Cruise event strategy that has helped me

[chuckyt888]

I finished the last cruise day (600 needed) a little over an hour after it opened up. Got a perfect string of dishes/ingredients being asked for. Not sure if I'll ever accomplish that feat again but what has helped me finish these cruises with ease has been stacking up 4* and 3* dishes that are needed. Also try to keep my pantry stacked with 10+ of the 4* ingredients that are most commonly asked for (strawberries, oranges, peas, mayo, onion, potato, green pepper, salmon) and then as many 3* ingredients I can before running out of space. I always have each 4* ingredient at least to the point where my next collection from the store would get me to 10 of that item and I try to work towards having 16 of salmon, potato, onion and green pepper if I can as they seem the most common 4* ingredients asked for IMO and many dishes asked for also use these (my stores are upgraded to collect 4 at a time). It's key to get your buildings upgraded to where they shell out 4 or more of each ingredient as soon as you can. The 4* dishes that seem most common for me are French Dip, Stew, Ginger Tea, Lobster Bisque, Prime Rib, Lobster Thermador and Tuna Casserole. I'm level 49 it's worth noting.

Also, try to get 4* dishes/ingredients lined up and loaded for the next day (by refreshing) before you finish the current day so you can clip off a bunch of points as soon as the next day opens up. It's extremely helpful and the other biggest key for me completing these cruises easily. It's really helpful to at least do this on the last few days of the cruise when you need the most points delivered. For example on the last day you need 600 points. I maneuvered so that I had 3 4* ingredients/dishes lines up and loaded before I finished the day. I also left 5 points on the board which I just gemmed to get me to the last day. This allowed me to immediately clip off 180 points from the 600 needed on the last day.

One thing I've noticed that is irritating is that dishes will become worth less stars as you level up. Creme Brulee, Ginger Snaps and Split Pea Soup come to mind for me as being 4* previously but are now 3* for me.

Good luck everyone! These cruises are easy to complete if you just stock up and stack up your dishes the first few days of the cruise!

[deucedeuce22]

Yes because everyone has 200 pantry spaces and max counters to hold everything you do. That's like me saying, " I have maxed out markets a 15 slot market and high pantry capacity, cruises are easy mode, play like me." Most people won't be able to do this, and so I'm not really helping anyone.

Everyones game plays differently, you need to generalize your advice to suit all players.

[Rynetory2]

My strategy was the same and worked great cos I had my pantry close to 200 and my shops were almost fully expanded. It was so easy to stock up onions when I had lots of pantry space and easily collected 5-6 onions each time.

However I "lost" my level 50+ restaurant few months ago due to my own fault. So I restarted from scratch and it was a drastic change working with a pantry <100 and shops at 2-3. A simple task like collecting 10 onions took me days! I constantly had to make a choice what to throw out of my tiny pantry. Anyways there are different strategies for high level and low level restaurants. Sorry but this wont work for my new low level one. I will use my old strategy once I rebuild my pantry and shops to my former stats.

[catfoodie]

I agree with others. I use the same strategy at level 57 - hoard bunch of ingredients and stack all my 20 counters with 4/3 coin food. However, if you only have 10 or so counters and tiny pantry, this strategy wouldn't work at all. That's why a lot of lower level players have troubles to complete this events - because everything just takes a lot more time to collect and not enough space :>

I think the strategy you described is pretty common for players, it's been discussed in guides, threads a lot :> it's still nice to see some insight and personal expirience on these events though!

[phatzs]

Coming from a lower level (26) perspective, it is difficult to do some of the things you said. My pantry is only at 60 and my stores are 3 for general store and 2 for the others. This was my second cruise that I have done in rs2(completed both), and this past one was easier for me then the first one because I did use some of the strategies that was mention like stacking counters, and trying to collect as many longer restock items as possible while keeping a few spots open for other ingredients to make the dishes. I would love to have all my stores at 3/4 but it just cost so much money to increase the stock. It cost a lot to increase in anything in this game. My problem for this cruise was that I stacked up all my counters, and didn't have any free ones to put any cooked food on so a lot of food that I served for the cruise went to waste. Anyway, I'm done rambling.

[enaid03]

For what it is worth, I'm at a 180 pantry with no food on my counters before the event. I too finished the event with plenty of time.

I don't think its about a certain strategy that works, but a strategy that fits your pantry, market, and number of ingredients per store.

[Chaotarch]

refresh, one of the best strategies is refresh....
even for me ( lv60, 250er pantry, 24er street market, all shops 6er ).
i guess the most players ( low or not ) would make the cruise with 3 or 4 coins dishes, yes me too, but:

- refresh and in 30min you get a new order
- some 1cc-dishes are fast and easy to make --> faster new order without refreshing
- the most 3&4 cc block the stoves for a long time; and if you dont have "double appliance" much longer...
- ignore the campfire ordes, cuz you have only one ( okay if enough at counter )
- while i am not sleeping, and get orders with over 1h-cookingtime, i refresh....
- look at the ingredients you need for a dish, most orders not worth the cruise coins...

just a few points from a non-blocking-the-door-or-tables-player.

[chuckyt888]

I did most of the same things now that I did at a lower level. I only have 130 pantry space. I don't buy gems (I might if they ever had a sale...don't think I've ever had a sale in RS2) and suck it up waiting for hammers to drop from Cid. Extremely irritating waiting for hammers. They do not drop near fast enough. They could double the drop rate and it still would be completely off balance with the rest of the game.

One thing I would suggest to lower players is to try to work towards upgrading your stores to 4-item collection. Obviously pantry is extremely important as well but I just upgraded to 130 a couple weeks ago and it's fine at that number it seems and I've unlocked every ingredient for a lvl 49.

As a lower player I did the same things I mentioned. Like someone mentioned previously I also refreshed much more. If turning chairs, Just stock up the 4-star dishes for your counters and then with any leftover counters use them for the common 3* dishes. If I remember right, at lower levels, French Dip and Stew seemed to ALWAYS pop up. Definitely go wild cooking those common dishes. Refreshing dishes at the end of the day to get 4* dishes/ingredients and loading them prior to starting the next day is key at lower levels especially.

This last cruise I turned my chairs around for the first time and it made things extremely easy loading up key dishes on counters. Up to this point I did not do this. If you don't turn your chairs around, then it becomes much more important to keep the key 4* ingredients stacked in your pantry. If not turning chairs, some people will cook key dishes and just leave them ready to serve on the appliance. At lower levels I just went with the flow and waited to cook once a dish popped up. I also tried to get 2 of a given appliance as fast as I could.