Non-Haven food lacking

[J0Y0US]

We just returned from the Encore. It was a great and relaxing trip even though we planned last second. I was very happy with the choice to switch to NCL and an Alaska Cruise. I was even happier that upfront I decided if I was going to cruise on NCL it would be in Haven. The whole experience was very nice.

 

The Haven food was great all around except for a slightly over cooked piece of pork. As for the rest of the ship everything we tried or looked at just seemed to be lacking.

 

Ocean Blue, Food Republic, American Diner, Buffet, The Local are all the places we actually ate at with limited experience in the buffet because just walking through you could see the food was meh buffet food and not something we would pass on the Haven for although we purposely went out of our way to try a few things just to try it.

 

Also I will say others may disagree but I am grading this based on traveling extensively in my past on land both for business and vacation purposes. I only have cruise experience with Disney which overall I find a better experience but Haven specifically is better than what Disney has to offer (although Haven does lack in a couple areas for us personally).

 

The only way I see myself on a NCL in the future is in the Haven on a ship with a nice dedicated Haven area/restaurant. That being said I could easily see myself on NCL against if the price is right. We like Disney but might look to try Celebrity or Royal next time around as well.

 

I will say just another mark against NCL was that even with a tiny little mist of rain they would shutdown the slides, race tracks were really never running, and I am not sure if the laser tag was open the whole week. It was Alaska with a limited capacity cruise but it seemed like large swaths of the ship were rendered useless which just reinforced how great it was to be in Haven with dedicated areas.

[Disneycruzluver58]

Neebie to the Haven, did you need to make reservations for the Haven restaurant for Breakfast and dinner?

[graphicguy]

10 minutes ago, Disneycruzluver58 said:

Neebie to the Haven, did you need to make reservations for the Haven restaurant for Breakfast and dinner?

Nope…just walk up!

[J0Y0US]

33 minutes ago, Disneycruzluver58 said:

Neebie to the Haven, did you need to make reservations for the Haven restaurant for Breakfast and dinner?

 

Walk up and for the two of us we basically always sat right next to the window. Also the Haven was "sold out" so its not like reduced capacity had much to do with it. Although if you travel during a school break possibly with more kids it might change but doubt it the room was never more than like 1/3rd full.

 

Oh and absolutely feel free to mix and match dishes. Example I added lobster one night to another steak dish instead of getting the filet again.

Edited September 20, 2021 by J0Y0US

[psac]

Important question — was the over cooked pork the tomahawk pork chop? I was looking forward to that!   (Different ship though.)

 

Overall it’s hard to compare NCL and DCL. They’re our two favorite cruise lines, and we’ve sailed both a bunch. DCL is definitely better than NCL non-Haven, but it’s also generally a lot more expensive!  So yes, the main dining room food, buffet, etc., are much better on Disney, but you’re paying for it. 
 

When it comes to the suite world, Concierge is generally more expensive on Disney and you get half the perks you get in the Haven. No separate dining room, no view of the water from the sun decks, no private pool to speak of. Not even close. So when we said NCL we do the Haven, when we do Disney we sail non-suite balcony. 
 

 

[hallux]

10 hours ago, J0Y0US said:

I will say just another mark against NCL was that even with a tiny little mist of rain they would shutdown the slides, race tracks were really never running, and I am not sure if the laser tag was open the whole week. It was Alaska with a limited capacity cruise but it seemed like large swaths of the ship were rendered useless which just reinforced how great it was to be in Haven with dedicated areas.

While I enjoyed my opportunity to try the track and laser tag on the Bliss, I certainly see the point you're making, and it's one reason I plan to avoid Encore as much as possible.  At least Bliss had the Spice H2O, which is where laser tag is on Encore.

 

I can certainly understand them shutting down laser tag and the track, even in mist.  It would definitely be a safety concern...

[Oxo]

Food is very subjective. Don't expect any difference on Celebrity  or RCI in the MDR. We cruised them all and they are all banquet food. 

[J0Y0US]

15 hours ago, psac said:

Important question — was the over cooked pork the tomahawk pork chop? I was looking forward to that!   (Different ship though.)

 

Yes and I even asked for it to be cooked to a medium instead of well done. I saw them take the notes on the tablet as writing out instructions even to the kitchen. It was solid white through and when cutting had the "fraying" or whatever you call it where you can tell its overdone not cutting smoothly like a medium done cut of pork/beef. (Slightly juicy but tougher since it was well done)

 

I wasn't extremely hungry so while I ate a little of it I just made a comment also saying I didn't care to have another made.

 

If you do it possibly make sure to call out that you want some pink in the meat possibly even stating a temp like 145 you want it done to instead. 

 

 

4 hours ago, Oxo said:

Food is very subjective. Don't expect any difference on Celebrity  or RCI in the MDR. We cruised them all and they are all banquet food. 

 

We didn't eat in NCL MDR so I can't be for certain but commented more on the other food around the ship. I have heard good things about Celebrity as far as food quality plus they also have the private dining room (typically seemed to win over NCL in ranking sheets I found). With RCI the benefit is they have the unlimited dining option for speciality food and with more expensive suites also have the private dining room.

 

I will just outline I am not a picky eater but do hold food to different standards based on where I am getting it and what price is being paid. Example with The Local the wings while crispy (because likely fried) were that of frozen bag quality and the buffalo sauce was the weirdest adaptation of buffalo sauce I have tasted so much so we thought we got the asian wings the first time. So while okay for a dive bar charging $0.25 it was out of place in what I felt was a central eatery of the ship. With Ocean Blue the Tuna was flat out not fresh like it was in the Haven which I had 3 or 4 times for the week (also we ate in Ocean Blue earlier in the week so not like I ate there 6 nights in). So while you can say its "subjective" thats fine but there are actual discrepancies with the food in the general ship from what an outside person would expect coming in to a NCL cruise the first time.

 

Also its not like NCL is incapable of producing good food since The Haven showed it to be possible. Instead as we reflect I think its a choice of ingredient quality being diminished possibly or the quality control lacking.

 

I did write NCL directly today after submitting my survey because hopefully they can improve the non-haven food in the future.

[Oxo]

22 minutes ago, J0Y0US said:

We didn't eat in NCL MDR so I can't be for certain but commented more on the other food around the ship. I have heard good things about Celebrity as far as food quality plus they also have the private dining room (typically seemed to win over NCL in ranking sheets I found). With RCI the benefit is they have the unlimited dining option for speciality food and with more expensive suites also have the private dining room.

In Feb 2020 we were B2B on Encore. Then got on the Celerity Edge. We just got off of the Edge. So, here is our take on NCL and Celebrity. We consider NCL to have better food in the MDR than Celebrity. Remember, Food is subjective. We think the Specialty Restaurants (SRs) are better on the Encore than Celebrity. We are Platinum on NCL and Elite+ on Celebrity. We tried the Fine Cut Steakhouse on the Edge and it was a total disaster. JMHO. In fact, we walked out after sitting there for an hour and only receiving our Steakhouse Salad. No one ever came by to check on us. We were the second couple to enter that venue and be seated. The venue was nowhere 1/2 full at that time. Enough!!!!

I believe the Ocean View Cafe is great on Celebrity as to variety and choices. Don't do the private dining rooms such as Blu or Lumina since the Edge has 4 MDRs that you can choose from. Others are now saying that Blu is going downhill. Guest are ordering from the MDR menu for these two dining rooms, too. So, why would I order from a MDR,if I paid extra to eat in Blu or Lumina. 

I buy a UDP on RCI always as they are so reasonable. Normally we cruise on the Oasis class ships and go for a Central Park balcony. Pay the extra for the UDP and have free SRs lunches on sea days, too.

22 minutes ago, J0Y0US said:

 

I will just outline I am not a picky eater but do hold food to different standards based on where I am getting it and what price is being paid. Example with The Local the wings while crispy (because likely fried) were that of frozen bag quality and the buffalo sauce was the weirdest adaptation of buffalo sauce I have tasted so much so we thought we got the asian wings the first time. So while okay for a dive bar charging $0.25 it was out of place in what I felt was a central eatery of the ship. With Ocean Blue the Tuna was flat out not fresh like it was in the Haven which I had 3 or 4 times for the week (also we ate in Ocean Blue earlier in the week so not like I ate there 6 nights in). So while you can say its "subjective" thats fine but there are actual discrepancies with the food in the general ship from what an outside person would expect coming in to a NCL cruise the first time.

 

Also its not like NCL is incapable of producing good food since The Haven showed it to be possible. Instead as we reflect I think its a choice of ingredient quality being diminished possibly or the quality control lacking.

 

I did write NCL directly today after submitting my survey because hopefully they can improve the non-haven food in the future.

Wherever, you have NCL in the above I can replace that with Celebrity or RCI. I would rate RCI food 3rd, Celebrity 2nd and NCL 1st. Worst food that we encounter is MSC regardless if people call it European. We done MSC (were Black Card then changed to Diamond) in the Caribbean and in Europe many times. We are Diamond+ on RCI. Been cruising since 1986 and have cruised over 125 times. We cruise Celebrity, Princess, MSC, Costa, HAL, RCI and NCL. No favorite cruise line as they all provide something we enjoy on each one. Celebrity is trying to become Crystal and will never be such. Their Classic Beverage Package drink price maxes out at $9. Anything over that and you pay the difference and 20%. These next 12 months we are going on NCL Joy B2B, NCL Bliss Panama Canal, RCI Oasis B2B, RCI Symphony and Celebrity Apex. 

I was not trying to call you out on your opinion. I was just trying to say that food is very subjective. I love oriental food, others may hate it. I love steak medium rare. Others love it well done. I love sea food when it is fresh and real lobster (Maine), not what they serve on the other lines. 

Hope this helps you understand my Subjective comment. 

Stay Safe and Happy Cruising!!

[CruizinKittie40]

14 hours ago, J0Y0US said:

 

Yes and I even asked for it to be cooked to a medium instead of well done. .... medium done cut of pork/beef. (Slightly juicy but tougher since it was well done)

.... You asked for medium pork?????? Are you serious??  You can get worms that way

[david_sobe]

The Haven food on Encore is really good.  But I thought Onda and Cagneys were even better 😉

The only place where I thought the food was lacking was the Local.  Just way too many budget cuts and unless you get a burger (which you can get anywhere) it was just meh.  The Encore has just too many great food options.  The Food Republic is a must for at least 1 lunch.  Onda is so good, take my advice and book it twice because getting that second reservation may be difficult while you are on board 😉 

Edited September 21, 2021 by david_sobe

[Goldconnection]

We have cruised with a few cruise lines (NCL, RCC, Celebrity, Carnival, and Princess) and in my opinion the food on all of them is nothing to write home about. What is tasty to one person is not necessarily tasty to another. It is all banquet quality food even in the specialty restaurants. Like all banquet food it is a little hit and a lot of miss in my opinion. Please respect my opinion and my taste buds. 

[ECCruise]

4 hours ago, CruizinKittie40 said:

.... You asked for medium pork?????? Are you serious??  You can get worms that way

Not for decades.  Pork is recommended to be cooked ONLY to medium, no more.  Trichinosis is long ago gone.

For many years, nutritionists--and the USDA--have recommended cooking the meat until it reaches an internal temperature of about 160°F, or medium, which can result in slightly pink meat.

[Oxo]

1 hour ago, Goldconnection said:

We have cruised with a few cruise lines (NCL, RCC, Celebrity, Carnival, and Princess) and in my opinion the food on all of them is nothing to write home about. What is tasty to one person is not necessarily tasty to another. It is all banquet quality food even in the specialty restaurants. Like all banquet food it is a little hit and a lot of miss in my opinion. Please respect my opinion and my taste buds. 

At least you and I agree on Cruise Line food. Even the Specialty Restaurants are not the quality they use to be. 

Stay Safe! 

[psac]

1 hour ago, Goldconnection said:

We have cruised with a few cruise lines (NCL, RCC, Celebrity, Carnival, and Princess) and in my opinion the food on all of them is nothing to write home about. What is tasty to one person is not necessarily tasty to another. It is all banquet quality food even in the specialty restaurants. Like all banquet food it is a little hit and a lot of miss in my opinion. Please respect my opinion and my taste buds. 

Yeah our last pre-COVID cruise on the Escape, our dinner at Cagneys was probably the worst Cruise meal we had in 15+ cruises, including MDR meals from other cruise lines. Having said that, our Haven dinners from that trip, and even La Cuchina (surprisingly) were all REALLY good. Sometimes it’s just the luck of the draw — who the cooks are that sailing, where they’ve sourced the food from, etc. There is a lot of variability involved before it ever gets on your plate. 

[trivimp]

1 hour ago, ECCruise said:

Not for decades.  Pork is recommended to be cooked ONLY to medium, no more.  Trichinosis is long ago gone.

 

To be complete in the discussion, trichinosis parasites can still be found in game meat, or occasionally in pigs raised in semi-wild settings where they can come into contact with wild rodents.  It is NOT found in domestic pigs raised in confinement.  Trichinosis infection has become very rare since the 50s or so.  

[Shellbelle28]

6 hours ago, CruizinKittie40 said:

.... You asked for medium pork?????? Are you serious??  You can get worms that way

https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2011/05/24/136613898/a-little-pink-is-ok-usda-revises-cooking-temperature-for-pork#:~:text=Radio Ambulante-,A Little Pink Is OK%3A USDA Revises Cooking Temperature For,is still safe to eat.

 

[ociana]

I have never had the Haven food, but I will agree with OP that the food overall is cafeteria or business banquet level quality on my NCL experiences.  My opinion is based on being a food oriented traveler who generally enjoys street food and local diners or specialties, but has little experience with high end dining. 

 

My hubby and I found two ways to find enjoyable meals on our transatlantic cruise on the Epic in 2019. First is the Irish Pub place for Reuben sandwiches. Hard to ruin and always filling. Second is that we checked the speciality area of the buffet, which rotated cuisines each day and we were told is where staff get to prepare dishes they are more familiar with from their culture. We had an oxtail stew one night that had me wanting to lick the bowl! Other dishes were less memorable, but still well above anything else we had in flavor profile. 

 

I saw a tip posted where someone brought their own extra seasoning salt along and I might try that next time to add some oomph to the dishes overall. 

[Oxo]

I guess by reading all these postings. 

Food is subjective on all cruise lines. You can always have a bad meal in any restaurant, regardless of the cruise line. 

Now, when is the next cruise meal? Enjoy it!

Safe n Happy Cruising!!

[Oxo]

2 hours ago, psac said:

Yeah our last pre-COVID cruise on the Escape, our dinner at Cagneys was probably the worst Cruise meal we had in 15+ cruises, including MDR meals from other cruise lines. Having said that, our Haven dinners from that trip, and even La Cuchina (surprisingly) were all REALLY good. Sometimes it’s just the luck of the draw — who the cooks are that sailing, where they’ve sourced the food from, etc. There is a lot of variability involved before it ever gets on your plate. 

Not disagreeing with you. What was so bad about your meal at Cagneys?

We just had a very bad experience on Celebrity Edge in the Fine Cut Steakhouse. We were 2nd couple seated when they opened at 6pm. Took our order right away. Restaurant very empty. About 15 minutes later table for 4 seated. We got our app steakhouse wedge. 7pm still no main entrée. Yet table for 4 served app, main and finished main.

What would you do?

Waking out male hostess asked why. He said meal will be served very soon. 

NO ONE ever called us to check on this. 

More can be added from lack of concern.

 

Your turn.  LOL

[psac]

1 hour ago, Oxo said:

Not disagreeing with you. What was so bad about your meal at Cagneys?

We just had a very bad experience on Celebrity Edge in the Fine Cut Steakhouse. We were 2nd couple seated when they opened at 6pm. Took our order right away. Restaurant very empty. About 15 minutes later table for 4 seated. We got our app steakhouse wedge. 7pm still no main entrée. Yet table for 4 served app, main and finished main.

What would you do?

Waking out male hostess asked why. He said meal will be served very soon. 

NO ONE ever called us to check on this. 

More can be added from lack of concern.

 

Your turn.  LOL

For our bad Cagneys dinner (and we had lots of good Cagneys dinners before this one, so it could certainly have been an anomaly), just like you said, our apps came out quickly and were pretty good. But then we waited at least 45 minutes from when we finished our apps to when the mains came. And then the side dishes were all completely cold, to the point where you could obviously see the dishes were congealed and no way should’ve been served. Then the steak itself seemed like they must’ve overloaded the grill to try to catch up and all four filets (we had my in laws with us) seemed like they were steamed/boiled instead of grilled, and they had a really weird texture.  Not to mention even to start I wanted to order the porterhouse and the waiter highly recommended the filet instead, and directly told me not to order the porterhouse, so if the filet was that bad, I had to wonder how bad the porterhouse was!!  

[Oxo]

2 hours ago, psac said:

For our bad Cagneys dinner (and we had lots of good Cagneys dinners before this one, so it could certainly have been an anomaly), just like you said, our apps came out quickly and were pretty good. But then we waited at least 45 minutes from when we finished our apps to when the mains came. And then the side dishes were all completely cold, to the point where you could obviously see the dishes were congealed and no way should’ve been served. Then the steak itself seemed like they must’ve overloaded the grill to try to catch up and all four filets (we had my in laws with us) seemed like they were steamed/boiled instead of grilled, and they had a really weird texture.  Not to mention even to start I wanted to order the porterhouse and the waiter highly recommended the filet instead, and directly told me not to order the porterhouse, so if the filet was that bad, I had to wonder how bad the porterhouse was!!  

My point is - why would a waiter being something like that?  They serve enough, that they can immediately tell whether it is hot or cold. They should also immediately bring that to the attention of the head chief.

 

In addition,  when something like that happens, management should immediately take action to satisfy the guests. 

 

No, instead they how you or I forget what the bad experience was. 

 

I wrote mine up on a survey and forwarded a copy to Hq. Still waiting on a reply from Hq. 

 

Thanks for sharing.  Sorry for your bad experience. If we never say anything about it,  nothing will ever be done to ensure it will not happen again. 

 

Wishful thinking! LOL

 

STAY SAFE AND HAPPY CRUISING!

 

We are on the Joy B2B in Nov 21. Have 4 meals for each cruise. Wish us luck.

[gknep]

• I was on the 9/11 Encore sailing not in the Haven and was very pleased with the food except for maybe Los Lobos. We had incredible meals at Onda, Ocean Blue, and Cagney's. The one night we had dinner in the MDR was also excellent. I have had better food while traveling, but I have also had a lot worse. 

[littlelulu01]

We were in the Haven 8/28 sailing.  Haven food was good.  The American diner free lunch on embarkation day- we were not impressed.  I tried whole main lobster in ocean blue and it was mushy.  The appetizers and service there were good so we didn’t complain about the meal.  Q and food republic were really good.  In all honesty- the service was outstanding every venue we tried.  The food was good enough and sometimes it was really good. When you can’t even rely on restaurants having staff to even open let alone serve a decent meal on land anymore, we felt it was a privilege to experience excellent service and pretty good food on the ship. 
 

I thought the concierge Adrian was fantastic and loved the Starbucks machine and the Observation lounge.
 

After sailing the Haven on the Encore, I think I prefer Haven on Jewel class.  Excited to try the Prima to see if it’s a happy medium between the two. 

[J0Y0US]

On 9/21/2021 at 8:48 PM, littlelulu01 said:

I think I prefer Haven on Jewel class

 

Mind telling me why? Interested