When do you book and all RC ships food the same!?

[Jranger]

I'm looking at another cruise next June/July. What time of year do you usually book to get best rates etc? Also we just got off the Liberty a few weeks ago and absolutely loved everything about it but the food. Is the food the same on all ships? Main dining was fine but everything else was sub par. Thanks

[aubreyc1988]

I'm looking at another cruise next June/July. What time of year do you usually book to get best rates etc? Also we just got off the Liberty a few weeks ago and absolutely loved everything about it but the food. Is the food the same on all ships? Main dining was fine but everything else was sub par. Thanks

 

Best time to book: if you can, sometime after final payment OR really far in advance. I like to book after final payment, but I can make travel plans last minute so it works for me. I fly out of DFW, so my flights to places are usually pretty cheap, so I tend to book a month in advance.

 

As for food, my opinion is ALL SHIPS ARE DIFFERENT! I think it might be because different chefs? The cruise that I have done with the BEST food was the RCI Independence, and we only did the MDR. It might be different now, since it's been years since that voyage.

 

Buffet food is hard to keep hot, just the nature of buffets, but if you are worried about having food not to your liking, just get the dining package and eat at specialty restaurants some of the nights.

[Siora7777]

To me the food seems to be the same on the RCI ships I've been on, not that great. I don't starve but there is nothing on RCI that I absolutely love. I try to tell people I cruise with who are going the 1st time on RCI to not get too excited about the food because it will be disappointing, especially the desserts. That way if they end up liking it it works out. From down (disappointment), you can only go up (content to pleased with the selection).

 

Since I cruise for the islands anyway, it doesn't matter to me too much. It will not stop me from booking another cruise.

 

That's from my limited experience of the food on the ships I've cruised so far on RCI.

 

I book as soon as the sail opens, I like to choose a specific cabin. Prices have been lower for the last couple years during that time. Although this upcoming year the prices have been too high IMO.

Edited August 11, 2016 by Siora7777

[Clarea]

I'm looking at another cruise next June/July. What time of year do you usually book to get best rates etc? ...

We book as soon as the new cruises are released, usually in March/April every year.

[cb at sea]

The menus are the same...the preparation can vary!

[kevinyork]

Different menus on Quantum class ships to the rest of the fleet.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Clarea]

Different menus on Quantum class ships to the rest of the fleet.

Oasis has gone to new menus too.

 

Rumor is that new menus are going fleetwide, but no schedule has been publicly released.

[racerxspeedy]

Oasis has "updated" MDR menus. The other ships may have new menus at some point soon. Many dishes are carry over.

[davy jones]

When I find a cruise that I want at a price that I like, I book it to lock in the price.

 

Afterward, I do check periodically for price drops.

[packercruising]

We like to book in June for a Feb/Mar cruise every year. It has nothing to do with best pricing, though. Full disclosure, our TA does all the booking as we sail as a group. When we sail on our own, we grab sales that sail several months away. We are currently looking for a good idea for June 2018, our 25th Anniversary.

[Scotty G]

Regarding food on board RCI ship, with 20+ cruise ships home ported in different part of the World one can assume that the ingredients that go into meals are not exactly the same. Also, different culinary teams have differing skills and techniques.

RCI establishes standard menus and implements them fleet wide over time. That would be as standard as it gets. We have had a few bad meals but the wait staff was quick to have them replaced with something else of our choosing.

[packercruising]

It has been our experience that the food is quite good overall.

[cjdixon4]

I'm looking at another cruise next June/July. What time of year do you usually book to get best rates etc? Also we just got off the Liberty a few weeks ago and absolutely loved everything about it but the food. Is the food the same on all ships? Main dining was fine but everything else was sub par. Thanks

 

Determining the best time of year to cruise based on the rates is kind of like Russian Roulette. It may be better to determine when YOU have vacation availability, how much you want to spend, and what itinerary you're interested in. There's no hard and fast rule.

 

In terms of food...as many have said in multiple previous CC threads, it's all relative. MDR/Windjammer are fine by me and my DH, however there are those who only eat in the specialty restaurants or a combination of all of them. Menus may vary across the various classes of ships; you'll need to check them out for yourself and make a personal judgement.

[Cruisin' Again 86]

Great Thread !!!

 

When the ships are in Europe where do they receive their food shipments from ? In other words do they use local fish,beef,poultry etc.... <<< OR >>> is it shipped from US ?

[packercruising]

Determining the best time of year to cruise based on the rates is kind of like Russian Roulette. It may be better to determine when YOU have vacation availability, how much you want to spend, and what itinerary you're interested in. There's no hard and fast rule.

 

 

Being from Wisconsin, we always find Feb/Mar to be a good time to get a break from winter.:D

[MikeNJ1109]

If we had our druthers, my wife and I would prefer to sail at traditionally "slow" periods, the two or three weeks immediately after Thanksgiving but prior to Christmas; as well as January and February. We have found cost to cruise to be more affordable, and we will pull our daughter out of school for a week if we find something that "works" for us.

 

As for food -- for the most part we're talking about mass produced, high quantity meals, which are filling and taste reasonably good but aren't gourmet (and we recognize that the some of the specialty restaurants can be an exception to the rule).

 

Michael

[39august]

If you are OK with a price now, I would book it. Lowest prices are when itineraries are first offered for reservation. Sometimes, certainly not always, a few weeks before cruise date, some cabin prices may go down; but it will not be all catagories and what you want may be gone or higher than today's price. If you really care about a specific date, better to book as far in advance of that date as possible. During the summer many ships completely sell out weeks before the sail date. (If the price should go down between booking and final payment date, you can usually get the lower rate applied.) Example: We booked a Jr. Suite on Harmony of the Seas the first week those reservations were available June 2015 for Nov. 26, 2016. Our cost was $1285 per person. That rate is over $3000 per person now.

[packercruising]

Especially if you want a particular deck and area of the ship.

Edited August 11, 2016 by packercruising

[Hoopster95]

I'm looking at another cruise next June/July. What time of year do you usually book to get best rates etc? Also we just got off the Liberty a few weeks ago and absolutely loved everything about it but the food. Is the food the same on all ships? Main dining was fine but everything else was sub par. Thanks

 

"Lowest prices are when itineraries are first offered for reservation"

I've seen the above quote stated over and over again.. and it is factually 100% incorrect. I feel that perhaps the only people who state this are the ones who have very little or no experience booking late®.

The truth is, you have to use common sense and see the trends, there is no rhyme or reason to booking late or early. It is economy dependent, ship dependent, itinerary dependent (popular or unpopular), I can go on with a ton of other variables.

 

I have booked both very early and very late... many times.

• Booking late --- I'll be getting on Adventure next week, smack dab middle of summer vacation, at less price than the initial deployment price last year. Last December I got on Jewel booked also about 3 months in advance and again less price than the initial deployment price. In May I sailed on 4-day Mariner at almost exactly 1/2 the deployment price, booked on GGG sale approx 60 days in advance.
  
• Booking early --- I Booked Harmony for Jan2017 almost a year ago now within 3-4 days after deployed ... that cruise is more than double in price today!!!! I also booked Jewel for Sept 2017 Europe very early, about 4 months ago, on a group rate, got fabulous cabins and now the cruise is up a good $500-$600.
  

You have to know your approximate per diem prices, you have to be lucky, you have to be searching and comparing various ships/itineraries, and you have to flexible in order to score the deals when they occur.

 

Summary --- Use common sense and do what you think is right. If you are not savvy to average pricing/or approx standard pricing should be for your cabin, then yes book as early as possible. If you are somewhat savvy and you have a choice of week in June/July PLUS you are flexible with choice of ship (instead of Liberty how about Jewel? Adventure? $599 deals on Oasis/Allure this summer) then maybe you'd like to try booking late... I bet those Allure cruisers who booked insides at $1000 when first deployed couldn't have predicted $599.

 

Just my 2 cents from experience of both sides of the coin

[cjdixon4]

Being from Wisconsin, we always find Feb/Mar to be a good time to get a break from winter.:D

We're from the Chi, so I can definitely relate! ;)

[Biker19]

"Lowest prices are when itineraries are first offered for reservation"

I've seen the above quote stated over and over again.. and it is factually 100% incorrect. I feel that perhaps the only people who state this are the ones who have very little or no experience booking late®.

or they happen to book cruises that typically do not have price drops closer to sailing.

[Tom.Terrific]

We book as soon as the new cruises are released, usually in March/April every year.

 

It took a few sailings to figure it out, but we book our Royal cruises as soon as they become available. We watch for price drops, but booking early has proven to be best for us. Other than that, the best time to book your next is now. If there's a price drop...

[packercruising]

We're from the Chi, so I can definitely relate! ;)

 

I noticed that. :D We also fly down at least two days ahead of time in case the weather causes delays.

[griffy116]

We are limited on when we can cruise because of jobs (teachers) and students so we have to cruise during the high season for price. We are already booked for a cruise in June 2017. We book early because we need multiple cabins and we know what locations we want. If the price goes down, we can get the price adjustment, but that has happened on ONE cruise in about a dozen cruises. We used to enjoy the food more than now. Some of our favorite foods aren't on the current menu, like the vidalia onion tart, but have been brought back on the new menu, which hasn't been rolled out on the whole fleet. We're ready for a menu change and a little more variety. That said,we've never gone hungry and always found something we like...