No more Dining room lunch for B2B passengers-Fleet wide change

[wallyj]

Hello, I am currently on Navigator and have been since January 7, so have already experienced 4, B2B in transist turnarounds. I am staying on for the next 3 sailings and yesterday received the ‘letter’ outlining B2B procedures and testing. It is formatted differently than all previous letters. In the past, there were color blocks of pertinent sections. New letter is plain black and white.

 

The biggest change to me was there was no mention of lunch in the dining room for us B2B passengers as we have enjoyed in the past. I went to the DL to ask the concierge , and he called Guest Services and was told the ‘lunch ’ for B2B passengers has been discontinued fleetwide.

Edited January 26, 2022 by wallyj

[davekathy]

Could be just for your cruise(s) and GS or the DL concierge is mistaken when saying fleetwide. For how long? Something temporary or permanent? I'll wait see if that's the case when we board the Explorer in March for our B2B cruise. 

[bethco]

Same for Liberty this past Sunday.  They had access to WJ 30 minutes earlier.  

[twangster]

Odyssey still did a B2B lunch 4 days ago.  I'm not staying on again but will try to ask LA when I see him  

[firefly333]

39 minutes ago, bethco said:

Same for Liberty this past Sunday.  They had access to WJ 30 minutes earlier.  

I'm boarding Sunday b2b and heard no lunch. 

[Ashland]

We'll be on a B2B in March onboard Explorer and could care less about the lunch...I'm fine with the WJ or any other open venue's.

[alfaeric]

Took a while.  Of all the B2B's we've sailed on, we had just once lunch.

[davekathy]

If we eat lunch we prefer the MDR (tutti salad) over the WJ. We have always done the consecutive cruisers lunch (limited menu) and most of them we were offered wine with the lunch (Radiance, Voyager and Freedom class ships). Nice touch. 

Edited January 26, 2022 by davekathy

[HicksRA]

Currently on 2nd leg on Harmony and no B2B lunch offered on this cruise either. 
They were real generous and offered early access to Windjammer…. 😏

[wolfcathorse]

We had a B2B luncheon 2 weeks ago on Indy. Wish they had made it early access to WJ instead.

[ValerieJo]

I know of someone currently doing a back2back on Enchantment.  I just asked her and she said they are still doing the consecutive cruiser lunch onboard.

[bonsai3s]

1 hour ago, bethco said:

Same for Liberty this past Sunday.  They had access to WJ 30 minutes earlier.  

It was this way even back in October and November when we were on the Liberty.  It was announced at the Star Lounge during the morning of turnaround day, that the WJ would be open 30 minutes earlier for B2B passengers.

A handful of passengers clapped and were happy.  A larger group was not happy with this arrangement.

[ONECRUISER]

48 minutes ago, Ashland said:

We'll be on a B2B in March onboard Explorer and could care less about the lunch...I'm fine with the WJ or any other open venue's.

Yup. Havent gone in about Decade myself...

[bonsai3s]

...and to add, we remember having B2B lunch at specialty restaurants and free wine...sigh.

[dswallow]

I've found myself several times lately wandering through Windjammer at lunch time and leaving without anything. Very disappointing. There's something extremely diminished about the selection of foods there.

Anyway, every time I also get accosted by someone when leaving asking if I had a problem since they see me drop my empty plate and silverware on a table as I leave, and I tell them I found the selection very disappointing and not worth bothering with. 

 

I haven't really done much more beyond that. Mostly as I do comprehend that things are going to be different while sailing with 50% capacity or less. Doesn't mean I'm not going to find myself very disappointed about what they serve; I'm just not going to push back too much about it at the moment. 🙂 But I still think they can be doing better day to day; it's mostly like an exact repeating menu day to day -- and a bad one.

That's not to say that I don't sometimes find something. It's just that I never used to be able to not find anything I wanted.

[BND]

It also wasn't in the MDR on all ships.  On Oasis a few years ago, we had lunch in Jamie's.  On Harmony in early Dec,  it was in Solarium Bistro before it opened for everyone.  We' have two b2b's this year and aren't concerned about lunch.  We'll eat a big breakfast and I'm sure we won't starve.

Edited January 26, 2022 by BND

[cruisegirl1]

We do many B2B  and pre shutdown have had some wonderful lunches either in the dining room or in specialty restaurants.   With a high B2B numbers, I can see why they cannot accommodate B2B cruisers in specialty restaurants. Plus, they are selling a lot of dining packages and use restaurants for that purpose. However, there’s no reason why they can’t provide a nice lunch in the dining room. 
 

Since the return, we’ve done three sets of B2B. The most recent one was January 2 and January 9 harmony. Our back-to-back lunch was a better than average buffet in the solarium café. The meal looked nice (we didn’t stay).
 

Prior to that on Allure we had our back to back lunches in the windjammer -along with the other 3500 passengers who happen to board that day as well.
 

I am sad that Royal Caribbean discontinued this lunch.   They don’t offer any other kind of discount/incentive  for back to back, but the lunch was a nice touch. 
 

Perhaps they will rethink this move and reinstate the nice lunch. 
 

m

[Ashland]

44 minutes ago, bonsai3s said:

It was this way even back in October and November when we were on the Liberty.  It was announced at the Star Lounge during the morning of turnaround day, that the WJ would be open 30 minutes earlier for B2B passengers.

A handful of passengers clapped and were happy.  A larger group was not happy with this arrangement.

We would have been in the "clapping" group.

[cruisegirl1]

I don’t understand how early access to the Windjammer is any kind of benefit. We are all already on the ship and can simply be at the Windjammer when it opens. 
 

m

[Ashland]

38 minutes ago, dswallow said:

I've found myself several times lately wandering through Windjammer at lunch time and leaving without anything. Very disappointing. There's something extremely diminished about the selection of foods there.

Anyway, every time I also get accosted by someone when leaving asking if I had a problem since they see me drop my empty plate and silverware on a table as I leave, and I tell them I found the selection very disappointing and not worth bothering with. 

 

I haven't really done much more beyond that. Mostly as I do comprehend that things are going to be different while sailing with 50% capacity or less. Doesn't mean I'm not going to find myself very disappointed about what they serve; I'm just not going to push back too much about it at the moment. 🙂 But I still think they can be doing better day to day; it's mostly like an exact repeating menu day to day -- and a bad one.

That's not to say that I don't sometimes find something. It's just that I never used to be able to not find anything I wanted.

Wow....the lunch offering this past week on Navigator had the best options compared to breakfast & dinner offerings and it was busy on lunch days !!!

[Ashland]

Just now, cruisegirl1 said:

I don’t understand how early access to the Windjammer is any kind of benefit. We are all already on the ship and can simply be at the Windjammer when it opens. 
 

m

I can....the boarding day WJ actually was very busy even with only 1100 sailing passengers last week. So having it open 30 min earlier would have been nice.

[HicksRA]

I dislike the experience in WJ more than the quality of food. So many rude people bumping into you, cutting in front of you and acting like they haven’t eaten in a week. 
In two weeks this cruise, we’ve been to Windjammer once. 

[joeyancho]

First world problems.....😉

[Starry Eyes]

I have enjoyed the b2b lunches, especially in specialty restaurants.  The MDR is fine too.  Honey I have always wished the MDR was open for lunch for everyone on embarkation day, even if were limited menu.  The WJ is a mess, especially with carryon bags.  On another cruise line we sit down for lunch with wine or champagne; it is a much nicer start to the cruise.

[kruzerci]

1 hour ago, dswallow said:

I've found myself several times lately wandering through Windjammer at lunch time and leaving without anything. Very disappointing. There's something extremely diminished about the selection of foods there.

Anyway, every time I also get accosted by someone when leaving asking if I had a problem since they see me drop my empty plate and silverware on a table as I leave, and I tell them I found the selection very disappointing and not worth bothering with. 

 

I haven't really done much more beyond that. Mostly as I do comprehend that things are going to be different while sailing with 50% capacity or less. Doesn't mean I'm not going to find myself very disappointed about what they serve; I'm just not going to push back too much about it at the moment. 🙂 But I still think they can be doing better day to day; it's mostly like an exact repeating menu day to day -- and a bad one.

That's not to say that I don't sometimes find something. It's just that I never used to be able to not find anything I wanted.

 

It's been very poor this year. I have assumed it was due to the rock bottom pricepoints since the return to sailing, but like you, I have left several times without anything. Not much of a selection, low quality, and rarely any lean proteins or white meat chicken to be found.