Quality of foods versus port of departure. Is there a link?

[cachouonacruise]

Over the years, I have read very up and down reviews about food provided in various venues aboard a cruise ship.

 

Possible reasons for such a wide variety of level of appreciation? 

 

I initially thought, it was a question of passenger personal taste or expectations. Was I on the right track? 

 

Then, I wondered, is there was a link between food quality and staff on board? ( chef ordering the food, cooking or plating the food etc)?  This would explain, for example, why bad or good food experience reports were made more consistantly about one ship versus the other. Anybody noticed a trend in that direction? 
 

Lastly, when a ship leaves port, it is dependant of food available in the vicinity and caterers serving cruise ships. In that case, food reports would vary by ports or regions versus by ship. Has anybody noticed a trend between food quality and ports where ships sail from?

 

Just curious, to see what possible issues may be encountered by a cruise line trying to provide food for there customers, since there is no benefit for a cruise line to willingly choose to serve unsavoury foods.

[tigervixxxen]

I do think the particular ship matters. Each is run just a little bit differently. For example the Silhouette seems to have better food options. I’ve noticed the buffet different on each ship. Little quirks like that. 

[Literary Lynne]

Interesting question!

I've often wondered if it depends on how full the ship is and therefore what the income to X for that sailing amounts to. Once when we were on an Azamara sailing, most of the other guests were part of an organised group - 600 or so and only 50 or so independent guests. We noticed a definite downturn in the quality of the food, compared with a 'normal' sailing when the food quality is wonderful. Also once on X we had a similar experience when the ship was only half full. Does the Food and Beverage Manager/Director have a budget to work to depending on these factors, I wonder?  

[Pennstatedj]

I have for years thought that three things are very important, Food source, Chef, and almost as important is the waiter you have. Believe it or not I asked my waiter why does the ship and mdh fish quality vary so much from table to table. He told me that it depends on how the waiter selects the actual dish he or she brings to you. He tries to find one that is right off grill and sitting around drying out. That week we were with that waiter was the best fish I had on a cruise ship. Before that I stopped getting fish, most of time it had been too dry. Happy cruising. 

[Tyler414]

I was on a Virgin cruise in the Mediterranean out of Barcelona, the food overall was pretty good, however I had a ribeye steak at one of the special restaurants, the all around meal was okay, however the actual cut of meat was one of the worst I have ever had, I was told it was probably because the meat is sourced from the area and nothing like "American Beef" 

[someguyfl]

I did a behind the scenes tour on my last Celebrity cruise, and the head chef said a few things that might be relevant to this:

1) All food is picked up in the departure port with no provisions in additional ports except for very rare circumstances. Celebrity (like most cruise lines) is extremely concerned about the risk of food poisoning, and therefore wants to have as few suppliers as possible so that they can maintain consistent food standards... Given this logic, I'd suspect that may even mean that in some cases (eg: Eclipse is doing Los Angeles to Valparaiso (Chile) as a positioning cruise, and then Valparaiso (Chile) to Buenos Aires as another positioning cruise, before doing a number of cruises from Buenos Aires. I suspect that Celebrity may pick up extra nonperishable food in Los Angeles (eg: canned goods, frozen meats), and only pick up what they must from Valparaiso (eg: Dairy, Eggs, Fruits and Vegetables).

2) For Blu, Luminae, and the speciality restaurants, all entrees are cooked and timed individually, and essentially "to order". For the MDR, and Buffet, food is cooked in large batches. Given large batches, it's not possible to control things as tightly, so some foods will be cooked slightly more or less than the other, and as they need to ensure food safety, they have to err that the minimum time is safe, which means the average maximum time will be cooked more than in Blue, Luminae, and Speciality.

On my last cruise, I was in a suite on Edge, and I visited all 4 of the MDR as well as Blu and Luminae, but did not visit any of the speciality restaurants. I found that while there was some difference between Blu and Luminae, overall the food quality was fairly close, with some better ingredients / more delicacies available at Luminae, and somewhat more attention from the server (though, the service was absolutely excellent in both places).

 

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This part is about to get more critical, and I'll start off just by saying that the MDR's are not bad, and everyone has different levels of expectations. Some people, when they are at home, are happy at a restaurant that costs an average of $30 per person ... and others are happy at a restaurant that costs an average of $60 per person ... and others are happy at a restaurant that costs $100 per person... If you're the $30 per person restaurant type, the MDR will be excellent.

 

At the 4 MDR's, it was a noticeable drop in overall quality in every way -- the uniforms were not as nice for the staff, the staff was less experienced, and had more tables to manage, so there was less individual attention. The ingredients were less exotic than what was used at Blu, and fragile foods (eg: fish) tended to be at much higher risk of being overcooked. Some meals were great, but it was inconsistent.

 

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Personally, I don't want the food on a cruise to just be as good as what I have at home ... I want it to better ... And for that reason, I'd say the happy medium choices for me on Celebrity would be either Aqua class or a regular room and just plan to use a speciality restaurant every night.

I enjoy the use of a sauna, but honestly prefer the (free) dry sauna in the locker rooms of the Solstice class ships over the "premium" aqua thermal suite, so I make the decision based on what the overall best price is between aqua or regular veranda + speciality dining.

If I am in Aqua or Suite, I tend to use the speciality dining zero or maybe one time on a cruise. I've already paid for upgraded food ... why throw it away?

[Jim_Iain]

My understanding is most of the provisioning is controlled out of Miami and much of their supplies of Packaged and Frozen products are supplied to the ship from a central ordering point.

 

I do know the Food and Beverage Manager orders local produce, some fish and meats.   On a recent New England Cruise, I was sitting next to the F&B Manager at a Zenith Lunch and he was telling us he had sourced Nova Scotia Lobster for the formal night.   I have to say it was excellent.

 

You point of the Chef and Staff could have a major impact on customer satisfaction.   On our April/May cruise in Luminae, every poultry dish was a disaster.   Talks to our waiter and Maitre'd helped a bit and one time the Maite'd stayed in the kitchen while our meal was prepped.   The problem was not the quality of the protein it was the chief would cook it to death.   I got to the point i would avoid any poultry and stated calling in Road Runner run over by a truck.   My Cornish Hen was so over cooked I couldn't even cut off the bone.

 

Long story short -  The Poultry Chef departed between legs 2 and 3 and the Poultry again returned to the normal standard of tender and juicy. 

[NutsAboutGolf]

5 minutes ago, Jim_Iain said:

My understanding is most of the provisioning is controlled out of Miami and much of their supplies of Packaged and Frozen products are supplied to the ship from a central ordering point.

 

I do know the Food and Beverage Manager orders local produce, some fish and meats.   On a recent New England Cruise, I was sitting next to the F&B Manager at a Zenith Lunch and he was telling us he had sourced Nova Scotia Lobster for the formal night.   I have to say it was excellent.

 

You point of the Chef and Staff could have a major impact on customer satisfaction.   On our April/May cruise in Luminae, every poultry dish was a disaster.   Talks to our waiter and Maitre'd helped a bit and one time the Maite'd stayed in the kitchen while our meal was prepped.   The problem was not the quality of the protein it was the chief would cook it to death.   I got to the point i would avoid any poultry and stated calling in Road Runner run over by a truck.   My Cornish Hen was so over cooked I couldn't even cut off the bone.

 

Long story short -  The Poultry Chef departed between legs 2 and 3 and the Poultry again returned to the normal standard of tender and juicy. 

 

Never ate at Luminae but this has been the case in experience in the MDR and Blu on all ships including the Beyond this year.  Poultry is always overcooked sometimes by a shocking amount that it made it out of the kitchen.  In Blu, often the M'D comes by every table and they'll usually ask how dinner is going, if you mention any complaint about the food quality it seems their routine dismissive answer is something along the lines of "We have a lot of new crew in the kitchen this sailing".  Also, if we find an entree overcooked rather than ask for another one we consider it a lost cause for that night and ask for a different dish

[cachouonacruise]

Wow! Thank-you very much for the feed-back! 
 

You've all raised very interesting points!

 

I love to learn from the knowledge and experiences of cruisers such as Cruise Critics members. 

 

I will be much more attentive to these specific details on my next cruise! 

 

[markeb]

There will be differences depending on where the ship is provisioned. Assuming they locally source perishables such as meat and poultry, they'll likely be different than US sourced products. You're probably most likely to notice that with beef since the beef will likely be older and may not grain or corn finished. That results in texture and taste differences. Meat gets really complicated, especially poultry (Avian Influenza) and pork (African Swine Fever and Foot and Mouth Disease). Moving pork products even around Europe used to be a major hassle. Probably still is. In some cases you'll see "quality" differences, and in some cases you'll just see differences that you may interpret as quality. 

 

Back in the day, all my UK military colleagues would go crazy on beef on any trip to the US. Corn fed and cheaper. Which is what we're used to...

[tigervixxxen]

Currently on a 17 night cruise I don’t think they can make it all on original provisions especially fruit and veggies but we’ll see what’s left in the coming days. They were certainly loading a lot on the ship in Tahiti.

[FolsomMike]

Specifically, can anyone say if the food quality/variety is any different for cruises leaving from Tokyo? It’s a long way from Miami.