Decline in cruise ship food standards – surely it’s not just P & O?
A huge thank you to everyone who responded to my post about food standards on P & O. It was great to get so much feedback, and it seems that the majority of you felt that there was a decline in standards. I will be ‘feeding’ back to P & O – excuse the pun.
So, this got me thinking, surely it isn’t just P & O, and we need to be fair about this, so lets throw this wide open – what about food standards in general on cruise ships. Come on all you seasoned cruisers who can remember cruises of yesteryear – what was the food like in the good old days? Better or worse? Was there so much choice, is that the problem? Are the chefs spreading themselves too thinly these day? Or do we feel that the cruise lines are not buying the quality produce anymore? Or, call me cynical, are they intentionally dropping the standards in the ‘inclusive’ restaurants to encourage us to spend even more of our hard earned cash on board?
I look forward to your comments!
3 Comments on “Decline in cruise ship food standards – surely it’s not just P & O?”
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I've been a Cruise Consultant for a number of years now and I can honestly say that it is just the best job ever. No two days are the same. I have got to know some fantastic people through the course of my job, both in the industry and clients,…
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my wife and I were on the Oceana in April 2010 the standard of food was exceptional as was the choice offered in the main restaurant,the choice and quality of the buffet restaraunts was also top class for a buffet, if there was one thing i had to pick up on it would be a shortage of cups at main meals in the buffet restaurant
Having been on nearly 50 cruises with many cruise lines over the past 20 years I think I have sufficient experience to make a considered judgement on food standards. They are, on average,declining.
For example, on Artemis in June portion control had reached ridiculous levels whenever the menu mentioned “hand cut chips” diners got exactly four chips each one and a half inch long. Never were there more or less, always four! In addition the overall quality of the food appeared to be worse than it had been on the same ship about 18 months previously.
This rigourous implementation of portion control and a steady decline in quality and choice over the years is commonplace across the cruise industry and it is now beginning to “hurt”.
Of course there are individual variations which I think depend upon the overall ability of the galley staff on any particular ship and some make better use of the available resources than others. However, I would contend that quality is reducing year on year.
I was very disappointed with the food on Ocean Village (owned by same group as P&O) on a recent Med cruise. The standard – mostly overcooked very British meat and veg – was just above 1960s school food. I felt they bought the cheapest ingedients – eg. reformed ham for the salad counter, tinned fruit at breakfast time (discovered fresh pineapple in Deck 12 restaurant after a week), apples, oranges, pears and bananas with only the occasional plum or nectarine when there was a mountain of gorgeous soft fruit in every port.