Brunch instead of separate breakfast & lunch?

[jbrinkm]

I saw one trip report mentioning that the ship was serving brunch in the MDR instead of separate breakfast and lunch, and I'm wondering if anyone else has experienced this recently? 

[Biaggio]

Check the cruise compass link on the top of the page for your ship. 

[CruiseGus]

5 hours ago, jbrinkm said:

I saw one trip report mentioning that the ship was serving brunch in the MDR instead of separate breakfast and lunch, and I'm wondering if anyone else has experienced this recently? 

Yes I have seen it a number of times on sea days.  Personally I dislike it, but aperently somebody does like it.

[barjpoe]

I don't like it either

[FionaMG]

The thing I like about it is that it continues past the usual closing time for breakfast in the MDR. As we tend not to be early risers, we're often too late for breakfast in the MDR.

The thing I don't like about it is that my favourite items on the breakfast menu are not on the brunch menu.

[Ampurp85]

I believe they do brunch on sea days and the menu is a bit of a letdown. I also believe it has been this way since the restart. 

[Last2Know]

Brunch and a spicy Bloody Mary on a cruise sounds pretty good right now. 

[jbrinkm]

13 hours ago, Ampurp85 said:

I believe they do brunch on sea days and the menu is a bit of a letdown. I also believe it has been this way since the restart. 

We had separate breakfast and lunch on Allure, April 2022 & April 2023, so not for all ships/all sailings. Which ships have you seen it on? I'm wondering if they are moving towards doing this permanently across the fleet as another cost saving measure. 

On 12/24/2023 at 8:12 PM, FionaMG said:

The thing I like about it is that it continues past the usual closing time for breakfast in the MDR. As we tend not to be early risers, we're often too late for breakfast in the MDR.

The thing I don't like about it is that my favourite items on the breakfast menu are not on the brunch menu.

This is me too + also about lunch. Lunch in April had several things that were removed from the dinner menu (i.e. Apple Blossom) so it was really nice. 

[Rackham]

I'm not seeing brunch offered this week aboard Anthem. It's always breakfast and lunch on the in app menus. 

[ScottD]

I only went to MDR breakfast once on Oasis 2 months ago, and it was actually Brunch. I honestly thought they did it every day, but maybe it was just sea days. They had the basic breakfast items, omelets\eggs, pancakes, french toast.... then also had a Brunch burger and some other heartier meals. It was fine with me, it was just a lot busier than expected. Everyone told us they love going to MDR for breakfast because it's fast and easy. We were there longer than most of our dinner services! Between waiting for a seat, then waiting to get waited on...and the food coming out after a while, we spent well over an hour there. 

[FionaMG]

It seems to vary from ship to ship and even from sailing to sailing whether they have breakfast, brunch or a combination of the two. I've been watching the 8-night Symphony sailings in the app to get an idea of what to expect on my own in February. A couple of weeks back, they had brunch in the MDR on all four sea days, whereas on the sailing that just recently ended they had brunch twice and breakfast twice.

From past experience, we've found that if you get in to the MDR by about 8.45 am, you can be in and out reasonably quickly; any later than that and it does take ages.

[WAAAYTOOO]

The sea day brunch is definitely only on some ships....but we actually loved it when we were still eating breakfast in GenPop.  Since we normally only eat 2 meals a day (breakfast and dinner), this later breakfast mirrors what we do at home.  I actually wish they could do the same thing with the specialty breakfast but of course that is impossible since the specialty restaurants are open for business on sea days

[Ampurp85]

12 hours ago, jbrinkm said:

We had separate breakfast and lunch on Allure, April 2022 & April 2023, so not for all ships/all sailings. Which ships have you seen it on? I'm wondering if they are moving towards doing this permanently across the fleet as another cost saving measure. 

This is me too + also about lunch. Lunch in April had several things that were removed from the dinner menu (i.e. Apple Blossom) so it was really nice. 

I had it on Grandeur, Mariner, Freedom, Odyssey, Indy, and Harmony. I did have it on Allure in 2021. But I had the UDP on my 2023 Allure sailing, so I can't say if for sure if it was offered. 

I also don't sail during spring/summer breaks so there seems to be different rules for those sailings. 

[billdauterive]

I feel like I'm having my leg pulled in this thread.  I've been on a dozen cruises since the restart and not ONCE have I seen a brunch offered.  In fact this is the first time I've ever even heard it mentioned that brunch is offered.  I've been on all class of ships and length of cruise and times of year.  Maybe it is just a random luck of the draw of what's being served that cruise?

I'm not complaining, I actually prefer the split.  I just feel like I'm on a hidden camera show or taking crazy pills reading this.

[judgen]

So I was on Anthem before the plague and on sea days they had a buffet and ordered breakfast. You could order the usual items and go to buffet for a little snack while you waited. lol Have never seen post covid.

[FionaMG]

11 minutes ago, judgen said:

So I was on Anthem before the plague and on sea days they had a buffet and ordered breakfast. You could order the usual items and go to buffet for a little snack while you waited. lol Have never seen post covid.

When I was on Anthem soon into the restart (September 2022) they had a buffet on one side of the MDR every day. On a 12-night cruise it quickly became our go-to. Yes, it was a much smaller buffet but it had all the basics and was so much more civilised than the WJ. But, sadly, when I was back on Anthem a few months later they had discontinued it.

[jbrinkm]

11 hours ago, FionaMG said:

It seems to vary from ship to ship and even from sailing to sailing whether they have breakfast, brunch or a combination of the two. I've been watching the 8-night Symphony sailings in the app to get an idea of what to expect on my own in February. A couple of weeks back, they had brunch in the MDR on all four sea days, whereas on the sailing that just recently ended they had brunch twice and breakfast twice.

Me too - for an 8 night on Symphony, except we're in March. I would have thought the trip report was a fluke for the holidays or something unusual, except I also saw it on recent Symphony sailings.

10 hours ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

The sea day brunch is definitely only on some ships....but we actually loved it when we were still eating breakfast in GenPop.  

 "GenPop" 

[ScottD]

15 hours ago, billdauterive said:

I feel like I'm having my leg pulled in this thread.  I've been on a dozen cruises since the restart and not ONCE have I seen a brunch offered.  In fact this is the first time I've ever even heard it mentioned that brunch is offered.  I've been on all class of ships and length of cruise and times of year.  Maybe it is just a random luck of the draw of what's being served that cruise?

I'm not complaining, I actually prefer the split.  I just feel like I'm on a hidden camera show or taking crazy pills reading this.

It's funny because, although I'm sure it was available, I never noticed JUST breakfast on Oasis a few months ago. I never really go down to MDR in the mornings, so maybe I just happen to only walk by when it was brunch. 

[sleepy425]

Yesterday we didn’t get to St Thomas until noon, and brunch was offered on Adventure. We enjoyed getting to sleep in a bit then eating, but I did miss the vegetable bowl I normally get. 

[FionaMG]

44 minutes ago, sleepy425 said:

Yesterday we didn’t get to St Thomas until noon, and brunch was offered on Adventure. We enjoyed getting to sleep in a bit then eating, but I did miss the vegetable bowl I normally get. 

That veggie bowl is one of my favourite things on the breakfast menu.