Food on HAL vs RCI

[qsuzi]

Holland America spends more per passenger on food than Royal Caribbean does. On the flip side, Royal spends more on entertainment. The higher expenditure generally shows.

 

Sorry POA meant to quote your post "it will give us something new to fight about". What kind of "atmosphere" will we find on board? To me this board is a dichotomy. It surprised me in a good and not so good way. There are the most helpful and nice posters with a wealth of information yet some posts have me wondering what in the heck - is this really the HAL or the Carnival board? :)

Edited January 25, 2015 by qsuzi

[sun~]

I would say the MDR food on HAL and RCI are equally bad.

 

We just got off the NA and decided to dine with them in the MDR two times. Oh dear. It was awful. Caesar salad with wet lettuce and no dressing, strip loin steak that was 1/4" thick - I kid you not. It was like shoe leather. Wafer thin and tough chicken breast on the sail away BBQ. Super salted sauce on a tiny chicken supreme and even more salt in the French onion soup.

 

I haven't faired any better on RCI.

 

So the rest of the week we ate in the pinnacle one night (they really need to bring back some of the old menu items), then three nights in the Tamarind. Yep, I had the yummy pho soup each time.

[POA1]

Sorry POA meant to quote your post "it will give us something new to fight about". What kind of "atmosphere" will we find on board? To me this board is a dichotomy. It surprised me in a good and not so good way. There are the most helpful and nice posters with a wealth of information yet some posts have me wondering what in the heck - is this really the HAL or the Carnival board? :)

 

With my comment about "something to fight about," I was referring to the tendency for things to get contentious when one cruise line is compared to another. I was shooting for a little bit of the tongue in cheek, but it looks like the tongue might have appeared to be sticking out a bit. :p Sorry if I gave you that impression.

 

Regarding the atmosphere on board - and assuming we're still on the topic of food - here are my thoughts. I'll try to limit it to the main dining room, because that's where we've found that a cruise line's personality shines through. (There's a ton of variation in specialty dining venues, and it wouldn't make sense to try to compare RCCL's Johnny Rockets to HAL's Pinnacle Grill... if you know what I mean.)

 

The best phrases I can come up with to describe the MDR experience on Holland America are "reserved" and "quietly elegant." We've been very fortunate to have had servers who ranged from very good to outstanding, and I'm sure that helps to contribute to our overall impression. I've been dawdling and putting off my evening meal reviews from our last cruise, and I have every intention of finishing them sometime this week. In the meantime, you can see what we thought of our dinners here:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2132818

 

We even took some food photos, scanned the menus, and tried to capture as much as we could "in the moment." Hopefully, we fall into the category of "helpful and nice posters with a wealth of information," and not into the bucket that has you "wondering what in the heck."

[Gail & Marty sailing away]

Holland America spends more per passenger on food than Royal Caribbean does. On the flip side, Royal spends more on entertainment. The higher expenditure generally shows.

I agree with you ..

[Ricktan]

Which cruise line would you say has the BEST food(overall). I'm sure this is very subjective ......just curious since there are so many on here that have been fortunate enough to travel so many lines (and I mean that is a nice way!!!!)

[Tarpeian Rock]

Which cruise line would you say has the BEST food(overall). I'm sure this is very subjective ......just curious since there are so many on here that have been fortunate enough to travel so many lines (and I mean that is a nice way!!!!)

 

 

 

Well, in our relatively limited experience - as well as by reputation - Oceania. (Let the wars begin.......)