Feedback Wanted: Holiday Meals

[LauraS]

Have you had a great meal while on board your HOLIDAY CRUISE? We're writing an article and want to hear what you've enjoyed -- or disliked -- about holiday dining on your cruise!

 

Post away, and thanks,

 

Laura

[Arubalisa]

Christmas Dinner 2005 aboard the Zaandam

Christmas aboard a cruise ship in a word is "WOW"

We dined upon...

Dazzling Display of Baby Pineapple- never saw a mini-sized pineapple before-- pretty cool

Nutcracker Salad and Caesar Salad- Caesar is traditional on Christmas for our family, but the Nutcracker name sounded intriguing...

Filet Mignon Bordelaise- this is as close as anyone could have come to guessing what Mom would have cooked if we were home and she HAD to cook the meal

HAL "Joyous Holiday" Chocolate Box was the choice of all of the chocolate lovers...being allergic I chose the Old Fashioned Apple Pie, requesting a scoop of vanilla ice cream of course! If I had been adventurous I would have chosen the "Traditional English Christmas Plum Pudding"

Almost forgot...what is Christmas without a plate of Christmas cookies with dessert? HAL did not let us down...

 

I still do have to say the best part of Christmas aboard a cruise ship is no housecleaning, no cooking, no dishes and no clean up! Priceless!!! So much so gonna try it all over again this year :)

[DancerOT]

For those of us who dont celebrate Christmas, the food really wasnt that great...(I was on Princess at the time). It was mostly very traditional foods including beef and ham. The problem being there was really nothing for nonmeat nonpork eaters. I felt very left out! (I do eat fish, poultry, and seafood) What are the cruises going to do this year with Hanukah falling right with Christmas? Maybe more options will be offered. That being said, nothing beats being in a bikini on Christmas!

[Karynanne]

For those of us who dont celebrate Christmas, the food really wasnt that great...(I was on Princess at the time). It was mostly very traditional foods including beef and ham. The problem being there was really nothing for nonmeat nonpork eaters. I felt very left out! (I do eat fish, poultry, and seafood) What are the cruises going to do this year with Hanukah falling right with Christmas? Maybe more options will be offered. That being said, nothing beats being in a bikini on Christmas!

 

 

Latkes and Ham...what an oxymoron...

[flashdog_1]

We were on Summit last Thanksgiving and they served traditional turkey, cranberry sauce, dressing, sweet potatoes, & pumpkin pie as Chef Presents. There were other choices, of course. People not from the US wouldn't be accustomed to this meal since it is exclusively a US celebration, and if they did not want to eat Pilgrim fare, they didn't have to!

[Host Karen]

double post

[Host Karen]

Our only previous holiday cruise was on Princess over Thanksgiving 2001 with my parents. The ship was decorated for the holiday with ice sculptures, balloons and streamers, but the dinner menu was so pumpkin-inundated, I asked for and received a copy of it, which featured:

 

~ winter mesclun greens salad tossed with a pumpkin seed oil vinaigrette

~ pumpkin gnocchi gratin

~ roasted pumpkin and charred sweet corn chowder

~ sweet crab surrounded by pumpkin puree and crisp pumpkin straw

~ chilled cream of pumpkin and chestnut soup with fried pumpkin seeds

~ broiled filet of orange roughy with pumpkin risotto

~ Vermont turkey with pumpkin polenta

~ center cut pork chop with pumpkin spaetzle

~ grilled medallions of beef tenderloin with a sauteed pumpkin rosti

 

Let's not forget dessert:

 

~ pumpkin creme burlee

~ traditional pumpkin pie

~ caramelized pumpkin and apple strudel

 

As a person who doesn't like pumpkin, this was the most disappointing menu I ever faced and my most disappointing Thanksgiving meal. On the bright side, we were at sea, and I ate a large breakfast the following morning!

 

I hope we fare better on Constellation this year!

[safein]

We've sailed during several Thanksgivings but haven't had the turkey. Nothing beats my own!

 

Anita

[JNLROSE]

We've also sailed during many Thanksgivings and we NEVER eat the turkey dinner offered! We celebrate Thanksgiving at home the week before we leave, we don't go on a cruise to enjoy what I can make at home better!!! We always have something else like steak or lamb or veal.

[geoherb]

Princess has turkey on non-holiday cruises. I always order it because it's so good.

 

On Celebrity last year for Christmas night and New Year's Eve we had special menus. The thing that I remember most was the New Year's Eve dessert: a chocolate and apricot concoction. It was the night of the baked Alaska--which I'm not crazy about. So I was happy to have something good to choose instead of baked Alaska. We also had sorbet during the meal and special petit fours on Christmas.

[motherchic]

first i would like to say that i love celebrity,and i think the food is wonderful.Two years ago my aunt and i were on the Summit over the Easter holiday.

I realize not everyone celebrates it but i would have liked to see something a "little special" offered for dinner. Also in the gift shops , just a tiny space would have been nice were we could have bought a bit of Easter candy or a stuffed bunny etc...I was so glad that i had thought to bring some with me. On Easter morning i had a little Easter grass with several chocolates for my aunt, our room attendant and our waiters.

In the same respect i would also expect to see, and not be offended by any items relevant to other holidays that are non-christian

[Cruise Arizona]

OK, I have to preface this with the fact that over my 38 years of life I have had two wonderful male cooks in my life my Dad and my Husband. Both have taken pride over preparing to die for turkey dinners. My husband has even ventured out to try some South Western spiced turkeys, (We have lived in TX and AZ.) but our turkey dinner on the Mercury left something to be desiered.

 

The sweet potatoes were undercooked and to hard. The turkey was kind of bland, and I'm not sure what else was served, but it wasn't the eat three servings because it is the best meal you have ever had kind of Thanksgiving I have been used to for the last 38 years. DH said "German Chef, international kitchen staff??? What do they know about Thanks Giving Dinner."

 

It wasn't awful, just not great.

 

You know I love Celebrity and I love my cruises, so please don't diss me, but I felt they reall could had lot of room for growth in the Thanks Giving Dinner Area.

[fllady]

Have had 2 thanksgiving meals, Princess/Celebrity, Celebrity was better IMPO. 2 Christmas dinners, both Celebrity, very good, but nothing outstanding, guess I am spoiled with my husband's holiday cooking.

[bug_dan]

Still have the menu from our cruise over New Year's Eve aboard the Independence in 2000. Nothing out of the ordinary, shrimp scampi, cornish game hen, veal medallions and prime rib. As I remember we didn't even have pork and sauerkraut on New Year's day. Not sure if that's a tradition anywhere else but Pa Dutch Country???

[MichaelLikesCruising]

Last New Years, my wife and I took a new years cruise on the Mercury. For the entire cruise, the dining room was still decorated with Christmas decorations from the cruise the week before (Debarkation was Monday, December 27th). Despite this "degrading" of ambiance (if that is how you want to look at it), there was still a fabulous string quartet during meals, the sommelier was excellent and we could not have asked for a more knowledgeable, competent or wonderful waiter.

As for the food, I would not say we were disappointed, but I can say that we were not amazed. On most cruises, there is a lobster night. We figured that with New Years, there MAY even be two: The typical lobster meal and something amazing. Come on, this is New Years Eve! But alas, there was only one...and it was New Years Eve.

As previously stated, we were never disappointed with a meal. In fact, every meal was excellently prepared, wonderfully spiced and something I do not remember. Yes, that is right, unmemorable. Not due to quality: they were in-fact wonderful. And, not due to service: the staff was amazing. It was the presentation of the menu.

On previous cruises, after returning to the ship and before dinner, we always made a special trip to the dining room for the “Viewing of the Menu.” This is a most wonderful time...almost like Christmas Morning. For those of us that delight in new dining experiences (the three nights before our next cruise, we already have reservations at bistros in San Juan), the anticipation of “un-wrapping” the menu is as valuable as the meal itself. The Mercury’s lackluster menu was like Aunt Doris showing up at noon with a small handful of crumpled one-dollar bills. Sure, it will get you a couple albums for the new stereo you unwrapped that morning, but there is something missing: the presentation.

Perhaps it was the Michele Roux style, or maybe Celebrity caters to those with “older,” pallets more sensitive to bold spices or even that the menu presentation is toned-down so as not to scare people away from some of the more adventurous fare. Whatever the reason, neither my wife nor I were ever able to look at a menu and, like that wild-eyed child on the Christmas cruise the week before, know that the meal at hand would be “the Most Wonderful Time.”

[brv2]

This is the menu served on New Year’s Eve 2003 on the Splendour of the Seas 12 day to the Panama Canal.

 

Avocado & Lobster Salad

Royal Escargots

Caprese Salad

Duck & Wild Rice Consommé

Seasonal Winter Greens

Atlantic Sea Bass

Roasted Veal Prime Rib

Surf & Turf

Pacific Rim Penne Pasta

Chocolate Obsession 2004

Coffee, Tea

Petit Fours

[geoherb]

In the South, the tradition for New Year's Day is black-eyed peas and greens (separate dishes, not cooked together). The closest we came on the Century this year was spinach at dinner. One of our tablemates made sure we had plenty of vegetables each night. Usually the waiter brought us big platters with sauteed spinach, English peas, and asparagus.

 

Perhaps the reason we had special menus for Christmas night and New Year's Eve was that our cruise was 9 nights and the usual cruise for the Century was 7. They had to create two special menus that the ship did not usually serve. I know it saved us a little bit of money in the spa. We were able to get a pass for the thalassotherapy pool for the entire cruise at the price they usually charged for 7-night cruises.

[zelker]

Just got back late last night. In a word, my husband's Thanksgiving meal was awful. Preformed turkey breast slices, awful stuffing, no gravy or mashed potatos. Only thing remotely redeaming was the pumpkin pie, albeit it was cheesecake/pumpkin pie. I opted for the lobster - it was overdone so no saving grace there either. Big disappointment. Oh well, live and learn.

[Ruby Begonia]

My husband, my sister-in-law, my brother-in-and I were on the Mercury last year for Thanksgiving. I could hardly wait for what I assumed would be a sumptious meal. The turkey was dry and I couldn't identify what was in the stuffing. The worst, however, was the pumpkin pie. We finally figured out that they had put a layer of cranberry sauce on the bottom of the crust and added the pumpkin filling on top! I should have ordered something else for dinner. RB