What to skip on the NCL menu

[AndyCapn]

Dose anyone know if the premixed cocktails are the frozen type and do they just add the alcohol to the mix?

 

It definitely is premix (Island Oasis) for the pina colada, BBC and banana daquiri.

[electro]

Skip the mussels in Le Bristro. They used to be my favorite app when they were served with the Pernod sauce, now they are served in a bowl of extremely salted water. Horrible!

Also skip the "Irish stew" on O'sheehans, it is nothing close to stew of any kind.

[Shawnino]

I'd skip Moderno full stop.

Standard for meat is far below the other specialty restaurants.

Salad bar is just fine but the meats are gristly and aren't reliably cooked. Tried it twice; sick both times.

[CPT Trips]

Slightly off topic i know but everyone here seems to have some sort of experience with NCL.

 

Dose anyone know if the premixed cocktails are the frozen type and do they just add the alcohol to the mix?

 

Sorry to hijack your thread, I will delete if this is not aloud.

 

[emoji846]

 

 

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If you mean the ones in the big clear urns behind the bar, avoid them at all costs. They are usually visibly separated . . . Booze rises to the top right?

[tcruisin77]

Slightly off topic i know but everyone here seems to have some sort of experience with NCL.

 

Dose anyone know if the premixed cocktails are the frozen type and do they just add the alcohol to the mix?

 

Sorry to hijack your thread, I will delete if this is not aloud.

 

[emoji846]

 

 

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No worries; you can add drinks to the conversation.

 

 

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[coffeebean]

I love cookies, but on my last Dawn cruise last June they were hard to come by. Someone told me that cookies are only served in the Buffet around 3pm.

 

They should be available all day every day.

When hubby and I first began cruising on NCL, they offered WARM fresh out of the oven cookies, 24/7 in the Blue Lagoon. That was on the Star and our very first cruise. That alone, sold us on cruising.

 

 

NCL continued with the warm, fresh out of the oven cookies in Blue Lagoon on their ships for a few years but, alas, everything must come to an end.:(

[tcruisin77]

Will there be menu changes at the start of the new year? We cruise in March, so I’m curious to know what to add to my list of Must Tries and Avoids

 

 

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[4774Papa]

I tried the turkey lasagne on the Star once, never again. NCL's desserts are generally not the best.

[Barb Nahoumi]

I made the mistake of ordering a sugar free dessert at dinner one night. The napkin would have tasted better. Live and learn!

 

Like Button.

[PopPopBear]

Anything that is sugar free.

 

Totally agree. Tried a sugar-free dessert at Cagney's before. It wasn't worth the effort to be healthier. Tasteless and bland.

[Zeno]

A lot of desserts are pretty bland and lacking in flavor.

The fruit crumbles/crisps used to be good but on our last cruise on the Jade, I was disappointed.

Fresh crepes are still pretty yummy.

Various types of Creme Brulee were decent

Mousses were hit or miss .- some were decent - others too bland.

I actually had a quite decent brownie on my last cruise and the cookies were pretty good.

Chocolate croissants were decent.

Cake like things and cheesecake were pretty uniformly tasteless - too much gelatin and not enough actual flavor.

 

As for other foods, they were pretty much OK and occasionally quite good (I had wonderful fish at Le Bistro). I have to agree that Moderno was a let-down - nothing really impressed me.

[goodthatwontcomeout]

Ranch dressing

 

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[Barb Nahoumi]

My usual desserts are fresh fruit plates or dishes of sherbet. They're always good.

 

What I never order for any reason is Escargot..........Yuck.

[xvi]

Here’s our food review as we just returned from our cruise yesterday.

The food in general was mediocre, at best. It was very reminiscent of resort food in Cuba and we were super disappointed.

 

Most of the buffet was absolutely inedible. Salad bar practically non existent. Food cooked to mush. Saw a few items repurposed at the next meal (ie unused scrambled eggs from breakfast becomes egg salad sandwiches at lunch). Unsanitary omelette station... got sick one day and pretty sure the way the eggs were kept was the culprit. If you order fried eggs, they are not freshly cracked for you, but rather are sitting in bowls already cracked, in the fridge, and uncovered by film or any protective covering. Gross. Definitely skip dessert in the buffet, except the freshly made crepes, which are ok. The rest of the buffet desserts are frozen, commercially made, and artificial.

 

Don’t bother with breakfast in the main dining room... it’s essentially the same food that goes to the buffet, although served in a more relaxed setting. Literally, the exact (horrible) eggs Benedict, and fake powdered scrambled eggs. The dinners in the main dining room were better than the buffet by only a slight margin. Very processed food. Designed to look pretty but no taste. For example, the “tomato sauce” was seasoned tomato soup... Again, most foods are over cooked or clearly microwaved, and the descriptions are worded to sound way more fancy than they actually are. “Fried mozzarella” for example, sounded fresh and delicious but turned out to be the gross frozen mozzarella sticks from Costco... Most of the time our party ordered steaks or prime rib and they were generally pleased. The consensus was in general that the most edible entrees of the cruise were the steaks. Desserts in the main dining room also only marginally better than the buffet. Chocolate lava cake w no lava... over cooked into a brownie. Mostly frozen, premade items that are microwaved and dressed up. Bread pudding was just ok, but everything else was a waste of calories.

 

Specialty restaurants are really the only half decent meals we had... and even then... At Cucina (Italian) pasta is cooked to mush, sauces are not authentic Italian sauces and again, flavoured soup and stock bases are used rather than real tomato sauce or butter based sauces. The gnocchi in pesto was ok. Vegetable lasagna was not edible. Tiramisu was comercially made, not homemade or authentic Italian recipe. The sides were mushy and boring. At Cagneys, most in our party enjoyed their steaks. Baked potatoes were good. Dessert was gross. Raspberry creme brûlée was not edible... tasted like raspberry yogurt with soggy sugar on top. Le Bistro was probably the best overall meal but a far cry from anything resembling French cuisine. Again, if you order steak you’re probably safe, but others in our party also enjoyed some of the seafood dishes here. Le Bistro surprised me and actually served a decent, authentic creme brûlée this time. The tarte Tatin however was mushy and not worth the calories.

 

It was all pretty hit and miss. My advice would be to stick to basics that are hard to mess up, the meats were a safer bet than ethnic dishes, and if you have skills in the kitchen or have, for example, been to Europe, keep expectations low to avoid disappointment. We were on the Dawn which is older and smaller so I’m hoping the bigger fancy new ships with more dining options have more to offer.

[Gentgeen]

What I didn't enjoy last week on the Getaway:

 

Beef Chow Fun at the Noodle Bar. Noodles were the wrong texture, flavor was bland.

Fish and Chips at O'Sheehan's. I liked them on the Gem, but was disappointed on the Getaway.

Orange Chocolate Mousse in the MDR. I imagined a chocolate mousse that incorporated orange flavor into the mousse somehow. I got a chocolate mousse and orange jello parfait.

Boston Cream Pie in the MDR. Just not special.

[MaryZ]

for dessert I usually order a fruit plate. Occasionally I will have orange sherbet. The sherbet is much better than any of their ice cream.

 

I do love their pretzel bread :)

[4774Papa]

Here’s our food review as we just returned from our cruise yesterday.

The food in general was mediocre, at best. It was very reminiscent of resort food in Cuba and we were super disappointed.

 

Most of the buffet was absolutely inedible. Salad bar practically non existent. Food cooked to mush. Saw a few items repurposed at the next meal (ie unused scrambled eggs from breakfast becomes egg salad sandwiches at lunch). Unsanitary omelette station... got sick one day and pretty sure the way the eggs were kept was the culprit. If you order fried eggs, they are not freshly cracked for you, but rather are sitting in bowls already cracked, in the fridge, and uncovered by film or any protective covering. Gross. Definitely skip dessert in the buffet, except the freshly made crepes, which are ok. The rest of the buffet desserts are frozen, commercially made, and artificial.

 

Don’t bother with breakfast in the main dining room... it’s essentially the same food that goes to the buffet, although served in a more relaxed setting. Literally, the exact (horrible) eggs Benedict, and fake powdered scrambled eggs. The dinners in the main dining room were better than the buffet by only a slight margin. Very processed food. Designed to look pretty but no taste. For example, the “tomato sauce” was seasoned tomato soup... Again, most foods are over cooked or clearly microwaved, and the descriptions are worded to sound way more fancy than they actually are. “Fried mozzarella” for example, sounded fresh and delicious but turned out to be the gross frozen mozzarella sticks from Costco... Most of the time our party ordered steaks or prime rib and they were generally pleased. The consensus was in general that the most edible entrees of the cruise were the steaks. Desserts in the main dining room also only marginally better than the buffet. Chocolate lava cake w no lava... over cooked into a brownie. Mostly frozen, premade items that are microwaved and dressed up. Bread pudding was just ok, but everything else was a waste of calories.

 

Specialty restaurants are really the only half decent meals we had... and even then... At Cucina (Italian) pasta is cooked to mush, sauces are not authentic Italian sauces and again, flavoured soup and stock bases are used rather than real tomato sauce or butter based sauces. The gnocchi in pesto was ok. Vegetable lasagna was not edible. Tiramisu was comercially made, not homemade or authentic Italian recipe. The sides were mushy and boring. At Cagneys, most in our party enjoyed their steaks. Baked potatoes were good. Dessert was gross. Raspberry creme brûlée was not edible... tasted like raspberry yogurt with soggy sugar on top. Le Bistro was probably the best overall meal but a far cry from anything resembling French cuisine. Again, if you order steak you’re probably safe, but others in our party also enjoyed some of the seafood dishes here. Le Bistro surprised me and actually served a decent, authentic creme brûlée this time. The tarte Tatin however was mushy and not worth the calories.

 

It was all pretty hit and miss. My advice would be to stick to basics that are hard to mess up, the meats were a safer bet than ethnic dishes, and if you have skills in the kitchen or have, for example, been to Europe, keep expectations low to avoid disappointment. We were on the Dawn which is older and smaller so I’m hoping the bigger fancy new ships with more dining options have more to offer.

I don't dispute what your are reporting in your post. However, I have never experienced 90% of what you reported.

I expect that the eggs at the buffet are reconstituted, not fresh eggs. Celebrity has an omelet station where fresh eggs are used, but they may use reconstituted eggs for the already scrambled eggs. I frequently get the Eggs Benedict or poached eggs on Celebrity and they are fresh eggs.

 

As far a salad bars on cruise ships are concerned, we have rarely seen any problems. I do remember seeing on one cruise, can't remember which one, there there was ice in the lettuce that had melted and the lettuce was soggy. Normally, I don't see ice in the lettuce. I do agree that most of the desserts on NCL are nothing to brag about, but we have had some good desserts.

[xvi]

I don't dispute what your are reporting in your post. However, I have never experienced 90% of what you reported.

I expect that the eggs at the buffet are reconstituted, not fresh eggs. Celebrity has an omelet station where fresh eggs are used, but they may use reconstituted eggs for the already scrambled eggs. I frequently get the Eggs Benedict or poached eggs on Celebrity and they are fresh eggs.

 

As far a salad bars on cruise ships are concerned, we have rarely seen any problems. I do remember seeing on one cruise, can't remember which one, there there was ice in the lettuce that had melted and the lettuce was soggy. Normally, I don't see ice in the lettuce. I do agree that most of the desserts on NCL are nothing to brag about, but we have had some good desserts.

 

I should note that I did not experience any of these things on our two cruises on Royal Caribbean either, just our most recent NCL cruise. There were, in our opinion, very obvious differences in quality between them. The salad bar on RCC was rather substantial. I think we will try Celebrity next.

[Peachypooh]

Unless you like Olives don't get the lamb chops on the Pearl in LeBistro. For some reason they put olives all over everything on the plate and even when I asked for no olives it still had some chopped up on top/juice of olives on it. On the other hand the lamb chops in LeBistro on the Gem had no olives whatsoever in the description or on the plate.

[grouchomarx]

Scrambled eggs were the worst, just so awful that they actually made me angry. They were no better in the dining room than the buffet.

[kmast151]

I should note that I did not experience any of these things on our two cruises on Royal Caribbean either, just our most recent NCL cruise. There were, in our opinion, very obvious differences in quality between them. The salad bar on RCC was rather substantial. I think we will try Celebrity next.

We are going on NCL for first time next month (Escape), ironically chose itinerary that included Tortola which of course was tragically damaged by hurricanes. We have really enjoyed the food on Celebrity. A lot is freshly made on the ship. I am hoping food on NCL is decent. Looking forward to the activities on the Escape.

[xvi]

We are going on NCL for first time next month (Escape), ironically chose itinerary that included Tortola which of course was tragically damaged by hurricanes. We have really enjoyed the food on Celebrity. A lot is freshly made on the ship. I am hoping food on NCL is decent. Looking forward to the activities on the Escape.

 

There wasn't much freshly made on the Dawn but its an old and small ship. You may have better luck on your ship. I'd be very interested in hearing your thoughts once you're back and how you felt the food compared to Celebrity, so please do come back and post once you get home. Hope you enjoy your cruise :)

[mpk]

A lot of knocks on the desserts in this thread :)

 

I also find that the desserts taste like nothing. They are very nicely decorated and all, but that is about it. I would rather they make one or two things well than six or seven bland choices.

[Laszlo]

I've never understood my so many people like the pretzel roll things. I've tried them a few times, kind of blah. Then again I'm from PA so I can get a real "Soft Pretzel" anywhere here hot out of the oven

[cruisinmeme]

On the breakfast MDR menu" country biscuit and gravy. I will just leave it at that. Being from the south I wanted to scream at the mess they call country biscuit and gravy.