Poor Quality of Cruise Workers’ Food

[harryw]

This article alleges that ship workers often eat low quality food. Is this an isolated or widespread practice?

https://www.businessinsider.com/cruise-ship-workers-reveal-biggest-problem-living-ship-2019-2

[OCruisers]

We tend to often chat with bartenders and bar servers.

They tell us their food on the ship is not bad ... just too much of the same things with very little variety.

 

[Tom.Terrific]

I remember talking with one of our room stewards about about crew food.  I was told the food was good, but the menu was repetitive.  I was left with the impression you could tell what day of the week it was by what was being served.

[angie7911922]

I've heard the same thing as others above when talking with our waiters and stewards. Not bad, but repetitive, but I wonder if they would actually tell us the whole truth while they are working. They've been trained to give us the appearance that everything is perfect, even if we had to abandon ship, life is still perfect, so it makes me wonder. . . .  🙂

[harryw]

On a Celebrity kitchen tour many years ago I was told that foreign crew often cooked their native dishes onboard... 

[cb at sea]

"Poor quality" is in the mouth of the beholder.  Having taken a LONG cruise, I found the passenger menus to get "repetitive", as well, and I longed for some 'home-cooked" food by the end of the trip.

 

If you're eating the same stuff for months at a time, even "haute cuisine" will lose it's luster after a while!

[richstowe]

My take is that food quality is way way down on the list of hardships . Long hours, very limited & crowded personal space, months away from loved ones  and work conflicts are all much bigger issues . In short , working on a cruise ship is difficult though considered a prized position in many parts of the world . Staff food is a minor issue . 

[gold1953]

n my last cruise when I asked my room attendant if he was going into the port  for time off his answer was " yes I need to eat as I am tired of mess food"

[chengkp75]

The food is not "substandard", but it does typically repeat on a 14 day rotation.  When you have this for 10 months, it gets old real fast.  Typically there are at least two mess halls for the majority of the crew, one tends towards Asian food, and one tends towards European food.  No, they don't cater to every single ethnicity onboard, because the cooks are not from every ethnicity.  The food quality is even more commercial buffet than the passengers' buffet.

[rkacruiser]

On 3/27/2019 at 12:21 PM, cb at sea said:

Having taken a LONG cruise, I found the passenger menus to get "repetitive", as well, and I longed for some 'home-cooked" food by the end of the trip.

 

If you're eating the same stuff for months at a time, even "haute cuisine" will lose it's luster after a while!

 

So true!  Anymore, even on b2b short cruises, the menus are repetitive.

 

Having participated in several Behind the Scenes Tours, it surely is my impression that the crew is well fed and cared for.  At some ports, do they leave the ship and seek a meal ashore?  Surely, just as many guests do.  "Variety is the spice of life":  an old cliche, but still true in the 21st Century.

[harryw]

On a Celebrity cruise 15 years ago, I seem to recall that I was told the crew had another option  to actually cook dishes themselves. But maybe my memory is faulty.

[Fogfog]

On 2/3/2019 at 4:59 PM, Tom.Terrific said:

I remember talking with one of our room stewards about about crew food.  I was told the food was good, but the menu was repetitive.  I was left with the impression you could tell what day of the week it was by what was being served.

Same on a cruise thats more than a week

We noted that the Kitchen onboard has the same issue with all food venues, whether it be the buffets, MDR etc.

Suspect it is the same for crew. 

 

[Donald]

Most of you are talking about mass market lines.

As a general rule, the mass market lines’ budgets for crew feeding are about 50% of their budgets for pax feeding.

More specifically, the RCCL brands tend towards the high side of 50% and the Carnival and NCL brands are on the lower side.

With some cruise companies budgeting under US$8 per day to feed you, less than half that much does not provide much quality for the crew.

[odblnt]

On one of our first cruises we were told by one of the crew members that NCL really stood for Norwegian Chicken Line, because that was all they got in the crew's mess. "Chicken. Chicken. Chicken."  

☺️

[harryw]

Funny!

[shipgeeks]

On our last MSC cruise, we had an Indian waiter.  He asked if we would like some curry one evening.  We would.  We were given two delicious curries, plus a number of sides; we learned that they were taken directly from the crew dining room.

We know that crew regularly eat ashore when they have the chance.  We've been told there is a favorite Filipino restaurant in a certain port, and "KFC Extra Crispy" has been mentioned more than once.

[rkacruiser]

2 hours ago, shipgeeks said:

He asked if we would like some curry one evening.  We would.  We were given two delicious curries, plus a number of sides; we learned that they were taken directly from the crew dining room.

 

Your experience reminds me of my experiences on HAL ships with Indonesian crew.  Sambal sauces come in a variety of "heats", but are available to augment an occasionally offered Indonesian dish.  But, almost always, a guest must be knowledgeable about Sambal to request the sauce.  When I have done that, and I was aware of what I was requesting as to the "heat", my Steward asked me:  "Are you sure you want that?"  Replying in the affirmative, whatever I ordered, I enjoyed more by adding that type of Sambal.  

[pinotlover]

I’ve spoken with our room attendant about this issue on Oceania. She says the crew is well fed, and that she prefers the crew food to what the passengers get. She told me the crew have their own chef and the food is much spicier and flavorful than passenger food which she says the crew often finds as bland. She said most of the passengers, particularly the Americans and British only want mostly bland food, so that’s what they get.

 

As far as eating ashore, many of the crew are like some of the passengers, they enjoy eating new foods representative of the countries they are visiting. Part of the perks of the job and travel. Eating only food served aboard does get boring for them.

[rkacruiser]

On 11/17/2021 at 5:30 PM, pinotlover said:

She told me the crew have their own chef 

 

I think that is true on other cruise lines other than Oceania.  Based on the Behind the Scenes Tours that I have taken, the crew has a different Galley where their food is prepared.