Food trends on cruise ships--your opinion

[princesitarita]

What do you all think are some of the food trends you are noticing on cruise ships?

 

Thanks!!

[wawa40207]

these are well worth the extra money though !

[m steve]

One line offers several specialty restaurants then changes and serves the same meal in every one but charges to be in a smaller room, another let's you eat at anytime but doesn't have enough tables and makes you wait, another offers a special steak house but puts you in a section of the buffet and more and more.

Why don't they just have a policy and stick to it. You book a cruise expecting additional choices to the main room and then when it's time to sail there isn't any.

And then there's the evening menu but you can order the same shrimp coctail, Caesar salad and steak every night. And if you go to a specialty room the first night cause the main dining room is usually to frenetic, you find that your table for two is no longer available for the rest of the cruise.

And finally some of the special DRS staff seem to think that asking you how you like the food 10 times during dinner is required although I feel it is pretentious and they are hovering thinking that they will get a better tip.

I don't know the answer but the ships should be consistant for at least one year.:mad:

[Dog Mommie]

The trend I see is the large, commercial cruise lines are lowering their standards in the main dining room and forcing you to PAY for decent food.:mad:

[bangzoom6877]

Specialty Restaurants charging you to eat there, when you can get the same filet mignon in the dining room. Only exception is you can't get fois gras in the dining room or sushi beyond California rolls.

 

I personally like the dining room food on cruises. My husband and I ate in Le Bistro on the Norwegian Sea in 2002, and it was excellent. We tried fois gras for the first time and that made it worth the cover charge. But filet mignon was available in the dining room, as were other fancy dishes like lobster tail, beef wellington, etc. And I know the lobster tails are small but they will bring you as many as you wish to have! Believe me, my husband kept asking, they kept bringing!

 

Another thing is the choices. My first cruise was in 1990, when I was 13 years old. We went on Royal Caribbean to Bermuda. The ONLY place to eat dinner was in the dining room. The buffet was only open for breakfast and lunch. No casual dining unless you ordered from the room service menu and ate in your room! Yet the dining room was packed with appropriately-dressed people! That has changed so much. First they added a buffet option so people could stay in casual dress. More casual options becoming more of a trend. Dining room is not as full as it used to be. People don't want to follow dress codes either anymore. Many many choices now. Some ships like on NCL, with specialty restaurants that don't have a cover charge (Mexican, Italian, etc.) so I now have to look at the dining room menu and see if I feel I wouldn't mind missing it to try a different sit-down restaurant. We only ate dinner at the buffet once or twice on the Norwegian Sea and found the dining room to be much much better.

 

Automatic gratuity is more of a trend now too. While convenient for those of us who remember fishing for cash on the last night of the cruise in the past, I feel skeptical that some crew members might not work as hard to please us. Of course I still find service to be exceptional, so that crew member would be the exception, not the rule. But still, it just makes me wonder. Of course I understand though because we have all seen people who skipped out on dinner the last night so as not to tip the waiter and I think that's rude. Some people also demand things that are ridiculous and therefore do not tip.

 

Another trend: too many people with the attitude, "I paid for this cruise so I'll do what I want." I see this mainly in the dining room at dinner where some people refuse to follow the dress code. Some crew members turn them away, others don't because then many of those types of passengers complain so much about the crew member that they could lose their job. It's sad really. That some people out there think that just because they paid let's say, $1500 a person for something, they should get $3,000 worth of things. So sad!

 

No, cruising is not what it used to be. But it is still, in my opinion, the best vacation for your money and just the best vacation out there!

 

Bonnie