Food on HAL vs. other lines...?? [Archive] - Cruise Critic Message Boards

Druke I

April 14th, 2009, 04:54 PM

Food tastes are very subjective, but I think HAL's food generally better than Princess, and about the same as Celebrity, and far superior to NCL's food.

Best food we've had on ships has been Oceania Cruise Lines, but I wouldn't consider them main-line.

navybankerteacher

April 14th, 2009, 05:18 PM

Main dining room food on HAL is far superior to that on NCL (as is service) and somewhat better than that on Carnival.

lauderdalegirl

April 14th, 2009, 05:20 PM

just off the zuiderdam much preferred NCL more of selection and more restaurants. I like the choice even if i have to pay for it.

taxmantoo

April 14th, 2009, 06:29 PM

Just got off the Eurodam and believe the food in the Main Dining Room is far superior on HAL than our 2 recent NCL cruises. The food in Pinnacle Grill and Tamarind is also superior to NCL's Cagney's and Chin-Chin although not as markedly so as the MDR.

Clemsonfan15

April 14th, 2009, 08:50 PM

I would have to agree with the other posters. HAL is much better than NCL. The only items that were better on NCL were the sausage and the eggs. Lol.

GOLDENBONNY

April 15th, 2009, 11:20 AM

How does the food on HAL in the main dining rooms compare to the main dining rooms on other cruise lines?

Which cruise line food (main dining room) is your favorite?

Any and all info is appreciated!
Thanks!!

We cruised on Costa,Princess ,NCL:eek:,and HAL ,I would say Hal had best food by quality and selection.

Sirdar

April 15th, 2009, 11:35 AM

IMHO Celebrity has slight edge on HAL while HAL has slight edge on Princess. RCL not too bad and NCL was behind the others.

fridayeyes

April 15th, 2009, 11:36 AM

MDR food on HAL is much better than NCL, better than Carnival, and slightly better than Celebrity in taste. Celebrity has the edge on HAL where presentation is concerned, though, at least IMHO. Again, this is only in the MDR.

Service on X vs. HAL (for me) is a matter of personal preference. X service, while usually impeccable, is the more formal and reserved European style. You will be called Sir and Madame or Mr. /Ms. Lastname. That style of service tends to regard calling you by your first name as overly familiar. On HAL, you will be greeted with warm smiles and "Ma'am Firstname". Some prefer one, some prefer the other.

fann1sh

April 15th, 2009, 12:00 PM

Lamb in the main dining room on HAL is a winner. (I almost never eat lamb elsewhere). Cold soups are outstanding. Despite the fact Parmesan Chicken is a favorite of many here, mine has been dry and unappealing to my taste buds - YMMV.

usha

April 15th, 2009, 12:05 PM

So far, I've cruised on HAL, Celebrity & Princess.
I'd rate HAL's & Celebrity's main diningroom food to be pretty neck & neck, although I think Celebrity's food service is better. Princess food & service trail behind, IMO.

OrangeKitty

April 15th, 2009, 01:06 PM

Thanks for all of the helpful opinions so far!! :)

xznwfd

April 15th, 2009, 01:54 PM

Of the 4 lines I've cruised, I would rate Celebrity best for both MDR and specialty restaurants, followed by HAL, Princess and then Royal Caribbean. I did feel HAL's main dining room food quality and taste had dropped a few notches on my last cruise (Jan. of 09), but loved the new Pinnacle Grille menu.

Cathy

Cologal49

April 15th, 2009, 02:06 PM

We have only cruised HAL and NCL. The food was not even comparible. HAL had it all - except on NCL we had fresh pineapple (but then we were in Hawaii!!!).

We are vegetarians, and the food on NCL for veggies was a joke. We ate like kings on HAL.

geoherb

April 15th, 2009, 03:22 PM

Comparing the food on our two most recent cruises--Celebrity in December and HAL last month--HAL wins. The lobster tail was the biggest and tastiest I've ever had. Celebrity now serves half a puny lobster tail on top of seafood risotto. A lot probably has to do with the wait staff. We had better service on our HAL cruise. Things arrived at the proper temperature.

I think Princess' food is very good. I like their "always available" menu better than HAL's or Celebrity's. Princess also does better desserts.

lorekauf

April 15th, 2009, 03:24 PM

I've cruise HAL, Princess, Celebrity and Carnival. HAL and Princess are pretty much the same to me but the desserts are better on Princess. I find the the food was fine on Celebrity but menus seem the have the same items again and again on the same cruise. It was a long time ago when I cruised Carnival but I think the food was ok.

lorekauf

April 15th, 2009, 03:27 PM

The lobster tail was the biggest and tastiest I've ever had. Celebrity now serves half a puny lobster tail on top of seafood risotto. A lot probably has to do with the wait staff. We had better service on our HAL cruise. Things arrived at the proper temperature.

I think Princess' food is very good. I like their "always available" menu better than HAL's or Celebrity's. Princess also does better desserts.

Wow are you sure you were on HAL with the big lobster:D? HAL serves the smallest lobster tails I've ever seen......makes me think shrimp. On my recent cruise with Princess I was impressed by how large the lobster was...and it was very good.

crusinbanjo

April 15th, 2009, 03:55 PM

Mrs Banjo & I have cruised on HAL, Princess, Regent, SilverSea, and various small barge and river cruises.

My opinion of the food on HAL is that it is very good, and compares well with Princess. Silversea and Regent are better IMHO, you would expect that from a "luxury" line where the price is significantly higher, but only marginally better. (The total experience is also significantly different.)

All of the cruise lines have very good food, so I don't usually choose a cruise based on what I expect the food to be like.

Clemsonfan15

April 15th, 2009, 04:13 PM

GeriatricNurse

April 15th, 2009, 04:49 PM

Wow are you sure you were on HAL with the big lobster:D? HAL serves the smallest lobster tails I've ever seen......makes me think shrimp. On my recent cruise with Princess I was impressed by how large the lobster was...and it was very good.

I agree! On my recent HAL cruise onboard the ms Maasdam, the so-called "lobster tails" that were served in the Lido on one of the formal nights were not only small but over(pre)cooked and INEDIBLE!!! Just God awful!!! The Lido Dining Room Manager was so informed!

Essiesmom

April 15th, 2009, 06:07 PM

Just off the Oosterdam and the lobster tails were huge. I found the food quite good, but other than my first Carnival cruise in 1999, I have found all cruise line food to be comparable, and enjoy it very much. EM

mrsltg

April 15th, 2009, 08:20 PM

Generally anytime anyone is cooking anything for upwards of multiple hundreds of people the quality suffers. I've sailed Carnival, NCL, DCL, HAL, American Hawaii (now gone), and Premier (now gone.) I've never had a single meal in the main dining room of any cruise I couldn't do better myself at home. HOWEVER, I enjoyed the specialty restaurants on DCL, NCL, and HAL with my favorite being the Pinnacle. My absolute favorite meal at sea, however, was the Chef's Table on the Westerdam. Of course Andreas and his sous chef were only cooking for 22 people...

Two@Sea

April 15th, 2009, 08:25 PM

Wow are you sure you were on HAL with the big lobster:D? HAL serves the smallest lobster tails I've ever seen......makes me think shrimp. On my recent cruise with Princess I was impressed by how large the lobster was...and it was very good.

Just off the Westerdam April 5th-12th and the lobster tails were quite impressive! Large, flavorful, and cooked to perfection. I even gave my DH the last two or three bites of mine, as I was getting too full. I had read recently of the small lobster tails being served, and wondered if HAL had responded to complaints? The 'turf' portion of my meal was tender and tasty too! Everyone raved about that second formal night meal!

sillysailor 1955

April 15th, 2009, 08:26 PM

Thought I'd give two quick examples of NCL's food. We've only been on one of their cruises and that was last week. The food could be different on different ships.

We tired their shrimp cocktail and I swear those were the smallest shrimp I have ever seen. They were not more than an inch long and were no thicker than two pencil's I'd say.

On lobster night we heard that someone hurt their tooth on the lobster. My mom thought her lobster wasen't very good, but on HAL both her and my dad were wanting seconds.

I know exactly what you mean with the NCL "shrimp" cocktail. It looked like someone put it through a grinder - we last sailed with NCL on the Jade last Dec. 2008.

The only other cruiseline we have sailed with is HAL (Rotterdam 20+ years ago and the Noordam 2 years ago)

I have to honestly say the food on HAL was much better than NCL and HAL service was exceptional.

We are cruising to Alaska this July for the first time on Princess. I am interested to see what they are all about

kelmac

April 15th, 2009, 08:48 PM

Celebrity wins in the Dining Room, but HAL has the best Lido. I don't think Lobster size has anything to do with quality. I would rate them in this order (just ships I have sailed sans Azamara as it is in a different catagory):

#1 Celebrity
#2 Holland America
#3 Princess
#4 tie Royal Caribbean and NCL

Celebrity's new Solstice class ships have really set them apart from the crowd. Five different alternative restaurants that are wonderful.

Enjoy!
Kel:)

odiesam

April 15th, 2009, 09:18 PM

Just off the Eurodam - of our experiences: HAL's lido buffet is by far the best and also MDR is best.
#2 Royal Caribbean & Princess tied
#3 Carnival

Never sailed Celebrity.

iancal

April 15th, 2009, 09:27 PM

Celebrity hands down, HAL and Princess tied for 2nd place with the nudge to HAL for the Lido, RCI an extremely close 3rd, Carnival and NCL tied. Our experience-very much dependent on the ship and the meal that you order-meat fish, specialty etc.

BuckeyeGal1956

April 15th, 2009, 09:51 PM

On a recent cruise our TA gave us a Pinnacle meal free. The next night we had Surf & Turf in the main dining room. The steak in the DR was just as good as the Pinnacle. I'm glad I didn't pay the extra charge for it.

Food on Carnival doesn't ompare to HAL. Prime rib was only available in medium (really well done).

I'm doing my first RC in July to Alaska. Hope they have some great seafood choices!

sprockie

April 16th, 2009, 02:25 PM

lorekauf

April 16th, 2009, 03:01 PM

Just off the Westerdam April 5th-12th and the lobster tails were quite impressive! Large, flavorful, and cooked to perfection. I even gave my DH the last two or three bites of mine, as I was getting too full. I had read recently of the small lobster tails being served, and wondered if HAL had responded to complaints? The 'turf' portion of my meal was tender and tasty too! Everyone raved about that second formal night meal!
Good to hear.....I hope there will be no tiny tails on my next 2 cruises:D.

smileycruiser2007

April 16th, 2009, 04:51 PM

HAL has the best lunch no matter where you have it. Celebrity's lunch was like school cafeteria food, and they ran out of certain types of food and also plates, at least on the ship I was on. Celebrity's salads were notably fresh. But when the most appetizing lunch you can find day after day is a tuna sandwich on Celebrity, it is a little disappointing. HAL has a small ethnic buffet that is different every day by the Lido pool as well as the standard Lido buffet, and that can be a real treat (especially the German one:)).

For breakfast, it is really hard to choose. Only HAL has the fabulous fresh orange juice, while the Celebrity ship I was on only had sugary fountain juice. But Celebrity had hash every day, and fresh baked sticky buns every other day--yummm. But also Celebrity had paper cups for coffee sometimes--and every morning without fail people tried (politely) to sell you Celebrity coffee cups for $10 or whatever it was. I noticed on my February cruise that HAL has started to sell them too, but more discreetly.

For dinner, I'd have to say it was equally good with either line. I enjoyed the fresh sorbet on Celebrity as well as nightly shrimp cocktail, but I've enjoyed all my HAL dinners very much without those.

geoherb

April 16th, 2009, 04:51 PM

debshomespun

April 16th, 2009, 09:43 PM

Food in main DR and Lido #1 with HAL.

Desserts are #1 with RCCL.

Princess, NCL and Carnival are all behind, in that order.

Pam in CA

April 16th, 2009, 10:26 PM

Food and taste is VERY subjective but overall, I'd rate HAL pretty much similar to Princess but I'd give Princess the nod for much better pastas/Italian dishes and more options "always available" for appetizers, salad and entrees. IMHO, RCCL doesn't begin to compare to either HAL or Princess although it's been a while since I've been on an RCCL cruise. I remember one Christmas evening on RCCL when there were no menu options: it was set by the chef and if you didn't want what he'd chosen, you were SOOL.

cands

April 16th, 2009, 10:51 PM

HAL has the best dining room food of the maintream lines we have been on. Our ranking for all our cruises is:

1: Seabourn (by far)
2: Crystal (a little better than HAL)
3: HAL (very good)
4: P&O (UK)
5: Princess
6: Celebrity
7: NCL

Bramcruiser

April 16th, 2009, 11:11 PM

Food is a very subjective matter as everyone has different tastes. I consider myself a picky eater and not very adventurous.

To date I have only been on 5 cruises on three lines - Carnival, HAL and Cunard. By far I admit Cunard has the better food when it comes to the main dining room. HAL, however, I found good enough for my tastes and quite enjoyable. Obviously Carnival ranked at the bottom of the three but I don't quite recall it being absolutely horrible.

HAL wins with Lido food though.

David

mamadot

April 17th, 2009, 09:23 AM

We have cruised Celebrity, Princess, Oceana, Norwegian but do choose HAL over all! We were on the Coral Princess last year and their Lido was a Zoo. Of course, HAL has the best cabin service as it is not limited as most cruises.

lorekauf

April 17th, 2009, 10:05 AM

Here's a photo of the surf and turf on the Westerdam. That was a very tasty lobster.
I can tell you...that is MUCH bigger then I've ever seen. I hope to see lobster like that in Oct. Thanks for the pic:).

ViolaSwamp

April 17th, 2009, 12:19 PM

I agree! On my recent HAL cruise onboard the ms Maasdam, the so-called "lobster tails" that were served in the Lido on one of the formal nights were not only small but over(pre)cooked and INEDIBLE!!! Just God awful!!! The Lido Dining Room Manager was so informed!

The lobster tails served in the dining room on our Maasdam voyage were also incredibly overcooked, small, tasteless (unless you count rubber as a taste :rolleyes:), and generally yucky.

This being said, we found that generally speaking HAL's dining room cuisine was better than or at least as good as RCCL's. However, RCCL's Windjammer buffet FAR exceeded that of HAL's Lido.

GeezLouise1

April 17th, 2009, 05:00 PM

Food on the Oosterdam last month was fabulous. Lobster tails were huge and delicious. The chefs might want to hold back on the salt a tad, but that is an individual preference. The food was just as good as the QM2 this month. And it was all much superior to what I'm attempting to cook at home as I rediscover how to cook in my own kitchen!:p

Sillyjilly

April 17th, 2009, 09:12 PM

Hal is number one in service and food in the MDR & the buffet in my opinion.

Celebrity would be 2nd with Princess a close 3rd

RCI would be 4th and NCL would be DEAD LAST.

I lost weight on my NCL cruise. Food was that bad, really.

Host Michell

April 17th, 2009, 09:36 PM

I love NCL but thought HAL was much better in terms of MDR food. That opinion was reinforced on our NCL cruise last week.

PS I've lost weight on every cruise I've ever taken (HAL, NCL, RCI, CCL, Regal, a couple more old lines) because I make a point of increasing my activity a lot. I just enjoy trying different food. So far I'd put HAL ahead of NCL (allowing for the specialty restaurants on NCL -- without the specialties NCL would be in a tie with CCL and RCI to us), then CCL and RCI -- but all of them offered decent food and we had good cruises on them all.

Harry1954

April 19th, 2009, 10:00 AM

While we have been on several cruise lines, we tend to share our cruises each year between Crystal and HAL. Knowing that Crystal is the top rated line year in and year out, we expect and receive fabulous food and service. Irony is that for about half the price for the same if not larger cabin, we get almost as good food and as good a quality of service on HAL - this is why we keep coming back. Vegetables are a bit lacking but otherwise their food is right up there with the best of breed IMHO.
harry

Nutrioso

April 19th, 2009, 01:26 PM

Have always been happy with the food on HAL. Found food on our other cruise lines to be okay but not as good as HAL. However, took a Caribbean cruise on Azamara a while back and the food, seasonings, presentation, and dining room ambiance were the best of any. ---- Penny

mek

April 19th, 2009, 01:58 PM

quote=lorekauf Wow are you sure you were on HAL with the big lobster:D? HAL serves the smallest lobster tails I've ever seen......makes me think shrimp. On my recent cruise with Princess I was impressed by how large the lobster was...and it was very good.

We were on the Veendam last month and yes, our lobster tails were large and very good. Overall, Princess food is my favorite, although the Lido breakfast on HAL was much better. I enjoy Carnival and think they do a great job with food and it's been a while since we were on Celebrity, but we are going again in Sept so we'll find out how they stack up against our other recent cruises.