Thread: Name Your Favourite(s) Free Dining Venue on Any Cruise Line

Obviously, everyone is going to have a different opinion on that question. Remember; what one person loves, another will hate.

Personally, after having been on all of those many times, my personal feeling is that I would rank those three in this order from best to worse; Princess, RCCL, then Carnival.

While I feel Princess has better food and is great for couples, I do feel RCCL has better amenities for children, so we tend to sell more of them for families than any of the others, but their food is not up to par with Princess. Of course, if you want cheap, then Carnival is tough to beat.

This is why we personally love Celebrity above all of them (especially their new Solstice-class ships), but then we're seniors (62) and when you look at what they offer for the price, they can't be beat.

As I said, everyone has opinions, so I know you'll encounter those who disagree with me on the subject.

Pete

While I have not cruised as extensively as you have, I would basically have the same answer after talking to so many people. Actually, I find that Celebrity is not really out of line when it comes to prices. While Carnival does have some really good prices on some of their older ships and on shorter itineraries, for the seven day cruises on the newer ships, they are on par with the other lines.

That's one of the reason I really like Celebrity.

But then again, it's also why I like Holland America. While not quite up to Celebrity, it's very close and the prices are definitely comparable to many of the others. We've travel HAL on several occasions simply because the prices are so good. And their newer ships are very nice - not quite as nice as Celebrity, but again, close enough for an awesome cruise.

Pete

Unfortunately some of the HAL ships have problems (Veendam and Zuiderdam come to mind). Besides, I am still mad at HAL.

One of the reasons we stick with Holland America is that you get a LOT of cabin for the the money you pay. Even the inside cabins are a generous size and almost all cabins have bathtubs (meaning you don't have to mess with a tiny shower). But when it comes to their supplementary dining venues, most have an additional charge.

The Tamarind is free only at lunch time. We heard good things about the lunch, which I believe, since we enjoyed dinners there immensely.

Right now Canaletto is free, but the HAL website says "A nominal fee may apply", so they are leaving the door open to charging for it in the future. There is at least one ship where they did charge this past summer as an experiment, and I don't know the results. The problem with this restaurant is that it is in the same area as the Lido buffet, and it can get noisy. We have not tried it, since we are not fans of the Lido at dinner.

When we were last on Holland America they had a weird process of offering the same dishes in the Lido as they had in the MDR but without the formality of waiters. Are they still doung this?

Originally Posted by nealberk

When we were last on Holland America they had a weird process of offering the same dishes in the Lido as they had in the MDR but without the formality of waiters. Are they still doung this?

By weird, do you mean no other cruise line does that?

Not that I have seen. Of course this is just hearsay since it was only on HAL that I went to the buffet at supper time (Deb caught my noro and I just wanted a light meal since I was still recovering ) I was expecting a variation of the lunch buffet not the MDR menu.

They used to do it on QE2, but I don't think they do on the newer ships.

I think they still use the same menu in both venues on HAL ships, but I didn't check last time I was at sea.