Things in the Sky

Ah, the food is absolutely one of the best parts of the cruise. First, most of it is included. Second, it’s just plain delicious. So, here’s a brief breakdown of some of the food offerings.

Cafe Promenade

This location is perfect for a quick snack or meal. As the name implies, it is located on the Royal Promenade, and I think it just adds to Royal Caribbean’s goal of trying to make the promenade feel like a main street. Anyway, coffee and tea are free here, specialty coffee beverages will cost you extra. There’s a very generous selection of breakfast pastries in the morning, and small sandwiches and pastry later in the day. My favorite was the double chocolate peanut butter brownie.

Sorrento’s

A relatively new addition to the Royal Caribbean lineup, Sorrento’s is the line’s concept for a pizza place. Before, Cafe Promenade would serve pizza, and to tell you the truth, I’m glad there is now a dedicated pizza place. I really do think it tastes better. The restaurant offers a few styles of pizza, along with other Italian items like fried eggplant. Desserts and paninis are available as well.

Winjammer Cafe

This is the ship’s large buffet, and I mainly ate here at breakfast. There’s a great selection of food available, and I also really enjoy the omelet station. I tend avoid this spot for lunch, simply because it can become pretty crowded. A casual dinner is also available here, though I’ve only done that once on another ship because I like the main dining room so much. You can’t go wrong in the Windjammer though.

Chops Grille

This is one of Royal Caribbean’s specialty restaurants on the Liberty (the other is Portofino, an Italian place), and for the first time we gave it a try. The cover is $25, but it’s all you can eat after that, and obviously wine and such is extra. I went with the filet mignon and was very happy with it. Overall, I was pretty pleased with Chops. At $25, it is cheaper than steakhouses on land, but then again, the food in the main dining room is delicious. The steak was very good, don’t get me wrong, but I’ve had better at steakhouses on land. And while the service at Chops to be great, the waiters and waitresses I’ve had on land have been more knowledgeable about the food.

Room Service

We went with room service on the day we were in San Juan. The ship pulled in at 8 and left at 2, so we figured why not get a quick breakfast in the room and then get off the ship right away. Unfortunately, the food was late, wrong, and cold. Oh well. It was disappointing, considering all my other experiences with room service have been very positive.

Main Dining Room

My Time Dining

We decided to try Royal’s new dining option. In the past, there was only main and late seating in the dining room, at 6:00 and 8:30. Now, My Time Dining allows guests to walk in whenever, though you can make a reservation. It wasn’t too organized at first. We asked for a window, but were escorted to one with a view of the porthole, so we moved to a table with a few of the dining rooms below. We were given the same window table the next day. But, all of a sudden, the day after that, our head waiter noticed the person in front wasn’t doing the best job, and made sure we got a nice railing table.

I also noticed that compared to past sailings, the meal moved along much faster with My Time Dining. Overall, I’m mixed on the whole thing. One thing to consider is that the shows are still based on main and late seating, so you’re kind of locked into that schedule if you want to go to those. A nice aspect is that you can make reservations with other people who are doing My Time Dining, so one night we dined with a couple from our CruiseCritic group. This can be nice, because with regular seating, if you have tablemates, it can be hit or miss.

Service

I’ve never received bad service on Royal before, but these guys  were just a cut above the rest. Kamen, our head waiter was great. In the past, I once had a head waiter that was basically invisible until it was time to pick up his tip. But Kamen came by every night to make sure everything was going well.

Out waiters, Amar and Suresh, were also just fantastic. They were constantly coming by to make sure we had what we needed, and their suggestions were always spot-on. They definitely went the extra mile here. They quickly remembered I always have a Coke with dinner, so they had one waiting, and also remembered what kind of tea I like. Meanwhile, when I ordered the molten chocolate cake they also brought along ice cream without asking because they thought I would like it. Things like this are what make service excpetional to me.

One thing that surprised me is that the executive sous chef was coming around asking for feedback. Never seen that before, but it was appreciated.

Food

The food was absolutely delicious, and there’s not one meal I didn’t like. If I had to choose one favorite, it was probably the roast duck.

One thing I like about cruising is that since all the food is included, it’s very easy to try new things. So, for example, I tried escargot for the first time, and I loved it!

Anyway, only a couple of parts left, I promise.