Celebrity: Hits and Misses, but a Contender

[Bo1953]

I love your posts Bo but I have to say the only way I would put out a clean setting for each course or plate in MY house is if someone else were doing the dishes. :D

h - you mean to say that my dinner invite has been rescinded??????

 

LOL

 

Bon voyage

 

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[serendipity1499]

I love your posts Bo but I have to say the only way I would put out a clean setting for each course or plate in MY house is if someone else were doing the dishes. :D

 

LOL I second this opinion! You will not get a change of place settings in my house either!:cool:

[TFLG]

You must be sailing different NCL ships than I've been on. My last two NCL cruises the "free" food was no where near as good as even my worst Celebrity cruise. Now the specialty restaurants were very good and more reasonably priced I thought. I too find the changing of the silverware and flatware distracting nonsense and I think dinner takes WAY too long many nights. I do realize they are feeding a lot of people but I get bored spending 2 hours plus at dinner. As far as the buffet I think the M class ships are close to the NCL quality wise but i think the S class ships have a better buffet than NCL does.

[Beejay4016]

Sorry ... I'm using Google Photos and I must not have gotten those made public correctly. Let's see if this works .... the place setting in the MDR I'm calling pretentious:

 

 

And the one in the actual fancy restaurant, Tucson Grille:

 

 

I can't understand why you think the cutlery layout in the MDR is pretentious. I see a butter knife on the bread plate, a starter (entree to everyone other than Americans, I think) knife and fork, a soup spoon, and then the main course knife and fork, and then, across the top, a dessert spoon and fork and a teaspoon. I would think that quite normal in a good restaurant. In the lower photograph, I'm worried that the knife blade seems to be pointing upwards. My old Scottish grandma would freak out over that.

[Beejay4016]

Yup..that's what they're supposed to be used for...BUT do you usually eat creme brulee with a serving spoon? I find most of the time I take the spoon out of my coffee cup to eat my creme brulee, ice-cream or anything else with a soft consistency. That's something I don't get....why the super big spoon unless they think you'll eat faster and get out!! :D

 

It's called a dessert spoon. You don't have to overfill it. I also like to eat with a smaller spoon - I fool myself into thinking I'm eating less than if I use the correct spoon. For some reason, my stomach isn't fooled though.:D

[Oceangoer2]

It's called a dessert spoon. You don't have to overfill it. I also like to eat with a smaller spoon - I fool myself into thinking I'm eating less than if I use the correct spoon. For some reason, my stomach isn't fooled though.:D

 

Haha! Think of the exercise you're getting with all the extra trips to your mouth...

[fshagan]

I can't understand why you think the cutlery layout in the MDR is pretentious. I see a butter knife on the bread plate, a starter (entree to everyone other than Americans, I think) knife and fork, a soup spoon, and then the main course knife and fork, and then, across the top, a dessert spoon and fork and a teaspoon. I would think that quite normal in a good restaurant. In the lower photograph, I'm worried that the knife blade seems to be pointing upwards. My old Scottish grandma would freak out over that.

 

Here's why I used the word "pretentious". I get that the MDR is trying to look like a fancy restaurant. But usually the hallmark of a fancy restaurant is .... good food. A restaurant that doesn't have food any better than the local Golden Corral yet presents itself as something far above that is "pretentious".

 

So, if I were eating 4 star food the fancy set up would be tolerable. Especially if the menu had enough courses to support the set up. But in this case ... well, you can put a fur coat on a pig to try and dress it up but it's still just a pig. Perhaps a pretentious pig.

[Tonsoffun44]

I love when people can't figure out which water glass is theirs.

[Hydrokitty]

I love when people can't figure out which water glass is theirs.

 

You drink to your right and eat to your left!! My Mom taught me that. So your wine is always the one on your right and your bread plate is always the one on your left. :D

[Hydrokitty]

h - you mean to say that my dinner invite has been rescinded??????

 

LOL

 

Bon voyage

 

Sent from my P00I using Tapatalk

 

Of course not! You wash, I'll dry!!! Unless you require separate service with each course....then you wash AND dry!! :)

[Hlitner]

We really enjoyed the review and thought the OP seemed very reasonable. What we found most interesting was the OPs negative opinion of the MDR food. At one time (before the LLP era) Celebrity had a reputation (we think deserved) of having the best MDR food among the mass market lines. We have thought that cut-backs in the past few years have really impacted MDR cuisine and X now lags behind other lines such as HAL and Princess. And now, the OP has added NCL to the mix. If X can no longer compete (in the MDR) with NCL the line could be headed for some serious problems.

 

For a few years we were able to deal with the MDR issues by booking Aqua Class and enjoying the cuisine in Blu. But our last Blu experience was so-so at best, so we had to make a decision about an upcoming 21 day X cruise and opted for a less costly balcony cabin (upgraded to Concierge). We then took advantage of a X sale and purchased a dining package at a nice discount....and plan to have all our dinners in alternative restaurants....and only use the MDR for Chic nights (when they usually have decent menus). Once we finish this cruise (next month) we have no further plans to cruise on X...until things again change (and improve) at X. There are plenty of other cruise line options (we have already cruised on 14 lines and have a 15th booked).. What we find exciting are that there are now some new players on the block such as MSC, Viking, and the soon to come Virgin Cruise Lines. Competition has a way of nudging lines to improve their quality...and we hope that X will soon decide to regain some of their panache (for lack of a better word). In the meantime, we have no problem finding other lines for our 100 or so cruise days per year.

 

Hank

[lisiamc]

You drink to your right and eat to your left!! My Mom taught me that. So your wine is always the one on your right and your bread plate is always the one on your left. :D

 

My mother taught me to fold my index finger into a loop with my thumb on each hand, and hold my other fingers straight. When you do that, your hands look like the letter b on the left and d on the right. So b for bread on the left, and d for drinks on the right!

[Hydrokitty]

My mother taught me to fold my index finger into a loop with my thumb on each hand, and hold my other fingers straight. When you do that, your hands look like the letter b on the left and d on the right. So b for bread on the left, and d for drinks on the right!

 

Our Mother's were sooooo smart!!

[NantahalaCruiser]

Thanks for the detailed review and comparisons. Just have a couple of comments below:

 

This is a review of our first Celebrity Cruise on the Infinity, in Alaska, early September, 2017

 

Once on board we missed being able to have a nice sit down lunch, as we don't like the buffet when it's crowded. I understand Celebrity has a restaurant open for lunch on embarkation days for Concierge class passengers, and that's something we will consider for our next cruise with them. We ended up eating at the grill on the pool deck

 

Just wanted to add that the free Spa Cafe in the Solarium is also open for lunch on embarkation day.

 

This is the main dining room's place settings for a 7 course meal (but you really are normally eating a three course meal).

 

Although the menu - with apps, soup and salads all crammed into the one Starter section - may make you think it is only a three course meal. But most passengers generally have at least two items out of the Starter section and many have three (or possibly more) - so, with the entree and desert, a five course meal is not unusual.

 

Edited November 9, 2017 by NantahalaCruiser