After 4 wonderful days in London, our group embarked in Southampton for an 11 night, Best of Europe Cities cruise with RC.  This was our 2nd cruise with RC.  We were so happy with our 1st experience (11 night Southern Caribbean cruise on Empress of the Seas) with RC in December 2007, that we had to do another cruise, and this time my mother and her friend joined us.  I was somewhat disappointed with this cruise and could tell in the 1.5 years since my last cruise that the quality of the food has plummeted.  It was bland, and tasteless.  The same food that is served in the Windjammer, was served in the dining room, was served for room service.  The steak was tough (how hard is it to grill a steak medium well?).  When I asked for the steak to be cooked medium...it came out medium well, and was still tough and dry.  The Windjammer is now offering what appears to be less options.  Also, while in port, at times, there wasn't anywhere to get any food except through room service, and their menu is sparse to say the least, and what you get is not that great. But, the interesting thing was, you could get a drink around the clock.  No food, but I can buy alcohol; such BS!!   It's obvious we were HIGHLY disappointed in the food.  I kept telling my mom and her friend how much different it was on our last cruise (almost apologetically). 

In the Dining Room, our waiter and the assistant waiter (Eduardo and Andres) were nice, friendly, and provided excellent service.  However, our head waiter, she came to our table only twice during an 11 day cruise!!  And, the 1st time wasn't until the 3rd night.  On our last cruise we saw our head waiter every single evening we ate in the Dining Room.  Needless to say...we didn't tip her.  In fact, we took what we would have tipped her, and added in to the tip we gave the Waiter and assistant waiter.  I rate the food, during dinner, in the dining room 3.75 stars.  Max!!  The only real vegetarian options (my husband is vegetarian) they had was always Indian food; as if the Indians have cornered the market on Vegetarian Food.  As I mentioned before...the quality of the food, and the selection has plummeted since my last cruise with RC.

I didn't see any of the shows, even though I heard the Ice Show was excellent.   Read more