Food Improvement

[Host CJSKIDS]

2 hours ago, Wishing on a star said:

Yes....  just found that....  food-and-dining.

I don't think this is anything brand new.

I believe it refers to what we experienced on our recent cruise.

Not impressed.

 

And, I agree that Curtis Stone needs to just go away.

The one dish that I did try, to me personally, tasted just awful.

Not the cutbacks and poor preparation...  But, the actual 'taste'. 

It’s not Curtis Stone, it’s how Princess actually cooks his dishes and the ingredients they use!

[capriccio]

This thread has the summer 2018 Ruby MDR menus: 

 

[jlp20]

The problem has always been quality vs cost. Reduce quality and serving size (one less pat of butter etc). Let's say you can shave a dollar off the cost of each meal. On the Ruby, that would save Princess $105K on a 10 day cruise. Is that enough for a bean counters to dictate what the chef gets to work with.

[nukesubsailor]

11 hours ago, Astro Flyer said:

Where did you locate the information?

 

It’ll be interesting to learn if new & enhanced are how passengers will describe the changes or instead new & not improved. 🤔

The information was in a newsletter sent to travel agents.

[bemis12]

It's on their website under "Onboard Our Ships" and "Food & Dining"

[Dani24]

6 hours ago, jlp20 said:

The problem has always been quality vs cost. Reduce quality and serving size (one less pat of butter etc). Let's say you can shave a dollar off the cost of each meal. On the Ruby, that would save Princess $105K on a 10 day cruise. Is that enough for a bean counters to dictate what the chef gets to work with.

That works out to less than $3 a day per passenger — or about $29 per passenger for the 10 day cruise. I would imagine most people would be happy to have a $30 price increase to keep the food standards maintained (or, more likely, wouldn’t even notice an extra $30 increase). There has to be more to it than just that... 

[msmoger]

2 hours ago, bemis12 said:

It's on their website under "Onboard Our Ships" and "Food & Dining"

This is an excerpt.

[mcrcruiser]

Interesting topic . Cruise lines do what is best for them & the pax they serve

[Wishing on a star]

We experienced the new food and dining on the Regal...  Not sure about what is/was on the Ruby when that one poster sailed.

And I agree with others, including the one post about the Majestic.

HUGE disappointment.

Low quality food.

Fewer options.

I was served many dishes that I almost found inedible.  (Part of which was due to the new menus, low quality ingredients, etc...  and part of which seemed that everything seemed to have been overcooked and sat under heat-lamps or in ovens for WAY too long in preparation for the early seating.  It was just.. BAD.

It just was.

 

And, I was pleasantly surprised with how wonderful the food and service was on our prior Princess sailing.

So, this isn't somebody who is just being picky and who will be unhappy with mass-market cruise food.

I know the difference between good/acceptable/edible food, and cheap awful limited fake food.

 

Edited January 25, 2019 by Wishing on a star

[capriccio]

6 minutes ago, Wishing on a star said:

We experienced the new food and dining on the Regal...  Not sure about what is/was on the Ruby when that one poster sailed.

 

 

If you are interested in the Ruby menus at that time (summer 2018), all you need to do is open the attachment in post #27.  An earlier poster was kind enough to include all the MDR menus.

Edited January 25, 2019 by capriccio

[Wishing on a star]

Okay,  I got that to pull up...

TOTALLY different and better menu than the 'new menu' which is on the Regal.

No question.

 

[MTJSR]

We just got off the Emerald to Hawaii and it needs new menus, new head chef and all new buffet items. It was the worst collection of odd items and the poorest tasting luke warm food I have ever experienced on any Princess ship. Bring on something new and different!

[XBGuy]

I endorse any effort that Princess might make to improve it's product, but the quotation in the opening post has all the earmarks of advertising puffery.

 

No matter what Princess does, there will be complaints.  On our Ruby Princess cruise, last month my wife really enjoyed the hamburgers that were on the dinner menu.  Above, somebody else said the daily hamburger choice should be removed.  Neither opinion is right or wrong, but it shows the difficult spot that Princess is in.

[MaryBethV]

Great topic. I hope Princess is listening to their customers. We took our first two cruises last year with NCL. One as a couple and one with our four kids. The first cruise had pretty good food overall, however on the second cruise the food was definitely disappointing more often than not - especially in the main dining rooms and the buffet. They have a huge push to their MANY upcharge specialty restaurants (which we found to be really great OR worthy of a train-wreck story) and the included options seemed to suffer. SO, even though there were many things we loved about NCL, we chose Princess for our next cruise which is next month. I am hoping their cuisine is a step or two up. If not, we will probably keep looking...

Edited January 25, 2019 by MaryBethV

[Wishing on a star]

Cutbacks, and lower quality food items/ingredients. (not to even mention the cutbacks with the new system of MDR table service).

Those are what they are...  not just subject to each person's 'tastes'.

EX: no crab legs, at all, anywhere...  no Beef Wellington...  Lobster-one small tail served over a rice risotto(paste)...overcooked, low quality, over seasoned/processed, fake/imatation food,  often dried up under heat lamps or in ovens...  I am simply not making this up, or exaggerating.

 

The difference in both the food and the service were very, very, obvious, between my prior sailing on another ship,  and on our recent sailing on the REGAL with the new menus and service.   

I mean, when the waiter doesn't even introduce himself to you, and you can't even get iced tea, and you hear. "But, I have ALL of these tables....."

 

People...  it is what it is...

I am just hoping that Princess might see some of these comments.

Not that I think it will help at all.

 

PS: yes....  I know, I know,  and yes our next possible cruise is not booked with Princess.

Edited January 25, 2019 by Wishing on a star

[RMMariner]

We were disappointed in the food on our B2B Alaska last summer. I believe that continued a trend that we have seen for the last couple years at least.

 

Princess can only spend so much per plate. Thus, spending for lower quality cuts of beef and lobster is a necessity to balance this cost.

 

Personally, I would be satisfied with lighter food, and perhaps what some perceive as not so high end. For example a nice stir fry or salmon dish done properly would appeal to me much more than lobster and steak that is of lower quality. It felt like Princess was trying to offer these perceived higher end meals, but they had lowered the quality by spending less on the ingredients.

 

Just looked at the menus from the Ruby. They looked good. Crossing our fingers for our cruise in March.

 

 

 

Edited January 25, 2019 by RMMariner

[unicorn63]

We were on Ruby this month for the "new menus".  Two nights there was not anything that was wow I have to have that.  Lack of consistency in preparation.  Did not find issue with quality.  Not high end but not super horrible.  But then again food is always an opinion. 

[jlp20]

8 hours ago, Dani24 said:

That works out to less than $3 a day per passenger —

It's not that food costs went up, I think they plain cut costs to increase the profit margin. 

[bemis12]

7 hours ago, Wishing on a star said:

We experienced the new food and dining on the Regal...  Not sure about what is/was on the Ruby when that one poster sailed.

And I agree with others, including the one post about the Majestic.

HUGE disappointment.

Low quality food.

Fewer options.

I was served many dishes that I almost found inedible.  (Part of which was due to the new menus, low quality ingredients, etc...  and part of which seemed that everything seemed to have been overcooked and sat under heat-lamps or in ovens for WAY too long in preparation for the early seating.  It was just.. BAD.

It just was.

 

And, I was pleasantly surprised with how wonderful the food and service was on our prior Princess sailing.

So, this isn't somebody who is just being picky and who will be unhappy with mass-market cruise food.

I know the difference between good/acceptable/edible food, and cheap awful limited fake food.

 

 

So you're still ambivalent?

[Wishing on a star]

Ohhhh, very!!!!!!  hahahaha!!!

[MTJSR]

 

Here is an example of too many odd/strange concoctions, and none ordered of these at our table of eight on the Emerald were liked by anyone. Lobster 3 ways was a complete joke. A crawdad over gooey weird tasting rice and a drizzle of lobster? sauce. 

 

I would be happier with spaghetti and meatballs than worthless unmemorable swill. If the  kind cruising I have invested in over the years is no longer, I've cruised my last time with Princess.

[cheezenip]

On 1/24/2019 at 4:00 PM, nukesubsailor said:

It appears that Princess took action in response to all the complaints about declining food quality.

 

 

New Main Dining Room Flavors

Experience our most comprehensive food launch in over 20 years! Savor new and enhanced dishes on our Main Dining Room menus across the fleet. We’ve kept your favorites, enhanced flavors and added a greater variety of choices. Discover a brand-new dining experience that combines our best culinary traditions with updated selections.

 

I'll believe it when I taste it. If anyone from Princess is reading this, I just got off the Grand Princess on the Jan. 7 - 17th sailing this year and although the food is better than the other Grand class ships  I've been on (Star, Golden), the food quality continues to decline. The thing that stood out the most was the dishes were saltier (i.e., mask the decline in food quality by adding salt).

 

Wonder when the change will occur because it hasn't as of a few weeks ago based on my experience.

Edited January 26, 2019 by cheezenip

[FritzG]

I hope this doesn't mean new choices with a fee.  I know they've already added some extra cost steak items, and I don't want to see it expanding to more items.

 

We finally tried a Curtis Stone item on the Royal TA last fall--the pot pie was very good.

Edited January 26, 2019 by FritzG

[OzKiwiJJ]

3 hours ago, MTJSR said:

 

Here is an example of too many odd/strange concoctions, and none ordered of these at our table of eight on the Emerald were liked by anyone. Lobster 3 ways was a complete joke. A crawdad over gooey weird tasting rice and a drizzle of lobster? sauce. 

 

I would be happier with spaghetti and meatballs than worthless unmemorable swill. If the  kind cruising I have invested in over the years is no longer, I've cruised my last time with Princess.

 

I'd be more than happy eating most of those as long as the quality of the produce was acceptable. Some of them are favourites from several cruises. The lobster three ways sounds very similar to the Sabatinis dish which I've enjoyed several times. The pheasant is gorgeous but they can keep the brussels sprouts as they are usually overcooked. The beef Tournedos have been good with the exception of our last cruise on Majestic. I love beef carpaccio and have tried that in the past. The double oxtail consomme is usually great except once on Dawn when it was too salty. Although I haven't tried the potatoes with caviar and sour cream, it is a classic combination.

 

It just goes to show how tastes vary. Spaghetti and meatballs would be low on my list of favourite foods.

Edited January 26, 2019 by OzKiwiJJ

[RDC1]

14 hours ago, Dani24 said:

That works out to less than $3 a day per passenger — or about $29 per passenger for the 10 day cruise. I would imagine most people would be happy to have a $30 price increase to keep the food standards maintained (or, more likely, wouldn’t even notice an extra $30 increase). There has to be more to it than just that... 

If you look at the financial filings all of the Carnival owned lines average around $12 per day per passenger for food.  NCLH and RCL are similar.