SuzieQ123

thats what i thought.......you were not on the cruise. Now give your mommie back her computer

He's a long time Troll on these boards. Do a search of his old posts and you will see lots of nonsensical posts.

We have done exactly the same thing for our last 5 cruises. Like you, we used to love the main dining room with a large table of strangers. After a few 10 person tables with no table mates and a few less than stellar waiters we moved to specialty only and love it. All about choices...

Same thing happened to us on The Explorer a few years ago. Huge table and no one there! Lol.

"We knew from the reviews that the dining room food was no good". It amazes me the level of ignorance on these boards! Amazing, just amzing!.......:rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:

RCCL dining room food has declined over the last few years. This is from personal experience. We have cruised at least 2 times a year with RCCL for 15 years. It's a fact. But there are tons of options for food

Ignorant is going to the dining room complaining it's disgusting but going back every night for 7 nights and complaining again and again about it. No one forces people in there

Options are there for a reason

I've heard that from other people as well (I've seen it described as grey). It really seems like the head chef at Silk needs to be re-educated or given a new job. Did anyone try speaking to the F&B Manager or Executive Chef about this if you had the opportunity (like at a C&A event)?

 

Question.. was there any discounting of the specialty restaurants (for everyone, not the first night discount for D+)? I'd heard from earlier cruises that Jamie's was available for $15 for lunch later in the cruise, and that Wonderland can be had for 20-30% off depending on when you ask.

There must be some sort of discount because we got a credit on our onboard account that specifically said "specialty dining credit". Maybe if you book a certain number of them? We ate at specialty restaurants every night. Could have also been a Diamond member perk

Everyone clearly has different tastes-- I was on Liberty in August for a B2B. I found the service to be very good in the dining room and the food to be mostly good.

People also talk about how great Sorrentos was on Liberty and I think it's barely passable.

Different strokes...

Yup, and never enough to ruin my vacation. They way I look at it, I didn't gain any weight!

Certainly that's ridiculous-- I'm sure that I would like my cabin better if I booked the Grand Suite-- but I'm not going to, so you get what you pay for!! In my case, that's a studio balcony, which is likely a closet (but since I live in a studio apt. in Manhattan, I'm expecting to be fine!!).

Only three things can TOTALLY ruin my cruise: titanic, noro, or severe seasickness!! Otherwise, going in with realistic expectations and hope to make the best. Certainly looking forward to experiencing a new ship, especially one designed for cold weather (my first cruise on the breakaway was certainly not!)

That being said and knowing that I won't spend the week complaining, I am REALLY hoping for an improvement in food from what I'm reading on many reviews-- I did the three night dining and then the other five nights trying the included venues.

We knew from the reviews that the dining room food was no good, that is why we didn't go, and also our May Liberty of the Seas cruise we experienced lack of service and bad food in the main dining room, therefore we knew what was best for us was to dine in the restaurants.

RCCL food has declined in the dining rooms over the last few years. So for us we are happy we have the choice to dine elsewhere and feel its well worth the extra money to dine at Chops. We now have added Izumi to that list. Very good food both places

Since you only ate in specialty restaurants, of course you don't understand why people may be complaining about the quality of the food or service in the included venues (a main subject of the complaints). We loved Anthem, and the detailed comments I posted in my thread here are mostly positive, and extremely so, except regarding the subpar food and service in some of the included venues. I'm glad that your circumstances allowed you to avoid the included venues, but please understand that you did not experience Anthem as most people do.

There was a woman at Chops on Sunday night. Only one day into the cruise who was sitting across from us. Hated the ship, hated her cabin, hated the shows, hated the food etc. Those are the complainers I'm referencing. It was 1 day in and she did not stop complaining the entire time. I was about to say to her "why don't you just fly home tomorrow from port Canaveral "?

Also last day we were waiting on like for North Star. Over an hour of a woman complaining nonstop once again about everything including standing on the rain on line to get on.

We met many people who overall were having a good time and like you had minor overall complaints and again the food and service issues which I believe RCCL is working on.

Any reason why you only ate in specialty restaurants?

We have grown to like it. And our Liberty of the Seas cruise in May we were very disappointed in the RCCL dining room food so decided to do what we do on our NCL cruises on the Anthem. We have slowly transitioned to this type of dining and enjoy it. It's funny because we used to love going to love to go eat at a big table in the dining room and meeting new people

Great to hear. But can you please elaborate and be a bit more specific with your thoughts on food and service, as both of these have gotten many negative reviews.

It's definitely a slower pace as far as service. But for us it doesn't matter. We are on vacation and have nowhere we have to be ! All crew were very vocal about the set up and the difficulty for them to her around the ship. We ate at Izumi twice which was very good. However the waiters were very apologetic about how long it took to get our dessert apparently they have to navigate stairs and distance to get it. No biggie for us!

We also ate at Chops twice. Also very good. Same scenario. Took time. Again I don't care. I'm on vacation ! Good was very good

Ate At Jamie Oliver's. Did not care for the food at All. But that's ok. Just won't return there.

We just got off also and had a great time! To all the complainers. (And we ran into a few). I don't understand! If you did any research at all you would know this class if ship was never advertised to be like "the others ". This is a new type of cruising for RCCL. Very similar to NCL. We enjoy "freestyle ". And only ate in specialty restaurants and had no complaints really

Although we love ROA, we agree with the OP and like nightly theater shows, with other events (adult also) held in various venues, as on the Jewel/Gem. One problem on the away ships are no Spinnaker lounge for events

Safe sailung

I agree. We miss Spinnnaker lounge also! Was a cool hangout with great views :(

I think the NCL Breakaway entertainment is some of the best I've ever seen on a cruise. And we cruise a lot. We mostly cruise RCCL buy the Breakaway to me had them beat. The dancers are top notch and Rock of Ages cast was amazingly talented

And the inspection of those documents is just as cursory as it is for passports in our experience. The screening of the passengers on a closed loop cruise occurs during the cruise when everyone's name is put through all of the government databases they keep on us.

That's pretty much what I thought, they know who's onboard long before we dock back in NYC.

They haven't swiped out passports in NY in quite some time. It has nothing to do with TSA...they do preboarding security checks for airline flights. CBP is the agency that is responsible for customs and immigration checks at ports of entry...land crossings, airports and seaports.

Must be random, when we disembarked the Breakaway September 2013 from Bermuda they did. And also upon return from a 9 nighter on RCCL Explorer from Bayonne in May 2013.

I'll have much more to report but I disagree about MDR wait times as well. We ate there twice on this cruise with a party of 9. Service was prompt and well-paced both times. Dinner was roughly 70-85 minutes and we had 3-4 courses. Both times, we commented that service was excellent and that we ate quickly ( but not rushed) 6:15 pm both times

We did notice one of the smaller dining rooms, (can't remember if it was Taste or Savor) was much slower then the other during breakfast and lunch. One morning it did take us 1 hour for breakfast and we only had egg white omelets. But it didn't ruin our day... had no where to go that day, I think it was a sea day. Overall we were very pleased with the service especially with a full ship and LOTS of families and kids. We thought they did a good job

Might have to do with the TSA "threat level" for that day.

Oh OK.. we thought maybe he was still not fully awake yet.:). it was only 7 am. Plus the GEM pulled in next to us and maybe they were just told to "get em out ASAP" LOL

We just got off the Breakaway this morning also. Wow. We never had a dinner last more then 1 hour. We ate in the Manhattan Room 3 nights and Speciality restaurants the rest. We joked around how we are the fastest eaters ever because we barely even made it 1 hour. Maybe it was the time you went?

Our checkin was quick, from the parking garage to the check in, maybe 1/2 hour and it was packed checking in.

I guess we had a week of luck! This morning we were off and thru the Lincoln tunnel stopping for coffee in Hoboken Dunkin Donuts before getting on the Turnpike by 7:25 am

We live by Toms River ( exit 80) and we were home by 9:00 am. Fastest Disembarktion ever. ( we did self service walk off)

We had a great cruise. We are mainly RCCL cruisers but we for the price we paid for the Breakaway, we could not possibly complain about anything. We think its an excellent value for the money

Just got off Breakaway this morning and they did not swipe our passports in Immigration upon return. Is this something new? They just barely looked at our passports and waved us right thru.

Whats the schedule usually? How long is the captain on for? I'm too lazy to read thru the whole thread sorry. :) Just wondering if Captain Olav will be back on for our May 10 cruise on Explorer.

Whats more amazing than the size of the toilet seat is that this topic is TWO pages long.

 

Really????

Lol. Someone go post on the Serenade of the Seas next roll call sailing and demand a photo of the toilet seat. It's the only way to know for sure. Or if everyone wants to chip in for airfare and cruise costs for me , I'd be happy to go check it out

Yes, he is going with us if he makes his resy this week on the ship!

Well If I can't be on Allure right now, at least Radio's live post takes me as close as i can. Glad we are all sailing together on the Explorer. Oasis was my favorite ship, but Explorer is a close 2nd. 3rd time on Explorer for us in November.

I am so jealous......

Hey Radio, which week are you on Explorer in November? We are on the 11/10/11 sailing. Can't wait.

Radio,

I'm sad your heading home.. I get feeds on my Blackberry so I can follow you while at work. Mentally I'm cruising with you, physicially I'm at work. I can't wait until your June Carnival Cruise to follow your posts again.

I loved your Oasis pics and video.. we are so excited about our 11/6/2010 cruise on her.

Hi SuzieQ :)

 

You are correct. If you have diamond status with Royal Caribbean, you qualify for elite status with Celebrity.

Seems like a good deal to me...1st time cruising on Celebrity w/extra special treatment...

I'm Diamond Status Crown & Anchor and considering the Solstice, so it looks like I qualify for Elite according to this? Correct me if I'm wrong

Select Member Benefits

Includes all benefits of Classic membership, plus:

Behind-the-Scenes Tours

Chardonnay Blending Seminar

Priority Status for Shore Excursion Waitlist

Senior Officer's Cocktail party

Opportunity to enroll in Royal Caribbean's Crown & Anchor Society program at the Platinum Level

Plus all Classic Member Benefits

Elite Member Benefits

Includes all benefits of Classic & Select membership, plus:

Complimentary use of Thalassotherapy Pool on Galaxy and Mercury

Private Shipboard Departure Lounge with Continental Breakfast

Priority Tender Service

Priority Waitlist for Dining Room Seating

Opportunity to enroll in Royal Caribbean's Crown & Anchor Society program at the Diamond Level

Plus all Select and Classic Member Benefits