Equinox Buffet/Other Dining Review - 2/7/11 Western Caribbean

We just returned from a wonderful 11-night cruise on the Equinox, so I thought I'd take a moment to share my review of the buffet, room service and other food venues. The dining experience is the one part of our cruise that didn’t quite measure up, and though I know food is highly subjective I wanted to share my opinions with my fellow Celebrity fans. I rated the dining experience as “fair” on my comment card, and received a call from Celebrity two days after disembarkation asking for further input – the representative I spoke with was very receptive to my comments and mentioned that they really appreciate detailed input, so hopefully they’ll be reading Cruise Critic when this gets posted!

A bit about me: I am an avid cook, read food blogs/magazines religiously, make my own cheese, bread and sausage, and I’ve taken courses in pastry and sugar art. We live in NYC, so we are privileged to be surrounded by some of the world’s finest restaurants, as well as really fantastic ethnic foods. I love talking about and critiquing food, so I apologize in advance for being long-winded. I realize that everyone’s standards for food are different, and I know mine are high – but with Celebrity’s reputation, I think they should be held to a high standard. I’ve also reviewed the MDR and specialty restaurants in separate threads. Now, the review!

Breakfast: We were in a Concierge Class stateroom so we had the expanded breakfast menu. We also took the sage advice of other Cruise Critics and wrote in things that weren’t on the menu (lox, fresh berries, etc.), all of which were delivered. Room service was fine when we wanted simple/cold foods for breakfast, but the day we ordered eggs/French toast/things that are best hot, it was pretty lackluster – everything came lukewarm at best, with some things stone cold.

As for the buffet, there was a pretty nice selection – here is a fairly complete list:

Fruit: fresh pineapple, cantaloupe, honeydew and watermelon, plus a number of dried things, canned peaches and other things in syrup, including prunes.

Cereal: oatmeal and various boxed cereals.

Eggs: made to order station (omelets, over easy, etc.) with a frittata and quiche of the day station nearby. Eggs Benedict station with ham, salmon or made to order. Hard boiled and scrambled eggs available at several stations in the buffet.

Breads: bagels, croissants, pain au chocolat, pecan sticky buns, brioche, donuts, muffins, danishes, baguettes, a couple of types of bread for toast, jams including black-cherry, raspberry, strawberry and orange marmalade.

Meats: carving stations with honey-baked ham and Canadian bacon, regular bacon, turkey sausage (link), pork sausage (link), black sausage (slices), bangers (larger English link sausage), corned-beef hash, English bacon, cold cuts, pickled herring, lox with all the trimmings.

Sweet treats: waffles, French toast (usually two types), pancakes and blintzes with sour cream, cream cheese, lime butter, orange butter, regular butter, margarine, whipped cream, cherry sauce, blueberry sauce, strawberry sauce, maple-flavor syrup (NOT REAL MAPLE SYRUP!).

Other: yogurt, various cheeses (blue, cheddar, swiss), hash browns, baked beans, grilled tomatoes, baked apples, hot oranges with sliced bananas, sauteed mushrooms, roasted potatoes.

Unfortunately, the quality of the food in the buffet was uneven. The fresh fruit was pretty flavorless (I know it’s winter, but surely X can do better), and the selections never changed. I was able to get berries (decent ones, too) from room service but they were not available in the buffet and others reported that they had a hassle getting them in the MDR. Quiche and frittatas ranged from bland to pretty good, depending on the flavor of the day and whether or not the pan had been left in the oven long enough to properly brown the crust. If you dislike powdered eggs (as I do), get your eggs made to order and ask them to use fresh eggs in your omelet – the scrambled ones on the buffet are powdered, and they will use powdered at the station if you don’t specify.

Hash browns were ALWAYS undercooked. Meats were generally pretty good, but it was hit or miss if you would get hot sausages or cold ones. French toast was typically soggy, but the waffles were pretty tasty when fresh, with an excellent ability to soak up syrup. I brought my own bottle of real maple syrup since they serve the fake crap onboard. I ate a fair amount of lox, which was of acceptable quality (nothing like what I would expect in NYC, though). However, weirdly, they had only little plastic containers of low-fat cream cheese by the fish selection – to get regular cream cheese, you had to stop by the waffle station and scoop it out of the toppings. Bagels and other breads were basically inedible, a problem in every dining venue on the ship.

I think the breakfast buffet could be improved greatly just by mixing things up a bit – change the fruit selections every other day, have a small selection of fruit salads, have two quiche options instead of one, alternate sausage links with sausage patties, etc. A selection of pre-made breakfast sandwiches might be nice too (you probably could have made your own McMuffin type thing but it would have required a trip to three different areas). Also, can anyone say cold pizza? :D

However, the most important overall improvement to the buffet in my opinion is to make sure that all the food is served hot (this was an issue at every meal). I know this is a challenge with buffets, but they really need to add more heat lamps or come up with a more efficient system. There were times I took food from a container fresh from the kitchen that wasn’t hot, and that’s just not ok. A few strategically placed microwave stations would help with this problem as well.

Sea Day Brunch: Not a whole lot to say here because quite honestly, there was very little difference between what was offered here and what was always on the breakfast buffet. The setup was lovely, but the food was only so-so. In addition to the normal breakfast offerings, they had some specially cured salmon gravlax (not much better than the regular stuff, just more dill flavor), shrimp cocktail (I don’t understand why people get so excited about this – these aren’t jumbo shrimp, just regular old 41-50s that you can buy pre-cooked for $6 a pound at Costco), carving stations with turkey and I think lamb, a random mushroom ragout (which made another appearance on the dinner menu in the MDR that night), pesto crostini, mixed berries, another fruit salad, a granola bar, chocolate fountains and a big dessert display.

Due to the crowds and the fact that the MDR isn’t meant for this purpose, the food was probably better (and warmer) in the buffet. I decided to sample a bunch of desserts simply because they were the only thing that wasn’t available elsewhere, and I had a 20% success rate (which is high for this ship)! Chocolate fountains were fun and pretty but the chocolate they use has vegetable oil and/or paraffin added to keep it flowing, so it tastes waxy. I tried 5 different small things from the dessert table and one, a rounded pyramid of chocolate mousse covered in chocolate ganache, was DELICIOUS – rich and chocolate-y, not grainy or gummy, just perfect. The little circle of cake at the base was cardboard but I just avoided it. I also tried the cheesecake pops (awful, pasty), a little chocolate cake with ganache and pistachio on top (ganache good, cake terrible and dry), plus two others I can’t remember. Thank goodness I’ve learned the art of taking small bites. Next up: LUNCH!

Lunch/Snacks/Other Venues: While we ate lunch at the buffet or in port most of the time, we did try the MDR on the first sea day. Service was very uneven, as was the food. My husband and I both ordered mozzarella sticks as an appetizer, which were supposed to come with marinara and pesto. Mine came first, along with something else for DH that he didn’t order. The sticks were lying in a smear of marinara (making them soggy) with no pesto in sight. DH’s order (once he got it) was fresher and therefore somewhat better, but still made soggy by the presentation and pesto-free. For our entrée, I had a grilled duck breast over lentil salad that was really delicious – it was served cool (not sure if that was intentional but if not it didn’t detract from the dish), duck grilled properly medium rare, lentils al dente and dressed with a nice light vinaigrette. Of course, they tried to serve me something else first! DH had a BBQ sandwich and fries, which were unfortunately also served cold and came after I had already received my (corrected) entree. Pity, because they might have been good if they’d been hot, but DH didn’t feel like waiting around for them to get it right.

After that we stuck with the buffet! I didn’t make note of all of the buffet offerings, but there was plenty to choose from – pizza station, pasta station, stirfry station, taco/fajita station, grill with steaks and more, Indian food section, cold cuts and cheeses for DIY sandwiches, a nice salad bar, Caesar salad station, several prepared salads, some antipasti, and a selection of hot foods which changed every day, including things like fried chicken, bbq chicken, fish ‘n’ chips, braised beef, roasted potatoes, swiss chard gratin, shepherd’s pie, etc. Plenty of desserts, cookies and the ice cream bar as well.

The food here was a bit hit-or-miss, and I often found myself tasting 10 different things without finding anything that was really excellent. The pasta station was consistently good, with a variety of sauces and add-ins to choose from, along with a baked pasta of the day that was generally tasty (though it usually needed more sauce). It irked me to no end that they insisted on calling their meat sauce Bolognese when it was actually just their red sauce with extra salt and hamburger added, but that’s typical. They offered a white mushroom and sausage sauce one day that was especially good, and the meatballs were always a safe bet.

I didn’t have the patience for the stirfry (long lines), but it looked as though the ingredients were nice and fresh. The Indian and other Asian-inspired items I tasted were good (if not particularly authentic) – they had a lemongrass pork meatball one day that was really excellent and tender. If you like spicy you need to add it yourself. Salad bar had a large variety of fresh ingredients and good dressings to choose from. Taco/fajita bar was a real disappointment – the taco meat was bland and the fajita meat dry, as were the tortillas. Guacamole was not fresh and tasted of preservatives rather than avocado. Sandwich station featured the most lackluster array of cold cuts I’ve ever seen, with a few standard sliced cheeses (Swiss, American, etc.) – and it never varied.

Hot foods were rarely hot and were generally not great. We had soggy fish and chips (even though they had just come fresh from the kitchen), dried out BBQ chicken, etc. Sometimes you got lucky though, so I usually took a taste of a couple of hot things each day. The minute steaks from the grill were tender and well-seasoned (if a little overcooked), and quickly became a favorite for DH.

Desserts were a real crapshoot. They always looked pretty, but I would say 95% of what I tasted was pretty bad. Anything that was cake-based was always dry and often too sweet, without any other flavor. DH liked the carrot cake – it was a little dry and underspiced for my taste but better than most of the cakes. Mousse-type things/cheesecakes tended to be over-stabilized/too firm – someone was being too heavy-handed with the gelatin or something. A lot of the chocolate things were grainy, for which there is no excuse, given that there were some very good chocolate desserts elsewhere. ALL of the cookies on board were awful – dry, crunchy hockey pucks. I would have given my right arm for a soft, warm cookie or brownie. The ice cream was pretty good – I felt that it was about the same quality as Edy’s or a similar brand as far as flavor, but the texture was often poor – ice crystals, graininess, half-melted consistency (no doubt because the freezer case wasn’t at the right temp). The ginger and cinnamon flavors were standouts, as was the pineapple sorbet.

Now to my biggest beef: the pizza. Celebrity should be ASHAMED of itself to be serving such crappy pizza. I can be a food snob at times, but I’m really not a pizza snob – I’ll pretty much eat and enjoy anything if it has enough cheese on it, including Pizza Hut, Papa John’s and even DiGiorno frozen pizza. I really loved the pizza on Carnival when I sailed with them a few years ago (especially the goat cheese and mushroom!). Celebrity’s pizza made Pizza Hut seem like a gourmet treat, truly. I’ve never tasted crust that was so completely devoid of flavor. It was soft, spongy and generally revolting, even when the pizza was fresh from the oven. The sauce was bland and too wet, leaving the already soft crust even soggier under the cheese. The calzones were even worse, generally. The only reason to stop by the pizza station was to grab a piece of garlic toast (not great, but better than just about any other bread available). I really couldn’t believe it – they can build glass furnaces that heat to 2100 degrees or whatever but can’t build a decent pizza oven???? Come on! Celebrity seems to be stepping up with the pizza joints they’re putting on Silhouette and Reflection, but the other ships need it too. When Carnival is kicking your a$$, it’s time for a change!

As for other places, I kept meaning to order an entrée at the AquaSpa but never got around to it. We tried their poached fruit and some sorbets one day, which were a very nice snack. The Mast Grill was pretty lackluster, with overcooked burgers sitting in warming trays. Onion rings were ok, nothing special, with a bread crumb coating rather than batter-dipped. Café al Bacio pastries were cute and tasty (had the pain au chocolate and almond croissant), and better IMO than those offered in the buffet. I tasted the sushi from the dinner buffet one night, and although the choices were extremely pedestrian, the sushi itself was fine, perhaps one step up from grocery store sushi – about what you’d expect at your local Asian buffet.

As to improvements needed here – I think the desserts would be VASTLY improved if they stopped trying to be fancy and just made things that taste good. Leave the fancy stuff to the MDR and offer more homestyle desserts in the buffet. Tighter quality control overall would eliminate issues like grainy/improperly frozen ice cream. They should focus more on things that are delicious cold or at room temperature, as well, and look at different ethnic cuisines – hummus, dolmades, poached salmon, tabbouleh, panzanella – all things that are great at room temp. Obviously, fix the pizza (and bread) problem, stat!

I also think the whole buffet experience could be elevated a couple of notches if they would shell out a little extra money to improve ingredient quality where it counts. Guacamole made with fresh avocados. Deli bar with higher quality roast beef, salami, capicolla, etc., instead of sliced pressed turkey, bologna and ham. Offer brie, goat and gouda cheeses in addition to swiss and American. Add a couple of sandwich presses so people could make their own grilled sandwiches. Little things like these would make a big difference in the overall impression of the buffet.

Thanks for the time to give a great presentation of the buffet.

I could never understand why the deserts on all cruise lines are so tasteless. They look pretty but are really bland and just sweet. Not worth the calories to eat.

Alsmez: Thank you SO MUCH for taking the time to post this information.

As you point out, food ratings are a subjective, personal topic. But my husband and I share your interests and concerns when it comes to food. This is why we booked AQ.....hoping to get more choices that meet with our standards.

Recently, I was a luncheon guest on the Solstice when it was docked in Ft. Laud. Our group had our meal in the MDR. Everything was beautiful presented and artistically plated, but according to MY standards, pretty tasteless.

Although I've never cruised on Celebrity, I have cruised on other lines and have known for years that the desserts always look so delicious and tempting, but have little flavor or proper texture.

Thanks for the warning about the powdered eggs and maple syrup. These are 2 of my concerns as well. Breakfast is one of my 3 favorite meals of the day. And let's not forget the desserts. I would rather go dessert-less than WASTE MY CALORIE BUDGET on cardboard cakes and plastic icings and fillings.

I would point out, however, that living in S. Fla. I do know it IS difficult to get tastier fruit. A lot of it depends on the unpredictable "freezes" that fruit growers are subjected to....as well as the heat and rain. The weather is very uneven and affects the sweetness, ripeness, and texture of the fruit. And this winter....starting very early in the season....we were subjected to several unusual overnight freezes. One overnight freeze can kill a crop. Tomatoes and citrus and especially vulnerable. Daily, I am hunting for the best produce. But this winter was very difficult.

I would be interested in any observations you might have on the specialty restaurants.

Thanks again for your efforts. As I said, I like to use my daily calorie allowance very judiciously. So as far as I'm concerned, you've provided a valuable public service.

Fussylady, thanks for reading. Unfortunately I didn't get to dine in Blu, but we are hoping to book Aquaclass next time we cruise, especially if the MDR menus haven't been revamped by then. We did dine at all of the other specialty restaurants, though - here is that review: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1366182

I appreciate your comments about the fruit, too, although it's disappointing to hear. I'm used to getting so-so fruit in NYC and other northern locales, but I thought surely it would be easier down south. I also thought Celebrity would have access to better product than the general public, just like nicer restaurants do - perhaps they do have access but are just unwilling to pay the premium.

Thanks for the time to give a great presentation of the buffet.

 

I could never understand why the deserts on all cruise lines are so tasteless. They look pretty but are really bland and just sweet. Not worth the calories to eat.

Totally agreed. I can be a mindless eater at times and have been guilty of eating desserts just because they're there, so I made up my mind before this cruise that I would be conscious of what I was eating and never take more than a bite of anything that wasn't worth the calories. For better or worse, I was rarely tempted to finish a dessert, piece of bread or slice of pizza on board.

Thanks for the post. How was the buffet for dinner?

We never actually ate dinner there, but the selections were more limited than at lunch - I believe it was just pasta, pizza, stirfry and maybe the indian food station, plus the sandwich and salad stuff. The only addition was the sushi bar if I recall correctly, and if I were going to eat dinner in the buffet that's probably what I would focus on.

Alsmez:

Did you get a chance to try any of the pastries from any of the "pay" cafes or coffee shops onboard? I was wondering if these are any better quality than what you get on the buffet or MDR. (What I'm really wondering is if they are worth the calorie splurge.)

Alsmez:

 

Did you get a chance to try any of the pastries from any of the "pay" cafes or coffee shops onboard? I was wondering if these are any better quality than what you get on the buffet or MDR. (What I'm really wondering is if they are worth the calorie splurge.)

I don't believe there were any "pay-for" pastries available. Cafe al Bacio is a venue with specialty coffees that you have to pay for, but the pastries there are complimentary whether you buy a drink or not. We did stop in a couple of times for almond croissants and pain au chocolat and both were quite good. I enjoyed the pain au chocolat from Bacio more than the one I had in the buffet - it had two batons of chocolate inside rather than one, and the pastry itself tasted flakier and butterier IMO. Could have just been my mouth playing tricks on me due to the double chocolate rush, though!

Bistro on Five has a few non-crepe desserts on their menu that one can order when dining there, but we only ate there once and didn't happen to order any of them (I don't think there were pastries anyway, just creme brulee and chocolate mousse, plus maybe cheesecake).

The only pastry/cake type thing I remember liking in the buffet was a Savarin - it was a rich and buttery cake that was soaked in syrup (which kept it from being dry as all the other cakes were). It was still a bit sweet for me, but I ate most of it as opposed to tossing it after one bite like all the rest.

Alsmez, thanks for clarifying that. When we had the ship's tour of the Solstice in Ft. Laud, we passed some small "cafes" where I was told the coffee was "pay for". I assumed that the pastries displayed in the cases were also "pay for."

Thanks.

Cereal: oatmeal and various boxed cereals.

What about grits and the famous Celebrity Muesli?

What about grits and the famous Celebrity Muesli?

Honestly, I wasn't looking closely for either of those - cereal of any kind disgusts me (my mother says she never got so much as a spoonful of it into my mouth as a baby, and I haven't changed my mind since! ;)). They did have the muesli/granola at the sea day brunch, but I don't think it was regularly available, not sure though. There was something on the hot bar that might have been grits or cream of wheat (or maybe it alternated), I know that for sure.

Hey, that baby cereal is pretty bland tasting! At least you were not raised on goats milk like I was. :p I don't remember it, but I feel sure it was disgusting. lol Funny that I love goat cheese.

The hot cereal was probably alternated daily. Being a southern girl, I like to have grits with my eggs. I cannot imagine that the muesli would be left off the breakfast buffet. It is really quite good. ;)

I value your reviews you have written, but when you have people paying less then 600.00 for a 7 night cruise week after week to fill all cruise lines ships what can you expect? We have sailed on many lines and travelled all over the world resorts, and all inclusive resorts and we have found the buffet selection ( not a buffet person) more then great on X,

If we wanted food made at amazing levels we would sail on 600 guests or less ships because its easier to cook and prepare at those passenger levels. Comparing a large cruise ship to any boutique or Large restaurant is really next to impossible. We are paying less then 1500.00 for our Aqua class stateroom in a few weeks and for what we eat and how much they offer and entertain us with I am sure we will be more then happy.

The Pizza on our last Celebrity Sailing's we have enjoyed even more the our Pizza everyone said we would love on Princess. My family owns a specialty Butcher store in the city thats really well known, so I am used to great standards with foods, I just don't expect that and like my mom says if its food she wants she knows you have to pay for it! Specialty dinners on large ships ( which I know you enjoyed:) ) and book small like on regent, Crystal etc...

I value your reviews you have written, but when you have people paying less then 600.00 for a 7 night cruise week after week to fill all cruise lines ships what can you expect?

I realize that cruise ships operate on a very tight budget to deliver the low prices customers demand, but as I said in my my reviews, I think there are inexpensive and/or cost-free changes that could make a world of difference in the quality of the food in all dining venues. A buffet is a buffet and I judge it as such, but it doesn't cost any more to make a pizza with a crisp crust than it does to make the crap they serve - it just takes a better recipe and a little more attention. As for the desserts, a moist cake is no more expensive to make than a dry one. I imagine it would be cheaper for them to make delicious homestyle desserts than the fussy, individually decorated, beautiful and tasteless things they serve now. Hell, outsource to Costco if you have to! I'm all for making things from scratch but if there's an outside company who can do it better for less, use them.

Food subjective and I guess we like crap pizza? Not sure pizza is a treat for us we rarely eat it but I like it in celebrity, and in Italy and a few places in Toronto.

Costco we never go to as I can go to my families store for meats poultry and fish, free range and organic. But many of the desserts we have had on X have been very good??? Not sure ??? Regis seemed to enjoy the food when he was on our sailing lol ??? I enjoyed reading your thoughts and reviews of the food but this area just seemed negative and depressing, far from what the food really is ! It may not be perfect but the words used to describe you thoughts on what you did not like would scare me if I had not cruised before lol

And for the record my intention is not to argue, I just wish you had put all of the reviews in 1 thread because of this was the only 1 I read I might be discouraged in booking this ship or a cruise if I never had before.

But thank you for your well written reviews I can feel your Passion for food :)

Oh no worries, I love a good lively discussion/debate on my favorite topic! Food really is subjective, so I would hope anyone reading my reviews would keep that in mind. Also, I've only cruised two lines (Celebrity and Carnival, a long time ago), so I can't really compare X's food with any other cruiseline, nor would I expect any other line to do it any better. I just think X has the potential to make a good product even better with some inexpensive improvements!

Let me say that in the past 10 months i've cruised Carnival, Princess and Celebrity. Carnival gets a bad rap a lot of the time, but I find their food on par w/ Celebrity, and Princess isn't much different. Princess has great bread and pizza, and Carnival has some wicked good desserts. But neither compares to Celebrity in the service department. I also have to say, w/ 40+ cruises "under my belt" (in more ways than one), the price has actually dropped relative to inflation over the years. And the food is one place that I believe has seen price cuts. Celebrity is toward the top of the mainstream lines, and I figure if I want gourmet food, I'll have to try the higher end lines. For the price I am paying, I think the food on Celebrity is as good as I'd expect.

Let me say that in the past 10 months i've cruised Carnival, Princess and Celebrity. Carnival gets a bad rap a lot of the time, but I find their food on par w/ Celebrity, and Princess isn't much different. Princess has great bread and pizza, and Carnival has some wicked good desserts. But neither compares to Celebrity in the service department. I also have to say, w/ 40+ cruises "under my belt" (in more ways than one), the price has actually dropped relative to inflation over the years. And the food is one place that I believe has seen price cuts. Celebrity is toward the top of the mainstream lines, and I figure if I want gourmet food, I'll have to try the higher end lines. For the price I am paying, I think the food on Celebrity is as good as I'd expect.

Interesting - I was just thinking about my Carnival cruise and even though it was years ago, I do remember some pretty good desserts in the MDR and good pizza, but overall I thought the MDR food was only ok (and probably on par with what we experienced on X). I also remember being pretty much unwilling to even enter the buffet because it was dirty and crowded all the time, and the food horrid. However, that cruise was substantially less expensive than our Celebrity cruise, even taking inflation into account. I still think X was a good value for the price, but if they want to maintain their "cut above" reputation, they need to do better in the food department.

I realize that cruise ships operate on a very tight budget to deliver the low prices customers demand, but as I said in my my reviews, I think there are inexpensive and/or cost-free changes that could make a world of difference in the quality of the food in all dining venues. A buffet is a buffet and I judge it as such, but it doesn't cost any more to make a pizza with a crisp crust than it does to make the crap they serve - it just takes a better recipe and a little more attention. As for the desserts, a moist cake is no more expensive to make than a dry one. I imagine it would be cheaper for them to make delicious homestyle desserts than the fussy, individually decorated, beautiful and tasteless things they serve now. Hell, outsource to Costco if you have to! I'm all for making things from scratch but if there's an outside company who can do it better for less, use them.

I have to agree that the food on X is going downhill, but to compare it unfavorably to Costco is going a bit far I would say!

The bread at the Aqua Spa cafe is tremendous, in my opinion, as are the rest of the meals there (and properly portioned as well!). I've found some things to be not to my taste but that doesn't mean that someone else doesn't enjoy them.

I definitely agree that the food budget should be increased and better quality ingredients brought in, though. I'd be happy to pay more for that.

Let me say that in the past 10 months i've cruised Carnival, Princess and Celebrity. Carnival gets a bad rap a lot of the time, but I find their food on par w/ Celebrity, and Princess isn't much different. Princess has great bread and pizza, and Carnival has some wicked good desserts. But neither compares to Celebrity in the service department. I also have to say, w/ 40+ cruises "under my belt" (in more ways than one), the price has actually dropped relative to inflation over the years. And the food is one place that I believe has seen price cuts. Celebrity is toward the top of the mainstream lines, and I figure if I want gourmet food, I'll have to try the higher end lines. For the price I am paying, I think the food on Celebrity is as good as I'd expect.

I 100% agree, except we did not like the Buffet set up or the Specialty Restaurant on Princess, but the MDR was ok

We have no intention sailing Carnival or NCL again as we prefer the Spaces and Service levels be amazing and have food we like. Even if Carnival has better overall food reviews I think we have come to like X over the years and feel at home on the ships they design and the STAFF is hands down the best in the large ship market

I have to agree that the food on X is going downhill, but to compare it unfavorably to Costco is going a bit far I would say!

 

The bread at the Aqua Spa cafe is tremendous, in my opinion, as are the rest of the meals there (and properly portioned as well!). I've found some things to be not to my taste but that doesn't mean that someone else doesn't enjoy them.

 

I definitely agree that the food budget should be increased and better quality ingredients brought in, though. I'd be happy to pay more for that.

I never tried the bread at the AquaSpa cafe, simple because it looked like all the rest of the breads on the ship so I assumed it was the same. I'll definitely give it a go next time.

As for the Costco comparison, I think the Costco bakery actually does a REALLY good job with certain things - a much better job than X. X seems to take a lot of pride in making everything on-board and from scratch, but really, they might be smart to outsource in some cases. Lots of NY restaurants purchase desserts from there and serve them as their own. Though I can certainly tell the difference between a slice of Costco cheesecake and a slice from Fiorello's or Lindy's or Junior's, the one from Costco isn't bad, and it's head and shoulders above what X is serving.

Op;

Thank you for taking the time to post your very informative review. I enjoyed reading them.....:):):)

Bob