Main dining meals disappointing

Item: Navigator of the Seas
Rating: 2
Author: anelson1

Navigator of the Seas Cruise Review to Caribbean - Western

anelson1

Contributor Level: Purser

Cruises: 7+ cruises

Review: 1

Helpful Votes: 47

Overall rating:

2 out of 5

Verified Review

6 Night Western Caribbean (Ft. Lauderdale Roundtrip)

Sail date: January 17, 2016

Ship: Navigator of the Seas

Cabin type: Balcony

Cabin number: 8544

Traveled as: Couple

Reviewed: 8 years ago

Review summary

The people on this cruise were excellent, port stops and on-board activities were good. BUT, I think they are pushing special dining too much and the main dining evening meals are far less than expected. The meals presented well but the taste and quality of the seafood, meat, pasta and some soups was very disappointing. We have had more than 8 cruises. This was our first Royal Caribbean and by far our worst main dining food.

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

1 out of 5

Onboard Activities

5 out of 5

Entertainment

3 out of 5

Service and Staff

5 out of 5

Ship Quality

5 out of 5

Cabin / Stateroom

5 out of 5

Room was clean, comfortable and the attendant did a great job.

Ports of call

Ft. Lauderdale (Port Everglades), Florida

3 out of 5

George Town, Grand Cayman

5 out of 5

Falmouth, Jamaica

5 out of 5

Labadee (Cruise Line Private Island)

1 out of 5

We had to skip this stop due to demonstrations interfering with the previous ship attempting to dock.

Thumbs Up 2

4 Comments

CrusinTim 8 years ago

I agree with anelson1 & kjmjrm. When I first starting cruising back in 1990, there was no such thing as a "specialty restaurant" other than the main dining room. Over the years, since the introduction of the paid-dining options, I have had many occasions where I had done galley tours (since I'm a Chef, this always intrigued me). The main thing here is when you take into consideration that there are about 5 chefs feeding over 2000 +/- passengers in the main dining room as opposed to the one chef that feeds about 40 or so in the paid dining options. That is where the problem comes into play. You have 5 chefs feeding 2000 +/- passengers in the main dining room where the division is 1 chef to every 400 passengers. Then you look at 1 chef feeding 40 +/- people in the paid restaurant (I've been there, done that) and it is manageable to present a good product to the passengers. Also, in the paid restaurants, you are dealing with passengers following a relatively smaller menu than in the main dining room so prep work is stressless. If you go to a paid steak restaurant, your going to be offered beef options. In the Italian paid restaurant, your going to be offered Italian fair. In the main dining room, your offerings are endless and offer all this and more as well as special requests. My point is over the years, the passenger to crew ratio across the board has grown such that customer service suffers.

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