Running out of food provisions

[kruisey]

This is not the first time it has happened to me but the last cruise it was even worse.

On the Emerald Princess last October /November not only ran out of berries but the Chocolate Covered Strawberries that even on long cruises they never lacked before.Then it was a lack of lemons and and fresh fruit on offer including oranges in the buffet.

We did stop at ports were we could have pick up some these supplies.

I do remember in the past it was only fresh small berries we ran out of understandably.

I am planning a long trip and am beginning to wonder if we will have many more shortage of supplies and this a policy of Princess to save on their food budget.?

[Loonbeam]

First, its not as simple as it sounds. Princess, like all other lines, uses software that tracks usage on prior cruises to estimate needs for future cruises and minimize spoilage and waste. It doesn't take much to upend those projections (a case of berries goes bad unexpectedly, or simply higher demand for one item over another). It's almost inevitable they will run out of several things on a given trip, you just happened to notice berries.

 

Second, as has been said many times on here, they cannot just 'pick up' stuff at ports. For one thing, most ports do not have the infrastructure and capacity for bulk supplies (Ocho Rios is not going to have a pallet of high quality strawberries on hand). Additionally, all suppliers must be vetted and continuously inspected. And to be fair there is a pricing component.

 

Basically its not like they can just send someone to the supermarket to get strawberries.

[kruisey]

More items than usual running out..

I heard that Princess now only has food from main supplier in USA now? Were as in the past it had other suppliers around the world.?

[CruisenOne]

This is not the first time it has happened to me but the last cruise it was even worse.

On the Emerald Princess last October /November not only ran out of berries but the Chocolate Covered Strawberries that even on long cruises they never lacked before.Then it was a lack of lemons and and fresh fruit on offer including oranges in the buffet.

We did stop at ports were we could have pick up some these supplies.

I do remember in the past it was only fresh small berries we ran out of understandably.

I am planning a long trip and am beginning to wonder if we will have many more shortage of supplies and this a policy of Princess to save on their food budget.?

 

It is very cost prohibitive to Air Freight a Container to a distant Port.

 

Fresh fruit is "time sensitive" and the delay in transport could cause spoilage.

 

Another problem, which could develop, is that a Port is missed and the container would have to re-routed.

[san diego sue]

A couple of years ago we were on a HAL ship. We were having a conversation with the Hotel Manager. He said they have to be very careful in their ordering food so they don't run out. He said that they have certain suppliers they use and can't just go shopping in ports. In the European cruises, the supplies are shipped to them .

On a Celebrity cruise to Hawaii, the day we headed back to West Coast ,

they ran out of regular coffee. At their buffet there was instant coffee

sitting next to their hot water dispensers. There was almost a riot. Who doesn't need their wake up coffee. They also ran out of vegetables. That was the last time we ever cruised on Celebrity.

Mostly cruise Princess. We have seen bananas start to spoil, run out of strawberries etc. No matter how you plan for fruit, they can spoil. At home, how long can you keep them without going bad?

It is amazing how well the cruise line does plan .

[BassettMom]

On my last cruise in Tahiti, there were no lemons. Not a big deal, except that they were putting limes in the ice tea. Had to remember to say no limes (or took them out when I forgot). Just didn't taste right with a lime. No lemons with fish either, but hey I was in Tahiti and on a cruise, so definitely didn't ruin my cruise. [emoji6]

[happy cruzer]

Occasionally its the passengers. On one long cruise every time they put a bowl a special fruit out like plums this one fellow would take the entire bowl. A crew member tried to stop him saying that other passengers wanted plums, the man shook his head like he did not speak English and left with the bowl of about 20 plums. He did the same with other fruits.

[kruisey]

Its amazing how the little lemon can be so important for flavouring and I know several people on my last cruise seemed surprised that there were none on the ship.

So to answer my question does everything get shipped from a main depot in USA?

I used to see Princess loading from other areas in the past.Remember bananas and pineapples being loaded on board from one of our exotic ports of call was that pineapple ever good sweet and yummy......I am a great fresh fruit fan.:)

[thinfool]

I heard that Princess now only has food from main supplier in USA now?

 

Even it this is somewhat true, it has no effect on ship provisioning in Australia or Singapore or anywhere else. There are always local suppliers to provision the ship.

 

Now, that is not to say that they aren't under contract with a US supplier....and that the bill for their products is submitted thru a single (US?) entity.

 

As for the single supplier...it may be US based, but it would not surprise me to learn that it is UK based. The Brits have been provisioning ships in far flung places far, far longer than the US.

[SwissDave]

Certainly when the ships load provisions in Southampton there is a lot of UK grown/sourced produce loaded, as well as stuff from other areas.

[kruisey]

I got on a ship in UK its always been from North America or from across the Pacific before. I had better not make more comment on this...;):D I know the Fish and Chips Pub Lunch were very Yummy indeed :)

[SwissDave]

I got on a ship in UK its always been from North America or from across the Pacific before. I had better not make more comment on this...;):D I know the Fish and Chips Pub Lunch were very Yummy indeed :)

 

But not as good as proper fish n chips from a proper fish n chip shop ;)

[kruisey]

But not as good as proper fish n chips from a proper fish n chip shop ;)

I am a guru when it comes to 'Fish and Chips' even though they were not the thick cut chips,but the fish was not soggy, I was very pleasantly surprised when I ate them.Which was nice because I heard their praise from other passengers...so I thought cannot be but will try.:)

[triple7tahoe]

I am a guru when it comes to 'Fish and Chips' even though they were not the thick cut chips,but the fish was not soggy, I was very pleasantly surprised when I ate them.Which was nice because I heard their praise from other passengers...so I thought cannot be but will try.:)

But, did they come wrapped in a newspaper?;)

[hpeabody]

On my 28/29 day cruise LA-Hawaii-Samoas-French Polynesia-LA the ship (Crown) started running out of some items. I seem to remember bananas, most berries, feta cheese (for the feta cheese and watermelon app, there were 2 little pieces of feta cheese, LOL) and about 2 days from LA even wet wipes in the gym were all gone. So no chocolate covered strawberries :( (Maybe on the last formal night, but it's been while and I am not positive) This was the first time I noticed a ship running flat OUT of any particular item.

 

We were actually held over in Papeete because we had to wait for 2 containers from New Zealand that were 2 days late arriving. We had to have these because of our long voyage across the Pacific. I did hear a rumor that more than half of what was in the containers was rejected. They barely got the contents loaded on the ship with just minutes to spare before sail away.

[Loonbeam]

How the items are sourced depends on many factors: whether the port is a common homeport or used less often, what can be sourced locally at reasonable prices and to meet standards. Princess ships a large portion of stable goods out of the US (alcohol, paper goods, etc) to the homeports (to ensure standardization).

 

Also for certain itineraries there are smaller local vendors who provide regional items.

[CptSticky]

We are often on ships that run out of things. Sometimes there is a shortage in the supply channel (like limes last year). One cruise last year, three containers did not make it to the dock before the ship sailed (that's a lot of food to miss). The one thing that puzzles me is that they often run out of V8. Now that comes in a can and doesn't spoil so I can't really understand why they run out of it so often. On one TA they first ran out of V8 and then they ran out of tomato juice. The next day they had tomato juice again but it had seeds in it:eek: (tasted a little different also:p).

[Murray's Pop]

We were on an NCL cruise when (on the 2nd day) they ran out of ice tea. I guess that they used a bulk ice tea, as they still had lots of tea bags for hot tea.

 

Wound up having to order 2 cups of hot tea and a glass with ice and a lemon every time I wanted some ice tea.

 

That is the result of poor planning or a major mix up at provisioning at port.

[SadieN]

Mom's story---

The ship was delivered green bananas. Those couldn't be served and the banana supply from the previous cruise was limited.

One morning at breakfast a table mate asked for a banana, sorry no bananas. Sis says they have a banana from the Casino fruit basket. Goes and gets the banana.

The tablemate is about to peel the thing when the waiter swoops down (after the shock from seeing one wears off,lol) and takes it away. The look on the gal's face was priceless.

Onboard a banana can't be eaten out of hand in the MDR. It HAS to be served on a plate cradled in a half peel, sliced.

This was on the Carnival Miracle.

[SadieN]

We figured out on our HI cruise to eat salad greens the first few sea days because the last day or so they are looking kind of sad.

[Murray's Pop]

We figured out on our HI cruise to eat salad greens the first few sea days because the last day or so they are looking kind of sad.

 

They didn't re-provision in Hawaii?? We did a Celebrity cruise to Hawaii 2 years ago and they put on new provisions in Oahu, and again in Hilo before the 5 sea day return.

[broberts]

On the Emerald a few years ago. Pineapple got worse and worse - over ripe. Then we simply ran out. With more than a few days left on the voyage I was not pleased as fresh pineapple is one of the treats I love when cruising the Caribbean. We called at Puerto Limón, Costa Rica the next day. Hurray! There was fresh pineapple after that.

 

While most provisioning seems to be done at the home port, I would guess that for some things significant shipping costs can be saved picking them up nearer the source.

[CptSticky]

They didn't re-provision in Hawaii?? We did a Celebrity cruise to Hawaii 2 years ago and they put on new provisions in Oahu' date=' and again in Hilo before the 5 sea day return.[/quote']

Once in Hilo, crew members were sent ashore (a tender port) to get cases of fresh eggs. We rode the tender back with them.

[Gimer]

Our trans-Atlantic on Emerald, they ran out of pepperoni on the pizza and substituted it with salami.......YUCKY DOOOOO!:eek: Big mistake....

[Murray's Pop]

Once in Hilo, crew members were sent ashore (a tender port) to get cases of fresh eggs. We rode the tender back with them.

 

You sure it was Hilo? Hilo is not a tender port, it has a dock. Unless there were multiple ships in port the same day. Kona, Kauai and 1 port on Maui are tender ports.