Just returned from the Symphony of the Seas transatlantic sailing – Miami to Barcelona. We cruise a lot, our third in six months but for whatever reason have not had occasion to cruise RCCL since 2014. Things have changed.

FOOD

What is going on with RCCL's food service? ALL the food - even in the specialty restaurants was of a noticeably lower quality than the ships we've been on recently including the Norwegian Sky and the MSC Meraviglia. In Chops Grille the fillet I had was terrible. It was tough with a lot of connective bits that one had to saw through to eat it. Likewise the fillet in Hooked Seafood. The famous roast beef sandwiches in the Central Park Cafe were often so tough you could barely chew them. The My Time Dining was a joke. We were "assigned" 7:15 and arrived the first night at 7:10 only to find a long line of people, some of whom had been waiting an hour or more. It was after 8:00 when we finally got a table. Once seated the food was again of a generally poor quality. We never went back and mostly subsisted on pizza from Sorrento's or if there was something appealing on the lido deck we would have that. The food in the Windjammer was hit or miss – unfortunately usually a miss for anything other than breakfast which was just okay for the most part. Even the desserts were bad. Laughably, the best food on board was at Johnny Rockets where we ate twice during this 12 night sailing. Read more