Cruise food

A cruise is not exactly a road trip, but it is a popular way to travel these days. I am an interested observer of the food biz. I have been in biz for most of my life but never in the food business, so I look at it from the outside probably knowing less than I think I do. My question is how can a cruise ship serve such good food to so many people at once? I know it isn't gourmet, but it is better than land based food on average. Banquet food halls could take some lessons from the cruise lines. What do you think?

I do not cruise often, and usually only the cheapie two or three-day jaunts to the Caribbean that they offer here from Florida. But, the food that I have been served on cruise ships has been absolutely wonderful. Many cruise ships now offer the option of a separate, upscale (and thus, up-charged) dining establishment. The price for this is usually around $25 pp, for the meal, plus the wine, if you choose. On my last cruise, we did this, and for $25, I had one of the best meals I had ever had -- Chilean Sea Bass with a citrus chutney -- chain restaurant, cruise ship, banquet hall, "roadfood", you name it. As I have said on a few other threads, I don't care where it comes from, I just want it to taste good!

As to the question of how they do it? Beats me. I have no idea how they can maintain such a superior level of quality, on such a consistent basis, for what is really an inexpensive amount of money. I do know that a lot of the staff on cruise ships are from some parts of the world where their relatively meager salaries would make them among the more wealthy residents, and perhaps the quality is so good because they don't want to lose their good work gigs. Either that or the cruise lines feel that they will make up what they give away in food with what they overcharge for on drinks!

Steve

tmiles, I heartily agree with "Banquet halls could take some lessons..."

One of the nastiest things I have ever read about the cruise industry is a book called "Cruise Ship Blues," and one of the things therein that I believe is that their crew is from third world countries, because I can see the crew. stevekoe, I agree with your conclusions totally also.

While we will be on the Mississippi Queen next year, our only cruise experiences are aboard Princess cruises. After a lifetime of being totally queer for ships, I felt like I was on fairly well-run P & O ships. The P & O is at least the equal of Cunard in terms of venerability. The origin of the term "posh" is from P & O vessels going from England to her empire, because you wanted "port out, starbord home," the cooler side of the ship in tropical waters. Today's food on Princess is always good. First of all, it's in every sense a banquet situation, so order your food accordingly. Some of the dinners on Princess have been culinarily memorable--at least for me. My partner persists in ordering things that are sure to be a mistake, like the beef Wellington. I have had escargots where the snail itself were somehow better, but the finest snail butter ever was on "Royal Princess" in June 2003. I told the maitre d' how much I enjoyed it. "Would you care to have that again tomorrow?" Well, I did, and kept asking for other things, even two dinners. In 2000, I consistently ordered a regular entrée plus the pasta as a separate course, not realizing this would mean he'd serve John's and my courses first all through dinner--since we had one more course than everyone else! The waiter asked me with a smile, "You live in San Francisco, don't you?" and indicated thereafter he expected me to have a more refined palate than others. However, like I said, remember this is banquet food, and that the staff have very precise rules. For instance, the same waiter brought me lemon wedges when I asked for lemon zest for my espresso--but with a cringe. We did not gain weight because we took so many excursions.

A friend from Boulder with whom I have cooked for 20 years says she had bad food on the QE2.

Many of the programs on the Travel Channel seem to take the Cruise Ship Logistics for a topic of interest. Feeding a large group of passengers certainly seems to be a major task. It does remind me of the Casino Food Service in the various Nevada Hotel-casinos.
Our Local Caesar's Riverboat has a buffet, and a couple of restaurants, one being a pretty nice steakhouse. But they do not do near the volume--on a daily basis-- that we would find on the typical large cruise ship. Maintaining the quality of that much food over the time away from a restocking supply is a real chore !

Restocking on cruise ships is a challenge, as is maintaining weight. My solutions to these problems are paying particular attention to food that can easily spoil, and eating stuff like that at the beginnning of the cruise. For instance, I am very particular about the fruit I eat, and tend to not eat fruit after it has begun to turn -- pretty easy to identify on cruise ships.

As for maintaining weight, the one solution I have found is to never use the elevators on cruise ships. Invariably, there is a wait for the elevators around meal/prime times, so you might even get there faster by taking the stairs. The last time I cruised, I was fortunate enough to stay in a crew cabin (which I think was on the first or second deck). As the buffet for breakfast was on the 11th deck, it made for a nice workout just getting to and from the food. The main dining rooms were a little lower, but you get the idea. I am sure it didn't completely eliminate any extra calories, but it surely helped.

Steve

On my last cruise with Royal Carribean, I had a chance to talk with the executive chef on board. He had an impressive pedigree and explained how he brought his staff together to produce the meals. I think that's what is so impressive-----the fact that they can produce such wonderful meals for such a large quantity of people. On RCL I've never felt I was eating "hotel food". In fact, from the escargot to the creme brulee, they have had some of the consistently best food I've ever had, regardless of location.

One thing about the food supplies--it's a ship, and they can take on whatever they think is good and thrifty in any market where they dock. The Princess ships seem always to have wonderful "Président" butter from France. You're so right about using the stairs, not the elevators. There are many things you can do for pleasant exercise aboard ship.

We've had so-so food on cruises as well though. We had terrible food on Carnival one Cruise. Some of the best, surprisingly was on Disney Cruise Line. Our son got sick (not seasick) tonsilitis while on board and the restaurant and staff even went above and beyond to take care of his needs.

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Originally posted by RVlifestyle

We've had so-so food on cruises as well though. We had terrible food on Carnival one Cruise. Some of the best, surprisingly was on Disney Cruise Line. Our son got sick (not seasick) tonsilitis while on board and the restaurant and staff even went above and beyond to take care of his needs.

I don't know why you would be so surprised to get good food on the Disney ship. As a resident of cental Florida, I come across the opportunity to eat at Disney parks more than once in awhile. Once you get away from the "stands", some of the actual restaurants at Disney are quite good. The buffet at Animal Kingdom is a phenomenal meal, for example. I would think that the food on their cruise ships would be top notch.

Stevekoe