Main dining meals disappointing
Navigator of the Seas Cruise Review to Caribbean - Western
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
Onboard Activities
Entertainment
Service and Staff
Ship Quality
Cabin / Stateroom
Ports of call
Ft. Lauderdale (Port Everglades), Florida
Labadee (Cruise Line Private Island)
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.