Pacific Dawn- is the food really that bad?

[PRIDDO]

We are considering a 28 day cruise on Pacific Dawn next year but I am concerned with some of the postings and the reference to the really bad food.

 

For us the food is a big part of the holiday (closely followed by the gym to work it off again).

 

I would love to hear people's opinion on the food in the main dining room as well as the buffet. How did you find the quality and the variety? (one a previous Princess cruise I was not thrilled with the main dining room but found the buffet to be excellent so we chose to eat there most of the time- it was 24 X7 with a stunning variety and good quality)

 

We have to make our mind up by Friday, so all help will be appreciated.

[Sundance12]

im not sure about PD as i haven't been yet (not long now :) ) but from PSun i remember the food in the dining room as being quite good.. except when u order the alternative of grilled chicken and vegies as the vegies are some soggy carrots :P

the buffet was simply what u expect from a buffet.. food was nice but if u want fancy ur better off in the dining room.. but if ur content with buffet food (as i was) u wont have a problem

may i recommend the buffet at breaksfast simply because of the portion size.. as the buffet u can choose wheareas the dining room u get a bit stuck.. i went there only once and ordered pancakes and scrambled eggs and ended up with a plated covered in scrambled eggs and about five pancakes.. needless to say i couldnt finish it.. upside of the dining room was it was the only place i saw french toast.. hope this helps

[MargnGrah]

Hi Priddo,

 

We found the food on the Pacific Dawn was just great.

 

Always plenty of variety for breakfast, lunch and dinner,and always tasted yummy :D :D

 

I did hear a few people complain but I think they were being too fussy...you know can't please all of the people all of the time. :rolleyes:

 

I wouldn't worry about the quality of food I thought it was just fine, go on your cruise and enjoy!!!!

[arxcards]

Hi Priddo,

I have yet to hear of a cruiser that comes of a ship thinner than they went on.:)

 

Interesting how different things appeal to different people. We found Sun Princess to be the opposite to your experience - excellent in the dining room, average in the buffet. Was nice for a midnight after show snack though.

[Sundance12]

Im hoping they have the pestaccio souffle again :p

[Skyrules]

Im hoping they have the pestaccio souffle again :p

 

They do - and it was lovely :)

[Skyrules]

We recently did 16 nights on Pacific Dawn and didn't strike a bad meal. We had dinner in the main restaurant 14 out of the 16 nights and had a diffferent, delicious meal each night. We had buffet dinner once, which was ok, but we preferred the restuarant, and Pizzeria one night which was lovely.

 

Lunch we mostly had in the Buffet, and there was always plenty of choice; cold meats, salads, a variety of hot foods changing daily, lots of yummy cakes, cheesecakes or puddings for dessert.

 

For breakfast we switched between the restuarant and the buffet - usually depending on how late we slept in or how quickly we wanted to eat (particularly if it was a port day).

[flatron]

We just finished a 11 night cruise on the dawn and found the food in the buffet and the dining room to be exellent both in quality and taste (tried the buffet and dining room for breakfast lunch and dinner on different days).

I also like the fact that they make every thing that they can make on board instead of storing it on the ship for the whole cruise eg.ice cream, bread, cakes, ect

[Ricane]

We found the meals on Pacific Dawn to be great. We only had two lunches & one breakfast in the buffet as we much preferred the dining room. We had a really good variety and did not have a single meal we weren't happy with. As flatron says, everything is made fresh on the ship and we loved the bread rolls, cakes etc.

 

The steakhouse was superb and would recommend trying this - but would only have a very light lunch as the servings are huge.

 

Ella

[sailawaysally]

We've been on the Pacific Dawn 3 times and every time have found the food quality and quantity very good. We eat in the Dining Room at night but the buffet for breakfast and lunch. The other venues with burgers chips pizzas steaks etc are great too. There are usually 3 choices of the mains and if you don't like that there is always grilled chicken breast or caesar salad as an alternate choice to the set dining room menu. Even our friends who complained about other things on the cruise couldn't find anything to complain about with the food. They thought the dining room menus where equal to top quality as they eat out at top restaurants we couldn't afford to go to.

[fridayenough]

My DH and I and 2 of our friends were on the same cruise on the PD as flatron (wishing we were still there!) and we found the food to be really good, especially in the Palm Court Dining Room. Sometimes the food in the buffet looked a little greasy (eg schnitzels or calamari or fish and chips), but there were always so many options that we just chose something else. We always had breakfast from the buffet, lunch too apart from the last day which we had in the Dining Room. We had 8 out of 11 dinners in the Palm Court (buffet for the other 3) and the food was fabulous - the portion sizes are perfect, even if you had all 4 courses you didn't feel stuffed, and of course the table service makes you feel spoilt! I lost 8kg before the cruise and ate and drank pretty much everything I fancied (I don't just have a sweet tooth, I have a whole mouth full of them!) and only gained 2kg (and lost 1.1 of those already!).

 

I think you would have to be a REALLY fussy eater to not enjoy the food on the Dawn!

[aussiescouser]

OMG - The food was fantastic, so good that Hubby put on 5 kilos and i put on 3kgs thats the only bad thing about the food, there is so so much of it and so many different varieties that i had to have a taste of it all.

 

Breakfast was amazing with all the hot foods, toast (made right in front of you,) bacon, eggs (every way imagine) sausages, pancakes, hash browns, Wedges, baked beans, fried tomato. Lots of cakes and pastries as well as all your breakfast cereal (full creamed milk or lite) and fruit. Also was provided tubs of yogurt and juice.

 

Morning tea - fruit, cold meats, salad, pastries etc

 

Lunch was different everyday always had same sort of meat, chicken, vegetables, rice, pasta just cooked differently each day. There were always salad / fruit, pastries, bread rolls available.

 

Afternoon tea - fruit, cold meats, salad, pastries etc

 

Dinner was my highlight with so many to choose from (dinner is a must on the palm court) the service was fantastic! all the nights dinner were delicious. The only night i didn't eat there was the last night which was French night. I'm not a big fan of French food so we booked a night in the steak house which was also amazing but must admit the service and the variety of food was much better in the palm court. If you don't wish to dine in the steakhouse and do not like the menu for the following night (this is available on request) you can always look on the left hand side of the menu as it gives you a list of meals that are always available throughout the cruise.

 

As you can see there is always food available..

 

The food was amazing - Don't be afraid to ask for different sides. They will accommodate you on request.

 

Pizza, chicken, fries, kababs etc are also available on the lido deck. & Yummy icecream.

 

ENJOY - be prepared to put some kilos on, or you can go to the gym to work it off.

 

Regards

aussiescouser (Rose)

 

PS - I was also on the same cruise as Flatron and fridayenough (HI GUYS!)

[Carlz]

who said it's bad? :cool: what are they used to? 6 star silver service gourmet?

 

I was on Dawn in May this year and enjoyed every meal.

 

The big plus is the huge variety. PLUS I found if there was a dinner menu that I didn't fancy they bent over backwards to arrange some alternative....(mmmm grilled salmon and mashed potatoes.....)

 

One lunch we paid the nominal extra for a burger and chips- yummy yum yum:D

 

Our meal at the steakhouse was also deeeelicious- with a capital D!!!!:D

 

You would have to be pretty fussy to say that everything served was terrible- sheesh!;)

[Sundance12]

You're all making me hungry and i still have over 2 months to go :mad: :p on the Sun they didnt have all these extra options (they had the steakhouse and pizza but both were extra charge.. i hear the pizza is free on the Dawn is this true?) they had burgers but i dont remember fries adn kebabs being available and burgers were only at lunchtime and of course no buffet at dinner. My sister has many food allergies and so ended up at the pizza everynight because she couldnt eat from the set menu at the dining room and was sick of grilled chicken and fries by three nights in.. she could have served well from the buffet being available at dinner and the pizza being free.. But yes they do acommodate for different people e.g. she cannot eat any dairy and they cook their pastas with butter and cheese but the pizzaria was always happy to cook her up a dairyless pasta for free at lunchtimes :) apart from that great help I must say that the downside of the food on P&O is that they get you to specify your dietary requirements prior to cruising, and then 'acommodate' this by making u order the alternatives every night which are always the same.. as I said, grilled chicken and fries every night was getting a little tiresome for her.. and as they cook in bulk you couldnt make minor changes (although this is getting a little petty from me I know) like not having chilli in a sauce etc.. but ye the dietary one i thought was a little lazy

[Gratz]

I'm salivating!!!

[dogboy53]

(they had the steakhouse and pizza but both were extra charge.. i hear the pizza is free on the Dawn is this true?)

 

The pizza isn't free but is reasonably cheap and very nice. Also a burger and wedges for around $5.00 that was huge. You will enjoy everything on Pacific Dawn.

 

[kaseyoz]

No complaints from me on my recent cruise on the Pacific Dawn.

 

We ate at the buffet every breakfast and lunch and formal night dinner. the other times we ate at the Palm court. All meals were excellent..... well except for missing the fresh mango the one time they had it at breakfast!!!!

 

never needed to go to the alternative restaurants but there is plenty to choose from.

[PASSIONATE ABOUT CRUISING]

We recently did 16 nights on Pacific Dawn and didn't strike a bad meal. We had dinner in the main restaurant 14 out of the 16 nights and had a diffferent, delicious meal each night. We had buffet dinner once, which was ok, but we preferred the restuarant, and Pizzeria one night which was lovely.

 

Lunch we mostly had in the Buffet, and there was always plenty of choice; cold meats, salads, a variety of hot foods changing daily, lots of yummy cakes, cheesecakes or puddings for dessert.

 

For breakfast we switched between the restuarant and the buffet - usually depending on how late we slept in or how quickly we wanted to eat (particularly if it was a port day).

 

 

We did pretty much the same as Kym. There were a few hit & miss dinners, but nothing to really complain about. The one miss that I recall had escargot as an entree choice, & braised oxtail as one of the mains. We went to pizza that night. Menus are printed daily for lunch & dinner & put on display outside Palm Court so you could go & see what's on offer & obviously go elsewhere if nothing appeals.

 

PAC:)

[karmac]

The pizza isn't free but is reasonably cheap and very nice. Also a burger and wedges for around $5.00 that was huge. You will enjoy everything on Pacific Dawn.

 

 

There was one time our daughter (in the middle of the day........why she needed to eat who knows... but anyway) went to buy some wedges & chips (wanted half & half, I think about $2). Anyway, when she got them she didn;t think there was enough wedges so she asked for more. She ended up getting a full plate of wedges & a full plate fo chips for $2. She came out to where myself, DH, (fellow CCer) kazza1 & her DH were & we struggled to eat them between the 5 of us.

[PRIDDO]

Thank you to everyone who replied..and not a bad experience in sight. It is great to have a community of curisers to share their experiences. Many thanks again.