cruise-y Posted June 5, 2018 Report Share Posted June 5, 2018 Most of the posts on this forum are for cruises to the Caribe. Lately, I've been less than thrilled with the MDR food on these cruises. Now I've booked a RCCL cruise to the Med. Is the food better if the ship leaves out of Europe (say, versus, Galveston)? I'm really, really hoping so. Please let me know. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tiny260 Posted June 5, 2018 Report Share Posted June 5, 2018 I went on Harmony in 2016, and I thought the food was better, but I also only ate in the MDR twice, it could have also been because the cruise was very port intensive, 6 stops, that when we got in at night we were exhausted. There was another poster on here recently that had just gotten off Symphony that said the food was not as good as expected, he prefaced it with saying they thought there would be more regional Mediterranean food and wine served. If you plan on having a suite and you are on an O class ship, then the Coastal Kitchen is about the best food on board. Hope this helps, and whats wrong with Galveston? lol, I will cruise out of there in July on Liberty, this will be my 3 or 4th cruise out of Galveston. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DocLC Posted June 5, 2018 Report Share Posted June 5, 2018 On our cruise out of England on the Brilliance to Norway and Iceland, the food was phenomenal and had many English dishes added to the menu. However, on our Baltics cruise on the Serenade from Sweeden to Denmark, the food was less than stellar, so we ended up dining in specialty restaurants 6 out of the 13 nights and many of the others in the Windjammer. The saving grace, however, was that the Windjammer was phenomenal on this cruise with many made-to-order items and fresh crepes, sundaes, dessert waffles, etc. at night. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hayley_bopp Posted June 5, 2018 Report Share Posted June 5, 2018 We've only done one RC cruise in 2016 in NoS round the Med from Southampton but we found all the food to be fantastic. Looking forward to our second RC cruise, again round the Med, on IoS in 38 days Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cruise-y Posted June 6, 2018 Author Report Share Posted June 6, 2018 9 hours ago, tiny260 said: I went on Harmony in 2016, and I thought the food was better, but I also only ate in the MDR twice, it could have also been because the cruise was very port intensive, 6 stops, that when we got in at night we were exhausted. There was another poster on here recently that had just gotten off Symphony that said the food was not as good as expected, he prefaced it with saying they thought there would be more regional Mediterranean food and wine served. If you plan on having a suite and you are on an O class ship, then the Coastal Kitchen is about the best food on board. Hope this helps, and whats wrong with Galveston? lol, I will cruise out of there in July on Liberty, this will be my 3 or 4th cruise out of Galveston. Hi Tiny - I cruise a lot out of Galveston too because it is so dang easy - I live in Dallas. I love being able to drive and not having to fly. But it seems the MDR food just keeps getting a little worse every time. I'd like to see a different itinerary (we've done everything in Cozumel, thank you). And I'd really like a Caribbean band on board instead of C&W. I'm a Texan but I'm so sick of C&W because I get it at home. This is supposed to be an exotic vacation. I guess RCCL thinks we all have to just repeat what we do every day in order to be happy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cruise-y Posted June 6, 2018 Author Report Share Posted June 6, 2018 7 hours ago, DocLC said: On our cruise out of England on the Brilliance to Norway and Iceland, the food was phenomenal and had many English dishes added to the menu. However, on our Baltics cruise on the Serenade from Sweeden to Denmark, the food was less than stellar, so we ended up dining in specialty restaurants 6 out of the 13 nights and many of the others in the Windjammer. The saving grace, however, was that the Windjammer was phenomenal on this cruise with many made-to-order items and fresh crepes, sundaes, dessert waffles, etc. at night. Yes, although I think the MDR is declining, the Windjammer does seem to be improving. Here's my tip: I always do Windjammer on the night after MDR lobster night because all the leftover lobsters are chilled and served on ice in the salad bar. I like them cold better. I'm hoping that my 2 week cruise from Southampton (to southern Spain) will have more English dishes on the menu. My husband doesn't like to eat baked beans and stewed tomatoes for breakfast but I love it. And I'm really hoping there will be more Indian food. I think the cruise is 70% Brits - I am so hoping to see an improvement. I really don't want Caesar salads and baked potatoes and grilled chicken. Ugh. DocLC 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tiny260 Posted June 6, 2018 Report Share Posted June 6, 2018 12 hours ago, cruise-y said: Hi Tiny - I cruise a lot out of Galveston too because it is so dang easy - I live in Dallas. I love being able to drive and not having to fly. But it seems the MDR food just keeps getting a little worse every time. I'd like to see a different itinerary (we've done everything in Cozumel, thank you). And I'd really like a Caribbean band on board instead of C&W. I'm a Texan but I'm so sick of C&W because I get it at home. This is supposed to be an exotic vacation. I guess RCCL thinks we all have to just repeat what we do every day in order to be happy. I agree, I think they should change things up to kind of spice things up for us "Regulars", adding the Eastern or Southern Caribbean would probably boost sales from Galveston but logistically they can't happen on a 7 day cruise. It is my understanding that pretty much every sailing on Liberty is sold out, so I don't think they are hurting for passengers. The rumor mill is that if they expand the port Royal may stick an Oasis class ship in Galveston, but that wouldn't be until probably 2020 or 2021. That might make a difference on itineraries... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mom2mybugs Posted June 6, 2018 Report Share Posted June 6, 2018 I hadn't thought about the food being better or different in the European vs the Caribbean cruises. Now I will need very curious. I think the mdr has gone down, but maybe now that I've done 4 cruises (and more specialty dining) my expectations have gotten too high. Vision had the best service and food (compared to freedom and adventure) so I will be interested if it still holds up next year. I've never done the windjammer for dinner and I have the feeling it might be our go to on our med/greek cruise next summer. We want to do an early dining time in case our 16 year old wants to do stuff at the teen center or meets a friend, but we will miss dinner at least 3 times I think with late excursions. Jane Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tiny260 Posted June 6, 2018 Report Share Posted June 6, 2018 1 hour ago, mom2mybugs said: I've never done the windjammer for dinner We haven't either, but on our cruise in June on Liberty we are seriously considering it, all the Windjammer recons at dinner posted on here, we will have our 11 YO Grandson with us, we have the 5 night dinning package so we have a couple of open nights... If for nothing else, go to Windjammer for desert after desert... mom2mybugs 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cruise-y Posted June 7, 2018 Author Report Share Posted June 7, 2018 Speaking of specialty dining, we usually do Giovanni's one night (because it really is good) but skip Chops. I live in a city with a zillion high-end steak houses and I rarely go to them, just not that interested. Our first time on Independence, we did sign up for the Hibachi and noticed it was $45 extra (versus $33? for Chops). Has anyone done the Hibachi? Is it Wagyu? Why the big upcharge? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cruise-y Posted June 7, 2018 Author Report Share Posted June 7, 2018 9 hours ago, mom2mybugs said: I hadn't thought about the food being better or different in the European vs the Caribbean cruises. Now I will need very curious. I think the mdr has gone down, but maybe now that I've done 4 cruises (and more specialty dining) my expectations have gotten too high. Vision had the best service and food (compared to freedom and adventure) so I will be interested if it still holds up next year. I've never done the windjammer for dinner and I have the feeling it might be our go to on our med/greek cruise next summer. We want to do an early dining time in case our 16 year old wants to do stuff at the teen center or meets a friend, but we will miss dinner at least 3 times I think with late excursions. Jane We, too, had never done Windjammer for dinner. It was always our Sea Day by-the-pool place and nothing else. But on a trip in May 2017, after a really disappointing MDR dinner, we walked through and saw all the cold lobsters on ice and realized it was also a variety of some of the same things they were serving in the MDR. We decided we should change our thinking. Too bad, because the MDR was one of the reasons I first started sailing RCCL. mom2mybugs and ellcee 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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