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Ericandblueboy

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We just got off the Carnival Inspiration. This is one of the smallest ships in their fleet and it doesn't have a steakhouse. I now understand why people are willing to pay extra for food on a cruise because the food for the masses are worse than most $10 AYCE buffets. I think I actually lost weight. It's gonna be a long time before I get back on a "fun" ship.

ETA: the service on Carnival is pretty good. So many people inquired after our baby that I think it's a part of their corporate training.

A cruise with great food is MV Aqua that travels the Peruvian Amazons.

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We just got off the Carnival Inspiration. This is one of the smallest ships in their fleet and it doesn't have a steakhouse. I now understand why people are willing to pay extra for food on a cruise because the food for the masses are worse than most $10 AYCE buffets. I think I actually lost weight. It's gonna be a long time before I get back on a "fun" ship.

ETA: the service on Carnival is pretty good. So many people inquired after our baby that I think it's a part of their corporate training.

A cruise with great food is MV Aqua that travels the Peruvian Amazons.

I've been on maybe 10 cruises, all of the Carnival/Norwegian en masse ilk. I go because my mother funds the family reunion efforts and there are (as you point out) some redeeming qualities. I wouldn't choose it on my own dime but do really enjoy the time with my Mom, my brother and sisters and each of their families.

I concur on the food - I pick up the menu and tend to read it like this: "Do I want thing #1, of which 3500 were made? Or thing #2, of which 2100 were made? Or thing #3, of which 850 were made?"

My strategy is to identify with each meal I eat if there were any better-than-baseline elements, then try to order that element wherever possible in the future. So if I liked the bisque, I'll ask for it again, even if not on the menu. Or ask for two servings next time. By the end of the trip I might have a whole meal of favorable options (appetizer, entree, side, dessert) that are my preferences. Or I might not.

I also try to stick with the fruit on Carribean cruises as that's picked up locally in Florida or other ports. Though I must say that on recent cruises out of Baltimore, the critrus has been pretty weak, more of the tasteless robo-citrus rather than fresh fruit. I don't know if it is due to the Baltimore starting point or a general change in procurement methods but my mantra of "two oranges a day" no longer exists on cruises. Shame.

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I've been on maybe 10 cruises, all of the Carnival/Norwegian en masse ilk. I go because my mother funds the family reunion efforts and there are (as you point out) some redeeming qualities. I wouldn't choose it on my own dime but do really enjoy the time with my Mom, my brother and sisters and each of their families.

I concur on the food - I pick up the menu and tend to read it like this: "Do I want thing #1, of which 3500 were made? Or thing #2, of which 2100 were made? Or thing #3, of which 850 were made?"

My strategy is to identify with each meal I eat if there were any better-than-baseline elements, then try to order that element wherever possible in the future. So if I liked the bisque, I'll ask for it again, even if not on the menu. Or ask for two servings next time. By the end of the trip I might have a whole meal of favorable options (appetizer, entree, side, dessert) that are my preferences. Or I might not.

I also try to stick with the fruit on Carribean cruises as that's picked up locally in Florida or other ports. Though I must say that on recent cruises out of Baltimore, the critrus has been pretty weak, more of the tasteless robo-citrus rather than fresh fruit. I don't know if it is due to the Baltimore starting point or a general change in procurement methods but my mantra of "two oranges a day" no longer exists on cruises. Shame.

You need to whisper in your mother's ear "Paul Gauguin." That should improve things a lot. Of course, it will also negatively impact your inheritance.

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You need to whisper in your mother's ear "Paul Gauguin." That should improve things a lot. Of course, it will also negatively impact your inheritance.

Ha! Unless Paul Gauguin came and picked her up in a local port...not happening, but does look nice. And the inheritance is what we like to call a "zero sum game" - as in, she plans on dying the day the account hits $0. And if she overshoots - well, we owe her at that point anyway, so it'll be on our tab from that day on. Can't argue too much with that plan.

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I take two different types of vacations, the first, and most common is to see a part of the world that I have not, or become more familiar with a part that I have. These are busy, and generally not very relaxing, but I see them as a needed tonic for my otherwise ennui addled brain. The other type of vacation is meant only as an escape, someplace where I don't have to worry about anything more than what time to wake-up and what book to read. Twice we chose to take a cruise as our escape, and with contrasting results.

The first was our honeymoon on the Celebrity Constellation, the experience was mixed, it is a large ship and had a broad mix of people, but everything felt quite impersonal and the other passengers were generally withdrawn. The food in the main dining room was rather inoffensive with nothing standing out as being great or even bad. The buffets were, well buffets - as a rule I loathe buffets, and these did not change my opinion of them as some better brunch buffets have. This ship had a single specialty restaurant called the Ocean Liners Restaurant which served old school specialties that you would have expected if you had been a passenger on the S.S. Normande or one of the other great liners. This food was exquisite and worth the extra money that it cost to get a reservation (if I remember correctly, it was around $25 a person). One of the biggest issues I had on this cruise was that nearly everything that you ordered that came in a glass or a cup cost extra. You would be surprised how much you drink even when not "drinking."

The only thing that the second cruise had in common with the first was that it was a ship floating on the water. This time we went more upscale and booked a cruise down the Mexican Riviera on Silversea's Silver Shadow. When fully booked, this ship only accommodates 382 passengers and almost as many crew. The attention to detail is exquisite, and instead of waiting until the crush of disembarkment to settle for every nickel and dime that the company can squeeze out of you, you pay upfront, but get so much more. As part of the pre-cruise information we were asked what we would like our cabin's refrigerator stacked with, and if we would like a personal bar set-up. We opted for always having beer (Pacifico), diet and regular Coke, Champagne, Tonic, cut limes, a bottle of Tanqueray, and 12 Year Old Macallan - when we arrived everything was set-up as we had requited and a bottle of Tattingers was chilling in a bucket. The food in the dining room and specialty restaurants was a step above what we had on the Celebrity ship, but still not what I would call great (the exception being the hotdogs which were unbelievably good), but again this was all about relaxation, not about exploration. Every day we had a bottle of Champagne and appetizers delivered to our cabin to enjoy on our veranda as we watched the world go by. The only time we had to pay for anything is if we wanted a massage, an excursion, or ordering off of the reserve wine list (most of the NV Champagnes were included in the price). Not only was this trip pure relaxation we found the people to be generally more willing to socialize and met several new friends that we have kept in touch with since taking it.

When including all of the extra costs involved in the "less expensive" Celebrity cruise, the Silversea came out to be about 10% more, but worth the premium on every level. I would not go on a ship expecting to be wowed by the cuisine, but I also do not wish to remember it as being bad either. We have been considering taking another cruise, either going back on a Silversea or trying Seabourne, but I cannot imagine that I would go willingly back on one of the large impersonal ships.

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I am 34 years old and I have only been on one cruise in my life - this past July to Alaska aboard the Celebrity Millenium. Although there were some great parts about that cruise, I pretty much determined that I am not a cruise person (to much time sitting around and doing nothing) and that I will not go on a cruise again (unless I am with a group of friends or someone else is footing the bill).

With that being said, overall, I was disappointed with the food. And, this is not me-being-a-food-snob-and-disappointed-with-the-food, it just wasn't very good. Now, if you want to order two appetizers, two salads, two entrees and two desserts, then eating on a cruise is for you. But, if you want them to make you some pancakes that don't suck in the morning, I am pretty sure that you will be disappointed on the cruise.

Back to the Celebrity Millenium. After one morning in the main restaurant and another at the buffet, we spent the remainder of our mornings eating at the restaurant in the AquaSpa. The menu was always the same, and it was pretty limited, but the food was very good for breakfast. As far as dinner is concerned, we ate one dinner at the buffet, which was awful, and another in the main dining room - which was barely passable. The rest of the nights we ate in the Olympic Restaurant, which had a $35 surcharge per person, but was well worth the money. In the main restaurant, the menu read well, but the food fell short, in the Olympic, the menu read great and the food was very solid as well. Did it suck always paying the extra money? Yes, but our experiences were so bad at the other places that it just wasn't worth it.

By the way, I agree with someone earlier that it is annoying how anything in a cup costs money. On our boat, they do allow you to have two bottles on wine on board at any given time. So, even though it took some work, at every port we would find a store to buy some wine to refill our allowance. It was tough to do in Alaska, and still didn't keep us from partaking in cocktails on the boat, but it saved us a ton of money and it allowed us to drink much better wine than was on the boat.

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When including all of the extra costs involved in the "less expensive" Celebrity cruise, the Silversea came out to be about 10% more, but worth the premium on every level. I would not go on a ship expecting to be wowed by the cuisine, but I also do not wish to remember it as being bad either. We have been considering taking another cruise, either going back on a Silversea or trying Seabourne, but I cannot imagine that I would go willingly back on one of the large impersonal ships.

Your point is fundamentally correct. The industry has divided itself into two basic segments, high end and mass market (with gradations in between of course, but just to keep things simple....). Most of the ships you hear about these days are mass market--this is the business that was created by the Arisons at Carnival, and made them billionaires. These ships, and that includes all the big new ones, don't give you the "traditional" glamorous and refined cruise experience, including the dining. They are more like mid-scale Las Vegas or Disney. They appeal to folks who mostly wouldn't know fine dining if it hit them in the head, and on those ships it doesn't. The other segment is typified by the two lines you mentioned--Silversea and Seabourne, along with others such as the one I mentioned earlier, Paul Gauguin. Those lines are selling to the luxury, well-heeled crowd, and the amenities, including the food, reflect that. Since the clients, though generally wealthy, are not necessarily foodies, you can't expect the latest and greatest types of dishes (although in some cases you can get ask for special preps and do pretty well, if not at the "iron chef" level) but the food is certainly a large cut above what you will experience on the mass market ships.

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I`ve tried Royal Caribbean twice and was very happy. Besides the main dining room and the open buffet, there was a steak restaurant `Chops` and an Italian restaurant `Portofino` on both ships.

The food in the main dining room is good enough and the buffet is what you need if you are running late to catch a show or an activity. However, Chops and Portofino are really great restaurants with great cooking and friendly/efficient service. They take care of you like you are the captain`s kid. Both restaurants have their own kitchen and good menus. They have surcharges per person ($15 for portofino, $20 for chops) but they are well worth it. They still bring you as much as you can eat from a menu.

I would compare these 2 restaurants with any 2.5 star restaurants in the city.

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Janet and I are recently back from a cruise so I wanted to share some impressions, focused of course on the food.  Warning: very long post.

We chose Celebrity, which is an upscale brand of Royal Caribbean. Celebrity's ships are generally rated highly, just below the very top category which is occupied by the ultra-lux lines with their mid to small sized ships (say 300-900 pax), very high rates, and a very high level of service.  Celebrity's ships, particularly the newer "Solstice" class, are bigger, up to 3,000 pax on the Reflection, the newest one and the one we sailed on, but still small alongside the behemoths of 5,400 or so that are appearing these days.  Unlike those really big ships, Celebrity doesn't have climbing walls, zip lines, wave pools, lots of kids, and so on, and as such appeals to the more, dare I say it, "mature" traveler.  Overall we found it to our liking -- big enough to have lots of things to do but not overwhelming, and a quiet ambiance.  Even with 3,000 other pax aboard, it didn't seem crowded; you could even usually find a lounger by the pool.  Rates are reasonable, but of course they try to sell you lots of stuff once on board, so the cost of your cruise depends on you, especially how much you drink.  Importantly, Celebrity gets good reviews for it's dining.

Now the food.  The day of the midnight buffet is long gone.  Most cruise lines today have gone to a "specialty restaurant" model, where dining in the main dining room and the buffet come with the basic cruise package but the really good dining is in smaller, higher quality specialty restaurants at an extra charge, which on Celebrity is about $35-45 pp, but sometimes there are deals.  Reflection has several of these, including Murano (high end French/Continental; yes I know -- I don't get it either), Tuscan Grill (hybrid Italian/steakhouse), Lawn Club (a grill-your-own place adjacent to the real grass lawn on the top deck), and Qsine (very contemporary cutting edge all-small plates with a menu on iPads).  There is also Blu, a restaurant that serves as the basic dining room for those sailing in "Aqua Class".  AQ emphasizes spa-type amenities; Blu serves what they call "clean" cuisine, which seems to mean an emphasis on low fat and low salt dishes.  We chose AQ and were looking forward to Blu, and Qsine, both of which get mostly positive reviews.

I can't comment on Opus, the Main Dining Room, because except for one quick lunch we never ate there.

The buffet seemed fine for what it was -- there was a big variety and most things appeared fresh. There were probably 8-10 separate stations with different types of offerings.  We used it mostly for lunches and snacks.  The Indian dishes I tried were quite good, and the salads were reliable.  Even the Thai wasn't bad. There were good displays of cold cuts, cheeses, fruits, and so on.  There was a grill with burgers, pizza, etc. but I never tried it.  There were lots of vegetable and dessert selections, and an ice cream bar, among many other offerings.  And it had outdoor dining on the fantail, so you could watch the ocean go by while having lunch.

The first night we tried Murano.  We were very pleased, so much that we did it a second time on the last night.  Beautiful high end restaurant, top-notch service, and excellent food.  I especially enjoyed the smoked salmon and peekytoe crab appetizer; the pork belly was good though a bit too crisp.  A main of duck breast was perfectly prepared, as was the loup de mer I had on the second visit.  Janet opted for the lobster on both visits and was very happy.  But I can't say enough about, of all things, the cheese selection.  They had about 12-15 items, mostly French, and all I tried were perfectly aged and delicious.  The epoisses was spectacular -- perfectly aged the first time, and perfectly runny the second.  Overall, in my opinion this place would at a minimum rank as a strong Michelin one star, maybe higher, and that ain't bad out in the middle of the ocean.

We also did Tuscan Grille, and also had a very positive experience.  Some good amuse including Parma ham and steak tartare.  A more than decent crab cake, good seafood stew, and a well-prepared rib steak.  Well worth the expense.

Unfortunately, both Blu and Qsine turned out to be less than I had hoped for.  Maybe my expectations were too high.  

Blu is a very nice restaurant, elegant setting and décor, great service, tablecloths, mostly two tops which we liked, but the food turned out to be generally unexciting.  I did enjoy the smoked salmon plate and fresh-squeezed juice that I ordered most breakfasts, but in spite of the interesting menus the three dinners we had there were mostly just so-so.  Maybe it was the self-imposed constraints of the "clean" cuisine.

Qusine does do quite an ambitious variety of small plates, sort of an international sampler, but with mixed results.  The seafood things, e.g. the seviche selection, were generally pretty good, but the meats, not so much.  For example they have a five-part Chinese sampler in which to me the dishes were not much different from a typical carry-out.  It might have worked better with a larger group, which many folks say is the way to go.  Again, maybe my expectations were just too high.  And of course our choice of menu items was constrained since Janet must avoid gluten, which may have had something to do with it.  Nevertheless, I would still recommend anyone try it and see what they think.

There are also several smaller venues; I enjoyed Café Bacio, a coffee spot with a good selection of excellent coffees, numerous coffee beverages, and a gelateria.  And of course there are several bars with normal and innovative mixed drinks, a wine cellar, and a beer pub, all with a good selection of their respective specialities.  We kept alcohol consumption to a minimum, however.

Should anyone have read this far and be interested in more details, there is a couple, Mike and Carol Preisman, who do a lot of cruises, and have a hobby of taking pictures of everything and posting their photos on their website, including menus from all the restaurants and bars.  They know what they are doing, and their travelogues are excellent.  It so happens they did the same trip we did one week earlier.  Here is a link to their description of their trip, which pretty much mirrors ours.  Well worth looking at their site if anyone wants to get a feel for cruising.  They didn't sail in AQ and thus did not eat in Blu however, so don't have that menu posted -- here is a sample Blu menu from another site.

Overall, dining on the Celebrity Reflection was very good, especially considering you are out in the middle of the ocean with all the constraints on a restaurant operation that implies.  Perhaps not as stellar as is available in, say, the DC area where one has a choice of dozens of seriously great places vying for your business, but very satisfying.  I wouldn't recommend a cruise just for the food, but certainly can recommend it in view of the total package including the food.  Indeed, we are soon heading out for another one, this time on one of those luxo lines mentioned above.  I'll report in due course.

 

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Where did you go? Or is that not really the point of going on a cruise?

This trip was to, in cruise parlance, the "eastern Caribbean," specifically San Juan, St. Thomas, and St. Martin.  We got off in all of them but didn't take organized tours and mostly just walked around on our own.

Whether the cruise destination is the point of a cruise is oft-debated point.  Some folks take cruises to actually visit the places, but of course most port visits are 8 am arrival and 5 pm departure, give or take, so the local touring is inherently limited; there are always shore "excursions" to the local attractions, but the visits can be cursory.  Many who do go ashore just go to the beach anyway, or go shopping for jewelery and such, in search of dubious "bargains."  But it can go the other way. The Priesman's website that I linked before has a spectacular photo essay of visits they made to St. Petersburg and other Baltic cultural attractions on a cruise they took last Summer.  Here is the link -- well worth perusing.

In the end, the places the cruise visits are part of the point of cruising, but IMO not the major reason for most.  It's really a package of relaxing, dining, swimming/sunning, working out, going to the spa, drinking, gambling, going to shows, going to various "enrichment" lectures (Riedel wineglass seminars, lectures on Caribbean hurricanes and aviation pioneers, glass blowing demonstrations). participating in various contests, playing bridge or bingo, reading, and local touring, all without any need to change your room as you go along.  There's more to do than you ever could, and you can pick and choose whatever part interests you.

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"A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again" by David Foster Wallace is an essay (really, a novella) about his experiences on a Caribbean cruise ship - required reading for anyone considering such a thing.

I've been on a cruise ship once, actually twice, in my life, and in this situation I recommend it highly.

In Stockholm, both the Silja and Viking lines are two competing cruise ships that take overnight cruises to both Helsinki and Estonia (take your pick). You embark just before dinnertime, and disembark shortly after breakfast - then spend a day trip in the city of your choice, and then do it all again in reverse.

The beauty of this is that it costs no more than an upscale hotel room, it accounts for two nights of lodging, and you get an entire day to explore a brand new country. The buffet dinner is "okay" but includes the obvious Scandinavian favorites such as picked herring, Swedish meatballs, and various seafood preparations including the dreaded lutefisk. There's a shopping arcade, and a couple other playrooms to while away a few hours after dinner.

Although I would recommend this to anyone with a mild sense of adventure (i.e., someone who doesn't mind being deposited in a new country for a day, left on their own to wander around and entertain themselves), I also note that there was a large drop-off in terms of enjoyment on the return trip - after all, we had just done the exact same thing the night before, and we'd plumbed the depths of entertainment on night one. Still, if you treat it as a "hotel room," it's a fantastic thing to do, and the fact that it's self-limited to two nights means that you're finished before boredom has a chance to set in. The scenery looking out the dining room windows, especially shortly after leaving Stockholm, is spectacular - there are hundreds, if not thousands, of tiny islands (make sure to request a window seat).

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I send Wallace's piece on cruising to friends considering cruising for the first time. That being said, cruises have become a part of our travel plans. We are fortunate to be able to regularly visit far flung places but sometimes just enjoy a week or 2 at sea. We have found Oceania cruise lines to fit the bill- excellent food and service and some interesting itineraries- they have 3 smaller ships- 600 passengers and 2 larger ships with 2000 passengers - the larger ships have 4 specialty restaurants- steak house, Asian , Classic French and Italian and somehow bake some of the best breads ever .We have found the food to be very good and some dishes excellent- but we are oceanophiles ( if that's a word)

We took a 30 day cruise from Dubai to Capetown 2 years ago and aside from the out of the way ports, enjoyed dining outside at sea.

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I second the warm feelings toward Oceania.  O ship size(s) are considerably smaller than the mega-sized ships which makes for a more intimate and personalized experience.  Itineraries are port intensive (often with overnight stays and multiple days in the same port), service and food are superb.  The newer and larger ships O introduced several years ago - 1,200 passengers from 800-ish - are beautiful and offer more restaurant choices (at no up charge) than the smaller ships.  I enjoy both.

After trying a number of cruise lines over the years - and I've been on almost all of the top rated ones - I believe Oceania offers the best "return" in terms of enjoyment, schedules, price/value, cuisine & amenities on board.  Plus: no formal nights!

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I send Wallace's piece on cruising to friends considering cruising for the first time. That being said, cruises have become a part of our travel plans. We are fortunate to be able to regularly visit far flung places but sometimes just enjoy a week or 2 at sea. We have found Oceania cruise lines to fit the bill- excellent food and service and some interesting itineraries- they have 3 smaller ships- 600 passengers and 2 larger ships with 2000 passengers - the larger ships have 4 specialty restaurants- steak house, Asian , Classic French and Italian and somehow bake some of the best breads ever .We have found the food to be very good and some dishes excellent- but we are oceanophiles ( if that's a word)

We took a 30 day cruise from Dubai to Capetown 2 years ago and aside from the out of the way ports, enjoyed dining outside at sea.

I second the warm feelings toward Oceania.  O ship size(s) are considerably smaller than the mega-sized ships which makes for a more intimate and personalized experience.  Itineraries are port intensive (often with overnight stays and multiple days in the same port), service and food are superb.  The newer and larger ships O introduced several years ago - 1,200 passengers from 800-ish - are beautiful and offer more restaurant choices (at no up charge) than the smaller ships.  I enjoy both.

After trying a number of cruise lines over the years - and I've been on almost all of the top rated ones - I believe Oceania offers the best "return" in terms of enjoyment, schedules, price/value, cuisine & amenities on board.  Plus: no formal nights!

Thank you both for your comments about Oceana.  I had homed in on it as a good bet for ourselves, and have even been looking seriously at a Panama Canal trip with them later this year, so it's good to hear the positive comments.  Like Celebrity and a couple of others (Paul Gauguin, Windstar), they seem to occupy the quality niche just below the super-lux six-star lines like Crystal, Seabourn, etc., but at much more palatable prices.

Based on my research, dressing up formal for dinner seems to be on the way out everywhere. There are of course still those who like to do it, but it is a rare ship these days that doesn't provide a viable option for those who don't.  For example, on our recent Celebrity cruise, there were two formal nights in the main dining room, but never in the specialty restaurants or in Blu, the dedicated restaurant for Aqua class.  From what I heard, even on those nights it isn't mandatory throughout the dining room, and as long as you show up wearing some sort of jacket you'd be fine, and even then the maitre'd has discretion. On the whole, it's understandable that the cruise lines want to uphold some standards in the tablecloth restaurants, however minimal.  But the definition of casual elegant appears to have gotten pretty elastic.

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Anyone taken a cruise with Royal Caribbean in the last year or two?  We're thinking of taking a 10-day Caribbean cruise with them out of Baltimore in December to test out our sea legs (if we like the experience, we might consider fancier cruises in the future).  From the post here, it sounds like their food is pretty decent if you're willing to pay surcharges.  We're mostly looking for a relaxing and easy vacation with some opportunities to snorkel, so entertainment and excursions options are not important to us.

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Anyone taken a cruise with Royal Caribbean in the last year or two?  We're thinking of taking a 10-day Caribbean cruise with them out of Baltimore in December to test out our sea legs (if we like the experience, we might consider fancier cruises in the future).  From the post here, it sounds like their food is pretty decent if you're willing to pay surcharges.  We're mostly looking for a relaxing and easy vacation with some opportunities to snorkel, so entertainment and excursions options are not important to us.

I haven't sailed RCL, but have sailed Celebrity which is owned by them.  RCL's ships run a range of ratings.  You want to sail from Baltimore so Grandeur is your ship.  It is an older ship and doesn't have the highest star ratings (4) in the RCL fleet, but it gets generally positive reviews from passengers, including for the food.  It was refurbished in 2012.  Given Baltimore's ease of access from the DC area it's no doubt a good choice.  I'd say go for it and enjoy yourselves.  You should have some snorkeling opportunities; if you're into awesome airplane sights, while in St. Maarten you might arrange to spend some time out at the "airplane beach" where you can practically reach up and touch the arriving flights (but check schedules to be sure first).  As you said, you can go fancier in the future.

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Thanks for the vote of confidence!  Our cruise has been booked.  The itinerary will be West Caribbean, so no St. Maartens unfortunately.

We'll stay cautiously optimistic on the food and sights (though, having been to Hawaii and New Zealand, we may already be hopelessly spoilt).  Grandeur was hit with a norovirus outbreak in April, so I hope that means they'll be extra vigilant regarding food safety.

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Enjoy your cruise! We sailed Independence

Of the Seas with our grown kids - 4 cabins last January for 9 days-we set our food expectations low- and there were some surprises-- escargot was yummy- one night I asked for it to be put over pasta:).

The ship was beautiful.

We had a disappointing experience at Chops- definitely not steak house quality .

But a tip you might not have considered - we had main dining room waiters from South Asia and we had a standing dinner reservation for 7:30 for out table of 7- one day I asked if we could order "crew food"- I had heard that the cruise line has chefs for the crew from many regions .

The night we asked, we were brought Goan chicken dish- excellent! The next night,although we didn't ask, we were served a South Indian feast!

What a treat-!!

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A recap of our cruise on Grandeur of the Seas out of Baltimore.  Overall, it was well kept up ship with a pleasant staff and a nice layout.  

Overall, we were quite satisfied with the Main Dining Room offering.  The proteins were cooked correctly and seasoned appropriately, all the ingredients looked and tasted fresh, and there was a good range of options for each meal.  Pasta and saucing seems to be the kitchen's weak spot "“ anything where salt and butter are the main seasoning tend to taste better than stuff with more elaborate seasoning.  The dinner rolls are very good and they keep the butter at a spreadable temperature.  The snails are great, we ordered them with every MDR dinner.  The desserts had more hits than misses for us.  Breakfast and lunches are not as good as dinner, I prefer Windjammer buffet or Park Cafe for those meals, though the lunch salad bar in MDR is quite nice.

Some of the sandwiches at Park Cafe were very good "“ the made to order roast beef/pastrami sandwiches (they alternate between the two) were very tasty and used nice crusty rolls.

After years of hearing about the horrors of cruise ship buffets, I was pretty impressed with what was on offer.  The buffet food was fresh and properly seasoned.  It was probably a better option for breakfast and possibly lunch, compared to MDR.

We found the specialty restaurants to be underwhelming overall.  They do use more costly ingredients compared to the MDR, but the cooking is less creative and not necessarily more skillful.  We also found the wait staff at Giovanni's Table to be rather clumsy compared to the efficient MDR wait staff, but that may be due to recent staff changes.

Chops is better than Outback Steakhouse, but a long way from a proper steakhouse like Ray's.  The appetizers and desserts were good not great. 

Giovanni's Table had good lambchops, but nothing else stood out. 

Izumi's fish is fresh from the freezer.  Not much flavor or silky texture.  Maybe Wegman's level. 

Chef's Table was pretty good and a good deal.  You won't confuse it for a dinner at CityZen but the food is well prepared and they're very generous with the wine pours.  

* We were able to test out our sea legs towards the end of the cruise, when we had to sail through 20 foot waves.  I'm glad that I remembered to pack Dramamine.

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PS - also want to add a note about Royal Caribbean's formal nights as it was something that worried me before the trip.  None of the specialty dining options observe formal nights.  We saw men wearing very casual tops (practically Hawaiian shirts) and khakis in the Main Dining Room on formal nights, so I don't think there's actual enforcement of this policy.  

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These are cruises I'd love to go on-http://www.sixthman.net/festivals/. I love Lyle Lovett, & great music, boats, sunshine sounds like a perfect combo to me. I have friends that cruise regularly, they love that they can leave from Baltimore, & if I could figure out how to schedule in advance & get over my fear of norovirus, crowds, & childhood memories of " The Poseiden Adventure", I would be walking the gangplank.

I also love to read stories about cooking on cruise ships, they have some serious systems set up.

http://feast-blog.com/inside-the-kitchens-of-a-cruise-ship/

http://www.travelandleisure.com/articles/secrets-of-a-cruise-ship-kitchen-high-cuisine-on-the-high-seas

http://www.davidlebovitz.com/2011/07/inside-the-kitchen-of-the-queen-mary-2/

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Recently got back from a cruise on the Norwegian Dawn.  I thought the main dining rooms food were a touch better than Grandeur of the Seas because the food wasn't as heavy.  The garden cafe buffet was just tolerable at best and terribly laid out.  

Of the specialty restaurants, we tried Cagney's, Moderno, and Le Bistro.  Le Bistro was by far the best, the dishes were well executed and presented. It's not adventurous but a place you can take a non foodie friend to and they would have a great fine dining experience. Moderno was pretty decent, better than Fogo de Chao, my other Brazilian steakhouse experience, because the meats were freshly brought out from the kitchen and nicely seasoned, FdC meats were oversalted and the meats were kinda dry.  I wouldn't recommend Cagney's based on my experience, the porterhouse was weirdly mushy rather than juicy/flavorful as a medium rare steak should be, the lamb was just okay, and the desserts read better than they tasted.

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Oswald & Kalb in Vienna was fantastic.  We just spent 3 nights in Vienna and that was the best meal.  We also ate at Steirereck, a Michelin 2 star, top 50 restaurant in the world.  To me it’s interesting but overwrought.  If they have fried  ceps at Oswald, then get it.  The chanterelles salad was also amazing.

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I just finished a river boat cruise on Uniworld’s river countess out of Venice.  It is truly all-inclusive, down to tips for the staff, excursions, and all drinks, all times.  It is a delightful experience, with a max of 120 passengers, and affords you up close access to the magic that is Ventice.  On one of the excursions we acccompanied the ship’s chef to the Rialto market and watched him order and sample the food he would be serving that night for lunch and dinner.  Was really cool to listen to him wax poetic about the octopus, and then to see it as part of the Fritto misto on the lunch buffet. I highly recommend Uniworld. First class service,  passengers who are well-traveled and friendly,  food that is good to great, excellent logistics with tours, etc. 

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Thanks for the info!  I will definitely look into Oswald & Kalb.

We are traveling with Viking.  Uniworld has basically the same itinerary but for 2x the price.  Plus Viking had a promo of $400 per person airfare (plus $100 to adjust dates and airports).  It worked out to be about the same cost as ocean view on a mass market Adriatic cruise.  Viking doesn't include tip, has less included excursions, and a limited free bar, but the cost savings are hard to beat.  Plus Airbnb in our time frame for Prague and Vienna are around $50 a night for well rated, centrally located studios.  So it seemed like a good time to take the plunge.

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Well, our Viking River Cruise is going to be a coach tour, and based on our latest research, a very bad one full of rushed tours, no free time, early cattle calls for coach rides to nowhere, and Viking intentionally cheaping out with alternate lodgings by locating them 1+ hours from the original port.  Not on the ship yet (and probably won't be, even if we end up taking a total loss on the cruise booking, the reviews of Viking mishandlings of recent trip deviations were that bad), we already experienced stonewalling customer service and intentionally deceptive communications that online reviews have eluded to.  

My river cruise and Viking cruise itches have been well and permanently scratched.  I would tell anyone ever considering a Viking river cruise to read the 1 and 2 point reviews on cruisecritic and see what happens when Viking invokes "acts of God".  I should have sought out those reviews before booking, rather than assume that Viking would naturally care about the comfort and welfare of a seemingly loyal clientele, to keep them loyal.  

So far, we had a couple pretty nice days in Prague (Taste of Prague tour and Milada both excellent).  In Vienna, we have a surprisingly wonderful meal at Restaurant Walter Bauer and a remarkable one at Konstantin Filippou. I was underwhelmed by food at Mraz und Sohn.  So far Oswald's & Kalb is not open when we can go, but we hope to get there. 

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13 hours ago, astrid said:

Well, our Viking River Cruise is going to be a coach tour, and based on our latest research, a very bad one full of rushed tours, no free time, early cattle calls for coach rides to nowhere, and Viking intentionally cheaping out with alternate lodgings by locating them 1+ hours from the original port.  Not on the ship yet (and probably won't be, even if we end up taking a total loss on the cruise booking, the reviews of Viking mishandlings of recent trip deviations were that bad), we already experienced stonewalling customer service and intentionally deceptive communications that online reviews have eluded to.  

My river cruise and Viking cruise itches have been well and permanently scratched.  I would tell anyone ever considering a Viking river cruise to read the 1 and 2 point reviews on cruisecritic and see what happens when Viking invokes "acts of God".  I should have sought out those reviews before booking, rather than assume that Viking would naturally care about the comfort and welfare of a seemingly loyal clientele, to keep them loyal.  

So far, we had a couple pretty nice days in Prague (Taste of Prague tour and Milada both excellent).  In Vienna, we have a surprisingly wonderful meal at Restaurant Walter Bauer and a remarkable one at Konstantin Filippou. I was underwhelmed by food at Mraz und Sohn.  So far Oswald's & Kalb is not open when we can go, but we hope to get there. 

 I am so sorry to hear that your vacation is not going nearly as planned.  On my recent Uniworld cruise, a handful of people came to our boat from another tour that had been stalled somewhere else in Europe  (high river or low river levels, I can’t remember). Uniworld offered to fly them immediately to another cruise that had space rather than force them onto a land tour.   Perhaps you could inquire about that as an option?

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Nada chance.  We called Viking and asked for cancellation in return for a refund, rescheduling, something.  They said that since water level was act of God and they were still running the boat, we had no recourse.  They explicitly told us that they would rather lose us as customers for the next 50 years, plus trips I was contemplating with my parents, then give us anything beyond a laughable 25 percent voucher that is impossible to use because almost everything within the next year is already booked.  Their satisfaction guarantee means in practice, guests who tried to exercise it after a horrible experience got, at very best in the 100+ reviews I read, 25 percent refund and 25 percent voucher that must be used for a cruise sailing in less than a year.  For the rest, typically best offer is $500 to sign a NDA.

In some cases, it's people Viking lulled into believing everything is fine and no foreseeable problems, until they are overseas and/or onboard and no longer with recourse to use their travel insurance to cancel the trip.  Many then found themselves on the bus trip from hell with up to 4 boats for a 7 night itinerary, stays changed from 1.5 days to a few hours, being bussed for hours between boats or between boats docked in remote industrial docks more than an hour from their destination, lining up for buses at 6 AM, understandably surly staff, etc.

I naively thought Viking would realize the real harm that bad behavior would do to their long term prospects and accommodate their guests or at least provide the best possible accommodations under circumstances, but everything I read show that they're betting on short memories and the buck in hand.

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4 hours ago, astrid said:

Nada chance.  We called Viking and asked for cancellation in return for a refund, rescheduling, something.  They said that since water level was act of God and they were still running the boat, we had no recourse.  They explicitly told us that they would rather lose us as customers for the next 50 years, plus trips I was contemplating with my parents, then give us anything beyond a laughable 25 percent voucher that is impossible to use because almost everything within the next year is already booked.  Their satisfaction guarantee means in practice, guests who tried to exercise it after a horrible experience got, at very best in the 100+ reviews I read, 25 percent refund and 25 percent voucher that must be used for a cruise sailing in less than a year.  For the rest, typically best offer is $500 to sign a NDA.

In some cases, it's people Viking lulled into believing everything is fine and no foreseeable problems, until they are overseas and/or onboard and no longer with recourse to use their travel insurance to cancel the trip.  Many then found themselves on the bus trip from hell with up to 4 boats for a 7 night itinerary, stays changed from 1.5 days to a few hours, being bussed for hours between boats or between boats docked in remote industrial docks more than an hour from their destination, lining up for buses at 6 AM, understandably surly staff, etc.

I naively thought Viking would realize the real harm that bad behavior would do to their long term prospects and accommodate their guests or at least provide the best possible accommodations under circumstances, but everything I read show that they're betting on short memories and the buck in hand.

This is where I would blast them with horrific reviews on every large and small review website I could find.  Then I'd find other sites and communities on which I could blast them.

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We are fortunate compared to many of these people.  We paid a relatively modest fare (though more than we have ever paid for  a week of travel excluding airfare), already enjoyed a week of central Europe on our own, and this wasn't something we had been dreaming about for years.  We are still pondering between salvaging this trip in part or making this stretch into a tour of Swiss Alpine rail lines.

Some of the reviews are heartbreaking, people saving for years to celebrate a major milemarker, went with friends and family, and some knew that this is likely their last chance to live out that dream.  I cannot believe Viking chose current cash flow over families that will remember Viking as the company that crushed grandma's dream.

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13 hours ago, astrid said:

My river cruise and Viking cruise itches have been well and permanently scratched.

You know what? Based on your past posts, I never, ever thought you'd go on a cruise ship.

Sep 2008 - "Shipping Out" by David Foster Wallace 

Stay the hell away from that Coach tour, and enjoy the decision you'll never regret making!

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We haven't taken the trip yet, so our reaction is based on other people's review and our interaction with their customer service.  But they have been savaged on cruisecritic, TripAdvisor, Yelp, and other review sites for their lack of transparency, poor contingency planning, and terrible attitude to customers' anger to being sold something much worse than what they thought they bought.  When I checked Viking's ratings earlier this summer on cruisecritic, it was in the 4.5 range, now it's 4.0 and likely to drop further as water level isn't likely to recover for at least another month.  Other companies offered to cancel, rebook for the future, or offer a substantial discount for the inconveniences.  Viking is offering a largely worthless voucher for having its customers endure a very subpar experience.

We won't review until we have been through the trip, though we plan to skip the first two days to miss the first hurdle (busing from Budapest to Vienna) and plan our side trip to Salzburg and Berchtesgaden.  We may also leave early if things go badly, but we're going to give this a shot and at least have some stories to tell.  But I would be extremely reluctant to book another cruise with them based on what I now know.

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2 hours ago, astrid said:

We haven't taken the trip yet, so our reaction is based on other people's review and our interaction with their customer service.  But they have been savaged on cruisecritic, TripAdvisor, Yelp, and other review sites for their lack of transparency, poor contingency planning, and terrible attitude to customers' anger to being sold something much worse than what they thought they bought.  When I checked Viking's ratings earlier this summer on cruisecritic, it was in the 4.5 range, now it's 4.0 and likely to drop further as water level isn't likely to recover for at least another month.  Other companies offered to cancel, rebook for the future, or offer a substantial discount for the inconveniences.  Viking is offering a largely worthless voucher for having its customers endure a very subpar experience.

We won't review until we have been through the trip, though we plan to skip the first two days to miss the first hurdle (busing from Budapest to Vienna) and plan our side trip to Salzburg and Berchtesgaden.  We may also leave early if things go badly, but we're going to give this a shot and at least have some stories to tell.  But I would be extremely reluctant to book another cruise with them based on what I now know.

You'll love the chess board in Salzburg. :)

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I went to Salzburg on a business trip and spent the day walking around that magical city alone. I spent the last night in a castle and had dinner in its restaurant. I also took a dip in the heated pool while the outside air was about 50. A truly magical 24 hours. (the conference part was good and in some ways magical too).

https://www.monchstein.at/en/

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Yes, Salzburg is a confectionary fantasy of a city.  Every angle is gorgeous.  Definitely worth a full day or two to savor.  We stayed at H+ hotel right next to the train station.  I highly recommend it as a budget option because it's clean and quiet, very nice and professional staff, and incredibly convenient.

Our train tickets allowed a free layover in Linz, so we walked around Linz yesterday on our way to Salzburg.  It's a nice City with lots of nice museums and completely empty yet lovely churches.

One thing I will say, be wary of smoking in Austrian restaurants.  We tried to have dinner at a highly rated Salzburg tavern, we knew it was smoking but we were seated in an isolated area and the smoke level was fine when we went in.  Then we ordered and waited almost an hour for carpaccio and steak tartare to not arrive.  All the while everyone in the front room decided to light up, until my eyes watered and my sinuses burned and we finally had to cancel our order because I can't bear it anymore.  I didn't feel bad leaving, there was no excuse for taking so long to prepare uncooked items when the couple next to us came in later and finished their hot dishes before we got our cold dishes, and just completely ignoring us for at least 30 minutes.  We had to take decontamination showers after we got back to the hotel and I am grateful to not wake up with a sinus infection this morning.  We have seen more smokers in Austria than in France, Italy, or Spain.  In retrospect, it's just as well that we didn't make it to Oswald & Kalb as it's a smoking only establishment.

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Reporting back on our Viking River cruise.  Even with two boat changes (3 boats total but we missed the more onerous one by skipping the first 2 days), it sounds like we got off rather easy compared to other recent Danube sailings.  We saw everything that days 3-7 itinerary promised, albeit with some inconvenient dockings, bussings, extra packing, and a few cancelled excursions.  We lucked into staying at 2 of the better ships and the service was fine, albeit nothing exceptional.  There was rafting (tying river boats together as to render the perk of a balcony room useless) on the first few days, but no rafting on the latter part.  That didn't affect us as we were in a cheap balcony-less cabin.

Would we do it again?  No!  We realized that the restrictions of the river cruise itinerary doesn't give us the flexibility to explore as we would like.  And while the tours were pretty well run, it's not nearly as nice as when we were traveling independently.  And the passengers are not quite our crowd as vast majority are much older, travelling in groups, and seem more keyed for this type of travel.

I missed certain aspects of the bigger boats more than I would have thought.  The additional dining and entertainment options of ocean cruises were not available, and the river cruise schedule seemed much too busy after the lazier port schedule of ocean cruises.  The food was pretty consistently good, never great, and lacking in variety and flexibility.

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