sirwired Posted November 17, 2015 #1 Share Posted November 17, 2015 (edited) My wife and I just got back from the Jewel. Overall, I'd judge the cruise to be slightly below average; we didn't like a higher-than-normal proportion of the food (and I lost track of how often the food was not hot), many ship features were either off-line or only open for very limited hours, and I sensed a lot of "We'll just take care of it in drydock in a few months" as far as the general condition of the ship goes. The service was fine. My question has to do with the "Seaview Cafe". This was advertised daily in the Compass as offering a $10 "Burgers and Brews" thing. There was never any additional information. I stopped in and asked if that meant the $10 included beer; the waitress said "no". What does your $10 actually get you? It doesn't appear to include anything other than a fancy burger. (Or, should I say, an edible one... the burgers in the dining room, room service, and the buffet were all inedible due to not being anywhere near hot.) Why is it advertised as "Burgers and Brews" and not include "Brews"? Even if you are going to charge for the beer, why make it part of the name of the offering if you only offer the same bottled/canned beers that can be purchased from any bar on the ship (or room service, or the buffet, etc.)? (It doesn't even look like the place is equipped with a single tap.) We saw somebody eating in there ONCE. And that customer was eating one of the free offerings, which was a Cesar salad. (They also offered a Ruben, and one other thing I can't remember.) I think the people forced to staff it have possibly the 2nd-most-boring job in the travel industry, after the poor TSA employees that sit on a stool all day ensuring nobody tries to enter through the terminal exit. Edited November 17, 2015 by sirwired Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bouhunter Posted November 17, 2015 #2 Share Posted November 17, 2015 (edited) Never heard of the "Burgers & Brew" thing there. We ate at Seaview cafe once on Jewel for lunch. Maybe once on Brilliance, I think it used to have one? Seemed like very basic and average food, nothing special in any way. Nice out of the way location I guess. I have to say we never understood the rave reviews and accolades it seems to get on Cruise Critic. Now that you mention it I think the employees did seem pretty bored and uninterested:D As for Jewel, we sailed her March 2014 and loved the ship and overall cruise. Edited November 17, 2015 by bouhunter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
critterchick Posted November 17, 2015 #3 Share Posted November 17, 2015 We've sailed Jewel a couple of times since they started charging in Seaview for late night dining, I think early in 2015. I agree that charging $10 for an average burger is absurd. But they are trying to squeeze out every dime they can, so perhaps one customer is worth staying open for. And it seems to be a training venue - in the last couple of cruises on her we found the service to be very slow. And I read a review at one point saying that they had to pay a $10 cover even for the "free" items (the burger is free during the day). I love Jewel, but agree that she is sorely in need of sprucing up, and May can't come to soon for that. Seaview will go away, likely replaced by Izumi if RCI follows the Serenade/Brilliance remo (Radiance has Samba Grill up there) and will charge a fee for every meal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cb at sea Posted November 17, 2015 #4 Share Posted November 17, 2015 Brilliance had an entirely different menu that the other Radiance class ships....when there was a 'Sea-view Cafe"...I thought they had changed them all to something else! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sirwired Posted November 17, 2015 Author #5 Share Posted November 17, 2015 (edited) We've sailed Jewel a couple of times since they started charging in Seaview for late night dining, I think early in 2015. I agree that charging $10 for an average burger is absurd. But they are trying to squeeze out every dime they can, so perhaps one customer is worth staying open for. And it seems to be a training venue - in the last couple of cruises on her we found the service to be very slow. And I read a review at one point saying that they had to pay a $10 cover even for the "free" items (the burger is free during the day). I love Jewel, but agree that she is sorely in need of sprucing up, and May can't come to soon for that. Seaview will go away, likely replaced by Izumi if RCI follows the Serenade/Brilliance remo (Radiance has Samba Grill up there) and will charge a fee for every meal. On our cruise there was no indication that the burger was free at any time (I would have grabbed one there if it was!) The program just said, I think, "Burgers and Brews, Seaview Cafe, 11AM - 10PM, $10" Don't know about if the "free" items are ever charged for. Edited November 17, 2015 by sirwired Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madra2112 Posted November 17, 2015 #6 Share Posted November 17, 2015 My wife and I ate in the Seaview Cafe on Jewel on November 2nd. She had burger and fries, I had a Reuben and we both shared a portion of onion rings. No charge for the burger. It was open for lunch from 12 to 3, and then from 6.30 in the evening. I believe it is Izumi that is being placed there after dry dock. I do agree it was underused, but it was also under promoted, with zero encouragement to go there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sirwired Posted November 17, 2015 Author #7 Share Posted November 17, 2015 My wife and I ate in the Seaview Cafe on Jewel on November 2nd. She had burger and fries, I had a Reuben and we both shared a portion of onion rings. No charge for the burger. It was open for lunch from 12 to 3, and then from 6.30 in the evening. I believe it is Izumi that is being placed there after dry dock. I do agree it was underused, but it was also under promoted, with zero encouragement to go there. I guess the change must be recent, because our Compass clearly said $10, and it was open from 11-10. And the sign they had posted all week showed some tasty looking burgers for $10, and then the list of the three free items at the bottom. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reallyitsmema Posted November 17, 2015 #8 Share Posted November 17, 2015 I guess the change must be recent, because our Compass clearly said $10, and it was open from 11-10. And the sign they had posted all week showed some tasty looking burgers for $10, and then the list of the three free items at the bottom. There is a burger on the daytime menu under house specials. It was available when we were on the Jewel in September. At that time, there were two items that had always been on the menu that had been taped over, the chicken wings and the fish and chips. The burgers and brews menu has "gourmet" burgers supposedly. You can find a menu in this forum posted by racerspeedy or something similar. If you search on burgers and brews it comes up.:) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fish6 Posted November 18, 2015 #9 Share Posted November 18, 2015 We just got off the Jewel this past Sunday. The "free" offerings were only on Sea Days and then the "Burgers and Brew" for $10 was on Port Days. We went twice on the sea days and thoroughly enjoyed the service and food. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stormy15 Posted November 18, 2015 #10 Share Posted November 18, 2015 Hmm, sounds like it has changed since we were on there in August, 2013. We loved the Seaview and went there often. There wasn't a charge at any time when we were on and there were often people eating there. We also had good wait staff and gave wow cards and extra tips to the staff in there because they did a great job for us back then. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Firefighterhoop Posted November 18, 2015 #11 Share Posted November 18, 2015 I was surprised to see the charge when I was on it in September. They charge for anything in the evening - when they open after dinner nothing is free (even what is free during the day). I miss being able to stop in for a late night snack. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
racerxspeedy Posted November 18, 2015 #12 Share Posted November 18, 2015 I started a similar thread when we sailed in March 2015. I posted some small pics of the seaview café menus. Another attempt to increase revenue http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2178495 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sirwired Posted November 18, 2015 Author #13 Share Posted November 18, 2015 How confusing. All the Compass ever talks about is the "Burgers and Brews" special which does not actually include any beer. I don't remember seeing the SeaView being listed as a regular (free) dining venue ever during the entire cruise. If it did offer free burgers on sea days, great, but I have no idea how anybody was expected to know this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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