Question

Write a note on the food service operation on Cruise ship

Answer 1

Answer:

There's a wide variety of international cold and hot fish, meat and vegetarian dishes served with rice, pasta, bread, fries etc. Coffee, tea and ice water are mostly included. For soft drinks and alcohol you have to pay extra or purchase a special drink package on the first day of your cruise.

Answer 2

Explanation:

Food senlice on a cruise ship presents some unique challenges. A review of food

senlice in the cruise industry is presented along with some ideas on the future.

The case is made for a change in traditional operations with a move toward

greater use of computer-driven management techniques.

Down though the ages, ever since mankind first set out to sea, one

of the major managerial headaches associated with sailing has been

provisioning the ship. The constant need to maintain adequate levels

of provisions has been a key ingredient in many a sea story. It is said

that the reason the pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock instead of

heading toward their planned destination of Virginia was that their

provisions had run low, especially their beer!

With the rise of the modern cruise industry came an additional

burden, that of maintaining provisions that most approximate land-

based quality. As if this weren't hard enough, the most recent trend in

cruise operations has been to include food in marketing strategies,

making quantity as well as quality an important management issue.

The logistical as well as strategic concerns associated with food ser-

vice afloat are both interesting and somewhat unique. The ways that

cruise operations could adapt modern management science principles

toward solving the myriad operating problems associated with these

concerns may help land-based food service managers in their efforts

to increase the efficiency of their operations.

The first major emphasis on accommodating passengers' culi-

nary expectations probably began during the start of the transat-

lantic steamship trade. Until that time, passengers were usually

something of an afterthought. Like the modern freighter trade, pas-

sengers aboard a ship in those olden times ate what the crew ate, or

at best ate what the officers ate. Certainly by the beginning of this

century, the various passenger ship companies had begun to vie

with one another in terms of splendor and gracious dining. The

great society writer of that era, Lucius Beebe, recalled the captain's

Spring 1995 23

FIU Hospitality Review, Volume 13, Number 1, 1995

Contents © 1995 by FIU Hospitality Review. The reproduction of any artwork,

editorial or other material is expressly prohibited without written

permission from the publisher.table of Sir James Charles, commodore of the Cunard Line and cap-

tain of the Aquitania:

Stewards wheeled in carcasses of whole roasted oxen

one night and the next evening small herds of grilled

antelope surrounded a hilltop of Strasbourg foie gas

surmounted with peacock fans.'

With such an emphasis on quality, it wasn't uncommon for

steamship companies to compete with one another for the freshest

foods and the greatest chefs. It became common knowledge among

frequent travelers that one ate the lobster only on eastbound voyages

while consuming the Scottish grouse and plover's eggs on the west-

bound return. In the beginning the quality strategy was confined to

first class, but by the 1950s even second class dining facilities were

offering quite acceptable fare.2

Quantity Is as Important as Quality

By mid-century, with the demise of the transatlantic trade, came

the demise of such "splendiferous" gourmet repasts. The cruise indus-

try, itself an outgrowth of the decline in the regular passenger trade,

soon found that passengers wanted quantity as much as quality. By

the 1980s, with sales strategies geared to a new class of travelers,

largely those who had been introduced to cruising through popular

television programs, cruises had begun to stress quantity over quality.

Then in the early 1990s, as financial pressures increased, some mass-

market companies lowered the quality still f~rther.~ This trend -

emphasizing quantity over quality - meant that a fundamental food

service concern became one of minimizing costs through optimizing

production efficiency and price-sensitive purchasing practices. Just as

the cruise companies became adept at these practices, new food ser-

vice strategies became necessary.

The cruise industry began experiencing a trend toward over-

capacity as early as 1988. Today this over-capacity has become an

issue at more than one company. The problem is being addressed in

two ways: either a further reduction in costs is initiated in order to

accommodate the deep discounting done by some companies, or the

introduction of a differentiation strategy is attempted, emphasizing

quality over quantity. In other words, food service has once again

become a selling point through product differentiati~n.~ Since cost

containment had already been going on for more than a decade, those

companies relying on a cost strategy met with only limited success,

while those lines competing on the basis of quality soon found them-

selves rewarded with higher profit^.^

Number and Types of Meals Change

Some examples of the quality strategy include those cruise compa-

nies that are offering special culinary theme cruises, complete with