frozen supermarket bagels

[ina905]

just curious-why does Princess use pre-package bagels instead of making fresh bagels? 

[jakey2004]

Probably because they need to make at least 100 doz a day.

[shof515]

with all of the fresh baking they do on board the ship. i have a feeling it is a time and material savings that princess calculated. 

[Bill B]

They're less expensive than making them themselves.

[2theship]

Since good bagels require both boiling and baking, it takes a lot of work (and money) to create a quality product. Somewhere along the line, Princess must have decided that the frozen ones were a better choice.

[floridalover5623]

Even the pre-packaged ones we get at home in the grocery store are better than what Princess serves. 

[peternina]

1 hour ago, floridalover5623 said:

Even the pre-packaged ones we get at home in the grocery store are better than what Princess serves. 

I agree...there had to be a better frozen bagel.  At least with a little flavor.  (However, I have been complaining about the Princess Syrup Coffee for years with no respose.)

[capriccio]

2 minutes ago, peternina said:

(However, I have been complaining about the Princess Syrup Coffee for years with no respose.)

The Royal class ships have brewed coffee.  So maybe someone did listen you you!

[MCC retired]

With all the other breakfast items available , I don’t think that the demand is worthy of the extra cost to make them correctly onboard?

[jlp20]

Bagels are extremely labor intensive taking numerous steps and specialized equipment.

[Coral]

I would be happy with an improved frozen bagel.

[Coral]

1 hour ago, MJSailors said:

 

Going back to the subject of Princess bagels, skip them and enjoy a croissant from the IC .

Actually the croissants are not that great either. They used to be a lot better. I think they stopped using butter or something.

Edited October 25, 2018 by Coral

[elliair]

1 hour ago, MJSailors said:

Agree with some of the other posters.

 

Going back to the subject of Princess bagels, skip them and enjoy a croissant from the IC .

 

We like the ham and cheese filled croissants.  They serve them sometimes at the buffet at dinner time.  I get a couple of those along with some cheese and those toasted buttered garlic bread slices, some veggies, and enjoy it on our balcony.  We rarely make it to dinner.  We do not eat 3 meals a day at home, so we can get by with very little in the evening.  We gave up bagels, no where I live do we have good bagels.

[riclop]

13 hours ago, ina905 said:

just curious-why does Princess use pre-package bagels instead of making fresh bagels? 

How do you know this?

[satxdiver]

Bagels are time consuming to make but I have no idea whether they are frozen commercial products or are made on the ship.  Most things are made on the ship and on my ship tour did see the bakery department in the galley where they were busy at work one morning.  

 

The claims it is the water reminds me of Coors that was made from pure rocky mountain spring water or so the commercial said.  I toured the Coors brewery back 40+ years ago before they branched out and had only one brewery.  I found out the beer was brewed using city water in Golden.  When we toured the Samuel Adams brewery in Boston, they told us that the city water is purified and showed us the purifier they used.  Their contention was that they could use any water due to their purification equipment and the water is not all that important as long as it is clean.

[elliair]

I think a lot of their desserts are frozen, not made from scratch, especially the ones served in the buffet.  The rolls served at dinner and in the buffet are also frozen and they bake them there on the ship.  Just like grocery stores do, they don't make the bread there, it comes in frozen then baked in the store.  Ever watch the longshoremen load the stores onto the ship?  Lots of frozen food in cardboard boxes.  We were on a cruise to Hawaii and the Longshoremen in San Francisco was in a union rift.  They refused to unload some semis that were parked at the pier.  Lots of items didn't get on board and were still sitting on the dock when we got underway around 11:30 pm.  (We watched all of it from our balcony).  When we got to our first port, we saw several suburban's drive up to the ship unloading 5# sacks of flour.  We asked what the deal was and they said that not all the flour got onboard for the trip.  That was the same cruise where the longshoremen dumped a large cart of luggage into the bay.

[Hlitner]

4 hours ago, Coral said:

Actually the croissants are not that great either. They used to be a lot better. I think they stopped using butter or something.

Yeah, we noticed that on our most recent Regal cruise (2 weeks ago).  But the donuts were still fabulous :).

 

Hank

[Coral]

2 minutes ago, Hlitner said:

Yeah, we noticed that on our most recent Regal cruise (2 weeks ago).  But the donuts were still fabulous :).

 

Hank

As long as we are flexible - we won't go hungry! The donuts were good on my last cruise also.

Edited October 26, 2018 by Coral

[chengkp75]

Things that folks expect to have consistent shape and size, like hamburger and hot dog rolls, and bagels, are typically not done onboard, just because of the machinery needed to keep the shape and size consistent.  I will disagree that the dinner rolls are made ashore.  I have repaired the roll making machines and proofing cabinets many times.  This machine takes a ball of fresh dough, divides it into 19 smaller dough balls, and then using oscillating plates, rolls these 19 balls into 19 dinner rolls, which are then transferred to a baking sheet, and into the proofing cabinet to rise for a couple hours before baking.

 

And while some desserts are made ashore, most are made on the ship.  Again, I've been called to repair dough sheeters (where the pastry dough is folded and rolled repeatedly, tart presses (the pastry dough is pressed into the fluted tart pans), and other specialty baking machines in both the bakery and pastry shops.

 

Heck, I've even repaired the machine that takes a 5 lb block of butter, and using hot wires cuts it into the little pats.

[Coral]

1 hour ago, chengkp75 said:

Things that folks expect to have consistent shape and size, like hamburger and hot dog rolls, and bagels, are typically not done onboard, just because of the machinery needed to keep the shape and size consistent. 

I actually thought the hamburger buns were made onboard. They are usually on a pan when I see them. I have been known to be wrong.

[MissP22]

15 hours ago, elliair said:

I think a lot of their desserts are frozen, not made from scratch, especially the ones served in the buffet.  The rolls served at dinner and in the buffet are also frozen and they bake them there on the ship.  Just like grocery stores do, they don't make the bread there, it comes in frozen then baked in the store.  Ever watch the longshoremen load the stores onto the ship?  Lots of frozen food in cardboard boxes.  We were on a cruise to Hawaii and the Longshoremen in San Francisco was in a union rift.  They refused to unload some semis that were parked at the pier.  Lots of items didn't get on board and were still sitting on the dock when we got underway around 11:30 pm.  (We watched all of it from our balcony).  When we got to our first port, we saw several suburban's drive up to the ship unloading 5# sacks of flour.  We asked what the deal was and they said that not all the flour got onboard for the trip.  That was the same cruise where the longshoremen dumped a large cart of luggage into the bay.

Most of the desserts served in the buffets are purchased from the same company for years now. They're consistently lousy and never change in appearance. I tend to bypass them for anything else that Princess actually makes themselves, and yet people seem to love them

 

[shof515]

16 minutes ago, MissP22 said:

Most of the desserts served in the buffets are purchased from the same company for years now. They're consistently lousy and never change in appearance. I tend to bypass them for anything else that Princess actually makes themselves, and yet people seem to love them

 

 

when i was on the regal princess a few weeks ago, the pastry shop area by the buffet had that amazing bakery smell too it. and the deserts were good too 

[donaldsc]

We buy Einstein bagels on Monday when they have 13 bagels for $7.00.  We freeze half on them.  When we unfreeze them, they taste way better than whatever it is that serve on Princess.  Not as good as fresh bagels but better than Princess bagels. 

 

Why doesn't Princess buy huge bags of frozen Einstein bagels or the equivalent instead of the crap that they buy.  I guess that in the cruise industry, cost trumps taste all the time.

 

DON

[MissP22]

1 minute ago, shof515 said:

 

when i was on the regal princess a few weeks ago, the pastry shop area by the buffet had that amazing bakery smell too it. and the deserts were good too 

Most of their cookie cutter desserts do nothing for me, especially the pies. Consistently blah and the sad part about it is they never try to improve upon them. 

Don't get me wrong, there are some decent deserts but you do have to choose carefully as most of them are only served in the DR.

[jlp20]

48 minutes ago, MissP22 said:

Most of their cookie cutter desserts do nothing for me, especially the pies. 

Don't know if it's true, but because of the humid sea air,  baking anything is an issue.