Food on Princess

We're avid cruises -- RCCL, Celebrity and Princess. We were last on Princess in 1993 and had a terrible experience food-wise. I think one of our fellow passengers compared it to Bennigans. Since then, we've stayed with Celebrity and RCCL.

However, we're interested in the 10 day trip on the Regal Princess to Alaska from SFO.

What is the general thinking as to how the food is on Princess!

Cruizin' [to Alaska?]

I've sailed on Princess, Norwegian, and Carnival. Of the three, I thought Princess had the best food.

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Carnival Celebration 2000

Carnival Triumph 2001

Star Princess 2002

Golden Princess 2004

Norwegian Spirit 2005

:D Diamond Princess July 2005

:D NCL Star Jan 2006

You can't beat the deals out there right now.

I am shocked to hear one compare Princess Cruises food to that of Bennigans.

Over the years they have really made some positive changes to their menus and enhanced the alternative dining selections. Personally I would highly recommend that you try again with Princess:)

Having sailed recently with RCI and Princess, I have to say that the baking and the pasta dishes on Princess are of substantially higher quality. I also think the Windjammer on the Radiance-class ships is of better design than the Island/Coral Horizon Court and the food better. The pizza is better on Princess, and I thought the fish and fowl were consistently excellent as well.

Eric

Some posters have compared it to Denny"s or Hometown Buffet - We think it is great food.

Ron

After a first Princess cruise just I feel that the food was acceptable, but certainly of lower quality and variety than Celebrity. The always available menu did not include steak, salmon, and chicken as on Celebrity, but only had a pasta dish for a main course listed(which is of course the cheapest thing they could serve). The Horizon Court was certainly not up to other the buffets of other lines. Besides the mass confusion of the physical set-up of the buffet we did get tired of seeing the same desserts day after day. The selction was always small rectangles of cake on which the icing varied from time to time and little tarts where the filling merely changed types of fruit.

We had personal choice dining(not by choice I might add) and the best of the lot seemed to be Sterling's hands down. Vivaldi was not exciting, but Santa Fe and Pacific Moon were okay. Didn't eat in Sabatini's so can't comment, but did notice from glancing in that it was virtually empty every night.

One thing I will suggest you try is in the Santa Fe dining room. The Kahlua rice pudding is fantastic. The best dessert on the ship.

Ron

The always available menu did not include steak, salmon, and chicken as on Celebrity, but only had a pasta dish for a main course listed(which is of course the cheapest thing they could serve).

 

Odd - every cruise we've been on, the Always Available menu has had salmon, chicken, the aforementioned fettucince, and steak, which has recently been upgraded from a strip loin to a filet.

Although this is entirely subjective, we find the food generally good to excellent. Then again, we think our local Bennigan's is pretty good, too. :D

We were on the Sun in Feb. The food was good, and in the dining room it got better as each of the 10 days passed. We also really like Celebrity and would rank in first place for the three.. For us, Princess and RCI was a tie with with win going to Princess. We have found the food dependent on the ship and the sailing more than the cruise line. I cannot imagine anyone comparing Princess food to a chain such as Dennys. We found it to be very good and would cruise on Princess again.

We have found the food on Princess to be good. No complaints here:)

We thought the food on Princess was much better than RCCL and very close to Celebrity. I will say, however, that the Olympic restaurant on the Celebrity Millennium was by far the best food we've had at sea.

I found the food on Mercury a few months ago to be average at best, I do not know why regular X cruisers rave about the food. Also most menus were limited, and I never had any 'tough choices' to make on X, I just chose the 'least worst', to borrow a phrase from a friend. X claims to spend more on food per passanger than any other 'mass line', $24.00 per day. I don't know what is done with it. Celebrity will never get me back, to repeat my mistake of cruising with them in the first place! :( john

We don't have a Bennigan's here, but we do have Hometown Buffet, and that's what we compare the food on Princess to. I would even give Hometown Buffet a notch above Princess. My reasons why:

1. All beverages (coffee, tea, soft drinks), are included in the price of your meal. Drink as much as you like. And, Hometown's coffee tastes like coffee and not burnt rubber.

2. They have an ice cream and frozen yogurt bar, all included in the price.

The dining experience on a cruise is at the top of our list. I've read enough Princess reviews on other boards, and some have experienced the same as we did. We were on a beautiful ship that served lousey food. :cool:

We don't have a Bennigan's here, but we do have Hometown Buffet, and that's what we compare the food on Princess to. I would even give Hometown Buffet a notch above Princess. My reasons why:

 

1. All beverages (coffee, tea, soft drinks), are included in the price of your meal. Drink as much as you like. And, Hometown's coffee tastes like coffee and not burnt rubber.

 

2. They have an ice cream and frozen yogurt bar, all included in the price.

 

The dining experience on a cruise is at the top of our list. I've read enough Princess reviews on other boards, and some have experienced the same as we did. We were on a beautiful ship that served lousey food. :cool:

I guess you had better stop cruising and get a lifetime pass to Hometown Buffet

Ron

We don't have a Bennigan's here, but we do have Hometown Buffet, and that's what we compare the food on Princess to. I would even give Hometown Buffet a notch above Princess. My reasons why:

 

1. All beverages (coffee, tea, soft drinks), are included in the price of your meal. Drink as much as you like. And, Hometown's coffee tastes like coffee and not burnt rubber.

 

2. They have an ice cream and frozen yogurt bar, all included in the price.

 

The dining experience on a cruise is at the top of our list. I've read enough Princess reviews on other boards, and some have experienced the same as we did. We were on a beautiful ship that served lousey food. :cool:

I believe I was on the same Diamond sailing as you, but, I think we ate at different dining rooms 'cause my food was delicious!

We must have got our coffee at the same place though.:D

I guess you had better stop cruising and get a lifetime pass to Hometown Buffet

 

Ron

Naaaah, we don't go to Hometown Buffet too much, haven't been there in 8 months or so, reminds us too much of the lousey food we got on the Princess. ;)

We've cruised on NCL, RCCL, Carnival, and Princess twice and we've found something enjoyable at every seating or buffet. Fact is - we all have different taste and one bad experience can effect our choices forever.

I'd suggest you give Princess another try.

This week we leave on our third Princess cruise - Alaska. Last Fall we did the Pacific coastal cruise to Mexico on Sapphire. And we did a 14 day crossing on Royal a few years ago. We think the food is pretty good. But "pretty good" isn't too exciting for a cruise. We've been on Crystal and Radisson where the food is superb. I think it's usually a case of you get what you pay for!

Naaaah, we don't go to Hometown Buffet too much, haven't been there in 8 months or so, reminds us too much of the lousey food we got on the Princess. ;)

I guess you had better stick with Carnival and RCL and Hometown - we have 15 Princess cruise and the food just keeps getting better and better - perhaps we have simple tastes.

Ron

There are several places where you can view Princess menus steak is always available http://community.webshots.com/user/britsbest is one with photos from some of our cruise.

Incidentally just exactly does anyone know how burnt rubber tastes?

We have really simple tastes as regards food but several of our recent Princess cruises have been lacking in "inspiration"--what you would really like to eat when you're reading the menu as compared to what you get. I'm trying to remember what a fellow at our table ordered recently, was it called partridge, pheasant or another extraordinary fowl name, anyway what came was chicken. He sent it back in disgust saying he had eaten the real thing and this was not as listed in the menu.

There was a chuckle at our table in April also when the same dish we had had a couple of nights before as "shrimp" appeared when we ordered "scampi" from one of the Personal Choice dining room menus (you get these along with the regular dining room menu in the traditional dining room now).

The desserts are even less desirable nowadays, seldom look at that menu anymore. Ice cream sundaes have been preferable for dessert at least the last three years. We have gotten some desserts to try, along with a sundae, and the Kahlua Creme Brulee was good recently.

I do recall one of the Princess ships served the cold soups in goblets and they became a real favorite with our table each night. That has been the extent of our "gourmet" exposure.

MMMMMMMM yes I had forgotten cold apple/strawberry soup delicious!

Wow, you guys are really picky!!! Our food has been great on all the cruises we've been on..................especially for a ship serving 1000 dinners at a time. Much better than convention dinner food, for which we've paid as much for a meal as we pay for a whole day aboard a ship! The only bad thing we had was on a RCI ship one time when fish was served, and literally could not be cut. THAT was interesting, and cheerfully replaced by our waiter for the three people at the table that had ordered it.

I guess if I were willing to pay the price of the real high end cruise lines, I would EXPECT the food to be gourmet, but then, I don't want to pay for everyone else's drinks either.

I would suggest that instead of worrying about the quality of the food before you cruise on Princess, that you sail on a cruise line that has food that you know you like, and then, you will be happy and not have to worry about that part of your vacation ahead of time.

By the way, we were on the Island Princess in April, and the food was great. The always available menu had steak, which I had several times, chicken, pasta and fish on it EVERY night. The Horizon Court Buffet also had a variety of foods at each meal time........and we did eat dinner there a couple of times also.

Have a great cruise, with whatever line, and enjoy your meals!

I will be honest. I did not find the food in the dinning room to be any better than it was on Carnival or Royal Carribean. I expected more because of what I heard about Princess, but the food was not bad. I actually enjoyed the food selection and preparation in the Horizon Court on the Golden over the dinning room.

P.S. I like eating at Bennigans

Personally, I think the food on the Golden Princess is okay. Except for one night with a pasta dish, there wasn't one meal where we walked out raving about the food we ate. We also ate in the Sterling Steakhouse and Sabitinis and enjoyed it, but again, didn't rave. We're very lucky that we have a lot of top notch fine dining restaurants here in Naples and that we get to eat them them often so I guess I've gotten spoiled. Luckily I don't cruise for the food, I cruise for the whole experience so I don't leave disappointed.

What I can't understand is why anyone would go on a cruise and spend their time in the Buffet and expect Gourmet food, one public trough is about the same as another. Any meal I'm not cooking and or serving myself and the kids is great in my book.