Top Chef cruise - Luminae?

Has anyone done a Top Chef themed cruise since the inception of Luminae? I'm wondering if they do the Top Chef night dinner in Luminae, or just the MDR.

Thanks!

Has anyone done a Top Chef themed cruise since the inception of Luminae? I'm wondering if they do the Top Chef night dinner in Luminae, or just the MDR.

 

Thanks!

I don't see how they could/would do that since Luminae is reserved for Suite level ONLY.

I don't see how they could/would do that since Luminae is reserved for Suite level ONLY.

That would be a good reason!:D

I don't see how they could/would do that since Luminae is reserved for Suite level ONLY.

Sorry, I don't understand your point. I'm taking the Top Chef cruise. My assigned dining venue is Luminae. Obviously I want to participate in the Top Chef events, since I'm on the Top Chef cruise. i just wanted confirmation from someone who has been there, done that. But I don't understand the thought that Luminae couldn't/wouldn't be participating in the theme of the cruise.

Sorry, I don't understand your point. I'm taking the Top Chef cruise. My assigned dining venue is Luminae. Obviously I want to participate in the Top Chef events, since I'm on the Top Chef cruise. i just wanted confirmation from someone who has been there, done that. But I don't understand the thought that Luminae couldn't/wouldn't be participating in the theme of the cruise.

I do not recall BLU participating, so why would Luminae?

It's just 1 menu 1 night of the cruise, unless the top chef special cruise is run differently.

I doubt Luminae has any TopChef menu, but you may order off the MDR menu.

When I've been in MDR on Top Chef night, the general consensus at the table is, order from the Celebrity Favorites side of the menu (our servers when presenting menu suggested that's what most early diners chose), not the top chef side.

SuzCruise wrote:

"But I don't understand the thought that Luminae couldn't/wouldn't be participating in the theme of the cruise."

There must have been some doubt in your mind or you wouldn't have posed the question.

Luminae is still relatively new. Have there even been any Top Chef cruises since that dining room was introduced?

There may not be any way of telling whether Luminae will have any special Top Chef choices on your cruise.

Just off Equinox and dined in Luminae. We were told we could order anything off the main dining room menu, but it would not be prepared by the Luminae chef so not of the same quality. If they are having the Top Chef menu in the main dining room I'm sure you could ask for items off the menu in Luminae, their service is over the time and they will do just about anything to please you!

But I don't understand the thought that Luminae couldn't/wouldn't be participating in the theme of the cruise.

1 reason would be to protect the integrity of the Suite program, that is ensuring its menus etc. are as we expect and get used to.

I didn't know they did a Top Chef night on every cruise. That explains at least some of the confusion. I wonder if they do the usual Top Chef menu on the Top Chef cruises, or if they customise it to the dishes created by the Top Chef contestants on board for that cruise? Seems I need to call Celebrity.

I can't answer regarding suite dining, though I did take a Top Chef cruise. The menu would be different from a random top chef menu (I assume), because it's tailored to the chefs actually on the ship with you. (And not just a "best of" menu.) On our sailing, each chef designed 1 appetizer and 1 entree. And maybe a salad....I seem to remember they each designed 3 courses. I think desserts were random desserts from the show, since not all the chefs were pastry chefs.

I can understand why suite guests would want Luminae to participate, because many people book the Top chef cruise specifically for that reason and the top chef dinner is a major draw of the cruise. If memory serves, we specifically didn't do AQ, because we wanted to eat the top chef dinner. The main dining room was very full, because more Blu people were trying to get in. I can imagine if Luminae didn't serve the top chef menu you'd have some unhappy suite passengers and/or further crowding in the MDR.

I can imagine if Luminae didn't serve the top chef menu you'd have some unhappy suite passengers and/or further crowding in the MDR.

Luminae serves anything you want off the MDR menu on request.

So it's not going to be an issue.

What I do wonder is if the Michaels Club concierge would arrange a special dinner (for a fee of course) for the Club guests to attend if they wish. The concierge plans many special opportunities for the guests, this seems like a simple one to offer.

They do wine dinners, chef tables etc, already, just invite a TopChef to one and call it a special dinner.

 

What I do wonder is if the Michaels Club concierge would arrange a special dinner (for a fee of course) for the Club guests to attend if they wish. The concierge plans many special opportunities for the guests, this seems like a simple one to offer.

 

They do wine dinners, chef tables etc, already, just invite a TopChef to one and call it a special dinner.

I doubt it. They already do those on top chef cruises and charge nicely (I want to say ~200/person.) Since there's pretty good overlap between suite passengers and who'll pay that much for a meal, I'm not sure they'd want to cannibalize those meals. They had cooking demonstrations (chef teaches you how to cook aND then you eat with them) and I think straight up dinners.

Thank you so much for the knowledgable response! That's exactly what I needed to know. We'll just talk to the food and bev people once we board to find out how to best proceed. Our TA has us down for early dining as late is wait listed and she said it didn't matter anyway since we were assigned Luminae. But if the MDR is the option for that special dinner, we'll make sure it isn't an issue. I'm sure it will be crowded in the MDR that night with almost everyone forgoing specialty venues but we want to make sure we don't miss out on this fun event.

I did call Celebrity and got a contradiction to your response. After being on hold for some time so she could research the issue she said that they did not serve a special dinner, just the usual Top Chef meal they serve on every cruise. But it was obvious she wasn't familiar with the Top Chef cruise and really had no clue what I was talking about, which didn't surprise me since it was a very specific question. Obviously I'm going with your response since it was the exact "been there, done that" I've been looking for. And I like your answer better. :) Thanks again!

Glad you found it useful. :)

Disclaimer - I was on a Top Chef cruise last year (August Solstice to Alaska), so it's possible things have changed. One observation, though, is that even on the ship the Celebrity employees weren't particularly well versed about the specifics about a Top Chef cruise. So the contradictory information that you got from the Celebrity rep may be because it's changed or it may be because they just aren't very well trained on the particulars of what goes on during the Top Chef Cruises.

In case it's useful, I pasted below some information from the review I did of my cruise specifically about the Top Chef aspect. I also pasted information from our roll call - someone who was booked on a future Top Chef cruise had logged on to ask if we had any tips.

From my review:

Our sailing was 1 of a handful of Top Chef cruises. Celebrity teams up with Bravo to offer these sailings. There are a host of activities on board - former contestants do demonstrations and there's a Quickfire cooking competition that members of the audience compete in with Top Chef coaches. A big highlight is Top Chef night in the main dining room, where each of the former contestants on the ship give a recipe for an appetizer, soup/salad and entree. Deserts were taken from recipes from the show. The chefs didn't prepare the food, but it was exceptionally innovative and delicious and often recipes that were on the show or inspired by what they cooked on the show. There was also a variety of fee-based cooking classes and dinners with the Top Chef contestants. In addition, the last season of Top Chef is available in your cabin on demand.

Overall the activities were a lot of fun and definitely worth it if you're a fan of the show (we are). A lot of people there didn't even realize it was a Top Chef sailing, so not everyone there were fans. (This was something that the contestants appreciated, because it meant they could freely roam about. One of them told my cooking class that she'd done another cruise that Bravo chartered that was 100% fans of the show and she had to have security escort her around, because she couldn't walk outside her cabin without being mobbed. On our sailings, though, the contestants were able to act like tourists and mingle with other cruisers.)

The only downside is that the activities aren't ones that the crew is used to, so they're not as well organized/planned as other activities. It's not a big deal, but something I wished I'd prepared myself for better - I got a little stressed at times, because I was expecting normal Celebrity organization.

Tips I posted on our roll call upon request:

1. If you want to do the extra stuff (cooking class or dinner), book EARLY. On our sailing they were completely sold out before the boat sailed away from Seattle. Per Brooke at our cooking class, there were a bunch of people whose travel agents told them they couldn't book until they got on the ship and were disappointed to have missed out.

For our sailing you could book as a shore excursion - it was listed in one of our ports, though all the Top Chef activities happened while we were at sea. The problem is that I think they were all done simultaneously, so the system wouldn't let you book more than 1. So if you wanted more, you had to wait to get on the boat.

We boarded early (about 15 mins after they started boarding) and immediately hunted it down. It took us a few tries to find it (we went shore excursion to guest relations to specialty dining reservations to a top chef table that was set up outside Michael's.) We were the last 2 to book from Brooke's cooking class. Tiffany also only had 2 left.

2. Top Chef dinner - if you're not in assigned seating, be sure to have a reservation or get there early. We were select dining and didn't have a reservation and got there at 6:15 and were fine. However, my boyfriend went to the restroom partway through the meal and said they were turning people away. Dinner service was taking MUCH longer than usual - we were there 2.5 hours start to finish (kitchen was backed up - presumably due to the new items they were dealing with) and more people were eating there that night (people didn't do specialty restaurants as much and I think some Blu people were trying to get in.)

3. They'll give you a copy of the menu from the Top Chef dinner if you ask. If you get one, bring it with you if you go to any demonstrations or the Quickfire and the chefs will autograph it. (We didn't think to do this - but saw many who did.) I uploaded a photo of my menu, if you're curious what our dinner was like.

4. If you do any of the dinners/cooking classes or participate in any of the demonstrations/quickfires, they'll give you a top chef apron as a gift. (I uploaded a photo of our aprons). They'll autograph it, but may not have a sharpie with them. So if you think you'll get an apron from something, it may be worth bringing a sharpie with you.

5. Be aware that the top chef stuff isn't going to go as smoothly as the other activities. I'm used to Celebrity running like a well-oiled machine, and wasn't expecting this and got a bit frustrated at times. However, these are people who are used to doing the same thing week after week and this is a 1-off for them. So dinner service took forever, cooking class wasn't organized as well as it could have been (kitchen was too small and we were stuck in the back where we couldn't see/hear as well or access a stove as easily), etc. If you go into it with a lower expectation of service, you'll be less stressed.

6. If you miss a public Top Chef activity, keep your eye on the Celebrity Life channel, as they'll be replaying that stuff randomly throughout the day. I didn't see a chef presentation that I wanted to, so whenever I was in the room I turned the tv on and eventually found it taped.

7. We went to the "Top Chef Meet and Greet" that was right before the galley tour. We were expecting a party kind of meet and greet - it was just a really short thing where the 4 chefs got up in the front of the dining room and were introduced. It was all less than 5 minutes. If they do the same thing for you: if you're going on the galley tour anyway (I suggest it if you've never been), it's worth going early for that. However, if you don't plan to do the galley tour, it's not worth going to just for the "meet and greet."

8. Most of the demonstrations had photo opportunities with the chefs afterwards. The quickfire had a photo op with all 4 of the chefs together. (That's also a good time to get autographs of aprons or menus.)

Don't let #5 scare you - I'm very glad we did the cooking class and thoroughly enjoyed everything that we did Top Chef related. My boyfriend got picked to compete in the quickfire, which was great. He and another guest competed against other teams in things like chopping and whipping - each pair had a Top Chef coach. The winning team then each paired up with a Top Chef chef to cook a meal to be judged.

We booked this cruise because of the ship and the date, not because it is a Top Chef cruise.

So I'm thinking the night of the Top Chef dinner might be a good night to make reservations in one of the Specialty restaurants. Might even get a "sale.":p What do you think?

Thanks Scarlett for going above and beyond to share your experience and tips. I really appreciate it!! I hadn't seen your prior post about the Top Chef cruise, so it was very helpful!!

We booked this cruise because of the ship and the date, not because it is a Top Chef cruise.

 

So I'm thinking the night of the Top Chef dinner might be a good night to make reservations in one of the Specialty restaurants. Might even get a "sale.":p What do you think?

If you have no interest in the Top Chef dinner, then it may be a good night to skip the MDR. Unless they figured things out since our cruise, dinner service was slooooooow that night. I dealt with it, because we REALLY wanted the dinner.

That said, the dinner was much more innovative than regular MDR faire. If you're a foodie at all, even if you don't watch Top Chef, I think it'd be worth it. We had people at our table who weren't familiar with the show, but still enjoyed trying dishes they'd never had before.

Thanks Scarlett for going above and beyond to share your experience and tips. I really appreciate it!! I hadn't seen your prior post about the Top Chef cruise, so it was very helpful!!

Glad you found it helpful. Have a great cruise! :)

If you have no interest in the Top Chef dinner, then it may be a good night to skip the MDR. Unless they figured things out since our cruise, dinner service was slooooooow that night. I dealt with it, because we REALLY wanted the dinner.

 

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If they are offering "special pricing" in the specialty restaurants we may just skip the Top Chef dinner. Or even if they're not.:D;)