Discovery Princess -- Food Blog

[deltahog]

On the Discovery Princess Sep 24-Oct 1.  Everyone's most important cruise item is food, right? I'll just do a food blog/review rather than a general ship review. Also, I am sometimes trying my wife's food. Don't want you to think I'm a three dessert guy....

 

Day 1
Lunch - World Fresh Marketplace (buffet). I was pleasantly surprised by the extent and quality of food. Highlights were the Indian section and the cold salads. On the latter, the Waldorf, paprika potato salad, and cold thin rice noodles with veggies and pork were particularly wonderful. There is a huge section of "build your own sandwich" with numerous meats, cheeses, and breads. A cold antipasto section. Various hot foods, only the pizza seemed like a miss. If you like McD's chicken McNuggets, I have never seen a restaurant duplicate them. Tried one and it's a match. Not really my thing, but I saw various kiddos going for it, so fyi.

I had planned to take most lunches sit down, but based on comparison of MDR with buffet, I think I will switch lunches to buffet.

 

Pastry shop desserts: meh. I'm a savory guy anyway. Nothing jumped out as "this is a dessert worth spending stomach room and calories on." Cookies were those soft chemically ones that only visually resemble the ones I take out of my hot oven at home. Not in taste or texture.

 

Mid-afternoon snack - a slice of, uh, Slice. Pepperoni. Perfectly adequate New York style pizza, flat wide pieces. Not the best I have ever had, nor the worst. The only thing I detected notable was a distinct black pepper taste pizza usually doesn't have, must be in the sauce.

 

Dinner: Ketchikan MDR.

First night's theme is Hit and Miss.

Hit:
Salmon gravlax appetizer, with caviar. Mmmmmm.
Cold coconut-papaya soup.
I didn't try it, but two table companions professed the French onion soup to be good, "deep," and "rich." Deep and rich are certainly good things for French onion soup, so it goes on Hit.
Baked cod main. Large piece, cooked perfectly.
Blueberry cobbler. Wonderful. With vanilla ice cream. The crumble was good and it was a small quantity which was preferred after a long day of eating.

Cheesecake with strawberry. Tasty.

 

Miss:
Shrimp cocktail. Small and wet and tasteless. These are EXACTLY the shrimp you get in one of those prepackaged $9.99 shrimp rings at the local supermarket deli. Certainly not what I expected in this dining situation. Will not re-order.

Garlic shrimp hot appetizer.  Again with the tiny shrimp. What in the ...? Where are my big prawns?

Short rib main. Didn't have but the two companions who loved the French onion soup pronounced it tough and fatty at the same time, plus "weird tasting." Neither ate much of it.

Chocolate souffle dessert. Weird chemical taste again. Doesn't taste like chocolate. One bite only.

 

Everything seemed Hit or Miss, almost nothing in between. The only thing in between was the Caesar salad. Caesar is Caesar. It's hard to do too much with it. The dressing could be richer and it could use some anchovies. Otherwise meh.

 

Day 2:

Breakfast buffet. Again fabulous selection. Huge. Hot things hot. Cold things cold. A sunny side up fried egg that somehow retained its yolk runniness despite a bunch of them sitting together on a silver flat tray buffet. Well executed.

They had something called beef tapas (for breakfast??) that was one of the tastiest things I have ever put in my mouth. Despite its name I don't think it was Spanish. It was served alongside rice and seemed to me like beef bulgogi so I have to think it's an Asian breakfast item.

 

Negative: biscuits and gravy. The biscuits looked like those hard dry things and the gravy was that thin gruel that does not resemble true sausage gravy. Pass. Didn't even try.

 

Lunch Day 2:

Buffet. Again an incredible selection and good quality. I won't report any more on the buffet, because either you're a buffet person or you're not. If you are, this one will not disappoint. If you are not, nothing it could do will satisfy you. But desserts again not worth it, definitively proven.

[cheetosrevil]

Hey, thanks for this! Cruising on Discovery again soon and am curious if food quality improved since 12/22.

[c-boy]

three desert guy 😄..   although food isn't on my top five, are you by chance going to  crown grill ?

[deltahog]

No Crown Grill or any other specialties. With the fire hose of other food available, can't justify spending extra on those.

 

Continuing -

 

Day 2 afternoon -- Salty Dog Grill by pool - very good fries. Hot and crispy and salty. Burger "just a burger." The telltale perfect round shape and thickness of a uniform prefrozen product. The cardinal sin of throwing cold cheese on top at the end and calling it a "cheeseburger." MELTY is the whole point of a cheeseburger.

 

Dinner I went minimalist and had merely a crab cake appetizer and the Alaskan Halibut. The crab cake was very good if a bit mushy on the inside instead of lump crab. The halibut was a fist sized lump of pure meat. A little dry but tasty. Dessert of turtle (pecan caramel) cheesecake tasted weird and I just scraped the caramel off the top. A specialty dessert for our anniversary of it appeared to be chocolate mousse on top of a thin layer of chocolate cake, boxed in by thin chocolate wafers. Mousse good, cake bad, again scrape it off the top.

 

Food coma. Must adjust habits on future days.

Edited September 26, 2023 by deltahog

[deltahog]

I will make a couple of ship notes. It is new and pretty and well decorated. A good aesthetic experience.

 

However, it is EXTREMELY poorly designed for traffic flow. Getting from here to there is at best slow, at worst nearly impossible, and almost always counterintuitive.

 

For example I visit the Fitness Center on 17. The only two ways there are to cross the outside upper deck (which has often been closed due to inclement weather), leaving literally the only route to the Fitness Center.....through the buffet???  Why would I want to walk through the buffet to get to the Fitness Center? Opposite goals. 

 

Ketchikan dining room on aft end of 6 can only be reached by the very last set of elevators, or the very last set of stairs. There is no flow from Ketchikan to.... anywhere.

 

The running track is all the way up on 18 sports deck, and again, it has often been closed. So there is nowhere to walk around outside. The elimination of a promenade is maddening.

 

"You Can't Get There From Here" is the theme of the day. Whoever designed this ship's traffic flow should be fired, or at least a stern talking to.

[joeflow80]

Thanks for starting this thread. I'm following as I'll be on this ship in a few weeks. Any info on shows/entertainment would be appreciated. That's a close 2nd in importance to food in my rankings 😜

 

 

[startedwithamouse]

24 minutes ago, joeflow80 said:

Thanks for starting this thread. I'm following as I'll be on this ship in a few weeks. Any info on shows/entertainment would be appreciated. That's a close 2nd in importance to food in my rankings 😜

 

 

Discovery has Spotlight Bar and Rock Opera.  Both are excellent shows.

[deltahog]

Day 3 dinner, Ketchikan MDR.

 

Service again very good, so two out of three on dinner service.

 

Seafood antipasto starter - again small shrimp, tiny tiny tiny scallops (they looked like scallop seeds) and the smallest calamari rings I have ever seen. Where does Princess find such tiny seafood? That must take quite some effort.

 

Arancini B+, good flavor but a bit overwhelmed by truffle, and a little mushy. But fried well.

 

Veal main, the sauce was not over the veal but underneath, and the presentation of the veal was awful, a washed out piece of meat on top. Ok tasting.

 

The creme brulee had a good crust and flavor but was too loose underneath, it's not supposed to move around like pudding. It's supposed to set up firm, which this was not.

 

All in all kind of a "miss" night.

[startedwithamouse]

13 minutes ago, deltahog said:

Day 3 dinner, Ketchikan MDR.

 

Service again very good, so two out of three on dinner service.

 

Seafood antipasto starter - again small shrimp, tiny tiny tiny scallops (they looked like scallop seeds) and the smallest calamari rings I have ever seen. Where does Princess find such tiny seafood? That must take quite some effort.

 

Arancini B+, good flavor but a bit overwhelmed by truffle, and a little mushy. But fried well.

 

Veal main, the sauce was not over the veal but underneath, and the presentation of the veal was awful, a washed out piece of meat on top. Ok tasting.

 

The creme brulee had a good crust and flavor but was too loose underneath, it's not supposed to move around like pudding. It's supposed to set up firm, which this was not.

 

All in all kind of a "miss" night.

Small seafood costs less per pound.  Do you have Catch by Rudi?  You'll have decent sizes there. 

 

If you want a really good meal, on par with the excellent service, try a specialty restaurant. 

[cheezenip]

3 hours ago, deltahog said:

Day 3 dinner, Ketchikan MDR.

 

Seafood antipasto starter - again small shrimp, tiny tiny tiny scallops (they looked like scallop seeds) and the smallest calamari rings I have ever seen. Where does Princess find such tiny seafood? That must take quite some effort.

 

 

Cost cutting specialist and current CEO John Padgett will scour the planet to bring the smallest of ingredients to the Princess cruiser. Bon Appetit!!

[deltahog]

Day 4, MDR dinner, WELL DONE!!

 

Steelhead salmon appetizer, adequate, it was seafood.

 

Cold banana rum soup, delicious.

 

Baked cod with panko this time, fabulous.

 

Some kind of chocolate-banana-rum tart, the best dessert I have had on the ship. Excellent presentation, excellent taste. 

 

Great service.

 

A+ night.

[Carnevale]

Great blog!  Many thanks for sharing this info.  I hope you continue for the rest of your cruise.

 

Happy sailing!

[deltahog]

MDR Day 5:

 

A seafood bisque in pastry wasn't a bisque. There was very little liquid in it at all. It also was the same small seafood as all other dishes. Yet, it was very tasty and worked.

 

The carrot-ginger cold soup did not. It felt like taking my (ginger) medicine.

 

Bruschetta went overboard on the chopped tomatoes and underboard on other ingredients (I couldn't find any basil). Just ok.

 

Rack of lamb FANTASTIC. Tender, flavorful, generous portion of 2 chops on bone. The only nit was a ring of fried dough around the outside -- kind of like a wellington? Not necessary and not described on the menu. Simply removed it and proceeded with the wonderful meat.

 

Sugar free coconut cake - fabulous.

 

Princess Love Boat Dream dessert -- not. I couldn't figure out what all the too-solidified ingredients were.  And they were all too stiff. And stale. And old. I dissected it and left it to die on the plate.

 

Some As, some Bs, some Fs, overall grade of B.

[deltahog]

A couple of ship notes non-food.

 

The washer and dryer have been free all week. So is the detergent and dryer sheets. Perhaps trying to get rid of stuff before the end of the season?

 

The jazz trio was fabulous, but they had guest horns (trumpet and trombone and flute). Probably a little less fabulous when piano, bass, and percussion only.

 

Rock Opera was a visually fantastic production but I couldn't detect any theme or story.  Could be just me, I'm not that good at this kind of thing.

 

As I have always found on cruises -- comedian bad, magician good.

 

I hate how they do Trivia. Everyone grades their own papers. No one is watched at all. No prizes to speak of. It should be much more formal.

 

Nothing in the room was on a motion sensor as others have said. Dark stays dark even for bathroom trips in the middle of the night. Maybe different ships have different systems.

 

We have figured out that those smoke detector looking things every 10 feet in the ship are the geolocators.

Edited September 29, 2023 by deltahog

[deltahog]

Next to last day and I hit a wall. Nothing looked good in the buffet at lunch. Sandwich.

 

Didn't have the energy to go to dinner/formal night. Chicken-bacon sandwich from the Salty Dog Grill was surprisingly good. A standard piece of pepperoni from Slice.

 

Hope to get back on the horse for the last day tomorrow.

[Cruisemeister2002]

On 9/26/2023 at 4:34 PM, deltahog said:

I will make a couple of ship notes. It is new and pretty and well decorated. A good aesthetic experience.

 

However, it is EXTREMELY poorly designed for traffic flow. Getting from here to there is at best slow, at worst nearly impossible, and almost always counterintuitive.

 

For example I visit the Fitness Center on 17. The only two ways there are to cross the outside upper deck (which has often been closed due to inclement weather), leaving literally the only route to the Fitness Center.....through the buffet???  Why would I want to walk through the buffet to get to the Fitness Center? Opposite goals. 

 

Ketchikan dining room on aft end of 6 can only be reached by the very last set of elevators, or the very last set of stairs. There is no flow from Ketchikan to.... anywhere.

 

The running track is all the way up on 18 sports deck, and again, it has often been closed. So there is nowhere to walk around outside. The elimination of a promenade is maddening.

 

"You Can't Get There From Here" is the theme of the day. Whoever designed this ship's traffic flow should be fired, or at least a stern talking to.

What would happen Aft the Stern talking to ?

[deltahog]

Last day - buffet still not looking good to me. A bit of Indian fish. A potato cake. Glad it's the last day.

 

Dinner was wonderful. Crispy sweet and sour shrimp FINALLY larger shrimp. Well flavored too. Companion's prime rib very flavorful. Yum.

 

Creme brulee finishes it.  Well done Princess.

[gvre]

been following your post we will be on the Discovery in 4 weeks for our annual Halloween Cruise

Thank you!

[katmigordon]

18 hours ago, gvre said:

been following your post we will be on the Discovery in 4 weeks for our annual Halloween Cruise

Thank you!

Oooh please come back and give us some info on this!  We're doing the Halloween on Discovery next year and I'm eager to find out more about what happens on a Halloween cruise.   Have a fantastic trip!

[reedprincess]

1 hour ago, katmigordon said:

Oooh please come back and give us some info on this!  We're doing the Halloween on Discovery next year and I'm eager to find out more about what happens on a Halloween cruise.   Have a fantastic trip!

I've done 7 Princess Halloween cruises.

It's fab fun! 

Every time, the ship gets decorated up - cobwebs and bars and witches and spiders and all sorts of Halloween decor.  

Most all the forward facing crew gets in on it and dresses up - particularly wait and bar staff, definitely cruise staff, etc..

I'm my experience, a majority of guests dress up also, everything from a mask to fill fledged blow up dinosaurs or giant trolls or group themed costumes. 

One of the very best so far has been the Champagne Waterfall and Maitre'd couple. Yes, for real - she wore a gold dress, and string together some 50-100 plastic champagne glasses into a tiered overlay, with one strapped on her hed, while her partner was in black tie with empty Princess gift champagne bottle and cloth over his arm - they posed for everyone who wanted a shot as he "poured" champagne over her head.. it was quite impressive!  

Some other favorites were the "cereal" killer, the Swe/Hear/Speak No Evil Mice,  obviously, the M&M groups, the dinosaur group was amazing, the giant Trolls was remarkable, etc. 

People really go for it.. it's lots of fun.

 

There's trick or treating for any kids (they trick or treat through the shops with the kid's club), kids costume parade, adult costume parade, costume contest, and weather permitting - deck party .

It's a blast.  Enjoy!! 

[katmigordon]

9 minutes ago, reedprincess said:

There's trick or treating for any kids (they trick or treat through the shops with the kid's club),

I know on Disney adults who want to go can go trick or treating - what's the rule on Princess?

[gvre]

21 hours ago, gvre said:

been following your post we will be on the Discovery in 4 weeks for our annual Halloween Cruise

Thank you!

 

3 hours ago, katmigordon said:

Oooh please come back and give us some info on this!  We're doing the Halloween on Discovery next year and I'm eager to find out more about what happens on a Halloween cruise.   Have a fantastic trip!

Here are photos from Discovery last year