Prima MDR Menu update :(

[laudergayle]

Sad.

 

[rxlowry]

So the Beef Wellington is gone already?

[laudergayle]

4 minutes ago, rxlowry said:

So the Beef Wellington is gone already?

Looking like it.  But you can buy a filet!  IMO, the Wellington was the one item that made this menu special.  And, the sides..big yawn.

Edited January 24, 2023 by laudergayle

[cruiseny4life]

No more mac and cheese? Nooooooo! That, and the Beefy Well were the only good things on the menu. Nooooooooooo! I'm sad now...especially if this hits all ships this year, as expected.

[cruiseny4life]

Also, are you on Pr1ma right now?

[ColeThornton]

Looks fine to me.  I can find plenty to eat off that menu for the times I would eat in an MDR.

[BirdTravels]

The changes are for the better. When you talk to the executive chefs on the ships, they are very open about the fact that NCL is constantly catering to the desires of the contemporary cruiser. If a dish does not sell and it ends up down the grinder becoming fish food every night, they will remove it from the menu. That's what I see with the changes below. 

 

NCL adding Cagney's option is a gimmick (which I think are short lived based on NCL history). They left the free steak,,, which will totally reduce/eliminate the demand for the steaks with an upcharge. 

 

And as I have always commented regarding the MDR menu, the one dish that I thought would be gone quickly is the Wellington. It is a hard dish to mass produce and hold for MDR orders. It's not like Ramsay's Hell's Kitchen where the Wellington is cooked to order. A MDR dish has to be a large filet sliced to order... which this was. I had it and, fortunately, it was not overcooked or dried out. As a Ramsay fan, I thought that the MDR Wellington was o.k., but not great. But, again, I think that it became problematic to put out a quality product. 

 

Seafood: Added Fish & Chips

 

Meat: Removed Beef Wellington

Meat: Add Cagney's Steakhouse Classic (with up charge) Rib Eye, Filet, Petite Filet

Sides: Remove Sweet Potato Fries, Loaded Baked Potato, Mac N Cheese, Cream Spinach

Desserts: Remove Fruit Plate

[laudergayle]

13 minutes ago, cruiseny4life said:

Also, are you on Pr1ma right now?

No, don’t sail till April, so Lord only knows what other changes will happen by then.  Got this off a roll call post on another site.

[zqvol]

8 minutes ago, BirdTravels said:

The changes are for the better. When you talk to the executive chefs on the ships, they are very open about the fact that NCL is constantly catering to the desires of the contemporary cruiser. If a dish does not sell and it ends up down the grinder becoming fish food every night, they will remove it from the menu. That's what I see with the changes below. 

 

NCL adding Cagney's option is a gimmick (which I think are short lived based on NCL history). They left the free steak,,, which will totally reduce/eliminate the demand for the steaks with an upcharge. 

 

And as I have always commented regarding the MDR menu, the one dish that I thought would be gone quickly is the Wellington. It is a hard dish to mass produce and hold for MDR orders. It's not like Ramsay's Hell's Kitchen where the Wellington is cooked to order. A MDR dish has to be a large filet sliced to order... which this was. I had it and, fortunately, it was not overcooked or dried out. As a Ramsay fan, I thought that the MDR Wellington was o.k., but not great. But, again, I think that it became problematic to put out a quality product. 

 

Seafood: Added Fish & Chips

 

Meat: Removed Beef Wellington

Meat: Add Cagney's Steakhouse Classic (with up charge) Rib Eye, Filet, Petite Filet

Sides: Remove Sweet Potato Fries, Loaded Baked Potato, Mac N Cheese, Cream Spinach

Desserts: Remove Fruit Plate

Please don’t confuse the masses who just want to complain about everything. 

[SeaShark]

2 minutes ago, zqvol said:

Please don’t confuse the masses who just want to complain about everything. 

 

But...aren't the masses complaining because they are confused? 🙄

[Squeeze3773]

we were so looking forward to trying the Beef Wellington:(

[laudergayle]

7 minutes ago, zqvol said:

Please don’t confuse the masses who just want to complain about everything. 

The masses aren’t the ones complaining as they are unaware of the changes. It’s those of us who are aware of what we purchased and what we’re getting once onboard.  I realize the big print gives and the little print takes away…and NCL has very generously exercised their right to do so.  We have three cruises this year, two of which required final payment before the end of the year.  Am I complaining…yes.
 

[FLAHAM]

21 minutes ago, Squeeze3773 said:

we were so looking forward to trying the Beef Wellington:(

All you need is a Time Machine back to 1965.

[cruiseny4life]

31 minutes ago, laudergayle said:

No, don’t sail till April, so Lord only knows what other changes will happen by then.  Got this off a roll call post on another site.

I knew there would be a comment from someone on your menu posting. And it showed up! Anyway, I'm sorry you're experiencing an inferior product to what you booked. I do appreciate your "little print takes away" comment. It certainly has been very busy for occupying such a small part of the booking process. 

As silly as it sounds, prior to my April sailing, I saw a menu from Cagney's that stated they had macaroni and cheese. When we arrived for dinner, I didn't see it, but tried to order it anyway. The server stated they no longer had it. I'm a little embarrassed to say I made one of those "pouty" lip gestures and had to take a moment to compose myself. And that was just over macaroni and cheese! The rest of the meal went about as well as that moment.

 

If my business operated the way in which NCL does, we would lose our contracts overnight! I work in HR, so I live and get paid by the "little print" employees don't read. Sometimes it's really crappy. I don't think the head honchos at NCL care about empathy toward their customers.

[laudergayle]

5 minutes ago, cruiseny4life said:

I knew there would be a comment from someone on your menu posting. And it showed up! Anyway, I'm sorry you're experiencing an inferior product to what you booked. I do appreciate your "little print takes away" comment. It certainly has been very busy for occupying such a small part of the booking process. 

As silly as it sounds, prior to my April sailing, I saw a menu from Cagney's that stated they had macaroni and cheese. When we arrived for dinner, I didn't see it, but tried to order it anyway. The server stated they no longer had it. I'm a little embarrassed to say I made one of those "pouty" lip gestures and had to take a moment to compose myself. And that was just over macaroni and cheese! The rest of the meal went about as well as that moment.

 

If my business operated the way in which NCL does, we would lose our contracts overnight! I work in HR, so I live and get paid by the "little print" employees don't read. Sometimes it's really crappy. I don't think the head honchos at NCL care about empathy toward their customers.

Thank you for your empathy…lol.  I, also, had a good idea what I might see after posting…but a few have caught me by surprise.  While I am having “a moment” over the MDR change, it’s really a moment brought on by the cumulative changes.  OTOH, my DH will be thrilled on all of our cruises since he is part of the masses.  

[uneamie]

I don't have many issues with the MDR menu other than the limited side dishes. Could it get any more limited and boring! I do see where NCL has inserted Cagney's extra cost steaks for an upcharge. I suspect there will be more upcharge items in the future and that's OK as long as they don't keep removing the free items. 

[rxlowry]

I had the beef Wellington on NCL in 2007 when it was in the MDR and it was great.  I’ve had it at Gordon’s too (been to five different restaurants of his) and although different, I enjoyed both.  NCL did amazing with their duxelles and when they removed it from the menu years ago we chatted with a chef who shared the recipe with us. So I do see this as a negative.  I see all the cutbacks as a negative.  I’ll see them first hand next month on Encore.  
The menu for Onda is not on the NCL site anymore (it’s been gone since last week) so I’m wondering if that’s the next change….

[Schoifmom]

Silly question, but this is my first NCL cruise, is the menu the same every night in the dining room!?!

[rxlowry]

1 minute ago, Schoifmom said:

Silly question, but this is my first NCL cruise, is the menu the same every night in the dining room!?!

Only on the Prima right now 

[PATRLR]

49 minutes ago, BirdTravels said:

The changes are for the better. When you talk to the executive chefs on the ships, they are very open about the fact that NCL is constantly catering to the desires of the contemporary cruiser. 

If this is true, then we can expect this menu to continue to contract.  When it was first announced, my concerne was getting bored with the menu, especially if we only had 2 nights SD on a 7 night cruise.  Welll here we go, menu contracting (swapping fish and chips for beef wellington is a contraction, IMO)

 

49 minutes ago, BirdTravels said:

 If a dish does not sell and it ends up down the grinder becoming fish food every night, they will remove it from the menu. 

Oh please.  How about just making less of a dish?  How long can it take to figure out how much you need of something each night?   

 

 

[PATRLR]

33 minutes ago, cruiseny4life said:

I don't think the head honchos at NCL care about empathy toward their customers.

Now there's the understatement of the week.  Maybe the month.  🙂

NCL's customer concern, as a business, is absolutely non-existent as far as I can tell.  (yes, individuals working for NCL can show very high levels of customer concern.  But that is coming from the indviduals, not from the business)

[Karaboudjan]

1 hour ago, PATRLR said:

 

 

Oh please.  How about just making less of a dish?  How long can it take to figure out how much you need of something each night?   

 

 

 

I doubt there is enough consistency for that to work well.  It's probably like you serve 75 Beef Wellington some nights and 125 other nights.  Unfortunately they probably could not come up with a Sustainable cocktail based on leftover Wellingtons...  😉

 

 

Edited January 24, 2023 by Karaboudjan

[sailorusvi]

2 hours ago, PATRLR said:

 

 

Oh please.  How about just making less of a dish?  How long can it take to figure out how much you need of something each night?   

 

 

 

Tell me you are not a restaurant chef without telling me you are not a restaurant chef.

 

Seriously, passengers do not pre-order, so it is hard to figure out if tonight's crowd is beef eaters or fish.  Sometimes it's a monkey see, monkey do.  They see a dish go pass and they say "I'll have that", then it can mushroom from there. 

 

At $20-25 per pound for filet right now (wholesale), that waste can add up quickly. 

Edited January 24, 2023 by sailorusvi

[PATRLR]

34 minutes ago, sailorusvi said:

 

Tell me you are not a restaurant chef without telling me you are not a restaurant chef.

 

Seriously, passengers do not pre-order, so it is hard to figure out if tonight's crowd is beef eaters or fish.  Sometimes it's a monkey see, monkey do.  They see a dish go pass and they say "I'll have that", then it can mushroom from there. 

 

So what are you telling me, for a 4000 passenger Encore cruise they prepare 4000 of each entrée, just in case everyone decides to order the exact same dish?  Of course not.  They have algorithms and formulas based on years of experience across multiple ships and multiple lines that dictate how much of each dish to prepare each evening.  No doubt the Prima menu being new, the data set is small.  It's going to take time and they know that..  There will be waste, it's a cost of changing the menus.  Do you think Beef Wellington is the only thing they were making too much of?  Of course not.  But that's the only one they took off the menu.  The other dishes they adjusted their  algorithms to make less.

 

40 minutes ago, sailorusvi said:

At $20-25 per pound for filet right now (wholesale), that waste can add up quickly. 

Hmmm.... Could it be that this is the real reason Beef Wellington is gone?  It's simply more expensive to prepare than they want to spend on MDR meals?  Just one more case of NCL nickle and diming from the cost side of the ledger?

 

[BirdTravels]

3 hours ago, PATRLR said:

Oh please.  How about just making less of a dish?  How long can it take to figure out how much you need of something each night?   

Nope. Why provision and cook something that sells a few orders a night. This has always been NCL philosophy. Even with the old MDR menus (which are on every other ship). If something isn't selling, they 86 it from the menu. Very Smart Business.