Horizon court food - what has happened?

[Colo Cruiser]

We too have enjoyed the HC. I don't look it as low grade at all, and I have not seen a decline in food quality. There are always some very good choices. :)

[roadmap]

Hi all,

I took my first Princess cruise on the Golden in December, and my thoughts on the Horizon Court? Meh- hit and miss, but for me, more misses than hits. I didn't go with high expectations-this is a buffet built for the masses, after all. My first day was the best-they had a tasty, fresh salmon sandwich, but most of the time, I avoided this area except for light bites (fruit,salad, grits one time) as the food was usually dry or too salty for me.

 

Now, the pizza? Yummo!

[CALMOM]

The only complaint I have is that I don't like everyone of the 49 choices but I do like 90%:o

 

I HAVE ALWAYS SAID IF YOU GET HUNGRY OR BORED ON A CRUISE SHIP, IT'S YOUR OWN FAULT:D

 

AH, Cruising, it's the best way to Travel, just wish I could afford to go more often.

 

Donations, anyone??:D

[rdsqrl]

I eat lunch in HC most every day and, while I mainly have a big salad from the salad bar, will occasionally try a nibble of something else that looks interesting. On my last cruise, I found that the cold salads (seafood, pasta, etc.) were without exception delicious. The desserts were always outstanding. I like to throw whatever green vegetables they have hot onto my salad and found them usually well cooked and tasty. The few "entree" type things I tried were also good (the beef goulash -- I think they had a real Hungarian grandma stashed in the galley cooking it up -- Mmmm!). The soups were disappointing, though -- very weird combinations and uniformly too thin. Such a sharp contrast to the outstanding soups served nightly in the dining room. Overall I think the key is to select foods that can stand up to buffet service: obviously souffle is out but anything else that would dry out quickly is just not a good choice on a buffet line, like fish filets or a slab of beef or a chop or something.

Meanwhile, I mean no disrespect to DuckDuckCruise, whose Live thread I'm enjoying very much, but I had to laugh at the quoted excerpt --> how is the staff able to tell a roll is stale by looking at it??!! It's not like they come with expiration dates stamped on the bottom crust. . .

[Cruise Gypsy]

I always like the food in Horizon Court but since the addition of the International Cafe I find I don't go to HC as often. I just love the IC for lunch.:D

[kendon]

For whatever it's worth, I think the food quality in the HC has gone way down in quality and presentation.

 

I absolutely agree with you.

[Iamcruzin]

Why does anyone opt to eat dinner in the HC when there is a perfectly good dining venue in the MDR's. The food is always cooked to your liking and is always hot and you get served by courses. Just my opinion!!

IMHO buffets are fine if your in Atlantic City or Las Vegas but on a cruise I prefer to be served. Actually on the rare occasion that we eat in a restaurant at home I stay away from the buffet type. My children on the other hand only eat in the HC.

[happyaussies]

"Fair suck of the sav, Mate!"

Maybe ya better come down under for real food! Put ya tucker bag on and go like a blue tongue drinking at our Horizon Court buffets

 

We have kangaroo, crocodlie, emu & witchey grubs here and don't forget the damper with vegimite. It's all a bottler and fit for a dingo's breakfast!

 

My advice-ditch the yank ships and come on down!

 

B&B :D

[josumello]

We just did acruise on the CB It was our first Princess cruise in a while. We did not expect any issues with the food as our other Princess cruise had exceptional food. However DH and I both agree the HC was really disappointing. The food just wasn't very good and the layout was rediculous. Frankly it was a great disappointment. I know food is subjective but we are usually pretty easy to please.

[KruzPrincess]

Why does anyone opt to eat dinner in the HC when there is a perfectly good dining venue in the MDR's. The food is always cooked to your liking and is always hot and you get served by courses. Just my opinion!!

 

That's why Princess offers choices. I personally don't like sitting there for a two hours each night. I like to go eat my dinner and then do other stuff. Buffet food is buffet food. It sometimes sits for a bit. I was on the Crown last November and at several dinners in Cafe Caribe. They had great meat selections at the carving station, fresh salads, fruit, etc. Was it all great? Some of it wasn't my favorite, but I could always find something good to eat. There are times that I look at the MDR menu and really don't see anything that sparks my interest. Mostly, though, I hate sitting so much in the MDR. It takes too long to go through all the courses. JMO.

[Toto2Kansas]

That's why Princess offers choices. I personally don't like sitting there for a two hours each night. I like to go eat my dinner and then do other stuff. Buffet food is buffet food. It sometimes sits for a bit. I was on the Crown last November and at several dinners in Cafe Caribe. They had great meat selections at the carving station, fresh salads, fruit, etc. Was it all great? Some of it wasn't my favorite, but I could always find something good to eat. There are times that I look at the MDR menu and really don't see anything that sparks my interest. Mostly, though, I hate sitting so much in the MDR. It takes too long to go through all the courses. JMO.

 

I totally agree with you. There are nights when we just don't feel like sitting through a two hour or more dinner, so we venture upstairs to the buffet. After a long day on shore, we just don't feel like making small talk, and just want a dinner with just the two of us in a shorter period of time. And I agree, some nights, the dinner menu does not interest either one of us. At the buffet, whether it be the Cafe Caribe or Horizon Court, we can choose those items we like, and that look good, and we always find enough for a very good meal.

 

I do remember the day when the buffet was better than we have found lately, but we still can always find something to spark our interest, and then we can continue on with whatever we feel like doing that evening.

[melbur]

For whatever it's worth, I think the food quality in the HC has gone way down in quality and presentation.

 

Agreed - although we have never ventured there for dinner, breakfast and lunch have been poor. Soggy sandwiches wrapped in saran, cold quiche to name a couple. And this was on both Ruby & Sapphire. Very disappointing

[chasetf]

Buffet food on a cruise ship is the same as all buffets. If you get it right when they refill the pan it will be hot and delicious. If the pan is nearly empty it is a crap shoot :p

That is one reason we like to do Breakfast and Lunch in the dining room when we are on a leisure cruise (not that interested in the ports).

 

I do believe the quality has declined over the past 15 or so years. Obviously cutting back on the expensive stuff like everyday shrimp, fancy HC speciality buffets, etc.

[kendon]

Agreed - although we have never ventured there for dinner, breakfast and lunch have been poor. Soggy sandwiches wrapped in saran, cold quiche to name a couple. And this was on both Ruby & Sapphire. Very disappointing

 

Yeah, what's up with the plastic wrapped sandwiches lately? Just like a school cafeteria or vending machine...so un-Princess like. I certainly would expect that on NCL, where I saw bologna and american cheese sandwiches on white bread! C'mon Princess!

[cruisinggranmama]

Perhaps wrapped sandwiches like the hand sanitizing stations are an answer to the viruses that can run rampant on a ship.

 

Hard to believe someone might pick up a sandwich look at it even open it and then put it back. But I'm sure they do.

 

I'll take the saran off and enjoy my cruise.

 

It's a buffet after all.

[Josie2]

undrinkable in the Horizon Court - and I have had some bad coffee in my life. Obviously, they know how to make good coffee - dining room, International Cafe etc. so I assume they just choose to make really bad coffee, probably so we'll go pay (sure, its only a dollar but ...) at the International Cafe. And, I had bagels that were probably toasted three weeks before I got on board and sat there until I asked for it. I actually think the "bagel girl" started to get a hate on for me when I started asking for a "freshly toasted bagel" each day. She would try to give me a rock and I would politely say - no thanks I'll wait for a fresh one.

And I couldn't agree more with the poster who commented on the set up. Its a three ring circus with people wandering from station to station to see what looks good and what they should get. And, I'm also wondering why the butter, jam, etc. is with the fruit and not with the toast....

Meaning if you forget, you have to back to the other end backwards to pick it up.

[Oi]

undrinkable in the Horizon Court - and I have had some bad coffee in my life. Obviously, they know how to make good coffee - dining room, International Cafe etc. so I assume they just choose to make really bad coffee, probably so we'll go pay (sure, its only a dollar but ...) at the International Cafe. And, I had bagels that were probably toasted three weeks before I got on board and sat there until I asked for it. I actually think the "bagel girl" started to get a hate on for me when I started asking for a "freshly toasted bagel" each day. She would try to give me a rock and I would politely say - no thanks I'll wait for a fresh one.

And I couldn't agree more with the poster who commented on the set up. Its a three ring circus with people wandering from station to station to see what looks good and what they should get. And, I'm also wondering why the butter, jam, etc. is with the fruit and not with the toast....

Meaning if you forget, you have to back to the other end backwards to pick it up.

 

Actually, I find the free coffee on all cruise ships awful...just can't do the syrup coffee...like my beans and brew! :) If I don't buy coffee, I normally just opt not to have it on the cruise.

[Infi]

Ah, the plastic wrapped sandwiches. Always soggy, but sanitized for your protection. I agree - they do look tacky. Why not add a made-to-order sandwich bar, that would look (and taste) much better and still be sanitary.

 

I dislike the Horizon Court, and I've given it quite a few tries. I don't think it varies much from ship to ship, it's always been average at best. The food selection is mediocre, the quality isn't that great, and the food is rarely at the temperature it should be at. Couple that with the cramped serving area layout and I'm not impressed. So, we only eat there once a cruise - embarkation day. That's enough for me. Thankfully the IC is a great alternative when the MDR is closed.

[sp2]

I agree that the food quality in the Horizon Court has gone downhill. Not enough choices, and what is there is adequate only, not great. I also find the layout of the HC poor. For the size of ship and number of passengers, the HC on the Ruby is quite small and gets very congested. Personally I prefer the "food station" approach of Celebrity Solstice or the NCL ships to the cafeteria style line-up of the HC. Seems to promote much less congestion. At breakfast in the HC, it is sometimes impossible to get by the queue for the toaster (which seems incredibly slow) so you have a line-up of people all milling about waiting to get by.

 

I found much less choice in the HC than in the past. While it won't stop me from cruising Princess (my favourite cruise line) it would be nice to see both the quantity and quality of offerings improved.

[Grumpy100]

We cruised on the Sun Princess to New Zealand in November and found the food in the MDR excellent. We went to dinner once in the Horizon Court and it was OK. I found the same food was offered just about every day for breakfast, lunch, but only tried it once for dinner.

Even the first lunch when we got on board was pretty much the same everyday. It wasn't too bad but the food in the MDR is way better in my opinion. It was the best food we have ever had on a cruise, in fact.

:)

[mr green]

I have cruised Princess for ten years, And i can't say that the food has 'Gone Down Hill'. I know what to avoid, and enjoy what I take.

This reminds me of a notice that I saw one time while on tour of a prison in the U.S.A.

 

TAKE ALL YOU WANT, BUT EAT ALL THAT YOU TAKE!

 

JOHN

[karmacruiser]

We felt that the buffet had taken a step down on the Island Princess in December. Not quite Circus Circus buffet but maybe headed that way. We typically eat in the buffet for breakfast and snacks, sometimes lunch. We always found enough to eat, but it would be nice to see more variety. I suppose that all cruise lines are cutting back on the buffet area though and this is not unique to Princess.

[Colo Cruiser]

I eat lunch in HC most every day and, while I mainly have a big salad from the salad bar, will occasionally try a nibble of something else that looks interesting. On my last cruise, I found that the cold salads (seafood, pasta, etc.) were without exception delicious. The desserts were always outstanding. I like to throw whatever green vegetables they have hot onto my salad and found them usually well cooked and tasty. The few "entree" type things I tried were also good (the beef goulash -- I think they had a real Hungarian grandma stashed in the galley cooking it up -- Mmmm!). The soups were disappointing, though -- very weird combinations and uniformly too thin. Such a sharp contrast to the outstanding soups served nightly in the dining room. Overall I think the key is to select foods that can stand up to buffet service: obviously souffle is out but anything else that would dry out quickly is just not a good choice on a buffet line, like fish filets or a slab of beef or a chop or something.

 

Meanwhile, I mean no disrespect to DuckDuckCruise, whose Live thread I'm enjoying very much, but I had to laugh at the quoted excerpt --> how is the staff able to tell a roll is stale by looking at it??!! It's not like they come with expiration dates stamped on the bottom crust. . .

 

Love those salads. :D

[Grego]

Love those salads. :D

 

Agree, Agree - Agreeeee! Especially that cold baby shrimp salad they have on embarkation day and maybe another day during the week as well.

 

There is always a real nice variety of salad making stuff. Oh, I'm sure there will be someone that will find some complaint about the salad bar, but that's OK cause we don't have to go home with them.

 

I can't remember a time when I couldn't find something in HC to eat that was quite good and covered the time until dinner. Heck, there is always the burger bar and pizza (which is always great!).

[Colo Cruiser]

Agree, Agree - Agreeeee! Especially that cold baby shrimp salad they have on embarkation day and maybe another day during the week as well.

 

There is always a real nice variety of salad making stuff. Oh, I'm sure there will be someone that will find some complaint about the salad bar, but that's OK cause we don't have to go home with them.

 

I can't remember a time when I couldn't find something in HC to eat that was quite good and covered the time until dinner. Heck, there is always the burger bar and pizza (which is always great!).

 

Pumpkin seeds/sunflower seeds/chopped egg toppings, and on and on and on. :D