Food quality on NCL

[nho9504]

Hello NCL cruisers,

 

I am currently trying to decide which cruise to take among 3 cruises that we want to combine it with our HAL Noordam Transatlantic home in October.

 

The options are:

 

1) NCL Jade Adriactic and Italy, Oct 13 7 days - mostly Eastern European ports which are new ports to us. This is the most expensive per day cost. We also do not get any shareholder benefit like we would with RCCL.

 

2) RCCL Mariner of the Sea Holy Land, Oct 9 11 days. Egypt and Israel - new places. It is also the cheapest per day cost.

 

3) RCCL Navigator of the Sea Eastern Med, Oct 14 7 days. It has Sicilly and Crete that we have not been.

 

After reading NCL Jade member reviews, I am concerned about the food quality that due to NCL pushes hard for the pay restaurants, the free MDR foods are not up to RCCL / HAL / Princess standard. I do not concern too much about the Free Style dining as we always do Anytime on both Princess and HAL. Although on Princess we pretty much have our own table every night as we always request our table at the exact location we prefer right at the first afternoon of embarkation day. Princess always obliges the request.

 

I like the NCL's itinerary, but worry about the foods because the quality of dining is important to both of us. We also do not feel we should pay extra in order to get passable foods.

 

Can you please give your objective opinions on how the NCL foods compare to those on RCCL/HAL/Princess?

 

Thank you for your constructive comments.

[Homosassa]

If you enjoy the food on HAL and Princess (I have not sailed RCL for a while), you will be extremely disappointed in the NCL MDR and buffet food. Think Denny's on an off night.

[nho9504]

If you enjoy the food on HAL and Princess (I have not sailed RCL for a while), you will be extremely disappointed in the NCL MDR and buffet food. Think Denny's on an off night.

 

Thank you for the candid post. In this case I dont think husband would be happy.

[genealogyfan]

food is so subjective - and unless every single poster hates or loves the food, you'll have all different opinions.

 

One type of food one person may love and another person hates. My friend and I thought the food on Norwegian was fine - not awful but not 5 star and I know another friend who won't go on Norwegian because they hate the food.

 

I had no issues with the food on Pride of America - the ship I took on Royal Caribbean I thought was much worse, but then someone might have the opposite opinion

[SteveH2508]

As you can see from my sig. block, we have sailed on the Jade 3 times now and are booked for a fourth. We are both foodies and I can honestly say we have only had one meal on NCL which was not up to scratch (a rather cool, tough steak for lunch one day in the MDR).

 

If you are after a Michelin star dining experience then no mainstream cruiseline will do. The MDR on NCL is adequate - the menu does not read like a Michelin star menu, so I suppose it won't disappoint in that respect. I am not a great dessert eater but the ones that I have had have generally not been brilliant.

 

If you like a good dining experience then I would thoroughly recommend Le Bistro. It is certainly worth the upcharge. I also happen to love good chicken wings and the ones in the Blue Lagoon are lovely. (the fish and chips are not but then I've had fish and chips in Whitby in Yorkshire so that is a hard act to follow!)

 

It is almost impossible to give an objective opinion on food as everyone's tastes are different. For example, I think that american-style crispy streaky bacon is an abomination - fortunately NCL usually have proper back bacon for breakfast in the buffet. I like black pudding for breakfast (and have seen it occasionally on NCL) - some people cannot stand the idea of it. The made-to-order omelettes are good in the buffet.

 

Breakfast in the MDR has always been good (logistically it can be tricky if you need to get on an early excursion) but it is a nice relaxed experience to start the day.

 

Apparently the Chef's Table ($75 pp but only 12 pax per session) is excellent - we are hoping to get on that in December.

 

Food is important but it is only part of the overall cruise experience. the Jade crew is wonderful; the shows are generally regarded as some of the best at sea and the itinerary is good. If you are looking for a 'gastro-tour' then most cruise ships will disappoint.

 

There is a link in my sig block to a review comparing Princess to NCL - Princess were slightly ahead on the food front - but it was certainly not a deal-breaker either way.

 

I have never sailed on RCCL or HAL so I cannot make any comparisons there.

 

Hope that helps.

[sugarking]

We sailed on NCL three times, many years ago and on all three cruises the food was horrible. We then went on to Disney, RCCL, Holland America, Celebrity and Princess. Many years later, we decided to give it another when we saw the low prices. We loved the food on the Gem and have three mores cruises booked. Of all of the above mentioned cruises lines NCL has the best food!

[GrandmaHofmann]

I sure wouldn't find it hard for any ship to meet RCCL's food standards these days. We were on the Radiance two years ago this November. For the only time in 25 cruises, we did not eat in the MDR because the food there was simply so very bad. We ate in the buffet every night other than the first two.

[FLAHAM]

NCL MDR food tends to vary from minimally acceptable to good. It is seldom very bad and rarely excellent. Service in the MDRs tends to be inconsistent and sluggish. If you decide to sail NCL, I suggest reconsidering the pay restaurants.

[chrisc71]

Problem is no one can be objective about food.

 

All cruise lines are cooking thousands of meals almost at the same time.

 

I was on the Star a few weeks back and never felt "pushed" to the specialty places. Ate in dining room twice. Once did not like my main and the other time it was very good.

 

Have a good cruise whichever you pick:)

[karoo]

Food is subjective. I always eat in the MDR and am very happy. I like the choices at the buffet too. I find the food the best out of all the cruiselines I've sailed on.

[bphman]

I always approach cruise cuisine with an open mind. I am occasionally surprised with excellent food and sometimes settle for edible. Food is subjective to a point but, even if I don't like something, I can still tell if it was properly prepared. My least favorite food was on the Norway a million years ago closely followed by RCCL. Celebrity was excellent but fell off considerable when bought by RCCL. My favorites were. Azamara, Oceania and Cunard. Regardless of the rankings, I never went to bed hungry. I look forward to the Gem in January.

[bakerintn]

In my limited experience, the MDR food and service on HAL Ryndam was a clear notch above that on NCL Pearl and Dawn.

 

NCL seems to over salt and generally provides slower and more forgetful table service.

 

Last time on NCL, after trying the MDR twice, our party decided that the buffet food was fresher, and more tasty across all types (except the basically tasteless desserts). We ate dinners in the buffet for the rest of the cruise and were happy.

[KJE Atlanta]

Agree that food is subjective. Here's my take:

 

We are not food snobs but we also certainly don't consider Denny's to be "dining out." The MDR food on NCL is generally decent/good and can be very good. Is every meal five-star? No, of course not. Are some dishes underwhelming? Yes, occasionally. But, in my opinion, people who say they can't ever find something to enjoy in the MDR don't really want to and probably look forward to complaining about it more than anything.

 

Are the specialty restaurants better than the MDRs? Yes, generally, and worth the nominal upcharge a few nights during the cruise. We find mixing MDRs and specialty restaurants about half and half to be a good balance and it breaks up the monotony (I don't want to go to the same restaurant every night when I'm at home so why do it on a cruise?). NCL posts the MDR menus early in the day. We take a look and if we are intrigued, we eat there that night. If not, we pick a specialty restaurant.

 

By the way, we were on the Jade earlier this year and loved it. I would give the food a 4 star rating overall and the ship, staff, and ports, 4.5 stars. :)

[Sauer-kraut]

I feel sorry you're basing your next cruise on the quality of the food, there's more to life.

[sdmike]

I've always been able to find something outstanding to eat on my NCL cruises. I couldn't say the same about Carnival. Never tried HAL.

 

Agree with others about 1) food being totally subjective, and 2) thinking NCL "pushes" people to pay restaurants is a load of horse feathers

[mishdoob]

I don't think this is a fair statement, as I've also wondered about the quality of NCL food.

 

"I feel sorry you're basing your next cruise on the quality of the food, there's more to life."

 

We've cruised on RCCL, Princess and Celebrity and have not yet cruised NCL, but have wondered about the food as well. If one needs to eat at a pay restaurant every night, then the lower cost of an NCL cruise isn't really much of a bargain.

[debnjoe1438]

I've been on NCL, HAL, RCCL & Carnival. (4 NCL, 1 on the others) IMHO NCL and HAL were the best, Carnival the worst. My first cruise was NCL the second was RCCL. The first thing I notice on the RCCL was the buffet was NOT as good as NCL.

 

NCL and HAL were all 7 or more days. RCCL and Carnival were 3 & 4 day cruises. Don't know if that made a difference, however could have.

[pris993]

Food can very from cruise to cruise, let alone cruise line to cruise line and ship to ship.

 

We have cruised Princess, Celebrity, HAL, Cunard and Crystal . Basically found all of them about the same, maybe Cunard was a bit better.

 

We are going on the Jade, after not being on NCL in 10 years.

 

I suspect we will find something we like, so going with an open mind. We are fussy... sometimes we skip the MDR on a cruise if we don't find the food and service what we expect. When we do, we usually find something we like a the buffet and have a late lunch, skip dinner, enjoy some dessert later if we are hungry.

 

While we are fussy about food, we do not cruise for the food. We eat better at home.

[Hikini]

We've always been very satisfied with the food on NCL, finding things from so-so to excellent, with the most common rating as very good.

 

Have fun, whatever you decide.

[nho9504]

Thanks to those who posted their opinions without being rude.

 

I feel sorry you're basing your next cruise on the quality of the food, there's more to life.

 

Pity at you that nobody has taught you how to be polite.

 

Food is an important part of a cruise package, I dont see anything wrong to check out the food quality of a cruise line one has not cruised before.

 

Cruise is nothing but a form of travel packaged as being pampering. You got to kid yourself that a day visit to a port on a cruise would "enrich" your experience. There is far more to travel outside a cruise.

 

I don't think this is a fair statement, as I've also wondered about the quality of NCL food.

 

"I feel sorry you're basing your next cruise on the quality of the food, there's more to life."

 

We've cruised on RCCL, Princess and Celebrity and have not yet cruised NCL, but have wondered about the food as well. If one needs to eat at a pay restaurant every night, then the lower cost of an NCL cruise isn't really much of a bargain.

 

Thank you for posting your view - exactly how I feel. We dont feel right that in order to get decent foods (far from excellent, just reasonably decent) we would have to patron the pay restaurants. But if a line has over 50% of the restaurants are pay ones, then the business model seems to be clear - to make the "free" restaurant foods mediocre to a point that the passengers would have to go to the pay ones in order to get reasonably good foods. I am hoping that is not the case but so far it seems the feed backs are slightly tilt to that "the pay restaurant is the way to go". If this is the reality, then NCL is not our type of cruiseline.

 

I am not so much to look at the cost of NCL - because I dont see it being "cheap" or rather, being "good value for money".

 

The only reason I would even consider this sailing is because of the Adriatic itinerary. As a matter of fact, this cruise is the most expensive on a per day basis among the other ones we look at.

 

This cruise is one of the 3 options we consider to take preceding the HAL's Noordam's Transatlantic that we would take to sail home. The HAL's cruise is a spontaneous decision - just that we have an urge to do a trip after being home since June. Upon evaluating several possibilities we decide to return to Europe instead of Asia so we can take a leisurely cruise home. (We were in Europe between April and May and in Asia between Jan and early March. We were also in Asia last November so I dont want to return to Asia so soon.) Initially we were going to do a couple weeks driving trip before the Transatlantic (we looked at HAL's and Celebrity's ships). After considering the short daylight hours in October, we nixed the driving trip idea and decided to add another European cruise ahead of the Transatlantic home.

 

The other 2 options are RCCL's Mariner of the Sea Holy Land, and Navigator of the Sea Eastern Med. We are leaning on the Holy Land itinerary as it has overnights at both Alexandria and Ashdod (Israel) - this would make the port visits more leisurely.

 

When I contacted our cruise agent, she told me the 2 RCCL ships we looked at are on RCCL's flash sale Monday - actually only the Mariner of the Sea price has gone down, Navigator of the Sea remains the same price during the flash sale. Our cruise agent also said she did not like NCL but many people like it - I think this is a fair statement - respect others choices without criticizing people.

 

Today I just secured our flights to Europe using AA miles. I feel sorry to call AA when all agents are very busy helping customers to rebook their flights because of Hurricane Isaac affecting MIA its main hub - but I am also afraid the award seats would be gone if I dont secured them now... so I braved the long wait time (actually not too bad, 15 to 20 minutes considering what has been going on) and got ourselves reservation to Vienna via Dussoldorf on Airberlin from JFK. $21.30 + $25 telephone booking fee. :D We will spend 6 days between Vienna and Budaplast before fly to Rome the day before embarkation on RCCL's Mariner of the Sea for the Holy Land sailing.

 

We would still consider NCL in the future, just not this time. :)

[pris993]

Thanks to those who posted their opinions without being rude.

 

Pity at you that nobody has taught you how to be polite.

 

Food is an important part of a cruise package, I dont see anything wrong to check out the food quality of a cruise line one has not cruised before.

 

Cruise is nothing but a form of travel packaged as being pampering. You got to kid yourself that a day visit to a port on a cruise would "enrich" your experience. There is far more to travel outside a cruise.

 

 

 

Thank you for posting your view - exactly how I feel. We dont feel right that in order to get decent foods (far from excellent, just reasonably decent) we would have to patron the pay restaurants. But if a line has over 50% of the restaurants are pay ones, then the business model seems to be clear - to make the "free" restaurant foods mediocre to a point that the passengers would have to go to the pay ones in order to get reasonably good foods. I am hoping that is not the case but so far it seems the feed backs are slightly tilt to that "the pay restaurant is the way to go". If this is the reality, then NCL is not our type of cruiseline.

 

I am not so much to look at the cost of NCL - because I dont see it being "cheap" or rather, being "good value for money".

 

The only reason I would even consider this sailing is because of the Adriatic itinerary. As a matter of fact, this cruise is the most expensive on a per day basis among the other ones we look at.

 

This cruise is one of the 3 options we consider to take preceding the HAL's Noordam's Transatlantic that we would take to sail home. The HAL's cruise is a spontaneous decision - just that we have an urge to do a trip after being home since June. Upon evaluating several possibilities we decide to return to Europe instead of Asia so we can take a leisurely cruise home. (We were in Europe between April and May and in Asia between Jan and early March. We were also in Asia last November so I dont want to return to Asia so soon.) Initially we were going to do a couple weeks driving trip before the Transatlantic (we looked at HAL's and Celebrity's ships). After considering the short daylight hours in October, we nixed the driving trip idea and decided to add another European cruise ahead of the Transatlantic home.

 

The other 2 options are RCCL's Mariner of the Sea Holy Land, and Navigator of the Sea Eastern Med. We are leaning on the Holy Land itinerary as it has overnights at both Alexandria and Ashdod (Israel) - this would make the port visits more leisurely.

 

When I contacted our cruise agent, she told me the 2 RCCL ships we looked at are on RCCL's flash sale Monday - actually only the Mariner of the Sea price has gone down, Navigator of the Sea remains the same price during the flash sale. Our cruise agent also said she did not like NCL but many people like it - I think this is a fair statement - respect others choices without criticizing people.

 

Today I just secured our flights to Europe using AA miles. I feel sorry to call AA when all agents are very busy helping customers to rebook their flights because of Hurricane Isaac affecting MIA its main hub - but I am also afraid the award seats would be gone if I dont secured them now... so I braved the long wait time (actually not too bad, 15 to 20 minutes considering what has been going on) and got ourselves reservation to Vienna via Dussoldorf on Airberlin from JFK. $21.30 + $25 telephone booking fee. :D We will spend 6 days between Vienna and Budaplast before fly to Rome the day before embarkation on RCCL's Mariner of the Sea for the Holy Land sailing.

 

We would still consider NCL in the future, just not this time. :)

 

 

Have a great trip and cruise to the Holy Land. Amazing trip for sure.

[sdmike]

Enjoy your trip.

 

You are wrong in assuming that having a bunch of pay options means inferior quality of the free dining options, or a "clear business model" that drives inferior quality. I find the food consistently very good, but that's me. Having said tat, you should go with you are more comfortable with.

[KeithJenner]

I won't disagree that food quality can be an important factor when choosing a cruise line for some people, however I would urge anyone to be cautious about using the opinions of strangers on an Internet forum to influence the decision on such a subjective matter.

 

If using cruise critic to judge the quality of food on NCL, the only conclusion you can reach is that it is somewhere between inedible slop that they should be embarrassed to serve up in a soup kitchen and the best food that people have ever eaten. At times you would be led to believe that they were serving up both those extremes in the same restaurant at the same time.

 

But if a line has over 50% of the restaurants are pay ones, then the business model seems to be clear - to make the "free" restaurant foods mediocre to a point that the passengers would have to go to the pay ones in order to get reasonably good foods.[/Quote]

 

I would be even more cautious about basing your decision on an assumption like this.

 

I agree sdmike in that having the pay restaurants doesn't demonstrate a clear business plan to force people to pay by offering inferior food in the MDR's. In fact, the basis of your assumption is incorrect as it takes no account of the size of the restaurants. I actually think that the split is 50:50 between free and pay venues, but you have to consider that the largest pay venue seats less people than all but two of the free ones. When you actually look at seating capacities you see that pay restaurants make up a far smaller proportion of the dining places than you have based your assumption on.

 

The idea of freestyle is to offer choices. In the case of food, you get good quality food in the MDR's and the buffet/bars, but you also have the option for more choice and intimacy if you want it. As they are smaller places then charges help to control demand.

 

Obviously, a prime reason for NCL charging for these restaurants is to bring them in more money, but in my experience they do that by offering options and extras, rather than reducing quality elsewhere. I haven't seen the statistics but it wouldn't surprise me to find that the majority of people who cruise on NCL don't use the pay restaurants at all, and those that do often do so just once per cruise (that is what we do). I have never seen any evidence to suggest that NCL reduce the experience for the general guest in order to force them to pay the extra, and such claims are very often made on these boards by people who haven't actually travelled with them.

[wroughtironron]

We did the Greek Islands on the Jade in June, and found the MDR fare disappointing plus service was poor, and food arrived lukewarm.

 

There was a leak above our table one night - I only noticed after it took me two hours to finish my soup.

[halos]

I sure wouldn't find it hard for any ship to meet RCCL's food standards these days. We were on the Radiance two years ago this November. For the only time in 25 cruises, we did not eat in the MDR because the food there was simply so very bad. We ate in the buffet every night other than the first two.

We have only sailed Royal one time a few years ago and must agree that our impression of the food was that it was the worst of all our cruises.

Now, of course we didnt' starve, but after that sailing, I would never recommend RCI to someone who put a priority on quality of food.

 

NCL mdr food is good to very good.

For buffet, NCL is excellent

For variety and options, NCL wins hands down over any othe rline we have sailed.