Hi All - I want to take my Mom on a cruise in March and yes we are foodies!
What is this learned groups best suggestion?

Food is a very subjective thing.

Personally, I prefer Celebrity over any other mainstream line for food and service in the dining room.

If you can afford luxury, that opens a whole new realm of possibilty

We thought that Oceania had, by far, the best food of the four lines we've been on--Orient, Celebrity, Princess and Oceania.

Holland America has a new Culinary Arts Center on their ships after the Signature of Excellence upgrades. They have celebrity chefs, world-class chefs who do a cooking demonstration as part of the onboard activities and sampling is part of the program. They have the Pinnacle Grill, which is their specialty restaurant, which serves Pacific Northwest cuisine, Northwest wines.

Cunard's Queen Mary 2 has a Todd English restaurant. Crystal and Regent has special themed sailings for food and/or wine, which also have celebrity and world-class chefs. Most of the luxury cruise lines have celebrity chefs that design their menus and oversee the cuisine. Most luxury lines have the alcoholic beverages included the price of the cruise.

Best Regards,
Julia

HAL's culinary program is offered as a free "demo" (read short with a full theater of people) or as a separately charged event where you actually cook in a small group and sample the dishes; it was a fun event IMO.

The food in their Pinncle Grille is good, but not great. We dined there 6 of 7 nights on a recent cruise for the intimate atmosphere and great service and also because we were not keen on the main dining room where service was iffy and food the same. PG is $30 per person and breakfast is served there for suite passengers only, a great perk. Their wine list includes many options, not just regional, as an FYI.

The luxury lines are known for food and service. Oceania occupies a niche in between mass market and luxury and offer very few sailings in the Caribbean.

As you said, kfusto, food is a very subjective thing. We have enjoyed the food & service in HAL's main dining room; and also think that the Pinnacle is very fine. In fact, we have eaten at many of the great (again, subjective) steakhouses in NY, and find that the PG is excellent in comparison.

And unless they have increased the price, PG is $20 per person, and on the first night of the cruise, offered at only 10 p.p.

Pinnacle Grille was raised to $30 per person on 10/1/06. The first night at $10 was discontinued prior to March, 2006 when I cruised on ZUI.

I book groups and work with HAL very often as I think they offer great service and a good onboard experience. I am certain that food and service differ from ship to ship and cruise to cruise but I was not wowed by my lastest experience on ZUI.

I will be on Oosterdam in five months and have already booked PG for six nights on that sailing.

PG on the Noordam offered the first night @$10 in April.

I'd pay $30 - still feel that it's well worth it.

kfusto, how do you know now that you won't enjoy the dining room food on your next cruise? Or is it just the ambiance you prefer?

Interesting about the Noordam and I sure do wish they were consistent throughout the fleet as I hate to misinform my clients but have to go with what HAL tells me.

Re your PG question, there are a few reasons. On any line, any ship I always opt for alternative dining more nights than less. I prefer to not have kids around, prefer more personal in an intimate atmosphere, and really enjoy the upgraded linens, china, furnishings. We generally request a table for two anyway so we are not inconveniencing table mates.

Also, since these are working cruises, I get very little time and even less privacy for myself. If I am in the main dining room, it is guaranteed I will not be allowed to finish a meal without being interrupted several times. This minimizes that and gives me time to breathe.

If I am cruising for vacation which is quite rare, I am generally on a small ship with open dining.

Kfusto: we are looking at another Alaska cruise, this one on the Zaandam. Any thoughts on this ship? Thank you.

Oops. I should also say we are looking at the X Summit too. How do these two compare?

Larry, I have not been aboard but have read good things and I like the size of the ship. I will aboard her sister ship, Volendam, for a luncheon next month so can take a look at anything in particular you are interested in knowing about. We get a tour of all cabin categories and public spaces while aboard.

She is a perfect size and has a nice number of guests.

I really like the M class ships of Celebrity for a few reasons.

Summit has the Thassolotherapy pool which is really nice and the Aqua Spa cafe, which is simply delightful for breakfast and lunch.

I also like the size of Summit in relation to maximum passenger capacity.

I find the dining room service on X to be a bit more formal and enjoy the dessert presentation (I do not eat dessert but it is pretty to look at) and the bread sticks Really, I prefer the European service offered by X over HAL across the board.

Also, IME nightlife on X was of a higher quality. Both lines are pretty low key but the standard for live music on X was better IMO.

Good choices, both, though I will say that HAL is more recognized for their experience in Alaska.

One final comment is that X has had pod problems that have affected the M class ships on quite a few occasions. I would consider that as well.

Thanks Kfusto: I can't think any one thing would be so important inre the HAL ship excpet for how smooth it sails. My wife can take some motion but not much. Actually we have never cruised with either and would like to try them both at some point. The mech. issues with X have me a bit concerned however and I am sort of leaning to HAL for now, though a friend of mine who has cruised X 20 times or so absolutely swears by them. FYI we had some sort of a mech. issue on the Tahitian Princess preventing the ship from docking in Raieatea. It had to do with a thruster issue and its necessity for use in entering a rather narrow inlet to the dock. We did move on to Bora Bora that day, tendered in successfully and then went back to Raieatea two days later so we didn't miss anything, just went in reverse order. I assume the time at anchor was used to fix the problem. Thanks for the info and if I think of anything I'll. Cheers, Larry