Question about Food on Niuew Amsterdam

[esspaniel]

My husband and I are planning on an Alaskan cruise for next year probably May or June. I had been on a couple of cruises on Celebrity before we met and had loved them so 3 years ago we went on a British Isles cruise on Celebrity Infinity. We had fun on the cruise but found the food to be terrible which had not been my experience in the past. All of the dishes we ordered in the MDR seemed to taste the same after a few days. Dessert was almost universally disappointing and I usually love dessert. We were kind of relieved to get off the ship after 11 days, which had not happened to me before. We haven't been on a cruise since. Partly because of that experience.

 

A few people that we know cruise on HAL and have enjoyed it. I don't find their opinions entirely reliable either. But we are thinking of giving HAL a chance. This is going to be our first big trip away from our (then) two and half year old son so our main goal is to have a relaxing time and not have to think about too much. It also limits us to 7 day cruises since we don't want to be away from him for too long. We are thinking of a 7 day round trip out of Vancouver on Niuew Amsterdam. Easy flight for us to get there. We are both familiar with Vancouver.

 

The other option we are potentially entertaining is a 7 day Crystal Cruise that is a one way only from Anchorage to Vancouver. Anchorage is harder to get to than Vancouver for us and more expensive. It's a bit more expensive for an obstructed window stateroom vs. a verandah on HAL. But Crystal is a luxury cruise line which gets great reviews for it's food and service. It would definitely be a stretch on the budget at this time. Children aren't cheap! But we also want to have a nice time since we doubt we will have the chance for a long vacation on our own for at least a couple of years afterwards.

 

I know food is subjective but has the quality of HAL's food declined like it seemed to on Celebrity? Should we be thinking of springing for the more expensive cruise and give up the verandah? I should also mention that entertainment and socializing aren't important to us at this point. We mostly plan on reading, relaxing, watching the scenery go by and maybe watching a movie. We love to sightsee but that's not what this vacation is about.

[OlsSalt]

We have done both HAL and Crystal - Crystal has more fuss and service pretension in its dining options but not sure there is that much overall quality difference to support the price. Crystal has also a very lovely public room ship decor, no comparison with HAL ships - smaller size is nice too . But we eventually found our own value home on HAL ships- for both food and service - more genuine on both counts.

 

Eg. HAL has wonderful fresh baked breads in endless varieties along with European style sweet butter. When I asked for "sweet butter" on Crystal they actually guided me to a buffet tub that had butter mixed with sugar - no sweet butter on that particular ship.

 

So it all depends whether you think the dollar per day difference is worth it to try Crystal and get slightly better food, more service fuss (which we found intrusive), but also a much smaller, poorly designed cabin and ship that offered little outdoor deck life for lounging and viewing.

 

For the same dollars I personally would treat yourself to some wonderful meal in port (or even at home) or other extras on the cruise, than for any built in value added on Crystal ships in their dining rooms. They are very nice ships, and if price were no object there is nothing wrong with them. But value for value, we will always take the HAL ships. Though their Chinese Chicken Salad at the Grill was good enough to order every single day. Worth a couple hundred dollars a day to get really good Chinese Chicken Salad, that has to be for you to decide.

 

We think the quality and variety of HAL food at all its venues has been good to very good, but it still remains at a good hotel banquet food standard. That has to be expected on all mainline cruise ships. Though I don't think i would ever describe your own Celebrity-England food experience as something we ever found on HAL ships. And if we did I would simply make a meal out of their wonderful fresh baked breads ....and sweet butter. Yum.

 

There is always something that entices, even if it is only the standard chocolate sundae for dessert if nothing else on the dessert menu grabs you that night. HAL has very good ice-cream. And always available, complimentary room service chocolate cake with raspberry sauce. The best.

 

Ironically you are asking about the Nieuw Amsterdam, which we thought had the prettiest public room decor ..almost to the Crystal level and the N-A does have the very wonderful Tamarind pan-asian speciality-price restaurant. That is a game changer in its own right. We were not that impressed with the Crystal specialty priced asian Nobu and would never go back to their "Italian" option, Prego, after two disastrous attempts.

[cruiserhal]

We were on the NA in April for 20 nights (Panama Canal and up to Vancouver) and usually sail on Celebrity in Aqua class.

 

In my opinion, the food was just as good as Blu but the service (while very good) was a little off because they need more help. We never feel rushed in Blu. The only real downside was the portions were usually small compared to Blu. Having said that, we never finished dinner hungry and we didn't gain any weight. 20 days and no weight gain! If you get a chance, try the Pinnacle Grill - excellent service and food. We were in a Neptune Suite and also ate breakfast there and enjoyed each one very much.

 

I think you will find the food to be on par with Celebrity. Enjoy your cruise.

[xlxo]

Also if the MDR is not satisfactory on any ship.... there's also specialty dining to explore.