The Food on Ships Thread (Ben Smith and Others)

Ernie, thanks for this information. I tend to trust your judgment,
since you have cruised on more cruise lines than I have, and you
appear to be reasonable most of the time. If you did not care for
something, I have a feeling I would not like it either.

Becca -----trusts people who know what they're talking about...

Norwegian Dawn http://www.cruisemaster.com/dawn.htm
Sleazy3 http://www.cruisemaster.com/sleazy3.htm


"E.k.R." wrote:

Howard,
I agree completely, although I did not see your original post. I sailed on
CARNIVAL PRIDE just last year, and the food was excellent and probably up to
Celebrity standards. The service may have lacked the finesse that Celebrity
offers, but the food quality and presentation were right up there. In March
I sailed on the INFINITY, then June on MAASDAM, then July on CARNIVAL
CONQUEST. The food on Celebrity had improved with INFINITY, but I still had
no complaints on CONQUEST. I don't think it was quite as good as CARNIVAL
PRIDE the year prior, but of course CONQUEST was not a Spirit Class ship and
truly feel the food budget is higher on the Spirit Class.

In any case, food is another subjective matter concerning cruises. One
persons Fois Gras is another's Big Mac! Without knowing the people doing
the food critiquing, you can only take the comments at face value. To my
knowledge none of the posters are professional food critics?

I cruise on all the different lines, and do so on a regular basis. Not day
visits but actual cruises, as you can't judge a ship's food service and
quality based on an afternoon luncheon onboard. Carnival, Princess, NCL,
Celebrity, Royal Caribbean, Holland America, Cunard, etc. I've also sailed
on upscale lines such as Silversea and Royal Viking in the past. At the end
of the day, the food on all these mega-liners is not different enough from
each other to really say one is that much better then the other. Most of
the food is bought from the same suppliers, much of is frozen, then
pre-prepared banquet style. None of it is gourmet (Silversea comes close
and the food is made to order since the ship is so small) and the majority
of cruise ship food is prepared and presented like something you would find
at a wedding reception. Nothing wrong with this, how else do you manage
food on a 2000-3000 passenger ship? People expect too much from the food
onboard, and part of the fault lies within *some* cruise lines that claim
gourmet food when in fact, it isn't. There is only so much you can do with
food when prepared with 1000 people at a sitting.

While I enjoyed the food on Celebrity to a great extent, it was more due to
the presentation and the server's flair and finesse then anything else. I
can't really say the actual quality of the food was any better then on
Carnival. Both were very good though. I can say the meals I enjoyed in the
alternative reservations only restaurants on both Celebrity and Carnival
were some of the best meals (and service) I've ever enjoyed at sea. Of
course these meals were prepared to order and a much higher overall standard
was used. I don't think one was better then the other, as both were
excellent. Silversea did have this higher standard every night, but this
was to be expected.

Ok, the worst food and service I've experienced at sea? No, it's not
Carnival or Premier, not even by a long shot. Cunard and the QE2 just last
December. Food was served luke warm, steaks tough, very little flavor,
minimal presentation, all served by a wait staff that obviously wanted to be
somewhere else.

Ernie

"Howard Garland" wrote in message
...
Ben (and others),

Have you seen the five replies to my FOOD question (in the Jeff Coudriet
thread) that was directed only to PAX who have sailed on a Spirit class
ship AND any ship on another line in the past two year. The respondants
are all very different people, who have sailed on a variety of other
ships; but the responses are all quite consistent.

As I'm sure you are aware by now, I am an avid cruiser, who has no
loyalties to any particular cruise line or ship. I am not a typical
cruiser or much of a typical anything. My tastes are extremely
ecclectic. Although I adore a fine meal that is carefully prepared, with
high quality ingredients (e.g., prime beef, maine lobster, fresh
vegetables, precious truffles, etc.), food is not one of my primary
considerations when I pick a cruise.

I have sailed on a large variety of ships, across all of the major
lines. The purpose of my changing the topic from Jeff's original post on
the thread (which was really about "nickel and diming" on Princess) was
that I was very tired of seeing numerous posts on the newsgroup about
various aspects of cruise lines and cruise ships that were based on very
limited or dated experiences, old stereotypes, and/or pure hearsay.
Actually, I should not have changed the topic on Jeff's thread. I should
have simply started a new thread.

I can certainly understand why a person who is looking for quiet
elegance on a ship would not appreciate Carnival. In fact, there are
many things about all Carnival ships (to date) that I particularly do
not like, for example no pads on pool chairs and no towels in restrooms
(also a negative for RCCL), and the newer practice (copied from
Princess) of not providing unlimited towels by the pools. What I cannot
understand is a person who posts things like (and this is just a general
example) a major cruise line pecking order of good food, with Celebrity
at the top and Carnival at the bottom, when they have not recently
sailed on ships from both these lines.

The fact is (as you have said many times) things change. And it just so
happens that one of the more recent changes is a real decline in food
on Celebrity and the introduction of excellent food on Carnival's Spirit
class ships. My opinion here comes from having cruised on Galaxy and
Century when they were new; and having cruised on the Galaxy, Millenium,
and Mercury in the past year. My experience with Spirit class ships
comes from multiple cruises on the Spirit and Legend.

So, although you and many other may not like Carnival for a variety of
reasons, I hope that for a while (because things do change), food will
not be one of those reasons.

Sorry for the long and rambling post.

Howard





Benjamin Smith wrote:



Charles wrote:

In article , Jean
O'Boyle wrote:


The buffet was adequate~~not as large or varied as Carnival, but had
a good
selection .



Zenith is a smaller ship. The buffet area is not large. The mega
Celebrity ships have a larger and more varied selection. They also
have
hard ice cream and the Millenium class ships have several specialty
areas.

Absolutely. The Zenith can not be compared to the most modern Carnival
design and has to be compared to the same vintage Carnival ship. The
Millennium class has an expanded buffet over the Century class. Another
thing Celebrity is going to start doing is expanded lunches in the
specialty restaurants and I think that offers more options.


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