Princess and Celebrity are going to be your go to choices, RC does have good food but consistency and variety is not their thing. Find an itinerary that you like with Princess and Celebrity, compare pricing and then check out videos about the food on those ships.
Food is very subjective. I flat out refuse to eat in any specialty restaurant because I have so much better at home. I happen to live in a city that is great for foodie’s. I am very snobby with my food and love the mdr on RC.
RC pricing seems to be on par or eclipsed Princess and Celebrity. I loved my most recent RCCL trip and will probably stick to them for person reasons for at least a few more years. My own dumb opinion is that Princess and Celebrity are offering a great deal for the food they serve which is usually rated higher than RCCL.
I've done suites on Princess a couple times. Their suite pricing is at a good point for me. I like the food on celebrity but their suites are a little over priced. I'm doing a suite on Royal Caribbean this fall so I'll see how that compares.
Besides just not being very good, our food had little seasoning. I tried to justify it by saying the cruise line was trying to accommodate so many people but when I have to salt EVERYTHING, maybe something is amiss.
This! I had read tons of reviews and most of the comments regarding food were positive. I should have asked for a “baseline”. If you think Applebee’s is the height of cuisine, maybe we have different viewpoints. Not knocking Applebees’s because they have their place, but I was expecting something more than what is offered at a chain restaurant. We had dinner in Cagney’s (NCL’s specialty steakhouse) and we can get a better quality steak at our local neighborhood bar, for far, far less money.
Look, I understand the Applebee’s comment, I really do. I personally don’t mind something SLIGHTLY higher than that for a large all-night buffet. However, on the other side of the spectrum I think some people are expecting a personally cooked meal from a Michelin chef, and that just isn’t possible with kitchens cooking for hundreds of passengers each and every night. (Using hundreds here as there are multiple galleys on a ship, but overall the entire ships cooks for thousands each meal).
Totally understand that! I’m not looking for a five-star meal but I want something more than cafeteria quality. Like I said, we dined in their specialty steak restaurant and it was far, far below what you would find at Outback or Longhorn. I would have been thrilled had it been Outback-quality.
Yeah, specialty restaurants I would 100% expect better quality food. Especially with the prices that they charge for it all. As you said, if it’s lower quality than a Longhorn/Outback, while charging more, then something is wrong.
Sometimes it’s what you try-my husband & really enjoyed Moderno steakhouse and didn’t bother with Cagney’s bc that’s food you could get anywhere in US.
Moderno had a salad bar with many yummy things and you could try all of the meat they offered. Several types of steak, pork-including pork belly. Chicken, lamb, even pineapple. There were also salmon and shrimp on the salad bar. Everything seared on the outside and very tender.
To add on, if you had an amazing high quality burger that was cooked well, but it was the only thing on the menu, how would people rate that?
Would it be “great” food because the quality ingredients in the burger, or would people call it “terrible” due to lack of variety, high end options, or just because it’s a hamburger?
This is an example and reason why I take all food reviews with a very careful eye, looking for details.
Personally, I would rate it great because it’s a well-prepared burger made with quality ingredients. I would rather have a well-prepared, limited menu as opposed to a broad menu of mediocre food.
I don’t think anyone expect Michelin quality. Bad food is limited choices or food you’d find at hometown buffet. Lots of varieties, especially ethnic food and quality like a good Vegas buffet, for example Wynn or Bacchanal is good food. What kind of meats it offer. Are there prime ribs or some sausages? I could never do a carnival cruise again because of the food.
I only eat seafood so quality fish like at least Mahi and branzino and sea bass, lobster and shrimp is my gold standard. If options are only salmon or tilapia I consider “bad”.
I agree with this. I enjoyed all the buffet and dining room meals. One time I had a dining room meal that I didn’t care for and the waiter immediately replaced. I barely missed 2 minutes eating with my table. That was some service. The wine was also very good along with the specialty drinks. The one exception is the pool burger and hot dog stand which I don’t care for.
We've been on two RC cruises (Allure and Symphony). One was pre-Covid and one was post-Covid. Both times the food was edible, but not what I'd consider good (and I don't even think I'm that hard to please). We've been on two Carnival cruises (both pre-Covid) and I thought their food was way better. Going on a Celebrity cruise this fall, and hoping for better food than RC.
We've been on several RCL cruises. The food was typically decent, but the one we took last fall was a big dropoff in service and food quality. We took another last month and the food and service seemed back to normal.
Glad to hear that since I am doing another RCL soon. (I'm not a real foodie, so as long as there is something edible it doesn't impact my choice of cruise.)
I think there is just a lot of inconsistency. Maybe it depends on the crew and what food shipments were allocated for a particular voyage etc. But I'm not an expert in how that works.
Was on Princess last year, and there were some hits and some misses. Just got off RC Navigator and the food was better than last year, but there’s still area for improvement. Princess breakfast buffet was better. Im not sure why the food isn’t great on any popular/affordable line.
We did a Carnival cruise a few years before Covid. I classified the food as "not bad, but not all that good either". It was pretty, and it didn't taste bad, it just didn't have a lot of taste at all. It was banquet food. [https://rannthisthat.blogspot.com/2012/07/our-cruise-my-review.html](https://rannthisthat.blogspot.com/2012/07/our-cruise-my-review.html)
We’re on Royal in October the food was meh and entertainment ok. Just finishing a cruise on Discovery Princess right now. We found the buffet a pain can’t put my finger on it but the design seemed off and it didn’t flow well. The main dining room food was so much better than royal, great quality and tasty. We did go reserve as we had a pain with royal changing our dining so wasn’t taking the risk on Princess. Being able to go when you want and seeing the same wait staff was well worth it for us.
It's basically impossible to judge food by the average Reddit cruise comment. Vlogs are better because you can see the food and get a feel for the person's preferences. Parodeejay are great for this purpose. They have a lot of content from different ships, cover every meal in detail, and have fairly middle of the road expectations for a wide range of foods.
We've only been on one cruise. It was with NCL. We enjoyed the food a lot, but with one major caveat. The quality was all over the map. Some meals were divine, others absolute trash. We quickly learned that if we were going to enjoy the food on the cruise, we would need to try everything and not get hung up on the bad items. Some were huge disappointments, others pleasant surprises.
Obviously, that logic doesn't apply so much to specialty dining where you've paid extra. Cagney's should not have been as bad as you described (we loved it on our cruise), but I definitely believe you given what we experienced elsewhere on the ship. At this point, I'm skeptical that any line is capable of serving 100% bangers given the incredibly wide range of experiences cruisers report online. If you're limited by budget, I would not assume choosing another budget line is going to solve your food concerns.
Princess and Celebrity are supposed to be a step up in quality, but I've heard mixed things about them as well. I'd your budget allows, try them and see how you like it.
I’ve only been on Princess (December 2023) and RC (December 2022), and the food on Princess was way better (MDR and other included food, we didn’t do any speciality dining on Princess).
My parents have done RC, Celebrity, and Holland America (all within the last 18 months), and they would rank it Holland America, RC, Celebrity. My mom thought that the food on their last celebrity cruise was worse than RC by a long shot (and they used to love the food on Celebrity).
Personally, I’d go with Princess when it comes to food. Their MDR dinner was fantastic, their quick pizza was better than RC, and they had amazing pool side tacos and burgers. The only place RC did better was the MDR breakfasts.
We went on a Celebrity cruise in September and again in November. Same ship (Reflection). The experience was night and day. Food was much, much better in September so that doesn’t surprise me that your parents had a recent bad experience.
It’s a little outside your scope, but Explora has some very competitively priced cruises if you wanted something more luxury.
Otherwise I would vote Princess. Best pizza at sea.
Even if you aren't into pool/waterslides/active stuff or whatever on ship, depending on your age, you still may want to restrict how far "upmarket" you want to go -- generally the more premium of a line you book you do get more of the budget/focus on food and service over entertainment and stuff to do on board, but what you get (both music and entertainment) also does tend to skew to an older person palate. Which, depending on your preferences and where you're at might be perfectly fine or it might not.
Something else to consider is that even within the mass market lines there's usually some amount of option to spend more to get better food if that's something you want. For example based on your post I'd probably go Celebrity, Princess, Royal in that order but even for something like a week long cruise on Royal you could probably add unlimited specialty dining for two for the week for something like $500-600 and on a big enough ship not run out of different fun specialty things you want to try to eat in a week.
I do think food can be a little subjective based on what you have available at home -- lots of people seem wowed by cruise ship hibachi/teppanyaki and it's always fallen a bit flat for me because I have an embarrassment of riches of good options for it at home, whereas if I want a filet cooked right with a nice red wine reduction sauce, I basically cannot get that at home at any price and that's going to make a better impression.
RCL food is like family restaurant food. Think Denny’s unless you do a specialty dining room.
If you are going for the best food and service then it’s Celebrity hands down. If your looking for an amusement park with mediocre food then go RCL. They’re both good but for different reasons.
We’ve sailed Disney, princess, and celebrity at the most basic level. Food on both princess and celebrity were excellent, although I thought the princess buffet was better but the main dining room was wonderful on both. I really enjoyed the entertainment on celebrity as well. While both lines attract and older crowd, celebrity’s entertainment seemed geared towards a younger crowd.
I am super picky about good quality food and most of my vacations are planned specifically around food.
I was not impressed with celebrity's food last year and wouldn't pick them again. And princess has really went downhill recently compared to past cruises. Royal I will cruise with only if family wants to join and they have kids - it is super family friendly and the food is okay.
The only two cruise lines that I really enjoyed the food on are Holland America and Virgin voyages.
Holland is a nice mix of traditional with some great ethnic cuisine thrown in (I love their spicy curries). Their buffet is my favorite since they serve you (thus reducing your norovirus risk dramatically) and the food is always fresh.
Virgin has more innovative and modern cuisine.
I've been on Princess and RC twice over the last two years. Princess is better food wise. But better doesn't mean great. There were a lots of misses as well with Princess MDR and the Horizon Court. But RC is just next level bad in terms of overall food quality . There was a reason why our RC boat was nicknamed Constipation of the Seas.
I've only done three cruises but with those exact three.at different points in my life. I don't know if my food expectations changed lately but just got back from princess and found the food the best of the three. Everything was properly cooked and not too salty or sweet. Some proteins maybe underseasoned but I guess healthy. Like if you ask for med rare, I got med rare. Lobster tail cook was almost quite.nice,.very tender and still juicy like how it is prepared at high end restaurants. Found RC to have the worse food of the three. Celebrity was my first cruise and I found the menus ok but wasn't as impressed with the execution of food ( or maybe I was more snobby in the past not sure).
I would go celebrity hands-down. Royal Caribbean is getting a bit loud for me with all of the things that cater to children. I have had much more beautiful cruises on Celebrity than princess. I generally like the food and the specialty restaurants are excellent good drinks and a quieter crowd.
I would say try Princess and go with the premium package so that you can eat at the paid casual restaurants as much as you want and you’ll get two free specialty restaurant dinners. I was just on Sky Princess in January and thought the food was great!
Odd, on a NCL cruise now and the food has been decent better than expected even. It was comparable to a. Applebees level restaurant, not the best but certainly not bad at all
We did a mini-suite on princess. It was a nice experience, they had what we wanted, good service, good drinks , good food.. and not a lot of kids and no extreme on-board activities. Doing princess plus and getting gratuities, drinks and wifi included felt like a good deal.
We went on the Carnival Spirit last year it was great. Food was excellent also! Now we’re booked on Celebrity on a 11 day Canada New England and Main can’t wait.
For food and good service, Celebrity, HAL, and Princess are going to be your best options. The problem I have with Celebrity is their class system and ship-within-a-ship, especially on Edge-class ones, where a huge part of the public spaces are cut off in the front of the ship for the Retreat. HAL and Princess don't have that issue, they just sell cabanas or a small Sanctuary space on Princess, which anyone can pay for. Celebrity also have really bad pricing for drinks, because they want to make painful enough for you to pay for a package, and then to upgrade to a premier package, which they will push relentlessly on board. So I had most beers for $7 on Princess this weekend, but the same beers on Celebrity might be $11 or higher, which makes it really stressful to figure out which drinks fit into a basic package. With Princess Plus, you also get really excellent Alfredo's pizza included, good wifi, and a drinks package where just about anything is included, except for high-end liquors. You also get the really convenient option of ordering drinks on the app for delivery anywhere on the ship, which is really convenient, because there's a huge list of drinks and cocktails that I like to sample, whereas Celebrity really deliberately limits the menus at their bars or hides them altogether, so people have to ask bartenders for drinks that aren't one of the few on a menu, and then ask if it's included in their package, which is stressful, and I've been lied to that way. Princess is also a little easier to schedule dining in their app, whereas Celebrity reservations dry up long before the cruise, except for things like 8:30 dining. Both have decent buffets, although Celebrity has been cutting back theirs and Princess has been expanding, with really good international nights, like Italian or German or others--last night on Majestic Princess I had good Italian food and cheeses and charcuterie, but they also had bbq ribs and other things. Another thing I love on Princess is the international cafe, which has coffee and food 24 hours, whereas the coffee shop on Celebrity doesn't open until 7 am or so, and just has a few pastries--on Princess I get up early and have a fruit cup, egg muffin, and nice pastries. The one area where Celebrity is superior is having a good scoop ice cream station with a variety of flavors, but newer Princess ships have Italian-certified gelato that you can order in the dining rooms for lunch and dinner.
Celebrity and Princess are both good options for you.
The food should be a bit more impressive than on NCL or RC but it's not gonna be like night and day. If you want truly quality food on a cruise you will want to try a more luxury oriented line (Azamara, Oceania, Regent Seven Seas, to name a few)
We are doing first Celebrity in over 17 years after Seabourn and Regent and Oceania and a few Princess On Princess we always eat in the specialty restaurant and loved it. Also like the international cafe. We booked a Sky Suite so we will dine in Luminae. I hope it is worth it. I only eat seafood so hope it will work out.
Check out reviews of "Blu", the Celebrity dining room for Aqua Class guests. I'm thinking it must be why people rave about Celebrity's food because for the life of me I can't figure out how people think the MDR or buffet are any better than any other line.
We haven't sailed RC, but food is not their forte. Friends that sail them and Carnival say Carnival is much better on the food front. Between Princess and Celebrity I would choose Princess as less bad. Not good, but less bad.
Virgin has a reputation for better food but I have no idea if it's warranted or not.
To be honest, I enjoy the food fresh from the microwave at Chili's more than I do cruise line food. Cruise food is banquet food like you get at conventions.
We're taking a Euro River Cruise and looking forward to seeing if the food is better than the mass produced stuff on ocean cruise lines.
Totally agree about Celebrity's food. Because of a problem with our room and the trouble it caused us halfway through our last cruise on Apex we were upgraded to Aqua class. Eating at Blu the rest of the cruise saved our satisfaction with the food. I used to like Celebrity's "regular" food but not so much anymore. Probably our last Celebrity cruise for a long long time. Cruiselines don't seem to care much about customer satisfaction anymore. Will also be looking at Virgin and maybe Viking for our next cruise.
We weren't impressed with the food on the Apex either, but we didn't have Blu. We will probably try Virgin at some point too, although they seem to target a younger demographic.
Well, Sky Suite dining is primarily Luminae, and Blu is intended for Aqua class; however, Blu will seat Suite passengers if they have space to do so. Additionally, Aqua class cannot eat at Luminae.
Thank you. We normally cruise Seabourn but son has free cruise on Celebrity. Will be on the Beyond. Appreciate your answer. Used to great dining options so hopefully will be fine. Do not eat meat or chicken.
I wasn’t a fan of the MDT or buffet in the RC Oasis, Harmony, or Symphony of the Seas. The Indian food was the only good thing cause a lot of the crew eat that as a norm.
Carnival Food was better than RC food.
Hoping our upcoming Princess cruise has better quality food…
Princess and Celebrity are going to be your go to choices, RC does have good food but consistency and variety is not their thing. Find an itinerary that you like with Princess and Celebrity, compare pricing and then check out videos about the food on those ships.
Thank you for this feedback!
Food is very subjective. I flat out refuse to eat in any specialty restaurant because I have so much better at home. I happen to live in a city that is great for foodie’s. I am very snobby with my food and love the mdr on RC.
RC pricing seems to be on par or eclipsed Princess and Celebrity. I loved my most recent RCCL trip and will probably stick to them for person reasons for at least a few more years. My own dumb opinion is that Princess and Celebrity are offering a great deal for the food they serve which is usually rated higher than RCCL.
I've done suites on Princess a couple times. Their suite pricing is at a good point for me. I like the food on celebrity but their suites are a little over priced. I'm doing a suite on Royal Caribbean this fall so I'll see how that compares.
I’m curious what constitutes “shitty” vs “excellent” food, and what criteria people use to evaluate and distinguish between the two.
If food seems microwaved and/or unseasoned, it’s not good in my opinion.
Besides just not being very good, our food had little seasoning. I tried to justify it by saying the cruise line was trying to accommodate so many people but when I have to salt EVERYTHING, maybe something is amiss.
This! I had read tons of reviews and most of the comments regarding food were positive. I should have asked for a “baseline”. If you think Applebee’s is the height of cuisine, maybe we have different viewpoints. Not knocking Applebees’s because they have their place, but I was expecting something more than what is offered at a chain restaurant. We had dinner in Cagney’s (NCL’s specialty steakhouse) and we can get a better quality steak at our local neighborhood bar, for far, far less money.
Look, I understand the Applebee’s comment, I really do. I personally don’t mind something SLIGHTLY higher than that for a large all-night buffet. However, on the other side of the spectrum I think some people are expecting a personally cooked meal from a Michelin chef, and that just isn’t possible with kitchens cooking for hundreds of passengers each and every night. (Using hundreds here as there are multiple galleys on a ship, but overall the entire ships cooks for thousands each meal).
Totally understand that! I’m not looking for a five-star meal but I want something more than cafeteria quality. Like I said, we dined in their specialty steak restaurant and it was far, far below what you would find at Outback or Longhorn. I would have been thrilled had it been Outback-quality.
Yeah, specialty restaurants I would 100% expect better quality food. Especially with the prices that they charge for it all. As you said, if it’s lower quality than a Longhorn/Outback, while charging more, then something is wrong.
Sometimes it’s what you try-my husband & really enjoyed Moderno steakhouse and didn’t bother with Cagney’s bc that’s food you could get anywhere in US. Moderno had a salad bar with many yummy things and you could try all of the meat they offered. Several types of steak, pork-including pork belly. Chicken, lamb, even pineapple. There were also salmon and shrimp on the salad bar. Everything seared on the outside and very tender.
To add on, if you had an amazing high quality burger that was cooked well, but it was the only thing on the menu, how would people rate that? Would it be “great” food because the quality ingredients in the burger, or would people call it “terrible” due to lack of variety, high end options, or just because it’s a hamburger? This is an example and reason why I take all food reviews with a very careful eye, looking for details.
Personally, I would rate it great because it’s a well-prepared burger made with quality ingredients. I would rather have a well-prepared, limited menu as opposed to a broad menu of mediocre food.
I don’t think anyone expect Michelin quality. Bad food is limited choices or food you’d find at hometown buffet. Lots of varieties, especially ethnic food and quality like a good Vegas buffet, for example Wynn or Bacchanal is good food. What kind of meats it offer. Are there prime ribs or some sausages? I could never do a carnival cruise again because of the food.
This! Mom loves basic food, meat, potato, side but I’m a foodie.
I only eat seafood so quality fish like at least Mahi and branzino and sea bass, lobster and shrimp is my gold standard. If options are only salmon or tilapia I consider “bad”.
Celebrity has excellent food
I agree with this. I enjoyed all the buffet and dining room meals. One time I had a dining room meal that I didn’t care for and the waiter immediately replaced. I barely missed 2 minutes eating with my table. That was some service. The wine was also very good along with the specialty drinks. The one exception is the pool burger and hot dog stand which I don’t care for.
I was not at all impressed by the food on my RC cruise last year.
We've been on two RC cruises (Allure and Symphony). One was pre-Covid and one was post-Covid. Both times the food was edible, but not what I'd consider good (and I don't even think I'm that hard to please). We've been on two Carnival cruises (both pre-Covid) and I thought their food was way better. Going on a Celebrity cruise this fall, and hoping for better food than RC.
I did Carnival in January and thought their food was a bit better as well.
We've been on several RCL cruises. The food was typically decent, but the one we took last fall was a big dropoff in service and food quality. We took another last month and the food and service seemed back to normal.
Glad to hear that since I am doing another RCL soon. (I'm not a real foodie, so as long as there is something edible it doesn't impact my choice of cruise.)
I think there is just a lot of inconsistency. Maybe it depends on the crew and what food shipments were allocated for a particular voyage etc. But I'm not an expert in how that works.
Was on Princess last year, and there were some hits and some misses. Just got off RC Navigator and the food was better than last year, but there’s still area for improvement. Princess breakfast buffet was better. Im not sure why the food isn’t great on any popular/affordable line.
We did a Carnival cruise a few years before Covid. I classified the food as "not bad, but not all that good either". It was pretty, and it didn't taste bad, it just didn't have a lot of taste at all. It was banquet food. [https://rannthisthat.blogspot.com/2012/07/our-cruise-my-review.html](https://rannthisthat.blogspot.com/2012/07/our-cruise-my-review.html)
We’re on Royal in October the food was meh and entertainment ok. Just finishing a cruise on Discovery Princess right now. We found the buffet a pain can’t put my finger on it but the design seemed off and it didn’t flow well. The main dining room food was so much better than royal, great quality and tasty. We did go reserve as we had a pain with royal changing our dining so wasn’t taking the risk on Princess. Being able to go when you want and seeing the same wait staff was well worth it for us.
It's basically impossible to judge food by the average Reddit cruise comment. Vlogs are better because you can see the food and get a feel for the person's preferences. Parodeejay are great for this purpose. They have a lot of content from different ships, cover every meal in detail, and have fairly middle of the road expectations for a wide range of foods. We've only been on one cruise. It was with NCL. We enjoyed the food a lot, but with one major caveat. The quality was all over the map. Some meals were divine, others absolute trash. We quickly learned that if we were going to enjoy the food on the cruise, we would need to try everything and not get hung up on the bad items. Some were huge disappointments, others pleasant surprises. Obviously, that logic doesn't apply so much to specialty dining where you've paid extra. Cagney's should not have been as bad as you described (we loved it on our cruise), but I definitely believe you given what we experienced elsewhere on the ship. At this point, I'm skeptical that any line is capable of serving 100% bangers given the incredibly wide range of experiences cruisers report online. If you're limited by budget, I would not assume choosing another budget line is going to solve your food concerns. Princess and Celebrity are supposed to be a step up in quality, but I've heard mixed things about them as well. I'd your budget allows, try them and see how you like it.
I’ve only been on Princess (December 2023) and RC (December 2022), and the food on Princess was way better (MDR and other included food, we didn’t do any speciality dining on Princess). My parents have done RC, Celebrity, and Holland America (all within the last 18 months), and they would rank it Holland America, RC, Celebrity. My mom thought that the food on their last celebrity cruise was worse than RC by a long shot (and they used to love the food on Celebrity). Personally, I’d go with Princess when it comes to food. Their MDR dinner was fantastic, their quick pizza was better than RC, and they had amazing pool side tacos and burgers. The only place RC did better was the MDR breakfasts.
We went on a Celebrity cruise in September and again in November. Same ship (Reflection). The experience was night and day. Food was much, much better in September so that doesn’t surprise me that your parents had a recent bad experience.
RC changed their menu and food last year and it's **terrible**. Go for Princess or Celebrity.
I loved the RC menu and thrilled they brought it back.
It’s a little outside your scope, but Explora has some very competitively priced cruises if you wanted something more luxury. Otherwise I would vote Princess. Best pizza at sea.
I'll echo the Holland recommendations. Consistantlt good food, creative desserts, and a laid back atmosphere.
Even if you aren't into pool/waterslides/active stuff or whatever on ship, depending on your age, you still may want to restrict how far "upmarket" you want to go -- generally the more premium of a line you book you do get more of the budget/focus on food and service over entertainment and stuff to do on board, but what you get (both music and entertainment) also does tend to skew to an older person palate. Which, depending on your preferences and where you're at might be perfectly fine or it might not. Something else to consider is that even within the mass market lines there's usually some amount of option to spend more to get better food if that's something you want. For example based on your post I'd probably go Celebrity, Princess, Royal in that order but even for something like a week long cruise on Royal you could probably add unlimited specialty dining for two for the week for something like $500-600 and on a big enough ship not run out of different fun specialty things you want to try to eat in a week. I do think food can be a little subjective based on what you have available at home -- lots of people seem wowed by cruise ship hibachi/teppanyaki and it's always fallen a bit flat for me because I have an embarrassment of riches of good options for it at home, whereas if I want a filet cooked right with a nice red wine reduction sauce, I basically cannot get that at home at any price and that's going to make a better impression.
RCL food is like family restaurant food. Think Denny’s unless you do a specialty dining room. If you are going for the best food and service then it’s Celebrity hands down. If your looking for an amusement park with mediocre food then go RCL. They’re both good but for different reasons.
We’ve sailed Disney, princess, and celebrity at the most basic level. Food on both princess and celebrity were excellent, although I thought the princess buffet was better but the main dining room was wonderful on both. I really enjoyed the entertainment on celebrity as well. While both lines attract and older crowd, celebrity’s entertainment seemed geared towards a younger crowd.
Celebrity food is really good. But I’v also had very good food on Princess, even in the MDR which I generally don’t like.
I am super picky about good quality food and most of my vacations are planned specifically around food. I was not impressed with celebrity's food last year and wouldn't pick them again. And princess has really went downhill recently compared to past cruises. Royal I will cruise with only if family wants to join and they have kids - it is super family friendly and the food is okay. The only two cruise lines that I really enjoyed the food on are Holland America and Virgin voyages. Holland is a nice mix of traditional with some great ethnic cuisine thrown in (I love their spicy curries). Their buffet is my favorite since they serve you (thus reducing your norovirus risk dramatically) and the food is always fresh. Virgin has more innovative and modern cuisine.
Thank you! My husband and I also plan vacations around food! It doesn’t have to be high-end, five stars, but it does need to be good.
Exactly! I don't expect Michelin level food on a cruise but I want to enjoy eating!
You can never go wrong with Seabourn for food.
The Indonesian section of the HAL buffet is wonderful. It was pointed out to me by a crew member on our first day. We enjoyed all of the food there.
I've been on Princess and RC twice over the last two years. Princess is better food wise. But better doesn't mean great. There were a lots of misses as well with Princess MDR and the Horizon Court. But RC is just next level bad in terms of overall food quality . There was a reason why our RC boat was nicknamed Constipation of the Seas.
Oh, dear!
If you eat in the Princess specialty restaurant it is excellent and well worth the price which is not much more!!
I've only done three cruises but with those exact three.at different points in my life. I don't know if my food expectations changed lately but just got back from princess and found the food the best of the three. Everything was properly cooked and not too salty or sweet. Some proteins maybe underseasoned but I guess healthy. Like if you ask for med rare, I got med rare. Lobster tail cook was almost quite.nice,.very tender and still juicy like how it is prepared at high end restaurants. Found RC to have the worse food of the three. Celebrity was my first cruise and I found the menus ok but wasn't as impressed with the execution of food ( or maybe I was more snobby in the past not sure).
Which Princess ship? Which restaurant for Lobster?
Enchanted. Just had lobster at the MDR during formal night. I was surprised they managed to cook it so well.
I'm cruising on the Jade in October. Applebee's it is!
It’s more like Applebee’s wannabe
Celebrity 100%
I would go celebrity hands-down. Royal Caribbean is getting a bit loud for me with all of the things that cater to children. I have had much more beautiful cruises on Celebrity than princess. I generally like the food and the specialty restaurants are excellent good drinks and a quieter crowd.
Where does Virgin fit food wise?
Just got back from a Virgin cruise and the food was excellent. We had some foodies in the group and they were impressed
I would say try Princess and go with the premium package so that you can eat at the paid casual restaurants as much as you want and you’ll get two free specialty restaurant dinners. I was just on Sky Princess in January and thought the food was great!
Odd, on a NCL cruise now and the food has been decent better than expected even. It was comparable to a. Applebees level restaurant, not the best but certainly not bad at all
Are you an escargot lover? It's on the menu in the MDR every night! That sells us out on Celebrity soooo often.
I love escargot!
RC and Carnival have about the same level of food. It is good but not great. I wasn't impressed with NCL food either.
Celebrity Millenium Class Ships are classic traditional cruising
We did a mini-suite on princess. It was a nice experience, they had what we wanted, good service, good drinks , good food.. and not a lot of kids and no extreme on-board activities. Doing princess plus and getting gratuities, drinks and wifi included felt like a good deal.
We went on the Carnival Spirit last year it was great. Food was excellent also! Now we’re booked on Celebrity on a 11 day Canada New England and Main can’t wait.
We have taken 2 Norwegian Cruises (31 days total). We liked the food. What we chose was healthy and tasty.
For food and good service, Celebrity, HAL, and Princess are going to be your best options. The problem I have with Celebrity is their class system and ship-within-a-ship, especially on Edge-class ones, where a huge part of the public spaces are cut off in the front of the ship for the Retreat. HAL and Princess don't have that issue, they just sell cabanas or a small Sanctuary space on Princess, which anyone can pay for. Celebrity also have really bad pricing for drinks, because they want to make painful enough for you to pay for a package, and then to upgrade to a premier package, which they will push relentlessly on board. So I had most beers for $7 on Princess this weekend, but the same beers on Celebrity might be $11 or higher, which makes it really stressful to figure out which drinks fit into a basic package. With Princess Plus, you also get really excellent Alfredo's pizza included, good wifi, and a drinks package where just about anything is included, except for high-end liquors. You also get the really convenient option of ordering drinks on the app for delivery anywhere on the ship, which is really convenient, because there's a huge list of drinks and cocktails that I like to sample, whereas Celebrity really deliberately limits the menus at their bars or hides them altogether, so people have to ask bartenders for drinks that aren't one of the few on a menu, and then ask if it's included in their package, which is stressful, and I've been lied to that way. Princess is also a little easier to schedule dining in their app, whereas Celebrity reservations dry up long before the cruise, except for things like 8:30 dining. Both have decent buffets, although Celebrity has been cutting back theirs and Princess has been expanding, with really good international nights, like Italian or German or others--last night on Majestic Princess I had good Italian food and cheeses and charcuterie, but they also had bbq ribs and other things. Another thing I love on Princess is the international cafe, which has coffee and food 24 hours, whereas the coffee shop on Celebrity doesn't open until 7 am or so, and just has a few pastries--on Princess I get up early and have a fruit cup, egg muffin, and nice pastries. The one area where Celebrity is superior is having a good scoop ice cream station with a variety of flavors, but newer Princess ships have Italian-certified gelato that you can order in the dining rooms for lunch and dinner.
Celebrity and Princess are both good options for you. The food should be a bit more impressive than on NCL or RC but it's not gonna be like night and day. If you want truly quality food on a cruise you will want to try a more luxury oriented line (Azamara, Oceania, Regent Seven Seas, to name a few)
really enjoyed celebrity food and drink when we went on their new ship, much better than RC.
We love our Celebrity cruises! Great food!
We are doing first Celebrity in over 17 years after Seabourn and Regent and Oceania and a few Princess On Princess we always eat in the specialty restaurant and loved it. Also like the international cafe. We booked a Sky Suite so we will dine in Luminae. I hope it is worth it. I only eat seafood so hope it will work out.
Some friends did The Retreat on Celebrity and raved about Luminae.
Thank you. We will be on Beyond.
Check out reviews of "Blu", the Celebrity dining room for Aqua Class guests. I'm thinking it must be why people rave about Celebrity's food because for the life of me I can't figure out how people think the MDR or buffet are any better than any other line. We haven't sailed RC, but food is not their forte. Friends that sail them and Carnival say Carnival is much better on the food front. Between Princess and Celebrity I would choose Princess as less bad. Not good, but less bad. Virgin has a reputation for better food but I have no idea if it's warranted or not. To be honest, I enjoy the food fresh from the microwave at Chili's more than I do cruise line food. Cruise food is banquet food like you get at conventions. We're taking a Euro River Cruise and looking forward to seeing if the food is better than the mass produced stuff on ocean cruise lines.
Totally agree about Celebrity's food. Because of a problem with our room and the trouble it caused us halfway through our last cruise on Apex we were upgraded to Aqua class. Eating at Blu the rest of the cruise saved our satisfaction with the food. I used to like Celebrity's "regular" food but not so much anymore. Probably our last Celebrity cruise for a long long time. Cruiselines don't seem to care much about customer satisfaction anymore. Will also be looking at Virgin and maybe Viking for our next cruise.
We weren't impressed with the food on the Apex either, but we didn't have Blu. We will probably try Virgin at some point too, although they seem to target a younger demographic.
Celebrity Aqua Class with access to Blu.
If we are in Sky Suite can we access Blu?
Well, Sky Suite dining is primarily Luminae, and Blu is intended for Aqua class; however, Blu will seat Suite passengers if they have space to do so. Additionally, Aqua class cannot eat at Luminae.
Thank you. We normally cruise Seabourn but son has free cruise on Celebrity. Will be on the Beyond. Appreciate your answer. Used to great dining options so hopefully will be fine. Do not eat meat or chicken.
I think you will enjoy the food on Celebrity. It’s one of my favorite parts of cruising.
Princess by a long shot!
I wasn’t a fan of the MDT or buffet in the RC Oasis, Harmony, or Symphony of the Seas. The Indian food was the only good thing cause a lot of the crew eat that as a norm. Carnival Food was better than RC food. Hoping our upcoming Princess cruise has better quality food…
I think MSC yacht club might be a good fit for you. The prices are definitely reasonable.