Regal Desserts Tasteless

[deise17311]

Just off Regal and while there are lots of opinions on food, I have to share that the desserts are virtually tasteless - not all, but seriously the majority just seems flat or flavorless - the food was ok in dining room - not great, but good enough serving 3,000 people but the desserts were terrible - we tried all over the ship and got the same results...I wonder if they use dry eggs and such which inhibit flavor?

 

I am also aware that others may reply to this post about how the desserts were the best they have ever had - this is just my opinion and sharing my experience - it did make us pause and think to go back to Celebrity again...the food seems better overall -

[floridalover5623]

In general most Princess desserts aren't great. They do taste similar in many respects. I noticed that they'll use their version of whipped cream for just about everything from topping on a key lime pie to an icing on a chocolate cake. Over the years I've learned which ones to avoid & which are better.

Occasionally they will have something that stands out above the rest.

[sunsetbeachgal]

To an extent I agree, the cakes and pastry type of desserts just don't taste rich enough. My favorites are the creme brûlée, the dessert soufflés and the little white and chocolate mousse cups in the International Cafe.

 

 

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[IECalCruiser]

To an extent I agree, the cakes and pastry type of desserts just don't taste rich enough. My favorites are the creme brûlée, the dessert soufflés and the little white and chocolate mousse cups in the International Cafe.

 

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The creme brûlée and the soufflés are good as are most of the ice cream choices in the dining room. The Norman Love options are also usually quite good. I do find most of the cakes and pies lacking and usually avoid them. It makes it easier to be selective and avoid some of the calories on our cruise [emoji6]

 

 

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[floridalover5623]

The creme brûlée and the soufflés are good as are most of the ice cream choices in the dining room. The Norman Love options are also usually quite good. I do find most of the cakes and pies lacking and usually avoid them. It makes it easier to be selective and avoid some of the calories on our cruise [emoji6]

 

 

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The Normal Love desserts are always a good choice. I only wish I knew ahead of time which nights they would be served so I didn't go to the buffet & miss them. ;)

[Mike_DeA]

The Normal Love desserts are always a good choice. I only wish I knew ahead of time which nights they would be served so I didn't go to the buffet & miss them. ;)

 

 

The Regal buffet had a Normal Love dessert virtually every night, whether or not it is being served in the dining rooms on my recent cruise 1/15 - 1/22.

[FritzG]

I usually stick to anything Norman Love, creme brûlée, and the homemade ice cream. I agree that so many desserts look delicious but have no flavor. Other than N. Love, most of their mousses have a heavy gelatin texture that is the worst of all of the desserts.

[azdmelani]

Just off Regal and while there are lots of opinions on food, I have to share that the desserts are virtually tasteless - not all, but seriously the majority just seems flat or flavorless - the food was ok in dining room - not great, but good enough serving 3,000 people but the desserts were terrible - we tried all over the ship and got the same results...I wonder if they use dry eggs and such which inhibit flavor?

 

I am also aware that others may reply to this post about how the desserts were the best they have ever had - this is just my opinion and sharing my experience - it did make us pause and think to go back to Celebrity again...the food seems better overall -

 

Food is very subjective, but I found the food on the Regal (off last week) to be excellent. Including the desserts.

[floridalover5623]

The Regal buffet had a Normal Love dessert virtually every night, whether or not it is being served in the dining rooms on my recent cruise 1/15 - 1/22.

 

That's different. When I last saw them it was only on select nights.

 

I usually stick to anything Norman Love, creme brûlée, and the homemade ice cream. I agree that so many desserts look delicious but have no flavor. Other than N. Love, most of their mousses have a heavy gelatin texture that is the worst of all of the desserts.

 

Some people will rave over them just because they "look good".

[anthonyy7]

My fav desserts were usually in the IC and the sugar free raspberry Mille Feuille was the best when they had it. I agree that 60-70% of desserts weren't that good.

 

 

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[geocruiser]

I have a few favorites, one of them is the opera cake at the buffet.

[floridalover5623]

What even happened to a gook old fashion chocolate cake with butter cream icing, or a carrot cake with cream cheese icing? :cool:

[Thrak]

I've seen a lot of posts from folks who love the little soufflés - especially the goat cheese soufflé - but I have always found them pretty blah. My "go to" dessert on Princess is the creme brûlée. I love that stuff. :D It's a good size too. Most creme brûlée in land restaurants is much smaller and not any better.

 

The Normal Love desserts are also, to my taste at least, quite good. Desserts in general aren't really my thing. Cake has never done much for me at all. I do love a good pie but it's very difficult for me to find pie (other than home made) that has a light, flaky, and tasty crust. I don't know that I've ever notice pie on a Princess ship. If it was there I must have just discounted it as not looking great.

[USNUZULOOSE]

The only dessert I cared for was the soft serve ice cream. And I am picky when it comes to that. The other dessert's I tried I did not care for.

[jpihota]

I don't care which Princess ship we're on, the flourless chocolate cake has always been incredible (and I don't normally even like chocolate cake or brownies). The soufflés are generally good, as well. If all else fails, order the "Volcano" off the children's menu - can't go wrong with a good old fashioned banana split, sometimes so large you can't finish!

[easyboy]

I am not fond of dessert but prefer creme brulee and fresh fruit when having some. Am satisfied with Princess on this.

[Colo Cruiser]

The only dessert I cared for was the soft serve ice cream. And I am picky when it comes to that. The other dessert's I tried I did not care for.

 

 

Our experience with ice milk on Princess ships has been just that. Just plain nasty. :(

I will stick with regular ice cream or gelato.

[gwsster]

I agree with the cakes taste. I think they use a generic cake mix then add food coloring to give it the appearance of a different flavored cake. They then add coconut and color or other decoration on the icing to make each cake look different. On our last cruise with Princess, we did a taste test, ( just a fun experiment) we got 5 different slices cakes of a white variety (no chocolate or carrot cake) took it to our room for a taste test. They all taste the same. There was a green, yellow, white and pink one and one that was a spice looking cake. They all tasted bland and indistinguishable from each other. even the icing tasted the same in my opinion. This is no biggie as we can all live without cake but it was an interesting observation. This was a few years ago, hopefully it has improved.

 

In general most Princess desserts aren't great. They do taste similar in many respects. I noticed that they'll use their version of whipped cream for just about everything from topping on a key lime pie to an icing on a chocolate cake. Over the years I've learned which ones to avoid & which are better.

Occasionally they will have something that stands out above the rest.

[stoneharborlady]

I stick to the creme brulee, tiramisu, and the pavlovas. YUM!!

[floridalover5623]

I agree with the cakes taste. I think they use a generic cake mix then add food coloring to give it the appearance of a different flavored cake. They then add coconut and color or other decoration on the icing to make each cake look different. On our last cruise with Princess, we did a taste test, ( just a fun experiment) we got 5 different slices cakes of a white variety (no chocolate or carrot cake) took it to our room for a taste test. They all taste the same. There was a green, yellow, white and pink one and one that was a spice looking cake. They all tasted bland and indistinguishable from each other. even the icing tasted the same in my opinion. This is no biggie as we can all live without cake but it was an interesting observation. This was a few years ago, hopefully it has improved.

 

I was going to post doing a blindfolded taste test but your's is just as good. ;)

[keithm]

Just off Regal and while there are lots of opinions on food, I have to share that the desserts are virtually tasteless - not all, but seriously the majority just seems flat or flavorless - the food was ok in dining room - not great, but good enough serving 3,000 people but the desserts were terrible - we tried all over the ship and got the same results...I wonder if they use dry eggs and such which inhibit flavor?

 

I am also aware that others may reply to this post about how the desserts were the best they have ever had - this is just my opinion and sharing my experience - it did make us pause and think to go back to Celebrity again...the food seems better overall -

My partner, a Pastry chef will totally agree with you!! The only dessert that stands out are the Norman Love desserts & the occasional Soufflé. What is Soufflé any ways? just sweet scrambled egg whites for a better term. We just got back from the Celebrity Eclipse 14 day Caribbean trip(our third) The desserts(buffet area) were amazingly similar to the Regal's. Most of the ingredients come from Sysco/US foods or similar vendors. The budget determines food quality. Being in the food industry, trust me very little is made from "scratch". To feed 3000+ Pax most has to come from food vendors. The food budget determines quality. The higher the budget, the better the food, provided you have a good ex. chef. We didn't this time on the Eclipse. The complaints got so bad, the Maître D made all the chefs, from the ex.chef to the sous chefs come out into the dining room & answer to the issues the pax were having.

[azdmelani]

I have a few favorites, one of them is the opera cake at the buffet.

 

There usually is only opera cake on the first day, on the cruise two weeks ago I think they had it for the first three days, and also a large one at the chocolate buffet on the last day of the cruise. I love opera cake, but that was overkill! :)

[dickinson]

My dh and I both love the carrot cake when they have it in the MDR but mostly they have small pieces at the IC or in Horizon Court. We love those too. On the last night of our last cruise there was no dessert my dh wanted. He knew that the IC had carrot cake that day. He asked the server if she could get some at the IC (our dining room was on deck 5 so same deck as IC). She was not sure but would check. She came back with carrot cake! Even though we were in Anytime dining and had never had her before she got a good write up from us on the Consumate Host card.

 

We also love the Norman Love desserts (now that the 50th anniversary is over our last cruise only had them on formal nights), creme brûlée, ice cream and occasionally the love boat dream.

 

As for the soft serve ice cream that someone earlier ridiculed as ice milk I have found a difference on different ships . No one knows why they are different (I even started a thread here on CC and most people didn't know there was a difference). I can definitely say that the Crown and Royal have delicious and creamy soft serve. I remember the Golden seemed "icy and watery" so didn't care for it. I don't remember now our other Princess cruises how they were but do know that at least another ship we were on was like the Golden... not worth eating. Hope it has changed because we go back on her in 2018.

[floridalover5623]

My dh and I both love the carrot cake when they have it in the MDR but mostly they have small pieces at the IC or in Horizon Court. We love those too. On the last night of our last cruise there was no dessert my dh wanted. He knew that the IC had carrot cake that day. He asked the server if she could get some at the IC (our dining room was on deck 5 so same deck as IC). She was not sure but would check. She came back with carrot cake! Even though we were in Anytime dining and had never had her before she got a good write up from us on the Consumate Host card.

 

 

Didn't you notice that the icing on the carrot cake was not a cream cheese base but some concoction they made from the whipped cream they use on most desserts.

It's not the best I've ever tasted.

[jeromep]

As for the soft serve ice cream that someone earlier ridiculed as ice milk I have found a difference on different ships . No one knows why they are different (I even started a thread here on CC and most people didn't know there was a difference). I can definitely say that the Crown and Royal have delicious and creamy soft serve. I remember the Golden seemed "icy and watery" so didn't care for it. I don't remember now our other Princess cruises how they were but do know that at least another ship we were on was like the Golden... not worth eating. Hope it has changed because we go back on her in 2018.

 

Provisioning a ship is a massive process, and sometimes is subject to what is available locally. It may be very well possible that a particular ship's home port agent is unable to acquire soft ice cream mix, but can acquire soft ice milk mix.

 

Another possibility is limits in the food budget for a sailing. The exec. chef and food and beverage manager may have to cut corners on some things in order to bring in more premium goods. For example, they might choose lower cost soft ice milk mix rather than soft ice cream mix to save a few dollars so they have more money to spend on better cuts of meat or seafood.

 

This is all speculation, but whenever you see a soft ice cream machine, there is a very good chance that they are using an ice milk mix rather than an ice cream mix, usually to safe a few bucks. It will melt faster and has a watery mouth feel, much like drinking regular milk.