Food on NCL ?

[SteveH2508]

I'm not as experienced a cruiser as many on here, but the best food ever on a cruise was on the Celebrity Mercury years ago. I have also sailed on Carnival,RC and NCL.

 

My first cruise on NCL out of Charleston SC on the Majesty. The food was offal. No kidding. I'll eat frozen pizza and fish sticks if I have to. I think I ate a lot of french fries on that cruise because they were always hot and fresh by the pool. It made me question if I should be cruising with NCL since food is so important to me.

 

Last year we sailed the Jade out of Rome and the food was great. Almost as good as Celebrity cruise almost 10 years earlier before all of the budget cuts most cruise lines had to make. The food in Italy was amazing and the eggs! OMG! I don't even like eggs here in the states. They had neon orange yokes and tasted divine. When we got onboard we discover that the ship had the same eggs. We were in heaven. The main dining room and buffet were great.

 

I tend to have a beer budget and champagne taste, but NCL has won me over. I canceled another Celebrity and Oceania because I wanted a super premium cruise so I can cruise more often for less money and still have a great cruise. My sister was a travel agent and recently cruised Hal and Princess and said that for the money CCL and NCL were better values and better food and service.

 

After much thought and talking with my sister we decided that the food quality is dictated by the cruise departure port in many ways. Each line has it strengths and weaknesses. NCL offer free style. You're not pinned down. And there are many options. Since my last cruise on NCL was in the Mediterranean from Rome, all of the food was sourced from Italian vendors. The quality was just plain better than the huge food vendors here in the states like Sysco.

 

My west coast cruises always seemed to have better seafood and vegetables. My east coast cruises better steaks. I believe each region of the country offers something better than other parts of the country. Avocados for example. They are just plain better on the west coast. They don't have to be shipped across country and picked when they are unripe so they can make the trip.

 

Preparation is one thing but food quality is another. If its prepared and handled badly then I believe that can be addressed. You can always ask for another serving only hot and fresh. But if the quality of the food itself is bad then preparation can't remedy it. Cheap processed food is always cheap processed food.

 

So I would say if food is important to you as it is to me. Choose the cruise line and departure port carefully. I would sail the NCL Jade from Rome any day,but I would think about cruising it out of Galveston TX. Not that it would be bad, but the ship would not be sourcing the food from the same vendors. So for me I would look at a different cruise and pay a bit more to have a premium product or I would choose to eat at the specialty restaurants as much as possible.

 

BTW, NCL's specialty restaurant covers are not bad for the choice of food you can get. I live in Santa Fe, NM and its hard to have a $20.00 dinner. Plus the dining packages make it even better.

 

Most cruise lines are very helpful with request also. So if you don't find something to your liking simply ask politely for what you want and I have always found them to try their best to accommodate.

 

Happy cruising.

 

 

This helps to back up my theory (untested and with little or no empirical evidence so far;)) that NCL in Europe and NCL in the US are somewhat different. There seem to be far fewer reports of boorish behaviour on the Europe sailings than on the US sailings.

 

Food seems to be better regarded on the Europe sailings. The quoted poster refers to local supply. I guess the fruit and vegetables supplied are of a better quality in Europe?

 

The meat is all frozen and shipped from the US I believe, so any differences there are down to the preparation. Decent veggies, properly cooked, make a major difference to the perception of a meal.

 

One person's perception of a meal can be wildly different to another. Take the example of a rare steak against a well-done steak. To me, the rare steak is infinitely better than a well-done steak. Others freak at the sight of a drop of blood on the plate. The same plate of food would elicit two very different reviews.

Edited May 7, 2014 by SteveH2508
Added steak example

[graphicguy]

This helps to back up my theory (untested and with little or no empirical evidence so far;)) that NCL in Europe and NCL in the US are somewhat different. There seem to be far fewer reports of boorish behaviour on the Europe sailings than on the US sailings.

 

Food seems to be better regarded on the Europe sailings. The quoted poster refers to local supply. I guess the fruit and vegetables supplied are of a better quality in Europe?

 

The meat is all frozen and shipped from the US I believe, so any differences there are down to the preparation. Decent veggies, properly cooked, make a major difference to the perception of a meal.

 

One person's perception of a meal can be wildly different to another. Take the example of a rare steak against a well-done steak. To me, the rare steak is infinitely better than a well-done steak. Others freak at the sight of a drop of blood on the plate. The same plate of food would elicit two very different reviews.

 

Steve...all good points. I DO think there is a difference in the produce that is brought on board. IF one part of the world was subject to draught (just for example), I would imagine the produce on those cruises in the geographic area affected would be less desirable than the produce from a bountiful area. Of course, all of that affects cattle, too (which in turn, would affect a steak).

 

I'm like you, though. A well done steak is undesirable to me. I order mine rare, and people at my dining table scoff at me.

 

As these things go. the food I cared for least was when I dined on Celebrity, which is supposed to be upscale (like HAL).

 

I'm not loyal to any cruise line (as you can see by my sig). I've found NCL's food to be as good, if not better, than any other food on any other cruise line. The one hiccup was when I had a cold breakfast on the Breakaway last year. But, that was my only complaint as the rest of the food was excellent.

Edited May 7, 2014 by graphicguy

[SteveH2508]

 

I'm like you, though. A well done steak is undesirable to me. I order mine rare, and people at my dining table scoff at me.

 

 

We both LOVE steak tartare (and have it fairly regularly at home - we have a top-notch beef supplier).

 

Our definition for cooking a steak - lop off its horns and hooves, wipe its a**e and slap it on the plate!

 

If you can't hear it mooing - it's overdone!

[graphicguy]

We both LOVE steak tartare (and have it fairly regularly at home - we have a top-notch beef supplier).

 

Our definition for cooking a steak - lop off its horns and hooves, wipe its a**e and slap it on the plate!

 

If you can't hear it mooing - it's overdone!

 

Yep....always hate to see good cuts of meat ruined when people have them cooked to charcoal and don't like how tough their staek is.

[4774Papa]

We have done three NCL cruises (Gem, Jade and Epic). We found the best food was on Epic, however the specialty restaurants were all great. The food in the MDR on Celebrity (seven cruises) is great, as good as NCL's specialty restaurants.

 

Still, we are booked on the Star for B2B cruises our to Copenhagen in September and Oct. We will still eat in the MDR and some meals in the specialty restaurants. Food is not the determining factor for cruise selection.

[nycmode]

I like NCL for the overall experience but I did find their food to be short of what I experienced on Celebrity. However, I did also find that the food in the Haven restaurant and speciality restaurants were better than what was served in the MDR.

 

Again this is subjective ... to each their own