WOS review May 7th - 14th the good and the meh

[TheHawk1]

Appreciate the review.  I was on the Wonder last September when it was new(ish) and didn't encounter any of the MDR problems you described (still with the old menu).  Given the substantial increasing cost of cruises lately, it's very disappointing that people feel compelled to also then pay extra for specialty restaurants or stay in a suite to have access to Coastal Kitchen, just so they can have a decent meal. 

[nimbex1970]

22 hours ago, Biker19 said:

 

 

35 minutes ago, cruisegirl1 said:

OP-good point about the opening times of the kiddie venues. 
 

Sorry you had such frustration regarding your meals. We have seen it so hit or miss in the MDR.   I wish you had spoken to a supervisor for possible  resolution. 
 

m

I see your point completely.  With the head waiter trying to fix what he couldn't (poor food execution), I just felt like an ass pressing any further as it was obvious the kitchen was just overcooking the shrimp.  My family was already uncomfortable and were not happy I spoke up.  I had already ate pizza after dinner for the past few nights and thought it would be a quick fix, instead, my complaint turned into a "thing", and that wasn't my desire.  With so many other options out there, it made no point to me, to press it further. Why be frustrated on vacation?  

 

I went to playmakers and ordered chicken wings a bit later and they were excellent! Very pleased there. 

 

Just wanted to share my experience, which I hope was not shared by anyone else. Thanks for the feedback, I would have recommended the supervisor as well, had I not been aware of my family being uncomfortable with it all. Just unnecessary. 

 

 

[OCSC Mike]

2 minutes ago, nimbex1970 said:

I went to playmakers and ordered chicken wings a bit later and they were excellent! Very pleased there. 

 

Wife and I love the burgers, garlic parm fries, and onion rings there. I'm a big fan of a couple of their specialty drinks as well. We ate there multiple times on Indy, which obviously has FAR fewer food venues than Wonder, making it even more appreciated, but I'm sure I'll eat there at least once on Wonder too.

[nimbex1970]

6 minutes ago, TheHawk1 said:

Appreciate the review.  I was on the Wonder last September when it was new(ish) and didn't encounter any of the MDR problems you described (still with the old menu).  Given the substantial increasing cost of cruises lately, it's very disappointing that people feel compelled to also then pay extra for specialty restaurants or stay in a suite to have access to Coastal Kitchen, just so they can have a decent meal. 

 

Unfortunately, I am in agreement with the MDR.  I am NOT against RCCL at all, had the time of our lives on WOS and highly recommend it!  Dinning however, I will pay for the specialty restaurants when I do another RCCL, which in my opinion is the intent when you choose to deliver a subpar product.  I believe the shrimp to have been precooked prior to dinner, then recooked as they were so tough, but I'm just throwing out guesses. 

 

I won't do the MDR ever again, well maybe breakfast, but the added price of the specialty restaurants could lead folks like myself into some serious price comparing with other lines. I hate to see that happen, but for us, it's what we will do.  

[nimbex1970]

2 minutes ago, OCSC Mike said:

 

Wife and I love the burgers, garlic parm fries, and onion rings there. I'm a big fan of a couple of their specialty drinks as well. We ate there multiple times on Indy, which obviously has FAR fewer food venues than Wonder, making it even more appreciated, but I'm sure I'll eat there at least once on Wonder too.

 

Loved playmakers, the style of venue, multiple TV's great affordable food options and excellent service! Wish I went there more to try out the rest of the menu.  Oh and to add, on night one or two I ordered room service wings; the bbq and the buffalo, and they were both VERY decent!  A nice suprise!  We loved all the food, but the MDR, so all and all, a great foodie ship. 

[OCSC Mike]

7 minutes ago, nimbex1970 said:

Loved playmakers, the style of venue, multiple TV's great affordable food options and excellent service! Wish I went there more to try out the rest of the menu.  Oh and to add, on night one or two I ordered room service wings; the bbq and the buffalo, and they were both VERY decent!  A nice suprise!  We loved all the food, but the MDR, so all and all, a great foodie ship. 

 

I eat a lot when I cruise and we don't do a ton of specialty dining but Wonder almost has too many options, lol. For whatever reason, I've never tried room service but have read many good reviews. I'm going to try to force myself to try it on Wonder (might as well while we're in a GS and there's no fee).

 

As for Playmakers, I actually found some things surprisingly underpriced (like a good size bacon cheeseburger and garlic parm fries for $9). Our local go-to burger places charge more than that. After our first meal there we both agreed we wished there was a Playmakers down the street back home; we'd eat there all the time.

Edited May 18, 2023 by OCSC Mike

[nimbex1970]

@OCSC Mike, My home is in Orlando, we could definitely use a Playmakers! Too few sports bars that are not dives, not that I mind the local dives either.. but that would be epic!

[OCSC Mike]

4 minutes ago, nimbex1970 said:

@OCSC Mike, My home is in Orlando, we could definitely use a Playmakers! Too few sports bars that are not dives, not that I mind the local dives either.. but that would be epic!

 

Meet ya there!

[Kathscof]

29 minutes ago, nimbex1970 said:

@OCSC Mike, My home is in Orlando, we could definitely use a Playmakers! Too few sports bars that are not dives, not that I mind the local dives either.. but that would be epic!

and here I am in Atlanta dying for the Ale House when the closest one is 45 min away HAHA (I made my friend drive there with me for my birthday in 2020 hahah)

[steve thfc]

On symphony now. Food in mdr awful 

Tiny shrimp

Awful leek and potato soup. Bland. No thickness 

A guiness pie with no sides. 

Bland cappuccino cake. 

 

The service is fine but they are cost cutting and using awful ingredients 

[jeffporfirio01]

1 hour ago, nimbex1970 said:

 

Unfortunately, I am in agreement with the MDR.  I am NOT against RCCL at all, had the time of our lives on WOS and highly recommend it!  Dinning however, I will pay for the specialty restaurants when I do another RCCL, which in my opinion is the intent when you choose to deliver a subpar product.  I believe the shrimp to have been precooked prior to dinner, then recooked as they were so tough, but I'm just throwing out guesses. 

 

I won't do the MDR ever again, well maybe breakfast, but the added price of the specialty restaurants could lead folks like myself into some serious price comparing with other lines. I hate to see that happen, but for us, it's what we will do.  

 

That is our mindset.

We are doing the UDP on the Odyssey in Aug, and keeping tabs of every upsell and compare to our most recent DCL.

[nimbex1970]

22 hours ago, steve thfc said:

On symphony now. Food in mdr awful 

Tiny shrimp

Awful leek and potato soup. Bland. No thickness 

A guiness pie with no sides. 

Bland cappuccino cake. 

 

The service is fine but they are cost cutting and using awful ingredients 

out of curiosity, did you complain?  If so, how was it handled? This push for a 10 on the survey was a bit much IMHO, but I understand the pressure they are under. 

[steve thfc]

I finally complained. After the waiter bought me the wrong desert.

 

The maitre de apologized. They sent me choclate strawberries today and said they will put me in the private dining area for rest of cruise. I'm still not giving them a 10. Food is poor. Luckily have been in port in Mallorca, Marseille, Rome and went to Sorrento for the day.

[LobsterStalker]

On 5/19/2023 at 1:09 PM, steve thfc said:

I finally complained. After the waiter bought me the wrong desert.

 

The maitre de apologized. They sent me choclate strawberries today and said they will put me in the private dining area for rest of cruise. I'm still not giving them a 10. Food is poor. Luckily have been in port in Mallorca, Marseille, Rome and went to Sorrento for the day.

Otherwise known as the BRIG ? Is that what happens when you complain?   :)

  What exactly is the "private dining area" ?

 

Cheers

[Jasukkie]

The gap between the MDR and the specialty restaurants has grown wider. I hate having to pay extra but more often than not, I get the ultimate dining package now. The food is much better and the service is exactly what I want. Friendly, but not overbearing, and 100% on point. The only caveat is to not overeat repeatedly. I never have that problem in the MDR.

[OCSC Mike]

2 minutes ago, Jasukkie said:

The only caveat is to not overeat repeatedly.

 

If I don't overeat on a cruise, I've done something wrong. 🤣

[suzyluvs2cruise]

On 5/17/2023 at 10:34 AM, BobNoxious said:

I remind any service member that is requesting a 10/10 that they are not allowed to advise me WHAT to rate, only to fill out the survey.  If they ask me again, i make a special note of what they are doing in the survey.   It is against Royal Caribbean's rules for staff to start suggesting how I rate them.      

Agee....We were recently on Wonder April 30 and in Wonderland not once, not twice but three times the server mentioned about the survey - said it was her bread and butter and the importance of a 10. We know that it's important but don't want to be bugged/reminded about it. That wasn't the only place the survey was mentioned either. The Restaurant Mgr stopped by and I mentioned it to him. In the past the survey has asked is anyone talked to you about the survey or told you want to mark but this survey did not have that so I mentioned it in the comments. 

[Darkingnj]

Thanks for the review...very helpful.

 

Do you recall the various theme nights?

[renza]

I was on the sailing as well. We had UDP which was amazing. We never stepped foot in main dining room. Voices was amazing. My least favorite was ice show and intense aqua show. We have been on all oasis class multiple times and these two shows didn’t compare to the other ships. We saw the last voices show with the old cast and omg it was amazing, tap was good too. Effectors was ok. Not my thing. Great ship and great fun. 

[sgmn]

On 5/17/2023 at 6:55 PM, BobNoxious said:

Best spot for breakfast:   Solarium Bistro!

I was disappointed with Solarium for breakfast on Symphony. After the first day it was very crowded with wait time and queues to get in.  Wanted a continental style breakfast with hams, cheeses and nice bread. Got tiny triangles of uninteresting cheese (no brie, blue cheese or yummy continental cheeses), no ham at all and just round small rolls.

Fruit was good though, as were the croissants, though they often ran out of them towards the end of service 

Edited May 22, 2023 by sgmn

[cublet]

6 hours ago, sgmn said:

I was disappointed with Solarium for breakfast on Symphony. After the first day it was very crowded with wait time and queues to get in.  Wanted a continental style breakfast with hams, cheeses and nice bread. Got tiny triangles of uninteresting cheese (no brie, blue cheese or yummy continental cheeses), no ham at all and just round small rolls.

Fruit was good though, as were the croissants, though they often ran out of them towards the end of service 

Hello,

 

How many yeas ago I cannot remember but Royal announced that they were going 'plastic free'.

 

On these pages I wondered out loud whether that would put an end to the 'cheese' and 'ham' [?] offerings served in the complimentary restaurants. Even now it appears the answer to that is "No".

 

Regards,

 

Cublet

[LobsterStalker]

13 hours ago, renza said:

I was on the sailing as well. We had UDP which was amazing. We never stepped foot in main dining room. Voices was amazing. My least favorite was ice show and intense aqua show. We have been on all oasis class multiple times and these two shows didn’t compare to the other ships. We saw the last voices show with the old cast and omg it was amazing, tap was good too. Effectors was ok. Not my thing. Great ship and great fun. 

Always interesting (and welcome) how different people see things different ways. We were on in February and felt the ice show was the best we'd ever seen . Other shows were all just good , nothing mindbendind though

I guess I'm also assuming it was the same ice show with same cast ... can't remember what it was called

 

Cheers

[baileybrad]

4 hours ago, LobsterStalker said:

Always interesting (and welcome) how different people see things different ways. We were on in February and felt the ice show was the best we'd ever seen . Other shows were all just good , nothing mindbendind though

I guess I'm also assuming it was the same ice show with same cast ... can't remember what it was called

 

Cheers

Tastes definitely vary. When I saw the earlier reference from a poster that they did not enjoy the ice show or water show....but did like a few others had a similar reaction as you. We were on the WOS in November and felt that the ice show (with all of the special on ice effects and great music) was far and away the best cruise ice show that we had ever seen. My wife loved the water show, too. I felt it went on a little too long. We may be in the minority but we both do not care for the Effectors at all.

 

We are cruising at May month end with 6 other family members and have really been hyping how good the ice show is on this ship. Hope the family enjoys it.

Edited May 22, 2023 by baileybrad

[PhillyFan33579]

On 5/17/2023 at 1:34 PM, BobNoxious said:

I remind any service member that is requesting a 10/10 that they are not allowed to advise me WHAT to rate, only to fill out the survey.  If they ask me again, i make a special note of what they are doing in the survey.   It is against Royal Caribbean's rules for staff to start suggesting how I rate them.      

Have you seen this policy written some where? On almost every RCI cruise I have been on recently (26 post COVID), staff to include the MDR Maitre’d and numerous officers to include the Hotel Director have emphasized the importance of 10 ratings on the survey. I find it hard to believe so many officers on numerous ships would say something about how to complete the survey if it was against RCI rules. 

[plethera1]

44 minutes ago, PhillyFan33579 said:

Have you seen this policy written some where? On almost every RCI cruise I have been on recently (26 post COVID), staff to include the MDR Maitre’d and numerous officers to include the Hotel Director have emphasized the importance of 10 ratings on the survey. I find it hard to believe so many officers on numerous ships would say something about how to complete the survey if it was against RCI rules. 

I wonder if this rule was changed so more employees are asking now.

 

I haven't been on a cruise in a long time but have one starting Sunday.  I don't mind them mentioning this once but every day will get annoying.  

 

I wonder if they would stop if you said you'd drop their rating a quarter point ever time they mention it.  hahaha...probably not as they wouldn't remember you said it.