Deck 3 Reveal? Dining venues.....

On board Silhouette 2 weeks ago, the Luminae Maitre D said no main dining room on Edge but 20 different places to eat. He didn't separate into fee or free. Just said 20 different places.

We are treating this trip as a fact finding exercise and will use our onboard credit if they are mostly fee paying.

Dynamic Dining was an interesting concept and many people enjoyed the variation in dining room and menus. However it seems the execution by the staff was a bit off which was one complaint. But the major whining took place by traditionalist cruisers who just could not really get used to the change. That eventually overturned it.

When initially launched I think RCCL went a step too far for their client base by not offering a traditional dining option of any kind. By the time they tried to incorporate traditional dining (with a nightly venue rotation) there was so much furor over Dynamic Dining that they eventually just scrapped the whole thing. Princess tried something similar on the Diamond and Sapphire Princess when first launched and scrapped the plan within a year. Even NCL with their Freestyle Dining has not gone as far as Dynamic Dining attempted as even on NCL, while most ships have multiple MDR, they feature the same menu that follows a typical model of changing daily.

The issue with Dynamic Dining was each of the 4 MDR had its own unique menu that only changed once per cruise. For some reason this concept was more than most passengers were willing to adapt to or attempt to comprehend. In theory it's a wonderful idea as it allows more choice of included dining cuisine types. However passenger reaction shows that was not, in both the case of RCCL and Princess, what the market wants.

It will be interesting to see if Celebrity attempt a 4 unique menu/venue concept, and if they do if it succeeds or fails.

When initially launched I think RCCL went a step too far for their client base by not offering a traditional dining option of any kind. By the time they tried to incorporate traditional dining (with a nightly venue rotation) there was so much furor over Dynamic Dining that they eventually just scrapped the whole thing. Princess tried something similar on the Diamond and Sapphire Princess when first launched and scrapped the plan within a year. Even NCL with their Freestyle Dining has not gone as far as Dynamic Dining attempted as even on NCL, while most ships have multiple MDR, they feature the same menu that follows a typical model of changing daily.

 

The issue with Dynamic Dining was each of the 4 MDR had its own unique menu that only changed once per cruise. For some reason this concept was more than most passengers were willing to adapt to or attempt to comprehend. In theory it's a wonderful idea as it allows more choice of included dining cuisine types. However passenger reaction shows that was not, in both the case of RCCL and Princess, what the market wants.

 

It will be interesting to see if Celebrity attempt a 4 unique menu/venue concept, and if they do if it succeeds or fails.

If they do it right it can work. They have to find the right balance. Each of the 4 restaurants has to have an everyday dining section plus some generic daily specials that can cater to a variety of palates. Then the other part of the menu could focus on a particular theme. Based on the dining room names I am guessing French, Italian, Mediterranean and Continental cuisine?

What is bumming me out being in a suite is what seems to be not too many specialty restaurants for dinner. There is the steakhouse and Eden. Unless Le Grand Bistro is a full French dinner experience and not a reworked Bistro on 5. Hopefully the Luminae menus expand with wider variety.

Looking forward to the reveal this week to get more details.

If they do it right it can work. They have to find the right balance. Each of the 4 restaurants has to have an everyday dining section plus some generic daily specials that can cater to a variety of palates. Then the other part of the menu could focus on a particular theme. Based on the dining room names I am guessing French, Italian, Mediterranean and Continental cuisine?

 

What is bumming me out being in a suite is what seems to be not too many specialty restaurants for dinner. There is the steakhouse and Eden. Unless Le Grand Bistro is a full French dinner experience and not a reworked Bistro on 5. Hopefully the Luminae menus expand with wider variety.

 

Looking forward to the reveal this week to get more details.

There are areas that are still undefined, so hopefully a couple will turn out to be specialty restaurants. I’d love a good Indian or Thai restaurant!

I wonder if they’d be able to make four thematic menus work in the MDRs. It would be great to have the variety if they could provide quality meals. I think the risk would be that one MDR venue may become more popular than the others, and some people may become mulish about trying the others instead;).

I wonder if they’d be able to make four thematic menus work in the MDRs. It would be great to have the variety if they could provide quality meals. I think the risk would be that one MDR venue may become more popular than the others, and some people may become mulish about trying the others instead;).

This was a big issue on RCCL with Dynamic Dining -Silk or Chic would be 3/4 empty and there would be a 2hr queue for American Icon or The Grand for example.

This was a big issue on RCCL with Dynamic Dining -Silk or Chic would be 3/4 empty and there would be a 2hr queue for American Icon or The Grand for example.

I am afraid I am of the oldadage ‘ if it ain’t broke don’t mend it’. The speciality restaurants on Celebrity work. The MDR works. The buffet works. Blu works.

So why not just make the venues better - don’t complicate them.

We shall see tomorrow. I personally think Celebrity at this level needs more class and les Razamataz. They must consider their demographic and ensure they are catering to those with the disposable income instead of those who are young hip things- or at least have an acceptable compromise. I could be totally wrong and all the new ideas will be brilliant. It really is suck it and see- but at whose e pense.

If they do it right it can work. They have to find the right balance. Each of the 4 restaurants has to have an everyday dining section plus some generic daily specials that can cater to a variety of palates. Then the other part of the menu could focus on a particular theme. Based on the dining room names I am guessing French, Italian, Mediterranean and Continental cuisine?

 

What is bumming me out being in a suite is what seems to be not too many specialty restaurants for dinner. There is the steakhouse and Eden. Unless Le Grand Bistro is a full French dinner experience and not a reworked Bistro on 5. Hopefully the Luminae menus expand with wider variety.

 

Looking forward to the reveal this week to get more details.

I agree that the 4 MDR may have menus themed as you suggested, along with an always availabe "classics" section.

For Specialty we know that Eden seemingly replaces Qsine, the Steakhouse seems to replace Tuscan, LeGrand Bistro seems to replace Murano, the Raw Bar replaces Sushi on 5 and the Rooftop Terrace seems to have a dining venue to replace the Lawn Club Grille. So that's at least 5 specialty ($) options. There is also the Spa Cafe, Mast Grill, Eden Cafe and the Grand Plaza cafe which I am going to guess will be complimentary venues.

Looking at Oceanview cafe it seems to be more broken up into smaller sections that could possibly be used as buffet by dat and "pop-up" Specialties ($) at night (Indian, Thai, Persian, Lebanese, Peruvian, Cuban, etc could all be possibilities) alongside the main buffet offerings. Similar to what Cunard have done on QM2 and Princess on Caribbean Princess.

It appears they've already updated all of the deck plans online that they use on the booking pages - here is deck 4,5, and 14. you can just change the deck number and see the respective image. Still have some areas grayed out -

 

https://www.celebritycruises.com/cruisingpower/content/shared_assets/svg/svg_c_EG_1851/IDP-DECK04.svg

https://www.celebritycruises.com/cruisingpower/content/shared_assets/svg/svg_c_EG_1851/IDP-DECK05.svg

https://www.celebritycruises.com/cruisingpower/content/shared_assets/svg/svg_c_EG_1851/IDP-DECK14.svg

 

Looks like we'll get more than just the restaurants (which there are 12+) but also get the casino and a new venue called "The Club"

Hmm, that's careless of them... those are .svg files they posted online. That means that the images contain the original layer information and if you open them in Adobe Illustrator (Photoshop may work too, didn't try) you can hide the gray squares they've placed over the still to be revealed venues.

There's some interesting details you can find there; they haven't completely filled in the deck plans yet for those parts, only rudimentary information, but you can for example clearly see what seems to be a stage and levels with stairs in front of the Grand Plaza Café on deck 3, towards which the tables and chairs are angled which are revealed on the published deck plan.

The others gray squares hide less defined areas, you can just see the partition walls of the areas they're hiding. I'm not reposting the unhidden images because the files are Celebrity's property and I am not going infringe on any copyright they hold.

I am afraid I am of the oldadage ‘ if it ain’t broke don’t mend it’. The speciality restaurants on Celebrity work. The MDR works. The buffet works. Blu works.

 

So why not just make the venues better - don’t complicate them.

 

We shall see tomorrow. I personally think Celebrity at this level needs more class and les Razamataz. They must consider their demographic and ensure they are catering to those with the disposable income instead of those who are young hip things- or at least have an acceptable compromise. I could be totally wrong and all the new ideas will be brilliant. It really is suck it and see- but at whose e pense.

I agree with you, to a point. Many think the MDR is broken, though we’ve not had many issues there. Though we’ve usually not been too bothered by the volume in MDR, less noise would make it a more classy environment.

IMO the quality of Tuscan Grill has declined (and I wouldn’t call it a classy venue) so I hope they improve their steak house concept. We typically celebrate special occasions in Murano, so I hope their French venue is at least as good. One of the best things in OVC is the Indian section, and many of the upper level chefs are Indian, so I’d love to see what Celebrity could do with a dedicated Indian venue. I wasn’t enchanted with the odd sea urchin dish demonstrated in the Eden video, but otherwise I am open to some new dining experiences there. If Eden turns out to be oh-so-precious trendy dining with ridiculous prices (you know the sort of place, one perfect radish, one hand rolled breadstick, and a small dab of infused (by monks from a tiny village in the Carpathians ) hummus on a plate the size of a tire for $40) I’m out of there lol. Best of all, as you say, would be an acceptable compromise.

cruiserke;55399013']Hmm' date=' that's careless of them... those are .svg files they posted online. That means that the images contain the original layer information and if you open them in Adobe Illustrator (Photoshop may work too, didn't try) you can hide the gray squares they've placed over the still to be revealed[/quote']

Very interesting. Thanks!

Interesting indeed! Look forward to the reveal where hopefully some background on venue style will be provided. We were hoping they’d continue you with a larger multi level MDR venue.

Found the multi option single level dining rooms on Quantum class lacked ambience and a sense of 'occasion' if that makes sense.

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It does make sense, though with no wish to renew an interminable dress code discussion, I must say we felt more of a sense of occasion when everyone dressed more formally & we all dined together in one MDR. I was forgetting the dramatic beauty of the tiered, large dining room. I haven’t sailed on any of the ships that have multiple thematic dining rooms, so I was thinking only of the noise aspect in a large space like the existing MDRs.

Does Disney still do that dining room thing where you go to a different one each night?

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Does Disney still do that dining room thing where you go to a different one each night?

 

 

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Yes and its been very successful for them. It's executed flawlessly.

I sailed on the inaugural crossing of QUANTUM and I quite enjoyed the four dining concepts with set menus. I would have been happy to return to any of them. I certainly preferred it over a large main dining room. The execution was a bit off, but that was obviously because it was a brand new ship, with a brand new concept, and the waiters were getting used to using iPad type devices to take orders. I think eventually it would have worked itself out.

I do hope Celebrity is planning something similar. I think it has a lot of merit.

I have said all along that the EDGE class is a Celebrity version of the Quantum class from RCCL, and have expected the deck 3/4/5 layout to share a lot of design DNA with those vessels.

I agree EDGE shares some similar traits to the Quantum Class, but she most resembles the new ships of TUI Cruises, Mein Schiff 2 through 6 and the new Mein Schiff 1 currently under construction (slightly larger version). My understanding is EDGE used the Mein Schiff platform as a footprint and went from there, making adjustments to make it a Celebrity ship.

TUI is partially owned by Royal Caribbean, and Royal Caribbean's head of Newbuilding Mr. Harri Kulovaara also heads up TUI's new build program as well as Celebrity.

So at last we got to know why Celebrity has been so slow on showing us this ship...there is nothing new. There aren't anything new to copy as they said...all we see are copies from their own ships or others.

 

Good try with the infinitive verandas, but this ship is no maritime revolution like the Oasis was at her time.

 

At least she has an interior decor that is a leap forward.

 

So only exciting thing is the MC which IS a TRUE innovation.

and you know a little innovation is good, extreme innovation could be bad. cruising has changed A LOT over the last 20 years or so, so it's a good thing for long time cruisers to see some of their traditional favorites. it's been a long wait for the reveal but it seems like there are many more dining options on this ship. what innovating thing were you expecting to see? can only do so much on a boat.

and you know a little innovation is good, extreme innovation could be bad. cruising has changed A LOT over the last 20 years or so, so it's a good thing for long time cruisers to see some of their traditional favorites. it's been a long wait for the reveal but it seems like there are many more dining options on this ship. what innovating thing were you expecting to see? can only do so much on a boat.

Very true! Leave the crazy gimmicky innovations to Royal, NCL, and Carnival. They are better suited for it. Celebrity is more about style, service, ambiance, and cuisine. I think the Infinite Balconies are a great innovation, and perfect for Celebrity. Yes they can be found on some European riverboats but it’s a first for a cruise ship, and a pretty big one. It will certainly give EDGE a very different look on the exterior.

Very true! Leave the crazy gimmicky innovations to Royal, NCL, and Carnival. They are better suited for it. Celebrity is more about style, service, ambiance, and cuisine. I think the Infinite Balconies are a great innovation, and perfect for Celebrity. Yes they can be found on some European riverboats but it’s a first for a cruise ship, and a pretty big one. It will certainly give EDGE a very different look on the exterior.

It’s goodto have new and it certainly will be interesting

Interesting that as of 6:30 PST, the links of the floor plans now show gray blocks where yesterday there was details. I am guessing that someone released those early and when Celebrity found out about it they replaced them with the original diagrams. We saw something we weren't supposed to see.

https://www.celebritycruises.com/cru...IDP-DECK04.svg

https://www.celebritycruises.com/cru...IDP-DECK05.svg

https://www.celebritycruises.com/cru...IDP-DECK14.svg

Interesting that as of 6:30 PST, the links of the floor plans now show gray blocks where yesterday there was details. I am guessing that someone released those early and when Celebrity found out about it they replaced them with the original diagrams. We saw something we weren't supposed to see.

 

https://www.celebritycruises.com/cru...IDP-DECK04.svg

https://www.celebritycruises.com/cru...IDP-DECK05.svg

https://www.celebritycruises.com/cru...IDP-DECK14.svg

No doubt. Too late now. Many of us have already viewed them.

I also got confirmed that Mein Schiff 6 and the larger 1 is indeed the prototype Edge is based on. Which is based on the Solstice class. This prototype makes it difficult to "open up" the ship to the sea, but Celebrity have cleverly maxed out the possibilites.

I agree that Celebrity should stay away from crazy gimmicks and keep it in style and elegant ambience, but there are so many things one can do with the interior to create drama and interesting experiences. The dining rooms will be difficult to get right with the low ceiling heights. Especially on deck 3 with the standard 2,5m deck height. Seating plan looks booringly hotel ballroom standard, but I'm hoping to be surprised later today :)

Exciting day ahead

While the ceilings in the passenger cabins on deck 3 may be 8' (2.5m) those in public areas are likely to be 10-12' or higher. The extra space between the ceilings of the cabins and deck 4 will be utilized for all kinds of HVAC, plumbing, electrical, etc.

Interesting that as of 6:30 PST, the links of the floor plans now show gray blocks where yesterday there was details. I am guessing that someone released those early and when Celebrity found out about it they replaced them with the original diagrams. We saw something we weren't supposed to see.

 

https://www.celebritycruises.com/cru...IDP-DECK04.svg

https://www.celebritycruises.com/cru...IDP-DECK05.svg

https://www.celebritycruises.com/cru...IDP-DECK14.svg

There is a full PDF set of the leaked plans on the website that shows lots of cabin photos and Cruise Deck Plans

There is a full PDF set of the leaked plans on the website that shows lots of cabin photos and Cruise Deck Plans

This would be interesting to see, but I haven't been able to locate it, can you post a little more direction as to where it is located?