Princess Food...what's Up?????

[wizard-of-roz]

Please don't say it's all subjective...either the food is good or it's not!!! Are we "foodies?" Oh! Yes!

Our last Princess cruise was on the Diamond in 2005.....We liked the food then, has the food gone downhill?

All the threads I read about the food is that it's just so..so..or ho..hum!

I must admit part of the draw to cruising is the dining.....please re-assure me that the food, on Princess ships is improving and that I'm going to love my Golden trip on September 29th.....or should I pack a "care package?" :o

[bdjam]

Sorry - I think it's subjective. That being said, I've not noted a drop in food quality over the last couple of years.

[Clutterlady]

Hey Roz, good question! When I cruised Princess in 2005, I thought the food was great. With an NCL and Carnival cruise in between, am certainly hoping that my cruise on the CB next year is just as good as on the Golden Princess.

 

Now, I really need to say that food is subjective in a way. My dear friend who sailed on the Golden with us swore that Carnival was superior??! Although some food on carnival was good, some was really just so so. NCL, well....forget about it:eek:

[trvlagent]

Carnival has recently stepped up their food on board. I think Princess really is falling behind. I think if you are used to eating in fairly nice restaurants in larger cities, you will be dissapointed. Or maybe because you've been warned your expectations will be lower so the food will seem better....

[DameAtSeaII]

There did seem to be a decline in the overall food quality over the past couple of years. HOWEVER, when on the Crown in January, they were testing new menus, which have since been rolled out on the Emerald. There was a marked improvement....except with the Love Boat Dream.....sure wish they would go back to the OLD recipe for it that they abandoned a couple of years ago.

 

We need to give these new menus a fair chance. They are certainly less ho-hum and a little fancier. We too, are 'foodies'......I can get ho-hum food in my own kitchen when I am feeling lazy, I expect better than MY BEST when I am paying for it.

 

Hopefully the improvements we saw in January will continue as they roll out these new menus fleetwide. Like I said...let's give them a chance.

[Toto2Kansas]

OK, truthfully? We love Princess, it is our favorite line and we have sailed on most of the mainstream lines out there. The last few cruises, we have been a bit disappointed in what has been served onboard. It used to be the best, but lately, the ships we have sailed on, it just seems to have declined a bit. In the last few years we have sailed on the Tahtiian Princess, the Caribbean Princess, the Golden, the Dawn, the Sea and the Sun Princess.

It is not so much what is served, but the quality of what is being served just doesn't seem to be as good lately.

I kept thinking maybe we were just getting too used to the menus, but there have been a couple of these cruises that the quality was just not up to the Princess standards that we knew and loved for so many years.

Does it stop us from cruising Princess, heck no, we still love Princess.

But we are both two passengers where we do not look at food as "whatever we don't prepare ourselves has to be good", we like to see food that is prepared better than we can prepare ourselves, and that just isn't what we have been seeing. Maybe my cooking has just improved ;)..............but I am growing tired of DH dining onboard ship and saying "you could have prepared that better than the way they prepared that".

[Mommy40]

There did seem to be a decline in the overall food quality over the past couple of years. HOWEVER, when on the Crown in January, they were testing new menus, which have since been rolled out on the Emerald. There was a marked improvement....except with the Love Boat Dream.....sure wish they would go back to the OLD recipe for it that they abandoned a couple of years ago.

 

We need to give these new menus a fair chance. They are certainly less ho-hum and a little fancier. We too, are 'foodies'......I can get ho-hum food in my own kitchen when I am feeling lazy, I expect better than MY BEST when I am paying for it.

 

Hopefully the improvements we saw in January will continue as they roll out these new menus fleetwide. Like I said...let's give them a chance.

Dame I am going on my first Princess and am wondering what it Love Boat Dream??? sounds yummy!

[stoneharborlady]

I thought the food excellent, of course better in the dining room than the buffet, but I had no complaints.

Karen

[we2cruze]

Food tastes are subjective. That's why one person will say the food is good and the next will say it is awful. Personally, I think it is very good.:)

[billet]

I was on the Crown recently with the new menus and on the whole passengers seemed to enjoy the food. There is a slant towards a lot of seafood choices and not as many meat choices but some of the appetizers are truly amazing (especially the eggplant)

[tvaud]

10 days ago on the CB, our head waiter told us that they had tried a different meat vender for a while and were not satisfied with the quality. They have recently started using another vender who they are very happy with. I felt the quality of the meat was much better this year...tender, flavorful, good quality.

[nymshowdown]

We thought the food on Carnival was HORRIBLE! Worst of any cruise we've been on.

 

So this year we went back to Princess hoping for improvement. The food was amazing! So much better than Carnival in almost every aspect. I dont think we had a bad meal in the dining room. And we are HUGE foodies.

[taxatty]

We just took our 4th Princess cruise (on the Royal), and it was the best food we've had on Princess or on our 3 RCI cruises. The new menu adds some nice choices and keeps our old favorites. I don't know if it was the chef, the menu or being on a smaller ship, but every dining room meal we had was at least very good.

Yes, the Love Boat Dream is different, but it's still great!

Les

[roe2ship]

I think the food is excellent.

 

I am going on my first Princess and am wondering what it Love Boat Dream??? sounds yummy!

It is very yummy.....here is a picture for you.

 

[pamwinn]

But we are both two passengers where we do not look at food as "whatever we don't prepare ourselves has to be good", we like to see food that is prepared better than we can prepare ourselves, and that just isn't what we have been seeing.

 

This is exactly how we feel, whenever we eat antwhere but home.:)

[Princess Chatterer]

We liked the food then, has the food gone downhill?

 

:o

 

I think the food quality in the main dining rooms, at least on the Emerald in April, has gone uphill and the food in Horizon Court, again referring to the Emerald in April, has gone down hill.

[Princess Chatterer]

I think the food is excellent.

 

It is very yummy.....here is a picture for you.

 

[LARGIN]

Our last 3 Princess cruises...

Coral 2006.. Food outstanding, service outstanding

Dawn 2006.. Food fair/good, service poor/fair

Island 2007.. Food outstanding, service excellent

[quincytoo]

My husband used to work in in fine dining restaurants until 1997....He still will make me demi-glace as a *make-up* gift after we have had a tiff.....On occasion I will pick a fight, make it seem like it was his fault so he makes demi-glace......If this makes me bad then so be it.

 

We LOVE food ...... all kinds...he is an outstanding cook.....reductions sauces, heck any kind of sauce, the man knows how to cook. I could never leave him cause I'd never find another man who cook as incredible as he does.....;) Actually we love each other more then we did 19 years ago...amazing how that happens :)

 

I travel a great deal for work Vancouver, Toronto, Edmonton, Calgary, Montreal......I am blessed to have eaten in some very very nice restaurants.

 

Are we foodies??? Friends coming over and seeing our huge stacks of food and wine mags....( just can't throw them out) or eating one of the meals prepared by DH will say yes... I hate being labeled we LOVE good food....be it a incredible hamburger with blue cheese, rack of lamb, seafood anything, (We live in BC), I make a killer Mac and cheese with 4 cups of both cream and parmasen cheese.

 

Anyhow back to topic....wipes drool from keyboard....We love our food and we thought the food on the Diamond Princess to be very very good. Buffet food was just that buffet food, I did enjoy a steller roast suckling pig for lunch one day and we gorged on these amazign BBQ beef ribs one afternoon snack at the buffet.

 

One of the best rack of lambs we ever had was one night on the Diamond and the first night Prime Rib was actually better then the Prime Rib in Stirlings.

 

Have we had better food.....of course...... BUT we really enjoyed the food and service on the Diamond.

 

Sorry about the long post........DH is making dinner (rib-eye steaks with blue cheese butter, fresh corn on the cob ( so good right now) and doubled baked potatos.....I am soo hungry ;)

[sonomaphil]

Oh it is all subjective. We think Princess food is just great...and our friends would consider us foodies.

 

Case for subjective: We took my in laws on the CB last April, first cruise for both of them. They loved cruising! So much so that they booked a 14 night Panama cruise with their friends for next April on Celebrity. They asked me what I knew of Celebrity and I said (no flames here please!) that Celebrity might have a tad better food than Princess but a tad worse entertainment. Their reaction? "The food can be better?????" So yes it is subjective.

 

Our favorites: Pina Colada soup, Beef Wellington, Eggplant Parmesan. Short Ribs in the buffet, last night Prime Rib!

 

Least favorites: First night Prime Rib, Fra Diavlo.

[BruiseCruise]

I just got off the caribbean princess and here are my thoughts:

 

All the food in the dining room was great. I tried some lobster/seafood turnover on the second evening and didn't care for it, but everything else was great.

 

I ate at the buffet for lunch a few times and didn't like much of the food. I stuck with the fruit and salads. I had to try (and waste) a few entree's before I'd find something I like. And I am in no way a picky eater. The buffet were just downright unpleasant.

 

I ate at the Sterling Steakhouse one night and left unimpressed. My g/f ordered the Filet and hers turned out great, I ordered a N.Y. Strip and the cut I received was horribly chewy, definetely not a prime cut of meat. The only saving grace was the brie/papaya/jalepeno quesidilla they had as an appetizer, that thing was AWESOME.

 

Anyways, to recap the buffet was horrible, everything else was good.

[dosi]

On our cruise in February we had some fabulous crab and the best lobster I have ever had. However, I found the steak to be so-so. I have also noted that the shrimp cocktail has less shrimp in it every cruise I take!!! But we cruise a lot of different lines and I find that Princess' food has been above the average of the cruises we have been on. Strangely, the best food we ever had was on the Norwegian Star.....that ship's presentation, flavor and quality was just amazing!!!!

[tvaud]

If you want something really terrific, try the veal chop in Sabatini's. It melts in your mouth. They recently changed the size of it...perfection.

[fathercop]

I love the food on every ship that i've been on. I have'nt noticed a decline in the quality. In fact DH always compairs the food we eat ANYWHERE to the food on the ships, and we have alot of high quality restraunts in Chicago:D DH and his children have very finikee taste buds.

 

Diana

[chefim]

If I may offer my professional opinion here.

 

Keep in mind that you have a kitchen cooking for upwards of 3000 people on a ship like CB. The quality that they produce in that quantity is rather amazing, considering hotels I have worked in were far less able to produce that quality for 200.

 

Also realize that it is a business, and they will try to get the best product for the least amount of money. We chefs are always saddled with the task of making the owners money, and it is all about food cost.

 

For instance, a company I used to represent that made classical stock reductions, sold our product to RCCL to be used in the Portofino. They used most of our classical sauces, and even our Lamb Shank in Demi. However, these products did not appear in the main dining rooms. This is one of the reasons you see the cover being charged in the specialty restaurants.

 

As an ACF Certified Chef, I have eaten food prepared by Master Chef's of whom there are only 64 in the country, as well as some of the most respected chefs in the industry. I have had good meals from them and not so good meals from them.

 

Food is always subjective. As a professional, I always go on cruises expecting nothing great, and then I am overwhelmed when there is something stellar that comes out of the galley. For the most part, cruise food is high level banquet food. For some who are not used to fine dining it it the best food they have ever tasted, and to others, it is nowhere close to the fine restaurants they frequent at home.

 

I can't imagine anyone choosing to go on a cruise for the food. Unless of course you are speaking of the old days when Paul Bocuse ran the kitchen on some transatlantic crossings.

 

Anyway, back to my original thoughts. When you see the quality going down it is probably because of a change in vendors as has been described previously. Also, keep in mind that they have to save money somewhere when they are selling balcony cabins for $800pp on a 7 day cruise. You couldn't stay in a fairly decent hotel for that amount, without food.

 

Regards,

 

Chef