Windjammer...any cutbacks?

[kruzerci]

Tbh on Royal there isn’t much left to cut at the buffet. Most items are along the lines of pastas, burgers, hot dogs, and pizza and hospital cafeteria quality at that. 

[Engineroom Snipe]

19 hours ago, Bluewake said:

 We were last on Royal (Independence) in February 2022 and the Windjammer was pretty much "as always". 

 

Anthem in April, 2022, and Oasis in September, no major differences in the Windjammer to multiple previous cruises in last five years. I like formal dining, but we liked the Windjammer variety more.

[resetjet]

1 hour ago, kruzerci said:

Tbh on Royal there isn’t much left to cut at the buffet. Most items are along the lines of pastas, burgers, hot dogs, and pizza and hospital cafeteria quality at that. 

I feel the same.  Its a "potluck" buffet and full of chaos.

[Starry Eyes]

3 hours ago, The Fun Researcher said:

I think it's perfectly valid for the OP to be asking about potential changes to the Windjammer based on what's happened with Celebrity. 

 

Celebrity is owned by Royal Caribbean Group after all, so it stands to reason that these changes may end up being implemented corporate wide.  I hope not, but I've been wondering the exact same thing as the OP.  We have a Celebrity cruise booked on the Equinox the week before Christmas but fortunately the dinner buffet scale back won't impact us because we eat our dinners in the MDR.

Dan

Even if they were not owned by the same corporation, if one likes to eat in the buffet in the evening it is reasonable to ask about the current state of that buffet.

 

Given the low percentage of Celebrity cruises who select the buffet in the evening, I thought the buffet seemed reasonable in size and assortment for dinner once or twice.  Granted if I always ate in the buffet for dinner, X would not be a good choice.  I seem to remember when I first cruised Celebrity many years ago the buffet was not even open in the evening or they had casual table service by reservation at a few tables for those who did not want the MDR.

 

 

[lovesthebeach2]

We eat breakfast and lunch in the WJ. So far we eat dinner in MDR….BUT we haven’t been on since the new menu changes.  I don’t think that will be much of a difference to us, most of the things we routinely ate are still there.  I don’t particularly like the MDR food.  Too much salt and always covered in some liquid, gravy, sauce, etc. to me that shows they are covering up the taste of the food, or trying to add taste.  
On our last cruise on Jewel for NYE , the WJ had the same amount of choices that we always saw there.

[Mum2Mercury]

We sailed twice at the end of 2022 and were pleased with the Windjammer food.  To classify it as "cafeteria food" is unfair.  The quality was good, if not exceptional, and we enjoyed the variety.  

[neverbeenhere]

The Windjammer dinner hours are not normally a madhouse. Except, of course, on free tequila night.

 

 

 

[graciekelli]

I think the video that was posted from Celebrity's Buffet cut backs looks really sad, they may have went too far.  They might as well just do away with it.

[nelblu]

17 minutes ago, graciekelli said:

I think the video that was posted from Celebrity's Buffet cut backs looks really sad, they may have went too far.  They might as well just do away with it.

The problem with the video show very few patrons in the WJ.  So maybe Celebrity is trying to match the number of available food stations to the number of expected diners.  

[Bluewake]

18 hours ago, Georgia_Peaches said:

Celebrity have made the decision to reduce the dinner buffet offerings by 80% across the entire fleet. That’s the context. Period. Op was asking if RCL have made any indication of doing the same. Pretty straight forward IMO. 
 

Additional changes include an increase in drinks package pricing, gratuities, MDR menu cutbacks and the implementation of room service charges.   Again, straight forward so I won’t be including any links to discussion on the celebrity board. Suffice it to say, frequent patrons of the Celebrity product have indicated they are abandoning ship. 

Wow...unexpectedly tough responses to what I thought was a fairly benign question.   Thanks for the supportive post!   As you noted, I posted the question because of the significant cutbacks Celebrity has implemented in buffet service fleet-wide and, since Celebrity and Royal Caribbean are "sister companies", whether there was any indication the same thing might be occurring on Royal.  I thought that was a reasonable inquiry.  I am re-posting the link already supplied by another poster to avoid any accusations of failing to provide supportive citations.

We are lukewarm on the MDR and it's not unusual for us to eat dinner in the buffet 3-4 times during a cruise.  We were in the process of making dining and other reservations for our upcoming Mariner cruise and thought that if these changes were being implemented on Royal, we might want to book additional specialty restaurants in lieu of eating in the Windjammer.   Alas, I had no ulterior motive nor was my post a covert effort to incite some sort of social media virtual uproar.  I did, however, erroneously assume most CC readers would be aware of the changes on Celebrity.   Mea culpa for that egregious error.

[jbrinkm]

Tends to be many more children on Royal than Celebrity. WJ seems to be the go-to for families that prefer not to deal with MDR with their little angels. Probably more use for the buffet on Royal than Celebrity?

[Lane Hog]

Yeah, I'd take it with a grain of salt.  My impression of Celebrity is they cater more to couples who are used to full service and not particularly interested in the Golden Corral for dinner... 

I don't think they can risk that type of a cutback on Royal.  I don't know that the dining rooms can successfully handle 100% occupancy.

Edited January 20, 2023 by Lane Hog

[BirdTravels]

This was our Windjammer lunch on the Wonder of the Seas

 

[time4u2go]

8 minutes ago, BirdTravels said:

This was our Windjammer lunch on the Wonder of the Seas

 

I think the emphasis of this thread is dinner, not lunch. 

[bucfan2]

27 minutes ago, time4u2go said:

I think the emphasis of this thread is dinner, not lunch. 

Interesting conclusion to jump to.  Maybe it's me, but I didn't think that at all. 

Edited January 20, 2023 by bucfan2

[foodsvcmgr]

So all the fuss over lobster tails and it’s being served on the buffet?

Along with filets, tons of shrimp, and carved steamship of beef.

Is that some sort of special event in WJ?

Surely that’s not a typical days offering.

[time4u2go]

43 minutes ago, bucfan2 said:

Interesting conclusion to jump to.  Maybe it's me, but I didn't think that at all. 

Reread the first post..."Particularly for the dinner hours" 

 

Edited January 20, 2023 by time4u2go

[The Fun Researcher]

1 hour ago, bucfan2 said:

Interesting conclusion to jump to.  Maybe it's me, but I didn't think that at all. 

The original question was about possible Windjammer cutbacks due to what’s happened on Celebrity with their dinner buffet.

[cruiseboy89130]

2 hours ago, BirdTravels said:

This was our Windjammer lunch on the Wonder of the Seas

 

You know that is NOT the normal lunch offer on a regular cruise and still post this as if it was normal.... shame on you!

[John&LaLa]

3 hours ago, BirdTravels said:

This was our Windjammer lunch on the Wonder of the Seas

 

 

Recent, or one of the inaugural sailings?

[Thisguylikestocruise]

18 hours ago, kruzerci said:

Tbh on Royal there isn’t much left to cut at the buffet. Most items are along the lines of pastas, burgers, hot dogs, and pizza and hospital cafeteria quality at that. 

The hospital I work at has an awful cafeteria. It’s sad what they give patients, quality and quantity has really gone down due to cost cutting. I’ll take the windjammer any day. 

[nelblu]

9 hours ago, BirdTravels said:

This was our Windjammer lunch on the Wonder of the Seas

 

Lobster for lunch?  I haven't even seen anything resembling shrimp on any of my sails and I've been on 6 since the restart.  On my recent Oasis sail I couldn't even find tuna fish salad, let alone lobster.  Looks like a scene from the "Twight Zone."🤣

[Cruise a holic]

We were on the Adventure off the Seas last June.  Food horrible in the windjammer.  Food served high school cafeteria style.  People breaking into the lines.  The MDR also had poor service and mediocre food.  We sailed on the Oasis in August- limited our dining to suite restaurant and specialty restaurants- food so much better.  Hope that the old RC ships revise the windjammer with stations like celebrity ships.

Edited January 20, 2023 by Cruise a holic

[John&LaLa]

1 hour ago, nelblu said:

Lobster for lunch?  I haven't even seen anything resembling shrimp on any of my sails and I've been on 6 since the restart.  On my recent Oasis sail I couldn't even find tuna fish salad, let alone lobster.  Looks like a scene from the "Twight Zone."🤣

 

Looks like the first few sailings from south Florida, or the inaugural trips from PC. Our 2 day in December looked like that

[graciekelli]

16 hours ago, nelblu said:

The problem with the video show very few patrons in the WJ.  So maybe Celebrity is trying to match the number of available food stations to the number of expected diners.  

True. But if I went in there and saw those offerings, I would turn around and go eat somewhere else.  Maybe that's why no one is in there.  Also for me it wasn't so much the number of stations open but more about what they were serving at the main meal station. It made no sense.