Pre-made Sandwiches in Lido

Anyone want to join me in restoring the Made To Order Sandwich Station in the Lido. All those against Soggy old Pre-made Sandwiches speak out.

You want mustard and they give you mayo. You want onion and they give you avacados. You want 3 slices of pastrami and they give one (maybe).

I have nothing bad to say about the pre-made sandwiches. I like the variety and all have been very good

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Anyone want to join me in restoring the Made To Order Sandwich Station in the Lido. All those against Soggy old Pre-made Sandwiches speak out.

 

You want mustard and they give you mayo. You want onion and they give you avacados. You want 3 slices of pastrami and they give one (maybe).

They had both on our last several cruises. Still like the Sandwich Bar!

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I am not a big fan of the premade sandwiches. I don't like a lot of "stuff" on my sandwich and most of them tend to have a handful of various things on them. On my last cruise I took all the things off I didn't want/like and was left with one little piece of meat and a roll. I didn't bother to try another sandwich after that.

On our recent Grand Med Cruise (Prinsendam) it was the last cruise before they downgraded to the new Market Place and no custom sandwiches. One of the sandwich makers (a long time HAL crew member) was quite depressed and said he was going to miss interacting with passengers and seeing them smile when he made exactly what they wanted. He told us it would not be fun to sit back in the galley cranking out a few sandwiches like an assembly line. And he expressed our feelings on this subject. HAL continues to downgrade their product...trying very hard to become a low-class cafeteria with very limited offerings. Perhaps the HAL cruisers who live in Assisted Living Centers will feel comfortable with the new format...but we cannot even conceive how this is going to help attract a younger generation of cruisers sought out by HAL. Yes, HAL will now save some money since they can slap 1 slice of meat on some bread...rather then add the extra meat demanded by a passenger. Omelets that used to be made with real eggs...are now made with pasteurized and emulsified stuff out of a box. Bacon, is sliced so thin that one could read a book through the slices. The nice cold shrimp we used to see on salad bars at lunch...are long gone. Want a simple BLT on toast with some mayo???? You can no longer get that on HAL. Want Pastrami on rye with some mustard? Not on HAL. Want some basic roasted chicken. That you will find on nearly every Lido lunch buffet.

Our next HAL cruise (in the Baltic) cost us less than $100 per passenger day for a balcony! That is a budget price...fitting for a budget cruise line. Eventually, folks will understand and no longer be willing to pay higher prices for a low price/class product. What a shame.

Hank

The sandwiches on the Nieuw Amsterdam in February were dam good! One was so good I ate two for lunch!

Are there sandwich fixings to make your own? Bread, meats, cheeses, spreads, etc... ?

The sandwiches on the Nieuw Amsterdam in February were dam good! One was so good I ate two for lunch!

Which one was it? ;)

On our recent Grand Med Cruise (Prinsendam) it was the last cruise before they downgraded to the new Market Place and no custom sandwiches. One of the sandwich makers (a long time HAL crew member) was quite depressed and said he was going to miss interacting with passengers and seeing them smile when he made exactly what they wanted. He told us it would not be fun to sit back in the galley cranking out a few sandwiches like an assembly line. And he expressed our feelings on this subject. HAL continues to downgrade their product...trying very hard to become a low-class cafeteria with very limited offerings. Perhaps the HAL cruisers who live in Assisted Living Centers will feel comfortable with the new format...but we cannot even conceive how this is going to help attract a younger generation of cruisers sought out by HAL. Yes, HAL will now save some money since they can slap 1 slice of meat on some bread...rather then add the extra meat demanded by a passenger. Omelets that used to be made with real eggs...are now made with pasteurized and emulsified stuff out of a box. Bacon, is sliced so thin that one could read a book through the slices. The nice cold shrimp we used to see on salad bars at lunch...are long gone. Want a simple BLT on toast with some mayo???? You can no longer get that on HAL. Want Pastrami on rye with some mustard? Not on HAL. Want some basic roasted chicken. That you will find on nearly every Lido lunch buffet.

 

Our next HAL cruise (in the Baltic) cost us less than $100 per passenger day for a balcony! That is a budget price...fitting for a budget cruise line. Eventually, folks will understand and no longer be willing to pay higher prices for a low price/class product. What a shame.

 

Hank

If one slice of meat isn't enough for you, just take two. I'm not sure it's a money saving thing. Maybe a time saving thing though, now passengers can grab a sandwich quick without having to wait in line for everyone ahead of them to figure out what they want. I do agree though that it was fun interacting with the person making the sandwich.

I loved the sandwiches on the Nieuw Amsterdam. They were so much more interesting than the same old, same old sandwiches I can make every day at home.

We hate those pre-made soggy sandwiches!!

Neither of us like Mayo.

HAL needs to take those staff members who won't let you make your own salad and have them work over at the sandwich place and make sandwiches to your liking -- just blike we used to have.

I ended up taking a pre-made sandwich, taking it apart and making a new one with a roll. What a waste of food. Our Hotel Director agreed (I posted on my live thread and he was reading ;)). It's a directive from Seattle, not a ship choice.

So, if you want choice, the best thing to do is to let Seattle know IMO.

We were very disappointed when we heard there were no more made to order sandwiches before our last HAL cruise.

However, we were very happy with the premade sandwiches. They were delicious combinations on fresh rolls and bread - things I'd never think of combining. We were very pleasantly surprised.

I have no idea who decides on the combinations of ingredients for the pre made sandwiches but the ones on the Noordam in April were horrible.

They were also very soggy.

I ended up taking a roll or some bread from the pasta station and going to the roast of the day and getting hot meat and gravy or/or condiments and making my own.

On our recent Grand Med Cruise (Prinsendam) it was the last cruise before they downgraded to the new Market Place and no custom sandwiches. One of the sandwich makers (a long time HAL crew member) was quite depressed and said he was going to miss interacting with passengers and seeing them smile when he made exactly what they wanted. He told us it would not be fun to sit back in the galley cranking out a few sandwiches like an assembly line. And he expressed our feelings on this subject. HAL continues to downgrade their product...trying very hard to become a low-class cafeteria with very limited offerings. Perhaps the HAL cruisers who live in Assisted Living Centers will feel comfortable with the new format...but we cannot even conceive how this is going to help attract a younger generation of cruisers sought out by HAL. Yes, HAL will now save some money since they can slap 1 slice of meat on some bread...rather then add the extra meat demanded by a passenger. Omelets that used to be made with real eggs...are now made with pasteurized and emulsified stuff out of a box. Bacon, is sliced so thin that one could read a book through the slices. The nice cold shrimp we used to see on salad bars at lunch...are long gone. Want a simple BLT on toast with some mayo???? You can no longer get that on HAL. Want Pastrami on rye with some mustard? Not on HAL. Want some basic roasted chicken. That you will find on nearly every Lido lunch buffet.

 

Our next HAL cruise (in the Baltic) cost us less than $100 per passenger day for a balcony! That is a budget price...fitting for a budget cruise line. Eventually, folks will understand and no longer be willing to pay higher prices for a low price/class product. What a shame.

 

Hank

I am not going to defend pre made sandwiches nor am I going to eat one but I don't agree entirely with your choice of the word degrade when referring to the Marketplace. On the P'dam the new Marketplace resulted in an excellent level of service by staff. No more hunting for a glasses of water or juice in the morning. The wait staff were all over us. It had been a long time since that had happened and the CD told us that was part of the changes due to the Marketplace so it's not all bad;).

I agree with your comments concerning HALs "strategy" on sales and marketing. I continue to maintain what HAL should be doing is increasing their level of service, the quality of their offerings like food and entertainment and charging a higher price. That way they actually would differentiate themselves from other middle market cruise lines. I maintain they will never beat Carnival at being a low cost no frills line.

I am not going to defend pre made sandwiches nor am I going to eat one but I don't agree entirely with your choice of the word degrade when referring to the Marketplace. On the P'dam the new Marketplace resulted in an excellent level of service by staff. No more hunting for a glasses of water or juice in the morning. The wait staff were all over us. It had been a long time since that had happened and the CD told us that was part of the changes due to the Marketplace so it's not all bad;).

 

I agree with your comments concerning HALs "strategy" on sales and marketing. I continue to maintain what HAL should be doing is increasing their level of service, the quality of their offerings like food and entertainment and charging a higher price. That way they actually would differentiate themselves from other middle market cruise lines. I maintain they will never beat Carnival at being a low cost no frills line.

Hmmm. You have a point. You do not have to hunt for a glass of fresh squeezed OJ in the Lido. Why? Because it no longer exists.

Hank

They already have mayo or some sort of spread on them? Yuck. Just yuck.

On our recent Grand Med Cruise (Prinsendam) it was the last cruise before they downgraded to the new Market Place and no custom sandwiches. One of the sandwich makers (a long time HAL crew member) was quite depressed and said he was going to miss interacting with passengers and seeing them smile when he made exactly what they wanted. He told us it would not be fun to sit back in the galley cranking out a few sandwiches like an assembly line. And he expressed our feelings on this subject. HAL continues to downgrade their product...trying very hard to become a low-class cafeteria with very limited offerings. Perhaps the HAL cruisers who live in Assisted Living Centers will feel comfortable with the new format...but we cannot even conceive how this is going to help attract a younger generation of cruisers sought out by HAL. Yes, HAL will now save some money since they can slap 1 slice of meat on some bread...rather then add the extra meat demanded by a passenger. Omelets that used to be made with real eggs...are now made with pasteurized and emulsified stuff out of a box. Bacon, is sliced so thin that one could read a book through the slices. The nice cold shrimp we used to see on salad bars at lunch...are long gone. Want a simple BLT on toast with some mayo???? You can no longer get that on HAL. Want Pastrami on rye with some mustard? Not on HAL. Want some basic roasted chicken. That you will find on nearly every Lido lunch buffet.

 

Our next HAL cruise (in the Baltic) cost us less than $100 per passenger day for a balcony! That is a budget price...fitting for a budget cruise line. Eventually, folks will understand and no longer be willing to pay higher prices for a low price/class product. What a shame.Hank

I bolded your last sentence, because HAL is not charging higher prices.. They are charging budget prices.. You even said so in the sentence above.. They are still charging what they charged us in 1998..That is the shame..

Every other food based restaurant including our own Ft. Myers based "Dinner Theater", has kept their good food, excellent service, & still has excellent productions.. But in order to maintain their service they have increased their season tickets yearly & we continue to purchase those higher priced season tickets..

HAL needs to increase prices FIRST in order to maintain their once excellent food service.. They can't possibly have special service for food unless they increase those prices..

... You do not have to hunt for a glass of fresh squeezed OJ in the Lido. Why? Because it no longer exists. Hank

... maybe not on the Prinsendam but most certainly does on the Veendam (which we were on a couple of weeks ago) ...

On our recent Maasdam cruise the premade-sandwiches were gross. Bread soggy, the stuff they put on it & the bead they used we couldn't choke down. I saw two ladies opening the sandwiches picking thru them to identify what was in the bag because signs were not correct then putting them back. (Yes the staff knew they were re-folding bags)!

There were 6 of us we all enjoy sandwiches we did order club sandwich from room service but for a change we started making our own in the cabin.

At breakfast: we got bread, boiled eggs, ham, bacon, cheeses

From the salad bar we got: tomatoes, lettuce, olives, chicken

Going and getting all this and making your own is like being at home and NOT my idea of a vacation! Lucky for us we had plates, a toaster & silverware in room.

We received a call & were invited to tour the ship. We had 1st time cruisers so we went.

Then it became clear about the pre-made sandwich.

8 a.m. the bread/rolls for the sandwiches were on lido serving trays that were not full stacked on big carts that were not covered. 2 cooks (not official title) had about 20 pcs of bread spread out assembling them & stacking. Passing by on our way out another crew member joined them to bag them and placed in baskets. So there were 3 sometime 4 crew working on the sandwiches but at a slow time not the lunch rush.

Well as it goes the person of our group in charge of getting bread forgot! We were all laughing so we had to explain to the Chef (very embarrassing)!

He told us just call he would make what we wanted

I bolded your last sentence, because HAL is not charging higher prices.. They are charging budget prices.. You even said so in the sentence above.. They are still charging what they charged us in 1998..That is the shame..

 

Every other food based restaurant including our own Ft. Myers based "Dinner Theater", has kept their good food, excellent service, & still has excellent productions.. But in order to maintain their service they have increased their season tickets yearly & we continue to purchase those higher priced season tickets..

 

HAL needs to increase prices FIRST in order to maintain their once excellent food service.. They can't possibly have special service for food unless they increase those prices..

The thing about increasing prices is that you must find cruisers willing to pay the higher prices. HAL seems to be going the other way, with last minute bargain bookings on many cruises, which indicated that they are unable to sell enough cabins at their current pricing. It is interesting to watch Celebrity, where their new CEO, has been implementing major price increases (over 10% a year) and also cutting back on some things. So far, she seems to be getting away with it (higher prices for less) because that line is very popular. Meanwhile, on HAL, we are paying less for less....which becomes a death spiral down to a budget line.

Hank

Are there sandwich fixings to make your own? Bread, meats, cheeses, spreads, etc... ?

Nope. Take it (the pre-made crap) or leave it.

Which one was it? ;)

A curry chicken sandwich.

While I understand that people may want a sandwich made with what they want (I like that too at times) but I also like to try combinations that I would not have thought of on a sandwich. :)

I loved the sandwiches on the Nieuw Amsterdam. They were so much more interesting than the same old, same old sandwiches I can make every day at home.

Exactly!

If one slice of meat isn't enough for you, just take two. I'm not sure it's a money saving thing. Maybe a time saving thing though, now passengers can grab a sandwich quick without having to wait in line for everyone ahead of them to figure out what they want. I do agree though that it was fun interacting with the person making the sandwich.

Piling a lot of slices of meat on a sandwich is an American thing.

I want to be 30 years younger, 30 pounds lighter, and have $100 million dollars more in the bank. None of those things are ever going to happen. Neither is HAL going to revert back to its "glory days" - whenever that was.

If you're unhappy with HAL as it stands now, all you have to do is book with another line. There are plenty of premium lines to choose from that would be happy to accommodate you.