Having just completed our 18 day NZ/Australia cruise on Voyager I have to make comment at our dining impressions in Carmen Room. Having sailed on Rhapsody in 2013 to Pacific Isles and loving all aspects including the dining room selection we had no hesitation to try RCI again and go for a larger vessel with what we thought would offer more. More sports facilities, yes but dining options I would say no. Unless you want to pay for Johnny Rocket on Voyager or Portofino there is not really a match for Park Café on Rhapsody. And the worst aspect for us in Carmen Room was menu selection. Every evening it was more of the same with just a few tweaks. Very French based fare which is great for those that love this food, but for others there was little to choose from. Occasionally they had some semblance of Asian cuisine but even that seemed to have a French connection. What happened to a change each night as in Asian one evening, Mexican etc on other nights? Because of this we dined all but about 5 nights in Windjammer Café to get away from the food on offer. I am sure if this fare is enjoyed it is 1st class but to those with palates that puke at French food it is unappealing and ruined what was a great holiday and what is a great ship. Another thing to point out is that to have a simple cappuccino (that we enjoy) the only place onboard was Promenade Café which is poor considering the size of ship and number of bars on offer that could also do this and apparently did in the past.

Another issue we had was that we prepaid gratuities to have MyTime dining and did not get it. We was stuck on 5.45pm dining time and could not change. Also we requested a shared table and again we missed out when last year all went well and no complaints.

I do not like to complain but I have raised this with RCI in the survey sent through and on FB to them as to have a wonderful experience just last year and than to have it ruined this year is not good. To go with RCI again we will need to hear of change.