Cuisine Standard (Especially Buffet) on HAL vs P&O, Princess, Celebrity, and Oceania.

[Cahpek]

We will be going with Holland America for the first time. The cruise will be 14-days on the Koningsdam.

 

In February this year, we had one of the most unpleasant cuisine experience on the P&O (Ventura), especially in the buffet where the quality of the buffet was so very disappointing. It was not just one dish but a series of them, and that affected our 14 days cruise so much we were so pleased the cruise was finally over and we would not have to eat their food!

 

Trouble was , on Cruisecritic, we found that there were recent complaints not just about one P&O ship (the Ventura) , but (from others) about the Arcadia, the Azura, and the Britannia too. That's 4 out of 6 ships in their fleet!

 

Our worry is the level of catering on HAL would be as disappointing as on P&O (Ventura) and it would be great if experienced HAL cruisers could give reassure us that this is not going to be so. We do realise both P&O and HAL are companies under the Carnival's stable. We particularly like buffet dining but we are also interested in the MDR, room service and other complimentary venues. We are not quite so keen on speciality restaurants.

 

We have also cruised with Princess, Azamara, Celebrity, Fred. Olsen, and Oceania.

 

If you know how the cuisine is like on HAL compared to any of the above cruise cruise companies, we would appreciate if you can share your experience with us.

 

Thank you.

[debsjc]

I think many people might disagree, but we were disappointed in the MDR on HAL on our last 2 cruises. We found the service slow, and the food over-salty and not hot.

The Lido (the buffet cafe) was generally good. The salads, sandwiches, and desserts were great, plus the pasta station and anything cooked to order. Again there were some issues with hot food being hot enough.

Also we liked the Dive In burger bar.

 

Of the other cruise lines you mention we have only sailed with Oceania, and I would say their MDR is quite a lot better than HAL, and their cafe a little better.

 

We were considering P&O for our next cruise, but after talking to some friends who had recently been with them we decided against them. I think you will find HAL better than P&O

Edited April 10, 2017 by debsjc

[Kamloops50]

We will be going with Holland America for the first time. The cruise will be 14-days on the Koningsdam.

 

In February this year, we had one of the most unpleasant cuisine experience on the P&O (Ventura), especially in the buffet where the quality of the buffet was so very disappointing. It was not just one dish but a series of them, and that affected our 14 days cruise so much we were so pleased the cruise was finally over and we would not have to eat their food!

 

Trouble was , on Cruisecritic, we found that there were recent complaints not just about one P&O ship (the Ventura) , but (from others) about the Arcadia, the Azura, and the Britannia too. That's 4 out of 6 ships in their fleet!

 

Our worry is the level of catering on HAL would be as disappointing as on P&O (Ventura) and it would be great if experienced HAL cruisers could give reassure us that this is not going to be so. We do realise both P&O and HAL are companies under the Carnival's stable. We particularly like buffet dining but we are also interested in the MDR, room service and other complimentary venues. We are not quite so keen on speciality restaurants.

 

We have also cruised with Princess, Azamara, Celebrity, Fred. Olsen, and Oceania.

 

If you know how the cuisine is like on HAL compared to any of the above cruise cruise companies, we would appreciate if you can share your experience with us.

 

Thank you.

 

I find food is a very subjective thing. What I like other might not like.

[OlsSalt]

Our main dining room dinners on HAL have a lot of variety and always something that is appealing. The Lido has a great array, and the other dining venues have very appealing choices - the emphasis is on choice, hard to believe one can not put together something that meets virtually every taste and expectation for the price-point of this cruise line.

 

Plus there are very nice options in room service too included in the fare price. The only dining venue we keep finding hit or miss is the Pinnacle - "steak house". But we consistently have very nice dining experiences on HAL ships without needing to go to the Pinnacle - even though we now get "free" Pinnacle dinners for our cruise loyalty group. Pinnacle lunches however get a lot of praise. And if you are on a larger ship, the additional Tamarind pan-Asian dining room is a real treat.

 

We pick late fixed dining and are always out in under an hour. A few years ago service was really slow and I think their standard was 90-120 minutes, which we thought was far too long for dinner. Since then they changed the delivery model and collapsed the soup and appetizers courses into one menu, so if you pick only soup or apptetizer as a single course I think you will find very little waiting time for meals. At least that has been our experience now for the past few years.

 

Our prior cruise experiences have been on Crystal Cruises which are known for their dining, and we can honestly say we don't miss that elevated standard when we are on HAL cruises now. There is freshness, variety, interesting international offerings and some just plain good comfort food too on HAL ships today.

[Hlitner]

We have never been overly impressed with the HAL Lido offerings at lunch...with the exception of the old sandwich station where you could order custom made sandwiches! But alas, HAL made "improvements" to the Lido by implementing a new format that eliminated the sandwich station and replaced it with a few pre-made sandwiches :(. If you like what they offer fine...if not....you lose. No more made to order. The hot foods (at lunch) are pretty basic with chicken, some kind of beef, etc. They have an Asian station...although we suspect that nobody from Asia would recognize the offerings. Desserts are nothing special (but they are adequate) except for the traditional HAL Bread Pudding (love it or hate it). HAL has tried to improve their pizza...although it is still among the worst at sea. Their burger bar (called Dive In) is pretty decent although we are not a fan of batter coated french fries. You want good fries you should cut up fresh potatoes and fry them in Peanut Oil (sorry if we offend anyone with a peanut allergy). HAL does have an interesting salad bar concept. You no longer help yourself to a salad bar...but now have it made to your specifications. A staffer takes a large bowl, adds the items you request, and then mixes in the dressing of your choice. This is actually a great idea from a health perspective (nobody but a prep cook is touching anything) and the salads are quite good.

 

We cruise many different lines and think they have all downgraded their Lido offerings (especially at lunch) to cut costs. The days when you would find a bowl or large cold shrimp are long gone...now replaced with tiny shrimp...or simply shrimp salad. We recall buffets where they would have at least 8-12 different cheeses...including some decent stuff like Danish Blue, Gouda, etc. Now, it is generally 2 or 3 cheeses...often consisting of tasteless (cheap) cheddar, gouda, etc. The one bright exception are the Lido's on the new Royal-class Princess ships...where they have done a good job offering a huge variety of mostly quality items. But even Princess cannot make a decent deli sandwich...unless you are happy with "mystery meat" such as Olive Loaf (this stuff should be fed to the fish).

 

Hank

[AncientWanderer]

I agree with those who say you can carve out an enjoyable meal on HAL. There are a lot of choices.

Particularly in the Lido, on recent cruises we have noticed cutbacks in a few notable areas: cheeses, cuts of beef, and desserts. We found desserts to be noticeably better in the MDR than in the Lido.

 

So we quit sampling the cheeses, had our desserts in MDR, and focused more on lamb, pork or seafood, and were much happier that way. But that's just our experience. (We did have great steaks in the Pinnacle Grill.)