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Blu Question--Dine as you please vs set seating time?


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Considering Aqua class-For dinner in Blu is it dine as you please, set dinner time or do you need to make reservation? Also do people dress casual for breakfast (shirt/shorts)--How dressed are people at dinner time?

 

Blu is anytime dining no reservations, you will receive a letter in your stateroom explaining the eating arrangements. They will ask you the first night to come at a set time but that is just a formality, you can just ignore it and come whenever you want if something else pops up.

 

Blu is smart casual every night including the evening chic nights. You will see everything in Blu from shirts and pants to tuxes. For breakfast, shorts are fine, they know people are either going on shore or doing something on the ship and know that people don't want to go back to their room to change after breakfast.

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We ate in Blu for breakfast once on Constellation, it was terrible, food was poor and service was worse. Never went back after first morning.

 

I wasn't a big fan of breakfast at Blu either (also Constellation), but it was a nice option on sea days and a great option on disembarkation day (to avoid madness of buffet).

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Breakfast in Blu has always been delicious to me. ..food is very subjective. What one person likes, someone else dislikes.

I agree, but English back bacon should not be served with brown grease all over it and rolled into a ball, together with what had been described on the menu as 'breakfast sausage' which turned out to be a roll of sausage meat that when one pressed it, it was like a sponge and poured brown grease.

 

I was also surprised the way muesli was served, like cold porridge, we Brits have it crunchy, but it lacked any of the bits that one could get in the buffet. So however much of a crush we went to the buffet for breakfast, because we could see what we were getting.

 

Also to have to eat, which we could, from the MDR menu for two evening meals said what we thought of the Blu menu. Good thing about Blu was its size, we liked the small nature of it.

 

But if I were to try and advise anyone , I would tell them to skip AQ and Blu book concierge and spend the money in speciality restaurants instead of paying inflated AQ prices with iffy cabins for noise.

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My DH never liked breakfast in blu regardless of which ship. Not fans of the muesli (sp?) Dinner also wasn't for us either. We prefer to either save the money take a balcony cabin and dine at least 2 times in each specialty for dinner. if we get a good package on the Silly or reflection we dine in specialty restaurants daily for dinner.

 

Even if we are in a suite, luminae is also not great. However in luminae you can also get the MDR menus. Re dressing we have lunch in shorts, and dress for dinner. My DH wears slacks or dressy jeans and button down shirts and driver shoes On chic nights a tie and dressy jacket. Of course slacks! Regardless of the restaurant.

Edited by Cruise a holic
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Breakfast in Blu has always been delicious to me. ..food is very subjective. What one person likes, someone else dislikes.

 

Food really isn't subjective and that's why bad restaurants go out of business and good ones stick around. You can get eggs to order at the buffet that will be as good or better than in Blu (where I sent mine back once because they failed to scramble my scrambled eggs). Blu was always 3/4 or more empty when we stopped by for breakfast, even on a slow port day.

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Poached eggs can be a bit iffy in the buffet, my wife tells me, because they are part cooked chilled and re-cooked.

 

I am allergic to eggs so that whole part of the menu, especially in Blu, was off limits to me and so I had to eat, that one morning in Blu, from the 'sides' bit of the menu. Sides for bacon at breakfast...gee, I was shocked. Even more shocked when I got the order as described below.

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Real difference between Blu and the buffet is that you can see what you are getting in the buffet. I would certainly not have taken any of the food I was given in Blu from the buffet. If the English back bacon looked bad in the buffet, and sometimes it did look as bad as that served to me in Blu, I found something else to eat. Sad that on a large cruise ship food is so badly cooked and served at times.

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Food really isn't subjective and that's why bad restaurants go out of business and good ones stick around. You can get eggs to order at the buffet that will be as good or better than in Blu (where I sent mine back once because they failed to scramble my scrambled eggs). Blu was always 3/4 or more empty when we stopped by for breakfast, even on a slow port day.

 

guess we will just have to agree to disagree:)......I wasn't talking about good and bad restaurants. I was referring to people's tastes and what they like and dislike. I enjoyed Breakfast in Blu, others did not........does not make me or you

right or wrong......differences in people. So to me, food is subjective........and if you don't agree with my view, that is fine.

It is what makes the world go round.

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But there is such a thing as good and bad food.

 

I am sure the back bacon Blu served me was perfectly good food and cooked properly and served properly would have been delicious. But it was badly cooked, badly preserved and badly presented.

 

That is not about taste.

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guess we will just have to agree to disagree:)......I wasn't talking about good and bad restaurants. I was referring to people's tastes and what they like and dislike. I enjoyed Breakfast in Blu, others did not........does not make me or you

right or wrong......differences in people. So to me, food is subjective........and if you don't agree with my view, that is fine.

It is what makes the world go round.

 

Really surprised at these comments as over the years most on this board rave aboutBli breakfasts even those who don't like dinner in Blu.

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Hi Don:) I agree.......most folks I have encountered over the years have loved Blu.....looks like the trend is (from these folks) the other way.

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Aqua 1 Infinity 17 Night Panama Canal Cruise Sept 2015.

 

The wife is a Amateur Gourmet Cook, lives on the Food Chanel. Blu is great for Dinner, won't eat in the Main Dining Room ever again. Started doing Blu for Breakfast on the Summit, when we can. Can't do Blu when in a hurry.

 

I'm a Coffee Connoisseur, I now consider the MDR Sanka .

 

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CaptDave

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guess we will just have to agree to disagree:)......I wasn't talking about good and bad restaurants. I was referring to people's tastes and what they like and dislike. I enjoyed Breakfast in Blu, others did not........does not make me or you

right or wrong......differences in people. So to me, food is subjective........and if you don't agree with my view, that is fine.

It is what makes the world go round.

 

Blu is practically empty for breakfast, even on sea days. The main reason that it's empty is that most who dine at Blu for dinner find the breakfast and experience at the Oceanside Cafe to be pretty good and even better alternative to Blu.

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guess we will just have to agree to disagree:).......

 

You both right; taste is subjective (we all have different likes and dislikes), but ingredient quality and execution by the chef/cooks is objective. Other aspects of dining; i.e. creativity,. presentation, quantity, ambiance, service etc. have a combination of subjective and objective factors.

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Blu is anytime dining no reservations, you will receive a letter in your stateroom explaining the eating arrangements. They will ask you the first night to come at a set time but that is just a formality, you can just ignore it and come whenever you want if something else pops up.

 

Blu is smart casual every night including the evening chic nights. You will see everything in Blu from shirts and pants to tuxes. For breakfast, shorts are fine, they know people are either going on shore or doing something on the ship and know that people don't want to go back to their room to change after breakfast.

Blu, at least on the Equinox, takes reservations for groups of 6.

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Considering Aqua class-For dinner in Blu is it dine as you please, set dinner time or do you need to make reservation? Also do people dress casual for breakfast (shirt/shorts)--How dressed are people at dinner time?

 

I would avoid Blu on the first night as it can be chaotic and service tends to be questionable. You don't need a reservation but be advised that it tends to get busy after the first show.

 

Casual for breakfast and sporty casual for dinner. On Evening Chic nights, you see everything there.

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Blu is practically empty for breakfast, even on sea days. The main reason that it's empty is that most who dine at Blu for dinner find the breakfast and experience at the Oceanside Cafe to be pretty good and even better alternative to Blu.

 

Just spent ten days in a suite and Luminae was virtually empty for breakfast. We did prefer the buffet on port days for the speed mainly.

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Just spent ten days in a suite and Luminae was virtually empty for breakfast. We did prefer the buffet on port days for the speed mainly.

 

The worst thing I have eaten on Celebrity was Kobe meatloaf in Blu. If I dont like the food I ordered I just ask for the menu again. I enjoy the food in Blu and Luminae. Yes I like to order a few things off the MDR menu while dining in Luminae. My biggest problem with both restaurants are that they close at 9:30am on sea days and 9am on port days. When we are in a suite we normally have the butler service breakfast on the balcony (If not to cold). After breakfast in the suite we might stop in Luminae for some more food or go to the Elite Event in Tuscan Grille. The Elite Event ends at 10am. And what is wrong with the restaurants being mostly empty. It means they have a nice table for us.:confused:

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Blu is practically empty for breakfast, even on sea days. The main reason that it's empty is that most who dine at Blu for dinner find the breakfast and experience at the Oceanside Cafe to be pretty good and even better alternative to Blu.

 

 

You will rarely see us at breakfast in Blu on port days unless we have a arrival after 10. We like abreakfast in Blu but do room service so we can sleep later.

 

On sea days it's breakfast in Blu or no breakfast until 11. OVC is ok except for the crowds from 7-10. Standing in line waiting for eggs. Food gets cold while trying to find a table. Not how I like to start my day.

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