MDR food quality

[cruisingmoose7]

Just got back from our amazing fantastic 11 day cruise on the Spirit. We went to specialty restaurants for 5 nights and to MDR/Shogun for the rest. While the specialty dining food was excellent, we frequently had problems with the quality of the food in the complimentary dining.

 

This is in stark contrast with my last cruise on the Jade in 2012 where the complimentary dining was excellent. Is the food going downhill on NCL in general or is this just the Spirit or was this a fluke? My family is discussing another cruise and we are all worried this will be a trend.

[BirdTravels]

We cruised on the Spirit last year and had no problems in the MDR. NCL continues to invest on constantly improving their menus in the MDR and Specialty restaurants. Gone are the days of fish sticks and chicken noodle soup for lunch being replaced with dishes like poached salmon and pho.

[Son of a son of a ...]

We enjoy the MDR. We seldom dine out other than for work-related engagements so it is a treat for us. The menus offer a great selection and the food quality is good, but taste is an individual matter. Our palates, while not that of cavemen, are of more common folk. With that said, we avoid the buffet ("trough") at all costs ... I would rather skip a meal than witness that level of gluttony.

[LD Silver]

We like the food in the MDRs. We choose to spend our money on other perks like the UBP, Vibe passes and shore excursions.

[cb at sea]

We don't enjoy buffets...not because of the "gluttony"...(why do you care what others do?), but because it's warmed over...and simply not up to par, IMO....Golden Corral is NOT my idea of "fine dining"....

 

The quality of included foods have gone downhill in the last 10+ years. If you cruised in the "90's...you would know what I mean..food was delicious and artfully presented. 5 course meals were what the dining room offered....it was delicious, fun, and something you didn't get in "everyday" life. That's what cruising was all about.

[Son of a son of a ...]

deleted - I dont have the energy or interest

[zqvol]

On my last cruise in March, the food in the main dining room was as good as I have ever had on a mass market line. IMO the quality has improved. This was on Getaway.

[casofilia]

Never had a bad meal in an MDR on NCL or Princess; they are not often 5 star but certainly "very good value for money".

[cruisingmoose7]

I don't mean to sound snobby or snooty about the menu - we had problems with the entrees multiple times like the food being way overcooked nearly every time, meat being dry and a tiny amount of sauce (or no sauce included when there was supposed to be sauce), and that kind of thing. We would have been fine with what was offered otherwise. Strangely this was only with the entrees - we were happy with the appetizers and desserts.

[texasreb]

MDR not what it used to be. For NCL the quality changed about 2013/2014. I think it got better late 2016. Likely too many complaints. If I did not usually have special dining package. Some of those trips would have been miserable food wise. Lobster now hard to find at any venue.

2012 even on Carnival I had lobster twice in MDR. By 2013 that was gone.

 

Oddly usually the appetizers, and desserts are good.

[garycarla]

We don't enjoy buffets...not because of the "gluttony"...(why do you care what others do?), but because it's warmed over...

 

We enjoy a good dinner, and also enjoy the buffet. Variety is often a great way to go vs a fixed plate.

 

As to others and gluttony. Yea, none of my business, but it is often disturbing watching how some folks pile their plate with food and leave half of it to be tossed. Breakfast is often the worse with 20 pieces of bacon, etc etc. None of business, other than I am a fellow human on this planet and watching the WASTE is disturbing.

[casofilia]

Those must not have been taught as our children were; if it is on your plate you eat it; NOW or LATER.

[perditax]

Those must not have been taught as our children were; if it is on your plate you eat it; NOW or LATER.

 

 

Conditioning/forcing people to eat when they're not hungry is a good way to foster later obesity.

[kathybelcher2433]

Conditioning/forcing people to eat when they're not hungry is a good way to foster later obesity.

 

 

 

Odd. So I would assume me they were hungry when they put it on their plates 5 minutes ago but lost their appetite soon after. Sorry, I don't buy that.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[casofilia]

We used to sit down, all seven of us, for the evening meal and to discuss everyone's day. Dinner was there in serving bowls/dishes on the island in the middle of the kitchen and that was the rule we had. We always had cleared plates with no fuss and there was always enough for 'seconds".

[NUPDCOP]

MDR and buffet are the only places we have ever eaten..... just amazing to see those first days like people have never seen food before - piles of it like you wont get to eat for 7 more days.

[kevmoley]

I've only sailed once on Norwegian (Epic) and only ate once in the MDR for dinner. However, I enjoy our dinner in the Manhattan Room and especially loved all the other venues for dinner as well. We did eat several breakfasts and lunches in the MDR and they all were great too. We book two more cruises with NCL because of our wonderful 1st time experience.

[NCLfamily]

On The Pearl in July the MDR food was superb.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

[sanger727]

Was on the jade in January and I was also disappointed in the MDR. Every night I ended up ordering 2 starters (which were always excellent) because I got used to being disappointed by the entree and didn't want to leave hungry. A couple were inedible, a couple were excellent but most were just ok. Was also not a huge fan of the desserts. We had a much better experience at the specialty restaurants.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[Paul S]

The MDR is mass catering, no different to going to a large scale wedding reception or similar. When the kitchen is catering to those numbers the result will always be variable, and if not up to acceptable standard then the diner should, politely, ask for it to be changed. However, the standard should not be confused with what is expected in an onshore restaurant kitchen catering to smaller numbers with food cooked and plated to order - the onboard equivalent would be the speciality dinig venue. However, I've also had a few disappointing meals in onshore upscale restaurants as well as some great ones, that's life.

 

I'm usually concerned by overlong menus, better to have fewer choices but done well. I've not cruised yet with NCL (my first one is upcoming next August) but on the ones I have done it's actually quite amazinghow the galleys and wait staff do cope with the numbers and the length of the MDR menu.

 

Like most things in life you generally get what you pay for. My cruise is all inclusive but embarking from my home port, and breaks down to approx. £250 per night for an aft facing balcony. Taking into account the overheads of running the ship, fuel, staff costs and included gratuities, port taxes, entertainment, mantenance, capital expenditure, transportation, in port shuttles, UBP, etc. it doesn't leave too much to provide three or more meals per day, and no doubt without all the upsells and additional profit centres plus presumably the top end cabins subsidising the lower end (like the business class passengers on a plane who keeop down fares for economy tickets) the cruise price would need to be higher.

[CostaFortune]

Just got back from our amazing fantastic 11 day cruise on the Spirit. We went to specialty restaurants for 5 nights and to MDR/Shogun for the rest. While the specialty dining food was excellent, we frequently had problems with the quality of the food in the complimentary dining.

 

 

 

This is in stark contrast with my last cruise on the Jade in 2012 where the complimentary dining was excellent. Is the food going downhill on NCL in general or is this just the Spirit or was this a fluke? My family is discussing another cruise and we are all worried this will be a trend.

 

 

 

Quick reply, we sailed on the Spirit for 11 nights Apr/May Venice to Barcelona. We found the MDR mediocre, the breakfasts slow service at 8.45am, on cooked foods (omelettes/eggs etc) and fast on the cereal/toasts/pastries/tea/coffee like they just wanted to wind up by 9am.

To my mind, as long as you're through the door by 9, does it have to be rushed?

Lunches in there were repetitive and sometimes sat on the side under the plastic covers for ages before servers You could see your lunch but just couldn't get it!

So.....we did have breakfast most days but had 1 or 2 in the buffet when we were going on an early excursion (wrapped the pastries up in a serviette for our lunch as I'm sure loads do!) and the other days ate brunch in our excursion towns (Croatia and Pisa were our faves with Marseille running close behind).

Dinner: we had already booked the 8 SDP (special dining package) for folk who don't know the lingo that is quoted on here! I had to look up NSFW last night (I'll let you google if unsure!).

So, we booked 2 nights in each the minute we set foot in the Atrium. We had been warned that it's the first thing you do, to be sure to get booked. Lots dash to the dining concierge on Embarkation day!

The speciality restaurants are Cagney's Steakhouse, Le Bistro, Teppanyaki and La Trattoria. Teppanyaki is a showstopper where your Asian food is cooked in front and just 8 of you watch as that's done and served straight to you. You wouldn't want to do that twice. La Trattoria is next to Raffles buffet, divided by a glass screen, which stops 1 foot from the floor so still quite noisy. Food was dire in our opinion. We found ourselves going back to dining booking desk to double up on Cagney's and Le Bistro. There were 2 meals I had in Le Bistro where the meat was chewy. So Cagney's got our vote but....only 5 mains that never change. The minute steak is to die for!

It says The Spirit was refurbed in 2017, there was 1 week it had a few updates in "dry dock" but not a full refurb. It is the oldest on the fleet, being built in 1998. We hadn't done our homework on that.

We sailed Costa in 2005 & 2008 for the Italian cuisine and weren't disappointed. We've since done a lot of ship visits, not on NCL, but having said that, we are booked on The Bliss next May. Keeping a close eye on the building of it, and the situation in Miami (hurricanes but been told May should be fine!).

Go and enjoy, the male hairdresser on there is English and the wash and blow dry was 7/10. Oh I'm a fusspot but after all, it is a cruise! You could get 6 star hotel for the price we've paid for the Bliss so got fingers and toes crossed!

Watch all the Spirit loving bloggers blast me now. I notice a few names popping up as keen debaters!

Go for it! [emoji14]

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[CruisingUS]

MDR not what it used to be. For NCL the quality changed about 2013/2014. I think it got better late 2016. Likely too many complaints. If I did not usually have special dining package. Some of those trips would have been miserable food wise. Lobster now hard to find at any venue.

2012 even on Carnival I had lobster twice in MDR. By 2013 that was gone.

 

Oddly usually the appetizers, and desserts are good.

imo the food took a nose dive around 2009-10. That was the nadir for sure. Since then it has improved a lil and they have taken minor steps backward.

 

 

I just cruised with them in 2016. The food was just ok. 3/5. Mind you I was barely paying $50-60/pp. So I am ok with the quality given the dirt cheap prices.

[CruisingUS]

The MDR is mass catering, no different to going to a large scale wedding reception or similar. When the kitchen is catering to those numbers the result will always be variable, and if not up to acceptable standard then the diner should, politely, ask for it to be changed. However, the standard should not be confused with what is expected in an onshore restaurant kitchen catering to smaller numbers with food cooked and plated to order - the onboard equivalent would be the speciality dinig venue. However, I've also had a few disappointing meals in onshore upscale restaurants as well as some great ones, that's life.

 

I'm usually concerned by overlong menus, better to have fewer choices but done well. I've not cruised yet with NCL (my first one is upcoming next August) but on the ones I have done it's actually quite amazinghow the galleys and wait staff do cope with the numbers and the length of the MDR menu.

 

Like most things in life you generally get what you pay for. My cruise is all inclusive but embarking from my home port, and breaks down to approx. £250 per night for an aft facing balcony. Taking into account the overheads of running the ship, fuel, staff costs and included gratuities, port taxes, entertainment, mantenance, capital expenditure, transportation, in port shuttles, UBP, etc. it doesn't leave too much to provide three or more meals per day, and no doubt without all the upsells and additional profit centres plus presumably the top end cabins subsidising the lower end (like the business class passengers on a plane who keeop down fares for economy tickets) the cruise price would need to be higher.

...

[CruisingUS]

MDR and buffet are the only places we have ever eaten..... just amazing to see those first days like people have never seen food before - piles of it like you wont get to eat for 7 more days.

It might be a midwest thing. I've lived there before and have seen how people eat.

[KeithJenner]

Watch all the Spirit loving bloggers blast me now. I notice a few names popping up as keen debaters!

Go for it! [emoji14]

 

 

What are you expecting a blasting for? Are you just after a argument for the sake of it?

 

As someone who liked the Spirit, I couldn't find a single thing in your post to take exception to. Seemed a reasonable, if largely off topic, report.

 

By the way, next time book your meals online before sailing and then you can do something more fun with your time on the first day.