Perhaps our expectations were just too big for even the Oasis...

We're a mid 30's couple that has cruised many times over the past few years (2x Princess, 3x Holland, 1x NCL). This was our first trip on RCI and we were really excited about it! We read the reviews which are overwhelmingly positive and went in expecting to be dazzled - unfortunately we weren't and here's why:

Food: I know it's very subjective but we felt it was the worst we've had on a cruise ship. 1. Awful breakfasts in extremely crowded venues. Eggs floating in grease at Johnny Rockets (not to mention straight out of the freezer bag Walmart style hash browns..) Cold, hard breakfast sandwiches at the Park Cafe (along with mass crowds). Even MORE massive crowds at the Windjammer buffet all clamoring after the same extremely mediocre food. Virtually nothing is cooked to order. Poor service and the same mediocre food in the dining room. We found the breakfast food so poor that we skipped it on disembarkation morning and went straight to IHOP (hardly high class) for a vastly better meal. 2. Mediocre lunches and dinners. The most tasteless prime rib I've probably ever eaten in the dining room. Other items decidedly mediocre. Decent service. 3. We tried Chops Grill and found it, again, mediocre when compared to the kind of land based restaurants it is trying to compare to (like Ruth Chris, etc). You know your Crab Cake is missing something when it doesn't have any crab in it (except a few tiny bits). HAL's Pinnacle Grill is better. 4. Baked goods were the lone exception to the otherwise bad food. Cakes, pies, rolls, etc., were quite good. I've read previously that Royal Caribbean spends the least on food per passenger of the major cruise lines and this seemed readily apparent to us. All the other lines we've tried (including Carnival) offered fresher, tastier meals. Read more