Food bad on Quest?

[LNugent]

I will be boarding the Quest in July for a long cruise. I have been on many Seabourn cruises and the food has always been very good. A friend is on Quest at the moment and sent me a text stating that the food was terrible.  Anyone else experience this?  I was shocked to hear this. 

[sunshineocean13]

We had 79 days on the Quest, January through March of this year, and had excellent food. A few misses, but lots more that was wonderful.

[goaliedad30]

Today is the last day of our 140 day world cruise on Sojourn. The food has been uniformly good to excellent. Not sure about Quest, but after 5 months, I have nothing but praise for the culinary team.

[FlyingScotSailors]

We were on the Quest from April 29 to May 7.  The food was excellent.  Chef Christophe and team did a great job.

 

[Vineyard View]

Boarding Quest today so hoping your friend’s experience has not continued for them. 

[janieb1962]

20 hours ago, LNugent said:

I will be boarding the Quest in July for a long cruise. I have been on many Seabourn cruises and the food has always been very good. A friend is on Quest at the moment and sent me a text stating that the food was terrible.  Anyone else experience this?  I was shocked to hear this. 

Sad that your friend isn’t enjoying the food, however if it was me I’d be keeping my personal opinion to myself if my friend was only a couple of months from sailing. Everyone has different tastes and expectations..sometimes making the wrong choice of meal is all it is

[SLSD]

42 minutes ago, janieb1962 said:

Sad that your friend isn’t enjoying the food, however if it was me I’d be keeping my personal opinion to myself if my friend was only a couple of months from sailing. Everyone has different tastes and expectations..sometimes making the wrong choice of meal is all it is

Sometimes it's an issue concerning the type of food.  If a person hasn't sailed on Seabourn previously, they might be expecting something different.  Some say the food is too bland, while we often find it too salty--as another example.  People have very different taste in food.  

[Mr Luxury]

3 hours ago, SLSD said:

Sometimes it's an issue concerning the type of food.  If a person hasn't sailed on Seabourn previously, they might be expecting something different.  Some say the food is too bland, while we often find it too salty--as another example.  People have very different taste in food.  

Of course some people do not eat the type of food served on a luxury cruise ship at home at all.🙄

[jag60uk]

We were on the Quest for two weeks earlier this month and found the Restaurant meals very unexciting and repetitious. The Chef’s Special menu was exactly the same both weeks on a B2B cruise! We didn’t enjoy it the first time round so had to order from the Classics menu. Had to send back three meals. We’re experienced Seabourn sailors who always eat in The Restaurant,

[markham]

Imagine the same menus on the recent South America Grand Voyage, but with poorer provisioning starting with Miami for 78 days and little to show for plugging the gaps, and you have our disappointing cruise. As I mentioned in my posts at the time, all 3 lunch outlets have baseline menus  that are the same on the day eg chili con carne, black bean soup and hake for “Mexican” so there is no escaping the repetitive program unless you order for the next day in the MDR a special meal. We often did so after we learned the ropes.

 

I could go on about the ludicrous themes dressing up cheap, boring, limited and unhealthy Colonnade lunches that show how tedious this definition/claim to “luxury” was then. But I did so on this forum at the time for the record. The Comfort Food and the Filipino Food buffets were among the saddest followed by other hodge podge low cost themed rotations. Just like state school meals but at Seabourn prices. BTW, these are imposed on all the ships simultaneously. Ah, for the olden days when the quality of the current Galley Lunch, albeit with less choice, WAS the standard daily in the Colonnade. Where we never saw crab legs much less sushi, for example, on our cruise.

 

All that said, chefs Trevor and then Christophe did well with their MDR dinners, IMO, given the provisioning. Many meals were very good, but then there are the outliers. I remember the weiner schnitzels that were so thin we sent it back, received apologies, and then ordered it custom cut thicker for the next day’s dinner.

 

Sad, and so time for a big shakeup.

 

Happy and healthy sailing!

 

 

Edited May 28, 2023 by markham

[christraveller]

Guests arrive on board with many different culinary expectations, based on their own culture, experiences, and readiness to embrace “different”. Lukewarm foods that should be hot, under spiced, lack of variety…. my own pet peeves.  I used to live in Guadalajara, so passing off Tex-Mex chili con carne as Mexican is horrifying to me. 
 

A thin Wiener Schnitzel, if covering the plate, on the other hand, sounds reasonably authentic. The breadcrumb crust should be wavy and bubbly, though. Otherwise the suspicion of factory made, and deep fried from frozen would arise, wouldn’t it?  
 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiener_schnitzel

 

 

[markham]

I spend time in Germanic countries that pride themselves on catering the authentic dish. Seabourn had cut corners and showed me it knows nothing about the real thing. But I do and that is why I sent it back and reordered for a special meal. It is obvious to me that the chef was under orders to make do less - without saying as much to me when he apologised for this failure.

 

Should Quest passengers have any doubts they might as well corral the F&B Mgr or MDR Restaurant Manager and establish what goes into what they want as special orders, formally request it or a derivation thereof, and see what happens. Too bad we have experienced this ourselves, and also learned that some foods eg calves liver were to be offered once only in 78 days due to what I would term poor provisioning. IMO it was executed better and smarter in years past, and we go back 20 years with our annual Seabourn cruises. 
 

Best of luck! And I hasten to add that I will be more than delighted when the catering gets improved and I hear from multiple sources on the “when, how, and what”.

 

Happy and healthy sailing!

[SLSD]

21 minutes ago, markham said:

 

Best of luck! And I hasten to add that I will be more than delighted when the catering gets improved and I hear from multiple sources on the “when, how, and what”.

 

Happy and healthy sailing!

Markham, Are you sailing on Silversea now due to your disappointments?  I read your original posts and heard you loud and clear.  When is your next cruise and where?

[markham]

SLSD,

 

Thanks for asking.

 

Our next cruise is the special-purpose Venture! We think newly ships such as Venture are the way to go, and we hope we will love it since we have another Venture cruise in July, 2024, a choice which was itinerary-driven.

 

We got religion after a few cruises on Silverseas’ Moon, Muse and Dawn, all with superior designs vs the 5 Seabourn cruise ships. So we have 2 Dawn cruises this year! In Feb., 2024 we will be on Sojourn for part of the WC, and we are counting on the extremely impressive, smart, personable, sincere, and resourceful new president, Natalya Leahy, to make a huge difference in the coming months. (No use for anyone, especially me, to cry over whatever happened to Seabourn standards in late 2023 to result in the mess we found recently. It is time to move forward.)

 

So it’s on to Venture for us in a week!

 

Happy and healthy sailing!

Edited May 28, 2023 by markham

[SLSD]

17 minutes ago, markham said:

 

 

So it’s on to Venture for us in a week!

 

Happy and healthy sailing!

Have a wonderful cruise.  We'll be boarding Ovation shortly after you board Venture.  I'll be sure to report back here.  By the way, I am SO envious of you in the UK when it comes to traveling to European cruises.  My only concern are our flights.  We are traveling several days early--so we should get there.  

[kjbacon]

Our only Seabourn experience was on the Quest. We were quite disappointed in both food and service. We were on the first full sailing after the pandemic and the ship was severely understaffed.

 

From following the boards, it sounds as though the service has improved but not the food. The menus were poorly designed and there was too much repetition. We are going to try Seabourn one more time because we have so much future cruise credit but we are not going anywhere near the Quest. Hoping to have a better experience on the Ovation.

[tripperva]

If they are going to improve food on Quest, please do it before December. We are coming from many years on Regent and Silversea where the dining is excellent. Our only cruises on Seabourn were 20 years ago on the small ships and the dining was fine.

[2SailingNomads]

Interesting about the comments re: food. Although on that cruise over Thanksgiving they ran out of turkey after 30 minutes, unbelievable for a cruise that was mostly American pax.  On our last cruise in November on the Sojourn we had lots of issues with service (under staffed, poorly trained, etc. and a lack of caring from the hotel manager - who supposedly was ex-Crystal can't say for sure as he never said a single word to us nor friends who also have hundreds of days on-board, hope he goes back there) but the food was some of the best we have had in 20 sailings on Seabourn.  Now that does not dismiss the legitimate concerns voiced here, especially regarding repetition of menus over extended voyages, smaller portions, or the overall blandness of many items.     

[Dusko]

On 5/28/2023 at 1:10 PM, markham said:

SLSD,

 

Thanks for asking.

 

Our next cruise is the special-purpose Venture! We think newly ships such as Venture are the way to go, and we hope we will love it since we have another Venture cruise in July, 2024, a choice which was itinerary-driven.

 

We got religion after a few cruises on Silverseas’ Moon, Muse and Dawn, all with superior designs vs the 5 Seabourn cruise ships. So we have 2 Dawn cruises this year! In Feb., 2024 we will be on Sojourn for part of the WC, and we are counting on the extremely impressive, smart, personable, sincere, and resourceful new president, Natalya Leahy, to make a huge difference in the coming months. (No use for anyone, especially me, to cry over whatever happened to Seabourn standards in late 2023 to result in the mess we found recently. It is time to move forward.)

 

So it’s on to Venture for us in a week!

 

Happy and healthy sailing!

We also are joining the Venture in the near future and will be interested in the food as part of the overall different experience.  To repeat a well used expression, "This is an expedition not a cruise." Markham has mentioned provisioning in this thread and he touches on an important point.  If a ship is sailing in the Med then there is a wide range of fresh produce easily available and the kitchen has no excuses if they don't take advantage.  On June 4 Venture will depart Reykjavik on a 14 day trip.  Iceland grows a limited supply  in the way of fresh produce at this time of the year, relying on airfreight for supplies.  Fish, etc. should be abundant, either fresh or frozen, and meat can be stocked frozen.  I'm sure the designers of Venture were well aware of the potential limited supplies and she has ample freezer capacity.  The next voyage (the CEO trip) takes Venture back to Reykjavik.  Any "fresh" produce will have to come in on the charter aircraft with the guests joining the ship. As before, fish and frozen supplies should be readily available. What the kitchens make of these supplies will be interesting and I look forward to the experience.  I am sure there will be somebody on board who insists that "I always have........for my breakfast and I am disgusted that it's not available".

 

It won't just be the food that must be flown in.  Other supplies will be on that aircraft and I'm sure the payload is not just for Seabourn.  That could be one reason why the luggage limit is 2 bags/guest with a combined total weight of 23kg (50lbs) + a small personal item.  (I expect to meet the "That doesn't apply to me because I'm special" person. Probably the same one who wants the special breakfast or their brand of bottled water. There's always on or more on board.) Definitely going to be a different experience and I'm really looking forward to it.

[SLSD]

1 hour ago, Dusko said:

  I am sure there will be somebody on board who insists that "I always have........for my breakfast and I am disgusted that it's not available".

 

 (I expect to meet the "That doesn't apply to me because I'm special" person. Probably the same one who wants the special breakfast or their brand of bottled water. There's always on or more on board.) Definitely going to be a different experience and I'm really looking forward to it.

You have made me laugh.  If we haven't met them onboard, we have certainly read their comments.   

[Techno123]

@Dusko you did make me laugh 😂.
 

The provisioning actually reminds me of our very first trip to Norway many years ago for a ski holiday so meat and seafood available but not so much fresh salad/fruit/veg etc. However, one night we would have the most amazing smorgasbord and the next it was processed reindeer meat and packet mashed potato with no other option. Maybe that's how they will ration things out 😜😜

[kjbacon]

On 5/29/2023 at 9:51 AM, tripperva said:

If they are going to improve food on Quest, please do it before December. We are coming from many years on Regent and Silversea where the dining is excellent. Our only cruises on Seabourn were 20 years ago on the small ships and the dining was fine.

We are mostly Regent cruisers and the dining on the Quest compared to Regent was quite poor. Without the future cruise credits that are enough for a free cruise, we would never sail seabourn again.

[Vineyard View]

We are on Quest now. The food has been quite good to excellent. Captains dinner last evening was well done and we very much enjoyed it. Execution and presentation was lovely

Only one dinner was I served a meal that just did not work well. Our server Carlos had already brought me a second small portion of a different main since I had difficulty deciding between the two. That portion was very good and the other main was quickly taken away. So the end result was very satisfying.

 

My biggest issue has to do with the included wines. They should be of higher quality IMHO. Yes, the wine list is extensive and thorough in world class offerings, but it just seems to me that one shouldn’t have to resort to that list for decent enjoyment of wine. 

Service, staff, atmosphere, accommodations are wonderful. We are looking where we want to travel with Seabourn next Spring - which is when we can travel.  With the new expedition ships, that seems to be a big focus on their spring European itineraries. We have looked at several. They look incredible, however I am not certain how many people want a nature focused trip to Europe (ex Scotland itinerary). Spring itineraries have a heavy focus on Ashdod and Haifa which are not on our list at this time.
so back to the topic of this thread, for the right itinerary, we will happily sail Seabourn again. We are enjoying the cuisine being served. 

[markham]

Shout out!
 

Carlos, our waiter for most of the recent Grand Voyage working in the MDR is a star performer on Quest. Some personality, one with plenty of recommendations. Our dinners were so enjoyable. I wish he were taking his enthusiasm into a F&B mgr role. Who knows? Maybe in the fullness of time Seabourn can promote from within such resourceful people and then to retain these top performers once properly trained. And then maybe he could make whatever changes are within his remit to improve those lunchtime Colonnade buffets- all provided Seattle ramps up the quality of its provisioning and upgrade those menus. 
 

Happy and healthy sailing!
 

 

 

 

[Mr Luxury]

18 hours ago, markham said:

Shout out!
 

Carlos, our waiter for most of the recent Grand Voyage working in the MDR is a star performer on Quest. Some personality, one with plenty of recommendations. Our dinners were so enjoyable. I wish he were taking his enthusiasm into a F&B mgr role. Who knows? Maybe in the fullness of time Seabourn can promote from within such resourceful people and then to retain these top performers once properly trained. And then maybe he could make whatever changes are within his remit to improve those lunchtime Colonnade buffets- all provided Seattle ramps up the quality of its provisioning and upgrade those menus. 
 

Happy and healthy sailing!
 

 

 

 

Upgrade a few old punters also.😁