So it looks like NCL's war on seafood has extended to the MDR lunch menu

[newmexicoNita]

1 minute ago, lizord said:

Specialty dining on Oceania is basically MDR because it's included in the fare.

Yes, and you pay for that feature. Azamara has 2 specialty dining rooms which carry an extra charge. We wanted to try one but they were sold out both times we tried.  

[luv2kroooz]

16 minutes ago, newmexicoNita said:

We haven't sailed Carnival for years but as for Princess. I do not remember RCI having Lobster in the MDRs and the Princess MDR serve the worst Lobster I have ever had. I would like to know how so many people can judge a ship or a line by one or 2 items that are not always available.. BTW we had Lobster on Princess the last time we sailed them and it wasn't even heated all the way through. WE spoke with 2 other couples on different days and they had the very sam experience. It was, of course frozen and not completely defrosted. I will add this was in the specialty dining room. Everything else in the specialty dining room was very good on that sailing. 

Dining is an important part of our cruise. Quality or lack thereof can be debated all day long. What I hate, you might like and vice versa. I appreciate having certain items as an option on the menu.

[ziggyuk]

Tell me they still have the queen scallop en-croute in the escargot dish for lunch.

They might be tiny, but I love em.

[HowardK]

I'm glad they kept tuna

[pootsien2]

2 hours ago, blcruising said:

Dining is an important part of our cruise. Quality or lack thereof can be debated all day long. What I hate, you might like and vice versa. I appreciate having certain items as an option on the menu.

We were on RCCL Harmony OS in November and they served escargot AND lobster tail with a langostino next to it...pouring butter on it if wanted! In the main dining room. I also had salmon that was cooked perfectly in the MDR.  Now I am thinking of researching where the best seafood restaurants(in ports) for seafood will be on my Bliss cruise thru the Panama Canal in April,since it doesn't look like I will get enough seafood on the ship! On the Princess ships that I have cruised the last several years(2019,'18,'17,'16)both Alaska and the West Coast trips, we enjoyed The Crabshack as a specialty restaurant. They serve a bucket of King crab legs and shrimp.

[luv2kroooz]

1 hour ago, pootsien2 said:

We were on RCCL Harmony OS in November and they served escargot AND lobster tail with a langostino next to it...pouring butter on it if wanted! In the main dining room. I also had salmon that was cooked perfectly in the MDR.  Now I am thinking of researching where the best seafood restaurants(in ports) for seafood will be on my Bliss cruise thru the Panama Canal in April,since it doesn't look like I will get enough seafood on the ship! On the Princess ships that I have cruised the last several years(2019,'18,'17,'16)both Alaska and the West Coast trips, we enjoyed The Crabshack as a specialty restaurant. They serve a bucket of King crab legs and shrimp.

 

Decent choices in the main dining room is the flounder on the everyday menu plus you should get salmon one night...used to be two nights. I've always found the salmon to be good. Otherwise in main dining rooms swordfish and grouper have been replaced with bluefish, coalfish, trout, Pollock and something called "walleye-cod". I'm not sure what that is....maybe a hybrid of the two fishes. I've found these to be pretty bad. No escargot, shrimp or lobster in main dining rooms on NCL. Lots and lots of pasta, chicken, beef, pork.

 

If you are paying extra for specialty restaurants, the food is usually good to very good, with possible exception of steaks at Cagneys. Certain items may have upcharges (shrimp $5 + 20% and lobster $19 + 20%) unless you are paying full menu price.

 

Sometimes the crew have good recommendations for shoreside dining.

Edited December 22, 2019 by blcruising

[iggyc]

Just got off the jewel. Plenty of seafood and fish on the menus. The East west wine blend was $9 a glass

[newmexicoNita]

16 hours ago, blcruising said:

Dining is an important part of our cruise. Quality or lack thereof can be debated all day long. What I hate, you might like and vice versa. I appreciate having certain items as an option on the menu.

Dining is an important part of most of us when it comes to any vacation: my point is: I do not judge anything including a cruise by their not offering one of two particular items. if the food is sub par and the price of the vacation is pricey that would be a different story all together. 

[snorklinbarb]

19 hours ago, ziggyuk said:

Tell me they still have the queen scallop en-croute in the escargot dish for lunch.

They might be tiny, but I love em.

The only scallops I recall served in the escargot dish were the delicious ones they had in the MDR.  I think you're right that at some point they might have been served as a lunch appetizer.  

 

Best part was dipping the French bread into that butter & garlic!

 

Alas,  they've disappeared completely.  Le Bistro still serves the escargots as an appetizer, good as ever, but, of course, that's not a complimentary venue.  

[ziggyuk]

14 minutes ago, snorklinbarb said:

The only scallops I recall served in the escargot dish were the delicious ones they had in the MDR.  I think you're right that at some point they might have been served as a lunch appetizer.  

 

Best part was dipping the French bread into that butter & garlic!

 

Alas,  they've disappeared completely.  Le Bistro still serves the escargots as an appetizer, good as ever, but, of course, that's not a complimentary venue.  

 

Yes, that's the ones, MDR Lunchtime appetiser.

😥 They had them last year.

 

Here is a memory....

 

[roger001]

On 12/1/2019 at 3:15 PM, firstimer2009 said:

Hold it.  The thing I noticed is the East/West Norwegian wine is now $17 a glass.  Doesn't that push that out of the Open Beverage Package???    That upsets me more than the fish.   

I noticed that.  That's insanity!   And $49 for the bottle.  Does anyone who is not on the unlimited beverage package ever buy this stuff?  

[cementhands]

2019 Gem Halloween cruise. We enjoyed lunch and dinner in the MDR often as it was a 14 nights cruise out of Boston round trip so quite a few sea days. I can’t remember any shrimp dishes and we asked about it. But towards the end of cruise many different dishes included shrimp. I can only guess that they were getting rid of inventory from specialty dining.

Exception of seafood paella by pool in bbq almost daily which was excellent. Paella included shrimp mussels and calamari.

[jaja]

On the Gem Dec 13th cruise they STILL had the popcorn shrimp and Cajun shrimp salad.  And the fish sandwich.  So still on old menu.