Premium cruise lines Celebrity Cruises and Princess Cruises are both known for offering high-quality dining experiences at sea.
Both serve up an array of flavors and cuisines to please passengers’ palates, with options to dine in casual settings, main dining rooms, and refined specialty restaurants.
Related: Princess Cruises celebrates love and a legendary chef
On Celebrity Cruises, passengers can savor elevated classics and creative dishes inspired by the destinations its ships visit in a variety of restaurants and cafes.
When sailing on a Princess cruise ship, passengers enjoy personalized dining where they’re encouraged to let their tastes and moods decide, whether they’re craving comfort food or seeking regional cuisine.
Although passengers generally find that meals on board Celebrity and Princess cruise ships satisfy their taste buds, many think both cruise lines need to improve on one crucial aspect of cruise ship food.
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Passengers crave more flavorful cruise ship desserts
The quality of the desserts served on Celebrity and Princess cruise ships has been a hot topic in Reddit communities for both cruise lines recently.
“So, I have seen a lot of reviews about celebrity cruises and they typically agreed that the food is great but the pizza could be better...but they all pretty much said the desserts were all just ehhhh not great...so what’s your experience with the desserts on board?” user sean180morris asked in the Celebrity Cruises Reddit community.
Most passengers who shared their opinions in the thread noted that some of the desserts on Celebrity cruise ships lack flavor, despite looking delicious, especially those offered in Celebrity’s Oceanview buffet.
Related: Celebrity Cruises tries to bring its destinations onboard
“Just got off the Eclipse yesterday. The deserts in the dining room were fine, but not what I would call “rich.” Same with the Oceanview, which were worse. They barely had any sugar in them and not much taste,” wrote MickeyMantle777. “Cakes were pretty bland. The only great thing was the ice cream bar and fixins.”
Another passenger explained the lack of cake frosting variety, which could be the reason for the bland flavors.
“On Edge, most of the cakes used a whipped cream style frosting, instead of butter cream or cream cheese (for example on red velvet or carrot cake). This was the biggest miss to me. There is are certain cakes where a whipped frosting is great (shortcake), but not on every cake,” wrote Sharp_Complex_6711. “Overall, I was underwhelmed with all of the baked good on our cruise and felt it was the weakest area of their food offerings.”
Cruisers share theories on dessert dilemma
Reddit user PA9912 shared similar dessert concerns in the Princess Cruises Reddit community, which prompted a strong response from other passengers who agree that desserts are a disappointment on Princess cruise ships.
“Before I get downvoted by all the princess fanatics, I just got off the emerald and thoroughly enjoyed it. It’s a beautiful ship, ocean now was awesome, food was okay (not great but serviceable) and service was excellent. We had a truly lovely time,” PA9912 began.
Related: Princess Cruises shakes up cruise ship beverage scene
“My only complaint as someone who loves dessert and chocolate more than anything was the quality of the desserts. They LOOK amazing. They TASTE god awful," PA9912 explained. "And for the life of me I can’t understand why. Especially anything chocolate. But everything except the crème brûlée just tasted off somehow.”
“I see a few other people have posted the same thing. Does anyone have any theories as to why?" PA9912 asked. "Powdered milk and eggs as ingredients maybe? Really bad cocoa (I would have even eaten a hostess cupcake over eating a princess cake again)? It’s just perplexing that a ship with excellent pizza, burgers and comfort food can do us chocolate lovers so dirty!”
A number of cruisers shared their thoughts on why the desserts are less than delectable.
“They're likely using gelatin as a stabilizer, which can make mousses and creams rubbery,” noted phedrebeth.
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Another cruiser agreed that gelatin seems to be the culprit.
“Princess = lots of gelatin. Celebrity = lots of dairy/milk/gelatin. Holland = a bit less gelatin but still... I think it's a cruise line thing,” wrote Seamike79. “Of the bunch for desserts, HAL does best **in the MDR**, but none of them are exceptional except for a few things in specialty restaurants.”
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