Is Food THAT bad?

[Calgary3]

I have to agree with everyone who posted about the food on the Emerald Princess.  We are back from our transatlantic crossing and in my post-cruise survey I gave the food a 3.  It was the worst cruise food we have ever eaten on any cruise line!  The one really good meal we had was at Sabatini's and I gave that venue a solid 10.  Yes, the food was mostly edible but I expected more from a Princess Cruise.

[WAvoyager]

13 hours ago, jeno said:

Where in Panama is it? What town? 

It’s in Panama City.  I haven’t been back in years, but when I was traveling to Panama for work in the 201x’s, it was a must stop every trip.  My vendor hosts would always want to take me to the latest hot restaurant, but I had the simple request that at least one dinner had to be at Gaucho’s.

 

 

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g294480-d1094952-Reviews-or45-Gaucho_s_Steak_House-Panama_City_Panama_Province.html

[rbtan]

On 5/5/2022 at 3:33 PM, Kitty Ellas Mom said:

I've read tons of things here about Princess food being bad but now I'm more worried.  Someone I booked tranportation for in Alaska has recommended to me to eat lunch at my hotel before getting on the cruise because then I will have bad food for a week.  She's been hearing how it's bad except in the specialty restaurants.  Hmmm.....I am not in the least bit picky but I want food that is at least decent.  What are my best bets if I want to stick to the "free" foods?  I am planning to eat dinner in the MDR at least sometimes b/c of my group which is booked together but I don't have to eat with them all the time.  I am thinking of trying Crown Grill.

We normally do Oceania. Being in the food industry, Princess has "tolerable" food. The steaks in Crown Grill are no higher than "select" grade. The Chef's table or Ultimate Balcony dinner, I'd say you're getting Prime. You don't have to go to Crown Grill. You can order items from them on the menu.

[wowzz]

1 minute ago, rbtan said:

You don't have to go to Crown Grill. You can order items from them on the menu.

I didn't know that. So every item on the Crown Grill menu can be delivered to the MDR ? How do they price the induvidual items ?

[leck57]

On 5/12/2022 at 7:08 AM, Calgary3 said:

I have to agree with everyone who posted about the food on the Emerald Princess.  We are back from our transatlantic crossing and in my post-cruise survey I gave the food a 3.  It was the worst cruise food we have ever eaten on any cruise line!  The one really good meal we had was at Sabatini's and I gave that venue a solid 10.  Yes, the food was mostly edible but I expected more from a Princess Cruise.

Views on food are so subjective. We are on Emerald currently and we would say that the food is as good as it has ever been. We have eaten mostly in the DR but have had breakfast and lunches in the buffet. Dining room servings are as per usual, no smaller in our experience. 

My only complaint I guess was that the lamb shanks in the DR two nights ago were poor and the toast in the buffet is as thin as paper. Overall though,  no real complaint from us.

[memoak]

Just off the Majestic 2 weeks ago and the food was as good or better than I remember from pre pandemic

[Calgary3]

3 minutes ago, leck57 said:

Views on food are so subjective. We are on Emerald currently and we would say that the food is as good as it has ever been. We have eaten mostly in the DR but have had breakfast and lunches in the buffet. Dining room servings are as per usual, no smaller in our experience. 

My only complaint I guess was that the lamb shanks in the DR two nights ago were poor and the toast in the buffet is as thin as paper. Overall though,  no real complaint from us.

I'm happy the food has been good for you.  As you say food is so subjective, but it is such a big part of the cruising experience, that I wanted better.  Have a wonderful holiday.

[sjde]

Do they still have that Loveboat chocolate dessert on embarkation day?

[leck57]

1 hour ago, sjde said:

Do they still have that Loveboat chocolate dessert on embarkation day?

 

Not totally sure which one you mean but there is a Loveboat chocolate desert in the DR every night. 

I might add that no desert beats the apple and rhubarb desert I had in Crown Grill earlier tonight. Superb.

[modem9]

We too were on last months Emerald Transatlantic.  We found the food to be average but the choices/selections to be much less than before.  Beef was hard to find.  They called beef chile the beef dish at the main dining room and the next night it was beef fajita's.  Those are not what I considered main dining room fare nor are they a 'beef' dish.  We never went hungry of course but we were often disappointed in what was available in both the buffet and main dining room.  There was rarely a green salad on the main dining menu.  You should have to continually go to the everyday menu to find your main meal selection.

[AstoriaPreppy]

On 5/5/2022 at 3:33 PM, Kitty Ellas Mom said:

I've read tons of things here about Princess food being bad but now I'm more worried.  Someone I booked tranportation for in Alaska has recommended to me to eat lunch at my hotel before getting on the cruise because then I will have bad food for a week.  She's been hearing how it's bad except in the specialty restaurants.  Hmmm.....I am not in the least bit picky but I want food that is at least decent.  What are my best bets if I want to stick to the "free" foods?  I am planning to eat dinner in the MDR at least sometimes b/c of my group which is booked together but I don't have to eat with them all the time.  I am thinking of trying Crown Grill.

 

I'm fascinated by the ongoing food comments on the Princess CC boards. We're just off the Royal's return to service in Alaska, and can say definitively that most of the hot takes we read about dinner in the lead up to our cruise were wrong. 

 

We dined every evening in Allegro, and outside of slow service the first night, we had no issues. The menus were diverse and plentiful, with six new mains offered each night, six apps/salads, two pastas, and around three desserts. There was always a green salad option on the app menu. The food was all well-prepared and served at the appropriate temperature. There was no dish where the serving seemed small, or scaled back. As always, one could order multiple mains. I'd say about 95% of the food was pretty good: there were a few fails, but these were few and far between. I'd note that the food was not adventurous or heavily seasoned, but very little of it was demonstrably bad, and portion size was not an issue.

 

We're not regular Princess cruisers (or dessert eaters), and were highly impressed by the desserts. The MDR pastry team on Royal Princess consistently turned out insta-worthy desserts that were equally delicious... and far exceeded a lot of other lines "something with a scoop of ice cream" plating. 

 

Some negatives: 
 

Breakfast in the MDR was a different story. We tried two different times, each time waiting around 45 minutes for our breakfasts to be served. It seems kitchen staffing had morning issues, so after those experiences we stopped going. 

 

Re: the Crown Grill. We dined here one evening, and it was probably the worst meal of our entire cruise. The service was non-existent, no one explained the menu, and the food was "meh" at best. We had the beverage package and tried ordering a liter of mineral water. We ended up getting two of the 500ml lukewarm bottles of water they give out at the bars. It was also our anniversary dinner, and there was no recognition by the staff of anyone at the restaurant (the medallion portal screens were much more effusive with congratulations). At the end of the meal, we sat for 20 minutes as the staff started counting receipts from the evening and breaking down the restaurant. It was only after our server realized that we were still sitting in the restaurant that he told us we didn't have to sign anything and could just leave. If the meal hadn't been a comp included in our booking, we would have asked for a refund. 

 

Also: our booking included a free "19 piece box of chocolates" valued at $25.50 as part of a promotion. When we finally went to redeem the promo, we received a box of... Fererro Rocher, like something you'd buy at your local Walgreens for $8. At least the display case holding them in the Celebrations store was labeled "Godiva." 🤣

Edited May 16, 2022 by AstoriaPreppy

[mjmalino]

We spent 11 nights on the Sky over NYE and the food was great, no complaints. We are currently on our first HAL cruise, and only 2 days in my husband is telling me that he prefers Princess.

[rbtan]

On 5/15/2022 at 11:26 AM, wowzz said:

I didn't know that. So every item on the Crown Grill menu can be delivered to the MDR ? How do they price the induvidual items ?

Mostly, it's steak & seafood items, not the entire menu. They just list certain items. We're generally talking about $25 or so depending on the item. Still pretty stiff, but better than spaghetti & meatballs, which was a often special. This was a trip to Hawaii in 2020 on the Star. Food was the worst we ever had on a cruise ship. The Royal class ships get the better food overall. We'll see how this fares on our "Circle the Caribbean" trip next March.

[DogMama77]

We sailed on the Royal 5/2-5/14. Our first Princess cruise, we normally do Celebrity. I wasn’t expecting the food to be as good as Celebrity and it wasn’t. We thought it was decent over all. The pizza in Alfredo’s was probably the best meal we had, we had dinner there three times. 

[Marlster]

On 5/7/2022 at 10:51 PM, Wulfwyn said:

On Royal now for 12 day Alaska.  Let's just say not been happy with food.  Menus  say one thing, what comes out dont always  match the menu.   

Wulfwyn 

Oh no on the Royal in Sept. to Alaska.  I hate bad food.

 

Marlster

[wowzz]

19 hours ago, rbtan said:

They just list certain items. We're generally talking about $25 or so depending on the item

As the full meal in the Crown is only $30,  that seems very expensive, and not worth ordering.

[rbtan]

2 hours ago, wowzz said:

As the full meal in the Crown is only $30,  that seems very expensive, and not worth ordering.

Depends on your perspective, I guess

[wowzz]

5 hours ago, rbtan said:

Depends on your perspective, I guess

Strange response !

Paying $25 for a single item when the entire three course menu costs $30 is irrational.

 

[donaldsc]

On 5/16/2022 at 7:56 AM, AstoriaPreppy said:

 

I'm fascinated by the ongoing food comments on the Princess CC boards. We're just off the Royal's return to service in Alaska, and can say definitively that most of the hot takes we read about dinner in the lead up to our cruise were wrong. 

 

We dined every evening in Allegro, and outside of slow service the first night, we had no issues. The menus were diverse and plentiful, with six new mains offered each night, six apps/salads, two pastas, and around three desserts. There was always a green salad option on the app menu. The food was all well-prepared and served at the appropriate temperature. There was no dish where the serving seemed small, or scaled back. As always, one could order multiple mains. I'd say about 95% of the food was pretty good: there were a few fails, but these were few and far between. I'd note that the food was not adventurous or heavily seasoned, but very little of it was demonstrably bad, and portion size was not an issue.

 

We're not regular Princess cruisers (or dessert eaters), and were highly impressed by the desserts. The MDR pastry team on Royal Princess consistently turned out insta-worthy desserts that were equally delicious... and far exceeded a lot of other lines "something with a scoop of ice cream" plating. 

 

Some negatives: 
 

Breakfast in the MDR was a different story. We tried two different times, each time waiting around 45 minutes for our breakfasts to be served. It seems kitchen staffing had morning issues, so after those experiences we stopped going. 

 

Re: the Crown Grill. We dined here one evening, and it was probably the worst meal of our entire cruise. The service was non-existent, no one explained the menu, and the food was "meh" at best. We had the beverage package and tried ordering a liter of mineral water. We ended up getting two of the 500ml lukewarm bottles of water they give out at the bars. It was also our anniversary dinner, and there was no recognition by the staff of anyone at the restaurant (the medallion portal screens were much more effusive with congratulations). At the end of the meal, we sat for 20 minutes as the staff started counting receipts from the evening and breaking down the restaurant. It was only after our server realized that we were still sitting in the restaurant that he told us we didn't have to sign anything and could just leave. If the meal hadn't been a comp included in our booking, we would have asked for a refund. 

 

Also: our booking included a free "19 piece box of chocolates" valued at $25.50 as part of a promotion. When we finally went to redeem the promo, we received a box of... Fererro Rocher, like something you'd buy at your local Walgreens for $8. At least the display case holding them in the Celebrations store was labeled "Godiva." 🤣

 

Current price is $6.29 at Walgreens.  

 

DON

[WAvoyager]

7 minutes ago, wowzz said:

Strange response !

Paying $25 for a single item when the entire three course menu costs $30 is irrational.

 

They’re actually $19, and figure that $2-3 of that is the access/delivery charge for specialty restaurant ordering.

 

it’s $9 for appetizers, $7 for soup/salads, and $19 for mains.  The desserts are off the standard menu I believe, so no extra charge.  So $35 for ordering the same meal you would get in the restaurant, but delivered to your room.  👍

 

 

[wowzz]

4 minutes ago, WAvoyager said:

They’re actually $19, and figure that $2-3 of that is the access/delivery charge for specialty restaurant ordering.

 

it’s $9 for appetizers, $7 for soup/salads, and $19 for mains.  The desserts are off the standard menu I believe, so no extra charge.  So $35 for ordering the same meal you would get in the restaurant, but delivered to your room.  👍

 

 

Thank you for the update. That seens reasonable 

When this issue was first raised, it was in connection with items from the Crown menu being served in the MDR. Would the same prices apply ?

[DCThunder]

After 3 B2Bs (36 consecutive days) on Enchanted, my main complaint was that the menus in the MDR simply rotated and consequently I was offered the same entrees and appetizers every seven-to-ten days or so.   However, I must say that most of the food was perfectly fine.  We must have had a good saucier because most of the sauces and gravies were very tasty.  I had some very good roast beef several times.

 

Then on the last cruise, we shifted to "British" food, especially in the buffet, to cater to the predominately UK cruisers.  I missed American style "streaky" bacon for breakfast.  Somehow English bacon isn't the same.  🤷‍♂️

[wowzz]

20 minutes ago, DCThunder said:

I missed American style "streaky" bacon for breakfast.  Somehow English bacon isn't the same

Now you know how us Brits feel on US cruises when only the crispy lengths of fat are available! 

[WAvoyager]

16 hours ago, wowzz said:

Thank you for the update. That seens reasonable 

When this issue was first raised, it was in connection with items from the Crown menu being served in the MDR. Would the same prices apply ?

Ah - I missed that.  The prices I had are from the room service menu.  Not sure what they charge in the MDR.  I wonder if they all come from the same kitchen, or if there are additional logistics (running around to other kitchens) which have an impact.

[brisalta]

10 hours ago, DCThunder said:

  I missed American style "streaky" bacon for breakfast.  Somehow English bacon isn't the same.  🤷‍♂️

 

That is because English bacon is actual bacon! 😉

Edited May 18, 2022 by brisalta