All the mass market ships are all about the same. It is really a glorioed banquet service, unless you dine out at the "for fee" restaurants.

Celebrity used to be the best of the lot but there has been major decline over the past 2 to 3 years.

For th Mass market ships, I would rate Celebrity, HAL, Prinecss, RCL and Carnival almsot the same with a slight edge given to Celebrity for quality and Princess for innovation (new items).

As to the extra fee restaurants, they are all very good and rival most decent land based chains.

Keep this in mind: the cost of crusiing has not gone up but the cost of fuel, and food has gone up. There has been cost cutting all across the board so the quality is going down. With that said, the general quality is still similar (and better than most when comapred) to your local hotel/conevntion center banquet style meals.

My selction criteria for a cruise are as follow, and in order of imporatnce:
1. destination and itinerary (based on bucket list)
2. passenger to crew /passenger to public space ratios
3. demographics of fellow passengers
4. Venues and activities available on the ship
5. Cost (is it on sale?)

As you can see, the food doesn't come into the equation. Taste of food is so personal taht everyone has different wants and needs. For most mass market ships, tehre are enough varities, plus you can request special things. Garnted, some ships are more accomodating than others, that has a lot to do with the staff (chef in charge) than the cruise line, and what ingredients are available.

I have seen attempts to make ethic food, some successful, and some not so great, but at least they try. Most recently, Princess added congee to their breakfast buffet which I found it strange. It is some sort of Chinese rice porridge. By the look of things, it was popular but it didn't come close to anything I sampled at local Chinatown.

In my experience, for mid-size ships, the food on Oceania is exceptional. For larger ships, I would select Crystal.

There is no charge for the specialty restaurants on Oceania. I don't recall if there is such a charge on Crystal.

thank you so much for the feedback. I am really interested in hearing about the food on the upscale, smaller ships. You are right that when traveling on the mass market ships, food probably isn't one of the key factors, but what I am concerned about is getting mass market food that will detract from what I hope will be a luxe experience. Any experiences on Silversea or similar.

We haven't been on any of the real luxury lines, but we did think that the food on Oceania was excellent.

I am no help to you because food is low on my criteria for cruising

My main criteria is like Eschew, the Ports of Call.

To me so far , the food has been about equal on the ships I have been on.

By no means am I a foodie and the only cruise I've been on was the Celebrity Summit last winter so I really have no basis of comparison. That said, I thought the food was very good.

If food is a major reason for choice, then Windstar or Seabourn.

If food is the primary factor I would advise picking a Celebrity Solstice class ship and using the several extra fee restaurants. You will still pay less, way less than sailing one of the luxe lines.

We love cruising, both ocean and riverboat and food is very important to us as well. Based on this, I would NEVER recommend either Carnival or Princess. Both cruise lines, though recommended by many did not meet ANY of our expectations or requirements, especially the food...our last cruise on Princess, Sept.2011 we nicknamed "the university cafeteria food cruise" with service by cold war communist country staff. Not knowing that I could understand Slavic languages, the staffs' sarcastic comments about passengers and impudence toward management were shocking. I was happy to disembark and would NEVER travel with them again. We travelled with teenagers on Carnival. Food was about quantity NOT quality. Holland America, though an older crowd was elegant, food very good, service excellent. Oceania which we prefer due to the smaller ships and itinerary, had excellent food. There is no extra charge for the specialty restaurants though there were restrictions as to how many reservations you could make. We are due to travel with them again. Viking is excellent for riverboat cruising. Food is very good. We have done Europe and China.

My most recent experiences are with HAL and Viking. The Viking food is very good and plentiful. Not great or fantastic. I would say about on the level of a good neighborhood restaurant. HAL was a lttle lower in quality and seems to be getting progressively lower. It was great in the last century and now it is good. I don't think that I would cruise for the food.

Thanks for all the responses. They confirm that if a focus of the cruise is foodie dining, it's probably worth exploring mon cruise options.

Just a generalization, but the more expensive per diem, the better the food.

For the cruise lines it's a balancing act between cost and food/service/amenities. I believe the large ships on the mass market lines service adequate quality and selection considering the thousands of passengers they're serving each day. For better food and service they offer the extra cost restaurants.

Keep in mind most people cruise for the destinations, the cruise experience, the ships activities and amenities, etc. They're are expecting good food but not comparable to better land-based restaurants who serve a couple of hundred people a day at a much higher cost than passengers pay on the cruise.

We were on a Cunard Queen Victoria transatlantic crossing last year. I would term the ship mid-size, just under 2,000 passengers. We chose a Princess Suite in order to eat in the Princess Grill. To our great surprise we were upgraded to a Queen Suite and the Queen's Grill.

Could not fault the food or service. In addition to a very broad choice on the daily menu, if dining in the Queen's Grill you can special order anything you want, with advance notice. I would guess the dining room seats around 50-75, max. The suite was beautiful, complete with butler, who wasn't bad, either.

The Princess Grill is on the same level as the Queen's Grill, special "key" acccess to this level. I had a look in the Pricess Grill, probably seats 80-100. The two grills share a kitchen.

Also on this level is a comfortable bar/lounge with dedicated concierge and an open sun deck, both facing toward the bridge. There's a small protected outside dining area which can be booked for lunch or dinner. A ship within a ship.

The main public spaces were nice--we ate in the Lido once for lunch, it was fine, pizza made to order. Also attended lectures, films, concerts, tried the small casino, did some pub quizzes but it was great to
meet in "our" lounge. We planned to try the Todd English restaurant but it was full price not just a surcharge. Food was so good in the Queen's Grill we never got to Todd English.

Food on Seabourn Legend was outstanding. I have been on several mid level cruise lines but Seabourn was heads & shoulders above them.