Baked Beans

I have just been on a fantastic Baltic cruise on board Queen Victoria.Tremendous experience with a lucky draw of Ten Fab table mates in Brittania restaurant. The ports of call were all very interesting including an overnight in St Petersburg which gave us Two days to get to see the lovely sights of Russia truly great holiday.

I just feel the need to call out Three very cheap and nasty food and drink Items Cunard needs to change I think.

1. Cunard Baked beans they are vile and very cheap there should be a premium baked bean such as Heinz or Waitrose/Tesco own brand. It spoils my breakfast choice as a vegetarian and next cruise I am thinking of bringing my own if nothing changes.

2. The thin cut and weak brown bread. Its really time the bread was better quality I don't eat this crap bread at home so why cant we get decent wholemeal bread on board a quality ship?

3. The garbage coffee served in the Brittania restaurant.Surley they should be serving quality coffee at all times, the stuff we are served up with I wouldn't drink this at home and I would be embarrassed to give it to anyone so why should it be served on a premium cruise liner?

Any body else feel the same way about the beans bread and coffee being third class rubbish or is it me?

Can't really argue about the bread and coffee.

The coffee especially is dreadful, it takes a particular skill to produce such a vile potion :o

We always buy coffee cards and drink tea in the dining room.

As to the beans I never have them so have no opinion on the ones they serve :D

I agree about all 3 & it's the same whichever cruise line we've used. I take my own coffee into the buffet for breakfast & then buy the speciality coffees. I've often thought they deliberately have crap coffee so coffee lovers are forced to part with their money to get a half decent one. As for the toast, its always hard & tasteless, never had decent toast yet! The croissants are also below par, mediocre at best!

We also bring our own coffee and tea-bags whenever we are on holiday.

Starbucks Via Ready Brew packets look like large paper tubes of sugar so it is easy to transport. And its not too far off in taste from the Starbucks coffee you get at the shops.

I also drink very strong English tea so find most tea-bags offered not coming close to what I want.

Bringing your own baked beans is an interesting concept.

Bringing your own baked beans is an interesting concept.

I'd simply go without if I didn't like the taste of anything (and have done so)... there are many other choices.

Tastes are individual, one person's poor beans, bread or coffee... are another person's perfectly fine. For example: The very worst breakfast that I've ever had was in a hotel in Hong Kong. The "coffee" was undrinkable (so I didn't), most of the food was tasteless or distinctly unpleasant. Eating a raffia coaster would have been preferable to the "toast" provided. However, the buffet was full of people seemingly happily enjoying their meal. So maybe it was just me?

A final thought; the general taste/quality of food... many seek ever-lower prices from hotels and cruises; is it then so surprising that costs are cut to meet that demand?

Bringing your own baked beans is an interesting concept.

Totally agree.

The problem with Baked Beans in my opinion is cultural. In the United Kingdom top quality baked beans like Heinz, Branston etc. always come in a very thin, sweet tomato sauce. This type of bean is a very central and unique part of traditional Full English Breakfast and central to British culture for many. Americans do Baked Beans without the crucial sauce and provide a totally different product. At breakfast I ask the waiter for American Bacon, English Bacon and if they have it Danish Bacon!

There are a number of ways cruise lines ruin a standard British dish, Bread and Butter pudding in a chocolate sauce - ridiculous.

Regards John

I’m a baked bean fan.

On toast some bacon. Yummy.

The biggest problem on every ship is they are never hot enough.

Bringing your own baked beans is an interesting concept.

It's recommended no to spill them. :D

I have never found breakfast beans that weren't vile. The worst breakfast beans on the globe are the arabic ful medames beans, a dish that if served anywhere onboard would probably make me jump overboard.

For coffee, it's not the worst I ever had on a ship (that prize goes to the Saxon Steam Navigation Company in Dresden, Germany.), but it's pretty bad. I wonder wether it is better on Italian ships like the ones of Costa Crociere or MSC. At least with Cunard, it's free after meals.

German lines like for instance TUI Cruises (German version) tend to have their own speciality bakeries on board. This is mainly because if they would serve only the British kind of brown bread, we would hear about a passenger mutiny every other week. In general I think the bread you get onboard a Cunard ship isn't too bad, the dinner rolls are usually very good.

About being a vegetarian: Did you ever think about sweet options like french toast, pancakes, etc? They are availbable for room service breakfast, but you will have to order off menu.

... About being a vegetarian: Did you ever think about sweet options like french toast, pancakes, etc? ...

Baked beans with every breakfast? No thank you (I've seen "Blazing Saddles")...

Moreover, If you are going to self-selectively restrict your choice ("I won't eat that"), be prepared to eat what remains; the fussier you are, inevitably the less choice you will have.

Omnivores have it easy.

I am thinking of bringing my own if nothing changes.

How would that work then, from a practical point of view ? I assume you'd arrive at the MDR in the morning, sit and your table and then hand over your tin on beans to the waiter and ask him to give them to the kitchen to heat up for you ? Hmm... really ?

But I agree about the coffee and toast. Both are shocking. The bread would be referred to as "hen bread" by my late Grandma - a term she always used for cheap and nasty poor quality bread.

And the coffee is like something Mrs Miggins would serve , as described by Blackadder as "Brown grit in hot water".

I must agree that the "quality" of the thin, cardboard-like bread is atrocious. It's bad enough before it's toasted but afterwards, just plain inedible.

I agree about the dreadful coffee. I normally take either coffee bags, but need 2 or the individual filters for my cabin.

I’m not a big breakfast fan, so don’t eat beans at breakfast. I don’t remember there being anything wrong with the bread, but normally choose rolls.

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I have a question to repeat cruisers about the Cunard coffee in the restaurants which so many people complain about- is the problem that people find that it is too weak, too strong, or something else?

Thanks!

(And yes, we are coffee people- I'm a hard core plain black coffee snob)

I have a question to repeat cruisers about the Cunard coffee in the restaurants which so many people complain about- is the problem that people find that it is too weak, too strong, or something else?

Thanks!

(And yes, we are coffee people- I'm a hard core plain black coffee snob)

It has no taste. It does not taste of coffee - it tastes of nothing.

It has no taste. It does not taste of coffee - it tastes of nothing.

I think it tastes like normal, cheap instant coffee. I don’t do instant.

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I think it tastes like normal, cheap instant coffee. I don’t do instant.

True. Instant coffee served black tastes of very little. I drink coffee black with no sugar if it's filter coffee, or white with 2 sugars if it's instant.

One lunchtime on our last cruise on the QV we overheard a couple on a table close to us commenting on how bad their coffee was. I spoke to the chap and told him he was correct and just how poor I thought it was as well. He went right off on one ! "You are right, you are absolutely right. I'm not having it, it's not good enough !" he said. He then kicked up a huge fuss and had the waiter bring him a new pot, then the head waiter came over and asked what the problem was, then he too brought him a new pot as well with much apologies.

And this thread has reminded me of that lunchtime !

the coffee in the evening in the MDR is always hot strong and nicer

The only place in Italy that sells baked beans is Lidl.I prefer them to Heinz as they are a little aldente.The funny thing is, on the can it says made by Campo Largo in Italy for Lidl,lol.

I have a question to repeat cruisers about the Cunard coffee in the restaurants which so many people complain about- is the problem that people find that it is too weak, too strong, or something else?

Thanks!

(And yes, we are coffee people- I'm a hard core plain black coffee snob)

The problem is, that there are vast differences in coffee tastes and habits throughout. The average American joe is a lot weaker than what most of Europe (except Germany) drinks. In Asia, coffee is 99% milk & sugar and has very little in common with western coffee. On the other hand there is NO, absolutely NO real espresso available outside Italy. Don't even think that anything you get in your average coffee shop is at par with the stuff you get in Italy.

I once had a cup of Kopi Luwak, allegedly it's the best coffee in the world and praised for its mild taste. I found it awfully weak, quite tasteless, and will never ever drink it again.

Whatever you do, there is always someone who thinks that the coffee is too weak, strong, dark, light or even sour. On a ship I reluctantly accept the fact that the coffee served doesn't match my taste and keep drinking it as it is.

The problem is, that there are vast differences in coffee tastes and habits throughout. The average American joe is a lot weaker than what most of Europe (except Germany) drinks. In Asia, coffee is 99% milk & sugar and has very little in common with western coffee. On the other hand there is NO, absolutely NO real espresso available outside Italy. Don't even think that anything you get in your average coffee shop is at par with the stuff you get in Italy.

 

I once had a cup of Kopi Luwak, allegedly it's the best coffee in the world and praised for its mild taste. I found it awfully weak, quite tasteless, and will never ever drink it again.

 

 

 

Whatever you do, there is always someone who thinks that the coffee is too weak, strong, dark, light or even sour. On a ship I reluctantly accept the fact that the coffee served doesn't match my taste and keep drinking it as it is.

As it’s not to my taste I don’t drink it. I’m not in the habit of eating or drinking things I don’t like.

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I really don’t mind the coffee on Cunard-I find it rather good with an edge, an eye opener, not mellow-and that’s what I need in the morning-I take it with whole milk and no sugar. I sometime use it during the day as an eye opener. In the evening I usually don’t take coffee after 8. I think for many folks their preference in coffee is as varied as their preference in egg preparation. But a hot mug of morning coffee out on Deck 7 seated under the zodiac roof with boisterous seas is my idea of heaven:D

The problem is, that there are vast differences in coffee tastes and habits throughout. The average American joe is a lot weaker than what most of Europe (except Germany) drinks. In Asia, coffee is 99% milk & sugar and has very little in common with western coffee. On the other hand there is NO, absolutely NO real espresso available outside Italy. Don't even think that anything you get in your average coffee shop is at par with the stuff you get in Italy.

 

I once had a cup of Kopi Luwak, allegedly it's the best coffee in the world and praised for its mild taste. I found it awfully weak, quite tasteless, and will never ever drink it again.

 

 

 

Whatever you do, there is always someone who thinks that the coffee is too weak, strong, dark, light or even sour. On a ship I reluctantly accept the fact that the coffee served doesn't match my taste and keep drinking it as it is.

Thanks Shuffleboard Dude! We will give the coffee a taste- see what we think!

We do love dark strong coffee... so ordering espresso may be in our future. It should be fun to do the taste test since it is a subject many people talk about on here.

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If you like Half&Half in your coffee, which I think is more of an American thing (thank you Starbucks), it is available in the Kings Court at the coffee/tea station. We usually put some in a mug and keep it in the mini fridge in our cabin for early morning coffee. In the other restaurants you have to ask for H&H but they will quickly bring it out.