354197 Sun Dec 24 18:12:48 -0800 2006 31 27 General Chowhounding Topics 0 2126611 We'd like to take a cruise but wonder which lines have the best food? We took a cruise on Carnival and the food was a notch above Applebees. Any suggestions? Sun Dec 24 18:12:48 -0800 2006 57253 lucyis 1 2126680 I've heard from my parents, frequent cruisers, that Holland America has the best food. I've been on Royal Caribbean and Princess and enjoyed the food on both -- Princess a bit more because they had the additional a la carte restaurants, which are always a treat. I would always vote the smaller ships. The one thing I hated about cruise ship dining was how institutional it felt -- like I was in a mess hall with nicer linens. Sun Dec 24 19:12:32 -0800 2006 2126611 12858 Covert Ops 2 2129540 If you go on Holland America, go to the Pinnacle Grill. Much better than the main dining room, and if you do your homework early, you can get comped(we got it twice - once from the line(they wanted to fill the room the first night)and once from our travel agent)and we liked it so much we went back two other times. The casual food on the Lido deck is quite good too. Tue Dec 26 19:40:30 -0800 2006 2126680 10786 calabasas_trafalgar 1 2126711 Well, I can tell you with certainty that it isn't Carnival Cruise lines!!! ___ my foodie blog: http://www.thursdayclubnyc.com Sun Dec 24 19:34:04 -0800 2006 2126611 15385 thursdayclubjason 1 2126938 I wasn't that impressed with Holland America's, except in their specialty restaurant, the Pinacle. I think the top 2 are Silversea & Seabourne, by far. I love Silversea's La Salletta restaurant & their galley tour brunch is the only buffet I'll do - it's delicious!! Sun Dec 24 22:14:21 -0800 2006 2126611 10392 torta basilica 1 2126956 We've done quite a few Celebrity cruises, and have always enjoyed the food: It's not Michelin 3 star, but they do a pretty darn good job of feeding tasty food to lots of people. Try to get a tour of the kitchen -- amazing place! The kitchen is also very willing to cater to special dietary needs. A word about the service: It beats just about anything you'll find on land! Sun Dec 24 22:31:53 -0800 2006 2126611 11995 pikawicca 1 2126960 Interesting question. I am looking to take my girlfriend on a shorter cruise (5 days or less) and I'd like to go to something that is on a 3 star Michelin level. Sun Dec 24 22:39:25 -0800 2006 2126611 49180 jpschust 1 2127181 3 star Michelin means the best food on the planet -- I don't think you're apt to find this on a boat, given the sourcing constraints. It's not like the chef can go to the local market and buy what's best that day. Cooking on a cruise presents many challenges that land-bound chefs don't have to deal with. It's really not fair to make a comparison between ship and land chefs. Mon Dec 25 00:55:28 -0800 2006 2126611 11995 pikawicca 1 2127712 Celebrity is better than any of the other "Mainstream Cruise lines". You typically get what you pay for, all round. Mon Dec 25 16:09:14 -0800 2006 2126611 18808 Kam7185 1 2127731 In September, my parents went on a cruise with Crystal Cruises, on the Crystal Symphony. I hear this is the end-all, beat-all cruise line in terms of service and quality of dining. They went on the cruise with 10 of my aunts and uncles, and my grandparents, and none of them could stop raving about the gorgeous food. They even brought home menus for my brother and I to be jealous over! Here's a sample menu from their website: http://www.crystalcruises.com/files/menu/ValentinoCS.pdf Mon Dec 25 16:28:41 -0800 2006 2126611 57371 operagirl 2 2127996 that looks excellent, thanks for that! Mon Dec 25 19:57:27 -0800 2006 2127731 49180 jpschust 3 2129162 You're welcome. Bear in mind my grandparents are quite the gourmets (my grandma used to cater with Narsai David), so nobody was exaggerating! Tue Dec 26 17:12:46 -0800 2006 2127996 57371 operagirl 2 2137769 Second or third the recommendation for the Crystal cruise line and Seabourn. My grandparents were avid cruisers who would only travel on the "best" and Crystal was their line of choice (after the Royal Viking Line went out of business). Seabourn took over several ships from the Royal Viking Line, which was their former favorite. I've been on a couple of Crystal cruises and the food is excellent. My all time best trip was on the Royal Viking Queen (which is now the Seabourn Legend). All food was top-notch and included in the price. You could order (beluga) caviar as an appetizer every single night, which I did for the entire three week cruise (this was in 1992, before the beluga crises). Here's the Seabourn website: http://www.seabourn.com/ Fri Dec 29 20:57:52 -0800 2006 2127731 11028 DanaB 1 2128654 I've sailed on Princess twice now, but my parents are frequent cruisers and won't go on any other lines. In general, I've enjoyed the food on the ship, but after seven days worth of the stuff I always seem to find something particularly junky like Taco Bell or McDonald's to be oddly appealing... Here's a quick rundown of the food on Princess ships (This info is based on the Star Princess, but applies for the other Grand Class ships as well.) Dining rooms: There are options for either traditional fixed seating dining (you eat at a specific time)or Personal Choice dining, where you can choose when you eat. We generally opt for the personal choice, since we don't usually know when we're going to eat. For dinner, the menus are four courses (appetizer, soup/salad, entree and dessert) and for each course there will be some items always available, and other items which change on a daily basis (roughly 3-4 of each.) A lot of the items do use some fairly costly (and even soem rather exotic) ingredients, with the most expensive items (like lobster tails) served on the second formal night (there are 2 on a 7 day cruise.) Even when it's not formal night, they'd like you to dress up a little nicer than usual for the dining rooms (a button-up shirt and khakis will do.) I'm not familiar with breakfast and lunch items in the dining room, since we didn't ever eat those in the dining rooms. Also keep in mind that alcoholic beverages are charged separately from the meal, which pretty much holds true throughout the ship. There are plenty of options for those, and there are non-alcoholic options as well. In addition to the usual dining room fare, the Princess ships also have an steakhouse option (very good steaks,although they come with an additional $15 charge per passenger and you'll probably want to make a reservation when you board in order to get the seating you want) and Sabatini's, an Italian restaurant which is supposed to be very good, but I haven't tried it ($25 per person service charge, and same warning on reservations.) On the less formal side, there's the Horizon Court Buffet, which is open 24 hours, and is about what you'd expect from a buffet (although oftentimes the entrees from dinner do make their way to the buffet later in the evening if you find something you want seconds on.) It's a lot more informal, and you can take the stuff from here pretty much wherever you want. Also during the day, there is a pizzeria (with limited selections that change daily, but the pizza is much better than the usual chain pizza) and a grill (standard burger-and-fries fare) found near the outdoor pool area. There's also an ice cream parlor open during the day, but this comes with an additional charge as well. Overall, the food on Princess is quite good, as long as you don't mind the selection being somewhat limited. You have to keep in mind they need to be able to feed 3,000 passengers a day (plus another 1,000 crew) and most of the time they're not going to be able to restock food during the cruise. Tue Dec 26 05:48:56 -0800 2006 2126611 24644 Vexorg 2 2129013 I ate at Sabatini's once, it was quiet, dimly lit and relaxing, a nice change from the mess-hall dining room experience. I don't recall the meal (it was several years ago) but I remember it was about 5 courses and had limoncello at the end. ;-) Tue Dec 26 16:01:08 -0800 2006 2128654 12858 Covert Ops 1 2129568 Holland America has top-notch service and some of the best and friendliest staff around, but their food tends to be rather bland and mediocre. My parents just got off a HAL cruise, and they were not impressed with the food (although they raved about the crew, as usual). Princess actually has excellent food considering how many people they're serving. Crystal's food is also excellent, and their specialty restaurants are to die for. What's nice about Crystal is that the supplements for their specialty restaurants are really reasonable, so it pays to make a run for the restaurants to make reservations as soon as you board. Tue Dec 26 19:52:00 -0800 2006 2126611 26708 sidwich 1 2130159 NCL to Bermuda, most of the dining room food was just awful. Knowing that the destination to port was a short one, we just hung on for local fare. Reminder: if you drink coffee-cruise java is by far the worst experience. Wed Dec 27 00:29:40 -0800 2006 2126611 36312 HillJ 1 2130874 Our first cruise was a Princess cruise and we found the food so bad that we wouldn't get on another ship for 5 years. Now, to possibly give Princess an excuse there was a new chef on the ship that cruise. We met a woman in Ft. Lauderdale once who had worked for a few cruise lines. She told us that the more a cruise line charges on average means the more they spend on food per passenger and the quality improves. So, taking her advice we have been on 3 Radisson/Regent cruises. The food quality was light years ahead of Princess but we felt like we were on a floating retirement community. Last year we tried the Queen Mary 2. Overall not as luxurious as Regent but we enjoyed the food outside of the main restaurant. This was the best balance of good enough food and finding people our own age to meet. Wed Dec 27 13:04:02 -0800 2006 2126611 62053 rosepoint 1 2131007 My wife and I are planning a food and wine spotlight cruise on the Reagent Voyager through the Mediterranean. Any one been on one of these cruises or heard of anyone else's experiences? Wed Dec 27 15:04:35 -0800 2006 2126611 61376 Bhutani 1 2131096 Try www.cruisecritic.com Great site, forums there would be a great place to post this topic. You'll get the low down from lots of people about their opinions about the food on every cruise line imaginable. I've only been on NCL and found that it varies. My first cruise to the Eastern Carribbean the food was fantastic and service was tremendously professional - but we also were seated each night in a separate smaller dining area set off from the main larger room (not a specialty restaurant, just a smaller room with tables for 2 and all ocean views). Second cruise to Bermuda was mediocre at best, and service at dinner was actually pretty awful on some evenings; like HillJ mentioned above. The waitstaff were horribly under-trained and many pompous and acting as if they knew better than you when you'd complain about something wrong with the food or wine. The saving grace on that cruise turned out to be that the gentleman in charge of the dining room turned out to be the same one in charge of the 1st cruise I took 3 years prior (our honeymoon, different & better boat/destination). He actually remembered us (not just making it up - he specifically had details to relay back to us!) and from that moment on made sure that we were very well taken care of. Wed Dec 27 15:43:01 -0800 2006 2126611 12099 sivyaleah 1 2135210 You really get what you pay for at a cruise ship. Princess, HAL, Celebrity, RCCL, and Carnival are the mid-range ship for the masses. Crystal, Seabourn, Regent, QMII etc are the luxury lines and their fares are about twice as much as the mid ranged ones. Some of those ships serves caviar and Don Perignon for free... Never been to the luxury lines (not likely until my son is much older), but out of the mid range ones I had the best luck with Princess. But generally if you are picky about the food the mid range cruises won't give you spectacular food. At best it's more like a good hotel quality one. Buffets are generally bad. Sabatini on Princess was very good and worth the extra cost. I've also sailed on RCCL, and their dining room food was solid. Celebrity had great desserts on our Alaskan sailing but the dining room fare was hit & miss (they tried to be too fancy and failed on the execution). Carnival was the pits for our Med cruise this summer. My siblings sailed on NCL and said that the food there was worse than Carnival, believe it or not. I've heard good things about the food on Disney Cruise Line, but haven't been. Cruisecritic is a good site for cruise line info, but from my experience not many reviewers are foodies. Thu Dec 28 22:48:01 -0800 2006 2126611 46671 notmartha 2 2135245 I would certainly not put Carnival in the mid-range category! Carnival is for people who can't afford a decent cruise and just want to board a ship to drink and party. I'm met people on who were turned off of cruising because their first cruise was Carnival. I think NCL and RCCL are the next step up, and then would be Princess, HAL, and Celebrity. I agree that the luxury cruise lines would have better quality food, but you certainly pay for it! I'd also expect them to have a higher quality because they typically have fewer guests on board. We went on HAL to Mexico from San Diego and thought the food was pretty good. We had one meal in the "upgrade" restaurant and it was outstanding. Because we went early, the staff had time to talk with us and we enjoyed that. We had hit-or-miss coffee, but found that we could ask the dining staff to brew a new pot if the one they gave us was too weak. After a few days, we just ordered espressos when we sat down. I think any of the higher-up mid-level lines (does that make sense?) have decent food and you can always order 2 servings if you find something you really like. We had lamb chops two nights and after wishing I ordered double the first night, I definitely did so when it came up on the menu again! Surprisingly, our filet and lobster night produced the most tender and tasty lobster tail I've ever had. Didn't even want butter! Granted, the food is not up to the standards of the greatest landlocked restaurants, but for what it is, I think it's really enjoyable. Besides, if you're going on a cruise solely for the food, perhaps a cruise isn't the best way for you to travel? My parents were looking to take a cruise around Hawaii until my mom realized she would just be sitting down watching TV and movies (she wasn't interested in the ports - they grew up in HI) and eating all the food. So, she figured she could take the money they were going to spend and splurge at some high-end Vegas restaurants, the Sterling brunch at Bally's and whatever buffets she wanted to enjoy! Thu Dec 28 23:04:12 -0800 2006 2135210 42944 leanneabe 2 2135594 notmartha, I beg to disagree on the "you get what you pay for" idea. My husband and I have taken several Celebrity cruises and one much-more-expensive Radisson cruise. The food on the Radisson cruise was good, but not quite as good as Celebrity. I imagine that the higher tier ships might be better, but I never expect to find out first-hand. Fri Dec 29 01:23:42 -0800 2006 2135210 11995 pikawicca 3 2136101 For most cruise site description, Carnival is still considered to be the mid-range - on par with Princess, HAL, RCCL, NCL, Disney and the like. It is a little bit cheaper, and while they do have a reputation as a party boat because of the 3 day iterinaries, it's not like every boat is the same and every iterinary is the same. Believe me - there's more party animal at the RCCL W. Caribbean cruise we went on than the Carnival cruise to W. Med. Princess seems to command the most premium out of the mid range, and I found that they don't skimp as much on the food as say Carnival. I found fresh fruit (even papayas), shrimp to be abundant on Princess, and even the more relatively expensive/exotic veggie like belgian endives are in the salad bars. On RCCL and Carnival they dole out shrimp like they were gold. This is part of you get what you paid for. My theory is that they have to save money somewhere as their fare are less, and the most obvious place to save is on food. I remembered reading that the higher end cruise line the wine/soda are included, as is the service, and also they have the expensive stuff like caviar and such at certain events. That's also part of the you get what you paid for - try having free champagne and caviar at your mid range cruise ships. Soda are also not free on the mid range cruise ships. I don't know whether there's a huge difference/value between the best mid-range and the worst high-range. Haven't had a chance to find out (give me 10 years after my kid goes to college). My first cruise was on Celebrity - due to their reputation as a foodie cruise line. Well, nowadays most cruise lines have celebrity chef designed menu, and I think they are mostly hype. The Celebrity cruise I was on had stringy/tough way undercooked duck that the even the RCCL cruise chef was able to master reasonably well, so you never know. Bottom line is, cruise ship food varies, even within the same cruise line. No guarantee and the worst thing is if the food is bad you can't hop off and find food elsewhere. So I learned to set my expectation low and hope to be pleasantly surprised. My comments were based on the 5 cruises we went to the past 6.5 years, and the cruises my siblings & parents went on (they are serious chowhounds as well). Fri Dec 29 05:33:56 -0800 2006 2135594 46671 notmartha 1 2135294 I appreciate and agree with many of the points made. I would add that our disappoint in cruise fare is compounded by the amount of spin cruiselines, travel agents and travel clubs place on "how wonderful" the food is going to be on a cruise...and then you get onboard and quickly realize...that much has changed. In the three years dh and I waited before returning to Bermuda, we didn't recognize the food service: ie: Midnight buffets, Captain's nights, Coffee and dessert bars, service at poolside, specialty restaurants and beverages were all redesigned. Most evident at main dining room dinners. This hasn't prevented us from cruising but our expectations and destinations have changed. Thu Dec 28 23:20:00 -0800 2006 2126611 36312 HillJ 1 2136735 Radisson/Regent include some drinks - if I recall correctly, wine with dinner, but it wasn't of a great quality. You could upgrade for a reasonable fee to a better bottle. I think they also give you a small 'starter bar' in your cabin, but it's been a few years - not positive about that. Crystal, although excellent food for a larger ship, nickel & dime you on everything - NOTHING is included. Really irritating after having cruised on an all-inclusive line. I believe the same for QEII, but have not cruised on her. Silversea & Seabourne include EVERYTHING - silver caviar service on demand (others may do this - I didn't try on Radisson or Crystal) brought to your suite (they're all suites, not cabins on Silversea - not so on Seabourne) 24/7, as often as you'd like. Your bar is stocked with your requests. ALL drinks, including fairly decent wine with dinner - we usually upgraded, again at a reasonable fee, but the ones service were quite drinkable. Had a bottle of Gaja Chard for $100 once, which I thought ridiculously well-priced & delicious! Dom Perignon is served upon boarding to Am Exp Plat travellers, but the standard 'call' champagne is not Dom (which isn't such a bad thing - I think it's way overrated). Silversea's regular champagne I believe used to be Veuve, but now a lesser known, but good, French brand. Don't know what Seabourne's is now, but it's sure to be high quality. Cigarettes are even free (which still surprises me in this day & age), but smoking areas have happily been greatly restricted. As I mentioned, the specialty restaurants, especially La Salletta on the Silver Cloud & WInd are excellent & should not be missed. You do have to purchase a wine to dine here (only time you need to purchase any drink), but again, very reasonable & excellent wine list. There were $20 - $1K plus bottles. The average age on these deluxe cruises has plummeted. We were the 2nd to the youngest on our 1st SS cruise in our early 40's. 4 cruises later, not the case at all - many our age & some younger & most not much older. Generally, you do find older travellers on Holland America & the QEII cruises & on most of the longer cruises that can not be broken up into sections. Fri Dec 29 15:46:01 -0800 2006 2126611 10392 torta basilica 2 2137149 The average age on our Holland America Alaskan cruise had to be about 75 - kids included! Fri Dec 29 17:39:26 -0800 2006 2136735 10786 calabasas_trafalgar 3 2137438 I believe it - ours too - even over the holidays. A lot of motorized scooters parked in hallways... Fri Dec 29 19:17:59 -0800 2006 2137149 10392 torta basilica 1 2140673 I've taken two west coast princess cruises and I'm a foodie. The food on the first was very good and the second was "ok to pretty good". Princess cuisine staff management include many italians. The onboard pizzeria is terrific. The italian food is quite good. Stay away from the mexican, asian, etc. We found caviar in the buffet one night and took it to our cabin to enjoy. Princess also lets you bring your own wine and champagne..as much as you want. Corkage is only $10. If you enjoy wine, bring your own glasses too. Sun Dec 31 02:41:43 -0800 2006 2126611 41181 Rhee 1 2140758 The pizza on the Dawn Princess was some of the best I've ever had. Talking to one of the cooks-he said he makes 100 pounds of fresh pizza dough every day. I ate it everyday is was so good. First of all don't expect cruise food to be much above what you might get at the Cheesecake Factory. Go with that in mind and you won't have high expectations and be disappointed. On cruise lines its all about presentation, profitability and feeding masses of people. One thing to understand about cruise lines is they basically all get their provisions from the same purveyors where they port. There's basically two classes in cruising...call it middle class and high class. Carnival owns Holland America so the food quality isn't going to be much different. I will say I've had better prepared meals on Holland America and I attribute that to the fact that they have smaller ships than Carnival. Holland America also claims a lower crew/passenger ratio. On Holland America I've had Alaskan King crab legs and Maine lobsters. Downside is Holland America ships are not mega ships with all the bells and whistles that the other lines have. Royal Caribbean has decent food-the maitre de told me now that when you order a steak its cooked to order and not cooked ahead of time. NCL is just ok, their freestyle dining makes it somewhat interesting. Bottom line is with todays cruise ships carrying 2,500+ passengers, food is prepared like an assembly line. They're preparing up to 10,000 meals a day. Disadvantage of the high end cruise lines is the average age of the passenger is also way up there. (more disposable income). Sun Dec 31 03:17:50 -0800 2006 2126611 11914 monku 1 2141835 I have been on three cruise lines, Seabourne, Celebrity and Princess. Seabourne - look at the prices and one would expect top tier everything and that's pretty uch what you get. Nice staterooms and exceptional food. Celebrity - I thought the food was very good, different varieties, well prepared and as good as a "pretty good" resto. Pricess - Like Celebrity in food quality and variety. Their "anytime" option is not exactly anytime, but it gives great flexibility. You get the same base food and each resto will have one specialty in addition. Buffets on latter two - they are horrible. How do people eat this junk? I am glad many people go there as it leaves a more quiet atmosphere in the sit-down restos. Sun Dec 31 18:33:47 -0800 2006 2126611 11290 jfood 2 2143011 I found the buffet on the Dawn Princess last month quite good. Of course I picked only what interested me, but there was always something. Mon Jan 01 11:58:01 -0800 2007 2141835 13619 Sharuf