BosoxI

Well said. We have never cruised because we wanted to accrue loyalty points, but because we enjoy the experience. So it was never a goal to reach a certain loyalty level, but we did pass over the 3000 point level in 2017 and I must admit we enjoy the benefits.

When we were getting close to becoming Elite, we had booked a ten day cruise when I noticed there was a two day Bahamas cruise which would put us over the top. We jumped on it. Judging by our conversations with other passengers, the majority of people on that ship were doing what we were doing. Once we were Elite, we didn't shoot for Elite+ but that two day was low hanging fruit. Back then it was very easy to gain status with Celebrity. People get close to the next level and look for ways to go over the top. I can't blame them

We were on the May 20 cruise also. QSine was outstanding. Food and service were both great. Tuscan Grill was hit or miss. Server and sommelier were super. Dinner - not so much. There were six in our party and two received poorly cooked pasta. One was so raw it was crunchy. The other was so over cooked it was mush. It is time for the ship's executive chef to inspect the Tuscan Grill's kitchen standards.

What I am beginning to believe is that the food on the Summit is really hit or miss in every venue. Our meals in the MDR were almost always mis-cooked or bland even when the sauce was advertised as curry. How can curry be tasteless, especially when the chef is Indian? How could he allow that?

On Friday I tried two different fish dishes at lunch in the Ocean View. After several bites, I put down my fork and told my wife "I can't eat this". I went to the spa and chose several items which looked tempting but had no flavor. I don't understand how professional cooks do not have the skills or desire to season food properly. But the day before in the OC I had a perfectly prepared piece of calf's liver. Go figure.

On the last night we ate in Tuscan Grille and the meal was wonderful, a far cry from what has been described by others. Did they rotate the staff? Did we luck out and get the first team while others got the third? Eating on the Summit is a crap shoot and, unfortunately, some of the meals are just that-crap.

We thought the food was very good.

Ordinarily, I would say being easily pleased is a virtue, but not when I'm dropping thousands of dollars. :eek:

As to Captains Club membership statistics in general, one presumes that Celebrity follows that

I doubt that. When I croak, the last thing my wife will do is notify Celebrity. The CC stats are ever growing, not that anyone cares. It must be almost as bad as the voter list in Chicago.

OK. I have to ask. Who keeps track of the number of Zenith deaths or even CC deaths, for that matter?

The ship needs some work, for sure, but it's clean and not in terrible shape. Good crew, not so good food

Yes but you also have to remember that 45$ is on top of the regular dining cost, so if the regular dinning is valued at 50$ that puts it at 95$ per person.:(

Lol. I knew this would come up. No way the MDR meal is worth $50 unless you double the order for every course. For the quality I ate on the Summit recently, I wouldn't pay $25. The only items that were consistently good were the salads and the escargot. How many snails does it take to make a main course?

I live in a small town which has some excellent restaurants because it is a popular tourist destination. Our last meal in the best one cost DW and me a total of $150 with a modest glass of wine for each of us, tax and tip. As good as it was, I can't honestly say it was more enjoyable than the Tuscan Grille. I don't believe you can find the Tuscan quality or menu variety in most small towns in the hinterlands. It was worth every penny whatever the actual value of the MDR meal is. For that reason alone, I would think someone who doesn't have easy access to fine dining at home would jump at the chance to have it on a ship, economics aside.

I tried that; doesn't seem to be any dining packages, only beverage packages. It is over Thanksgiving--Nov. 18-30--so maybe that is why.

 

Hopefully something will show up or it will be offered on board. Their prices for specialty meals seem really high otherwise.

We paid $45 p/p to dine in the Tuscan Grill two weeks ago. It was the only really good meal we ate that week. I consider $45 a steal for the quality we enjoyed and I would say it would easily have cost $130 to $150 in a decent restaurant on land.

We're more than half way to Zenith but aside from the fact we'll never get there, I really believe that the level to shoot for is Elite. Elite+ and Zenith really don't offer that much more and the cost in time and money is considerable. Twenty some years ago we switched from X to other lines. Had we stayed with Celebrity, we surely would be Zenith now. But to what end?

As others have noted, being in the middle of nowhere allows us to try other cruise ships, and Regent is now our first choice. Thanks, Celebrity, for steering us to a better situation.

As a rule, it's better for one's mental health to stay away from looking at prices after final payment. :)

How true. It's also wise not to check the prices on any spur of the moment, unresearched item purchased abroad. :')

One reason for using dry cleaning on a swven day cruise is to clean the wine stains caused by the sommelier.

We turned in laundry within the last three days with no problem Just confirm with your steward

For this food topic, which is frequent on these boards, the main point IMO is that food is highly subjective. On the same cruise at the same time, perhaps at the same table, posters will describe the same food served in a range from "awful/inedible" all the way to "terrific/exceptional". The message here is to not get yourself too negative or too positive pre-cruise based upon comments here. Just try and judge the food based on your own standards. When you serve a dish to everybody in your family at home - does everybody like it the same?

I don't mean to seem harsh, but

I am sure everyone knows that tastes differ on virtually every subject. When I say a piece of meat is inedible, I am saying that it is full of gristle and fat. If people like gristle and fat, then I stand corrected. For them it is not inedible. When I say food is Bland and tasteless, or tasty and well seasoned, I leave it to each individual to determine whether that suits him or not. There are reviewers who make a handsome living critiquing restaurants. Should they not bother because some people will agree with their comments and others will not?

At home people know they are not eating the product of a highly trained professional cook so they tend to be more lenient in their judgement. Sometimes at least. And they also haven't dropped thousands of dollars for that privilege.

This is funny, as I have little good to say about the food on the Summit recently. But one of the better items I tried was calves liver in the Oceanview . To my complete amazement, it was properly done, not overcooked like an old piece of leather, but pink in the middle and tasty and tender.

can't believe Irish stew probably made with left overs is on the MDR menu. Is "Modern Luxury Lives Here" pub grub. How low can Celebrity go

With lots of potatoes, I bet.

I am now just a bit nervous about food quality on the Silhouette, as we'll be on her for three straight weeks later this year. In Aqua cabins.. Can anyone advise as to the recent quality in Blu? I never thought it was all that great, and now I am ready to jump ship or buy a specialty restaurant package, which I shouldn't have to do. Maybe I'd be better off in a balcony with the specialty package.

Funny, but in the early '90s we took two X cruises and found the food and service lacking, so we returned to Princess plus some other lines. At some point we discovered the Celebrity dining had improved, so back we came. Now, I wonder if it's time to move on again.

Lamb chops, medium rare, thank you, but that is my favorite meal in every restaurant on every ship I've ever been on.

Is the Elite Breakfast now called the Coffee House? How could I have missed this change?

Not sure if it is normal but most of the meals were lukewarm at best. I have been reading reviews and they mostly say how good the food is. Is it just me that likes their food hot? Also noted although not a worry to me that in the MDR steak was not offered nightly as one of the always available dishes, Irish stew was on one night and liver on two nights, not sure about the other four.

I know I will be shot down in flames but I also found a lot of the food bland. Hubby thought the food was ‘down to a price’ as it was a charter but checking menus on here I don’t think so as our menus were similar. Interested to hear others thoughts as back on Silhouette on August.

You could have written my review on the quality of the food on the Summit two weeks ago. I thought it was an anomaly, but maybe that's the order of the day on Celebrity nowadays. On the first night we ate in the MDR my wife ordered a filet medium; it came out rare to medium rare. An excellent cut of meat but not properly cooked. She sent it back and it was replaced with an inferior piece which was pretty much inedible. Had they put the original item back on the grill for a few minutes all would have been well.

Worse than that, each night after that event the head waiter would stop by and ask how our food was. When we said "OK", he would clap his hands and do a little jig, as if we had made some unreasonable demand over the filet. In fact, the food wasn't very good most of the time but DW and I had resolved not to say anything critical no matter how well deserved a negative comment might be.

This was our twenty sixth Celebrity cruise, so we know what to expect. We were made to feel uncomfortable, so we would make it clear on other evenings that we did not need to be seated in that section. But every night we were seated in that section. I must say that the wait staff was very good from waiter to assistant, to sommelier. But the food? Not so much.

Be thankful you haven't encountered one of those geniuses who says clever things like "Tastes differ". Other diners near us had similar opinions, we discovered.

We had one meal in the Tuscan Grill and that was simply excellent from start to finish. Everything was hot, tasty, and properly prepared. Just excellent and only $90

BTW we are booked on two Silhouette cruises later this year, but we're thinking of dropping one in favor of a Regent cruise. So-so food would make that decision a lot easier

And don't forget, lot's of OBC out there is like found money to some people. My wife spends ours in the casino, some people buy a nice purse :)

There you have it. I have more after shave than I'll need in five years. ;p

I thing I would never buy is a good watch or jewelry worth over a few hundred dollars. Especially if the cruise is in the Caribbean where a knowledgeable purchaser can get some pretty good deals.

We were in 9156 on Infinity.

 

The sofa needed replacing, I'm glad we didn't have to sleep on it.

You are correct. The sofas are a bit worn, so DW had the steward cover them with sheets and all was well. Also, we laid on the mattress and found it quite lumpy, so our steward came to the rescue with a new one and the bed was then very comfortable. We really loved that cabin.

Regarding noise from above, I am a light sleeper, waking early and going to bed late. I heard scraping for just a few seconds around 6:30 AM and again around 11:30 PM. Just very briefly. My wife sleeps well and was never disturbed.

Believe me, they could drag chairs for an hour each day and I would still want that cabin. We were originally assigned an FV next to a corner FV and were thankful we made the switch as those got no sun most of the time while we had a choice of sun or shade. 9156 made up for the less than good food in the MDR:cool:

Your son is wise beyond his years in choosing the cruise. He'll have a ball, I'm sure. Qsine does present a variety of choices but we have found it's easy to over order, as the items are quite generous. We delayed trying it for the same reason you cite, but once we gave it a try, we learned to schedule it once on every cruise. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised. I've only had the sushi lollypops in Quisine, never tried the restaurant.

For me it would be deck 8

I guess I got to this party a bit late, seeing that you have booked on the summit. We just left it 4 days ago having spent a wonderful week in a corner Family View room. I think it was the best cabin we ever had on any ship including Suites on Regent, Princess, Cunard, and Celebrity. I say this only because it must be less expensive than the RS but without some of the amenities. The ship will be going in for a refurbishment in late January 2019 and although it is clean and in good working order, it is plain to see that it is in need of an update. The staff is great in all areas and I'm sure you'll have a wonderful time, although I'm not sure what a 10 year old will find to amuse himself, having passed that age some years ago. The one thing that we did find lacking was the food both in taste and in quality of some of the meat and fish being served. A 10 year old will find something satisfactory to eat, his parents might have more difficulty. For that reason I highly recommend Qsine and the Tuscan Grille. Hope you have a wonderful trip

When you are sitting (not standing) on your corner FV, can you see anything but the white wall?

I am 6'5" so keep that in mind. When I sat at the table in the chair nearest the sliding door, I could easily see over the aft wall. Naturally, I was seeing the wake further from the ship. Looking to the side where there is no solid wall was not an issue, of course. I don't doubt that a person of average height would also see the wake, though it would be even further out than my view. Not an issue, I would think. My wife originally had reservations but after seeing the layout, she fell in love with the cabin. I would take it over an S1 on the Solstice class any day.

Are you looking at a $10 watch or a $10,000+ watch.

That's the $64 question. I might buy a Citizen or Invicta (Invicta ???), but if you are looking for a quality purchase, Grand Cayman has some wonderful shops, selling top brands. Used Rolexes were being sold on the Summit for prices easily beaten by reputable dealers in the States, incidentally