Tom Fitzmorris Reviews a Cruise Ship

Hey, did you guys know that the biggest restaurant in town (in terms of numbers of customers served) is in fact not a restaurant at all, but rather a cruise ship? True story, or at least it's true according to Tom Fitzmorris, who actually, seriously, in earnest reviews the food on board the Royal Caribbean's Voyager of the Seas in this week's CityBusiness (subscription required).

Voyager sometimes calls New Orleans home, staying here once a week in between cruises through the Caribbean; the review's hed proclaims that "Voyager's fare is passable, but you'll find the best food in port." Which makes one wonder why he bothers reviewing a cruise ship that doesn't have good food and that's only in NOLA once a week for part of the year.

He says that "neither the ship nor the line is in the top class," but still it's, you know, pretty good. But whatever, if you take a cruise aboard the Voyager of the Seas, you're going to have to eat on board in between stops at Scotchies in Jamaica, the Ritz at Grand Cayman and Casa Denis in Cozumel. (Those are the three examples he gives of landlubbers' restaurants that are better than the food on the ship.) For all meals between ports, then, you have three primary options: the buffet, which Fitzmorris describes as "the most popular and the worst," a main dining room where you can get "good to excellent" food if you work at it, and a specialty Italian restaurant called Portofino that just simply isn't worth the $25 upcharge. Too bad he doesn't take the time to try out the ship's sea-bound version of Johnny Rockets.

Clearly, The Fitz is pretty ambivalent about the food on the Voyager of the Seas. But in the end, if you're on a cruise ship on a line you've already declared to be not top class and you're disappointed about the food, you're doing it wrong.

· Vorager's Fare is Passable, but You'll Find the Best Food in Port [CityBusiness, subscription required]
· Voyager of the Seas [Official Site]
· All Tom Fitzmorris Coverage on Eater NOLA [-ENOLA-]