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Food experience on Seabourn gone downhill since Carnival taken over.


Mcadamia
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<|3We are foodies and since small ships offer very little in the way of other amusements, the food is very important.

We have just been on Seabourn Quest from Boston to Montreal and were quite shocked about how the food experience has been dumbed down. It's 3 years since our last Seabourn cruise, having gone regularly yearly prior to that. The boring lack of variety and creativity of options, the restricted options (Collonade offers only choice of 2 options at night). The replacement of restaurant 2 by Thomas Keller had been a retrograde step with minimal options and just more of the same. Basically it's meat or fish every night, Prawns and chicken breast and that about sums it up.

All the appetisers are vegetarian except one.( we are not vegetarian) , It was a struggle every day to find something , sometimes we had to traverse between the three eating places to get three courses due to minimal variety. Nothing clever or creative about the food, just basic protein on a plate . Since we only want to eat red meat once a week and only eat fresh ( never frozen) fish and don't consider chicken breast tasty , it was a very sad trip. Not looking forward to the 35 day Feb trip we had booked for next Feb. Definitely wouldn't have booked it after being bored with the food after 5 days on this trip. Looks like we will need to eat off ship to ensure we don't die of foodie boredom. On the upside our loyalty ties with Seabourn are now broken and we will look elsewhere to the ships that win the best food categories . There were comments by others along similar lines so think Seabourn should rethink their cost saving approach as in the long term it will lose loyal customers like us .

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Everyone has his or her own opinion about catering on cruise ships. For me, I find the Thomas Keller Grill Restaurant a big improvement over R2’s mini bites and decor, an evening I book well in advance and look forward to. Same with some of his dinner menus in the Colonnade. Further, and while I am usually quite happy with the MDR choices for dinner, we have enjoyed fabulous special order menus there on a couple of special occasions.

 

That said, please advise where you find the culinary satisfaction you are seeking. We have our first Silversea cruise on the Whisper in 3 weeks and I

am keen to see how they compare with Seabourn.

 

Happy and healthy sailing!

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Carnival Corporation took over in1998....1998. So, I guess all of your cruises that were wonderful, up until this one, was thanks to Carnival Corp.

 

I really think that some people here think Carnival Cruise Line owns Seabourn. Carnival Cruise Line AND Seabourn are owned by Carnival Corporation.

 

If you are interested in the holdings of CCL (their ticker symbol) you can click on the below link

 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnival_Corporation_%26_plc

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Food is a very personal issue and no cruise line will ever please 100% of the passengers who sail on it. It is too bad that you did not enjoy your dining experience on your recent cruise. I will say that whatever was or was not wrong about the food you have lost much of your credibility by the misleading title of your thread. In fact Seabourn has been 100% owned by Carnival a Corporation since 2001-- well before your cruise three years ago.

 

And since you were so unhappy why punish yourself with a 35 day cruise in February? Why not cancel and book one of the other lines that appeals to you more?

 

 

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Everyone has his or her own opinion about catering on cruise ships. For me, I find the Thomas Keller Grill Restaurant a big improvement over R2’s mini bites and decor, an evening I book well in advance and look forward to. Same with some of his dinner menus in the Colonnade. Further, and while I am usually quite happy with the MDR choices for dinner, we have enjoyed fabulous special order menus there on a couple of special occasions.

 

That said, please advise where you find the culinary satisfaction you are seeking. We have our first Silversea cruise on the Whisper in 3 weeks and I

am keen to see how they compare with Seabourn.

 

Happy and healthy sailing!

 

 

Spoke to another couple on board who were echoing our sentiments and they said Silverseas was now on par with Seabourn food wise ( rather than better than them as before) so will be interesting to hear your take after you have tried it.

Our first approach is to speak to the Seabourn head office to try and improve things and to the Food and beverages manager on board to see if they will cook items we bring on board to add variety to tne meals for our next trip as it's too late for us to get out of that trip now

Though as Australians ( as were the other couple) it may be we are used to a much more varied diet than Americans . We have a lot of Asian influence on our food and there is very little of that on board and we do miss it.

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Food is a very personal issue and no cruise line will ever please 100% of the passengers who sail on it. It is too bad that you did not enjoy your dining experience on your recent cruise. I will say that whatever was or was not wrong about the food you have lost much of your credibility by the misleading title of your thread. In fact Seabourn has been 100% owned by Carnival a Corporation since 2001-- well before your cruise three years ago.

 

And since you were so unhappy why punish yourself with a 35 day cruise in February? Why not cancel and book one of the other lines that appeals to you more?

 

 

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100% owned by CCL since Spring, 1998 when they purchased the remaining 50% interest from founder/owner Atlee Brynsted and jointly operated Seabourn with Cunard. Seabourn closed their office in SFO and Larry Pimentel and a few others relocated to MIA to continue operating Seabourn as it merged its operations with Cunard.

 

I think the 2001 date comes into play as there were IIRC some people/corporations that held very minor positions in Seabourn and were finally bought out. For all intents and purposes Seabourn has been owned by CCL since 1998.

 

They, like Cunard, would not exist now unless they had been purchased by CCL or another like entity.

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<|3We are foodies and since small ships offer very little in the way of other amusements, the food is very important.

We have just been on Seabourn Quest from Boston to Montreal and were quite shocked about how the food experience has been dumbed down. It's 3 years since our last Seabourn cruise, having gone regularly yearly prior to that. The boring lack of variety and creativity of options, the restricted options (Collonade offers only choice of 2 options at night). The replacement of restaurant 2 by Thomas Keller had been a retrograde step with minimal options and just more of the same. Basically it's meat or fish every night, Prawns and chicken breast and that about sums it up.

All the appetisers are vegetarian except one.( we are not vegetarian) , It was a struggle every day to find something , sometimes we had to traverse between the three eating places to get three courses due to minimal variety. Nothing clever or creative about the food, just basic protein on a plate . Since we only want to eat red meat once a week and only eat fresh ( never frozen) fish and don't consider chicken breast tasty , it was a very sad trip. Not looking forward to the 35 day Feb trip we had booked for next Feb. Definitely wouldn't have booked it after being bored with the food after 5 days on this trip. Looks like we will need to eat off ship to ensure we don't die of foodie boredom. On the upside our loyalty ties with Seabourn are now broken and we will look elsewhere to the ships that win the best food categories . There were comments by others along similar lines so think Seabourn should rethink their cost saving approach as in the long term it will lose loyal customers like us .

 

We are foodies who have few expectations about having great culinary experiences on a ship. That being said, our recent cruise on the Quest generally vastly exceeded our expectations--except for a few horrible dishes in the TK Grill. (Sir, would you like potatoes with your butter? Madam, would you like lamb with your salt?)

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Cruisr,

I was referring to the date when Carnival bought out their partners in 2001. But whether you want to use the 2001 or 1998 date (when they upped their ownership from the previous 50% with a partners to 100%) the point remains that this did not happen in the last three years as the OP suggests in their thread title.

 

In the last three years the only changes I have noticed food wise in terms of choice is that due to the addition of the Keller menu there are fewer choices on the regular menu. But this still is not a decrease in choice overall -- they took away some and added the Keller. Menus have always been relatively red meat centric. I don't eat much red meat at home but do enjoy the qualify beef and lamb on a Seabourn . But I easily avoid red meat on Seabourn and dine with various options.

 

The OP has options that they may not have explored. First of all, you can occasionally put in a special order. If you do it well in advance and they have it on board they will be happy to prepare it for you. Also another option to avoid red meat is have a couple of appetizers (which often are quite interesting and less likely to be meat centric) instead of an appetizer and a main course.

 

As to talking to the F&B manager about cooking food you bring on board I doubt if that will work as they can only serve food they have purchased due to health and safety protocols.

 

As to an Australian diet being more varied than a US one I hardly think that is the case. We not only have widely varied regional cuisine but even the smallest towns boast a wide variety of restaurants offering cuisine from many countries.

 

Honestly, if the OP is that unhappy they really should cancel and book another cruise.

 

 

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Menu and products coming from the kitchen has been controlled by Holland America for about three years. Overall, the food has declined in quality and offerings. It's hardly a secret. Agree with the "would you like lamb with your salt" in TK. I'm not all that upset with the decline, but it would be difficult not to notice. Reading about foodies complain about shipboard meals provides a laugh.

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Generally speaking, people only post when they want to whinge about something. It's human nature.[/quote

 

I’d like to think this isn’t true but I’m afraid it might be.

 

We board Quest October 12th. Can anyone me who the executive chef is please? Not that it really matters because we can’t change things :D

We do find the quality of the food depends greatly on who is in the kitchen - just like home really.

 

I’m hoping for lobster, lobster and more lobster ;)

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Joc123, we did the Quest cruise 1st Sept, 2015 Montreal to Boston and we were pleasantly surprised by the number of lobster meals we had on board. Hope you have the same experience.

 

Also, if you stop in Bar Harbor, find a local restaurant, I had a 1 1/4 lb lobster meal there for $20 and it was unreal.

 

IMO our recent Encore cruise had fabulous meal options, better than our SB cruises 4 or 5 years ago.

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We have our first Silversea cruise on the Whisper in 3 weeks and I am keen to see how they compare with Seabourn.

 

Happy and healthy sailing!

 

A friend of mine is on the Whisper now (she has also sailed SB). It will be interesting to get her thoughts.

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We are currently on the Odyssey and the food has been very good. Lots of variety and fresh fish every night.

 

We cruise Crystal, Regent and Seabourn and find the food to be the highlight of our trip but we don't consider ourselves to be "foodies" so maybe we just don't know.

Edited by TRIPACIAN
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Ok, must be a bean counter thing then as tne drop in variety over last few years is very noticeable .

 

 

We had this type of experience on our recent Encore cruise (other than the TK, which we do prefer to R2). Everything went back to normal however, once we were back on Odyssey for the cruise after that, thank goodness. As it happens I'm also someone who would welcome more Asian influences, but as others have said, food is really a very subjective thing.

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Interesting that the OP complains about 1) lack of variety of food and 2) the starters being mostly vegetarian.

 

As a vegetarian/vegan, I've noticed that Seabourn has not changed its veggie items for years. In fact, I find the exact same repertoire of veggie dishes today as back in 2010 (I have some of the menus over the years). Carnivores on board already have a greater choice at every menu at every dining venue every night. We vegetarians, on the other hand, basically have one choice (main dish) that is the same across all dining venues every night. There are minor exceptions, e.g. TK nights in the main restaurant, where sometimes there is a veggie main, or Ad Hoc nights at the Colonnade, where one can order the veggie alternative main (not printed on the menu).

 

Even the executive chefs agree that we have a very limited choice to begin with, and that the items have not changed in years. Sometimes I'd ask for special orders, but that's more work, both for me and for the chefs. One time I was lucky in that one of their chefs used to work at a vegan restaurant in Canada, and he would make me a delicious veggie dish at the Colonnade for lunch every day. Of course I complimented him profusely to Corporate, and next time I was on board, he had been promoted, and I lost him at the Colonnade...

 

Regarding Asian food, it would indeed be wonderful if Seabourn had more Asian food in theory, but in practice, no thanks. As wonderful as the cuisine is on Seabourn, their strength and focus is on European/American food. Every time they would attempt "Asian" food, it's best to stay away. Sometimes they can manage a decent Indian curry, but that's not even always the case, even if they have Indian chefs on board. They just don't have the raw ingredients, recipes, training and talent in place to execute good authentic "Asian" food on board. (I can't comment on The Sushi Restaurant on the Encore and wonder how their vegetarian obento box is for lunch and how their veggie sushi items are for dinner.)

 

As an example, I requested plain rice congee for breakfast - a staple comfort food for Chinese and the simplest item consisting of nothing but white rice and water. The Filipino chefs just couldn't get it, and I finally gave up on the third try. My Singaporean friend asked for Singaporean fried noodles for breakfast, and it was also a disaster. Lesson learned: leverage their strength (i.e. Western food), don't challenge them with what they don't know. There is a reason Seabourn does not and cannot attract more Asian clients.

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Regarding Asian food, it would indeed be wonderful if Seabourn had more Asian food in theory, but in practice, no thanks. As wonderful as the cuisine is on Seabourn, their strength and focus is on European/American food. Every time they would attempt "Asian" food, it's best to stay away. Sometimes they can manage a decent Indian curry, but that's not even always the case, even if they have Indian chefs on board. They just don't have the raw ingredients, recipes, training and talent in place to execute good authentic "Asian" food on board. (I can't comment on The Sushi Restaurant on the Encore and wonder how their vegetarian obento box is for lunch and how their veggie sushi items are for dinner.)

 

As an example, I requested plain rice congee for breakfast - a staple comfort food for Chinese and the simplest item consisting of nothing but white rice and water. The Filipino chefs just couldn't get it, and I finally gave up on the third try. My Singaporean friend asked for Singaporean fried noodles for breakfast, and it was also a disaster. Lesson learned: leverage their strength (i.e. Western food), don't challenge them with what they don't know. There is a reason Seabourn does not and cannot attract more Asian clients.

 

On our last voyage, we asked the chef for an Indian meal, and we were treated to a wonderful bounty of treats, from soup to desert. A memorable experience for us. The food was much better than the buffet fare that is usually available.

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On our last voyage, we asked the chef for an Indian meal, and we were treated to a wonderful bounty of treats, from soup to desert. A memorable experience for us. The food was much better than the buffet fare that is usually available.

 

I've had good luck with Indian curry as well when I requested a crew version, i.e. not dumbed down for guests. But even that was inconsistent; last time it wasn't good at all.

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Food is always going to be verysubjective. I also consider myself a foodie, and have been generallyhappy with the food on Seabourn. It is not three star gourmet fare, butas good as we have found on a cruise ship. I found the comments aboutSilversea interesting possibly indicative of my original statement that food isvery subjective. We were on one Silversea cruise, the Cloud, and foundthe food generally tepid or downright cold and flavorless (other than the burger which was quite good, in all fairness). The appetizers served at receptions and in the bar were universally cold,at every reception and each time we went to the bar, even when they were intendedto be served hot such as fried calamari or pigs in a blanket to name just acouple. The dinners were often tasteless and overcooked. On the last night, myhusband and I both ordered beef. The beef was shoe leather and thepotatoes were underdone. We both sent it back.

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We once ordered beef, chicken, and pork dinners on Silversea room service. Blindfolded, we could not identify the entree being eaten. Texture, flavor....all the same. It's getting close to that point on Seabourn. Try it. Diversity and count of menu items should be pretty black and white. There are not enough colors to cover the canvas of personal food tastes.

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