Voyager of the Seas - Sapphire Main Dining Room

The Voyager of the Seas first maiden journey was in 1999. The ship then underwent extensive refurbishment in 2014. During this refurbishment, the 3 old dining rooms were combined and renamed into the Sapphire Dining Room. We had the pleasure of sailing on her during her 2015 Christmas cruise - 18 - 29 December 2015. We sailed from Sydney, Australia to New Zealand.

The Sapphire Main Dining Room is a 3-storey dining room located on decks 3 to 5 aft of the vessel. The dining room is beautifully decorated with a chandler in the middle. There is a beautiful cascading staircase in the middle too. There are tables ranging from 2 seats to a large oval 10-seater table. Tables are covered with beautiful white linen table cloth and leather upholstered chairs.
Sapphire Dining Room - Christmas Lunch

The Sapphire Dining Room serves all 3 main meals - breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Breakfast

Breakfast time varies depending on the time the ship ports for on-shore days and at-sea days. Ala carte breakfast is served on deck 4 while buffet breakfast is served on deck 4. You don't have to make a reservation for breakfast. You can either chose to share a table or have your own table. Sharing a table is a great opportunity to get to know other people on your cruise. Service is prompt and much friendlier and professional than at the Windjammer. There is no enforced dress code for breakfast. However, breakfast service hours are much shorter than the Windjammer, so check your cruise compass to avoid being disappointed.
Waffle Station at Sapphire Dining Room
In terms of food, the best quality breakfast is definitely here in the Sapphire Dining Room. For example, instead of potato jewels (tater tots) in the Windjammer, you'll be able to find whole pieces of hash browns. Another good example is having real scrambled eggs served instead of the instant-egg-powder-fluff you get at the Windjammer. Also you can get freshly made waffles here in the Sapphire Dining Room, instead of trying to pick up a not-so-mashed-up piece from the buffet at Windjammer.

I would highly recommend spending at least 1 breakfast at the Sapphire Dining Room. You will notice that this place gets more and more crowded towards the end of the cruise for breakfast as people start to realise how much better the food is there.

Lunch

Lunch is served on deck 3 with a 2 course menu and a salad buffet. Like breakfast, you don't have to make a table reservation for lunch. The seating set up is as that of during breakfast. There is no enforced dress code for lunch.

The lunch menu is called "Brasserie 30" which aims to get you in and out of Sapphire within 30 minutes. The lunch menu comprises of mainly light mains with a dessert. Mains includes salads, soups, pasta, meat, fish and chips, burgers, and Mexican options.
Lunch at Sapphire Main Dining Room
Portion sizes are small. But there's nothing stopping you from ordering more than 1 main. Food is nothing really special, nor anything really wrong with it - very average. I would compare it to an average family diner.

Dinner

Dinner starts at 5:30pm. Fixed time dining is served on decks 3 and 4, while My Time dining is served on deck 5. Even for My Time dining, to avoid disappointment, it's best to make a reservation on day 1 or before your cruise. Even with a reservation, dinner queues for My Time dining can be up to 10-15 minutes. So, do be patient, or bring something to read.

Dress code
There is a dress code for dinner (even casual dinners). Swim wear is not allowed (of course), but shorts are not allowed too. The "no shorts" policy enforced to the dismay of many Australian diners, who tend to prefer to keep their holiday more casual. This resulted in most families spending most dinners in the Windjammer. And one could notice the Windjammer getting more and more crowded as the days went by.

On formal nights, the minimum standard was shirt and tie for men. Most women were in party dresses, not really long frocks.

Food
Dinner is generally a 3 course menu. The menu comprises of a fixed set of dishes and about 4-5 daily specials. There are also a "Premium Selection" section on the menu which you can order for an additional charge. These includes lobster and Chops Grille's Fillet Mignon.

Bread is served while you wait for your meal to arrive. However, unlike on our last trip on the Oasis, bread was served at room temperature rather than warmed.

The starters and mains are generally of a small portion, or what I call Asian size. It's great if you want to portion control your diet. If you don't feel that one portion is enough, you can always ask for 2 mains. I noticed most young men going for 2 main courses every dinner.
Dinner at Sapphire Main Dining Room
The quality of the food is better than your average restaurant. Most dishes are very safe in the sense of food preparation. What I'm talking about is serving stuff like roast chicken/ beef, fried noodles, grilled sausages, fish and chips, paella. It's really not that easy to get those kinds of food wrong. And yes, there was lobster night - that was on the 2nd formal night. I enjoyed the lobster being served hot, rather than our last trip on the Oasis where the lobster was served chilled.
Desserts at Sapphire Main Dining Room
Desserts are mostly cold with options include cakes, mouses, ice-creams, brules. Desserts were mostly very good, with the exception of the creeps which turned out very mushy. We also enjoyed the sugar-free options.

Service
Service at the Sapphire Main Dining Room is excellent. Wait staff are very prompt, attentive and friendly. Recently they have been voted the best wait staff in the Royal Caribbean Fleet. The wait staff would put up a short song or dance item each seating. This item really made the atmosphere fun and lively.
Special Song Item by Wait Staff on Christmas Day

Overall

The Voyager of the Seas Sapphire dining room is a real well oiled machine functioning at its best. You order food, you get food promptly. The atmosphere is light, and not at all the old-stuff-traditional stereotypes which main dining room tends to get. Service is friendly and most of the time you get to chat with the table next to you. Food is very edible, better than you average family diner.

Related Posts
RCI Voyager of the Seas - X'mas Cruise Review (Pre-cruise)
Voyager of the Seas Grand Suite 1248 Review
Suite Class Perks - Royal Caribbean Voyager of the Seas

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