So why do you like/not like about the food?

[terrydtx]

If anyone takes any mass marketed cruise line and expects 5 star or even 4 star food in the main dining venues they will be disappointed. Some even let this ruin their vacations and will base their reviews of the cruise based solely on the food. A cruise vacation is and will always be the best value for what it costs. Some of the worse food on any vacation has been in all inclusive land resorts that makes the worst food on a cruise ship look 4 star.

 

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[Mom2B&Z]

If anyone takes any mass marketed cruise line and expects 5 star or even 4 star food in the main dining venues they will be disappointed. Some even let this ruin their vacations and will base their reviews of the cruise based solely on the food. A cruise vacation is and will always be the best value for what it costs. Some of the worse food on any vacation has been in all inclusive land resorts that makes the worst food on a cruise ship look 4 star.

 

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My thoughts exactly. I have been to multiple AIs in the Caribbean, all 4 star or higher, and all had food at least comparable, if not worse, than NCL's main dining rooms. My own opinion of NCLs dining rooms is that while food has a nice presentation, flavour is often bland or over-salted, and many meals are cooler than I would like. The only desserts worth eating are the ice cream or apple pie! We have only eaten at a specialty restaurant once (Le Bistro), this would be comparable to a good quality (but not gourmet) restaurant at home.

We just finished a Disney cruise, while their food was notably better than NCL, the price was also double. One supper meal was excellent, while all breakfasts and one supper meal were disappointing. The main difference was the abundance of seafood.

I believe NCL food to be comparable to large scale, 3+ star catering operations. Not gourmet, but certainly edible.

[cabincop]

I was on a 12day cruise in Feb, I did notice the pay restraunts were better food than mdr's but what really upset me was by day 9 they were running out of certain foods. Arugula salad in cagneys wasn't arugula there were other foods I can't recall but how do you run out of food? It seemed they did not plan there orders well.

[tip]

We have been on 23 cruises including six on NCL and we have no major complaints. Our 24th cruise this fall will be on the NCL Star for 14 days from LA to Miami. I know that we won't starve!

 

Our first cruise was with NCL over 16 years ago. I am sure that our memory has faded a bit, but the food was a little better when it came to quality and the service was not as rushed. As I recall there was no buffet for dinner on the Lido deck back then and there were no specialty restaurants. Dinner was the two set times in the MDR and formal nights were observed.

 

 

We enjoy the flexibility of Freestyle dining of today. We sailed on NCL Pride of America last fall and here are a few observations.

• We are just not into the formal scene. It was a pleasure not to get stressed out over the formal night and worry about not having a tux or a floor length gown.
  
• The POA has two main dining rooms for dinner. One is smart casual (Liberty) and the other (Jefferson--now Skyline) is basically anything goes. I think that is the same now for most NCL ships.
  
• We found the service in the Jefferson Dining Room (now called the Skyline) to be a little inconsistent, thus we went to the Liberty for the other evenings. One evening I was a little insulted when the person at reception leaned over the lecturn and lookd me up and down and then told me that I passed inspection. I was wearing long pants and closed toed shows. I know that it is her job to enforce the dress code, but she could have been more discreet!
  
• We found the menu in the dining rooms to have a fairly nice selection, but were disappointed to find that there are no longer any chilled soups that we have enjoyed in the past. I love beef and found the steaks to be somewhat tough. Overall though, we enjoyed our meals.
  
• One thng that we did find strange is that we were asked to give our dessert selections when were gave our order for the rest of the meal. I am sure that some "suit" decided that it must save time, but I see it as, "Here is your hat and coat, what is your hurry?"
  
• We loved the Cadillac Dinner which I believe is called "Blue Lagoon" on other NCL ships. We lunched there twice, once on a sea day and another time in the late afternoon after an excursion. We enjoyed the comfort food. On embarkation day we had chicken wings "to go" and enjoyed our own sail away party on our balcony.
  
• We found the buffet to be very good. There were always a variety of tastey selections for both breakfast and lunch and we always found a table.
  
• The grill outside on the Lido deck serves freshly cooked hot dogs and burgers. RCCL has no such thing!
  
• Many folks do not know of the addtional serving area on the stern of the ship with outdoor seating available. Our only gripe was that at breakfast, even though everything was ready to go and the staff stands around chit chatting, they will not open it until 7 a.m. and not one minute earlier even with folks waiting.
  
• We had dinner one night in the Lazy J Steakhouse. Other NCL ships call it by another name. This was somewhat disappointing considering that we paid an addtional charge. It is no where near as good as steakhouses on other lines such as Princess, Celebrity, RCCL, or HAL. Our steaks were medicore and the service was fine at the outset and then went down the tubes fast when our server was given a party of fourteen. Steakhouses on other lines have subdued noise. I felt like we were at the Texas Roadhouse!
  

If it sounds like I am complaining, I am really not that unhappy with NCL and their food. After all, we have booked another NCL cruise for this fall!

[ladybugpug]

I have only taken one cruise last April on the Gem (family of 5). We ate breakfast at the buffet each morning and I thought it was very good. Loved the omlette station and the scones. The buffet for dinner was pretty good. Nothing amazing but good.

 

We ate in the MDR a few times. I was not impressed with the food. It wasn't actually bad or anything but disapointing. We did all like the fried calimari though. We liked the pretty atmosphere so we went back a few times.

 

Loved the wings late night at the Blue Lagoon and also had lunch there once which was ok.

 

Tried La Cucina and I really liked it but the rest of my family was not at all impressed.

 

Hubby and I ate at Cagneys one night and it was great. Our steaks were amazing. My dessert ( raspberry something I think) was the best. The famous fries? Blah.... the same as fries anywhere and I was so looking forward to trying them. Server there was very friendly and attentive.

 

I am not a foodie at all so it really doesnt take much to please me.

[Moondawgie]

Geez, a whole country got a bad food review.:rolleyes: I'm not sure where you've visited, but food can be regional. I've enjoyed a tremendous amount of meals throughout the country - mostly in big cities (may be biased since I'm a city girl).

 

Now to cruise food. In all my cruises, and there have been several, I've always found the food to be from edible to very good. Mass market feeding cannot compare to a 5* restaurant in NYC. You have to be reasonable.

 

Also, if you ask anywhere for sauce or dressings on the side, that is what you will get. You're a tough critic.;)

[Warmer Climes]

I enjoy the food on NCL. Not all items are to my taste but I have never gone hungry. If folks want food cooked and made by a Michelin starrred chef then you will not find it on a cruise ship.

 

On our last cruise we paid £539 per person for 9 nights in a balcony cabin. We knew at the outset that we were not paying for gourmet foods. What we did get was good value for the money. A meal like the ones we had would cost at least £30 per person in a UK pub in the evening and the service would be no where near as good, or the environment for that matter. NCL also gives me a wide choice for breakfast plus lunch.

 

If we stay at a hotel room only we allow £50 per day per person for all the meals we will need to buy.

 

It's all about expectations and some people need to rein them in a little (or a lot in some cases) and start realising that you will get what you are prepared to pay for and that to meet their expectations they will have to pay 3 times more than NCL asks.

 

This is exactly what I think about food on a cruise ship (if you can translate £'s into $'s LOL)

 

The food is good enough. It's not Michelin star food. Today DH and I went to a pub for lunch. Between us we had two sandwiches and four beers. It was ok food and it cost $50 plus tip. We have better food for lunch every day on our cruise ships.

 

I don't expect gourmet food on a cruise ship and I wouldn't be willing to pay for it if it was available on mass market lines.

[sparks1093]

I was on a 12day cruise in Feb, I did notice the pay restraunts were better food than mdr's but what really upset me was by day 9 they were running out of certain foods. Arugula salad in cagneys wasn't arugula there were other foods I can't recall but how do you run out of food? It seemed they did not plan there orders well.

 

Fresh food stays fresh only so long and there is limited storage for it onboard ship so if people are ordering seconds a lot, yes, they can run short.

[chill6x6]

The food on NCL is good. Some is great. Some is excellent. Presentation is great. None is bad. It's delicious. It's creative.

 

And then you hit the desserts.

 

Bland. Tasteless. They look like they've been extracted from a machine. They're like half-logs and they're all gelled. "Cheesecake" is a gelled item. Cake has a few layers. One will be a dry cake, one will be a rubberized layer, and one will be a fake frosting- all with no flavor. Horrible. Awful.

 

Completely correct. Pick up a dessert....MAN it looks GREAT! Then take a bite... Many are basically tasteless. I really don't get it. The only single thing I have found that NCL ranks LAST is desserts...

[jaja]

I have always enjoyed my meals on NCL...MDR and Buffet...(funny thing is the ONLY time I had a real problem was a lunch at Cagneys:eek:..had the worst piece of fish ever . very dry and very fishy. ( Flounder ? Milanese if my memory serves me right)...

 

Yes..the desserts are not the very best...but the made to order crepes and the bowls of cut up fresh fruit makes me very happy :D

 

PS--Thanks to NCL..I found out I love Indian food !!! Great to try new things.....

[Don Haynes]

I was on a 12day cruise in Feb, I did notice the pay restraunts were better food than mdr's but what really upset me was by day 9 they were running out of certain foods. Arugula salad in cagneys wasn't arugula there were other foods I can't recall but how do you run out of food? It seemed they did not plan there orders well.

 

There is only so much space for coolers and freezers. While a ship's galley appears large to most of us, keep in mind they are serving 10,000 meals every day. Ships don't get fresh deliveries everyday either. It is mass produced food, not cooked to order from your favorite land based restaurant at home who don't even serve 1,000 meals a day, some not even serving 100 meals a day. They have to use fruits and vegetables as they open the crates up, they can't be choosy and decide to wait a day or two for the fruit to ripen. It isn't like they are buying their fruit from a grocery store where I have seen many pinch fruit for ripeness. Cruise lines are buying hundreds of melons, not one.

 

I have been to land based restaurants who have run out of food as well which get deliveries every day. It is too easy to imply they didn't order well, it could be the case where the warehouse shorted their orders too.

[jjikids]

We will going on our fourth NCL cruise next month. The desserts are better on Princess but there are some that are good on NCL. The bread pudding is wonderful. All cruises have an everyday menu. That is not a problem. It is good for some people to get what they are used to. On the Epic last year, I ate the mushroom crepes at every meal. They were so good that I was glad they were on the everyday menu. If any part of the meal is not done right, the waiter will bring you something else. Our only time on Carnival there was a problem with the soup. The waiter took it back but never offered me anything in replacement. Yes the desserts were better on Carnival but the other foods were not. I did a behind the scenes tour. The freezers and refrigerators are stacked with foods based on past usage. Sometimes it is hard to judge if people want more of one food over another. My husband and I are happy to cruise on Norwegian.

[vols_159]

Food on the Dawn March 17th was excellent! Some of the best food i Have ever eaten! Would book again just for the food!

[bakerintn]

To my taste, the food on NCL is often too salty....could be their attempt to add "flavor" to their food. I honestly think that the food in the NCL buffets is often better than that served in the MDR...fresher, one can pick and choose their own combinations, and at the right temperature most of the time.

 

Now, the seating in the buffets is another issue!!

[chelle74]

I cook well and I bake especially well. My family does not eat fast food (well, that's kind of a lie... we do occasionally eat at Chick-fil-A), and we do not have ANY "food" items in our home that are artificially colored or flavored. We buy very few processed items. While we do eat out at nicer restaurants from time to time, for the most part, my family prefers the food that I prepare at home to any chain-type restaurants.

 

When we cruise, we are generally not thrilled with the food. We've only been on three lines so far, and they've all ranked about the same... I would give Carnival a slight edge over the others for dessert, though. For me, desserts on a cruise are pretty much a no-go, unless they are from a specialty restaurant.

 

Having said all of that, NONE of us have ever gone hungry, or had any food that I would describe as "bad." Well, except for some desserts. Mostly the food is OK, sometimes it's good, and I have had a few things that were VERY good. For me, a self-proclaimed foodie, OK is more than fine on a cruise, especially when the service is good, the ship is clean and fun, and the itinerary is exciting.

[Seago2]

The saltiness is from the reduction of the sauces, too. It sits on the stove for a long time and reduces, so... Salty.

[Go-Bucks!]

Personally I feel the food in America is pretty bad for tourists.

 

So, what foods do you have in Australia that are so much better than in the USA and why? Kinda hard to believe that you don't have any less-than-totally-delicious-or-healthy foods in your entire country. :confused: And you can hardly judge our food unless you've been to absolutely all areas in the US.

 

About the food on NCL: I have a theory about food on NCL ships after reading alot about NCL here on CC (haven't cruised on them yet). They seem to really push the specialty restaurants quite heavily (lots of profit!) and I bet they purposely make the MDR food mediocre so that passengers will eat at the specialty ones.

[wvfrogg]

About the food on NCL: I have a theory about food on NCL ships after reading alot about NCL here on CC (haven't cruised on them yet). They seem to really push the specialty restaurants quite heavily (lots of profit!) and I bet they purposely make the MDR food mediocre so that passengers will eat at the specialty ones.

 

I don't find that at all. The MDR food more than mediocre. There are probably some dishes that aren't that terrific, but there is always something on the menu that is good. I don't think the specialty restaurants bring in "lots of profit", but offer the passengers a choice. The specialty restaurant upcharge that when added to the fare for the cruise is still much lower than most cruises. I know a lot of people rave about Celebrity's food and service, but my one cruise with them was not as good as my NCL's cruises. Just my opinion!

[tobyt]

Food is highly subjective, I love to read the posts about it since everyone has such interesting opinions. Every cruise we have been on has had excellent meals and dishes and certainly some not so good. I find the wait staff so helpful in getting it right for me, they will guide you away from the less successful dishes or help you get the little touches you might need to enjoy the meal (think no sauce or no mushrooms). We always enjoy the breakfast buffet the first couple of days but as time goes by it does become a bit stale.....of course at home we eat the same thing everyday with no expectation of anything else, I think somehow I imagine they will be more clever and find a new way to toast!

Try new things and enjoy your trip!

[sparks1093]

About the food on NCL: I have a theory about food on NCL ships after reading alot about NCL here on CC (haven't cruised on them yet). They seem to really push the specialty restaurants quite heavily (lots of profit!) and I bet they purposely make the MDR food mediocre so that passengers will eat at the specialty ones.

 

A lot of people share that theory but if that were the case the MDR's would seat 200 and the specialty restaurants would seat 500-600:). Thousands find the MDR's to be at least satsifactory.

[SteveH2508]

A thread on the RCI board at the moment is talking about a program Mega Food which is showing a behind the scenes look at food and beverage management on a cruise ship.

 

A very interesting watch.

 

http://cruiseforums.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1815598

[Hockeylovinmom]

We have been on Princess twice, Ncl once. Princess food was by far the best. That being so we are on NCL Jewel soon, it's the itinerary that makes the cruise for us. The worst food ever was on Costa Pacifica, we will never cruise with them again, the whole experience was dreadful.

 

I prefer the NCL food. The buffet is heads and shoulders above the buffet on Princess - seriously! Dining room food is roughly the same. Speciality restaurants on NCL are wonderful!

We recently cruised Princess and although it was a lovely cruise, we felt the food had lost a few "notches" from Princess of old.

 

 

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[terrydtx]

I prefer the NCL food. The buffet is heads and shoulders above the buffet on Princess - seriously! Dining room food is roughly the same. Speciality restaurants on NCL are wonderful!

We recently cruised Princess and although it was a lovely cruise, we felt the food had lost a few "notches" from Princess of old.

 

 

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That's exactly how we felt about our last cruise on HAL, food in MDR was just average. Their specialty steak house was below average and the buffets terrible. Only the Asian specialty restaurant was worth a second visit. Bland was the best way to overall describe the food, we were so disappointed, but it was still a great cruise.

 

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[Seago2]

I prefer the NCL food. The buffet is heads and shoulders above the buffet on Princess - seriously! Dining room food is roughly the same. Speciality restaurants on NCL are wonderful!

We recently cruised Princess and although it was a lovely cruise, we felt the food had lost a few "notches" from Princess of old.

 

 

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I disagree re: Princess Buffet (and MDR) and NCL Buffet (and to a lesser extent MDR). I mean I would give NCL Dawn Lido buffet a 4 and Caribbean Princess an 8.5. I think that goes to show that variations between ships among lines are also important considerations.

 

Hang on- thinking of the Dawn's children's buffet section with the congealing spaghetti sauce and scary Mac and Cheese- I'm changing it to a 3.

[Barb Nahoumi]

Food is highly subjective, I love to read the posts about it since everyone has such interesting opinions. Every cruise we have been on has had excellent meals and dishes and certainly some not so good. I find the wait staff so helpful in getting it right for me, they will guide you away from the less successful dishes or help you get the little touches you might need to enjoy the meal (think no sauce or no mushrooms). We always enjoy the breakfast buffet the first couple of days but as time goes by it does become a bit stale.....of course at home we eat the same thing everyday with no expectation of anything else, I think somehow I imagine they will be more clever and find a new way to toast!

Try new things and enjoy your trip!

 

Sure they can------I'd love to see cinnamon toast on the menu.