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Ship with BEST food


alpha1phi

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Well...having only sailed Carnival and RCCL Carnival wins hands down...Also most of the blogs and food critics I have read seem to think Carnival has the best food..But then food is very subjective and everyone will have their own favorites..:)

I have also sailed on Carnival (the Carnival Ecstasy), and by far, they had the worst food I have ever had on a cruise.

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cruise critics? cruise bloggers? they must have missed >

 

- the all-inclusive cruiselines

- queens grille on cunard

- hapag lloyd's ms europa

 

food quality is not subjective. (cost of ingredients, whether the chosen preparation was completed correctly, etc)

 

i had assumed the OP was only asking about all-inclusive cruiselines, considering they will be comparing to all-inclusive resorts.

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Like I said..Food is very subjective..Everyone likes something different..:)

Most critics and bloggers feel differently..

Actually, it's not subjective. For example, the Berlitz Guide to Cruising rates the food on Carnival (especially their older ships) as mediocre. By the way, RCCL is not much better.

 

It all depends on what you are comparing it to. Are you comparing it to an all-inclusive resort, as the original poster mentioned. Or are you comparing it to the Golden Corral chain of buffet restaurants. Carnival and RCCL compare favorably to Golden Corral (which IMHO is barely edible).

 

The only ships that truly have gourmet food are the following:

 

  1. Hapag-Lloyd Europa
  2. Sea Dream I
  3. Sea Dream II

Some of the other Hapag-Lloyd ships and Seabourn ships come close.

 

Carnival, RCCL, Princess, Celebrity, HAL, NCL, and even Oceania are even in the same league.

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its too bad ms europa doesnt include alcohol.

 

considering how great bora bora cruises looks, and the fact that there are apparently recent seadream reports saying theyve gone downhill, i hope im not disappointed by the value of bora bora cruises, including F&B. upon learning about them, they replaced seadream on my "list" along with alaska.

 

StarTrkGeek, what would you/berlitz say about silversea, regent, cunard's queens grille?

 

and again, even though the term is commonly used for lower end properties, all-inclusive resorts have a huge variance in price as well. the most expensive starts around $4K/nt.

 

Carnival, RCCL, Princess, Celebrity, HAL, NCL, and even Oceania are even in the same league.

i presume you left out "not" :)

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its too bad ms europa doesnt include alcohol.

 

considering how great bora bora cruises looks, and the fact that there are apparently recent seadream reports saying theyve gone downhill, i hope im not disappointed by the value of bora bora cruises, including F&B. upon learning about them, they replaced seadream on my "list" along with alaska.

 

StarTrkGeek, what would you/berlitz say about silversea, regent, cunard's queens grille?

 

and again, even though the term is commonly used for lower end properties, all-inclusive resorts have a huge variance in price as well. the most expensive starts around $4K/nt.

 

i presume you left out "not" :)

You are correct. I meant to say they are NOT even in the same league.

 

The book I have is 2-3 years old. Although Silversea, Regent, and Cunard's Queens Grille are rated very high, their food was not rated nearly as high as Sea Dream and the Europa.

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took a peek at bookstore. :D

 

hebridean is another all-inclusive cruiseline, similar entry pricing to other 4.

 

interestingly, they lump queens grill with princess grill for cunard.

 

also no discussion of the world or bora bora cruises.

 

StarTrkGeek discussed the food ratings.

 

for service, seadream is top, but gap isnt as big as with food.

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  • 6 months later...
On the ships I have cruised -- I would place them in this order:

 

#1 -- Azamara

#2 -- Celebrity

#3 -- Holland America

#4 -- Princess

#5 -- toss up between NCL and Royal Caribbean

 

Enjoy!

Kel

Hello All,

Thanks in advance,

I know food tastes are personal, but do we have menus?

Per line would be great

Regards

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I think food is so subjective. I liked the food on RCCL, but it was by no means gourmet. The best food ever on a cruise ship had to be Portofino. It was fantastic. I still cannot have Fillet at home. It is just awful compared to what was on the ship. That being said, I have only ever sailed RCCL, and know that other cruise lines have better reputations for food.

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I think food is so subjective. I liked the food on RCCL, but it was by no means gourmet. The best food ever on a cruise ship had to be Portofino. It was fantastic. I still cannot have Fillet at home. It is just awful compared to what was on the ship. That being said, I have only ever sailed RCCL, and know that other cruise lines have better reputations for food.

You are correct. Food is very subjective. I know people who love the Golden Corral buffet.:eek: These are the same people who love the food on Carnival. However, others will thumb their noses at Outback Steakhouse. These are the same people who will settle for nothing less than the food on Oceania or Crystal.

 

I have been on numerous cruises where half the people at my dinner table loved their entree while others thought it was horrible -- the same entree!:eek:

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Hello StarTrkGeek,

 

Thanks for sharing your thoughts on the Golden Corral buffet! Of course, would love to hear more about the types of food ever tried on the various cruises and review descriptions from others as well.

 

I've tried the cuisine in StarCruise as well. It's an Asian liner, and well its serves a great deal of sumptious and tantalising Western and Asian delicacies. There's also a Food express conept, with is based on a buffet style and specially for diners who want a quick eat-in.

 

In the meantime, if you fancy a free trip to Germany and have a passion for writing, do take a look at GuideGecko's Travel Guide writing contest. This international contest is open to all and about creating your very own self-written travel, food and entertainment guides (as short as one page). Of course, the winner is given a free trip to fly to the Frankfurt Book Fair, Germany, in October 2009... a perfect chance for budding writers to jumpstart a writing career!

 

Looking forward to hearing from everyone's food experiences!

 

shawn

www.GuideGecko.com

Buy Travel Guides and Become a Writer or sell your own!

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  • 1 year later...

Regent is the best but like all lines there were weaknesses in this line as well. Chocolate cruise in Jan. was below standard having been on Regent on three chocolate cruises. The pastry chef was weak and it showed.

Prime 7 on Regent mariner had prime rib and it was tough meat and not "Prime meat" from my experience. The key is tell the staff if there is a problem. It helps on Regent since they know my business.

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...I think cruise food is kind of like wedding banquet food-It can be pretty good to terrible...

 

Most cruisers agree with you. See my old poll at http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=100849&highlight=

 

I have attached a snapshot of the poll results after hundreds of cruisers entered their choices.

foodpoll.jpg.f5c379ca0df2045e2b2158de17c328a9.jpg

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The highlight of a cruise for my wife is the food....she is particularly fond of lobster thermidor.

 

We would rate as follows:

1. Princess

2. P&O

3. NCL

4. RCCL

 

We have never been disappointed on any Princess ship.

 

P&O are nearly as good, but maybe a little less gourmet.

 

NCL have good food, but if you want very good, you have to pay a supplement in one of their many speciality restaurants.

 

If a 3 course Holiday Camp meal is your forte, go for RCCL IOTS.

 

We will be cruising with Celebrity & Costa this year, so will have further comparisons later.

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i love seafood and my boyfriend loves meat ... its all princess for us.

 

We agree its Princess every time, some cruise lines have dropped their standards over recent years but Princess have maintained theirs.

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  • 3 months later...

I had heard HAL had good food but we found it just okay on the Volendam.

The best food I have ever had (so far), bar none, was on the Peter Deilmann cruise line which unfortunately is no longer in business. It was consistently rated one of the best by Conde Nast Traveler - the bar was set very high.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Totally agree with ginagirl!! I started cruising when I was younger on Carnival and it was always stupendous. As I got older I decided to try another cruise line and it was great, but when I went back to Carnival it was worse than McDonalds. I thought maybe my taste had improved with maturity (which is probably somewhat true as well) but then my second Princess cruise the food was very hit and miss and I started thinking as Ginagirl. The good news is that there is always something edible, so you are never truly hungry on cruises. If something doesn't taste good don't eat it, wait for the next course, or meal. And then be happy you didn't gain weight and didn't starve either...

 

Food quality and preparation changes constantly on all ships in the same cruise line. In the past decades, we have sailed quite a lot and find that more recently cruises lines we've always considered superior in that area are slipping in quality. And then, out of the blue, you sail one which completely restores your faith in that line's superior quality.

 

Overall, we've always loved Celebrity and Holland America but our recent Millennium and Oosterdam sailings in the last year disappointed us terribly. We've always truly loved Princess too, but our sailing on the Island Princess in April was also a disappointment. Yet, we just came off the Grand Princess this month, and the food and the service was the best ever!!!

 

It is so difficult to make recommendations today. There are so many ships in so many different lines, that I am sure the constant changing of personnel on these ships make it hard to predict consistency for any one cruise line and/or ship. Even if you read the most current reviews, things can change prior to YOUR sailing, which happened to us on the Island Princess. On that sailing, we even met a number of couples who said they sailed that ship the year previously, but now couldn't believe how bad the food and service had deteriorated. Similarly, the reviews for the Grand Princess for a while were kind of negative, yet everyone we met on our sailing this month, was raving, including us. I'm beginning to think it is just the luck of the draw. We did a Crystal cruise where the food was no better than any of the mass market cruise lines, paid a fortune, and now wonder what were we thinking. All I can say is Good Luck in your choice!! And just make the best of it, no matter what. Sure wish I could have given you absolutes, but those days are long gone.:)

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I have also sailed on Carnival (the Carnival Ecstasy), and by far, they had the worst food I have ever had on a cruise.

 

 

my last with Carnival they still had excellent soft serve ice cream (better than Princess) but we ordered room service dessert platter one afternoon for a snack before dinner and were served two hydrox cookies (not even Oreos!!) I think two generic brand chocolate chip, and two tiny hard brownies we couldn't even bite into. Lunch and dinner were not disgusting but certainly not memorable

 

We ate oatmeal and grapefruit every breakfast because everything else looked greasy and yucky

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Quote:

Originally Posted by ginagirl viewpost.gif

Food quality and preparation changes constantly on all ships in the same cruise line. In the past decades, we have sailed quite a lot and find that more recently cruises lines we've always considered superior in that area are slipping in quality. And then, out of the blue, you sail one which completely restores your faith in that line's superior quality.

 

Overall, we've always loved Celebrity and Holland America but our recent Millennium and Oosterdam sailings in the last year disappointed us terribly. We've always truly loved Princess too, but our sailing on the Island Princess in April was also a disappointment. Yet, we just came off the Grand Princess this month, and the food and the service was the best ever!!!

 

It is so difficult to make recommendations today. There are so many ships in so many different lines, that I am sure the constant changing of personnel on these ships make it hard to predict consistency for any one cruise line and/or ship. Even if you read the most current reviews, things can change prior to YOUR sailing, which happened to us on the Island Princess. On that sailing, we even met a number of couples who said they sailed that ship the year previously, but now couldn't believe how bad the food and service had deteriorated. Similarly, the reviews for the Grand Princess for a while were kind of negative, yet everyone we met on our sailing this month, was raving, including us. I'm beginning to think it is just the luck of the draw. We did a Crystal cruise where the food was no better than any of the mass market cruise lines, paid a fortune, and now wonder what were we thinking. All I can say is Good Luck in your choice!! And just make the best of it, no matter what. Sure wish I could have given you absolutes, but those days are long gone.:)

 

__________________

Totally agree with ginagirl!! I started cruising when I was younger on Carnival and it was always stupendous. As I got older I decided to try another cruise line and it was great, but when I went back to Carnival it was worse than McDonalds. I thought maybe my taste had improved with maturity (which is probably somewhat true as well) but then my second Princess cruise the food was very hit and miss and I started thinking as Ginagirl. The good news is that there is always something edible, so you are never truly hungry on cruises. If something doesn't taste good don't eat it, wait for the next course, or meal. And then be happy you didn't gain weight and didn't starve either...

I think you will find that if you put 5 chefs in a room, with the EXACT SAME ingredients and recipes, some of the food prepared by one chef will be great, while food prepared by some of the other chefs will be inedible. Thus, not all the ships in a single cruise line will have quality chefs preparing quality food, since some of the chefs do not have the talent for cooking for thousands of people. Let's face it, some cruise line chefs should be "Chopped" (a food show on cable TV).

Alan

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Holy cow, you guys are dissing Golden Corral! That's one of our favorites. My wife worships the pot roast and, last holiday season, when they were featuring roast turkey, it was some of the best I ever had. Almost every chef hits a home run once in a while.

 

Our last three cruises were Regent and we loved most of the food. Next up is HAL and we're waiting to see. I'm looking forward to the food on our first Crystal cruise next year.

 

So you know where we're coming from, my wife was a department head at a famous cooking school years ago. She ate that stuff every day and I ate there often. We also took cooking classes with some of those chefs. We can still find stuff to really like at fast food places. Don't forget, most of those chains hire highly qualified chefs because the food is their lifeline. The first US chef to get the internationally prestigious Master Chef designation had originally been in charge of putting stuff in cans and bottles for Heinz.

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Since this thread has returned, I've cruised 11 more times -- here is an updated list:

 

Excellent Cuisine:

#1 -- Oceania

#2 -- Azamara

#3 -- Celebrity

#4 -- Cunard

#5 -- Holland America

 

Very Good Cuisine:

#6 -- Princess

 

Good Cuisine:

#7 -- Royal Caribbean

#8 -- NCL

 

Would love to try Seabourn, Crystal and Regent -- but that would require a huge lucky booking situation.

 

Enjoy!

Kel:)

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  • 3 weeks later...
Just my opinion, mind you, and I'm not a foodie :D , but we've been on Celebrity Century twice, and both times I felt the food was better than any other ship! We were on another Celebrity ship, Galaxy, and think the food was good, however, not quite as good. I've been on 28 cruises, in the last 9 years, enabling me to have come to a reasonable opinion! :) (so I think! :D )

 

i second the Century. The food was good indeed

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Seabourn Spirit

Oceania (all ships)

Regent

Crystal

Queens Grille (QE II)

Celebrity

HAL

Princess

 

A waiter once told us that once you start cooking for over 750 people it's almost impossible to maintain any type of quality control. We tend to rate a ships food based on all the restaurants that we try. Specialty and main dining room combined. Buffet and served combined. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner combined.

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