Please tell me about the "free" basic food on cruises...

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Some of those things (midnight buffets and pillow mins for example) have been gone since long before Covid. Towel animals are still pretty common. And I can understand why they started charging for room service. Way too much waste.

I'd imagine the wastes are the largest on buffets without a doubt. Food safety-wise food has to be thrown out at some point even if it hasn't been touched. But I think cruise lines added more variety of places to eat and ways to eat such that room service wasn't as necessary and an easy way to include an added cost without upsetting too many people. I'm not sure what cruise lines charge for room service though but I don't think it's as heavily used as it might have been in the past.

 

[tinkerbellandpeterpan]

Generally we looked for repeated patterns of comments when searching for all-inclusive resorts when we did Mexico last year and then cruises which helped understand personal preference over company-style. There have been a lot of threads for example detailing some very lackuster overall shared opinions regarding cruises for DCL on the food front and while some of that is going to be personal preference other shared experiences seemed to be more of an issue on DCL's side and sometimes that was just a specific cruise where it happened. It's gotta be hard to please a ton of people from all over though.

Thanks? Not sure what that has to do with my comments.

 

[mjkacmom]

That's been a very annoying thing to see. They just keep increasing and increasing. HAL which was a company we were thinking about last year just increased theirs to $17 per day per guest for non-suite and $19 per day per guest for suites (we would have done a suite). They aren't the highest in the industry though.

On the other hand I get it costs in general are increasing, still though.

In order to get the things you mentioned you now have to go to the high end cruise lines. But even then most of the passengers who cruised with them pre-covid have said they've been impacted in one way or another. Some felt the food went downhill, some say slight services when downhill (highly subjective IMO there).

But in some ways I also think cruising has shifted. I'm not sure the bulk of passengers on something like Icon of the Seas is looking for pillow mints or chocolate buffets. But they do want nifty things on the ship that sets it apart. A go-cart track on a cruise ship is quite different, a water park on a cruise ship is quite different. On the other hand on a high end cruise line they aren't looking for a go-cart track.

NCL is up to $20 for regular cabins. I think the increase went into effect around the same time as changing to cabins only being serviced once a day, folks weren’t happy. I’m one who prefers a water slide over a guest lecturer, I hate to dress up, so I stick to mainstream lines.

 

[NYCgrrl]

To each their own. We usually split half the nights between the MDR and half specialty dining. We don't really eat at the buffet except for breakfast sometimes or to grab a quick snack. We were quite pleased with the options offered and always enjoyed our meals. But of course everyone's opinions on food vary.

Which is exactly what NCL was marketing and quite successfully .
We took one more cruise on a large ship which was a whirlwind of activity and decided we preferred smaller ships. In 2025, I’ll be on my first big ship ( a Transatlantic run ) since the early 2000s so it should be interesting to see how they have evolved over twenty years. Still want to concentrate on the MDR for dining but the two lines I’ve narrowed my choices to both remain traditional in that manner.

 

[tinkerbellandpeterpan]

Which is exactly what NCL was marketing and quite successfully .
We took one more cruise on a large ship which was a whirlwind of activity and decided we preferred smaller ships. In 2025, I’ll be on my first big ship ( a Transatlantic run ) since the early 2000s so it should be interesting to see how they have evolved over twenty years. Still want to concentrate on the MDR for dining but the two lines I’ve narrowed my choices to both remain traditional in that manner.

We actually like the smaller ships as well and we do prefer to book the smaller ships on the mass market cruise lines. For now that seems to meet our needs/expectations. I would LOVE to do a transatlantic. Regardless of what line you choose I hope you have an absolutely amazing cruise. That's on my bucket list for sure!