Hello, everyone. I was just catching up on the posts.
TOD:
I've never been a pizza lover, but I took a Celebrity cruise once and they actually had a pizza oven onboard. Now THAT pizza was good! Since most pizza is cooked to order, it must have been more than it was right out of the oven. I gained several pounds on that cruise, whereas I generally exercise enough on cruises so that I don't gain. Of course, Celebrity also had great desserts. It was the best food of any the the cruises I've been on.
Maybe Jose (or others) can weigh in on cruise food.
In general, I know that Food Service operations are a major(!) focus of cruise lines, so the quality tends to be quite high. I was impressed - again - with the quality and variety of food on the Disney ships, and their "high-end" Italian restaurant, Palo, is very much worth the $15.00 up-charge.
On this last cruise, I only hit the buffet line once - and that was for the first lunch since that was the only dining option - besides the corn-dog/hamburger/chicken fingers counter on Deck 9. I ate the rest of my meals in the dining rooms, including my breakfast. I also found that even though there is still an aspect of "mass-production" to the dining room menus, the kitchen staff were more than happy to make adjustments to certain dishes if anyone had any sort of like/dislike due to dietary restrictions or just personal preferences.
Coming from a food service family, I also know just how much work and planning(!) and storage(!!!) it takes to prepare almost 3000 meals a day. I do have to say that if I were ever to take a cruise longer than seven days - with a string of days at sea - I might start questioning the freshness of the food.
As far as desserts.... -And this is a problem with most dessert buffets anywhere - I've found that I really can't stomach the over-use of "whipped topping". Yes, I know it's very shelf-stable, and will not spoil sitting out on a serving table for an hour - or longer - but, I'm sorry, just because you mixed it up with strawberries, chocolate and/or lemon juice and zest, that does not make it a "mousse" or pastry cream.
