Chilled Soup

[crossingfan]

I have always enjoyed tge chilled soup on HAL, and look forward to tasting new varieties.  However, I now hear that they are no longer offered .  I remember them last year on "Eurodam".   I'm sailing on Koningsdam at the end of April and hope to be offered at least a few? 

I fear yet another cutback.....please tell me I am mistaken.  

[rkacruiser]

15 minutes ago, crossingfan said:

I fear yet another cutback.....please tell me I am mistaken.  

 

Be hopeful.  None on my NS cruise, but friends on the World Cruise currently indicate that the cold soups make an occasional appearance on the menu.

[kwb101]

When we were on Maasdam on a 20-day Panama Canal voyage from San Diego to Boston last May and June, there was at least one chilled fruit soup on the menu every day. Yum! 

[Scrapnana]

On Prinsendam right now.  We have had a few night with chilled soups over the last two weeks.

[SilvertoGold]

Volendam and Eurodam - none whatsoever.  Whaaaaaaa!!

[Ottawa traveller]

I was on the Volendam last month. Our dining steward informed us that we could pre order chilled soup and a few of us did so regularly. We particularly enjoyed the cucumber and gazpacho soups. Apparently other items not on the menu can be pre ordered. The steward just has to confirm with the kitchen.

[crossingfan]

Thank you all for the reply.  The tip to preorder might come in handy!  However, we have open seating.   Wonder if that will cause an issue?  

[RMLincoln]

Open Dining diners are tracked by their room number.  The flags and notes are in the system not in the memory of the waiters.  m--

[joekerstef]

1 hour ago, kwb101 said:

When we were on Maasdam on a 20-day Panama Canal voyage from San Diego to Boston last May and June, there was at least one chilled fruit soup on the menu every day. Yum! 

Was on same cruise and can confirm this. However, there was not one single chilled fruit soup offering on our December cruise on Zuiderdam, much to our disappointment. Hope they bring them back by the time we're back on Maasdam in May.

[kwb101]

8 minutes ago, joekerstef said:

Was on same cruise and can confirm this. However, there was not one single chilled fruit soup offering on our December cruise on Zuiderdam, much to our disappointment. Hope they bring them back by the time we're back on Maasdam in May.

Perhaps it's only on menus when the temp's high enough?

[joekerstef]

5 minutes ago, kwb101 said:

Perhaps it's only on menus when the temp's high enough?

Doubt it. The Maasdam voyage was Panama Canal and Zuiderdam was PanCan partial. Pretty hot both trips.

[kwb101]

True.  Maybe just a local decision by the head chef? 

[boards]

We were on the Koningsdam (TA cruise) last Oct. 2018 and the was no chilled soups available.  I have enjoyed them too, so I hope they will reappear for our next cruise on the Noordam this fall.

[OlsSalt]

Maybe they ran into food service temperature delivery problems during a ship sanitation inspection and had to curtail them until they worked out an appropriate response to keep them chilled below the appropriate temperatures. From preparation to holding to delivery.

 

 Some of the old favorites like the outdoor Lido deck buffets had to be eliminated after vessel sanitation put restrictions on them the ship could not handle -  immediate location of hand washing stations, protection from flying insects etc.  

 

Reading the VSP - Vessel Sanitation Reports is very sobering - the amount of detail they observe and report. Adequate food holding temperatures is a big one for them. 

Edited March 16, 2019 by OlsSalt

[Despegue]

No cold soups at all on our last 2 sailings.

Westerdam in Asia and Koningsdam in the Carib.

 

[kazu]

I find the reports on the Grand and World cruises encouraging.  

 

We did not have chiled soups last year and when I asked I was told they were being eliminated fleet wide on a 'trial' basis.

 

I am hoping that this is a sign they may be returning but it may just be for the Grand and World, too.  Those cruises do get a lot of special touches.

[Krazy Kruizers]

We eat in the Pinnacle Grill (and Tamarind on some ships).  I got used to being able to order a chilled soup when I wanted one from the main dining room menu.

 

But on our 2016 cruise -- 21 days through the Panama canal -- no chilled soups -- Westerdam.  We were told that they were being removed from the menu.

 

Hope HAL brings them back.

[RuthC]

9 hours ago, OlsSalt said:

Maybe they ran into food service temperature delivery problems during a ship sanitation inspection and had to curtail them until they worked out an appropriate response to keep them chilled below the appropriate temperatures.

Pure speculation with no basis in fact.

If it were an inspection result, it would not have been changed fleet wide at the same time. As per reports from the ships, chilled soups were eliminated as too few people were asking for them. Not that I believe that, but that's the party line.
This was a HAL decision, having nothing to do with an outside agency.

[CruiseRQA]

No chilled soups on the Oosterdam two weeks ago

[ger_77]

I had the best chilled peach and almond soup on the Maasdam a couple of weeks ago . . . yum!

 

Smooth Sailing!  🙂🙂🙂

[cayman09]

DW and I discovered them 3-4 cruises ago and have had them every single night on HAL since. We are really going to miss this and I will voice my displeasure when we board the Nieuw Statendam in April. 

[joekerstef]

1 hour ago, ger_77 said:

I had the best chilled peach and almond soup on the Maasdam a couple of weeks ago . . . yum!

 

Smooth Sailing!  🙂🙂🙂

Yay! I hope it's still there in May!

[OlsSalt]

2 hours ago, RuthC said:

Pure speculation with no basis in fact.

If it were an inspection result, it would not have been changed fleet wide at the same time. As per reports from the ships, chilled soups were eliminated as too few people were asking for them. Not that I believe that, but that's the party line.
This was a HAL decision, having nothing to do with an outside agency.

 

Using the term "maybe"   Ruth, is a good substitute for the intentional speculation that follows. Since each class ship has different food prep capacities, it would be reasonable to conclude if ..maybe.. it was a food handling issue, it might not impact fleet wide. 

 

Yes, we too did have a few on our last Maasdam cruise.  Hard to believe the claim they were eliminated because they were not popular, any more than they closed the libraries because of the high cost of book thefts. I still dream about the cold nutmeg soup made with very fresh nutmeg on our Rotterdam Indonesia cruise. 

 

Trust but verify is always the best rule. But idle speculation is interesting as well, and labeled as such. And we certainly have ample evidence in the past that VSP food sanitation demands have altered the way HAL was asked to conduct its food service business. Therefore well within the realm of speculation came this introduction of possible food handling and sanitation issues regarding the elimination of cold soups. 

Edited March 16, 2019 by OlsSalt

[VennDiagram]

33 minutes ago, OlsSalt said:

But idle speculation is interesting as well, and labeled as such.

 

People seldom read every word, choosing instead to skim large blocks of text.  It is up to the communicator (the writer of the post, in the case of CC) to ensure that communication is effective and the reader understands the writer's intent.  IMHO "idle speculation" should be CLEARLY labelled as such, e.g.:

                                      WARNING:  IDLE SPECULATION FOLLOWS

                                                         and then write the idle speculation 

 

Edited March 16, 2019 by VennDiagram

[OlsSalt]

3 minutes ago, VennDiagram said:

 

People seldom read every word, choosing instead to skim large blocks of text.  It is up to the communicator (the writer of the post, in the case of CC) to ensure that communication is effective and the reader understands the writer's intent.  IMHO "idle speculation" should be CLEARLY labelled as such, e.g.:

                                      WARNING:  IDLE SPECULATION FOLLOWS

                                                         and then write the idle speculation 

 

 

Now that you pointed out it is the writer's and not the reader's fault for any confusion, I'll pay more attention to your suggestion in the future.