Last week Royal Caribbean formally announced it was revamping its main dining room choices by investing in a multi-million dollar upgrade.  Today we know a little more about the changes coming to dinner.

Royal Caribbean is investing in the complimentary dining program to increase the variety of menu choices in the main dining room, and in particular, the inclusion of dishes with regional influences reflective of the destinations Royal Caribbean ships sail to; improved choices for guests with dietary restrictions; and even more enticing presentation. 

The exact changes are as follows: 

• The main dining room menu has been revamped to offer a greater variety of choice.
• Royal Caribbean’s much-loved favorites such as aged hand-cut Manhattan steak, escargot bourguignonne, shrimp cocktail and crème brulee, are now available every night.?
• To cater to its growing global clientele, Royal Caribbean will add more international food options in the dining room with a renewed focus on authenticity.
• Good news for dessert lovers – Royal Caribbean will offer a new “hot from the oven” blueberry peach crumble, sticky bread and butter pudding and sumptuous carrot cake.
• To better cater to those with special dietary needs, Royal Caribbean will introduce more heart-healthy, gluten-free and lactose-free food options. It has enlisted a registered and licensed dietician and nutrition consultant to evaluate existing menus, create new offerings for guests with dietary restrictions, and shape the cruise line’s current gluten-free and lactose-free program into a more guest-friendly experience.?
• All low calorie, gluten-free and lactose-free options will be clearly identified with respective menu icons as well as menu selections that can be modified to fit these requirements for guests.? In addition to the new menu designations, Royal Caribbean is rolling out new daily gluten-free bread offerings, available on request in all venues, including specialty restaurants.
• All of the new main dining menu offerings will include upgraded entrees such rack of lamb, surf & turf, beef sliders and daily entrée dinner salads.
• As part of the investment, the cruise line will continue to focus on training which includes a sous chef certification program with the American Culinary Federation and a new wait staff training curriculum targeting the new menus, standards training, and allergen and dietary programs.
• Guests also will notice a change in the physical menu with a new fresh design featuring the cruise line’s international culinary team.

Royal Caribbean's Executive Vice President of Operations, Lisa Lutoff-Perlo commented on the big investiment, "In today's food-aware culture, the palettes of our guests have evolved and they have come to expect, not only a variety of choices, but cuisine of the highest quality, made with the freshest of ingredients. In recent years, we have introduced many new specialty dining concepts and in this next evolution we are expanding the options in our main dining room with even more variety, allowing us to cater to our international guests while offering them the highest quality dining on land or at sea.”

Royal Caribbean is upgrading its main dining room menus with an extensive multi-million dollar enhancement across its fleet of cruise ships.

Royal Caribbean is focusing on the complimentary dining choices in its main dining room.  The changes include dishes infused with regional flavors reflective of the destinations of the world the line’s ships sail to; improved choices for guests with dietary restrictions; and superior presentation.

Royal Caribbean Executive Vice President of Operations, Lisa Lutoff-Perlo, commented on the changes, "In today's food-aware culture, the palettes of our guests have evolved and they have come to expect, not only a variety of choices, but cuisine of the highest quality made with the freshest of ingredients. In recent years, we have introduced many new specialty dining concepts and in this next evolution we are expanding the options in our main dining room with even more variety, allowing us to cater to our international guests while offering them the highest quality dining on land or at sea.”

Some of the new menu changes include upgraded entrees such rack of lamb and surf & turf with new offerings like premium beef sliders and daily entrée dinner salads.

Royal Caribbean has redone its main dining room menus by adding variety but it also was sure to keep some dishes that have become passenger favorites over the years, such as aged hand-cut Manhattan steak, escargot bourguignonne, shrimp cocktail and crème brulee, popular selections now available every night.

There also has been a focus on the desserts with a new “hot from the oven” blueberry peach crumble, sticky bread and butter pudding and sumptuous carrot cake.

The updated menu format also includes a new vegetarian symbol, which is the official symbol of the European Vegetarian Union and considered the most widely used vegetarian symbol worldwide for easy recognition.

 In addition to the new menu designations, Royal Caribbean is rolling out new daily gluten-free bread offerings, available on request in all venues, including specialty restaurants.

Here's a copy of the new menu. You can view the schedule for the roll out of the new main dining room.

Many of us have pondered just how Royal Caribbean manages to prepare all the food over the course of a cruise to feed its passengers and The Daily Traveler took a look behind the scenes at Royal Caribbean's food preparation to see how it's done.

Royal Caribbean vice president for food and beverage operations Frank Weber says time is importing, "We start loading around 7 a.m. in the morning, so we have until 3:30 p.m. to send something back to our produce supplier, like a pallet of tomatoes, and to get a replacement a little later in the afternoon."

Longshoremen then load supplies onto the ship. Royal Caribbean transfers the food from wooden pallets to metal trays, which can be more easily cleaned, to prevent ship contamination by anything that might have been on the wood. For similar reasons, other packaging, such as cardboard, is incinerated.

Technology assures smooth sailing by alerting crewmembers to how many passengers are grabbing a bite. Royal Caribbean, for instance, has head-counting cameras in the ceilings of its main dining areas that count when and where passengers are gravitating to and subsequently provide data that can be used to anticipate peak serving times.

The cruise ships offer simple menus so their cooks can prepare food to order and serve it at the perfect temperature (i.e. offering a single main version each of meat, poultry, and seafood).  The exception is the specialty restaurants onboard that serve a small, subset of passengers.

Simplified menus allow chefs to synchronize meal creation with the needs of diners. "We don't pre-cook the steaks and keep them in a warmer as you would in a typical hotel banquet operation," says Weber, describing a method that's common to better cruise lines. "And we don't plate food until the waiter is on the path to deliver it."

Royal Caribbean is teaming up with Food and Wine Magazine to offer its passengers a new program called, “The Art of Preparation” which is a multi-platform program featuring Food & Wine and Royal Caribbean International “Masters” in a branded content experience. Food & Wine Marketing and Mindshare co-developed “The Art of Preparation” specifically for Royal Caribbean.

This new program is designed to invite "foodies" to learn more about the culinary experiences available aboard any Royal Caribbean ship.  The first installment of the “The Art of Preparation” will roll out with co-branded rich media units across www.foodandwine.com, www.travelandleisure.com as well as select Time Inc. websites, and will run through Dec. 2012.

Hosted by Sissy Biggers, television personality and lifestyle expert, the two minute videos feature a look into each “Masters” area of expertise. The Food & Wine Masters line-up includes:

•  Brewing: Garrett Oliver (Brooklyn Brewery, NYC)
• Baking: Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito (Baked, NYC)
• Pizza: Mark Bello (Pizza a Casa Cooking School, NYC)
• Cocktails: Jim Meehan (PDT, NYC)
• Spices: Lior Lev Sercarz (La Boîte a Epice, NYC)
• Chocolate: Jean-Francois Bonnet (Tumbador, NYC

The Royal Caribbean International masters include:

•  Josef Jungwirth – Director of culinary operations and Master Chef
• Marco Marrama – Corporate executive chef
• Frank Weber – VP, food and beverage operations
• Matthias Terskow – Pastry chef and supervisor
• Fritz Halbedl – Chef and culinary consultan
•  Maureen “Molly” Brandt – Chef de Cuisine, 150 Central Park
• Travis Kamiyama – Executive sushi chef, Izumi Asian Cuisine
• Chef Michael Schwartz – Chef and owner of Michael's Genuine Food & Drink and exclusive culinary partner of Royal Caribbean International

Royal Caribbean is also the presenting sponsor of the “Masters Series: Lessons from the Experts,” editorial section.

MSNBC posted a column lamenting the decline in the amount of food that is included on cruise ships these days and used Royal Caribbean as an example. Citing the increasing cost of specialty restaurants, author Sean O'Neill pointed out how cruise lines like Royal Caribbean are emphasizing more and more the specialty restaurants that cost extra.

The large part of O'Neill's point was centered around Rita's Cantina and the Seafood Shack, found on Royal Caribbean's Allure of the Seas (among other ships not mentioned). 

Passengers used to pay $8 for meals at Rita's Cantina, for instance. They'll now pay a fee of $3 to dine at the restaurant and then pay a price for each item ordered a la carte, too. The 15 percent gratuity isn't included either. 

O'Neill feels that neither Rita's nor the Seafood Shack constitute "premium restaurants" and the quality of the food is low enough that it ought to be included in the price of the cruise.  Adding insult to injury, O'Neill points out that the prices have gone up too with Royal Caribbean's recent decision to charge a restaurant fee and an a la carte charge.

What really concerns O'Neill is the path he thinks the cruise lines are going down of serving worse and worse food in the main dining rooms so that guests will feel more inclined to pay extra for the good food.

Yet the danger here is that all cruise lines will begin to serve sub-standard food in their main dining rooms. After all, by making the dining hall experience less attractive, a company can make more money by upselling customers on fee-based meals elsewhere on-board.

O'Neill was sure to point out that this trend isn't limited to Royal Caribbean, he was simply using it as an example of a trend happening all over the cruise industry.