Cruise food, etc.

[Mezzaluna]

Well, we're back from our cruise and the reviews were mixed. We sailed on Royal Caribbean's Majesty of the Seas, a very big ship indeed with over 2500 passengers. My husband had sailed with them in 1991 and found the food and service very good. We were not overimpressed with either this time. I was shocked to be served powdered scrambled eggs at breakfast, so on the second day I ordered eggs benedict. If the sauce was a real Hollandaise, I am the queen of Romania. (It was salty, but otherwise tasteless and gummy.) The chocolate tarte was held together with what was probably gelatin and starch, not cream (it was rubbery and nearly tasteless, but looked beautiful). I could go on, but I will mention some very good eggplant parmigian on Italian night as my best meal on board. I ventured out into Nassau for lunch and tried to crack conch (no, not crack cocaine...). It was thinly sliced conch, battered in an etherially light batter and fried until perfectly tender and crisp. And the fried plantain which accompanied it was delicious. Aside from an overly-sweet slice of key lime pie in Key West, that was it for local food. I wish I had something more exciting to report, but especially, I wish I'd had some more exciting foods to taste. We did keep the cruising tradition of gaining one pound per day- and then some! So we have some work to do in that department. At least we had a superb catered lunch at my brother and sister in law's home (a family celebration before we left on the cruise), with some excellent chicken satay, beef tenderloin, and a wonderful green salad with Asian citrus dressing. Bravo for the caterer and his professional staff. Their presentations were inventive, too. Too bad the cruise was a letdown. BTW, we had a ball snorkeling on Coco Cay! Got so entranced that we almost got swept away with the tide.

[SeattleDeb]

I'm with you Mezz...I've never been impressed with the food on a cruise..lots of it (food)...not great stuff. Sounds like you had a very good time though!

Deb

[ziggy]

Anybody been on a Celebrity cruise? My husband and I have done three day cruises...the food wasn't very good but that was OK...we didn't expect it to be good so it didn't really bother us. For three days we were just looking for some R&R.

WE've talked about doing a longer cruise but don't want to endure 7 days of not great food...Celebrity touts their food and claims to be the food lovers cruise line...so we've thought maybe we'd give them a try...just curious if anyone has any experience with them?

[momoreg]

Well, Mezz., it's good to have you back at Cheftalk. Too bad about the food, but I'm glad you had a nice trip.

[shroomgirl]

Susan Spicer, Ann Cooper both do cruises occasionally....I'll ask next time I e-mail one of them about the best cruising food.
Bummer~ massive food that is yucky in a contained place....sounds like **** to me.

[Kimmie]

Sorry about the not-so-good food, Mez.

Glad you weren't swept away with the tide!

[Georgeair]

One word: Windstar. My SO and I have been on several cruises on the "big" lines and were always underwhelmed with the food. Went on a company sponsored trip with Windstar and the food was extraordinary and try as we might no special order or request could even raise an eyebrow. In fact, the chefs we spoke with directly seemed to sincerely appreciate someone interested in the details of the food to talk to. Only downside is these trips are relatively expensive, ~twice what trip on RC, NCL, etc. run. Well worth it if you've got the dough!!

[Papa]

Dear Mezzaluna:

I am really sorry to hear about your disappointment with the food during your cruise. I am glad to hear that you had fun snorkeling in Coco Bay. It must had been beautiful!

I have found most people in the US to look at restaurant food as a business deal. Do they get a good deal? They put a great emphasis on quantity rather than quality. It is disappointing! People crowd the "all you can eat" places where the food tastes like "^%!@#%#"! It sounds as the Cruise companies have followed the same path. It is a pity!

[Isa]

You're absolutely right Constantine some prefer quantity to quality or they evaluate the quality by the quantity.