Is Food THAT bad?

[VibeGuy]

As someone who has legitimately had Michelin stars and Princess food for dinner in the same week, I can assure you whoever is saying you won’t have good food for a week is talking out of an orifice that isn’t typically cleansed with toothpaste. 
 

“Meat and potatoes” diners are upset that Princess MDRs don’t feature a steak or roast beef dish every night.  The “small portions” crowd expect American chain dining economics and I’ve personally seen them not order anything but an entree and dessert and wonder why the portions are so tiny.  Hint:  it’s because there’s an entire side of the menu devoted to the other courses of a dinner menu.   Criticism of the lack of lighter fare is legit - the longtime Lotus Spa menu items are long gone.  The newer vegetarian items are generally really flavourful but not particularly light. 
 

There is another thread here with “favorite dishes on Princess Cruise Lines” that is filled with specific examples of things that people think are particularly delicious.  There’s another one where *all* the MDR menus for the 7NT Alaska sailings for this season are posted.   Breakfast, lunch, dinner, dessert.  Those seven nights are the core of the 5, 10 and 15 night menus, and have been for years at this point, so I know them as well as the waiters.   I’ve eaten almost every dish on those menu that doesn’t contain crustacean, and there have been very few misses.   Is everything a taste sensation?  No.  I will not be ordering maybe 5% of them again.   
 

But overall, every night, I’m ordering a cold appetiser, a hot appetiser or app portion of pasta, a soup or a salad, a fin fish course, an entree and a dessert.  And every night I end up a member of the Clean Plate Club.   I wouldn’t keep coming back if the food were terrible. 
 

 

 

 

Edited May 5, 2022 by VibeGuy

[vivian02]

Not sure where you are getting your information from. We did a Alaska cruise in August of last year and the food was very good. We boarded the ship by noon and went to the Main Dining room and had a wonderful lunch rather than a bite to eat on the Lido deck. Tim

[Mike45LC]

I did a seven night Majestic cruise in March.  We ate at Crown Grill two nights, and we ate in the Main Dining Room five nights.  MDR, buffet, and other venues for the breakfasts and lunches.  

 

All the food was at least OK, except for one entree that I sent back.  That was one of the steak dishes; the server was distraught over the fact that it was bad.  

 

Am I happy with the changes in the "Always Available Menu"?  Not at all, but there was plenty of food and even for a VERY picky eater, there was always something I liked.  I NEVER left dinner and said "I need to visit Alfredos for a pizza because I couldn't eat the dinner."  

 

I did not gain a pound on the cruise, but I rarely if ever do.  

[Jmox84]

It's been 7 years since I've sailed Princess, but I don't recall going hungry that's for sure!.  Was it the best food in the world? No, but they are feeding 1000s of guests and crew per day and considering that they do a fine job.  The beauty of cruising is that if you end up not enjoying your meal you can easily send it back and try another.  I've sailed Royal and Holland and Princess has been my favourite of the 3 food wise.  Enjoy!!

[catgirl411]

We’ve sailed on Princess, Celebrity and Oceania.  While I would rate Oceania’s food as the best of the three, there is nothing wrong with either of the other two. Lots of variety and most of it is very tasty. 

[jean s]

We have taken two cruises since December.  One on Caribbean and one on Majestic.  We thought the food was fine with a few dinners being excellent.  We loved Crown Grill and Sabatini's.  On Majestic we also ate in the French restaurant which was disappointing because the food was cold and the service was painfully slow.  Some of the meals in the main dining room were a little too small for my husband but it was absolutely no problem to order two entrees.  

[Lady Arwen]

 Crisp, white table linens, a cold glass ( or two or three) of bubbly, extremely competent and friendly waitstaff, more dinner courses than I would dream of serving at home and a delicious sweet treat and coffee to complete the meal.  Someone else cleans it up while I sashay down to the casino!  What is not to like?  Is it the best food you’ve ever had?  Not even close!  However, if you saw what we eat at home for dinner a couple of nights a week, the MDR is fine dining in our book!  You will never hear my DH or myself complain about the food on a Princess ship.

[Musky Ike]

Food, like entertainment, is subjective. However there are so many choices on a Princess ship that it seems unlikely that anyone could not find something they like. However some do insist on being food snobs... their loss.

[Cuedon]

I was on for several weeks on the Majestic earlier... I'd say it's perfectly fine, on par with what you'd expect from about a 20-30$/entree restaurant. Is it great? No, but I can also say that about places that cost far, far more. Individual items are hit or miss (their pavlova is probably the most inedible dessert I've ever had, unless you like sweet chalk...), but a large portion of that can be attributed to taste.

 

One thing I have noticed lately is that there've been a number of substitutions and missing items (how long is the sangria at Alfredo's going to be out of stock?), probably attributable to supply chain issues: Instead of kale, I once got spinach, and chilies on one dish got subbed for a smaller, less hot variety. Not an issue as far as I'm concerned, but something interesting to make a note of.

[FritzG]

We were on Enchanted for 20 days in March, and the food was very good.  The only meals I wasn't fond of were some of the fish entrees, but the salmon was very good.  We ate in Club Class, Crown Grill, and several times in Gigi's.  This was our 31st Princess cruise, and we didn't notice that servings were smaller.  However, we think smaller portions are a good idea due to waste, and you can always order more food if you're still hungry.  We only had lunch in the buffet twice because it was the first cruise since masks were suggested, not required, and we didn't feel comfortable in the buffet.  Unmasked passengers were crowding and leaning over other passengers' plates.

[PhotoGal07]

Cooking for a large amount of people is never gonna measure up to The French Laundry or Per Se.  Go in expecting basic banquet fare, and you'll likely be delightedly surprised.  Many dishes on ships are better than that, but if that's your expectation you will likely not be disappointed.

[Torfamm]

The food isn’t bad at all. I don’t think you will have any sort of problem.

[Torfamm]

2 hours ago, FritzG said:

We were on Enchanted for 20 days in March, and the food was very good.  The only meals I wasn't fond of were some of the fish entrees, but the salmon was very good.  We ate in Club Class, Crown Grill, and several times in Gigi's.  This was our 31st Princess cruise, and we didn't notice that servings were smaller.  However, we think smaller portions are a good idea due to waste, and you can always order more food if you're still hungry.  We only had lunch in the buffet twice because it was the first cruise since masks were suggested, not required, and we didn't feel comfortable in the buffet.  Unmasked passengers were crowding and leaning over other passengers' plates.

I am grateful for smaller portions than in most US restaurants For me it’s a treat to be able to order 2 or 3 courses and finish most of it. The joy of eating out is getting whatever I want, even if no one else likes it. I hate having to throw food away though

[Nebr.cruiser]

Well, it's not really bad food, it's just that on our Discovery cruise there were obvious cutbacks from when we last cruised on Princess.  

 

I don't mind and really didn't notice the smaller sized portions.  Usually too much to eat anyway. Apparently you have to ask for a baked potato; doesn't matter to me, but did to my husband.

 

No more steak on the anytime menu; that one matters to me as I don't like chicken or most seafood.

 

Our lobsters were pitiful and the prime rib was almost like jerky.

 

Other than those two things, most meals were similar to previous cruises.

 

But there were no freshly cooked waffles or crepes in the buffet and choices there seemed limited, nothing like the great buffet, especially at night, that we had on the Majestic.

 

Again, food is not awful, just not as good as it used to be.

Edited May 6, 2022 by Nebr.cruiser

[Lucky TGO]

8 hours ago, jwattle said:

We were on the Majestic for two weeks in late March and were delighted with the food in MDR and Specialty restaurants, all three of them. We definitely enjoyed them all! 🙂 

Hi Jo & Tom,

You both thought the food was good because most of the time you were drinking the fancy wine you took on the ship. So I think you didn’t even care what was on the menu. 😁😁😁😁

BTW great Photo.

Tony

 

[MsSoCalCruiser]

We spent 14 days on the Discovery Princess and thought that the food was great.  I don’t know if anyone else noticed this but we thought everything was seasoned very well. Normally when we get vegetables they are pretty bland but on the Discovery they were so good with a touch of garlic. We can’t wait to get back on the that ship again.  

 

Shrimp, scallops and perfectly cooked vegetables…. Does this look like bad food to you?  

[MissP22]

4 hours ago, Nebr.cruiser said:

 

 

Our lobsters were pitiful and the prime rib was almost like jerky.

 

 

 

Again, food is not awful, just not as good as it used to be.

I agree that the prime rib wasn't the best at all. If they were serving something similar at a land based restaurant they wouldn't be in business very long. 

Also, the "cowboy steak" was sort of a joke. Not that I expected anything great but the minute steak at the buffet was better. 

You just have to learn by experience which meals are better.

[spunks]

Ok...for purposes of this thread, forget that we have 49 Princess cruise  s...the only ones that count are the 6 taken since January....Also, anyone that thinks the food quality has not eroded over the years is simply not paying attention.

 

The Sky in January....food was fine. The Enchanted on March was not nearly as good. We are currently on the Emerald and the food is simply not up to Princess standards....pork belly is the featured dish several times a week. 

 

[MISTER 67]

We were on 2 Princess cruises at Thanksgiving and again at Christmas and the food was pretty good, as good as any of our other 63 cruises, was it as good as a fine dining establishment in a big city where it might cost 100 dollars or more for 1 meal, of course not. I would compare cruise ship food to food you would have at a nice wedding or a nice banquet. We must remember that the chefs on a cruise ship are cooking thousands of meals a day and the time and preparation is not going to be the same as at an upscale restaurant.

All in all most of the cruise ship lines considering the amount of meals served a day do a pretty good job and in our 40 years of cruising I don't ever remember sending a dish back because it didn't taste good. 

 

[jeno]

1 hour ago, spunks said:

Ok...for purposes of this thread, forget that we have 49 Princess cruise  s...the only ones that count are the 6 taken since January....Also, anyone that thinks the food quality has not eroded over the years is simply not paying attention.

 

The Sky in January....food was fine. The Enchanted on March was not nearly as good. We are currently on the Emerald and the food is simply not up to Princess standards....pork belly is the featured dish several times a week. 

 

I noticed that most of the posts were from passengers on newer ships. Maybe that makes a difference.  Also, we are not discussing food from 2019 or before and your last 30 or 40 cruises.  OP wants to know about now.  We were on the Emerald for 15 days in February and the food was honestly horrible and the menu very odd (IMHO). Not only the bad food, but everyone complaining about it nonstop brought everything down.  We just went, made the best choices we could, ate  and left.  
We are currently booked on the Island Princess for 111 World.  No Crown Grill, no Vines, no International Cafe and no Alfredo’s kind of makes me dread the food if it’s anything like on the Emerald. I don’t care for “Bayou Food” so not sure if we will pay a specialty restaurant fee for that. The lure of the ports still has us hooked. 
I hope the food on the other ships is better than on the Emerald. That food was extremely disappointing compared to any we have had on any line in the past.  
Hopefully it was the food on one cruise on one ship, but that’s unlikely.  

[Bwana Tom]

My wife and I have sailed a total of 41 days since November of last year on the Majestic and the Regal. If anything the food has gotten better than in previous years. The beef in particular has improved greatly in both the MDR as well as the buffet. We have no complaints at all with the "free" food onboard. We frequently book the Crown Grill one time on a cruise just to have something a bit different and find the steaks to be great, but we are quite happy with the MDR, the buffet and even the pizza, hot dogs and hamburgers are good as well. No matter where you go or what you do there will always be complainers that are unhappy in life and we usually run into a couple on every cruise we take. It almost seems like they look for things to complain about and aren't happy unless they find someone willing to listen to their complaints. Unfortunately many of those same people find boards like this one to spew their venom as well. I enerally ignore those folks as well.

My best advise is to ignore those people, live happy and your cruise will be absolutely great. 

[Alabaster Cruiser]

I was wondering if anyone had been on The Emerald.  We did 14 days in February.   We are not foodies...and guys the food was bad!  Everything covered in gravy or a very bad tomato sauce.  We will be on Caribbean Princess in May and hope it will be better.  Our friends that sailed with us on Emerald actually cancelled the one on Caribbean Princess due to the disappointing changes since Covid.  Hopefully just that one ship.  Sorry..not "spewing venom".  Just giving an opinion.

Edited May 6, 2022 by Alabaster Cruiser
Added

[roxievegas]

We have been on 4 cruises since December.  I have found the food just as good as "bc" (before covid).

My plate is always clean when they clear away the dishes.

I have even tried new dishes because people "here" have said how good they were - the goat cheese souffle !!

I am going to try new dishes each night.

[jeno]

7 minutes ago, roxievegas said:

We have been on 4 cruises since December.  I have found the food just as good as "bc" (before covid).

My plate is always clean when they clear away the dishes.

I have even tried new dishes because people "here" have said how good they were - the goat cheese souffle !!

I am going to try new dishes each night.

Out of curiosity, what ships were you on? Thanks! 

[capriccio]

My DH and I were on the Caribbean Princess at the beginning of January and thought that the food was some of the best we have had on Princess.  Amazingly - given all the complaints about beef dishes on other ships - the beef was very good as was the seafood.  On the Enchanted Princess in March the MDR food ranged from terrible (fish one night) to good but nothing stood out.  On the other hand everyone in our group of 6 loved Gigi's (Alfredo's on older ships), Sabatinis and the Bistro.  In the latter we enjoyed the food but the location (overlooking and overhearing the Piazza) leaves a lot to be desired.