fill the tables as people show, and if someone is eating you have to wait.

Either way my whole initial post was about the fact that we would like the SET early dining time.  Which i did say initially.  we don't care as much about the table location, and we would like a set, earlier dining time to see the shows.  But we do not want to eat with others as my husband and I are in sales and talk to people all day.  We don't get time to ourselves and want a table for our family. I'm happy it's worked out for others, but many people have posted the opposite.  We have never tried a set dining time for this reason.  And there is nowhere to select a private table on the booking.  I'm just saying, that would be a nice thing to be able to specify online.  Everyone's suggestions are to "request" a private table, but it's not a bookable guarantee.

8 minutes ago, rockmom said:

I have never been turned down when asking for a table for two for the entire sailing--and I always have a fixed dining time.  That is even pre-Covid when ships were always at capacity.  In fact, pretty much every single time that I've booked through Royal, the rep asks me 'would you like a table for two or would you like to be seated at a larger table with others?'  I choose table for two, then as soon as I board, head to the main dining room to confirm that and take a look at the location of the table.  Never an issue.  

That is good to know, our party though now has 3.   I just wish it could be booked in writing, online ahead of time.  Many people do not use a travel agent, or book on the phone and there is nowhere on an online booking to specify a private table.    Some people say they have never had an issue, other people have in fact been turned down.  I'm not sure if a table for 2 is easier to get than a table for 3, but it should be bookable online rather than having to go speak to the dining room staff when boarding.

18 minutes ago, davekathy said:

You could and still can do that. Pre and post covid cruises. We did this all the time for MTD. Always made reservations (time) in the CP and once onboard went directly to the MDR for MTD, found a table we liked and requested that table every night for our reserved time. If we selected early TD in the MDR we did the same thing when we first boarded the ship. Always a table for two and not all of the tables we selected were inches apart. 

I'm talking about set dining times, not MTD.  You cannot GUARANTEE, or book ahead of time, a private table with set dining times.  Yes you can chance it and speak to the head waiter.  I've heard of many different levels of success, and we just aren't willing to chance it.

As far as MTD goes, we have always  made reservations, and the current dining times are too late.  We have never been successful at getting the same server and the same table.  never.  We have always obviously been able to get a private table, but when requesting the same table and server we are told "you can wait if you'd like" and i'm not willing to wait 1.5 hours for the same table and server.

Your title is very misleading... having said that we made the mistake of seeing Chicago on Allure a very long time ago and were thoroughly annoyed.  The dancing and singing was just beyond irritating.  Some people are just not musical people, and we are somewhere in between.  Best show ever on a cruise ship was Rock of Ages on the Norwegian Breakaway.  AMAZING.  

On 7/1/2022 at 11:27 PM, c-leg5 said:

Why can’t you do that?
 

You can have a table for two but you will be inches from the next table for two more often than not.

You can't book a table for two... or a table for your party at all with a set dining time.  You can chance it and wait in line and talk to the dining room staff when you arrive, but many people have been turned down before.  

They need to allow people to book a private table for just their party on the set dining times.  If they allowed us to do that, we would have always booked the early dining time.  

On 6/28/2022 at 2:53 PM, Happy New Cruiser said:

I see that a lot of people are commenting on the crowds.  I have never been on Royal and therefore never on an Oasis class ship.  I can tell that there are going to be crowds for my August sailing but I'm trying to understand these comments. Are the crowds worse in comparison to the sailings that had limited capacity due to Covid OR are the crowds actually that much worse than pre-covid.  I sailed on the NCL Escape in 2019 and thinking back it was fairly crowded.  However, reading the posts it seems like there are major problems onboard doing anything.  Just wondering if someone could clarify.

Pre-pandemic, ships always sailed full.  They did whatever they could to fill every last room.  From dropping prices, to giving rooms away for free to casino patrons.  Most people I personally believe are complaining about the crowds because they have now become used to cruising during covid with limited capacity.  And equally because we are now ULTRA aware of crowding and lack of social distancing due to the pandemic. We wouldn't have thought twice before about standing nose to nose with 20 people in an elevator.  Now we have been taught that is going to get us killed.

We have not cruised since October 2018 and are going on the Harmony in a few weeks.  Things will be just as they were.  The buffets were always horribly crowded many times (especially on boarding day), long lines for MTD, etc.  This isn't new.

Not sure why it hasn't been a bigger deal that Bahamas dropped the testing requirements for the vaccinated.  Which means my upcoming cruise to Bahamas and Jamaica does not require testing.  Yet i still have to test before getting on the ship?  Complete nonsense.  Covid is rampant everywhere and yet hospitalizations are non existent.  Why are we still doing this?

https://www.travelweekly.com/Caribbean-Travel/Bahamas-eliminate-Covid-tests-vaccinated

5 hours ago, Itchy&Scratchy said:

it's at the top of the page:

 

Yes I saw that.  The helpful info is not there.  It's only in the FAQ section under "going ashore".  But thanks