HAL MDR Food

[Hawaiidan]

17 hours ago, mcrcruiser said:

The food quality is great in the MDR   . Like the OP said it would be a waste of money to  have dinner in a specialty restaurant .  Canaletto  is ok but we have had better in a land based Italian restaurant 

 

 

I could not agree more...  The cruise lines actively promote with all sorts of hype eating in a Specialty .

It is in the lines selfish best interest to steer you to a pay to dine place  it take pressure off the dining room and generates more money.     Canaletto, which used to be free is at best awful...you be better eating in the Dining room or Lido Buffet !    The food in the the specialties is not all that much better but has better ambiance. 

 

 The lines tout their specialties to make you think your missing something if your not eating there... Yes the food and china is slightly better  but not better enough to drop $35pp       With all the  "anytime dining"   the specialties serve to make the main dining room  better, which was never bad except for fixed tables and fixed times.        Thats when the specialties came to be..  to give you a flexible time dining.   But with flexible dining  now in the Main Dining room there is little reason to change venues....really    

Of note, Most nights the menu from the Main Dining room  is available in the Buffet...  It all comes from  the same galley.    Thus you can craft a wonderful combo  not available anywhere.   And on my last cruise they had table cloths  on the tables in the Lido.    I see really little value in the pay extra making you think it is  is good marketing from the line

[Betty in Cozumel]

We are sailing HAL for the first time next month on the Westerdam in Asia and I am looking forward to the food.  We have been on Costa, RCCL and our favourite Celebrity.  We have always been satisfied with the food in the MDR and only paid for a specialty restaurant on our last cruise when my hubby was kind of pressured to do it on embarkation night.  I didn't plan on doing it on our upcoming cruise but we got a perk of a free dinner in the Pinnacle Grill so we'll have to check that out.  During a sea day but NOT a gala night.