Negative Cunard Review in Cruise Travel Magazine

[ABoatNerd]

Cunarders:

 

Mentioning a very negative letter in the latest Cruise Travel magazine.

 

A guest on QE stated the food was very poor hence they would never patronize Cunard again.

 

Not good press for the line.

 

FYI

 

ABoatNerd

[Dajo5601]

I pay no attention to these "scattergun" generalisations. Whatever the length of the cruise that the complainant had experienced, to say that the food was "very poor", is in my opinion far too vague and lacks any credibility.

 

A few weeks ago when we were dining on our table of 10 people on the last night on the QV, before we disembarked, we discussed the food that we had been served. Not one single person of the 10 people had had any course that they had not thought of as being first class, well prepared and well presented.

 

In addition, several people had ordered a course, liked the look of what somebody else had ordered and the waiters had suggested that they replace their course with an alternative that they liked the look of.

 

Each to their own, but I will defend Cunard's meals to anybody. Not saying that there may be occasions when a meal is not up to somebody's liking, but overall the food served in The Britannia is excellent. In fact I also feel that the standard of the food served in the Lido at the moment is also top notch.

 

Can't wait to sample the Cunard food again on the QE in October................

[Mid-Atlantic Ridge]

One bad review on a subjective matter will hardly cause a ripple a Cunard HQ. I would hazard a guess that it will also deter very few if any future travellers. I've never even heard of the publication anyway.

 

M-AR

[ovccruiser]

Problem with these types of complaints is, was the food not prepared correctly, or was the food not to the complainers liking? I have been on many different cruise lines, and have tasted some pretty horrible food, but, I chose the dish to try it out, it was prepared and presented perfectly, the fact I did not like the taste would hardly make me say the food was not good.

[resistk]

After 30 cruises with Cunard, IMO the food varies greatly from good to poor. Seems on some runs they just bring out a B class menu especially when they have sold a lot of tickets in Germany. If they are having a Jubilee or some sort of anniversary the food is better. Also, Cunard just plain stacks up poorly to Princess and Celebrity in food and service, try to get a standard items on most lines like a chocolate croissant for example and you will be told its for the Grill Room only. Or good lucky trying try to get a steak or salmon in Britannia when its not on the menu - not a problem on other lines but on Cunard they make a fuss about it. Also, they dole out the bread one piece at a time like its gold when it isn't very good at all in the first place.

[Underwatr]

You should always be able to get a steak in Britannia. If you're rebuffed a discussion with the Maître d' should straighten it out.

[Oahucruiser]

I subscribe to that magazine and it has some really good articles and ship reviews with photos by well-known cruise writers. I had read one negative about Cunard in the previous issue and then the one that the OP is talking about in the current issue. There are a lot of subscribers so I hope those haven't deterred any possible passengers. We have found our niche with Cunard and are always happy with them so we read it and forgot about it.

Edited May 29, 2015 by Oahucruiser

[Scrapnana]

Food is so subjective I would never let a review based on food alone to put me off.

 

As to ordering a steak off-menu (don't eat salmon so can't comment on that) in Britannia, I have never had a problem during the 130 nights spent on QE.

[karl_nj]

Cunarders:

 

Mentioning a very negative letter in the latest Cruise Travel magazine.

 

A guest on QE stated the food was very poor hence they would never patronize Cunard again.

 

Not good press for the line.

 

FYI

 

ABoatNerd

 

Aren't 75% of the letters in Cruise Travel very negative about one cruise line or another?

[canoncruiser]

Ah Food! In the past year I have been on Celebrity(12days-wine cruise in Europe), Holland America (68 days around South America), 2 T/As on QM2 and 1T/A on QV. The main dining room service on Celebrity was very uneven, the wine service was stressed as there were not enough wine stewards and the food was unremarkable-we also had a $50! meal in the SS United States restaurant- overwrought service by not enough staff-our meal took an age;similarly the wine stewardess on HA should have been issued roller-skates as she had too many tables-to the point where our waiters were taking wine orders!She was good natured but routinely overwhelmed; the HA food was generally OK ,just OK-I will say the soup chef was a genius-but that's it. Again the special order venues were much better but why should one have to pay extra for better service? Oh yes, there was not one wine priced over $55/bottle in the main dining room on either HA or Celebrity. The Cunard food and service were in most cases excellent and often superior; their wine stewards are generally superb.

I saw that letter in cruise travel-many grains of salt me thinks.;)

[theTom&Carol]

Not a foodie, but good food is always enjoyed.

 

On the QV this spring, thoroughly enjoyed the Golden Lion Pub. Besides the fish are the pies, and especially good was the mussels plate. Thoroughly enjoyed noon meal there often.

 

Ordering an escargot side dish in the Britannia, thinking it would be the normal shell presentation, what arrived appeared to be chopped up snails in some kind of sauce. Definitely, would not order that one again. Several of our 10-person tablemates did not rave about the snails.

 

I suspect one could board any cruise ship these days and run into disagreeable food expectations.

 

Overall, since we're not having to cook the meals ourselves, most anything aboard the ship is rightly good. Cunard 'Insights', wide variety of music, stage show entertainment, and especially the nightly ballroom dancing totally offsets the minor food grumblings, IMHO.

 

Oh, lastly.... really enjoy the spa (low calorie) meals. Even so, look forward to our daily gym time; a must burn calories when ship board food is so 'endless'.

 

At least on our QV segment, did you ever notice that measly cookies were none-to-be-had in the Lido? A fellow passenger who really loves his cookies informed us how one must ask for cookies at the sandwich-making area. When asked, the sandwich maker pulls open a drawer and issues you some cookies. Without this knowledge, one would be cookie-less. Really weird, that guess that's the way they do it in the Old Country??

On this note, if any of you CC cookie-fans are currently floating around the high seas, go the Lido or KC and look for cookies and see if you must 'beg' for a chocolate chip or two. Report your findings. Thanks.

 

Go, prepared Cunard-meals!!

[BobBranst]

Or good lucky trying try to get a steak or salmon in Britannia when its not on the menu - not a problem on other lines but on Cunard they make a fuss about it.

We have had both sirloin steak and salmon off menu in Britannia on mutiple occations and there was never a "fuss" about it.

[jimmybean]

What is "unforgivable" is in the eye (or stomach) of the beholder.

 

It wouldn't hurt Cunard to strive to offer consistently great meal options, but my food experiences on the QM2 and QE weren't anything to jump overboard about!

[Jim Avery]

Who among us has not had a meal not to their liking/taste on some ship? Overall, ships do a great job (better than most hotels imho) feeding the masses. I believe the problem with the writers in question is they read the lines brochures and really think they will get all that specialized treatment. Not just Cunard but all lines are way over the top with hyperbole about what you will get on board. Experienced cruisers know that "cheapen it up" is the way of life on all lines. It is not, and never will be, as good as it was.......At least in some of our minds.:eek: Like others have said, I would never let a single food critic dissuade me from a line/ship on which I wanted to sail. You pays your money and you takes your chances.:eek::D

[Jayneykul]

We like Cunard and Celebrity equally but for different reasons Cunard is far better for food and service (we go suite or Aqua on Celebrity the food & service don't come near) however we prefer the entertainment and availability of drinks packages on Celebrity. It's a matter of preference but there was a lady on QE last year who couldn't say enough bad things about the food so much so she refused to eat in Britannia instead choosing to go in the lido in her slippers each evening. There is no pleasing some!

[koonard]

After 30 cruises with Cunard, IMO the food varies greatly from good to poor. Seems on some runs they just bring out a B class menu especially when they have sold a lot of tickets in Germany. If they are having a Jubilee or some sort of anniversary the food is better. Also, Cunard just plain stacks up poorly to Princess and Celebrity in food and service, try to get a standard items on most lines like a chocolate croissant for example and you will be told its for the Grill Room only. Or good lucky trying try to get a steak or salmon in Britannia when its not on the menu - not a problem on other lines but on Cunard they make a fuss about it. Also, they dole out the bread one piece at a time like its gold when it isn't very good at all in the first place.

 

We tried several times to get a decent piece of steak / lamb or indeed any meat. We asked for steak MEDIUM and it came running with blood, so next time we asked for well done .... yes you've guessed it ! It was like Charlie Chaplin's boots ... reference to the film. We complained repeatedly but we just didn't get a steak cooked to our liking ... we gave up and ate fish for the remainder of the voyage which in our case was 4 months .... rather a long time to not have much variety in the dining room. Best food was in Golden Lion Pub ... it was served up hot and tasty.