How does food compare really - Holland America vs. Royal Carribbean Vs. Princess

[chuckdefatia]

Hi

 

I am trying to gauge something that is difficult to determine because everyone's tastes are different.......

 

I have heard it said that there is a difference in the quality of food on RCI vs Princess. I have not yet sailed on either of these lines but I will on Princess in Jan. 2015.

 

For those who have experienced Holland AMerica and Celebrity in addition to the abovementioned lines, can you comment please?

 

Thx.

[tompaddyelle]

I have only done princess and HAL and HAL's food wins hands down!

[jarand]

Can't comment on RC. However, we've done several Princess cruises and several HAL cruises, and we definitely prefer Princess. The MDR's are fairly comparable, but we find the Princess buffets and other dining far superior. For one thing, HAL insists on serving you everything in the buffet for the first couple days, then after that they have a horrible line system where the crew serves a lot of things that would be much better as self-serve. Also, HAL closes their buffet at around 8:00-9:00, and there's NOTHING available after that. We don't cruise for the food, but we sure get frustrated with HAL's systems.

[The_Big_M]

Complicating things further is that their offerings change over time, also as some cut costs.

 

Broadly speaking, if you haven't sailed them before, there isn't a massive difference between them; it's not like they're noticeably different to choose between.

 

Celebrity does offer some specific foods that RCL don't; it's meant to be above RCL. However, for a dining menu I've preferred RCL's lately. Celebrity is having issues with its cost cutting in the MDR at the moment.

 

Princess is a specialist for Italian/pizzas, and I'd also rate their quality slightly over RCI's.

 

I can't comment on HAL.

[Kiwi Kruzer]

Overall they are pretty much the same. The meals all come out of the freezer, so to a great degree , the standard of the food depends on the skill off the defroster.

 

 

[Kamloops50]

Hi

 

I am trying to gauge something that is difficult to determine because everyone's tastes are different.......

 

I have heard it said that there is a difference in the quality of food on RCI vs Princess. I have not yet sailed on either of these lines but I will on Princess in Jan. 2015.

 

For those who have experienced Holland AMerica and Celebrity in addition to the abovementioned lines, can you comment please?

 

Thx.

 

Food quality is vary subjective. Each person will have there own preference.

 

Sent from my Transformer TF101 using Forums mobile app

[bazzaw]

We have sailed with P&O UK, P&O AUS, Cunard, and Royal Caribbean. I can't tell the difference between any of these foodwise in the main dining rooms. The food is all mass produced and of acceptable quality. I call it "international hotel " food.

 

We think that the standard of the extra cost specialty Restaurants (such as Salt Grill on P&O AUS, Gary Rhodes on P&O UK, Portofino on Voyager, etc) is of far superior quality. But the standard restaurant food is quite "OK" - we usually just have one "special" meal in the specialty restaurants each cruise -- the next one will be on Sea princess for my 68th birthday

 

Barry

[rugbypopsie]

I agree with Barry the food on all these lines is acceptable hotel quality. I currently think celebrity is leader generally.

 

Sue

[PJOZ]

In my opinion, from my experience on the lines we have sailed I rate HAL first, Carnival second, and Royal Caribbean quite a long way behind. Our first cruise on Royal was OK but our second was quite bad, possibly just a bad experience though and I am very keen to try Radiance as all the specialty restaurants might work better for us and I love everything else about their ships. Was pleasantly surprised by the quality of Carnival's food.

 

Agree there is some degree of sameness about them all though - I think of it as "function" food.

 

Penny

[lizzy77]

We have cruised on Carnival, Princess, RCCL, and Celebrity and I wouldn't be booking a cruise on the quality of the food on any of these as I found them all to be comparabile.

The itinerary and comparable cost is the most important to us.

[cruisin-m]

As most others have said, having sailed P&O, Princess, Carnival, Royal Caribbean and Celebrity there isn't much between any of them really in MDR food.

 

Some of them do other things like pizza, deck grills, 24hr stuff better than the others.

 

I didn't like the food on Rhapsody but thought the food was to die for on Radiance, just goes to show food is a very subjective thing and can even vary ship to ship.

 

Everyone else seems to rave about the food on Celebrity but I was actually disappointed because I had such high hopes of how much people talk it up, it was great food just felt let down because it seemed pretty much the same to every other cruiseline to me... still good though!

 

Either Dawn Princess or Radiance of the Seas would be where I have my most fond dining experiences I'd say!

[bazzaw]

I agree with Barry the food on all these lines is acceptable hotel quality. I currently think celebrity is leader generally.

 

Sue

 

I only just had a thought last night that maybe we could try out Celebrity Solstice early next year -- we will add 2 more cruiselines on our "been there - done that" list this year -- nights on Carnival Spirit in August and 14 on Sea Princess in October.

 

Is Celebrity a little more "dressier" on formal nights than the others that cruise out of Sydney??

[rugbypopsie]

I didn't notice any real difference in formal night dressing on Celebrity, it's about the same as. Hal, RCL and Princess. Warm weather cruises at home are always more informal that overseas. If you hate formal night Azamara doesn't do them.

 

 

Sue

[Kiwi Kruzer]

I didn't notice any real difference in formal night dressing on Celebrity, it's about the same as. Hal, RCL and Princess. Warm weather cruises at home are always more informal that overseas. If you hate formal night Azamara doesn't do them.Sue

 

Azamara has Smart Casual.....thats means very expensive designer gear and you must be wearing the right label,and never the same outfit twice....at least with the good old formal , one tux or dark suit , does the trick for men , for the whole cruise.:D

 

 

[rugbypopsie]

I just got off Kiwi...none of the above would ever describe my travelling outfits...lol. Just got off 17 nights on Azamara from India to Athens not a dress snob to be seen, that I noticed anyway. I just wore what I would wear to a restaurant here, and with a 15kilo limit in baggage for India trip preceding it outfits were certainly worn mire than once.

 

Sue

[debshomespun]

I have been on all 4 cruise lines the OP asked about. My preference for MDR is:

1. Celebrity

2. Holland America

3. Royal Caribbean

4. Princess

 

As someone else stated, the "specialty" restaurants have a much higher quality and standard for their food that is served. We usually do 1 specialty restaurant per cruise. I have always found plenty to eat on all the ships. The Chef has a lot to do with the way the food is prepared. You can have the same food on 2 different RC ships, and it will be completely different, even though the same food item. All in the way the chef prepares and presents the food. I would not choose my cruise for the food. I would choose for the itinerary, and price of the cruise.

[cruisermsoon]

Don't overlook the difference that a good executive chef can make. We have been on a couple of Princess cruises that had one of their top chefs on board, and even with the same menus we noticed a marked difference in quality.

Princess tend to be very consistent with their food quality at dinner in the MDR on their various ships, however the design of their buffet areas, and the choices offered, leave much to be desired. You may find that HAL, Celebrity, and even RC are better in this respect, with the caveat that the Celebrity Solstice evening offerings are very restricted.

Food being one of the ship board features that every cruiser notices, most ships/lines will attempt to give reasonably good quality/selection, but beware lines [NCL?] that have a proliferation of for-fee restaurants, as then you may notice a drop in quality in the MDR.

[The_Big_M]

Is Celebrity a little more "dressier" on formal nights than the others that cruise out of Sydney??

 

Australian cruisers - with lots of Australian passengers - not so much.

 

If you're on a Celebrity cruise with more US passengers though, you'll see a lot more formal wear.

[debshomespun]

I only just had a thought last night that maybe we could try out Celebrity Solstice early next year -- we will add 2 more cruiselines on our "been there - done that" list this year -- nights on Carnival Spirit in August and 14 on Sea Princess in October.

 

Is Celebrity a little more "dressier" on formal nights than the others that cruise out of Sydney??

 

We are US passengers (4 in our group) and we will be sailing Celebrity Solstice 12 nights on the Jan. 27, 2015 sailing, and are not planning to bring formal outfits. With all the luggage constraints, we prefer to have room to bring back our souvenirs from Australia and New Zealand! Even on Caribbean cruises, many more people are not "dressing up" on the formal nights like they used to.

[cruisin-m]

Australian cruisers - with lots of Australian passengers - not so much.

 

If you're on a Celebrity cruise with more US passengers though, you'll see a lot more formal wear.

 

Not saying you're wrong or anything but in my experience I tend to find the Americans I've met always seem to have the same mix as Australians that like and dislike formal wear or prefer to be relaxed as they are on holidays, especially out of Australia/Europe as they don't have the room to cart tuxedos etc around the world.

 

I think the pommies particularly the older ones are a bit more formal and proper though.

 

I like dressing up for formal night itself but hate dressing up other nights(I would happily wear shorts and a polo), I just want to be on holidays and be comfortable. I wear dress clothes every day for work last thing I want to do is wear the same uncomfortable clothes on holidays :p

[OzKiwiJJ]

A few years ago, while visiting Singapore, I discovered some wonderful linen beach pants at Marks and Spencer. They come in several colours including black and white. They are soooo comfortable as half the waistband is soft stretchy fabric and there is also a drawstring. They are dressy enough to wear as smart casual but are as comfortable as wearing a pair of trackpants. Surprisingly, they travel very well. I've been worn them on trips to Europe, India, NZ, Singapore again, and to various parts of Australia. I live in them in summer.

 

You can buy them online, http://www.marksandspencer.com/pure-linen-easy-care-wide-leg-beach-trousers/p/p22276248 £22.50 a pair and free delivery to Australia and NZ if you buy more than £30 - you have to enter a promo code for this.

 

I'll be taking some on my Christmas cruise for sure, and will be wearing them to dinner some nights.

Edited June 27, 2014 by OzKiwiJJ

[woodyren]

I have only cruise four times. All on different cruise lines. I found discernable difference between both the MDR and buffet food on each. I will qualify my rankings by stating that I never eat in top class restaurants in Australia or when on holidays so I have no high level baseline to compare to.

 

MDR

Celebrity Reflection >RCCL Oasis of the Seas>>NCL Star>>Carnival Glory.

 

Buffet Celebrity Reflection >>Oasis>Star>Glory.

 

I would prefer the buffet on Reflection to the MDR food on Carnival.

 

Carnival did have very good pizza though.