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Which lines have the best food?


Soprrrano

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Within the last 10 months, we have cruised and loved the French Restaurant and the Steak Restaurant on NCL's Pride of Hawaii, truly were impressed with Celebrity's Mercury cuisine, absolutely hated Royal Caribbean's Radiance of the Seas' dining room and found that their elite, :) extra charge restaurant wasn't any better, and was quite pleased with Princess' Regal in all dining venues on board. That's my 4 cents worth.

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I have cruised on Princess, Celebrity, and Carnival and I would rank Carnival as the best. I really enjoyed the selections in the dining room. Things are very different now because Chef Georges Blanc has redone the menu. The entire Carnival fleet went to this menu sometime in 2006. I also would not miss the Supper Club at least one night maybe even 2 or 3 if my SO has anything to say about it.

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Hi - We just came off Infinity and have to say that the food was absolutely delicious. From chateaubriand (sp) to rack of lamb, fresh salmon every night, lobster, veal, etc etc it was wonderful. I'm pretty picky about food but Celebrity made every dinner a fabulous experience! Fresh breads and pastries baked on board the ship, ice cream made on board...yummy. The only area that Celebrity is a big weak in is desserts. However none of us ever EVER felt deprived. I was able to do a kitchen tour aboard Infinity and found everything to be absolutely divine. Now we have never done Crystal and would have to think their cuisine would rival all, but for the middling cruise lines, Celebrity gets my vote Way over RCI NCL and Holland.

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  • 2 weeks later...

HI all, I’ll chime in as a foodie, also in the wine business. To date we have sailed RCL, NCL and X. We found Galaxy, a Celebrity C-class, better than Constellation. We did however make allowances, as we did a transatlantic crossing, seven sea days straight. Evening of the 7th day everything was looking a little tired. DM and DF were with us (me, DH, DD) and DM complained about everything. They had sailed with us on Galaxy the year before and loved the food. HOWEVER, we did go to Ocean Liner one night, OMG. It was worth every penny of the cover charge. Had to send DD off to the fun Factory as there was a minimum age limit of 12 years old.

X had just severed their relationship with Michael Roux, and were still using his menus in April-07. We are sailing Infinity in March-08, and I’m looking forward to what they do with their new menus. I don’t believe they have hired on a Celeb chef yet. I’d love to see John Besh.

Speaking of NOLA, we are on NCL Spirit for 11/18 Thanksgiving, and we have a whirlwind meal schedule planned. We have reservations at Commander’s Palace Saturday evening when we fly in, and plan beignets at Café du Monde and as many shucked blue points as I can possibly eat for lunch before we board.

Cotton and Keven? Is the Acme Oyster House still the best place for oysters on the half shell? Do you recommend them or somewhere else between the FQ and the Garden district. I don’t want to get too far away from the Cruise terminal area and worry about traffic getting to the ship on time.

DM is from Jennings (Lake Charles area) and DH is from Ruston, but they don’t know anything about food in that part of LA. (I think it’s really another state). DH always wants potatoes instead of rice. What’s up with that? :rolleyes: Granddaddy was a rice farmer, I don’t know anything about potatoes.

Please advise!:eek:

Liz

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I have been on Carnival, Celebrity, Princess and RCCL. This is my opinion...

 

Carnival is surprisingly very good. I have never had to send back a meal. I mostly order fish which is usually very tasty...except for the lobster:(

Their pizza is the best of any of the lines in my opinion. They also have a very good deli on some of their ships. Buffet food not bad...good variety.

 

Celebrity probably ties with Carnival as my favorite of the four lines.

I like their breakfast buffet better than Carnivals. Especially the made to order omelets and waffles:)

Dinners in the dining room have always been very good. No complaints...except for the lobster:(

 

Princess was my least favorite for food. On my first Princess cruise I had to send back two dinners that were literally inedible. Marjority of the meals were bland. Although they do have very good rolls and homemade sorbets and ice cream:)

But because of personal choice dining...which I LOVE. Princess is my cruiseline of choice. When researching an upcoming cruise vacation I always look at Princess first. If nothing appeals to me as far as intinerary & price, then I look at the other lines. I guess food isn't the most important part of a cruise for me:)

 

RCCL food is good. Never sent anything back. But also nothing comes to mind to rave about. Didn't like their pizza or buffet offerings for breakfast or lunch.

 

I really believe that it depends on what ship your on. Even though my meals on the Dawn Princess were less that satisfactory. The food on the Sea and Diamond Princess were better...but still not as good as Carnival and Celebrity.

 

I have never been on NCL. I would like to try them some day do to their anytime dining options.

 

CaribbeanCrazy

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  • 2 weeks later...

I also choose a cruise by ports and price but need to have a decent evening meal. We do not eat meat but do eat fish so that limits our scope of menu choice, and of the 12 dinners aboard our recent voyage on the Princess Star I can honestly say that only one fish entree on the entire cruise was good. If I had wanted to wait for a new entree to be prepared, my dinner hour would have been extended beyond what I am prepared to spend eating. I am so glad that I found this board because I was wondering if I was being overly critical of mass food production. Either the fish was tasteless or rubbery or was covered with a gooey sauce. I realize that the fish is frozen and is taken onboard at the outset of the cruise, but this was a real disappointment. On the positive side, the pasta was much better. This was only our third cruise but as I recall, the food on Brilliance of the Seas RCCL was superior.

180743

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  • 1 month later...

I have just returned from a RCCL Sarinade of the Seas and found the food to be fair at best. For instance Celebrity used to have a filet mignon that was about an inch and half thick. You could order it anyway that you wanted. RCCL served 2 slices of filet about 1/4 inch thick. You had only a choice of med well or med rare. RCCL's pasta was overcooked. It seemed that most of the meats were cheaper cuts that had been brined. I had a pork chop (only served well done) that was so salty it tasted like ham. The Windjammer cafe buffet was particularly disappointing. No real ice cream at lunch. Chicken was the main offer everyday with different seasonings.

 

Celebrity used to have homemade icecream at lunch.

Celebrity used to offer a nice spread of fruit cut up. You could have a couple pieces of melon for instance. Papaya, fresh berries, were sometimes offered. RCCL had a few bowls of fruit cut up into little pieces or you could have a whole apple, banana or an unripe pear. RCCL's desserts leave something to be desired. I think that the omlets and scrambled eggs were made from powdered eggs. The coffee was also bad, but you can buy a cup of better coffee.

 

I have been cruising for about 20 years on several different lines. My favorite has been Celebrity. I have been on about 12 Celebrity cruises. My last cruise was in 2004. I found the food on Celebriry to be good, but it too was not what it used to be.

 

I have sailed on 2 Princess cruises in the last 2 years and found the food to be fair also.

 

I think the cruiselines do a good job of giving you value for the money that you paid, however they are trying to compete on price alone and have had to cut back to fill the ships. I don't think that it costs much more to cruise today than it did 10 years ago.

 

I am going to return to Celebrity, but if the food continues to decline there, I will look elsewhere. I have not been happy with the food on RCCL or Princess and will not book again. The food is not everything, I agree, but I do like a nice meal on vacation !

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I'd rather go on a cruise with great food (like "Melisse" in Santa Monica) served at meal times than have have tons of all- you-can-eat mediocre food. They can have a 24 hour snack buffet if needed with vegetables, fruit and small sandwiches. Wouldn't the cruise lines actually SAVE money by providing portions of good quality? They would only have to prepare 1/8 of the amount of food they prepare now!

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I'd rather go on a cruise with great food (like "Melisse" in Santa Monica) served at meal times than have have tons of all- you-can-eat mediocre food. They can have a 24 hour snack buffet if needed with vegetables, fruit and small sandwiches. Wouldn't the cruise lines actually SAVE money by providing portions of good quality? They would only have to prepare 1/8 of the amount of food they prepare now!

 

 

Soprrrano,

 

I agree 100%. :)

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  • 4 weeks later...
  • 3 weeks later...

I don't think you can definitely declare one line will have better food across the board than another (I'm talking mass market). While recipes play a huge part, so do the kitchen staffs and the chef aboard each ship. It can be good on one ship, and not as good on another ship of the same line. We cruised on Galaxy in 2004. It was our first cruise, and our jaws were dropped for most of it. We cruised Mercury this past September. Everything was very good, or pretty good, but it was different. And the changes (post-Roux) hadn't been implemented yet. I do like that their desserts aren't icky sweet, like typical French desserts and pastries. And I adore their almond croissants (though my scale does not). A few other things were stand-outs to me. I found the food very good on Conquest, especially for a very large ship. The choices had variety but the service in the dining room was not up to X, though very good. The food was good, but nothing outstanding on the Grand Princess.

 

Not only can the food vary from ship to ship, but even cruise to cruise on the same ship, as the crew and dynamics can change. Just my opinion.

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