Dining on Princess: "Could be better, could be verse, all around hhokay"

[keithm]

That title was from a line in a movie from years back. Well, since the "formal" threads seem to have all gotten shut down, let's try dining on Princess, instead. For us, we found the food on the Regal(only Princess ship we've sailed)really quite good. The steaks in Crown Grill/Sabatini's are pretty boring. Our local Outback simply blows them away. Having the catering company & buying $500,000+ in beef each year alone, I've gotten pretty good at judging beef quality. For Princess & most standard lines, it would be "select" in the specialty rest. & USDA Standard grade everywhere else. While a select is NOT as good as choice or certainly Prime, in the hands of a good chef I'd eat that over a prime cut butchered by an amateur.

Seafood on the Regal, we found to excellent overall. The "Chilean Sea Bass" was in fact the best I've had anywhere! We found the Buffet to be the most varied of any ship we've been on. At times, we ate there instead of the MDR. We were early seating so that shows which MDR we ate in. We recommend the Crab shack, even though we missed the nights. We did a Valentines dinner special in the buffet. It was the best dinner on our 14 day B2B cruise. We missed out on the "Lumiere" special Chef's dinner. It fills very fast. At about $100 it's really pricey, but considering how fast it filled, I guess it's popular. I'd say the only let down are the desserts. The Norman Love are good, but other than that they're pretty bland. I know a lot of pax "swear" all these desserts are "homemade". When you're feeding over 1000 pax at any one time, sorry, they can't be! A lot is purchased from vendors such as Sysco/US Foods/Performance Food Group & many others. Food budget determines food quality. You can't expect "Crystal Cruises" quality on Princess Cruises budget. What you CAN expect is decent food that is for the most part pretty tasty & appetizing. Of course mishaps occur. When feeding over 3000 people any given night, how could something not go wrong? It can, it does & it will! Overall while I've had boring & bland food on any line, I can't(for myself)say I've had really "bad" food. You've heard my experience's, let's hear about yours!

Edited July 12, 2017 by keithm
spelling

[OCruisers]

Basically, we've been happy with the food on Princess.

We've cruised on Princess long enough to know which items will be better than others. ;)

[paul929207]

We also are very happy with Princess food.

[tailspintom]

That title was from a line in a movie from years back. Well, since the "formal" threads seem to have all gotten shut down, let's try dining on Princess, instead. For us, we found the food on the Regal(only Princess ship we've sailed)really quite good. The steaks in Crown Grill/Sabatini's are pretty boring. Our local Outback simply blows them away. Having the catering company & buying $500,000+ in beef each year alone, I've gotten pretty good at judging beef quality. For Princess & most standard lines, it would be "select" in the specialty rest. & USDA Standard grade everywhere else. While a select is NOT as good as choice or certainly Prime, in the hands of a good chef I'd eat that over a prime cut butchered by an amateur.

Seafood on the Regal, we found to excellent overall. The "Chilean Sea Bass" was in fact the best I've had anywhere! We found the Buffet to be the most varied of any ship we've been on. At times, we ate there instead of the MDR. We were early seating so that shows which MDR we ate in. We recommend the Crab shack, even though we missed the nights. We did a Valentines dinner special in the buffet. It was the best dinner on our 14 day B2B cruise. We missed out on the "Lumiere" special Chef's dinner. It fills very fast. At about $100 it's really pricey, but considering how fast it filled, I guess it's popular. I'd say the only let down are the desserts. The Norman Love are good, but other than that they're pretty bland. I know a lot of pax "swear" all these desserts are "homemade". When you're feeding over 1000 pax at any one time, sorry, they can't be! A lot is purchased from vendors such as Sysco/US Foods/Performance Food Group & many others. Food budget determines food quality. You can't expect "Crystal Cruises" quality on Princess Cruises budget. What you CAN expect is decent food that is for the most part pretty tasty & appetizing. Of course mishaps occur. When feeding over 3000 people any given night, how could something not go wrong? It can, it does & it will! Overall while I've had boring & bland food on any line, I can't(for myself)say I've had really "bad" food. You've heard my experience's, let's hear about yours!

Our experience has been pretty much like your description with a couple of opinion differences.

As I am trying to keep clear of diabetes, I tend to forgo the dessert unless there is something special. My wife, though, seems to be pretty impressed with the Norman Love creations. If the International Cafe has made up some chocolate peanut butter cups, it is exception time for me and more eliptical activity as punishment for my transgression.

Now, as for the Crowne Grill. While it does not serve up the best steak we have had, it has yet to disappoint us. My wife typically orders up the filet while I get the ribeye. In as much as you are in the business, I trust your assessment on the grade. I can only say we like the fare and alway include thr Crowne Grill as part of our cruise.

I continue to be a bit miffed at substitution of a pretty bad burger for what was a pretty good medallion of beef.

In all, I would say that Princess does a good job with their food.

[joeyancho]

While I agree with your assessment in general, especially in regards to the Sea bass, the desserts, including the ice cream, are made on board. The only baked goods not made on board are things like sliced bread, bagels, hamburger buns, English muffins, and the like.

[pris993]

We have 25 Princess cruises, have cruised 9 different lines over the years including Crystal, Cunard, Celebrity, NCl and HAl to mention a few... we consider Princess to be more consistent than most relative to food, service and entertainment. Over the years food has changed a lot on the cruises lines. We now generally eat at the Crown Grill every night when on board Princess... we especially like the Sea Bass, Shrimp dish, lamb chops, veal chops, and the filet. Really enjoy the service and quiet atmosphere. You know more about the grade of meat than I but we have enjoyed the items mentioned a lot. Have to say one of the worst steaks I ever had was on Crystal many years ago, meet a butcher on board and he agreed the beef awful. The price difference in the cruise fare on Crystal did not result in a better meal experience for us, consequently we did not go back on Crystal. Have to agree with you about desserts on all cruise lines not just Princess... we skip dessert because we feel one needs to say, "where is the cake" all desserts are simply sugar and cream, no cake. LOL (Kind of like that say where is the beef). We enjoy ice cream only on board, unless we buy dessert in port and bring it back to the ship to share with the dining room waiters and/or our cabin steward. We have done this more than a few times when cruising in the Mediterranean. I am an excellent baker so really know good quality desserts. We will be going on the new Royal in October for 14 days, so will check out the new buffet... appears similar to Celebrity. On Celebrity the menu does not change from day to day in the buffet... I hope does on the Royal. The variety in the buffet on Princess has been good in general. We have cruised Princess more than any line, so I guess we pretty satisfied.

[OzKiwiJJ]

Although I've only been on four Princess cruises so far I have noticed that it varies from cruise to cruise, possibly due to the diligence of the Executive Chef. Of the four cruises the overall quality on the first cruise (Sun) was excellent, the second (Dawn) was poor, and the other two (Golden and Sun) were very good. I'm looking forward to trying Royal in a couple of months.

[wishfulone]

The best steak I've ever eaten on any ship or cruise line was in the Sterling Steakhouse on the Sun Princess in April. This week it may not be so good. Circumstances change all the time. The chef gets moved, the steak cooker leaves, the staff are unhappy.....the list goes on. I'm not a food critic but I enjoy good food well cooked and presented so for what it's worth I believe that what is best on one ship at any given time will not be cooked in exactly the same way on any other ship in the fleet.

[seadog18]

One size can never fit all. How can you possibly cook a meal to suit all tastes when there are 3000 ish people to feed? All that can be done is make the food appetising to the majority.

As to the quality there is the usual argument that you get what you pay for though I will say for me that when I have dined in the speciality restaurants I haven't always had the best food.

[keithm]

While I agree with your assessment in general, especially in regards to the Sea bass, the desserts, including the ice cream, are made on board. The only baked goods not made on board are things like sliced bread, bagels, hamburger buns, English muffins, and the like.

The desserts are made from ingredients that come from vendors such as Sysco. The various types mousse all kind of tastes the same. Reason is, that it comes either in powered form, or in large "tubs"

[floridalover5623]

The desserts are made from ingredients that come from vendors such as Sysco. The various types mousse all kind of tastes the same. Reason is, that it comes either in powered form, or in large "tubs"

As are their "pies" which most times terrible. :mad:

They're the same from ship to ship so they must be made by the same vendor.;)

[FritzG]

The desserts are made from ingredients that come from vendors such as Sysco. The various types mousse all kind of tastes the same. Reason is, that it comes either in powered form, or in large "tubs"

 

They stopped using real butter in their pastries and desserts several years ago which is a real shame. They all taste like frozen pastries from Sysco. However, the Norman Love desserts are terrific--especially the pistachio dome.

[huskerdan25]

Our experiences have been mostly good as far as food on our Princess cruises though the food on our Regal cruise was probably the best of all of the cruises. We had a table for two in traditional dining and the service was so poor, that we never returned to the MDR the rest of the cruise (a 14 day cruise) and we ate in the specialty restaurants and the buffet which was the best of any cruise. The porterhouse steak I got in the Crown grill was fantastic and cooked perfectly. We really enjoyed the variety and the layout of the buffet.

 

We took two cruises on the Celebrity Reflection and on the first cruise, we were put at a table that held about 12 people. Way too big as we couldn't even talk to the people across from us as they were too far away and we felt the quality of the dishes was below average. The rest of that cruise, we ate in the buffet or specialty restaurants. As you probably know, the specialty restaurants on Celebrity are much more expensive than on Princess. The second time, we had our grown kids and their significant others so we ate in the MDR for the entire cruise for dinner but we found the menu to be pretty much meh and the quality the same. Had always thought the food would be better on Celebrity but that wasn't our experience.

 

What we really missed on Celebrity were the chocolate desserts which seem to be missing the entire cruise. That and the ice cream. Very disappointing. Love the desserts in the IC and the ice cream in the MDR on Princess.

 

Overall, we just find the Princess product to be more consistently good than what we experienced on Celebrity. We will still cruise Celebrity for the right itinerary but Princess is still our line of choice.

[KristyMisty14]

I always seem to find something I like and to be totally honest... the fact that I don't have to cook for a whole week (or more) is the best part for me! haha which I think makes the food taste better

[easyboy]

IWhile there are food that i don't eat, there has always been other choices that I liked.

 

 

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[GRAYTech]

...The steaks in Crown Grill/Sabatini's are pretty boring. Our local Outback simply blows them away.

 

We split Outback Ahi Tuna, 6oz sirloin with salad, steamed veggies and a couple of drinks comes to $35 but we usually pay around $37 with 15% discount plus tip. This meal is consistently great. When we finish it's usually followed by a "...wow that was really good again..."

 

First time at Crown Grill years ago, same thing, it had the wow factor. Better than could be expected. We did the suite freebie the first night at the Crown Grill last January on the CP and was sadly disappointed. Service was fine but the beef (Strip Steak) itself while cooked properly was boring at best. I'd say not even up to Publix supermarket quality. A so-so steak just isn't going to get any better no matter how you season or cook it.

 

So for a little more than one specialty cover charge, at Outback we have a fantastic meal including a couple of drinks. If Outback can do it and make money why can't Princess ?

[Yosef42]

I always seem to find something I like and to be totally honest... the fact that I don't have to cook for a whole week (or more) is the best part for me! haha which I think makes the food taste better

Right on!

[keithm]

As are their "pies" which most times terrible. :mad:

They're the same from ship to ship so they must be made by the same vendor.;)

Yup!! They are. Late one night Richard & I were just wandering about. Late is relative! It was about 1AM. We saw pies being readied for the next day. They were all coming from a box from Sysco. Now we use Sysco a lot, it all depends on budget. The more you're willing to spend the better the quality. We don't get deserts from Sysco often. We did get a Chocolate Mousse powder(looked like Nestle quick)it did taste pretty good. You did have to add whole milk & some cream to get it to taste the way it should. The Norman Love desserts are quite good. At least Richard didn't thumb his nose at them. The Soufflés are decent. What is a soufflé anyway, but soft sweet scrambled eggs. I found that ordering a hot fudge sundae for dessert was usually pretty good. Overall the food was quite good & the staff the best we ever had.

[keithm]

I always seem to find something I like and to be totally honest... the fact that I don't have to cook for a whole week (or more) is the best part for me! haha which I think makes the food taste better

Now who can argue with that!

[keithm]

They stopped using real butter in their pastries and desserts several years ago which is a real shame. They all taste like frozen pastries from Sysco. However, the Norman Love desserts are terrific--especially the pistachio dome.

Norman Love actually has some input control. After all his name is on it! Many of the pastries ARE from Sysco. We buy a lot of product from them. Our budget for our catered weddings is FAR higher than most cruise lines would spend. Of course what we buy is a speck compared to what the cruise line industry does, but person for person our budget is MUCH higher.

[floridalover5623]

Yup!! They are. Late one night Richard & I were just wandering about. Late is relative! It was about 1AM. We saw pies being readied for the next day. They were all coming from a box from Sysco. Now we use Sysco a lot, it all depends on budget. The more you're willing to spend the better the quality. We don't get deserts from Sysco often. We did get a Chocolate Mousse powder(looked like Nestle quick)it did taste pretty good. You did have to add whole milk & some cream to get it to taste the way it should. The Norman Love desserts are quite good. At least Richard didn't thumb his nose at them. The Soufflés are decent. What is a soufflé anyway, but soft sweet scrambled eggs. I found that ordering a hot fudge sundae for dessert was usually pretty good. Overall the food was quite good & the staff the best we ever had.

I suppose that's why all their pies are made very thick & solid. :( Regular consistency pies probably don't freeze that well.

[workstocruise]

Food is so subjective. It really is hard to feed several thousand people everyday and have the food be excellent. Everyone has their own opinion.

The last time I sailed Princess, the food was poor everywhere on board. I was so disappointed because we had sailed prior on another Princess ship where the food was very good, not excellent, but good. We like the food on Celebrity better than Princess, but after reading some comments from other cruisers I wonder about my taste. I think Celebrity has some really good ice cream in their buffet both hand made and soft serve. Except in the mdr, I believe Princess only has that soft serve stuff. We are sailing later this year on the Regal for the first time and I am hoping everyone here is right about this ship having the best Princess food at sea!

[keithm]

Food is so subjective. It really is hard to feed several thousand people everyday and have the food be excellent. Everyone has their own opinion.

The last time I sailed Princess, the food was poor everywhere on board. I was so disappointed because we had sailed prior on another Princess ship where the food was very good, not excellent, but good. We like the food on Celebrity better than Princess, but after reading some comments from other cruisers I wonder about my taste. I think Celebrity has some really good ice cream in their buffet both hand made and soft serve. Except in the mdr, I believe Princess only has that soft serve stuff. We are sailing later this year on the Regal for the first time and I am hoping everyone here is right about this ship having the best Princess food at sea!

We were on the Eclipse this past Jan. The food was so poor that the Maître D made the chef go out into the MDR & address the complaints. It got better, but was poor enough that I'm looking at Princess again. We were on the Regal in 2016 & found the food to be quite good overall. I'm in the food industry, which is why you'll see some of my comments about ship cuisine.

[ar1950]

We were on the Eclipse this past Jan. The food was so poor that the Maître D made the chef go out into the MDR & address the complaints. It got better, but was poor enough that I'm looking at Princess again. We were on the Regal in 2016 & found the food to be quite good overall. I'm in the food industry, which is why you'll see some of my comments about ship cuisine.

 

Just a suggestion. Take a ship tour next time you are on a Princess ship. I did it a couple of years ago on the Ruby and it was well worth the cost (not to mention a bit of "swag" for a remembrance). Also, up your alley, there was a considerable amount of time spent during the tour in the ship food store, butcher area, and the kitchen area. I would imagine that being in the food industry you would have a great opportunity to ask questions and report back here with some authority.

[MrMan]

We get tired of the same ole same ole including the Cherished MDR staples and other always available items. We now do Specialty for all our evening meals. I propose Princess would follow other lines, and rock our world where the MDR is reduced in size replaced by a large variety of specialty dining, Noodle bar, sushi bar, Japanese Hibachi, Mexican, Brazilian steak house etc. With a mix of complementary and free. In the mood for French, go to the Bistro, want a light meal go for noodles etc. All anytime with a select number of reservations made online to satisfy the OCD planners, but enough open for the play it by eaters. All anytime dining. They are.startimg to experiment with Gastropub and other concepts, but have a ways to go to follow the industry innovators in this area

 

 

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