PIng Jean O'Boyle food on Holland America

I had previously wrote the following about food on our Noordam Eastern
Mediterranean cruise last summer.

Food---food is very subjective. I liked the way the lido buffet was
set up. It moved well. During those times back from ports when the lido
was
"closed" to set up for dinner, there was still much available. There
were salad fixings, pizza, desserts, and a grill by the other pool.
There were the fixings for tacos also by that grill. *And they made
the best veggie burger that I have had on a cruise.

We thought the salads could have been a lot better. Until the last
night, when I had a baked brie that was superb,I was somewhat
disappointed in the appetizers.

We did have lobster on the two (out of three) formal nights we ate in
the dining room, lobster thermador the first night, and surf and surf
for me and surf for Pat for the surf and turf.

The dining room generally had a choice of 6 mains with at least one fish
and one vegetarian choice. The Lido generally had 4 of the 6 as choices,
with a few of the appetizers, and salad fixings to make your own. (Pat
liked the salads she made better than the dining room choices.)

Rosalie B. replied that she agreed about the salads.

And then you wrote:

This is not something that we encountered on any of our HAL cruises.
We found the food both good and the service to match. We will be on the
Westerdam come December for 12 days, so I'll be able to comment further
as to how we found the food on it. But as you said, food is very
subjective.

So, I was wondering what your experience with food was on your December
HAL cruise.

"Jeff Gersten" wrote in message
...
I had previously wrote the following about food on our Noordam Eastern
Mediterranean cruise last summer.

Food---food is very subjective. I liked the way the lido buffet was
set up. It moved well. During those times back from ports when the lido
was
"closed" to set up for dinner, there was still much available. There
were salad fixings, pizza, desserts, and a grill by the other pool.
There were the fixings for tacos also by that grill. And they made
the best veggie burger that I have had on a cruise.

We thought the salads could have been a lot better. Until the last
night, when I had a baked brie that was superb,I was somewhat
disappointed in the appetizers.

We did have lobster on the two (out of three) formal nights we ate in
the dining room, lobster thermador the first night, and surf and surf
for me and surf for Pat for the surf and turf.

The dining room generally had a choice of 6 mains with at least one fish
and one vegetarian choice. The Lido generally had 4 of the 6 as choices,
with a few of the appetizers, and salad fixings to make your own. (Pat
liked the salads she made better than the dining room choices.)

Rosalie B. replied that she agreed about the salads.

And then you wrote:

This is not something that we encountered on any of our HAL cruises.
We found the food both good and the service to match. We will be on the
Westerdam come December for 12 days, so I'll be able to comment further
as to how we found the food on it. But as you said, food is very
subjective.

So, I was wondering what your experience with food was on your December
HAL cruise.

Hi Jeff,
We found the food very good on the Westerdam...both in the dining room and
buffet. What I especially liked were the varieties of bread that they
brought us in the dining room along with plenty of bread sticks. There was
always something on the menu...sometimes two or three tough decisions to
choose from. I liked the cold soups and the salads were also good. I do
agree with your wife on the salads in the buffet being better as there were
so many ingredients to conjure up a salad to your liking! I also thought the
presentation of the food was very nice...quite artistic at times...For
instance my crème Brule had a green spearmint leaf with three/four
cranberries decorating it.. Since the cruise was before Christmas, there
were holiday touches to the presentations.

I am having a tough time discerning what happened on which cruise...we took
the Westerdam on Dec.6th, the Norwegian Spirit on Dec.27th and the HAL
Ryndam on Jan.24th and they are all running together! I do know that the
food on the Westerdam was better than on the Ryndam. On the Ryndam, they
cordoned off sections with thick braided wine colored ropes separating them
from each other and saving you time from standing behind someone in line who
could not make up their mind. You could walk up to the cordoned off section
that you were interested in and help yourself. What I did like about both
the Westerdam and Ryndam; they had plenty of fruit...grapefruit, oranges,
melon, watermelon, honey dew, strawberries, figs, dates and cut up bananas..
The service was not up to HAL standards in the dining room on both
ships..all though some thought the service to be very good on the Westerdam.
They had a nice variety of ice cream flavors on both the HAL ships. As you
said in the beginning, food is subjective, but it is fun to try different
dishes; sometimes some you have never had.

In March, we are taking the Oceania Regatta and I am really looking forward
to it.. The last time we were on her, the food was spectacular as well as
the presentation. Jacques Pepin, the chef, has a lot to do with it.
Hope this answers your inquiry...

--Jean

Yes. thanks that answers my inquiry.

It is good to hear that you did not experience the wilted salad greens
that we had on the Noordam.

I thought the dining room service was very good in an unobtrusive way.
We noticed the excellent service more from the room stewards who were
all so caring when my wife's formal gown was wrinkled. Several of them
asked if she had got it back ok when the service was accomplished in
half the promised time allowing her to have it back for the first formal
night.

One thing I liked about the food on HAL was that the buffet basically
had the main courses (well 4 out of 6) that were being served in the
main dining rooms.