Royal Caribbean's cuisine criticised

Royal Caribbean International (RCI) is the worst of the world's major cruise lines for cuisine and service, according to a new guide.

By Charles Starmer-Smith

In the annual Berlitz Complete Guide to Cruising and Cruise Ships, the author, Douglas Ward, gave the cruise line an overall rating of just over five out of 10 for its cuisine. 

The dining room, afternoon teas and wine lists on board RCI ships were particularly poor, he said. RCI, which owns the world's largest ship (Oasis of the Seas), earned a rating of more than six out of 10 in only one category: informal dining/buffet.

Carnival Cruise Lines and Costa Cruises fared little better, with Carnival achieving the lowest mark for afternoon tea and Costa the lowest score for "informal dining" of any of the 11 cruise lines examined.

The best-performing lines, according to the guide, were Cunard, Celebrity and Princess Cruises.

"Some of the major cruise lines, such as Carnival and RCI, score less well on cuisine simply because they spend less on passenger food costs than some of the other major lines," said Mr Ward, who has sailed on more than 1,000 cruises and spent more than 5,600 days at sea.

"Many passengers tell me that the food delivered on board doesn't quite come up to the expectations promised in glossy brochure photographs. Examples include cheaper cuts of meat – using pork rather than beef or lamb."

Other factors that contributed to poor ratings included a lack of green vegetables, herbs or garnishes; the quality of pastry items; the choice of salt, pepper or olive oils; and a lack of fresh fish.

RCI and Carnival finished bottom for service. Knowledge of wine and the way it was served were the weakest areas for both lines, according to the guide.

A spokesman for Carnival said: "Our own customer service surveys, which we conduct regularly, report a high level of satisfaction with regard to our service and food offering."

Mr Ward said there had been a rise in passenger complaints about poor communication on cruise ships. He argued that there was little incentive for waiters to improve when cruise lines automatically added gratuities to on-board accounts.

"Service is all about staffing costs, training and supervision," he said. "The lines with the lower service scores tend to hire personnel who are untrained, couldn't possibly describe a sauce or gravy, and pour wine like it is Coca-Cola because of poor knowledge and training."

A spokesman for RCI said the company was surprised by the results. "Customer satisfaction is our number one priority. We have a very robust customer feedback system that we measure our on-board experience through. Some 250,000 guests have completed the survey this year. Over 90 per cent have scored our on-board service as meeting or exceeding their expectations.

"While we respect Mr Ward as an expert in his field, his ratings reflect his own personal opinions and differ strongly from the feedback from our many millions of paying guests."

Cunard and Celebrity again topped the tables, the service in their bars and cabins winning the highest ratings given to any lines.