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What on earth is happening to royal caribbean


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Just been reading reviews written about various Royal Caribbean ships, a lot of them are saying the same - What on earth is happing to Royal Caribbean. The service is becoming very also ran, cabins are being handed over to passengers dirty. The food is becoming so repetitive and boring. The quality of the food especially the meat is very poor. Lots of people are saying that they have had enough and are going elsewhere.

I am sure that there are plenty of people out there that will say they they have had a wonderful time on RC, but the ones that haven't seem to increase rather a lot.

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I guess I've not been reading the right reviews because I'm not seeing a general degradation of service and food on board. I have noticed that Chops seems to be hit and miss, but the other venues, including Windjammer and the MDR seem to be the same to me.

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I was pondering on views and reviews earlier myself.

We returned last week from 7 nights on Adventure of the Seas.

We had a fantastic time, really couldn't complain about a thing in fact it was my favourite cruise to date.

I have read 2 posts on our roll call post trip - 1 person saying food and service was terrible, 1 person saying average. So including my view that's 3 people who experienced same ship same sailing with completely different opinions.

I think reviews are really subjective when dealing with food and service. For example a certain food type not being available or walking right to the back of the Windjammer to find a table during busy periods to me are nothing to grumble about, to others it affects their experience.

There is a stat somewhere which goes something like a bad experience gets shared with 10 people a good experience with 1 person. So maybe it's just the ratio that when people are happy they don't take the time to write about it.

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I was on Liberty on the repo cruise for 12 nights and while service had 'degenerated' slightly, it was not drastic.

 

It was just simple stupid cost cutting, like no shrimp on the tutti salad bar and only having simple quality chicken mystery pieces and tuna from a huge tin, both of which I would never consider.

 

The dinner menus were still much intact and quality was hit and miss with enough hit to get by. Some regulars sure noticed the current mint 'soup' instead of mint 'jelly' offered both evening lamb was served.

 

The breakfast service and quality was poor as this does not lead directly to shipboard satisfaction ratings, while evening service was personable and exceptional. They have incentivized service to the point where they only care about what makes them money and good reviews and then are poor handling requests that do not lead directly to guest comments.

 

The real key point to consider is, where are you going to go? All of the main stream mass market cruise lines are basically taking the same steps, with service industry wide being hit or miss.

Edited by MADflyer
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Guys,

 

Like everything else it is all subjective and therefore hard to nail down. I stopped reviewing my cruises because we all should make our own opinions.

 

Just off a b2b on Freedom and a quick ditt would be.

 

Week 1 Worst cruise yet for MDR food and service. Agree Merlin, beef cold n lack of quality.

Week 2 Best Cruise yet for Windjammers Evening Dinners and Service.

Entertainment very good, excellent Led Zepplin tribute band. Ice show also tops. Average efforts from some Elton John copy. Some weird entertainment staff making minimal effort but others may love them.

Room was tidy but looking slightly tired n grubby.

 

One final comment is We def felt we get less service/value for our money than years past. Won't be quitting RCI yet but I have looked at other lines more closely.

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I guess I've not been reading the right reviews because I'm not seeing a general degradation of service and food on board. I have noticed that Chops seems to be hit and miss, but the other venues, including Windjammer and the MDR seem to be the same to me.

 

Quality at Chops in relation to the price increase was, on our late-summer Radiance cruise, truly outrageous. The cruise previous to that, in November of 2014, Chops on the Liberty had increased the prices but the quality was still as good as we ever remembered. To have both elements going in the wrong direction at the same time makes dissatisfaction inevitable.

 

MDR has declined steadily over decades and the Windjammer is now pretty much a choice of last resort for us. While nobody starves on any cruise line, I was totally shocked at how much better the food on NCL was than RCCL when experiencing them within a month of one another. I really did not expect that at all.

Edited by ronandannette
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I was on Liberty on the repo cruise for 12 nights and while service had 'degenerated' slightly, it was not drastic.

 

It was just simple stupid cost cutting, like no shrimp on the tutti salad bar and only having simple quality chicken mystery pieces and tuna from a huge tin, both of which I would never consider.

 

The dinner menus were still much intact and quality was hit and miss with enough hit to get by. Some regulars sure noticed the current mint 'soup' instead of mint 'jelly' offered both evening lamb was served.

 

The breakfast service and quality was poor as this does not lead directly to shipboard satisfaction ratings, while evening service was personable and exceptional. They have incentivized service to the point where they only care about what makes them money and good reviews and then are poor handling requests that do not lead directly to guest comments.

 

The real key point to consider is, where are you going to go? All of the main stream mass market cruise lines are basically taking the same steps, with service industry wide being hit or miss.

 

Minor point - the British have mint sauce (tart) rather than the sweet mint jelly used in the United states. Lots of shrimp on the Rhapsody last Sept.

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Just off the Liberty yesterday. This was our second RC cruise (other was Allure), and have had 3 on X. My thoughts were:

 

1. MDR food was hit or miss. Beef wasn't very good, seafood was ok, lamb was great, chicken and pork were acceptable. Escargot was available most nights. Breakfast and lunch were better than dinner, although the Tutti choices were much more limited.

 

2. Windjammer was not very good IMO. This was the worst cruise buffet we had experienced. Not much variety, and quality was lacking. We never had dinner there, so can't judge that.

 

3. Portofino's was ok.

 

4. Service - We actually had some of the best on this ship. The MDR staff we had most nights was fantastic. We had cocktails and refills before we needed to ask for them. We were greeted by name by the staff at the entrance and the Maitre D. Our stateroom attendant was a pleasure to have, as he was always singing in the halls. Bartenders were good, never a wait. The only areas I saw lacking were poolside and Windjammer waiters. Never could find either. We did have a server 1 night in MDR that was not good, but we requested a specific table for the rest of the cruise, and we had it every night thereafter.

 

5. Entertainment - Surprisingly good. In the Air and Saturday Night Fever were both very entertaining. Ice show was far better than what we saw on Allure.

Edited by wahlct
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OP: IMO, its just standard CC. And things can change drastically from ship to ship, or one sailing to another. Sometimes stateroom attendants are subpar, some are amazing. Sometimes MDR waitstaff are average, sometimes they're amazing. This isn't just RCI, it's every major cruise line these days.

 

On Oasis in May 2015, our room steward was absolutely fantastic, just like our room stewards back in 2003-6. Our MDR waiter was very good, assistant was subpar. On Radiance in May 2014, our room steward was subpar, doing an okay job with little to no personality. Our waitstaff was completely fantastic, probably the best since 03. My point is that you can't base your decisions/opinions on a few reviews on CC. Unfortunately, there are many more crew members that don't do a good job then there were serval years ago, but there are still awesome ones out there. Take reviews with a grain of salt. Yes, service and food is declining in some areas, but it doesn't mean the experience is as terrible as some make it sound. It's definitely not enough to make me go running for another cruise line, whose service and food will probably be pretty comparable.

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True, but most that have a positive experience don't tend to post reviews and comments. It's the ones that encounter problems that make their voices heard..

 

Unfortunately, this is also true about positive experiences!

Still, there do seem to have been many more negative reviews/comments recently than there normally are. :confused:

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True, but most that have a positive experience don't tend to post reviews and comments. It's the ones that encounter problems that make their voices heard..

 

Ding ding ding ding! We have a winner!

 

Yes. The biggest thing we heard in training when I worked in customer service and retail jobs was that "someone who is happy will tell one other person while someone who is not will tell at least ten".

 

Those stats were pre-internet.

 

Now it would probably be more like "someone who is happy will email some friends about their experience while someone who is not will light up twitter, Facebook, and other message boards".

 

But the point remains the same - people who have good experiences don't tend to spread it all over.

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I was on Liberty on the repo cruise for 12 nights and while service had 'degenerated' slightly, it was not drastic.

 

It was just simple stupid cost cutting, like no shrimp on the tutti salad bar and only having simple quality chicken mystery pieces and tuna from a huge tin, both of which I would never consider.

 

The dinner menus were still much intact and quality was hit and miss with enough hit to get by. Some regulars sure noticed the current mint 'soup' instead of mint 'jelly' offered both evening lamb was served.

 

The breakfast service and quality was poor as this does not lead directly to shipboard satisfaction ratings, while evening service was personable and exceptional. They have incentivized service to the point where they only care about what makes them money and good reviews and then are poor handling requests that do not lead directly to guest comments.

 

The real key point to consider is, where are you going to go? All of the main stream mass market cruise lines are basically taking the same steps, with service industry wide being hit or miss.

 

It was mint 'soup' on Jewel too. frustrating

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I have enjoyed or endured GREAT, GOOD but never POOR, food, service, Cabin attendant and cabins with issues etc.

RC will continue lowering the product until they start losing business and that will not happen for years. All cruise lines are doing the same thing, NOTE ALL.

 

Cruising is just not what it used to be and I'm happy for some changes.

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I can only speak for myself, but I like Royal and the product it delivers. Am I disappointed occasionally, you better believe I am. But on the whole I am very satisfied. I don't expect perfection, just a reasonable effort to provide the vacation experience and service I expect from a cruise. In my opinion Royal does that quite well. If not, I would not have hesitated to sail on other cruise lines. If you do not enjoy an experience, why repeat it. Try something else.

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I still like Royal, but it is not what it was. Too much cost cutting and too much fare raising. Ten years ago, I came off a cruise feeling that I had been pampered and treated like royalty. These days it's just a very good vacation.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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For the most part I've stopped reading reviews and I haven't been disappointed yet. There are a few I'll follow if they're picture heavy but I've read completely opposite reviews for the same sailing. I just pick the ship and itinerary and roll with it. No sense in worrying about what might happen and it works for me.

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I still like Royal, but it is not what it was. Too much cost cutting and too much fare raising. Ten years ago, I came off a cruise feeling that I had been pampered and treated like royalty. These days it's just a very good vacation.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Exactly how we now feel.

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I still like Royal, but it is not what it was. Too much cost cutting and too much fare raising. Ten years ago, I came off a cruise feeling that I had been pampered and treated like royalty. These days it's just a very good vacation.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

That is a very good summary and I think it applies to most lines these days.

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I still like Royal, but it is not what it was. Too much cost cutting and too much fare raising. Ten years ago, I came off a cruise feeling that I had been pampered and treated like royalty. These days it's just a very good vacation.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Yes, all you've said is true, but you have to remember that it is not just Royal. I've seen Celebrity (Still Royal I guess :p), Princess, Carnival, and NCL reviews and complaints about cost cutting too. And NCL's nickel and diming is absolutely terrible. As I said in my previous post, it's all the mass market lines.

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I still like Royal, but it is not what it was. Too much cost cutting and too much fare raising. Ten years ago, I came off a cruise feeling that I had been pampered and treated like royalty. These days it's just a very good vacation.

 

Hi Sam. :) I can't disagree with you. Unfortunately, I think we get caught up in sameness and really notice when something isn't so anymore. If I can offer a suggestion...just trying another line as a first timer can be very refreshing. Try a Celebrity Solstice Class ship for some wow factor, or try HAL for relaxation and great service. One, it'll make you hit the reset button with cruising and two, you'll find yourself missing certain RCI features. Then come back to RCI and love your cruise! :)

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I also just got off Liberty (was on for the reposition and the next 9 days) and I had a great time. I know that several of my friends that are used to being on Navigator thought the service was worse but I thought it was great. Some of them also are people that complain all the time!

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