Food Glorious Food

Food Glorious Food!

What are the most important aspects of your cruise? Is it the itinerary? Facilities on board the ship? Entertainment?

I imagine that all of these things are high up there on your list of expectations, but food is going to be up there too, I imagine.

This is one area that seems to be of high importance to us all. It isn’t just the variety of food on offer but the quality and amount of food that comes under our scrutiny.

Some cruise lines obviously do it better than others! Oceania for example – this a real ” foodie ” cruise – Maine lobster, Texas beef etc etc – great if that is what you want – but this does come at a price and not all of us are willing to pay it.

I was very lucky recently to visit Seven Seas Voyager whilst she was spending a day in Liverpool. We were treated to an example of their daily menu – and my goodness how good it tasted. Melt in the mouth steak, sweet lobster and don’t get me started on the pudding!!

But more and more I am hearing grumblings from passengers about the quality and quantity of food they are being served on some cruise lines. One customer I recently spoke to said that she felt the food she had received on her latest cruise was of a very poor standard and in such small quantities that they left the restaurant still feeling hungry, because of this, they then made reservations for the speciality restaurants onboard and enjoyed fantastic fare and service – but at a cost. Is this right? Why should you have to pay extra? Shouldn’t the food be good enough in the main dining rooms?

Another example I can give is MSC Cruises. Before I cruised on MSC Preziosa last year, I was one of those who had listened to others saying that it’s all ” pizza and pasta ” – how wrong! Sure, pizza and pasta is available and very good it is too, but if you want good food served to you by a pleasant waiter then visit one of the dining rooms. You will be impressed.

You only have to read the cruise forums to see what other cruisers thoughts are. So come on cruise lines, listen to your passengers. I appreciate that to keep 3000 or 4000 passengers fed and watered 24/7 is a massive undertaking and my hat goes off to you, but let’s see some improvement please.