Cruise groups on Facebook

[rapmarks]

I signed up for oasis of the seas discussion groups on Facebook and really sorry. Terrible comments about the food. Sounds like if you don’t buy the unlimited dining package you are subject to pretty bad food in the main dining room. If you don’t spend the extra money, which is substantial, your cruise is ruined.
This will be my first cruise. i Am surprised at all the negatives and the multitude of extra charges. Also sounds like I will never be able to find a lounge chair anywhere near a pool . Bought the Key so we can get into the shows.

 

[TravelTime]

We just went on Icon of the Seas. I would not recommend going on a mass market cruise for the food. We were in a suite and ate at the suite restaurant every night which is supposed to be better than the main dining room. Breakfast was really good in the suite restaurant. The rest of the meals were iffy even in the suite restaurant but I am picky and like simple food. When we went to the Windjammer, I thought it was poor in general but my family liked it. I think if you stick with simple food without a lot of sauces, then the food will be good enough. I had to ask for sauce on the side because they drench the food with high fat sauces. The seafood tended to be good esp the shrimp cocktail, lobster and crab. I noticed that there were some of the same items on the suite menu as on the main dining room menu. Maybe you can compare the two menus to help you decide what some better choices might be in the main dining room.

We did not go to the main pools since the suite deck was really great. The main pool decks did look crowded and Icon was sailing at 75% capacity when we were on it since it had just launched. If you go early, like with a timeshare, I think you can get a pool chair.

I would only recommend going on a mass market cruise if you can get a suite on a ship with a suite deck. The experience is heads and shoulders above the regular experience in terms of boarding, service, access to suite amenities (private pool deck, show seating, special restaurants, all types of free drinks with dinner and some types of free drinks the rest of the time) and a bigger room. You do not need the Key if you travel in a suite.

Next year, we are going on Utopia in a suite. The year after that, I booked Celebrity specifically to see if the food is better. If we did not have kids, I would go on one of the more upscale speciality cruise lines. My husband and I used to sail on Windstar and the food was great. However, the rooms are not nearly as good due to lack of balconies.

 

[elaine]

We (early 60s) sailed on Oasis last month, specifically to take our 20s kids on Med cruise. We have sailed on RCCL before It's big ship with a lot of people, so it's not a Viking, small ship, or high-end cruise experience. We thought Oasis was excellent with a fun vibe! The ship did not feel too crowded or have a crazy partying atmosphere. We all had a great time-so much that DH and I are going on a sister ship in Carib. this winter alone, choosing that over Princess and Celebrity (which we have also sailed). We had standard balcony cabins with no perks or "special" suite areas. We found the pool areas to be fine with no issues getting pool chairs by 9:30 am. We didn't spend any extra $, booked shows at 45 days out without any issues--might not have gotten the exact day I wanted for every event, but got an alternate day just fine.

Food: buffet is fine, food tasted good, but not as much selection as on other RCCL or Princess, and buffet for dinner was much less "dinner" selection than on Princess (which can be as plentiful of "dinner" choices (meats/seafood, etc.) as in MDR. Oasis MDR food was just a slight step down from Princess. We had good meals. We ate 6/7 dinners there with a party of 6. I'd say it's above Applebees and below Bonefish. The prime rib is very good, other steaks are meh (same on other RCCL ships also, and now Princess). But, just pay the $20 upcharge and get a Chops steak in the MDR if you want a "good" steak, still much less than paying the Chops specialty fee. The MDR staff and overall dining experience was a good as we've had on Princess/Celebrity. Fish is well-prepared, but needs salt. You can also ask for extra sauce for any dish.
For breakfast, I highly recommend the Solarium bistro (?). They have an (abbreviated) full breakfast buffet in the AM and it is NEVER crowded as, I guess, most don't know about it. You can also get free breakfast at Johnny Rockets-almost empty on sea day at 9am. Central Park bistro also has decent quick breakfasts (bagel sandwiches, etc.) in a lovely venue.
Look on cruisecritic.com for a roll call for your sailing. It should be more positive.

 

[jorcus]

For some reason cruise reviews seem to be a lot more negative than resort reviews. Cruises of that size have giant buffets and plenty of choices to sit down and dine. It seems impossible that you won't find food you like to eat and lots of it. When I look back at reviews it seems that most really bad ones come from people with special needs or expectations. Don't let them fill you with worry.

 

[JudyH]

I followed the FB pages for my past Holland America cruise from Rotterdam to Norway. It was my second cruise with Holland and my first since Covid.
I found it helpful since I did not know the less mentioned current trends. For example, I did not know that ships excursions could be booked as soon as we booked the cruise. (On past cruises with Oceana, they were opened according to your past voyages or status or something like that). So I might have missed out. Then I did not know how to work the Have It All Package. Finally, I learned about Club Orange and its private dining room. We did not do this.
I also learned that Covid was high on the cruise prior to ours and I was not surprised when we caught it mid cruise.
I got all this from FB, not Cruise Critic.

 

[Talent312]

We've cruised for about 20 years on various cruise lines. Two comments...
1 Editorial... Posting in all bold type is unnecessary. Regular type can be read just fine.
2 Food... It's not as good as in the past. Portions are smaller and menus are shorter. But IMHO, MDR and buffet food is midling, not terrible. Unless you're the sort who requires prime steaks, you'll be okay. Try to eat at one of the specialty (fee) dining rooms at least once for a high-quality meal.

 

[rapmarks]

We've cruised for about 20 years on various cruise lines. Two comments...
1 Editorial... Posting in all bold type is unnecessary. Regular type can be read just fine.
2 Food... It's not as good as in the past. Portions are smaller and menus are shorter. But IMHO, MDR and buffet food is midling, not terrible. Unless you're the sort who requires prime steaks, you'll be okay. Try to eat at one of the specialty (fee) dining rooms at least once for a high-quality meal.

Sorry if I offended you. I do not know how that post appeared in bold, I did not do anything intentionally
because of all the surgery on my mouth,eating is a big chore for me. I don’t know if I can eat steak! i need food with lots of moisture In it. And because of radiation, certain sauces or condiments really hurt, like ketchup or barbecue sauces. I ate a piece of pineapple and had two days of agony.
I have seen the menu, I see things I like and I can eat, but if meat is tough or super chewy, I am in trouble.
my friend is going on her scooter, and does not want to go to buffet because she says they have no trays, and she can’t handle carrying the plate. That is fine with me,

 

[beejaybee]

Lately we have signed up for FB specific cruise groups. Compared to Cruise Critic roll calls, I find FB groups not as helpful; however, since covid the CC roll calls have dwindled. For our cruise later this month there are 35 on the roll call vs. 140 on FB.

But the FB group has no organized events, not even a meet and greet scheduled. So actually meeting a FB member is not likely. No invitations to join a private tour either. One member posted about organizing a slot pull with a $50 buy-in. We've participated in numerous slot pulls via the CC roll call, but $50 was way out of line IMHO. Plus, I had the sneaky suspicion that the organizer's sea pass card would be accruing Blue Chip free cruise points for her! Anyhow, the slot pull fizzled.

I will say that the FB cruise specific group is helpful for cruise newbies because many members have very specific questions, e.g. bringing wine aboard, gratuity payments, need for foreign currency, etc. that are easily answered there. And since the ship is yet to sail there is excitement and positivity galore. The ship specific FB groups do tend to generate complaints I think.

 

[rapmarks]

The woman I am going with has had 66 cruises with Royal Caribbean.

 

[bizaro86]

Lately we have signed up for FB specific cruise groups. Compared to Cruise Critic roll calls, I find FB groups not as helpful; however, since covid the CC roll calls have dwindled. For our cruise later this month there are 35 on the roll call vs. 140 on FB.

But the FB group has no organized events, not even a meet and greet scheduled. So actually meeting a FB member is not likely. No invitations to join a private tour either. One member posted about organizing a slot pull with a $50 buy-in. We've participated in numerous slot pulls via the CC roll call, but $50 was way out of line IMHO. Plus, I had the sneaky suspicion that the organizer's sea pass card would be accruing Blue Chip free cruise points for her! Anyhow, the slot pull fizzled.

I will say that the FB cruise specific group is helpful for cruise newbies because many members have very specific questions, e.g. bringing wine aboard, gratuity payments, need for foreign currency, etc. that are easily answered there. And since the ship is yet to sail there is excitement and positivity galore. The ship specific FB groups do tend to generate complaints I think.

I agree with this take. We took a recent European cruise and the roll call had like 3 posts, while the Facebook group was active with over 400 people.

But the questions were more general and no group tours were organized, even though there would have been significant value in doing so in some of the ports. It was significantly worse than the cruise critic roll calls of 10 years ago, imo.

 

[tschwa2]

I would keep an open mind on the food in the main dining room. Have you been logging in to see if they have any flash sales on the specialty dining?

 

[rickandcindy23]

Disney cruise experience: Great food, dinner every night at a sit-down restaurant for our entire group of 12 + infant. We had the same server every evening, we even remember his name was Nenad. This was 2015. We could go to a sit-down restaurant to eat breakfast and did that a couple of times, but the food was pretty much the same at the buffet. Top notch experience, Disney's Fantasy ship. Soda machines for refills, only charge was alcohol, which our kids paid for themselves, as we don't drink.

Norwegian Epic: April 2024, Mediterranean cruise, decent food, not great. Sit-down restaurants had slightly better food. The favorite was the O'Sheehan's fish and chips, which we could do any day we wanted, no wait. The breakfast was very good, lots of fresh fruit. I ate fresh fruit every day, plus an omelet that was made to order with lots of veggies. It was our favorite meal.

Most of the buffet food was just about the same daily. I don't even remember what I had at the dinner buffet. It was just okay. There was always something that was edible.

The ice cream with butterscotch topping was really good, but how do you mess up on buckets of ice cream and butterscotch sauce. Loved the German Chocolate Cake, but it was the first day only and never saw it after that. The cakes were all just average.

Our kids were in the "Haven" suites, and they were able to take advantage of the dining room for all meals. We were not allowed in that area as peons in the balcony cabin. Our daughter-in-law loved the special attention, and of course the twins are just two, and they were a disaster at meals, seriously not good food eaters, and if one twin decided something was not good (our little Olivia's favorite thing to say about food is "eeeewwww!!!"), Xavier would also reject the food. They loved the neverending gummy bears and M&M's, however.

But the servers were very good with the twins and welcomed them, even knowing what a mess they would be. They still ate about half of their meals with us, but honestly, they were not at meals the same time we were, so it didn't work out much of the time. We would be done with breakfast, in our room, and our son would tell us they were heading to the buffet, so we would go down and keep them company.

 

[Talent312]

... my friend is going on her scooter, and does not want to go to buffet because she says they have no trays, and she can’t handle carrying the plate. That is fine with me,

My DW uses a wheelchair and needs solid food cut to bite size. For buffets, she'll look at what's available and tell me what she wants. After setting her at a table, I'll bring her a plate, cut the food, and then go back for my own plate. I'm thinking about getting a tray that attaches to the armrests of her chair.

In the MDR, if they see me start to cut up her food, usually they offer to do that for us.

 

[mjm1]

The woman I am going with has had 66 cruises with Royal Caribbean.

We took our first Royal Caribbean cruise in May and enjoyed the food in the dining rooms as well as the various choices in the Windjammer buffet. We were also impressed with the staff in the dining room we selected. We are also scheduled for a cruise this January with RC and hope the experience is just as good.

Enjoy your cruise.

 

[dioxide45]

I would say if it is your first cruise you will find the food to be good to great. Best is that you aren’t cooking it and they have so many options. Most people making those comment have cruise before and perhaps back in the days when things were better. Wasn’t everything better back in the day?

You don’t need a suite or to pay for an elevated experience. Just go and enjoy the cruise.

 

[DaveNV]

I just got home from a Celebrity cruise on a new ship. My experience was that the buffet food gave me greater choices than any of the main dining rooms (there are four, we ate in three), or the specialty restaurants (we ate in two of them.) We ate breakfast and lunch at the buffet, and had dinner in a dining room or specialty restaurant. The food was good, but kind of neutral, in terms of spices and intense flavors. Atmosphere in the restaurants was the high point, I think. I liked the buffet best, because it gave many choices. The restaurant menus were very limited.
It was all good, but nothing over the top. I certainly didn’t go hungry.

One thing Celebrity offers in their four main dining rooms is that you can order from the menu from any of the main dining rooms, since it all comes from the same kitchen.

Dave

 

[rapmarks]

I don’t particularly like buffets. Something happens to my brain when ibseecall that food. I don’t feel like eating!

 

[DaveNV]

I don’t particularly like buffets. Something happens to my brain when ibseecall that food. I don’t feel like eating!

The way it’s presented breaks it up. It’s not one long line of food. There were serving stations, with American choices here, Mexican there, Indian there, Asian over there. I walked around looking at each offering until I found something I liked the looks of. It was kind of fun, having so many options.

I certainly did not overeat. I lost 15 pounds on our vacation. Walking 82 miles may have had something to do with that.

Dave