I am worried.....

[purpleally]

We are gold on both Regent and Seabourn, luxury all inclusive cruise lines. Have sailed on Celebrity. Went on NCL for the first time to hang out with friends. First of all, the cost was less than a third of what we usually spend on cruises.

Had absolutely no problem with the food. Le Bistro was near perfection. The MDR at lunch was great. A little too crowded for my taste at dinner but food was fine.

The noodle bar (included) was great.

However, we never ever ate at the buffet. Food was not an issue

[PTC DAWG]

Food is so subjective I can't take much of anyone's commentary seriously. Anyone who says everything they had on the ship was not good, inedible, etc......well...just suffice it to say I wouldn't want to cruise on any line with them. They can't be pleased..

[BostonGal35]

i sailed carnival once, now THAT food was bad. total college dining hall quality. so when i make statements about NCL, i do have another cruise line to compare it too.

 

we could afford a fancier line, but we liek the demographic of cruisers on NCL. We'd be bored stiff on Celebrity or Oceania.

[ltgilbert]

I agree with BostonGal35. we have sailed carnival one time and heading out on NCL for our 3rd cruise this July. NCL is a big step up from Carnival IMO. We do not do the buffet. I prefer to be waited on, it's vacation :-) So we stick to the specialty resturants and the main dining room. Room service on NCL is also good. Our teens on the other hand hit the buffet in between the specialty meals :-)

[ElaineKeagy]

Any meal on the MDR is better than what I will put on the dinner table at home Monday thru Friday.

 

...... anyone who sends back 3 meals during a 7- 10 day cruise IS a picky eater imb.

[PTC DAWG]

I saw the HAL tender unloading at Grand Cayman...I’m not nearly old enough for them...great food or not.

[david_sobe]

Food is subjective. I have been on numerous NCL cruises and never had a bad meal. There was one or two we were not crazy about but not terrible by any means. I agree with Bird Travels that sometimes the food in the MDR is better than the specialty restaurants. On Getaway we thought the gnocchi was better at the MDR than at La Cucina (the specialty Italian restaurant). It was so much better that we even commented about it on the survey card.

NCL has so many choices. Even if there was a food or meal you did not care for, there would be so many other choices to take its place. Food is the last worry I would ever have about a cruise. I also agree with Lrgpizza. Sometimes I feel guilty eating at the specialty restaurants because I feel I am missing a really good free meal in the MDR :eek:

[YVRBassElectric]

Food is so subjective I can't take much of anyone's commentary seriously. Anyone who says everything they had on the ship was not good, inedible, etc......well...just suffice it to say I wouldn't want to cruise on any line with them. They can't be pleased..

 

Well said!!

 

I ended up have a great conversation with a couple from Seattle, that started with the husband saying "I'm stressed" my reply of "if you're stressed in the Haven you are doing it wrong" made them both laugh. Another couple in the Haven who HATED every meal, and stressed out the staff so much, that I didn't want to eat in the restaurant at the same time - turns out his original "I'm stressed" was a shot at that couple.

 

The service and food in the Haven on the Bliss was the best I have ever had - did I love every dish, no, but it was well cooked, nicely presented & the staff WANTED to help & for every passenger to enjoy the experience.

[Von & John]

I sailed the Jewel in Dec and the Bliss in April - I LOVED our trip on the Jewel and the only time I was disappointed with MDR food was when the sauce was different on the dish than on the plate (taziki & tomato sauce are REALLY different) I wondered if they were trying to appeal to passengers in Australia?!? Let the Maitre D know if you are trying to get to a show, we had a couple of meals last over 2 hours. Specialty dining, if you like meat (not rare) Moderno has an amazing array of choices in salad bar & meat (save room for the pineapple)

 

That said, my experience on the Bliss (in a Haven cabin) was MILES above anything I have experienced on vacation. Waterfront dining is everything patios at home try to be. Crew really enjoy their jobs. TONS of variety in food, entertainment & space. A couple of nights we had oysters at Ocean Blue, dinner at Food Republic and dessert in the Haven.

 

Advantage of no set dining time - if you don't like MDR menu today, eat somewhere else, dinner didn't satisfy - grab a snack later at the 24 hour restaurant (Local or O'sheehan) or the buffet.

 

One thing I miss is Canadian cheddar cheese, NCL serves cheese slices & cheese product (that I am used to eating when I travel in US), you will find nicer gouda, swiss, brie but I have not found what I think of as cheddar cheese.

 

 

YVR Bass Electric --

Having grown up in the Mid-West, with a mother from Wisconsin... I think of cheddar cheese as being neither soft nor a cheese product. We are used to aged, sharp &/or extra sharp hard cheddar cheese. I'd be interested to taste the Canadian version - I believe from your description, of what it is not - we'd love it ;p

Edited June 11, 2018 by Von & John

[YVRBassElectric]

I saw the HAL tender unloading at Grand Cayman...I’m not nearly old enough for them...great food or not.

 

 

that's what I think when I am in port at the same time as a HAL ship. That said my Panama Cruise on the Pearl, was full of walkers, scooters, a medical emergency at each port & an average age of 64.

[YVRBassElectric]

Having grown up in the Mid-West, with a mother from Wisconsin... I think of cheddar cheese as being neither soft nor a cheese product. We are used to aged, sharp &/or extra sharp hard cheddar cheese. I'd be interested to taste the Canadian version - I believe from your description, of what it is not - we'd love it ;p

 

YEAH, I learned I could get "real" cheddar cheese in New York, now I know Wisconsin will be safe :) :cool: Often you will see it labeled as "old or extra old" in Canada but yes hard, sharp, aged and the better quality will be white, instead of orange.As long as you stay away from Fast food.

[Goldconnection]

CruisingNole I think you are assuming a lot with your statement. I feel just the opposite. I find that most people on CC have cruise multiple cruise lines. DH and I have cruised with five different cruise lines soon to be six next year. I think that qualifies me to say we have moved beyond our safety zone. If it were left up to me, we would never cruise again with Celebrity (horrible food in my subjective opinion). My DH on the other hand has not had a bad meal on any of the five cruise line let him tell it. Sorry to say food is very subjective I am living proof.

[cruiselover19811981]

I agree with drcarp4. Ncl & Carnival are pretty equal...with NCL buffet slightly better. My husband and I have sailed Royal Caribbean, Carnival & NCL. We enjoyed the food in the MDR of all 3 lines just as equally. When we are asked which line had the best food, we reply we enjoyed them all.

[kochleffel]

My first cruise on NCL was just over a month ago, and it was my first cruise ever, so I can't offer opinions about other cruise lines.

 

My take on the MDRs on the Epic was that they were equivalent to a good local restaurant that you might go to fairly regularly, but not quite the equal of a "destination" restaurant for which you might make a special trip. Everything I had was good, little of it was great. (And, remembering another complaint that has been posted, everything that was supposed to be hot was hot.) I would have been most critical of the desserts, which were all OK but too similar from one day to another and not really to my taste.

 

I did not happen to try any of the specialty restaurants. This wasn't totally intentional--I just happened to be with people who weren't going to them, and as I didn't have the dining package, I didn't press the matter. I did not like the Garden Café very much; to the extent that the food was comparable, I didn't think it was as good as the MDRs.

[2Oldpeopleinlove]

We have been on exactly one cruise. September will bring our second. Both with NCL. So I have no broad experience with cruise ship fare. However, I am a professional restaurant critic. (Yeah, I know, they pay me to eat...what a job!) That said, we found the food in the MDRs to be the equivalent of the middle-to-good restaurants we review. Great? No, but certainly not bad. Only once did we get poor service from one unfriendly server on a week-long cruise.

 

In the speciality restaurants, we had an uneven experience. Soups were too salty, steaks at Cagney were fatty, but everything else was very good. So next time we order differently and try the filet.

 

We won't use the buffet on our next cruise because it isn't hot or as high quality as in the MDRs. That's to be expected since it's prepared en masse and has to sit out.

 

So, yes, some of the food is very good, some is pretty okay, and some is convenient. The point is that we went expecting to have a helluva good time, and we did exactly that. Sure, I’m disappointed that we couldn't afford cruising back in the day when the food was consistently exceptional. But we're not about to let that ruin our fun.

[nednrom]

I will be going on my first Celebrity cruise in Jan (Edge) and have cruised Royal, NCL, Carnival and Cunard and other smaller cruise lines. My impression is aside from the subjectivity, there are also differences within ships in the same cruise line. We were on the NCL Jewel in November and didn't eat in the MDR but used all 5 of our dining packages and found that the suite restaurants for lunch and dinner were awesome. The specialty restaurants had some very good food, some very salty for me but nothing that I couldn't eat. In the specialty restaurants, when I asked the server, I usually made the right choice.

 

We will be on NCL Sun and our expectations are not the same. It's an older, smaller ship with a short 4 day cruise, we're just looking forward to going to Cuba.

 

I'm sure Bliss will be a different adventure than the Jewel since it's such a new ship with different venues. Go and have fun, you won't starve and you'll find it's not bad at all.

[qoap24]

I just got off my 6th cruise with NCL on Saturday and I have to say that I went in knowing the food is not the best, but it seems to have gone down hill even more. We ate 3 nights at 3 different speciality restaurants and 4 in the MDR. I cannot say that any of the 7 meals were all that great. But I also do not eat seafood, so I do not know if it is just the beef and chicken dishes that are not that great. I will say that when we looked around at other people's plates, they were empty. So there are people that enjoy the food.

 

My daughter has been on every NCL cruise with me and she informed me that she doesn't know if she will be willing to cruise NCL anymore. Just from reading on this board, I can't help but wonder if most cruise lines food are just ok.

[SeaShark]

Seems like the food might not be as good as it "used to" be. :(

 

The idiom that familiarity breeds contempt is an old one. It means that the more comfortable one becomes with something the more likely they are to see the flaws in that thing. For instance, a person's feelings about a particular thing can go from optimistic, to complacent, to spiteful without that particular thing changing at all. The day to day proximity to the thing results in a person's mind looking for ways to keep it interesting.

 

The idea that "familiarity breeds contempt" or "the honeymoon is over" or "the sheen is off of the apple" has been around a long time. Things often don't "seem" to be as good as they were "in the beginning". When you took your first cruise, everything was new. Now you know what to expect, you know the routine, and it isn't new and exciting as it once was.

 

We hear a lot of anectdotal evidence that things are worse, but no facts, no hard evidence....just opinion. Interesting that despite the fact that this is just a fact of the human condition, we have a hard time admitting that things just might not be as bad as they "seem".

 

I guess nothing beats the "good old days". :rolleyes:

[sweetpea222]

The point is that we went expecting to have a helluva good time, and we did exactly that. Sure, I’m disappointed that we couldn't afford cruising back in the day when the food was consistently exceptional. But we're not about to let that ruin our fun.

 

Exactly. I'm so thankful, and grateful, to be on vacation and not home cooking or cleaning. I'm thrilled that I can choose multiple things on the menu and I don't have to worry about how much the total bill will be. If something isn't great, that's fine I'll find something else later to enjoy. As was said earlier, anything they serve will likely be better than what I can drum up on a Tuesday after a long day of work!

[CruisingNole]

CruisingNole I think you are assuming a lot with your statement. I feel just the opposite. I find that most people on CC have cruise multiple cruise lines. DH and I have cruised with five different cruise lines soon to be six next year. I think that qualifies me to say we have moved beyond our safety zone. If it were left up to me, we would never cruise again with Celebrity (horrible food in my subjective opinion). My DH on the other hand has not had a bad meal on any of the five cruise line let him tell it. Sorry to say food is very subjective I am living proof.

 

Gristly steak that is hard to chew (and I almost had to spit out because I simply could not chew it enough to swallow) is not subjective. That's what's called a crappy steak by anyone's definition. A salmon burger that is fishy tasting and smelling is a clear sign that it is not fresh. Not subjective. That's what's called bad fish.

 

Sorry (not really) if you don't like what I experienced literally just one week ago. Not sure what to tell ya.

 

Every recent review you'll find on both CC and Shipmates app has the same complaint. The food on NCL Sun sucks.

 

It is what it is. I'm simply sharing my first-hand experience.

[Gershep]

I'm not too thrilled with the food in the buffet but I always enjoyed the food in the MDR.

[TruckerDave]

Stop reading reviews and these boards and just enjoy your cruise. It's that simple. ;)

[CruiseGal999]

2013 went on NCL Spirit for a Med cruise. The service everywhere and the food was AMAZING. The ship had MUCH better Paella than Barcelona!

 

2017 I was on NCL Sky. The MDR food and service was AWFUL. I didn't eat half of my dinners for the week. They listed cheesecake for dessert. What was served was a custard something or other on a graham cracker crust. So not only cooked horribly and NO seasoning., but not even listed accurately. Several dinners took almost 3 hours to be served on the Sky. I just left to see the show.

[Moby0215]

Ever have a kid in college? To hear them tell it the food is horrible.

 

 

 

Anyone ever hear of the "Freshman 15."

 

 

 

The freshman 15 is when first year college students gain 15 pounds but it’s attributed to drinking.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[davesgirl51]

You can make reservations on line 120 days prior to your cruise, if in a non-suite cabin and 130 days prior if in a suite.

 

And make your reservations ahead or you will likely NOT get them.