Lobster?

[Dadzee]

Lobster tails on the Maasdam 1-14-07 ten day were petite and sweet. Don't let those big honkin lobs fool ya. Go for the lil guys. They are nice and sweet and flaky.

My daughter kept our wait staff on its toes and we were told anything we want as long as we let them know by lunch of that day. We DID NOT try for lobster though. Kids were more into the mussle apps and the shrimp lob bisque. Daughter also had the Carib shrimp with curry twice.

[lg rover]

The Pinnacle should offer lobster now that they are charging$ $30.00 surcharge per person plus tip. It will be interesting to see how busy they are on upcoming Westerdam cruise.

[NotRobinSilver]

noblepa,

 

Sorry to burst your bubble, but you were a victim of "creative menu engineering". There are only 2 cruise ships that regularly serve fresh maine lobster; Norwegian Sun and Norwegian Star. They both feature live lobster tanks where you choose your own (and pay an additional $25 on top of a dining surcharge). No cruise ship has the storage capacity to handle fresh lobster for several thousand people. My contacts at HAL tell me that the lobster tails you had on Oosterdam were 5 oz. frozen slipper lobsters from South Africa. Wholesale cost of the slipper lobster tails is $19 per pound.

 

NCL actually pays about $25 per live maine lobster. So their extra charge is a pretty good deal.

I would agree. What we call lobsters are called American lobsters and come from the North Atlantic. They tend to be sweeter than the Caribbean version. Only the tail on a spiny lobster is edible. It can be quite good but not as good as a fresh american lobster. When we were in Club Med in Haiti in 1984 we bought fresh spiny lobster from fishermen who grilled them from us on the spot. Delicious but closer to shrimp than lobster.

 

We may be spoiled because we are from Long Island where there are great lobsters at reasonable prices (2 1lb lobsters for under $20). On a ship, I look for food that tastes good rather than is expensive. If it really was that expensive, they wouldn't be serving it on this ship.

[PoopDeckPappy]

To the OP & those looking for lobster, just to let you know that on my 1/6/07 Noordam sailing the lobster did not come with drawn butter (was not a server error, it wasn't an option). My DW was a bit dissapointed but enjoyed it anyway.

[jocelysue]

Originally Posted by Ephraim

Pretty much true on most cruises. They don't usually serve "Maine" Lobster (sometimes called American or Canadian lobster). Often they serve Cuban Lobster (or what is usually called Caribbean lobster in the US) or Asian Lobster which is a lot less expensive. they sailedlobster tails, it's pretty universal that it isn't "Maine" Lobster.

 

Thanks for the info. When we did a back to back cruise to Alaska last year sailing north on Princess and returning south on HAL, we noticed an enormous difference in the taste and the size of the lobsters. We come from Eastern Canada where lobster is plentiful, albeit relatively expensive nonetheless. Princess had great lobsters,good in size and, although frozen, thawed out slowly so as to retain at least an aura of freshness. HAL's lobsters were tiny, stringy , and really disappointing.

 

What intrigues both DH and I is that these two cruise lines are operated by the same mother company. Businesswise, wouldn't it be better for them to pool their food supplies? (I know I'm eliminating Carnival but that's an entirely different clientele) Then, they could offer bigger and better lobsters, etc.

 

Inquiring minds want to know.