Has the food improved?

[mpk]

On 3/26/2022 at 5:06 PM, Treasure Hunter said:

The best cruise food I have had recently was NCL Haven in February but not everyone can or wants to cruise Haven. It was better than Celebrity Luminae or Princess specialty restaurants. I have always been happy with Princess MDR and I pray I will again. 

 

Sailed on NCL Encore right after the startup a few months ago.  We thought the MDR food was great, even better than before the pandemic.  So it's possible to startup with good food.

 

I hope our upcoming Discovery cruise food is at least okay.  Sounds like I'm in the minority here, but food is a big part of the cruise experience for me.

Edited March 31, 2022 by mpk

[c-boy]

8 hours ago, NSWP said:

I still remember the seafood lunch served in the Horizon Court on embarkation day, that was many years ago, crabs, prawns, shell fish. Then the bean counters stepped in.😡 No doubt many of you remember those halycon days ?

ya, the ole squat and gobble dayz.  

[MissP22]

Nowadays you're lucky to see large shrimp at the Platinum elite cocktail event. 🤥

[GulfShoresCruiser]

We had shrimp in several forms and variations in the MDR on our Sky cruise that ended Monday.

 

Appetizers, salads, main entrees.......all courses except for dessert!

[capriccio]

We had shrimp 4 nights out of 7 in the PES cocktail hours on an early January Caribbean Princess cruise and a couple of times at dinner in the MDR.  In fact DH and I both noticed that and attributed it possibly to the low number of passengers (under 1000).  The seafood was very good on that cruise too.

 

We recently returned from a cruise on the Enchanted Princess but preferred having our cocktails outdoors so I don't know what the shrimp situation was.  I will say that my DH, who orders seafood probably 75% of the time was less than impressed on the overcooked offerings in the MDR but enjoyed the seafood dishes he ordered in Sabatinis and the Bistro.

[GatorGirl1313]

On 3/29/2022 at 2:48 PM, pilot said:

I agree that a buffet is not the best place to get a decent steak, but this is a joke to have this for dinner. As I stated we are loyal Princess cruises and hope this is a temporary problem.

 

We recently cruised on Celebrity Apex. The food in their buffet was great. 
 

We have a lot of FCC on Princess and look forward to sailing with them in the near future. 

I would imagine they intentionally serve small portions of steak in the buffet to avoid waste.  You can, after all, take several if you are hungry

[cltnccruisers]

On 3/25/2022 at 6:31 PM, Treasure Hunter said:

We were on the December 4, 2021 Sky Princess from Fort Lauderdale cruise. We love Princess, are Elite and even tho there were no chocolates, flowers, paper and pen etc. in our suite the excellent staff and the Princess ambiance would make us look the other way and book again. I gamble and routinely get balcony offers which we upgrade. Even tho Princess makes us pay in full in advance ( unlike Celebrity or NCL) I would book again But the food in the main dining room ( club class) was awful. The only really delicious food was the pizza in Alfredo’s. Any cruisers on Enchanted more recently? How is the food? That’s one cut I won’t accept again. 

We were on Sky the week before you.  The MDR was terrible.  I had one dinner that I would consider good.  Not exceptional, just good. Definitely agree about Alfredo's.  Besides that, bar service and quality was also not good.  It wasn't until we started using Vine midway through the cruise that we found better.  Finally, we just felt cramped in general as compared to other ships we've used.  For all these reasons we ignore Sky and her siblings for future cruises.

Edited April 1, 2022 by cltnccruisers

[5:00_Somewhere]

On 3/25/2022 at 6:31 PM, Treasure Hunter said:

We were on the December 4, 2021 Sky Princess from Fort Lauderdale cruise. We love Princess, are Elite and even tho there were no chocolates, flowers, paper and pen etc. in our suite the excellent staff and the Princess ambiance would make us look the other way and book again. I gamble and routinely get balcony offers which we upgrade. Even tho Princess makes us pay in full in advance ( unlike Celebrity or NCL) I would book again But the food in the main dining room ( club class) was awful. The only really delicious food was the pizza in Alfredo’s. Any cruisers on Enchanted more recently? How is the food? That’s one cut I won’t accept again. 

 

I just saw this (for reasons I will mention in a moment) and have to say, as much as I hate to, that I agree with you 100%. We were on the same sailing - the first leg of a B2B - and also in Club Class, and we thought the food was definitely below par. We were a little disappointed in the service, as well, unfortunately. It didn't "ruin our vacation" or anything, and we're not overly picky; tend to go with the flow when we're on vacation and were very happy to be back at sea on Princess (after having several cruises cancelled due to Covid), but couldn't help be notice the repeated issues and be a bit disappointed in the MDR experience. Dined in the Crown Grill one night and it was better, but we were also disappointed with our Sabatini's experience and with the Ocean Terrace where we had lunch one afternoon. As you said, Alfredo's was good, as usual. But, we've been sailing on Princess for more than 20 years, and that trip probably presented the worst dining experiences we've ever had on any cruise.

 

Now to the reason I'm just seeing this post now: we were on the Celebrity Reflection 3/19-3/26 and have to say our dining experiences in the dining room and specialty restaurants was probably the best we've had in years and years. The food was just exceptional every meal, and the service impeccable. The experience on the Reflection made the Sky Princess experience stand out all the more starkly in my mind, I suspect.

 

That said, we did agree that Princess wins on desserts hands down. 😉  And, unlike others (apparently), we found the bar service on the Sky outstanding, especially in Take 5 and Vines. The crew in Take 5, in particular, was exceptional, in our experience. 

 

We're on the Discovery Princess in May and I'm very much hoping the food and service are better than they were on the Sky.  Just my 2¢. 

Edited April 1, 2022 by 5:00_Somewhere

[cltnccruisers]

50 minutes ago, 5:00_Somewhere said:

 

I just saw this (for reasons I will mention in a moment) and have to say, as much as I hate to, that I agree with you 100%. We were on the same sailing - the first leg of a B2B - and also in Club Class, and we thought the food was definitely below par. We were a little disappointed in the service, as well, unfortunately. It didn't "ruin our vacation" or anything, and we're not overly picky; tend to go with the flow when we're on vacation and were very happy to be back at sea on Princess (after having several cruises cancelled due to Covid), but couldn't help be notice the repeated issues and be a bit disappointed in the MDR experience. Dined in the Crown Grill one night and it was better, but we were also disappointed with our Sabatini's experience and with the Ocean Terrace where we had lunch one afternoon. As you said, Alfredo's was good, as usual. But, we've been sailing on Princess for more than 20 years, and that trip probably presented the worst dining experiences we've ever had on any cruise.

 

Now to the reason I'm just seeing this post now: we were on the Celebrity Reflection 3/19-3/26 and have to say our dining experiences in the dining room and specialty restaurants was probably the best we've had in years and years. The food was just exceptional every meal, and the service impeccable. The experience on the Reflection made the Sky Princess experience stand out all the more starkly in my mind, I suspect.

 

That said, we did agree that Princess wins on desserts hands down. 😉  And, unlike others (apparently), we found the bar service on the Sky outstanding, especially in Take 5 and Vines. The crew in Take 5, in particular, was exceptional, in our experience. 

 

We're on the Discovery Princess in May and I'm very much hoping the food and service are better than they were on the Sky.  Just my 2¢. 

One thing that has really stood out regarding the MDR that I think has a lot to do with the problems is not having the same table and staff each night.  On Sky it didn't stabilize until the 5th night.  On Caribbean it was a little better and by the 3rd night our family of 8 had the same table and staff.  This was a great help since we had 2 teenage granddaughters who were being pretty picky ordering.  We lucked out with our head waiter Fernando.  He worked with them, got to know their tastes and sometimes would just surprise them.  This interaction is one reason Princess should stabilize seating.  Another is with tipping.  We always take enough cash to tip staff above and beyond when warranted - it almost always is.  But these last 2 cruises some MDR staff likely lost out due to seating management.

 

Regarding Celebrity, they are head and shoulders our favorite line - especially the Solstice class ships.  After one more Princess cruise in June we'll return to Celebrity and likely finish our cruising life there.

 

[Marelaine]

On 3/26/2022 at 12:24 PM, nini said:

I really do not think it could have been worse than the food and service on Celebrity Reflection in October 2018, Pre Covid. Of course it is all very subjective.

So, no more Celebrity for us.

Oh dear. I like to know your opinion after you sail on Princess again.

Coincidentally, we also sailed on Reflection in 2018. I agree the cutbacks were noticeable. The portions were smaller, which is okay with me. I'd rather have smaller portions to save room for desert. The most apparent cutback was in the quality of the steak on the everyday menu. But at least they had that option. No beef options on Princess everyday favorites. iThe service on Celebrity was faultless. One evening, I told the waiter I was in the mood for an American style chef salad, which was not on the menu. The next evening, when we arrived at our table, the pantry chef came out with a huge, beautiful chef salad for me 🙂 Another evening, I ordered Beef Wellington, which was yummy. The waiter also brought a duck a l'orange because he wanted us to see how well it came out. We took our son, who has Parkinsons with us on one cruise. When our waiter noticed that I cut his meat for him due to his dexterity issues, he asked my son if he would mind if he cut his food for him so I could relax. He told him he reminded him of his brother and every night there after he helped my son. I'm sorry you had the misfortune of bad service on Celebrity. In my experience Celebrity  MDR waitstaff are exceptional. 

 

 

 

Edited April 1, 2022 by Marelaine

[Marelaine]

On 3/26/2022 at 12:24 PM, Coral said:

I thought the menus were poor and dumbed down in an attempt to save money. The quality of the food was below previously.

 

I did not starve by any means. I gained weight on my cruise. The desserts were pretty good.

 

One doesn't cruise Princess for their food. 

I thought that the supply chain disruptions might have factored into the disappointing food. I was also happy they didn't disappoint with the desserts. But where the heck are they hiding the cookies? We could order them on the Medallion but never saw them offered at the buffet.

 

[pilot]

19 minutes ago, Marelaine said:

I thought that the supply chain disruptions might have factored into the disappointing food. I was also happy they didn't disappoint with the desserts. But where the heck are they hiding the cookies? We could order them on the Medallion but never saw them offered at the buffet.

 

On Enchantment the cookies were in the pastry area.  Oatmeal raisin were pretty good!  Also, they always had plenty of vanilla sauce to pour on anything.

[NSWP]

But has the Horizon Court coffee from the machines, improved, it was always not that great.

[gardenbunny]

11 hours ago, cltnccruisers said:

One thing that has really stood out regarding the MDR that I think has a lot to do with the problems is not having the same table and staff each night.  On Sky it didn't stabilize until the 5th night.  On Caribbean it was a little better and by the 3rd night our family of 8 had the same table and staff.  This was a great help since we had 2 teenage granddaughters who were being pretty picky ordering.  We lucked out with our head waiter Fernando.  He worked with them, got to know their tastes and sometimes would just surprise them.  This interaction is one reason Princess should stabilize seating

Absolutely.  We had our first cruise since Covid on Enchanted NYE, and the new Dine My Way.  Which actually was NOT Dine My Way.  Having no idea how it worked, we found out the hard way it was better to select your DR and time before boarding.  We were put at a different table every night (and a bad table location) and it was horrible exceptmfor the last 2 nights.

So when we took Panama Canal on Emerald March 13-23 we booked before. Private table for 5 for 7 PM every night in DaVinci.  So if we liked location and staff we would ask to keep it for entire cruise.  Surprise - once on board I checked Medallian and it was changed to Botticelli!!!  I was furious.  I had taken a screen shot of what I had reserved.  My DH and neice went to DaVinci at 5 to politely “discuss” our experience on Enchanted and get this resolved to our satisfaction.

I must admit Michael, the DRM went over and above.  He let them pick out any table we wanted and made it ours for the entire cruise at 7.  Head Waiter Frodrick and Asst Waiter Red James were awesome.  It was just like the way it was before all these changes.  Michael came by our table every night to speak with us.  It is all about the personal connection Princess has been known for, and I fear they have lost touch with that wih introducing what I call “Grub Hub” cruising.

Frodrick has been with Princess for many years and he was very open about the crew’s dislike for the Medallion system. He said it is very tedious to go through all the many steps to take a passenger order.

We don’t have another cruise on Princess until Sept 22 on Crown.  RT California Coastal from Vancouver.

Will be following CC to see if  situation improves.

[cruzin4us]

I was on the Majestic in October and we ate primarily in the Specialty Restaurants but a few other places too!

 

Harmony:   Was the worst meal I've ever had at sea.   Why would you take a small lobster tail and chop it into 6 pieces and leave the shell on?   You couldn't even eat it without digging your hands into the food....it was a mess.   We also ordered a filet mignon stir fry.   The filet was so tough and way over cooked (see first 2 pics).   I am not a picky eater, I will eat anything....but these 2 dishes were horrible and there was an upcharge on both dishes    F

 

Bistro Sur La Mer:   Our favorite of all the Specialty dining options:   The only thing I don't recommend is the escargot.....they are more like hard breaded nuggets (the waiter warned me, so this is on me).   A few things we loved:  Tartare de thon ahi (Hand-cut ahi tuna, parsley like a harlequin, vegetable fries), Œuf mollet Florentine, Quenelles de vivaneau et St. Jacques (Poached egg, creamed spinach, mushrooms, comté cheese), salpicon de homard et jus des carcasses (Red snapper & scallop mousseline, lobster morsels and lobster sauce), Dos de bar roti sur un pain croustillant ratatouille sauce tomate et olive (Seabass filet, crispy bread, braised vegetables, olive and tomato sauce) and the wonderful desert Ile flottante aux agrumes, Crème anglaise (Soft meringue, lemon and lime filling, egg custard).   A

 

Alfredo's:   The make the best pizza at sea and better than 99% of the pizzerias on land.  A

 

Crown Grill:  We always go, and I always ask myself why afterwards.    The service isn't what I hoped for in a fine dining restaurant....they seem rushed and more about getting you in and out and not really caring.    It's loud and we were seated relatively close to the kitchen.   I dunno, it is just lacking in ambience or something.   But back to the food:   I ordered prime rib and a lobster tail (upcharge).  The lobster was very fishy and very, very rubbery.   The steak was fat on one end and medium rare and then  very thin on the other which was well done.    2nd visit I ordered the fillet and it wasn't tender even though it was cooked properly (medium rare).   It lacked the "melt in your mouth" you expect with a fillet.   In fact both meals were both so sub par that I didn't even take pics.....and I always take food pics (just so I can answer questions like this....ha).  I would compare it to an Outback Steakhouse. B-

 

Buffet:   I'm not sure what it is.....the food is displayed nicely and it looks tasty but when I get to the table I take one bite and think it just tastes blah.   I have to admit I was a food waster, because I kept trying to find something that was really good.   It is also so spread out, so you wander around a lot.   Ate there twice but wasn't by choice.  D

 

International Cafe:   One of the best places to eat on the ship (shhhhhh).   Not to mention the coffees are great.   They offer smaller portions for when you just want a quick snack or if you want to make a meal out of it.   There sandwiches are good (panni style) along with their small salads.....and then there's desert!   Oh, they have breakfast items in the morning too.   I found myself sneaking down there after midnight and taking a sandwich back to my room.    A

 

Noodle Bar:  For a quick meal, this was actually quite nice. I ate here a couple of times.   Nothing fancy, it's out by the pool area. You need to be a bit adventurous and try all the times they have available to put in your noodles.   This spot should be a hit on Alaska cruises.   B

 

Over all grade:  C

 

I sail with Princess because I have gotten some incredible offers (do to my contributions in the casino).    It's hard to pass up free verandas, free play, free gratuities, beverages and WiFi.    If I had my preference just based on food, I'd sail on HAL a thousand times over.   I love the Tamarind and Pinnacle Grill and the service has always been incredible.

 

 Now for the pics....

[Steelers36]

24 minutes ago, cruzin4us said:

Crown Grill:  We always go, and I always ask myself why afterwards.   (I HOPE I DON'T)..............................................  I would compare it to an Outback Steakhouse. B-

 

Ewww... last time we went to an Outback was the last time I will go to an Outback.  That was some time back - not sure when, but certainly a while before Covid - and the meat quality was way downhill and I said forget it.  Would rather invest money elsewhere if going for a steak.  It's sad because in the beginning, it was good IMO. NO way would I give Outback a B anymore.  Now, I might have had a 1-off bad situation, but my general impression is they are not at all what they were and there are other options.  I tend to order other dishes going out now - unless specifically going to a higher-end steak place because I buy high-quality beef for at home and grill it up very nicely so it is hard for most restaurants to beat that.

 

I keep reading about sub-standard steaks in CG of late.  Makes me think they are serving what used to be served in the MDR for steak and now what is served in the MDR?  Must be almost inedible.  We have some free dining credits and will certainly try it for ourselves, but may be running to Sabi's after the first try.  We shall see.....

[5:00_Somewhere]

20 hours ago, cltnccruisers said:

One thing that has really stood out regarding the MDR that I think has a lot to do with the problems is not having the same table and staff each night.  On Sky it didn't stabilize until the 5th night.  On Caribbean it was a little better and by the 3rd night our family of 8 had the same table and staff.  This was a great help since we had 2 teenage granddaughters who were being pretty picky ordering.  We lucked out with our head waiter Fernando.  He worked with them, got to know their tastes and sometimes would just surprise them.  This interaction is one reason Princess should stabilize seating.  Another is with tipping.  We always take enough cash to tip staff above and beyond when warranted - it almost always is.  But these last 2 cruises some MDR staff likely lost out due to seating management.

 

Regarding Celebrity, they are head and shoulders our favorite line - especially the Solstice class ships.  After one more Princess cruise in June we'll return to Celebrity and likely finish our cruising life there.

 

 

I don't know that I can agree that the seating issue is the main problem. We've done "Anytime" dining on Princess for many, many years, meaning we did not often have the same waiters on any given series of nights, and did not experience these kinds of service issues (at least not often). In fact, on the Sky cruise I mentioned, we did have the same wait team many nights. They essentially moved us around amongst 3 wait teams during our 2 week cruise, so we often had the same waiters 2 or 3 nights in a row. But the service was just generally very slow and spotty, with orders being wrong, and waiters disappearing for long periods of time (I'm assuming due to overwork and understaffing). We were actually chastised by our waiter one night for pouring ourselves more wine because they had disappeared for so long and we were empty while eating our entre. 

 

And speaking of the wine service, that's one thing Princess just can't seem to get right in the MDR these days, in my experience. As soon as you sit down they ask for your cocktail order (great). We typically don't order a cocktail but say we'll be ordering wine with our meal, so they will bring the wine list but expect you to order right then. I always explain that we would like to look at the menu and decide what food we will be ordering so we can decide on wine. Then they usually don't take the wine order until you're ordering your meal, which also should be fine, but we often find the wine doesn't actually come until we're halfway through our meal. It didn't used to be like that; at least I don't recall it being an issue until recent years, including pre-Covid. Certainly, some of this may be due to Covid-related staffing issues but, by the same token, we've never experienced any such issue on Celebrity, ever.

 

I also don't know that I can put the food quality down to supply chain issues, as we had also noticed these issues, to some degree, pre-Covid.

 

I know, this is a "white whine", and this certainly would not make me say I'm never sailing on Princess again. But, it is something that can't help but come to mind when thinking about booking a future cruise.

 

And, like you, we are definitely leaning toward Celebrity at this point. We now have 6 cruises booked into 2024 and 4 are on Celebrity, 1 on Princess (Discovery) and 1 on another line. We also absolutely love the S-Class ships, but have also had wonderful experiences on the M-Class. In fact, our next X cruise is on the Summit (will be our 3rd on her), then 2 on the Apex (we're looking forward to seeing what it has to offer) and one on the Constellation (had a wonderful Med cruise on her in 2019). Looking forward to the Discovery and hoping to find things have improved in the MDR.

Edited April 2, 2022 by 5:00_Somewhere

[SNJCruisers]

22 hours ago, cltnccruisers said:

Regarding Celebrity, they are head and shoulders our favorite line - especially the Solstice class ships.  After one more Princess cruise in June we'll return to Celebrity and likely finish our cruising life there.

Make sure you do the Edge Class.  I've been on four different Celebrity Classes and the Edge Class is just a notch better.  Was on the Edge in Jan 2020 and the Apex for 12 days in January of 2021.  Am booked on their newest, the Beyond for 18 day B2B in November of 2023.

We are on the Discovery for 14 days this month and the Majestic for 14 days to Alaska next year.  They are our first on Princess, after cruising on 7 other lines since 1986.

[SNJCruisers]

13 hours ago, pilot said:

  Also, they always had plenty of vanilla sauce to pour on anything.

Could you request a to go cup so you could pour it on your SO in the cabin,? 🤣

[GulfShoresCruiser]

On 4/1/2022 at 10:50 AM, cltnccruisers said:

One thing that has really stood out regarding the MDR that I think has a lot to do with the problems is not having the same table and staff each night. 

 

We were on the Sky TA (debarked 3/28) and this is one of the top 3 reasons we are leaving Princess.  We had Dine My Way (which really means, Dine Princess Way) for MDR every night.  After the bad table location for two on day 1, I scoped out a table and when we arrived on day 2, asked if we could have it.  And got it.  It was the same waiters who were great.  

 

We asked one of the assistant waiters if we could just come here every night at our reservation time and the answer was no but that we would try to let you have it.

 

Well, we begged at the door every evening and they granted us permission each night.  We felt lucky but so ridiculous that we have to wonder if we will get our same table, same waiters every night.  

 

The medallion wastes my time....I could not just go to the table but had to stand in line and beg and then get my table. 

 

 

 

[cltnccruisers]

23 hours ago, SNJCruisers said:

Make sure you do the Edge Class.  I've been on four different Celebrity Classes and the Edge Class is just a notch better.  Was on the Edge in Jan 2020 and the Apex for 12 days in January of 2021.  Am booked on their newest, the Beyond for 18 day B2B in November of 2023.

We are on the Discovery for 14 days this month and the Majestic for 14 days to Alaska next year.  They are our first on Princess, after cruising on 7 other lines since 1986.

Our next X cruise is a TA out of Barcelona on Reflection in 2023.  We looked at Edge class for that period as well but are more comfortable with a S-class for a TA.  Probably give the E-class a shot  after that.

 

I did notice that the E-class in the Caribbean looks to be having some pretty significant price drops.

Edited April 3, 2022 by cltnccruisers

[Bwana Tom]

On 3/26/2022 at 8:59 PM, jwattle said:

We just spent two wonderful weeks on the Majestic and enjoyed the food immensely.

I agree totally. We were just on a 3 way B2B on the Majestic in March and on the Regal on a 4 way B2B in Nov. and Dec. and found the food to be excellent on both trips. In particular the beef had improved substantially.