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

[GoHuskies!]

The über-gourmets among you need to try out the SOS-- **** on a shingle--served aboard the USS Mount McKinley. Then you will have something to compare. (Still trying to un-taste it even today.)

 

Well, back to reality---we are aboard the Island Princess in a couple of months and I'm looking forward to the Princess food once again. We've only taken one other Princess voyage so far, 15 days on the Star, but we really appreciate the food that we tried. In general, we haven't had particularly good luck with specialty restaurants, especially on NCL where I swear the wine at the Italian restaurant had to be Two-buck Chuck. And the beef offerings were only so-so, both there and on the Star. MDR is a flop to me. Even if we got in when we wished, the interminable waits for the next "course" meant only warm, not hot, food. The choices are not too great either. BUT: the Princess buffet saves the day. Food is hot, it is widely varied, it is replenished at a rate which guarantees freshness, and so help me I never tasted anything from the buffet on the Star Princess that was not excellent. I try to take a small sample of many different foods in the buffet so that over time I have tried most of their offerings, though they change often enough that it's tough to try them all. I was never disappointed. Three cheers for Princess buffets! Try this to whet your appetite:

[keithm]

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.

We've done the tours. They are well packaged, but you don't "really" get to see everything. Back in 2006 on the QM2 my partner got to be good friends with the chef who headed the carvery. At that time they didn't do tours like today. Richard was given a 4 hour tour of EVERYTHING. It was a literal city below deck where food id prepared. We only get to see a small part of it today. The lines use the same vendors we do: Sysco/US Foods/Performance Food Group/Devonshire Pastries to name just a few. The variety & quality is based on the budget(obviously!)It has been declining for several years. A good chef can still work miracles with limited budgets. It's keeping those chefs that's the hard part. Cut the budget too much & a good chef will walk rather than continually serving substandard food. What was standard 10 years ago is now reserved for the specialty rest. Even that is declining. In Murano(Celebrity)you used to get Maine Lobster. Now it's the Rock lobster type. Celebrity is experimenting with doing Maine Lobster & "Prime" beef, but you now are asked to pay additional on top of the $45 entry fee. Discounts are still widely available on slow nights.

[keithm]

The über-gourmets among you need to try out the SOS-- **** on a shingle--served aboard the USS Mount McKinley. Then you will have something to compare. (Still trying to un-taste it even today.)

 

Well, back to reality---we are aboard the Island Princess in a couple of months and I'm looking forward to the Princess food once again. We've only taken one other Princess voyage so far, 15 days on the Star, but we really appreciate the food that we tried. In general, we haven't had particularly good luck with specialty restaurants, especially on NCL where I swear the wine at the Italian restaurant had to be Two-buck Chuck. And the beef offerings were only so-so, both there and on the Star. MDR is a flop to me. Even if we got in when we wished, the interminable waits for the next "course" meant only warm, not hot, food. The choices are not too great either. BUT: the Princess buffet saves the day. Food is hot, it is widely varied, it is replenished at a rate which guarantees freshness, and so help me I never tasted anything from the buffet on the Star Princess that was not excellent. I try to take a small sample of many different foods in the buffet so that over time I have tried most of their offerings, though they change often enough that it's tough to try them all. I was never disappointed. Three cheers for Princess buffets! Try this to whet your appetite:

We do plan on doing the buffet more if we do Princess again. The Regal's buffet was the best we ever saw on any line we've done.

[keithm]

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

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

I think that is what you'll see in the future. The MDR on most lines(exception likely to be Cunard)will vanish to be replaced by smaller more intimate eateries. Some free, many however, with a surcharge.

[golfb4cruzing]

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!

 

Having owned my own restaurant and our son has his Medallion, I can agree with your review. I eat more in the Horizon Court than MDR. Don't get me wrong, it's all edible but lacks good seasoning. Desserts are bland. It's funny how many chefs are good with a bologna sandwich.

[dave_k58]

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.

 

Believe it or not, the best steak I have ever had on a cruise ship was in the steak house of the Carnival Conquest.

[dave_k58]

The über-gourmets among you need to try out the SOS-- **** on a shingle--served aboard the USS Mount McKinley. Then you will have something to compare. (Still trying to un-taste it even today.)

 

Well, back to reality---we are aboard the Island Princess in a couple of months and I'm looking forward to the Princess food once again. We've only taken one other Princess voyage so far, 15 days on the Star, but we really appreciate the food that we tried. In general, we haven't had particularly good luck with specialty restaurants, especially on NCL where I swear the wine at the Italian restaurant had to be Two-buck Chuck. And the beef offerings were only so-so, both there and on the Star. MDR is a flop to me. Even if we got in when we wished, the interminable waits for the next "course" meant only warm, not hot, food. The choices are not too great either. BUT: the Princess buffet saves the day. Food is hot, it is widely varied, it is replenished at a rate which guarantees freshness, and so help me I never tasted anything from the buffet on the Star Princess that was not excellent. I try to take a small sample of many different foods in the buffet so that over time I have tried most of their offerings, though they change often enough that it's tough to try them all. I was never disappointed. Three cheers for Princess buffets! Try this to whet your appetite:

 

Wow - terrific video. I am going to save this.

[joeyancho]

The über-gourmets among you need to try out the SOS-- **** on a shingle--served aboard the USS Mount McKinley. Then you will have something to compare. (Still trying to un-taste it even today.)

 

Well, back to reality---we are aboard the Island Princess in a couple of months and I'm looking forward to the Princess food once again. We've only taken one other Princess voyage so far, 15 days on the Star, but we really appreciate the food that we tried. In general, we haven't had particularly good luck with specialty restaurants, especially on NCL where I swear the wine at the Italian restaurant had to be Two-buck Chuck. And the beef offerings were only so-so, both there and on the Star. MDR is a flop to me. Even if we got in when we wished, the interminable waits for the next "course" meant only warm, not hot, food. The choices are not too great either. BUT: the Princess buffet saves the day. Food is hot, it is widely varied, it is replenished at a rate which guarantees freshness, and so help me I never tasted anything from the buffet on the Star Princess that was not excellent. I try to take a small sample of many different foods in the buffet so that over time I have tried most of their offerings, though they change often enough that it's tough to try them all. I was never disappointed. Three cheers for Princess buffets! Try this to whet your appetite:

Thanks, i needed that.

[floridalover5623]

We do plan on doing the buffet more if we do Princess again. The Regal's buffet was the best we ever saw on any line we've done.

Same for us. It offers more selections while still maintaining decent care in preparation without the longer waits of the DR- actually they have more items available at the buffet then the DR, with newly created dishes most nights depending on the Executive Chef.

What I appreciated is that if there was a slight problem with anything, just walk over to him, explain what you believe what was wrong & it was fixed on the spot.

Try doing that in the DR.;)

[sunsetbeachgal]

We also love the buffet on the Regal and Royal. Last cruise our group made plans to eat there one evening and when we saw the DR menu were initially sorry we had chosen that night as it was Italian night. But we weren't sorry after we saw the buffet! Pans of piping hot eggplant parmigiana, several types of pasta tossed to order, meats, incredible selection on salad bar, etc. Service personnel always around for beverages and clearing of plates and plenty of seats.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[floridalover5623]

We also love the buffet on the Regal and Royal. Last cruise our group made plans to eat there one evening and when we saw the DR menu were initially sorry we had chosen that night as it was Italian night. But we weren't sorry after we saw the buffet! Pans of piping hot eggplant parmigiana, several types of pasta tossed to order, meats, incredible selection on salad bar, etc. Service personnel always around for beverages and clearing of plates and plenty of seats.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

You've go that right. :D

I will NEVER go back to the DR on the Regal or Royal ever again on Italian night. The almost unlimited items of the buffet put the DR to shame. On our last Royal cruise the introduced 3 or 4 types burschetta in addition to everything else. :hearteyes:

The DR doesn't come close in having the same items.

[GoHuskies!]

When all else fails, take along a small jar of Best Foods (Hellman's) mayonnaise!

[Potstech]

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.

 

So I guess no push for Ruth Chris or Capitol Grille to be put on ships.

[tip]

We have been on several Princess cruises and have two more booked. I would tend to agree that the food on Princess is good, but not fantastic. I do feel that the Crown Grille is not what is used to be.

 

I do not believe that the dining rooms on Princess can be compared to "fine dining" which is a term that a frequent poster on these boards uses in an attempt to justify what he feels should be the standard for dressing. More than once he has said that on formal nights folks should wear what they would wear to a fine dining establishment on land. Princess is NOT Morton's or Ruth Chris.

[floridalover5623]

We have been on several Princess cruises and have two more booked. I would tend to agree that the food on Princess is good, but not fantastic. I do feel that the Crown Grille is not what is used to be.

 

I do not believe that the dining rooms on Princess can be compared to "fine dining" which is a term that a frequent poster on these boards uses in an attempt to justify what he feels should be the standard for dressing. More than once he has said that on formal nights folks should wear what they would wear to a fine dining establishment on land. Princess is NOT Morton's or Ruth Chris.

It's fine by me as long as I don't have to dress for dinner. :D

[keithm]

What's the use of getting upset. There hasn't been one person who has had their opinion changed on Cruise Critic that I can remember seeing. ;)

People get information & that's all that really counts in the long run.

What I've come to realize is the tiny fraction(and it is)of cruisers that belong to CC. Just check any roll call. Out of about 3200 pax on for example the Regal, you generally see less than 100. Add another 150 or so silent "lurkers" & it's STILL a tiny number. Admittedly, the cruise lines do pay attention to "organized" groups, no matter the number.

[pris993]

So I guess no push for Ruth Chris or Capitol Grille to be put on ships.

 

Sorry I have never eaten at either so can not compare. Maybe other cruisers can.

[pris993]

We also love the buffet on the Regal and Royal. Last cruise our group made plans to eat there one evening and when we saw the DR menu were initially sorry we had chosen that night as it was Italian night. But we weren't sorry after we saw the buffet! Pans of piping hot eggplant parmigiana, several types of pasta tossed to order, meats, incredible selection on salad bar, etc. Service personnel always around for beverages and clearing of plates and plenty of seats.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

 

Have not been on the Royal or Regal yet, going on Royal in October... so will have to check out the buffet. We feel the same way about the buffet on Celebrity Lines... we no longer go to the MDR on Celebrity... like the buffet way better.

[floridalover5623]

Have not been on the Royal or Regal yet, going on Royal in October... so will have to check out the buffet. We feel the same way about the buffet on Celebrity Lines... we no longer go to the MDR on Celebrity... like the buffet way better.

I can't imagine you not liking it unless you're very critical of buffets anyway. Clean, brightly lit, large viewing windows (much better than the DR), well prepared food, plenty of space to walk around, loads of seating at dinner and sufficient crew to take care of your drinks.

What's not to like as long as you don't mind serving yourself? ;)

[keithm]

I can't imagine you not liking it unless you're very critical of buffets anyway. Clean, brightly lit, large viewing windows (much better than the DR), well prepared food, plenty of space to walk around, loads of seating at dinner and sufficient crew to take care of your drinks.

What's not to like as long as you don't mind serving yourself? ;)

I don't mind the serving oneself at all. You're right about the space/variety/ nice view etc. It was always much easier to move around. The buffet on the Eclipse has changed a lot. Choices are way down. Pretty much most everything "repeats" itself in a few feet. I understand pax are coming from both Port & starboard side, but it could stand some more variety. I did like the fact that food is more self contained in pots etc. mostly set on "induction" heaters. It's now also much harder for pax to be "touching" the food, which truly disgusts me.

[huskerdan25]

On our last cruise on the Regal, we ate in the MDR the first night and that was the last night we ate there. Except first the 3 nights we did the specialty restaurants we ate in the buffet. Loved it! Especially the Mongolian BBQ nights. Loved Alfredos too. Excellent choices each night in the buffet, always hot and tasty. On the Royal in January 2019 and plan to only do the buffet and specialty dining.

 

On our two Celebrity cruises on the Reflections, was never happy with the food in the MDR. Again mainly ate in the buffet and a couple of specialty restaurants. Would take Princess over Celebrity for food anytime.

 

Sent from my SM-T710 using Forums mobile app

[floridalover5623]

I don't mind the serving oneself at all. You're right about the space/variety/ nice view etc. It was always much easier to move around. The buffet on the Eclipse has changed a lot. Choices are way down. Pretty much most everything "repeats" itself in a few feet. I understand pax are coming from both Port & starboard side, but it could stand some more variety. I did like the fact that food is more self contained in pots etc. mostly set on "induction" heaters. It's now also much harder for pax to be "touching" the food, which truly disgusts me.

It's not always possible but I try to minimize this problem by dining early which means less people having a chance to contaminate anything.

[Tatka]

Sailed 10 days on Royal Princess on New Years cruise and enjoyed dinners in MDR every night.

I suppose buffet was nice as always, but we enjoy evening restaurant. Food was very nice. Loved all seafood selections and cold soups.

[floridalover5623]

Sailed 10 days on Royal Princess on New Years cruise and enjoyed dinners in MDR every night.

I suppose buffet was nice as always, but we enjoy evening restaurant. Food was very nice. Loved all seafood selections and cold soups.

That's one thing I've never see at the buffet. :( I guess I'll have to stop by the DR for some after the show. :)

[Tatka]

That's one thing I've never see at the buffet. :( I guess I'll have to stop by the DR for some after the show. :)

In MDR they are served like drinks :)

 

 

(not my photo)

 

Nice...

And selections are richer than in buffets.

 

I also like Princess MDR setup with sofa seats.