Still Traveling

By Dan

May 18, 2005 8:08 AM | Link to this

I too am a food geek. I went on my first and only cruise last year on Royal Carribean and I thought the food was pretty good definitely 3 star (at least in the main dining room) and having worked in restaurants before I was astounded at what they accomplished for so many. As far as Carnival, I can’t speak first hand but I do know some frequent cruisers and some people in the industry and close to unanimously they deem Carribean the starter, low end line for food, service, everything.

By Ken Schwartz

May 18, 2005 8:38 AM | Link to this

If you want great food, especially at lunch and dinner, go on Holland America.

We like to eat lunch in the dinning room as the selection is usually very good and the food looks and tastes great. We sometimes visit the Lido deck for lunch, especially on sea days were we don’t want to change out of our bathing suits to go to the dining room. The lido lunch is a bit like a cafeteria, but the food is the same as you would get in the dining room.

We usually try the small specialty resturaunt once during the trip and it usually worth a lot more than the small ($20) fee they charge. I had one of the best steaks I ever had at the Pinnacle Dining Room on our last Holland America cruise. On a Princess cruise we took several years ago, the returaunt was Italian and served a 27 course meal. OK, it was 10 appetizers 4 soups, pasta, pizza etc., but we got to sample a lilttle bit of everything. Again, well worth the extra $$$.

We normally get a large table (8 or 10) as you will find SOMEONE with similar interests. We were very lucky on our last cruise as everyone seemed to have the same political leanings and did different shore excursions so dinner every night was hearing about all the great things we missed and might try the next time we get to that port. At dinner, bigger is usually better.

The only down side to our dinners is that we are usually one of the last tables to leave the dining room as we are having such a good time that we forget that there are shows, movies, casino and whatever to get to. On one cruise the waiter gave our table the nickname of ‘The Happy Table’.

By Denise

May 18, 2005 8:55 AM | Link to this

I have taken 2 cruises on Carnival. The food was not “wonderful” like everyone had told me. We ended up eating hamburgers and chicken sandwiches for most of our dinners. The breakfast was pretty good though. And room service…..my daughter ordered room service one night and it took 2 hours to get the food! We were all asleep by the time they got there.

By Theresa from the AJC

May 18, 2005 9:32 AM | Link to this

Hey Ken - Holland America is sounding better all the time. I have sort of a philosophical problem with paying extra to have “good” food. The regular stuff that they are serving should in theory be just as good. I asked the Carnival spokeswoman about the restaurants aboard ships saying that my theory was since they’re serving smaller quantities in the restaurants than in the regular dining rooms that it could be better (less mass production). But she took exception to this and said the food in the dining room should exceed expectations. But you hear from everyone that the restaurant food is better. I don’t know why they can’t offer the different restaurants so they are making more things to order and not charge you. It’s that nickeling and diming (like $10 for an exercise class) that makes people feel negatively about what they’ve already paid for.

Denise — I was shocked when our room service showed up so quickly. I really think we just got lucky and it’s probably hit or miss.

By RS

May 18, 2005 10:24 AM | Link to this

DEADLY! We honeymooned aboard Carnival; I must have gained 10 lbs in 8 days (my husband and I are big eaters, but he can put it away & never gain an ounce..Grr) Well, NEVER AGAIN

By angelina

May 18, 2005 10:25 AM | Link to this

I took a cruise on Carnival in 2001 and ended up sick with food poisioning. The food was terrible. I took a cruise on Royal Carribean last year and gained 8 lbs - everything was so delicious. My husband and I are cruising again with Royal Carribean this year and cannot wait for the far superior food and service over Carnival. My advice- pay a few extra bucks and take Royal Carribean!

By Diane

May 18, 2005 11:03 AM | Link to this

We have traveled all over the world and eaten at some of the best restaurants in the U.S. and Europe. I was totally pleased with the food on board the Holiday. Even though it was the oldest ship in the Carnival line, it was clean and every meal was “roll your eyes” good!

By Donna

May 18, 2005 11:18 AM | Link to this

I just returned from my first Carnival Cruise. The service was great. The food in the main dining hall at dinner was fabulous. The food on the Lido Deck dining needed a little more variety. I am alergic to seafood and there were a few times that everything had fish in it, including the salads.

By Greg Crider

May 18, 2005 11:28 AM | Link to this

From my limited experience, let me offer a couple of comments:

Princess ships seem to have the best breakfast and lunch buffets. We’ve always had seatings and formal dinings for supper, and by far the best was on Celebrity’s Millennium. Food and service were almost too good to believe (except on lobster night, when the lobsters were overcooked to the consistency of tire rubber). My favorite single-meal specialty restaurant dining experience was at Palo’s on a Disney boat; there were few diners so we had the undivided attention of one waiter, and the food was utterly wonderful.

By Hope

May 18, 2005 11:30 AM | Link to this

I just returned from a cruise with Royal Carribean. I have been on two other cruises with Carnival. The food on Carnival’s cruise was very good, but on the recent cruise with Royal Carribean, it was okay. My husband and I mentioned to the staff that the food was not what we thought it would be, considering it was a cruise. We basically was told that each ship has a head chef and it is up to each chef as to what he wants to cook and how it would be prepared. We then realized that that is the reason the food is so different on each cruise regardless of if it is Carnival or Royal Carribean.

By Cheryl M.

May 18, 2005 1:17 PM | Link to this

I don’t have anything to compare to, since we have only been on one cruise so far, but on our Alaskan cruise on Holland America’s msVeendam, we thought the food was excellent. We ate in the main dining room nearly every night at the early seating. My parents were seated at our table, and we were joined by two other couples traveling together (the husbands were brothers). Even though they were about my parents age, they were very lively and we enjoyed their company thoroughly. So much so that my husband and I hung out with them on the land portion of the trip as well (my parents did not take the land part of the trip to Fairbanks). The service was impeccable, and we always had a choice of entrees for dinner. Everything was wonderful. We usually ate at the Lido buffet for lunches if we were on board, and we ordered room service for breakfasts so we could eat while getting ready to go ashore. Room service was always on time, and a few times was early! We did eat in the “special” restaurant, the Pinnacle Grill one night. My parents treated us to that meal, as that was our wedding night after being married in Juneau. The food there was also superb, as well as the service. As part of our wedding package, we also had our wedding cake that evening as well, and that was delicious as well. There was one other night we missed our regular dinner - we had early seating - because we had a later shore excursion to a musher camp. When we got back to the ship, we took a chance and went to the dining room to see if they could serve us even though it wasn’t our normal scheduled time (we just didn’t feel like going to the buffet). They were very gracious and were able to squeeze us in, even at our own table for two. So we were very pleased that we were accomodated so well!

Even though the food was excellent, we found that we actually lost weight on this trip! We are both on the pudgy side and can really pack away the food - we enjoy eating! But we found the portions sizes were very adequate, and we were satisfied every meal. We never partook of the midnight buffets because we were in our cabin fairly early most evenings (it WAS our honeymoon after all ) so I can’t comment on those. And even though we never used the exercise room we found we got lots of exercise just walking around the ship as well as walking on most of our shore excursions. So we were very surprised when we both lost a few pounds by the time we got home!

All I can say is that I was very pleased with my experience on Holland America, and we plan to cruise with them again.

By jb

May 18, 2005 2:10 PM | Link to this

I went on my first cruise last year with Royal Caribbean. The food was delicious!!! — especially breakfast. The scrambled eggs were the BEST — needed no seasonings. Planning to go again.

By Theresa from the AJC

May 18, 2005 2:50 PM | Link to this

I think it’s very interesting that the food section is getting so many comments —-

I assume most of you who are writing live in Atlanta —- I know that Atlanta has one of the highest percentages of people who eat out — Do you think we as Atlantans are pickier consumers of cruise food because we have so many high quality restaurants in Atlanta and we eat out so much? Do you think we are more concerned with the quality of food than other passengers from other cities?

Also I think Hope has really hit one of the most important questions for me —- Is the quality of the cruise’s food based on which cruise line you take or is it more dependent on who happens to be the head chef on an individual ship? So I want to hear from those of you who have taken different ships within the same lines —- Is the food consistently good from ship to ship within a line or does it vary ship to ship depending on the head chef?

I also find it intersting that we are hearing such good things about Royal Caribbean —-I think when we were booking our trip the RC cruise with a very similar itinerary was almost double the price of the Carnival cruise — and the travel agent advised that it just wasn’t that much better to pay that much extra money —- It sounds like you guys would disagree with that advice —- what do you think?

I’m feeling bad for Carnival — they are taking a beating on this web site and we truly had a good time. Other than a few complaints, which I did air to Carnival before these postings went up, we had a good time and I would cruise Carnival again.

By Barry

May 18, 2005 3:19 PM | Link to this

Yeh, I think Carnival is taking a unfair beating. I have sailed Carnival and Princess. While I do believe Princess was slightly better executed, Carnival was very good. However, one must take into account WHO is reviewing the food. We had several shipmates on both cruises who hated the food, but their idea of good food was a pizza or hamburger. These same people had no idea what a prime rib was. We all have friends we ignore when they are opining about food.

Barry Augusta, GA

By tam712

May 18, 2005 3:37 PM | Link to this

We had our first and last cruise with Carnival in 2003. I have to say the only meal I truely enjoyed was the BLT that I ordered for room service. The breakfast had no flavor (everything tasted the same), lunch and dinner were so tasteless that we opted for pizza most of the time. The formal dinner is definately a joke. Not worth dressing up for I assure you. Anyway it ended with food poison which I still can’t forget. I don’t know about the other cruise lines but don’t waste your money on the Carnival Sensation.

By Kim Bouchard

May 18, 2005 3:59 PM | Link to this

We spent our honeymoon January 2005 on board Carnival’s Holiday and the food was fantastic. The dining room was fabulous and the buffets were great also. The cruise started out horribly because of problems with the ship and a change in itinerary, but ended up being a terrific honeymoon!! Have to say though that our next cruise will be on Royal Caribbean or Norwegian.

By Leslie Johnson

May 18, 2005 4:14 PM | Link to this

Two weeks ago I honeymooned on my first cruise with Carnival’s Sensation. Believe me, it will be the last cruise I take. My husband and I were so disappointed! Everyone had told us how wonderful cruises are and that we would have a great time. It was awful from beginning to end! The food wasn’t great by any standards plus the ship was old and crummy. I wouldn’t take a cruise again if it were free and I would never recommend for a vacation. Especially not a honeymoon!!

By mike

May 18, 2005 4:16 PM | Link to this

We also took the Sensation and I have to agree with Tam. The food was so terrible that my wife and I actually lost weight and we too both ended up with food poison, however, I believe it may have been from a drink we had in Cozumel. There’s nothing worse than being that sick and having to tackle the ride back from Tampa to Atlanta. I probably could have dealt with the bad food if so many other things had not went wrong. The first morning we woke up and were going for breakfast the captain announced that during the night we had to return to Tampa due to an illness on board. I know this could not have been prevented but it cut out our stop to Grand Cayman which I was really looking forward to. Instead they stopped at what they called a new port then (Costa Maya) which was nothing more than a nasty flea market. They even charged me a buck to use the restroom, so if you stop there…don’t get off the ship. On the way back we were so sick and the ship rocks like a pontoon on the ocean since they turn off the stabalizer system when returning. Oh and I also need to tell you, don’t use the phone. $7.00 a min. and you find out when you get your bill (which made my head spin as well). That little cute card can really add up when they serve you $6 mixed drinks & $1.50 for a coke. I found out about Carnival real quick. Reel you in with a cheap cruise price and snag you overboard with everything else. They really treat you great on your way out, reservations went great, parking & getting on the ship was so smooth and our bags were sitting there waiting when we got to our room. Returning, you sit in a hot (they turn off the air by now) stuffy room for over an hour waiting on them to call your color for your luggage. Once you get to where you pick it up, your bags look like everyone elses. It took almost an hour to locate our 3 bags, so let me leave you with one piece of advise if your still going to waste your money with Carnival; take the most oddest looking luggage you can find.

By Theresa from the AJC

May 18, 2005 4:43 PM | Link to this

Our getting on and off the ship went very smoothly — see embarkation chapter. We had very little wait and found our luggage easily. I didn’t notice the air being cut off. Maybe our ship was smaller though.

We are hearing so many different things on food and experiences that I can’t get a handle on it: 1. Is it the passenger perception and what their expectations are? 2. Is it different ship to ship? 3. Is it consistent within lines?

Travelers who have taken different ships within a line write back and tell us if the experience was consistent or different on the varying ships.

By Kim

May 19, 2005 8:52 AM | Link to this

I think it’s not only your ship that makes a difference, it’s little things like your waiter and who you are seated with. We have taken 3 cruises on Royal Caribbean, two on Sovereign of the Seas and one on Enchantment of the Seas. We enjoyed the food on all three, but the waiter on the first one made it the most fun. He encouraged the people at our table to do things like ordering two appetizers or three desserts at the same meal, and each meal was an adventure. On our second cruise, our family was seated alone at a small table and it was not nearly as much fun. However, the food was good and it expanded the horizons for my teenagers, who have since been known to ask me if I could prepare that “cold potato soup they had on the cruise” at home. On our last cruise we had to ask to be moved to a larger table where we were seated with another family with teenagers, and a few times their kids opted to go get a hamburger from the Windjammer buffet instead of the sit-down dinner. They also were not used to ordering steaks and had to have their rare steaks sent back. Also, on that trip my daughter got much too fond of ordering from room service, once we realized that it was free (except for the tip)! For our upcoming cruise, I was happy that they asked if we wanted a large table or a small one. We also now have someone on a special diet, and they have been very helpful with information on how to accomodate that diet.

By Katy

May 19, 2005 9:10 AM | Link to this

I have taken 8 cruises…..7 of which were Carnival…one Royal Carribean. I Preferred the food and the service on Carnival…especially for the price….and seemed there were many more options drink and food wise on Carnival. Someone mentioned Holland…that is part of the Carnival fleet, more “upscale” line. The food is better in the dining rooms for all meals….but many tend to do the buffets because of schedules and not bother with the dining rooms for breakfast. Carnival also seems to have the better kids program…..that is another reason we always go back to Carnival. The Staff on Carnival also seemed more pleasant that is why after attempting Royal Carribian we always go back to Carnival. Now if I were to take a long trip (ie, Alaska) I would probably go with Holland America…because I like the Carnival Fleet and I like the way they treat their staff, and yes I even like their food…..and I a fairly “picky eater”.

By Brian

May 19, 2005 10:17 AM | Link to this

My wife and I have been on 4 Carnival cruises (Fascination, Paradise, Triumph and Inspiration) and have enjoyed them all. While everything does vary somewhat from ship to ship (had a lousy cabin steward on last cruise, she just did the bare minimum), overall they were all great. As for the food, I believe that certain items are hit or miss, but overall quality is comparable to any reasonably priced restaurant on land. I have had some great steaks and seafood on our cruises. If you do get something you don’t like, send it back and get something else! They’ll gladly bring you another entree. Try that in any normal restaurant. I have a close friend (who is a big guy) who after receiving his entree on the 1st night of his cruise, asked the waiter for a second one. The waiter brought it right away, and brought him 2 of whatever entree he ordered for the rest of the cruise! I have considered booking on Royal Caribbean, but for almost twice the price, I’ve stuck with Carnival and have not been disappointed. We are planning to sail on Princess next summer in Europe, so I will be interested to see how they stack up. The biggest thing to remember is this: your vacation is what you make of it. Enjoy yourself and don’t get upset about small annoyances. Where else can you go and be waited on for a week, be entertained, see new places and each as much or as little as you want? Have fun!

By Theresa from the AJC

May 19, 2005 10:39 AM | Link to this

Hey Kim — I totally agree that the waiter and who you are seated with do a make a difference in your dining experience. Our head waiter was terrible. He was pleasant but I thought he gave bad advice on menu items. I like to ask the wait staff a lot of questions and often make choices based on their answers and all of his recommendations were terrible. Now the assitant waiter was a young man who I would guess was from Eastern Europe (soley based on accent) — He was adorable, so friendly, so helpful, Just the nicest guy. We did not tip the head waiter any extra but did tip the assistant extra. As for our table companions — we were really worried about getting stuck with a bunch of yahoos but every person was great. Carnival did do a good job matching us up. We all got along and everyone was interesting. We also did a lot of sending back and trying different dishes. I told everyone it was their duty for the story so we could better evaluate all the dishes — they all liked that.

Since we didn’t travel with out kids, I didn’t think about it being a chance for the kids to try different foods — I think that’s great that they get to experiment with ordering steaks (can’t do that in a restaurant.) and trying cold soups. If you don’t like it, then so what —- although there is a little guilt about being wasteful.

By RICK

May 19, 2005 1:07 PM | Link to this

Would have to agree about all the carnival bashing. My wife and I have found the food on the 4 cruises we went to be exceptional. Only 1 trip did we have wait staff that was pretty much in the fog, 3 dayer to Nassau, as a matter of fact that whole trip was pretty bad. Carnival did make up for it though as we are headed out 6/11/05 on the carnival Glory for 7 days. We have a balcony room on the Panarama deck for 845.00 each, what a bargain. Our other 3 cruises we had great food and great wait staff, on the Triumph 3 years ago our head waiter was the best. I still remember his name,Robert was so friendly and attentive. He is from South Africa, what an awesome time we had on that cruise. Hope Junes cruise is as enjoyable.

By Lois

May 19, 2005 3:15 PM | Link to this

Theresa, If you are really interested in food, I copied this from www.cruisemates.com

Holland America Line has partnered with Food & Wine magazine to bring top chefs and wine experts onboard for its Culinary Arts Center program. Operating on all sailings, the program offers cooking demonstrations and wine tastings several times each cruise. Food & Wine will also provide recipe cards and wine tasting notes that passengers guests may take home along with copies of the magazine. Also planned are book signings, question and answer sessions, market tours in ports of call, specially designed on-board menus and more. Food and Wine’s guest chefs already slated to participate are Michelle Bernstein, co-host of The Food Network’s Melting Pot, Statendam to Alaska, September 9, 2005. Neal Gallagher, who received the Food & Wine Best New Chef honor in 2003, Westerdam, Caribbean, November 13, 2005. In addition, Holland America has lined up Beatrice Ojakangas, an expert on Scandinavian cuisine and a cookbook author, who will sail on the June 6, 2005, Prinsendam cruise to the Baltic, and Ying Chang Compestine, an internationally recognized Asian healthy cuisine author, who sails aboard the Amsterdam in Asia on October 26, 2005, and on the December 22, 2005, Hawaii holiday sailing.

By Theresa from the AJC

May 19, 2005 3:43 PM | Link to this

Hey Lois — You have rung my bell!! — I would love to do cooking seminars on a cruise ship. I’ve been trying to convince the paper they need to pay for me to go one — use for travel and food section — so far it hasn’t worked! My mom has been wanting to go to Alaska, maybe I could convice her to do that cooking one with me. I always read longingly the Cooking Light ads for their cruises. Has anyone done the Cooking Light Cruise or any other type of cooking cruise??

I think that would be so much fun — do the classes, taste the food, sleep it off in the sunshine then get ready for dinner — how much fun!

Everyone please write back if you’ve taken a cooking cruise — we want to hear about it.

By Christy

May 20, 2005 12:11 PM | Link to this

This is in response to Theresa’s questions about the food. On the Disney Wonder, we rotated between three different restaurants on the four night cruise. Each restaurant had a theme and a different menu. I would think that the Disney dinner experience (food, service, atmosphere) would be considered “upscale.” Maybe like a nice Buckhead restaurant. ALL of the deserts were excellent! On Sovereign of the Seas (Royal Caribbean), we ate in the same restaurant all four night with a rotating menu. I would compare this experience more to something like Outback/Longhorn. It was nice and the food was good. The presentation of the food on Disney is more formal. Also, Royal Caribbean didn’t seem to have as much variety. On the Disney Wonder, there were several soups, salads, and appetizers; there were fewer on Royal Caribbean. The desserts on Royal Caribbean were good, but not outstanding. I had the tiramisu one night and it was not very good. However, our head waiter said it was not very good, and I tried it anyway. As far as mixed drinks, we drank more on the Dinsey ship and when my husband watched them pour the drinks, he said the did NOT skimp on the alcohol! Hope this helps!

By Christy

May 20, 2005 12:28 PM | Link to this

One more thing about the Disney ships: both ships (Wonder and Magic) have adult only restaurants. On the Wonder, Palo is an Italian style restaurant. There is a $10 charge per couple. It was outstanding and we probably would have eaten there again, but they were booked for the remainder of the cruise!

By Theresa from the AJC

May 20, 2005 4:13 PM | Link to this

Christy — Good specifics on the food -Another question - When you have to book the adult restaurants? Can you do before embarkation? Do you do it the first day? Also with the other restaurants do you just show up, or are there reservations (but no charges involved)?

By Christy

May 24, 2005 9:58 AM | Link to this

On the Disney Wonder, we were given a dining rotation. There are three restaurants (not including Palo) and so you eat at one restaurant twice on the four night cruise. We ate at the same table number every night at the late seating (8:00 or 8:30). Since we were on our honeymoon, we were paired up with four other couples close to our age who were also on their honeymoons. I assume that you can make reservations at Palo, the adult restaurant, before embarking. It was my first cruise and I was so busy with the wedding, I didn’t check into it ahead of time. We got really lucky because we called the first day (Sunday) on board and the restaurant was booked for the entire cruise! However, there was a cancellation late that night (around 9:30), so someone called us and we took it. It worked out well because we were scheduled to eat at the same restaurant Sunday and Thursday, so we were still able to eat at each restaurant. Hope this helps!

By David B

May 26, 2005 11:54 AM | Link to this

The most consistent line when it comes to food quality has to be Celebrity…They managed to get Michel Roux out of France to create their menu and overhaul their food service…And for anyone who might think that He’s not hands-on…My wife and I just completed a 14 day Alaskan cruise on which we decided to celebrate our 25th Anniversary @ their specialty restaurant the “Normandie”…about halfway through the meal we were told by our Sommelier that Mr. Roux was in the kitchen…We asked our waitress if we might meet him…He actually came right away to our table, took a picture with us, autographed a menu for my wife, and then actually took time to ask about our dining experiences through-out the ship. As for the extra expense for the specialty restaurants, I can only say that it was well worth the price, and I would rather it be an option than to have the cruise line increase their rates, when not everyone appreciates that type of dining experience.

By Juice

May 27, 2005 11:38 AM | Link to this

We cruised on Carnival Paradise a couple of years ago solely for its non-smoking feature. I can’t tell you how nice it was to walk into the dining room and not sniff some smoke wafting over. It enhanced the entire diring experience, and it needed some enhancing…

To be fair, you have to give them credit. It’s my understanding that although some ports en route may have fresher, better ingredients, most if not all cruise ships take on their entire week’s supply of food at the originating port. Whether that is due to union, supplier, or food quality (ie. food poisoning) issues, I’m not sure but by the cruise’s end, they are working with almost a week old ingredients. It’s certainly not what a true upscale dining experience is all about.

So with that in mind, I selected my dinner choices accordingly. I went to seafood and greens earlier on, and went with red meat later. Well, since I ordered at least two entrees each night, I had some sort of red meat the entire week. Carnival Paradise had some very nice steaks and lamb chops.

Oh, and after lobster night, check out the lunch buffet. Salad will have lobster meat. Basically, try to figure out what you would do if you’re trying to run an efficient restaurant operation, and you’ll be able to work the “system.”

We will go again, although I think the Paradise has rotated to west coast service recently.