Cheese

[Ocean Mouse]

My husband and I will be taking our first Princess cruise in the spring. We neither of us eat deserts but do enjoy cheese at the end of dinner. Is the selection good? We are British and enjoy to a wide variety of European cheeses.

[chrysalis]

we always enjoy the excellent selections...in the buffet all day, or the cheese plate at dinner

[Plato123]

I can't say as I agree with my neighbour's comment as our experience is that Princess cheese selection was pretty basic and very North American.  No goats cheeses and simple cheddar and "Swiss" and bland brie.

Our best experience with cheese on a cruise was with Celebrity in the Murano dining  room, where the range and quality of cheeses was outstanding and presented on a special trolley by someone who actually knew the cheeses.

Also beware of the "cheese plate" fresh from the refrigerator.

 

[sunviking90]

I just want to say that I love that your handle is “Ocean Mouse” and you’re asking about cheese!

[chrysalis]

10 minutes ago, Plato123 said:

I can't say as I agree with my neighbour's comment as our experience is that Princess cheese selection was pretty basic and very North American.  No goats cheeses and simple cheddar and "Swiss" and bland brie.

Our best experience with cheese on a cruise was with Celebrity in the Murano dining  room, where the range and quality of cheeses was outstanding and presented on a special trolley by someone who actually knew the cheeses.

Also beware of the "cheese plate" fresh from the refrigerator.

 

Sorry.....but, as an example,  I wouldn't say that Stilton is pretty basic and very North American.

[david63]

2 hours ago, Ocean Mouse said:

Is the selection good?

We both love cheese and always have it at the end of a meal when on a cruise. When we were on Sky in May we had the cheese on the first night that we ate in the MDR and did not bother after that. Probably the worst cheese plate that I have ever had.👎

[windsor26]

I have found that if you request stilton,  brie or gorgonzola you MAY  get some but otherwise why would we eat a lump of parmesan  which we have been given twice

[ghgeckos]

We don’t think the cheese plate is that exciting, but good a couple times a trip. We like to buy local cheeses at ports.  Then we get to enjoy the cheese with a fruit plate on our balcony.

[CruzeQueen2]

@Ocean Mouse Be sure to check out the cheese selections at the International Cafe on deck 5 (most ships). I recall that they often have a selection of cheeses in the evenings. Enjoy your first Princess cruise!

[Musky Ike]

Tough topic coming from Wisconsin where talking cheese is like talking politics, at some point we agree to disagree. I will say that I have found both good and not as good options onboard in the Horizon Court. I will agree that the cheese plate on the MDR dessert menu is ho-hum, but still lighter and better than the super sweet dessert options IMHO. Of course for us here, cheese is part of every meal and in-between snacks.

[trinitygirl]

6 hours ago, Ocean Mouse said:

My husband and I will be taking our first Princess cruise in the spring. We neither of us eat deserts but do enjoy cheese at the end of dinner. Is the selection good? We are British and enjoy to a wide variety of European cheeses.

No.  Alas.  Very supermarket-typical.  The cheese plate in the MDR always seems to be a piece of hard underripe brie, a piece of tasteless gouda and generic fruit paste.  Not worth the calories.  

[Ocean Mouse]

When we first started cruising 15 years ago cheese was brought to the table on a trolley and the waiter would slice off whatever portion size you required. Our most recent experience, on a different cruise line, was a couple of tiny slices served on a very cold plate so that it was stunned into tastelessness.

[gah_cruise]

46 minutes ago, trinitygirl said:

No.  Alas.  Very supermarket-typical.  The cheese plate in the MDR always seems to be a piece of hard underripe brie, a piece of tasteless gouda and generic fruit paste.  Not worth the calories.  

On Sky recently, the cheese selection was far greater in the buffet of an evening. Whole Stiltons, and numerous other cheeses in precut portions.  Far better than the bland MDR.   Just be sure you search all the buffet areas...cheese appears in several places...some better than others

 

[sunviking90]

2 minutes ago, gah_cruise said:

On Sky recently, the cheese selection was far greater in the buffet of an evening. Whole Stiltons, and numerous other cheeses in precut portions.  Far better than the bland MDR.   Just be sure you search all the buffet areas...cheese appears in several places...some better than others

 

I agree. We’ve seen some nice late afternoon cheese offerings on the Royal class ships. I haven’t seen near the selection on other ships likely due to space restrictions.

[trinitygirl]

19 minutes ago, gah_cruise said:

On Sky recently, the cheese selection was far greater in the buffet of an evening. Whole Stiltons, and numerous other cheeses in precut portions.  Far better than the bland MDR.   Just be sure you search all the buffet areas...cheese appears in several places...some better than others

 

that's really good to know, thanks!

[rbtan]

Cheeses on Princess are basic at best. If you want good cheeses I suggest Oceania or some other higher level line.Much of Princess is standard US Processed cheese.Good luck finding good quality on Princess.

[Plato123]

6 hours ago, ghgeckos said:

We don’t think the cheese plate is that exciting, but good a couple times a trip. We like to buy local cheeses at ports.  Then we get to enjoy the cheese with a fruit plate on our balcony.

We agree and have enjoyed several excellent cheeses purchased in ports and kept in our fridge.  We did have a superb raw milk camembert that did a number on the nose in the fridge, and we actually were able to get it home safely.

Departing SFO recently on Princess we found sone really nice cheeses at Trader Joe's including a Point Reyes blue that we did enjoy in our cabin during the cruise.

 

[NSWP]

1 hour ago, rbtan said:

Cheeses on Princess are basic at best. If you want good cheeses I suggest Oceania or some other higher level line.Much of Princess is standard US Processed cheese.Good luck finding good quality on Princess.

Agreed Princess ships are poor in their cheese selection. Best cheese offerings I have seen was on QM2: Quality and Quantity.

[cheese please]

In June we did a around Great Britain cruise. Bought cheese in a few different ports. Then had a cheese picnic in the Horizon Court. They supplied the bread, cold cuts and wine. 

The cheese on board is just not note worthy. The Parm is real Grana Padno. Now Padano is not a bad cheese it is not Regiano. And the rest are like the Parm, mild cheese's that will not offend anyone unless you are a Cheese Head.

[Senga]

We enjoyed the spiced cheddar in the buffet; very flavourful.

[Cruise Puss]

On 7/7/2023 at 1:28 PM, Ocean Mouse said:

My husband and I will be taking our first Princess cruise in the spring. We neither of us eat deserts but do enjoy cheese at the end of dinner. Is the selection good? We are British and enjoy to a wide variety of European cheeses.

We also enjoy cheese after dinner and have travelled over the last 20 years with P&O, Cunard, Hebridean and Seabourn , all of which do a great cheese board, some better than others.  Having travelled on Princess now 4 times the cheese board is terrible.  It tends to have only 2 or 3 cheeses - tends to be Gouda and Prie, occasionally Stilton and Cheddar, but not anything like we are used to here in the UK.  It is also only available at dinner, not lunch (although my Husband did have one at lunch on the last sea day in June, but we were sitting in the Club Class section of the restaurant so whether that makes any difference I don't know.).

 

However, I can tell you that the cheese selection in the buffet is much better.  Unfortunately we don't eat in there, but when we had a walk around we saw the cheeses all laid out and had a nice chat to the chap who was in charge of it and he was lovely (mind you, they all are!).

 

So I'm afraid the cheese selection is not good.  If they are going to keep cruising from England they need to get better at this.

 

I will say that Princess are fantastic to sail with and if you don't love them I will be very surprised!

 

Happy Cruising!

 

[Reina del Mar]

Have always found Princess offer a fair selection of cheeses until this year in South America where selection was limited and cheeses were not overly fresh…most disappointing ! 

[JG&Lcruisingnewbies]

5 hours ago, Cruise Puss said:

So I'm afraid the cheese selection is not good.  If they are going to keep cruising from England they need to get better at this.

I’m new to Princess too, from the UK. sailing to Norway out of Southampton in August
 

Oh dear. I think I might be going to the buffet just for cheese & crackers to take to our cabin. Do you know what crackers are available please?

I guess we’re spoilt in the UK with our own & other European cheeses readily available.

 

Sadly the cheese board available on the recent ish P&O cruises was pretty rubbish too though 😞 

 

 

[Cruise Puss]

40 minutes ago, JG&Lcruisingnewbies said:

I’m new to Princess too, from the UK. sailing to Norway out of Southampton in August
 

Oh dear. I think I might be going to the buffet just for cheese & crackers to take to our cabin. Do you know what crackers are available please?

I guess we’re spoilt in the UK with our own & other European cheeses readily available.

 

Sadly the cheese board available on the recent ish P&O cruises was pretty rubbish too though 😞 

 

 

Very few I'm afraid.

 

My Husband can't remember whether he got crackers or bread, either way it's nowhere near as good as here in the UK. (If you want an incredible cheeseboard you need to go on Cunard, absolutely stunning!)

 

P&O have deteriorated sooo much we have given up on them after 20+ yrs.

 

The cheeseboard of old used to be brought to your table by your main waiter and had at least 8 choices on it, of which you could have as many as you wanted. We used to love it!

 

On formal nights you also had a whole 'port soaked' Stilton bought over. You also had an enormous choice of crackers, with grapes (red & white) plus celery and some dried fruit. It was amazing.  All gone now I'm afraid, along with a lot of other things. 😥

 

Princess is, however, streets ahead of P&O. I don't think you'll be disappointed. ☺️

 

 

 

[Sailin Gal]

For those of you bringing cheese on at embarkation or from a port stop, is that allowed or do you have to smuggle it on?  Never would have thought to do that, but I do love some cheese and fruit as an evening snack and agree the selection and quality of cheese onboard is disappointing.