Food can it get any more boring?

[waltd]

Well, after eight cruises, for me the menu has become stale, familiar and overdone. I for one, just don't want another bowl of fettuccini right now, how about raviolis, carbonara, pene rigatoni, lasagne, linguini and clams, etc etc.

 

What would be wrong with table side entries like tomato, sausage and pecorino pasta or pasta pancetta and pine nuts. I can book a cruise right now and know exactly what is on the menu each night. I for one like surprises and I think thats what this thread is all about. Time to mix it up and freshen the selections.

 

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I agree. For a newbie the menu's are fine but someone that cruises 2 or 3 times a year they have become old. Just like any of our favorite restaurants we go in look at the menu but order our 1 or 2 favorites. We have tried most of the items on the menu and after a week or two on the ship things start tasting the same. Same veggies, a sauce, and not much flavor. I realize that they are trying to please everyone's pallet but if you are going to do Thai, Mexican, Chinese, Indian then do it right. Nothing worse then offering Sushi and the rice is hard as a rock.

[caribill]

I agree. For a newbie the menu's are fine but someone that cruises 2 or 3 times a year they have become old.

 

 

Sample recent dinner menu:

 

Main courses:

o Glazed salmon

o Black mussels

o Chicken pelau

o Strip steak

o Chuletas de Puerco

o Eggplant and basmatti rice

 

 

So, black mussels, chicken pelau and Chuletas de Puerco have been on the menu too many times?

[kendon]

So, black mussels, chicken pelau and Chuletas de Puerco have been on the menu too many times?

 

haha...what's wrong with having Chuletas de Puerco more than once?

 

If I cruised 4 times a month for a year, I couldn't repeat a meal.

 

The restaurants in my neighborhood have had the same menu for years!! I still go.

[JimmyVWine]

The restaurants in my neighborhood have had the same menu for years!! I still go.

 

Yes. But if your neighborhood only had one restaurant and it had the same menu for years, would you still go? At home, you likely can alternate between several Asian restaurants, several Italian restaurants, several American restaurants, several Mexican restaurants, and so on and so on. The need to change up the menus isn't as great. On board a ship, alternating between two MDRs with identical menus (if you have Anytime Dining) or going to the same MDR every single night (if you have Traditional Dining) is far more repetitive than anything anyone experiences at home. (Unless "home" is very small and rural with only a single place to dine out.)

[furb]

I really don't understand how the menu is boring. There are SO MANY options...homestyle comfort foods, ethnic dishes from everywhere, vegetarian, etc. How...can...the..food...be boring...

 

I don't get it.

 

Perhaps this is a corollary to one of my favorite forum quotes... "People who often complain about being bored are usually boring people."

[Oh2B@C]

Food has been good at best never great. I'm not looking for Gordon Ramsay but I want better than Denny's

 

It's much better than Denny's.

[shredie]

So, black mussels, chicken pelau and Chuletas de Puerco have been on the menu too many times?

 

LOL! :D I guess I don't get bored with the menus since I repeat with the things I really like. I am also fortunate (I guess) in that I like a couple of the Always Available dishes. When something on the main menu doesn't appeal to me, I go for the salmon or the chicken breast. Sometimes I'll try the vegetarian option just for variety. I am a big fan of the meatloaf on American night, and I'm happy to see it when it appears. Once I figured out I could order off the kids' menu, I started getting the alphabet soup when I didn't want the soups on the adult menu. One of my grandsons has the same dinner every night: garden salad from the kids' menu and medallions from the adult one. He deviates only when there is beef sate for an appetizer. You could argue that kids don't have sophisticated palates, but he gets it from Grandpa who is pretty set in his ways, too. I can understand complaints about the taste or the preparation of dishes, but I really don't understand the idea that the menu is "boring."

[kendon]

lol, my primary point was just that the menu items for more frequent cruisers is old and very very familiar. Even a nightly special, something concocted by the chefs team and not the same on every ship might help shake it up a bit.

 

Side note: Its very hard for this forum to agree on many suggestions. There will always be people here willing to defend moldy bread, so Princess won't be taking us too seriously anytime soon.

 

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We are cruising with Princess for over 15 years and have seen multiple menu changes. I still haven't tried everything on the menus....

[kendon]

Perhaps this is a corollary to one of my favorite forum quotes... "People who often complain about being bored are usually boring people."

 

As I heard one mother say to her young child at an amusement park "boredom is an option..., so keep quiet"

[kendon]

Yes. But if your neighborhood only had one restaurant and it had the same menu for years, would you still go? At home, you likely can alternate between several Asian restaurants, several Italian restaurants, several American restaurants, several Mexican restaurants, and so on and so on. The need to change up the menus isn't as great. On board a ship, alternating between two MDRs with identical menus (if you have Anytime Dining) or going to the same MDR every single night (if you have Traditional Dining) is far more repetitive than anything anyone experiences at home. (Unless "home" is very small and rural with only a single place to dine out.)

 

Yes, but for people who cruise only four times a year with Princess it just amazes me how you can be bored with the menu. There are so many choices and combinations. For us, dinner on a cruise is more about the social experience and the new people that we meet that the food is secondary. If I cruised first for food, I may consider a different cruise line. Anyway, as I've said in another post, Over the past 15 or so years we are cruising with Princess (25 cruises later), the menu has changed enough that it's not an issue for us. There are still SO MANY dishes we have yet to try. Bored...no, bland...perhaps. :)

[Colo Cruiser]

LOL! :D I guess I don't get bored with the menus since I repeat with the things I really like. I am also fortunate (I guess) in that I like a couple of the Always Available dishes. When something on the main menu doesn't appeal to me, I go for the salmon or the chicken breast. Sometimes I'll try the vegetarian option just for variety. I am a big fan of the meatloaf on American night, and I'm happy to see it when it appears. Once I figured out I could order off the kids' menu, I started getting the alphabet soup when I didn't want the soups on the adult menu. One of my grandsons has the same dinner every night: garden salad from the kids' menu and medallions from the adult one. He deviates only when there is beef sate for an appetizer. You could argue that kids don't have sophisticated palates, but he gets it from Grandpa who is pretty set in his ways, too. I can understand complaints about the taste or the preparation of dishes, but I really don't understand the idea that the menu is "boring."

 

 

I agree.

[magicnelly]

Escargot!! Yes. :D

I SOOOOO agree! Give me escargot, some good bread to dip in that sauce and a salad to help me pretend I'm eating well, and I am in heaven!

[magicnelly]

Well, they had something new on our Crown Princess cruise. Something I've never seen before. It was clever though how they reinvented the meatloaf. In the buffet, they had loaves of meatloaf with a hot dog stuck in the middle of it. I figured that what they didn't get rid of out in the grill by the pool, landed in the meat loaf. The next day, there appeared in the cold lunch meat section none other than MEAT LOAF cold with a hot dog stuck in the middle of it. Yes, the chefs are clever in extending and reinventing leftovers. As a cook, I have an eye for this kind of stuff.:cool:

That's kinda, sorta, uhhh...well, disgusting :( I love a good meatloaf - why would you put a hot dog in it? I love hot dogs too but I can't really embrace or imagine this!

[Colo Cruiser]

I SOOOOO agree! Give me escargot, some good bread to dip in that sauce and a salad to help me pretend I'm eating well, and I am in heaven!

 

 

 

My favorite 2 course meal. ;)

[Justjayce]

I found the MDR fare to be very good. I found the on deck food, especially the pizza to be excellent when I compare it to the other lines I have been on. But I have never been so disappointed in the speciality dining. I would never set foot in the Crown Grill again. Lackluster food and no presentation.

[MTJSR]

Lol, while many keep defending the menu as too big to be boring, you are assuming I and others eat and like everything from that menu. Oh to the contrary my shipmate, there might be five or less items per menu I like to eat.

 

To the poster that said his local restaurant has had the same menu for many years, well eat there for the next 14 nights and then we will talk.

 

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Edited May 6, 2015 by MTJSR

[Matcodixon]

Food has been good at best never great. I'm not looking for Gordon Ramsay but I want better than Denny's

 

When was the last time you ate at Denny's?

 

I travel often and they are at or near the bottom of my list. Princess food is much better by far.

[GUT2407]

Lol, while many keep defending the menu as too big to be boring, you are assuming I and others eat and like everything from that menu. Oh to the contrary my shipmate, there might be five or less items per menu I like to eat.

 

To the poster that said his local restaurant has had the same menu for many years, well eat there for the next 14 nights and then we will talk.

 

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But you don't have the same menu for 14 nights.

 

If you do 3 cruises you may get the same menu each cruise, but every night it will be different.

[oskidunker]

There is a reason the specialty restaurants are often empty. They are counting on new cruisers. They know repeat cruisers won't bother. Why not give us something nice for for the surcharge?

[GUT2407]

Their interpretation of a classic Aus/NZ dessert is also wrong. They serve meringue not pavlova. Just putting some cream on a meringue nest doesn't turn it into pavlova. Pavlova must have a marshmallow-like interior and a crisp meringue crust.

 

Now that's my favorite food group.

 

PAV

 

At least Princess usually serve it, and I'll take a crook PAV over a good almost anything else.

[pris993]

We have been cruising for year... 30 +years, 9 different lines, 23 cruises on Princess. Our favorite lines besides Princess, are Holland America and Cunard.

 

The new menus on Princess don't impress me... i.e., hamburger steak for example, in the MDR leaves me wondering. I have found, if I think out side the box... I keep things interesting and enjoyable. For example, on one cruise line, we found we no longer enjoyed the MDR... after 5 nights on an 11 Mediterranean cruise. Decided we would skip the MDR... did for the next 6 nights, enjoyed the fantastic buffet and room service, never missed the MDR.

 

 

Now no matter what cruise line we are on, if we don't like something, we move on and find something that works for us.

 

Some times we buy favorite food items in port and bring back to the ship. I am a good baker, most cruise lines do not have great pastry or bakery items. When we are in port where we can buy something we really like, we do. I recall coming back to a ship in a French port, where other guests where surprised we had stopped at a bakery. They asked us, don't you like the bakery items on board, we responded no we don't... they were surprised.

 

We don't cruise for food... we eat better at home. There are lots of options on ships... generally we can find something we like..

[Msail]

That's what I'm talking about.

[johnmik1]

I wish they would sell me a liter of Dewars for the cabin like HAL does.

[kendon]

Lol, while many keep defending the menu as too big to be boring, you are assuming I and others eat and like everything from that menu. Oh to the contrary my shipmate, there might be five or less items per menu I like to eat.

 

To the poster that said his local restaurant has had the same menu for many years, well eat there for the next 14 nights and then we will talk.

 

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That was me...

 

The menus offer more than 14 items and I can eat the same delicious entree more than once.

[kendon]

But you don't have the same menu for 14 nights.

 

If you do 3 cruises you may get the same menu each cruise, but every night it will be different.

 

Exactly...the variety is there. It's not that there are 14 items to choose from for a 14 day cruise....geez.