Back After 20 Years - How Much Has Food Quality Lowered?

[ricka47]

We just booked our first Princess cruise since 2002. While we enjoyed that one, we just found that Royal Caribbean and Celebrity were more to our liking at the time. But we’ve noticed a notable lowering of food quality on both of those lines - even pre-Covid. On our last RCI (Harmony of the Seas) sailing, we got a deal on the dining package and never visited the MDR once.

 

We also try to sail on Oceania when we can afford it as the food is incredible. But our cruise in July on the Regal (12-night British Isles) is more about the itinerary and less about food. Yet, we like to eat, and, from reading the threads here, it appears that the lowering of food quality that we see on RCI and X is apparent on Princess also? Perhaps it is just a fact of post-Covid life that we pay more for less.

Edited March 1, 2023 by ricka47

[Sea Hag]

9 minutes ago, ricka47 said:

We just booked our first Princess cruise since 2002. While we enjoyed that one, we just found that Royal Caribbean and Celebrity were more to our liking at the time. But we’ve noticed a notable lowering of food quality on both of those lines - even pre-Covid. On our last RCI (Harmony of the Seas) sailing, we got a deal on the dining package and never visited the MDR once.

 

We also try to sail on Oceania when we can afford it as the food is incredible. But our cruise in July on the Regal (12-night British Isles) is more about the itinerary and less about food. Yet, we like to eat, and, from reading the threads here, it appears that the lowering of food quality that we see on RCI and X is apparent on Princess also? Perhaps it is just a fact of post-Covid life that we pay more for less.

I don't have a solid answer on that. Just my own observations. We're on the Sky right now. Some of the food has been outstanding, some fairly good, and others just okay. Before this cruise, we were last on the Discovery and the food on that ship was much better on average. I will say that the buffet here on the Sky is outstanding.

[Lady Arwen]

We’re also sailing on Regal British Isles itinerary in September and we’re really sailing for the ports and we love embarking in Southampton.  We regularly sail with Celebrity, but we’re going on Regal with no predetermined expectations.  Will the food be as good as Celebrity?  Maybe not.  However, we will still have a nice dinner in the MDR with a few glasses of wine and we will still enjoy ourselves.

 

Please come back here in July after your sailing and let us know all about it.  We’re very much looking forward to our cruise in September!

[ricka47]

1 minute ago, Lady Arwen said:

We’re also sailing on Regal British Isles itinerary in September and we’re really sailing for the ports and we love embarking in Southampton.  We regularly sail with Celebrity, but we’re going on Regal with no predetermined expectations.  Will the food be as good as Celebrity?  Maybe not.  However, we will still have a nice dinner in the MDR with a few glasses of wine and we will still enjoy ourselves.

 

Please come back here in July after your sailing and let us know all about it.  We’re very much looking forward to our cruise in September!

That's good to hear about sailing out of Southampton. We have not done that before, and it sounds like it is a good experience. We just booked the 7/19 sailing and need to book airfare. That may cost more than the cruise!

 

We plan to fly into London a few days early, so we need to find transportation to the port and then to the airport afterward. There appear to be many services available - any suggestions?

[wowzz]

3 minutes ago, ricka47 said:

We plan to fly into London a few days early, so we need to find transportation to the port and then to the airport afterward. There appear to be many services available - any suggestions?

Try the UK ports of call forum for lots of advice on this. The cheapest, and also very convenient connection, is on National Coaches from Victoria coach station.

[Lady Arwen]

28 minutes ago, ricka47 said:

That's good to hear about sailing out of Southampton. We have not done that before, and it sounds like it is a good experience. We just booked the 7/19 sailing and need to book airfare. That may cost more than the cruise!

 

We plan to fly into London a few days early, so we need to find transportation to the port and then to the airport afterward. There appear to be many services available - any suggestions?

We’re using Blackberry Cars.  Highly recommend them.  Great service and very nice cars.  We’re using a Princess transfer at disembarkation since our flight to Toronto is at 4:00 pm.  Also, we’re staying for two nights in Southampton prior to our cruise.  Such a lovely city to visit.  

[ricka47]

2 minutes ago, Lady Arwen said:

We’re using Blackberry Cars.  Highly recommend them.  Great service and very nice cars.  We’re using a Princess transfer at disembarkation since our flight to Toronto is at 4:00 pm.  Also, we’re staying for two nights in Southampton prior to our cruise.  Such a lovely city to visit.  

Thanks - we may just use the Princess transfer to the airport afterward as well.

[Rick&Jeannie]

1 hour ago, Lady Arwen said:

We’re using Blackberry Cars.  Highly recommend them.  Great service and very nice cars.  We’re using a Princess transfer at disembarkation since our flight to Toronto is at 4:00 pm.  Also, we’re staying for two nights in Southampton prior to our cruise.  Such a lovely city to visit.  

Second vote for Blackberry Cars.  We use them every time we fly into London. 

 

Regarding food quality... we're on the Caribbean P right now. Quality has definitely dropped  (in my opinion) even over the past 3 or 4 cruises we've done after restart. I would not say that I am a picky eater at all, but there have been several meals in the MDR where I felt that I was "settling" for the least objectionable choices.

[Lady Arwen]

1 hour ago, Rick&Jeannie said:

Second vote for Blackberry Cars.  We use them every time we fly into London. 

 

Regarding food quality... we're on the Caribbean P right now. Quality has definitely dropped  (in my opinion) even over the past 3 or 4 cruises we've done after restart. I would not say that I am a picky eater at all, but there have been several meals in the MDR where I felt that I was "settling" for the least objectionable choices.

Thanks for sharing your experience.  We are prepared for a bit of a let down in the MDR, but we are so happy to be sailing this itinerary and we’re just not going to let it bother us.  If necessary, we’ll eat in the specialty restaurants.  I’ve heard from quite a few people who’ve had the same experience as you and it seems to be fleet wide.

[Torfamm]

Food quality across all lines is not what it was 20 years ago. From my experiences in the last year and a half though, Princess has actually improved since before the pandemic. The difference between them and Celebrity isn’t anywhere near as big as it used to br

[jeromep]

Food is so subjective.  From my perspective there are three things which seem to impact food on board, whether it is menu offerings, presentation, overall quality, quantity served, etc.  Those three factors are the Executive Chef, the Food and Beverage Manager, and the ability for the port agent to provision the ship as desired.

 

It is my understanding that the Executive Chef and F&B have to coordinate with each other on menus and recipes.  This determines how the ship needs to be provisioned for each cruise.  Again, according to my understanding, the F&B manager is the one that controls the purse strings.  So, if the food budget for a particular sailing is limited by corporate or by what is customary for a sailing in that particular region for that length of cruise, that may impact the quality and quantity of what is purchased when the ship reaches home port and reprovisions.  F&B budget may also turn around and directly impact what is on the menu any given night in the MDR or buffet.  The Exec. Chef might have ideas on having really great menu items, but what he actually gets in the pantry to cook with may drastically affect what is on the menu.

 

Most of what I've mentioned has been the effect of budgets and the way the F&B Manager handles reprovisioning and how that could impact menus and food quality.  If the Exec. Chef is inexperienced, or has an odd taste in "continental" food presentation, then you are going to get food which may not inspire excitement.  Consider that as the cruise lines have "restarted" there are gaps in talent that they are having to navigate through.  No doubt there are some newly minted Exec. Chefs on board which may not be ready for the challenge, or may not have as much experience as the former Exec. Chefs which may not be coming back as the cruise lines bring themselves back to full capacity.  This whole labor issue has played out in nearly all industries where there has been a shut down and staff has been laid off or dismissed because there was no demand for their talent, a lot of those people went on to other jobs.  They didn't wait for the green light to get back to cruising, they went and found other work in other areas which could use them right away, and pay them right away.

 

And then there is the home port, port agent, and what can be provisioned in that port.  Is it possible that you can home port a ship someplace where you can't get excellent cuts of steak.  Sure.  Is it possible that you can home port a ship someplace where selection of fresh fruits and vegetables may be limited.  Absolutely.  Just because a ship wants particular provisions on board doesn't mean that they get all they want or even exactly what they want.  I'm convinced that some of the oddities people have seen on board in terms of food presentation or variety are directly related to what the ship can get when it arrives back at its home port and goes through the turn around process.

 

When all three of these factors come together, you get a great food experience on board.  If any of these are even a bit off, you end up with odd menus, unexpected preparation or presentation, and even just unenjoyable meals.

 

And there is no way to know if this is actually going to be the case with your cruise until you are there on the cruise.

[waltd]

We were on the Sapphire for 33 days over the holidays and we were happy with the food.  We did not starve.   Some great, some good and some ok..   

[wowzz]

The other thing to take into account is food inflation.

The price of a cruise in real terms is probably 20% less now than it was 20 years ago, whereas the price of food has increased 50%..

So, you need to to factor that into your expectations.

 

[that]

8 hours ago, Rick&Jeannie said:

Second vote for Blackberry Cars.  We use them every time we fly into London. 

 

Regarding food quality... we're on the Caribbean P right now. Quality has definitely dropped  (in my opinion) even over the past 3 or 4 cruises we've done after restart. I would not say that I am a picky eater at all, but there have been several meals in the MDR where I felt that I was "settling" for the least objectionable choices.

Yikes!

“settling? “”

Why?  
If menu is objectionable, why order at all?  Disappointing to hear this about Caribbean Princess menus from seasoned cruiser😑

 

[Coral]

IMO - Princess has changed drastically since you last sailed and not for the better.

 

I would never cruise Princess for the food. You are not going to starve but I doubt you will rave about the dining room food. It tastes like conference food.

[wowzz]

7 minutes ago, Coral said:

IMO - Princess has changed drastically since you last sailed and not for the better.

As have all mass market lines. 

[Coral]

41 minutes ago, wowzz said:

As have all mass market lines. 

Well - we are talking about Princess now.

[Thrak]

On our last cruise - Ruby Princess in December - I ordered a steak in MDR. Normally I don't do that as I have been very disappointed in MDR beef. It was the best, most flavorful steak I've ever had on Princess - much better than anything I've had in Crown Grill. I was totally amazed.

[brisalta]

3 hours ago, Thrak said:

On our last cruise - Ruby Princess in December - I ordered a steak in MDR. Normally I don't do that as I have been very disappointed in MDR beef. It was the best, most flavorful steak I've ever had on Princess - much better than anything I've had in Crown Grill. I was totally amazed.

 

Was that the added cost steak that is now seen on MDR menus?

[SCX22]

The food on board Princess is glorified banquet hall food meant for nourishment, not for a Michelin star experience.  It's mass produced like banquet food since the crew has to feed thousands of guests and crew.  There's flavor and appearance but it's certainly not worthy of Michelin stars.  Most passengers are impressed because they don't eat at a fancy sit down restaurant or buffet every night when they're not cruising.

 

Have the expectation to run out of a particular food item(s) in the Princess post-pandemic cruise experience.  Not sure if it's because the ship's budget for provisions is not enough or if it's a supply chain issue or a combo of both.  The ship ran out of of orange juice, cream, and melons on the last 5 days of a Hawaii cruise.  In the Caribbean, the ship ran out of the cheap champagne to make cocktails.  In Europe, the ship ran out of hashbrowns and could only order scrambled eggs towards the end as to ration the eggs that were left.

 

I think there are geographical differences as well.  The Horizon Court buffet on the Royal Princess out of San Francisco didn't have as much offerings as the Regal Princess out of Fort Lauderdale; one side of the buffet was exclusively ramen during dinner on the entire 15 day voyage.  The F&B Director told me that this was as a result of the higher food costs in California and Hawaii where the Royal sailed in the Fall and Winter.

[caribill]

18 hours ago, ricka47 said:

 We just booked the 7/19 sailing and need to book airfare. That may cost more than the cruise!

 

 

Check the pricing for your flights with Princess EZAir.

 

Usually excellent pricing on international flights.

[deultgen]

On 3/1/2023 at 6:20 AM, ricka47 said:

We just booked our first Princess cruise since 2002. While we enjoyed that one, we just found that Royal Caribbean and Celebrity were more to our liking at the time. But we’ve noticed a notable lowering of food quality on both of those lines - even pre-Covid. On our last RCI (Harmony of the Seas) sailing, we got a deal on the dining package and never visited the MDR once.

 

We also try to sail on Oceania when we can afford it as the food is incredible. But our cruise in July on the Regal (12-night British Isles) is more about the itinerary and less about food. Yet, we like to eat, and, from reading the threads here, it appears that the lowering of food quality that we see on RCI and X is apparent on Princess also? Perhaps it is just a fact of post-Covid life that we pay more for less.

 

A couple of quick thoughts:

 

1. I think the overall MDR food quality has gone down on all major market cruise lines since we first started cruising in 2010 (Celebrity Solstice Aqua Class).  At the same time, I think cruise buffets have gotten better, larger, and offer more variety than when we first started cruising.  

 

2.  As others of said, MDR food has always seemed to me to be similar to a nice catered meal.  

 

3.  I think something overlooked, is the cost of food in general compared to the cost of a cruise.  The cost of food has risen quite a bit over the past 13 years while in general we find the cost of a standard balcony room has not increased in many cases.  Our two 2023 cruises actually cost less for a standard balcony room on a 7 night cruise than in 2013.

 

4.  Finally, since the OP mentioned Celebrity, we just completed a Mexican Riviera 7 night on Princess Discovery where there was a Celebrity cruise leaving the same day on the exact same itinerary.  We booked a standard balcony room on Discovery with a specialty restaurant EVERY night for FAR FAR less than the Celebrity standard balcony alone.  

 

5.  I would suggest to the OP that they look into booking a specialty restaurant every other night for their upcoming cruise and enjoy.

[memoak]

Having cruised Princess since 1990 I think the quality is still there but choices have become a little less since the pandemic. Using club class we get extra entrees which often have bee spectacular and give more choices

[Thrak]

18 hours ago, brisalta said:

 

Was that the added cost steak that is now seen on MDR menus?

 

Nope. It was a regular menu offering. Oddly, my wife's steak arrived perfectly cooked at Medium Rare. Mine arrived Medium but still turned to be the most tender and flavorful steak I've ever had on a ship.

[MissP22]

You are in for  an awaking.