Food and dining on P&O ships

[Interestedcruisefan]

38 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

We’ve been on 3 different P&O ships over the last 4 months and use the MDR for breakfast daily. It’s still very good IMO, but there have been a number of changes post Covid that you might notice.
 

Bircher muesli is alive and well, but it’s a tiny portion. I have it daily - as a starter 😂 They now put dried banana pieces in it which don’t work when in milk, so I fish those out!
 

Toast is still white, brown or mixed, served in a toast rack (although I can never tell which is which). Very thin and usually cold, which to be fair is inevitable in a mass catering environment. You can ask for thick toast, but that’s the other extreme. It’s ridiculously thick and most people would struggle to get it in their mouth!

 

The individual glass pots of conserves have gone and you now have open yellow tubs of strawberry jam and marmalade, sometimes smeared up the sides which looks a bit unappetising and doesn’t seem terribly hygienic to me. 
 

The daily fruit smoothie remains, but is very watered down compared to how it used to be. 
 

The quality of the cooked food remains very good IMHO and whilst the daily specials have gone, you can now get Eggs Benedict every day, which is a positive for me. 

Definitely when my wife ordered a breakfast involving eggs (cant remember exactly what) on the Iona cruise in MDR in May our waiter asked if she would like smoked salmon adding to it

 

And remember thinking how good that was at the time

 

I'm assuming it wasn't advertised as she would have asked for it to start with?

 

I guess it depends whats available at the time and in good supply

[Interestedcruisefan]

I also don't think there's any harm in asking for breakfast options not advertised

 

What's the worst that can happen after all?

[Selbourne]

10 minutes ago, Interestedcruisefan said:

Definitely when my wife ordered a breakfast involving eggs (cant remember exactly what) on the Iona cruise in MDR in May our waiter asked if she would like smoked salmon adding to it

 

And remember thinking how good that was at the time

 

I'm assuming it wasn't advertised as she would have asked for it to start with?

 

I guess it depends whats available at the time and in good supply

Yes, that’s a good point, there are additional things that aren’t on the menu. In addition to smoked salmon they can also do omelettes, albeit very small ones that have a touch of ‘here’s one I prepared earlier’ about them 😂 

[zap99]

21 minutes ago, Interestedcruisefan said:

Definitely when my wife ordered a breakfast involving eggs (cant remember exactly what) on the Iona cruise in MDR in May our waiter asked if she would like smoked salmon adding to it

 

And remember thinking how good that was at the time

 

I'm assuming it wasn't advertised as she would have asked for it to start with?

 

I guess it depends whats available at the time and in good supply

I'm sure I recently had scrambled egg with smoked salmon, but perhaps I am reminiscing.

 

[terrierjohn]

12 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

Yes, that’s a good point, there are additional things that aren’t on the menu. In addition to smoked salmon they can also do omelettes, albeit very small ones that have a touch of ‘here’s one I prepared earlier’ about them 😂 

Probably the Blue Peter breakfast!😄

[snaefell]

On our Britannia cruises I used to love the Kedigree on the buffet,always tasted that much better than it looked,kept hoping for it on Arcadia back in May but in nearly 3 weeks not a sign!

 

[jh1809]

5 hours ago, Interestedcruisefan said:

I also don't think there's any harm in asking for breakfast options not advertised

 

What's the worst that can happen after all?

For some reason omelettes aren't advertised, but you can order them (at least you can on Arcadia and I think Aurora - I haven't sailed on the other ships).

[jh1809]

4 hours ago, Selbourne said:

Yes, that’s a good point, there are additional things that aren’t on the menu. In addition to smoked salmon they can also do omelettes, albeit very small ones that have a touch of ‘here’s one I prepared earlier’ about them 😂 

Maybe you should have asked for a 2-egg omelette - or even a 3-egg one! The default might be one egg.

[yorkshirephil]

3 hours ago, jh1809 said:

For some reason omelettes aren't advertised, but you can order them (at least you can on Arcadia and I think Aurora - I haven't sailed on the other ships).

We have had omelettes for breakfast on both ships in the last 12 months, you need to ask for a double omelette or at least two as the standard ones are more like crepes.

[Clodia]

One thing on Iona that a few people have missed is that the Asian Fusion counter at the Quays does eggs to order at breakfast time: scrambled eggs with or without smoked salmon,  poached eggs or omelettes with various fillings. I've been having a cheese omelette cooked to order, with a wholemeal roll, on sea days. Delicious. 

[elmsliebev]

On 11/16/2023 at 2:13 PM, zap99 said:

I'm sure I recently had scrambled egg with smoked salmon, but perhaps I am reminiscing.

 

some mornings on Azura last month there was smoked salmon and scrambled eggs in the buffet. There was also congee some mornings, which I love!

[elmsliebev]

On 11/16/2023 at 3:13 PM, snaefell said:

On our Britannia cruises I used to love the Kedigree on the buffet,always tasted that much better than it looked,kept hoping for it on Arcadia back in May but in nearly 3 weeks not a sign!

 

it was on the buffet some mornings on Azura last month, along with vegan baked beans (I thought baked beans were usually vegan anyway!) and heuvos rancheros. A bit dried up but tasty. 

[Pandamonia]

Just been on Arvia 

 

buffet food was better than expected but gets boring at breakfast as seems to never change. Like a cattle market and there was a certain demographic in there which was both rude and seems to never stop eating and the racket they make makes it less than enjoyable place to eat. We often just ate and got out as fast as possible. If a popular item was short in supply they ran and took them all before others even had a chance. 
 

beach house was great. Good value also. 
 

epicurean. Poor value and poor quality steak. Twice now that restaurant has disappointed me on both azura and Arvia. Over priced wine tasted rubbish too and waiter messed up charged me for two large glasses when ordered small. Had to make complaint. 
 

American diner. Surprisingly good. Nice food mostly but small portions and hard to get in to. Good junk food and the franks hot sauce was key to keeping the digestive system working in good order   
 

Sushi. Very high quality but tiny overpriced portions and left starving. One crap dish is £9 and you get 3 pieces. What a joke. Never tried the vegan crap they had in the other part of the restaurant and I’m certainly not paying additional for it. 
 

glass house: very average. Over priced tiny portions. Obsessed with trios of things. Rubbish starter and decent main but tiny. Leaving hungry after being surcharged is not good enough. 
 

Sindu. What a joke.  Rubbish. Azura sindu was really good and good value. This is neither. Only curry on menu come with bloody noodles. The other dishes with curry names such as lamb bhuna weren’t even curries. Staff had to constantly explain menu to people as complaints were common. Flavours were rubbish. Made a complaint after and manager couldn’t be bothered to follow up. Even staff said the Azura menu was better. My advice is get rid of these idiot celebrity chefs as their menus suck. How a British focused line with a ship full of Indian staff can get an Indian fusion wrong is a joke. Here is a tip. Get rid of the fusion element. Chinese and Indian food does not work together. Not to mention the random Thai options thrown in. 
 

celebration night menu. Rubbish. Tiny portions. Rubbish flavours. Boring setting in the buffet tarted up. Wasn’t worth getting dressed up for. 
 

MDR. Ate once there. Dry pork. Tiny portions. No flavour. Didn’t go back. Slow service under staffed. Breakfast was always pretty good. They get this right. 
 

keel and cow. Looked the best option but didn’t get in. Others liked it. Makes the steak in epicurean look crap. Breakfast was 3.50 and good. Bacon roll is £2 and world’s smallest bacon egg roll ever seen. Claims to use better eggs. They lied. Crap yellow yoke budget eggs on whole ship. Even in chargeable places that claimed otherwise. Prices don’t make sense. 
 

the quays. Fish and chips was good. The Asian was rubbish. The carvery was rubbish. The York pudding wraps were 85% pudding. No filling. The meat was often poor and dry. Veg was ok. The potatoes were inedible. 
 

two other points about the potatoes and also tomatoes. They were terrible on whole ship for whole cruise. Very low quality potatoes. Inedible in every setting. They were either rock hard or super dry. The mash was like eating paper pulp. The tomatoes were terrible. Worse than those saver ones you get from Asda which are that kind of orange colour. If your potatoes and tomatoes are bad then imagine every dish that these make and you can see the knock on effect. Every dish they had went down in flavour and quality because of this. 
 

the small deserts on the buffet were actually very good. So was the small salads. They also had some really good buffet options which to be honest put the chargeable restaurants to shame. 
 

a very mixed bag of experiences but given how bad the food has gotten on Royal Caribbean I can’t really say I wasn’t prepared for worse. 
 

drinks prices make no sense to me what so ever.  A pint is the same price as a bottle 330ml which is same price as a 500ml bottle. £5.35 for a corona is a joke. We found the IPA was best value and best quality and at 5,4% abv didn’t take many to get a decent buzz. The wine sucked. Overpriced. Buy entire bottle save £1 makes no sense. A small glass costs more than bottle of wine in supermarket and the cruise lines don’t have vat or duty. It’s just a cash grab. Same with over priced spirits. Bottle of water is 2.55 330ml and coke is £3,55 for a 330ml can!!! 
 

well screw these cruise lines. I used to be a drinks package person. The endless drinks price increases have killed my desire to drink on ships now. My wallet thanks you and my waistline does also. We now spend this money at the port on much better drinks with lower costs and on excursions that came with an open bar in the price. £56 for a 4 hour boat ride with snacks and 10x rum punch. Who needs the ship bar! They think the bar prices are a bottomless pit of free money. Well I’ve never seen bars so empty and quiet on a holiday in my life. Bar sales must be rock bottom and barely anyone had drinks packages. They are terrible value anyway on P&O and the bar choice is crap compared to other lines. I’m no longer going to be the cash cow of these companies and be financial abused because I want a drink on my holiday. I’ve adapted and so are others it seems. Now my total bar bill has gone from over £1500 to less than £250. Congratulations to the corporate moron who thinks selling one drink for £9 makes more profit than selling 3 for £6. This is backfiring already. 
 

we smuggled a ton of booze back to our room and so did most people. They can also never stop it. I’ve got the port security system worked out. 
 

overall the food and drink experience is a mixed bag. Soon very good and some poor. I think P&O and carnival in general will push prices to high and kill demand. There is a bookings bubble at the moment which won’t last. Like all bubbles it will pop but with the debt mountain they will have little place to go. My other family have already gone back to land holidays. Better food. Cheaper drinks and lower costs. 

[zap99]

Crickey, If its that bad your family solution may be best.

Edited December 31, 2023 by zap99

[Selbourne]

1 hour ago, Pandamonia said:

Just been on Arvia 

 

buffet food was better than expected but gets boring at breakfast as seems to never change. Like a cattle market and there was a certain demographic in there which was both rude and seems to never stop eating and the racket they make makes it less than enjoyable place to eat. We often just ate and got out as fast as possible. If a popular item was short in supply they ran and took them all before others even had a chance. 
 

beach house was great. Good value also. 
 

epicurean. Poor value and poor quality steak. Twice now that restaurant has disappointed me on both azura and Arvia. Over priced wine tasted rubbish too and waiter messed up charged me for two large glasses when ordered small. Had to make complaint. 
 

American diner. Surprisingly good. Nice food mostly but small portions and hard to get in to. Good junk food and the franks hot sauce was key to keeping the digestive system working in good order   
 

Sushi. Very high quality but tiny overpriced portions and left starving. One crap dish is £9 and you get 3 pieces. What a joke. Never tried the vegan crap they had in the other part of the restaurant and I’m certainly not paying additional for it. 
 

glass house: very average. Over priced tiny portions. Obsessed with trios of things. Rubbish starter and decent main but tiny. Leaving hungry after being surcharged is not good enough. 
 

Sindu. What a joke.  Rubbish. Azura sindu was really good and good value. This is neither. Only curry on menu come with bloody noodles. The other dishes with curry names such as lamb bhuna weren’t even curries. Staff had to constantly explain menu to people as complaints were common. Flavours were rubbish. Made a complaint after and manager couldn’t be bothered to follow up. Even staff said the Azura menu was better. My advice is get rid of these idiot celebrity chefs as their menus suck. How a British focused line with a ship full of Indian staff can get an Indian fusion wrong is a joke. Here is a tip. Get rid of the fusion element. Chinese and Indian food does not work together. Not to mention the random Thai options thrown in. 
 

celebration night menu. Rubbish. Tiny portions. Rubbish flavours. Boring setting in the buffet tarted up. Wasn’t worth getting dressed up for. 
 

MDR. Ate once there. Dry pork. Tiny portions. No flavour. Didn’t go back. Slow service under staffed. Breakfast was always pretty good. They get this right. 
 

keel and cow. Looked the best option but didn’t get in. Others liked it. Makes the steak in epicurean look crap. Breakfast was 3.50 and good. Bacon roll is £2 and world’s smallest bacon egg roll ever seen. Claims to use better eggs. They lied. Crap yellow yoke budget eggs on whole ship. Even in chargeable places that claimed otherwise. Prices don’t make sense. 
 

the quays. Fish and chips was good. The Asian was rubbish. The carvery was rubbish. The York pudding wraps were 85% pudding. No filling. The meat was often poor and dry. Veg was ok. The potatoes were inedible. 
 

two other points about the potatoes and also tomatoes. They were terrible on whole ship for whole cruise. Very low quality potatoes. Inedible in every setting. They were either rock hard or super dry. The mash was like eating paper pulp. The tomatoes were terrible. Worse than those saver ones you get from Asda which are that kind of orange colour. If your potatoes and tomatoes are bad then imagine every dish that these make and you can see the knock on effect. Every dish they had went down in flavour and quality because of this. 
 

the small deserts on the buffet were actually very good. So was the small salads. They also had some really good buffet options which to be honest put the chargeable restaurants to shame. 
 

a very mixed bag of experiences but given how bad the food has gotten on Royal Caribbean I can’t really say I wasn’t prepared for worse. 
 

drinks prices make no sense to me what so ever.  A pint is the same price as a bottle 330ml which is same price as a 500ml bottle. £5.35 for a corona is a joke. We found the IPA was best value and best quality and at 5,4% abv didn’t take many to get a decent buzz. The wine sucked. Overpriced. Buy entire bottle save £1 makes no sense. A small glass costs more than bottle of wine in supermarket and the cruise lines don’t have vat or duty. It’s just a cash grab. Same with over priced spirits. Bottle of water is 2.55 330ml and coke is £3,55 for a 330ml can!!! 
 

well screw these cruise lines. I used to be a drinks package person. The endless drinks price increases have killed my desire to drink on ships now. My wallet thanks you and my waistline does also. We now spend this money at the port on much better drinks with lower costs and on excursions that came with an open bar in the price. £56 for a 4 hour boat ride with snacks and 10x rum punch. Who needs the ship bar! They think the bar prices are a bottomless pit of free money. Well I’ve never seen bars so empty and quiet on a holiday in my life. Bar sales must be rock bottom and barely anyone had drinks packages. They are terrible value anyway on P&O and the bar choice is crap compared to other lines. I’m no longer going to be the cash cow of these companies and be financial abused because I want a drink on my holiday. I’ve adapted and so are others it seems. Now my total bar bill has gone from over £1500 to less than £250. Congratulations to the corporate moron who thinks selling one drink for £9 makes more profit than selling 3 for £6. This is backfiring already. 
 

we smuggled a ton of booze back to our room and so did most people. They can also never stop it. I’ve got the port security system worked out. 
 

overall the food and drink experience is a mixed bag. Soon very good and some poor. I think P&O and carnival in general will push prices to high and kill demand. There is a bookings bubble at the moment which won’t last. Like all bubbles it will pop but with the debt mountain they will have little place to go. My other family have already gone back to land holidays. Better food. Cheaper drinks and lower costs. 

Sorry to hear that whilst you mentioned a lot of aspects of the food that you liked, your overall impression was very poor. We haven’t cruised on Arvia (and, in all honesty, aren’t intending to), but we have been on sister ship Iona. Whilst there were a number of things that we didn’t like about the ship, we felt that, with just a few exceptions, the food was very good. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that the food is probably one of the few reasons that we might go on her again!
 

Maybe it’s because we live in a fairly expensive part of the country, but we have always found P&O drinks prices to be extremely reasonable. I appreciate that they probably pay less tax and duty than land based pubs and restaurants, but I think it’s unrealistic to expect them to pass all of those savings on to customers, especially with P&O cruise prices being so low these days. 
 

The wine by the bottle versus individual glass prices is down to the fact that you used to be able to buy a bottle and, if unfinished, it would be returned to your table the next time you dined. That facility has gone on almost all the ships now, so I actually see the pricing policy by the glass to be positive, as you aren’t penalised by being forced to order by the glass now. 
 

We have cruised on Britannia, Iona and Ventura this year and whilst some of the speciality restaurants have been a bit hit and miss, the main dining rooms have all been very good (we don’t use the buffet so can’t comment on that aspect). We are on Aurora in a few days time and will be interested to see how that compares.

[Pandamonia]

37 minutes ago, zap99 said:

Crickey, If its that bad your family solution may be best.

I think it depends how you look at it. P&O is the best value way to see the carribean and the overall standard is good enough. But if you experienced cruising from years ago you cannot compare this modern version as everything is worse in every way other than newer ships with more things to do. 
 

I just remembered that we also did olive garden and limelight club. 
 

Olive garden. Menu A was good. Menu B sucked. Small portions again. I really disliked menu B in every venue other than the diner. 
 

limelight club. This was by far the worst experience I’ve ever paid for on a ship. It took 2 hours to bring 3 courses out and the singer didn’t sing until after all 3 courses.  Over 3 hours people were in there. Food portions were tiny and didn’t really taste very good. It is 100% not worth it for the food and to be honest ray quin wasn’t as good as I thought he might be. He sings for free on MSC so not sure why you have to pay to see him on this ship. There was better singers in the other shows for free. 
 

we also couldn’t get in to the 710 club and the stupid webpage you have to do things on should be replaced with a proper app like royal Caribbean has. I mean it’s 2023 how can they not have an app with notifications to tell you when table was ready. 
 

 

[Pandamonia]

7 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

Sorry to hear that whilst you mentioned a lot of aspects of the food that you liked, your overall impression was very poor. We haven’t cruised on Arvia (and, in all honesty, aren’t intending to), but we have been on sister ship Iona. Whilst there were a number of things that we didn’t like about the ship, we felt that, with just a few exceptions, the food was very good. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that the food is probably one of the few reasons that we might go on her again!
 

Maybe it’s because we live in a fairly expensive part of the country, but we have always found P&O drinks prices to be extremely reasonable. I appreciate that they probably pay less tax and duty than land based pubs and restaurants, but I think it’s unrealistic to expect them to pass all of those savings on to customers, especially with P&O cruise prices being so low these days. 
 

The wine by the bottle versus individual glass prices is down to the fact that you used to be able to buy a bottle and, if unfinished, it would be returned to your table the next time you dined. That facility has gone on almost all the ships now, so I actually see the pricing policy by the glass to be positive, as you aren’t penalised by being forced to order by the glass now. 
 

We have cruised on Britannia, Iona and Ventura this year and whilst some of the speciality restaurants have been a bit hit and miss, the main dining rooms have all been very good (we don’t use the buffet so can’t comment on that aspect). We are on Aurora in a few days time and will be interested to see how that compares.

I think the issue I have with the food is that the chargeable stuff isn’t good enough to charge for with exception of the beach house. Epicurian is rubbish for £30 a head plus around £30 in drinks. That’s a £90 meal. To be served a chewy rib eye and a soggy crepe for that money isn’t good enough. 
 

I think 7 days in I was very happy with the food generally as menu A seemed good. Second week menu b was poor in most venues. 
 

another point about this ship. I’ve never seen the late night buffet so busy in my life. Maybe because I’ve rarely felt the need to go on royal as I’m so stuffed with food I’m not hungry but I was often starving at 11pm and it seemed so was the wrest of the ship. This has to be down to the portion sizes being tiny and some venues just not ehaving a good option on the menu sometimes. This is the first time in my life I’ve ever felt the need to eat 4 meals per day. 
 

oh and another issue I just remembered was the burger place near the pool. On azura they used to make burgers from scratch because they run out of pre-made burger patties. I don’t know what P&O buy but they taste like the burgers you get from the roach van outside of a nightclub. People were hardly eating them which is a sign of a problem. The pizzas were also not great. Thin base is fine but toppings were very sparse. I ate twice there in 14 days and regretted it both times. I just don’t understand it, the cost cutting really sucks in places. This is why the diner was so busy because you got actually nice food and to give them some credit they made better SF chicken in there than KFC do. In fact the diner was the best venue that was free and the beach house was best chargeable venue. The fish and chips and buffet were good enough most of the time also. 
 

with regards to drinks prices they are more reasonable than royal carribean but by no means cheap. Maybe it’s because I’ve worked for a major brewer and I know the costs they pay. Drinkers are subsidising none drinkers holiday prices. There isn’t any other way to look at it. It’s not really fair or acceptable. Thankfully for me I’ve changed my priorities now and choose to spend that money on other things and given the number of people I see sitting in bars with a cup of tea from the buffet station I think I’m not the only one. 

[Hoveto]

When I first cruised with P&O, albeit many moons ago, drink prices were advertised in the brochures as duty free (which they were), then the advertising changed to shipboard prices, which were still a bit cheaper than at home, but now it’s a cash cow. To be fair, the cruise price is now lower and more accessible to most but the overall product is greatly reduced.

[FatBoy20]

23 hours ago, Pandamonia said:

Just been on Arvia 

 

buffet food was better than expected but gets boring at breakfast as seems to never change. Like a cattle market and there was a certain demographic in there which was both rude and seems to never stop eating and the racket they make makes it less than enjoyable place to eat. We often just ate and got out as fast as possible. If a popular item was short in supply they ran and took them all before others even had a chance. 
 

beach house was great. Good value also. 
 

epicurean. Poor value and poor quality steak. Twice now that restaurant has disappointed me on both azura and Arvia. Over priced wine tasted rubbish too and waiter messed up charged me for two large glasses when ordered small. Had to make complaint. 
 

American diner. Surprisingly good. Nice food mostly but small portions and hard to get in to. Good junk food and the franks hot sauce was key to keeping the digestive system working in good order   
 

Sushi. Very high quality but tiny overpriced portions and left starving. One crap dish is £9 and you get 3 pieces. What a joke. Never tried the vegan crap they had in the other part of the restaurant and I’m certainly not paying additional for it. 
 

glass house: very average. Over priced tiny portions. Obsessed with trios of things. Rubbish starter and decent main but tiny. Leaving hungry after being surcharged is not good enough. 
 

Sindu. What a joke.  Rubbish. Azura sindu was really good and good value. This is neither. Only curry on menu come with bloody noodles. The other dishes with curry names such as lamb bhuna weren’t even curries. Staff had to constantly explain menu to people as complaints were common. Flavours were rubbish. Made a complaint after and manager couldn’t be bothered to follow up. Even staff said the Azura menu was better. My advice is get rid of these idiot celebrity chefs as their menus suck. How a British focused line with a ship full of Indian staff can get an Indian fusion wrong is a joke. Here is a tip. Get rid of the fusion element. Chinese and Indian food does not work together. Not to mention the random Thai options thrown in. 
 

celebration night menu. Rubbish. Tiny portions. Rubbish flavours. Boring setting in the buffet tarted up. Wasn’t worth getting dressed up for. 
 

MDR. Ate once there. Dry pork. Tiny portions. No flavour. Didn’t go back. Slow service under staffed. Breakfast was always pretty good. They get this right. 
 

keel and cow. Looked the best option but didn’t get in. Others liked it. Makes the steak in epicurean look crap. Breakfast was 3.50 and good. Bacon roll is £2 and world’s smallest bacon egg roll ever seen. Claims to use better eggs. They lied. Crap yellow yoke budget eggs on whole ship. Even in chargeable places that claimed otherwise. Prices don’t make sense. 
 

the quays. Fish and chips was good. The Asian was rubbish. The carvery was rubbish. The York pudding wraps were 85% pudding. No filling. The meat was often poor and dry. Veg was ok. The potatoes were inedible. 
 

two other points about the potatoes and also tomatoes. They were terrible on whole ship for whole cruise. Very low quality potatoes. Inedible in every setting. They were either rock hard or super dry. The mash was like eating paper pulp. The tomatoes were terrible. Worse than those saver ones you get from Asda which are that kind of orange colour. If your potatoes and tomatoes are bad then imagine every dish that these make and you can see the knock on effect. Every dish they had went down in flavour and quality because of this. 
 

the small deserts on the buffet were actually very good. So was the small salads. They also had some really good buffet options which to be honest put the chargeable restaurants to shame. 
 

a very mixed bag of experiences but given how bad the food has gotten on Royal Caribbean I can’t really say I wasn’t prepared for worse. 
 

drinks prices make no sense to me what so ever.  A pint is the same price as a bottle 330ml which is same price as a 500ml bottle. £5.35 for a corona is a joke. We found the IPA was best value and best quality and at 5,4% abv didn’t take many to get a decent buzz. The wine sucked. Overpriced. Buy entire bottle save £1 makes no sense. A small glass costs more than bottle of wine in supermarket and the cruise lines don’t have vat or duty. It’s just a cash grab. Same with over priced spirits. Bottle of water is 2.55 330ml and coke is £3,55 for a 330ml can!!! 
 

well screw these cruise lines. I used to be a drinks package person. The endless drinks price increases have killed my desire to drink on ships now. My wallet thanks you and my waistline does also. We now spend this money at the port on much better drinks with lower costs and on excursions that came with an open bar in the price. £56 for a 4 hour boat ride with snacks and 10x rum punch. Who needs the ship bar! They think the bar prices are a bottomless pit of free money. Well I’ve never seen bars so empty and quiet on a holiday in my life. Bar sales must be rock bottom and barely anyone had drinks packages. They are terrible value anyway on P&O and the bar choice is crap compared to other lines. I’m no longer going to be the cash cow of these companies and be financial abused because I want a drink on my holiday. I’ve adapted and so are others it seems. Now my total bar bill has gone from over £1500 to less than £250. Congratulations to the corporate moron who thinks selling one drink for £9 makes more profit than selling 3 for £6. This is backfiring already. 
 

we smuggled a ton of booze back to our room and so did most people. They can also never stop it. I’ve got the port security system worked out. 
 

overall the food and drink experience is a mixed bag. Soon very good and some poor. I think P&O and carnival in general will push prices to high and kill demand. There is a bookings bubble at the moment which won’t last. Like all bubbles it will pop but with the debt mountain they will have little place to go. My other family have already gone back to land holidays. Better food. Cheaper drinks and lower costs. 

Remember you get what you pay for so expect that quality & level of service!

[Interestedcruisefan]

5 hours ago, FatBoy20 said:

Remember you get what you pay for so expect that quality & level of servic

When you said crap dish in sushi restaurant I assumed you meant crab

 

But second time you said it I realised you did really mean to say crap dish!

 

Nice detailed reviews above. 

 

We think the food is great value and can't complain tbh. But youve backed up what you don't like which is more than many do who complain 

 

Funny enough despite the complaints you enjoyed the fish and chips in quays which I personally think is using your words "crap"

 

Lol

[Pandamonia]

7 hours ago, Interestedcruisefan said:

When you said crap dish in sushi restaurant I assumed you meant crab

 

But second time you said it I realised you did really mean to say crap dish!

 

Nice detailed reviews above. 

 

We think the food is great value and can't complain tbh. But youve backed up what you don't like which is more than many do who complain 

 

Funny enough despite the complaints you enjoyed the fish and chips in quays which I personally think is using your words "crap"

 

Lol

sorry I did mean crab. This new iPhone text system changes words even when you typed others correctly. 
 

the sushi was very good quality and was really nice but I was £60 deep and starving still. I’ve never in my life paid for a sushi roll that come with 3 pieces. Especially for £9. 
 

I think I’d have been happier if menu B wasn’t such a poor show. The beef koftas in olive are rubbish for example but the lamb pitta was good if a bit sparse which went well with the tapas potato bravas. 
 

they also did some really good curry in the buffet but the sindu sucked. Makes no sense. 
 

overall the value was good for the whole holiday but there are a ton of cost cutting going on in the cruise industry. We didn’t see our room attendant for 14 days. Had no idea how to get hold of her and had black mold growing in the shower and they didn’t hoover room once in 2 weeks. Doubt it’s her fault as it’s all about cost cutting now and something has to give and they have a load more rooms now. 
 

id go again but ill get on the ship as cheap as i can and then spend big on excursions and the good food venues. 
 

 

[terrierjohn]

8 hours ago, Interestedcruisefan said:

When you said crap dish in sushi restaurant I assumed you meant crab

 

But second time you said it I realised you did really mean to say crap dish!

 

Nice detailed reviews above. 

 

We think the food is great value and can't complain tbh. But youve backed up what you don't like which is more than many do who complain 

 

Funny enough despite the complaints you enjoyed the fish and chips in quays which I personally think is using your words "crap"

 

Lol

You're clearly not a fish and chip connoisseur, if you think the Quays offering is crap.

[Interestedcruisefan]

41 minutes ago, terrierjohn said:

You're clearly not a fish and chip connoisseur, if you think the Quays offering is crap.

I like fish and chip shop fish and chips

 

Or gastropub fish and chips with hand cut triple fried chips etc John

 

The fish and the chips is like fish and chips I would buy at the local supermarket put in the freezer and fry or heat up when I was wanting a quick easy meal

 

And tbh there's so many quick and easy meals I could make instead. And I have an ok fish and chip shop two minutes walk from my home

 

Cheap fish and chips style main course you would be served as a cheap meal in a pub

 

Perfectly edible but unlike lots of things I can get excited about on Arvia and Iona - the fish and chips at the quays is not one of the things to rave about

 

6 or 7 out of 10. At best. Nicely presented though. 

 

I prefer the Asian food in the quays myself

 

But it's all opinions of course

Edited January 1 by Interestedcruisefan

[Gettingwarmer]

15 minutes ago, Londonpride said:

I thought this topic was Food and Dining! Seem to have evolved into Cabins and Cabin Stewards, ha ha.  However would like more up to date views on Food and Dining.  Due to cruise on Ventura 11 February, US and Caribbean (5 weeks). Thank you in advance.

This thread may be of use to you

https://boards.cruisecritic.co.uk/topic/2982554-live-from-35-nights-on-ventura-what-have-i-done/page/3/#comment-66724351

 

 

[Eddie99]

Or have a look at Selbourne Live from 65 nights on Aurora - he’s posting pics of the MDR lunch & dinner menus and I believe MrsGoggins (on Ventura now] said their daily menus are identical?