New YC menus - underwhelming and disappointing

[floridian1]

I'm ok with a smaller menu if the trade off is the quality will be better. 

[cyndyga]

I am not impressed with those menus...not a salmon fan...on other lines I have trouble deciding on appetizers and see nothing I like on these...not much beef either...really makes me wonder if I will enjoy the dining room...hope I am wrong and before November there is a larger selection!

[Happy Cruiser 6143]

3 hours ago, Beamafar said:

 

We experienced Luminae very soon after its introduction (on a 14 night cruise);  we ended up dining in the MDR as the service was so bad.  Something we have never done when in YC.

 

Wow!  I'll take the service in Luminae over the service in the MDR any day.

[Happy Cruiser 6143]

30 minutes ago, cyndyga said:

I am not impressed with those menus...not a salmon fan...on other lines I have trouble deciding on appetizers and see nothing I like on these...not much beef either...really makes me wonder if I will enjoy the dining room...hope I am wrong and before November there is a larger selection!

 

Well, I love salmon, but I only eat wild-caught Alaska salmon.  What you're getting on the ships is the farmed Atlantic salmon.

[cyndyga]

1 minute ago, Happy Cruiser 6143 said:

 

Well, I love salmon, but I only eat wild-caught Alaska salmon.  What you're getting on the ships is the farmed Atlantic salmon.

Yes and I don't eat farmed fish shrimp etc hoping its not all farmed?

[gkbiiii]

I was not impressed with several days of YC dinner Seaside last year, so I want to try Club Class Dining on Princess.

[reedprincess]

1 hour ago, gkbiiii said:

I was not impressed with several days of YC dinner Seaside last year, so I want to try Club Class Dining on Princess.

Don't get your hopes up there! 

It's not a separate restaurant or me u or anything else. It's a section of the MDR with different colored tablecloths and napkins.. sane MDR menu in different cover. One additional dish nightly - usually a pasta, sometimes a different sauce or preparation.  All cooked in same MDR kitchen.  Don't be expecting actual table side preparations or vastly different foods, etc. Best part is virtually immediate seating, but we have that anyways as we tend to dine later than your average Princess guest.. just set your expectations realistically... It's absolutely nothing like Blu or Luminae or Coastal Kitchen or YC, etc. 

[gkbiiii]

Thank you for the post, I thought it might be something special, as it is quite a bit more price wise.

[emmas gran]

We were on Celebrity last October / November b2b in Aqua and Sky suite, then in January on Preziosa and 4 weeks on Splendida both YC. In our opinion the food on MSC 

YC is below par compared to Blu and Luminae , however if something isn’t to your taste you can order another . We have 3 more YC booked and 1 X so we are hoping the food improves with the new VP who has come from X.

We also have a Club class booked for Nov 2020 on Princess our return cruise after 8 yrs.

Food is a matter of personal choice and some opinions have to be taken with a pinch of salt (excuse the pun)

[nikkiw60]

44 minutes ago, emmas gran said:

We were on Celebrity last October / November b2b in Aqua and Sky suite, then in January on Preziosa and 4 weeks on Splendida both YC. In our opinion the food on MSC 

YC is below par compared to Blu and Luminae , however if something isn’t to your taste you can order another . We have 3 more YC booked and 1 X so we are hoping the food improves with the new VP who has come from X.

We also have a Club class booked for Nov 2020 on Princess our return cruise after 8 yrs.

Food is a matter of personal choice and some opinions have to be taken with a pinch of salt (excuse the pun)

That’s why when you see posts asking what people’s favourite dish is, 100 people 100 different answers!

[reedprincess]

13 hours ago, gkbiiii said:

Thank you for the post, I thought it might be something special, as it is quite a bit more price wise.

Well, to be fair, you do get a fee more "perks" - sort of.  Cabins are the same as other mini-suites but you do get two half bottles of wine (325ml, red and white, not changeable to anything else), priority boarding (after elite, suites, Platinum) and some in room canapes - if you turn in the forum in time daily (very small one bite items). 

They market it well, but it's definitely not anything in line with Luminae or YC or Coastal Kitchen or such.  

For most folks, the biggest "perk" is the guaranteed immediate seating and slightly higher wait staff to guest ratio..

YMMV - hope you enjoy it, just make sure your expectations are realistic.  

[Fogfog]

If posts 24 and 25 are new menus, we'd be happy.

We eat a wide variety of food styles/items. 

There are poultry, red meat, seafood and vegetarian choices. Whats not to like?

🥑🥩🍗

We have had great meals and very mediocre ones on every line we have sailed...

Sometimes its execution and no menu description helps.

OTOH we have had some nice meals in a ships MDR on a mass line which we assumed would turn out bad food. So execution matters.

 

Edited June 23, 2019 by Fogfog

[rkacruiser]

2 hours ago, Fogfog said:

We have had great meals and very mediocre ones on every line we have sailed...

Sometimes its execution and no menu description helps.

OTOH we have had some nice meals in a ships MDR on a mass line which we assumed would turn out bad food. So execution matters.

 

Fogfog, your post is so absolutely my experience as well.  Why does "meal time" satisfaction vary so much?  In my opinion, it has very much to do with the ship's Executive Chef in the MDR or the Executive Chef of the ship's Specialty Restaurant in which one is dining.  Some of these folks are excellent "tweakers" of the Corporate Menus that must be prepared; some are not.

 

As for service:  it's the Manager of the dining facility that makes the difference.  Those who are truly "managing" and "leading by example" their staff members will provide a better dining experience than those who "stand by the podium, welcome you, and then seat you", rarely to be seen again by the restaurant's patron.

 

I expect my YC Restaurant experiences on Meraviglia to be a highlight of my many cruises.

[Fredric22]

On 6/22/2019 at 11:45 AM, WonderMan3 said:

 

Not to be picky but Luminae only came onto Celebrity ships in 2015 so they haven’t been around for 8 years. And the menus are getting an overhaul this year in addition to adding an everyday item menu which I believe has already started.

I'm not sure I understand your point.  Blu has been around for 8+ years.  And the Luminae menu has barely changed since it debuted in 2015.  The YC menus had changed in December right before our cruise, and now again 6 months later.  So clearly, MSC changes menus MUCH more than Celebrity. 

[Fredric22]

On 6/22/2019 at 11:45 AM, WonderMan3 said:

 

Not to be picky but Luminae only came onto Celebrity ships in 2015 so they haven’t been around for 8 years. And the menus are getting an overhaul this year in addition to adding an everyday item menu which I believe has already started.

I'm not sure I understand your point.  Blu has been around for 8+ years.  And the Luminae menu has barely changed since it debuted in 2015.  The YC menus had changed in December right before our cruise, and now again 6 months later.  So clearly, MSC changes menus MUCH more than Celebrity. 

[WonderMan3]

1 hour ago, Fredric22 said:

I'm not sure I understand your point.  Blu has been around for 8+ years.  And the Luminae menu has barely changed since it debuted in 2015.  The YC menus had changed in December right before our cruise, and now again 6 months later.  So clearly, MSC changes menus MUCH more than Celebrity. 

 

I think I was quite clear in what I posted. Luminae only started in 2015 which is not 8+ years ago. They are doing a menu overhaul this year and have added everyday items. I said nothing that disputed your comment about Blu or the frequency of MSC changing their menus. 

[Europeantraveler1]

We have a family cruise of seven (5 adults/2 teenagers) booked on the new Grandiosa for late June 2020 to celebrate our 50th wedding anniversary.  We were drawn to all the rave YC reviews we read about here on CC so decided to try MSC, thinking if it was as good as it sounds, MSC-YC might become our ‘go-to’ cruise line.

Usually we take at least a yearly cruise with a couple we met on a HAL cruise out of Venice, several years ago.  We’ve traveled with them since on a Greek cruise and an Alaskan cruise both on HAL.  HAL has treated us well and we have no complaints.  

Last year the four of us were booked to cruise England, Ireland, and Scotland on the Royal Princess.  Unfortunately, my mother became ill the night before we departed from LeHavre and we had to cancel...our friends went ahead without us and we flew back to the states.  Their experience on the Royal Princess was that it was way too big...not a bad experience...they just prefer a smaller-sized ship.

Occasionally my husband and I cruise as a couple.  In 2018 we sailed on the Riviera to the southern Caribbean.  I was more interested in the ship than the itinerary, actually!

And I was NOT disappointed!  The Riviera is lovely; the food is phenomenal; and the ship is just the right size!  We met so many interesting people and had a wonderful time!  The Riviera is like one-big YC!!!

We will see how our YC experience goes on the Grandiosa.  All of us are excited and hope our cruise is wonderful!  However, if it disappoints in any way (many of you on this thread have said the menus have changed and the costs have increased), we will not use MSC again.  There are other lines, as I’ve mentioned, that we’ll spend our $$$ on instead. As one person already mentioned......MSC may be shooting itself in the foot on these (negative) changes.  

[nikkiw60]

5 hours ago, Europeantraveler1 said:

We have a family cruise of seven (5 adults/2 teenagers) booked on the new Grandiosa for late June 2020 to celebrate our 50th wedding anniversary.  We were drawn to all the rave YC reviews we read about here on CC so decided to try MSC, thinking if it was as good as it sounds, MSC-YC might become our ‘go-to’ cruise line.

Usually we take at least a yearly cruise with a couple we met on a HAL cruise out of Venice, several years ago.  We’ve traveled with them since on a Greek cruise and an Alaskan cruise both on HAL.  HAL has treated us well and we have no complaints.  

Last year the four of us were booked to cruise England, Ireland, and Scotland on the Royal Princess.  Unfortunately, my mother became ill the night before we departed from LeHavre and we had to cancel...our friends went ahead without us and we flew back to the states.  Their experience on the Royal Princess was that it was way too big...not a bad experience...they just prefer a smaller-sized ship.

Occasionally my husband and I cruise as a couple.  In 2018 we sailed on the Riviera to the southern Caribbean.  I was more interested in the ship than the itinerary, actually!

And I was NOT disappointed!  The Riviera is lovely; the food is phenomenal; and the ship is just the right size!  We met so many interesting people and had a wonderful time!  The Riviera is like one-big YC!!!

We will see how our YC experience goes on the Grandiosa.  All of us are excited and hope our cruise is wonderful!  However, if it disappoints in any way (many of you on this thread have said the menus have changed and the costs have increased), we will not use MSC again.  There are other lines, as I’ve mentioned, that we’ll spend our $$$ on instead. As one person already mentioned......MSC may be shooting itself in the foot on these (negative) changes.  

Food is subjective you may enjoy the new menus why not wait and form your own opinions? 

We were lucky on our last cruise and got an upgrade to Yacht Club, the food was good but not amazing but the rest of Yacht Club was! You had amazing service a fabulous area just for Yacht Club, so many sun beds to choose from, hot tubs pools. A brilliant bar selection. We enjoyed it so much that we have upgraded one of our next cruises.

And for the record my background is hotel and catering I spent almost 30 years managing a 4 star London hotel, also I am a foody and all of our trips are based around food and restaurants.

[emmas gran]

12 hours ago, nikkiw60 said:

Food is subjective you may enjoy the new menus why not wait and form your own opinions? 

We were lucky on our last cruise and got an upgrade to Yacht Club, the food was good but not amazing but the rest of Yacht Club was! You had amazing service a fabulous area just for Yacht Club, so many sun beds to choose from, hot tubs pools. A brilliant bar selection. We enjoyed it so much that we have upgraded one of our next cruises.

And for the record my background is hotel and catering I spent almost 30 years managing a 4 star London hotel, also I am a foody and all of our trips are based around food and restaurants.

Hi Nikki interesting post, I think we ought to sit with a nice bottle of wine and have a chat on Meraviglia— looking forward to meeting you

[nikkiw60]

1 hour ago, emmas gran said:

Hi Nikki interesting post, I think we ought to sit with a nice bottle of wine and have a chat on Meraviglia— looking forward to meeting you

It was a Townhouse hotel in Notting Hill Gate, and have I got some stories to tell... including a notorious murder there in the 1940’s obviously pre me! The ceiling that fell in on a famous 90’s pop star...

[CGTNORMANDIE]

Hi European traveler,

 

What cruise line is Riviera?  Oceania?  I suspect it is and if that is the case then you are trying to compare a luxury line to MSC which is a mass market line...including the Yacht Club.  This is like comparing apples to oranges.  

 

The Yacht Club experience is a First Class experience on a large ship.  It satisfies those of us who prefer a superb level of service while having access to a big beautiful ship.  I have avoided luxury cruising because it is too sedate for my taste and enjoyment (I like an active ship with a large casino...lol).  On an MSC ship, with the YC, you get the best of both worlds.  

 

MSC is erratic in the product it delivers.  They have built 8 mega ships in just the last few years and those ships require crews in the tens of thousands.  This means training in all departments not to mention language lessons in English.  I have said repeatedly that “MSC is a work in progress”.  This includes the YC menus.  The quality of the food in the YC is dependent on supplies, chefs and menu selection as well as competent direction from corporate headquarters.  (I have a lifetime of culinary experience) This is why some cruises in the YC are better than others.  Hopefully the new food and beverage director, who was just hired, will give those departments a giant boost.  

 

MSC is working very hard to continually improve their product.  I have no doubt that they will get better over time.  BTW...I reviewed the YC menus on Seaview last month and they were the best I have ever seen.  If the dishes on those menus were executed properly then I would say they were excellent.  The bottom line is that you won’t starve to death in the YC.  Not all dishes will be as good as others.  If you are dissatisfied all you have to do is ask the Maitre D’ for a replacement or a special request and nine out of ten times they will do their best to keep you happy.

 

 

[Fredric22]

I have reviewed the two "new" menus that were posted here, and I recognize many of those dishes from my last YC cruise in December.  Therefore, I do not the think the menus are brand new.  Perhaps they have just been tweaked a bit?  As I said before, I can't imagine they would get completely new menus after they did a complete menu change just 6 months ago. 

 

[Europeantraveler1]

THank you for the responses!  

We are excited for our 2020 Med cruise on the new Grandiosa and in YC!  I’m hopeful that the new head chef and management will combine to make our celebration of our 50th year of marriage with our daughters and grandchildren in tow, will exceed all our expectations!!  

[jules815]

On 6/22/2019 at 6:00 PM, Happy Cruiser 6143 said:

 

Wow!  I'll take the service in Luminae over the service in the MDR any day.

 

Same!  We've only had exceptional service in Luminae on multiple cruises.  I mean, maybe an off night once each cruise, but nothing that would make me want to go to the MDR.  

[jules815]

On 6/21/2019 at 9:17 PM, Happy Cruiser 6143 said:

I haven't found either the food or the service to be exceptional in the Yacht Club.  The rest of the experience is awesome.  But if prices continue to rise and food quality and service deteriorates, then I probably won't be returning.

 

We were fine with the food, but about mid-way thru our cruise we noticed the service was a little lacking.  Not bad enough that we'd opt for the MDR, but little things like taking forever to get a refill on a glass of water, or forgetting to bring my tea after dinner, shouldn't happen.

 

Hope this isn't a trend, since we've got a B2B on Seaside next April.