Beyond Luminae

[Cruising Princess]

Currently on Beyond with my hubby.
We ate lunch in Luminae on embarkation day yesterday. Very dissatisfied with the quality of the food. Frozen butter, cold soup, undercooked thick cubes of bacon in Cobb salad with watery under seasoned chicken (all 5 small bite sized pieces), undercooked thick French Fries that tasted like the kind you get in freezer bag from food store, and a apple berry crumble that was dry dry dry like they forgot to add butter to the crumble. 

Worst is that Celebrity changed a lot of the dishes on the menu for the rest of the week.  Gone are some of the expensive cuts of meat and fish.  The menus just do not look appealing. 
Tonight is Chic night. I’ll share feedback/update in next few days. 

[mafig]

Thanks, let us know.

[DaKahuna]

14 minutes ago, Cruising Princess said:

Currently on Beyond with my hubby.
We ate lunch in Luminae on embarkation day yesterday. Very dissatisfied with the quality of the food. Frozen butter, cold soup, undercooked thick cubes of bacon in Cobb salad with watery under seasoned chicken (all 5 small bite sized pieces), undercooked thick French Fries that tasted like the kind you get in freezer bag from food store, and a apple berry crumble that was dry dry dry like they forgot to add butter to the crumble. 

Worst is that Celebrity changed a lot of the dishes on the menu for the rest of the week.  Gone are some of the expensive cuts of meat and fish.  The menus just do not look appealing. 
Tonight is Chic night. I’ll share feedback/update in next few days. 

 

 I hope you pointed all of these things out to your waiter and or the Luminae Maitre'd.  They cannot improve if no one tells them what they are doing wrong. 

 

 I certainly hope that the food and service gets better. 

 

[Guest 4-2-N-8]

3 hours ago, Cruising Princess said:

Currently on Beyond with my hubby.
We ate lunch in Luminae on embarkation day yesterday. Very dissatisfied with the quality of the food. Frozen butter, cold soup, undercooked thick cubes of bacon in Cobb salad with watery under seasoned chicken (all 5 small bite sized pieces), undercooked thick French Fries that tasted like the kind you get in freezer bag from food store, and a apple berry crumble that was dry dry dry like they forgot to add butter to the crumble. 

Worst is that Celebrity changed a lot of the dishes on the menu for the rest of the week.  Gone are some of the expensive cuts of meat and fish.  The menus just do not look appealing. 
Tonight is Chic night. I’ll share feedback/update in next few days. 

That's the last straw (or chicken part)!

 

I'm upgrading to an inside cabin and bringing a big bag of Cheetos for my (and my service cobra's) meal each day.

 

What is going on with this cruise line?!

 

Treatment of service staff is one thing, but don't mess with my chicken parts!

[jelayne]

I agree with you the Cobb salad was just as you described when we were on the TA mid October and I told the waiter and MD.  
 

I don’t get bothered by what I think is cold soup.  Soup I think is cold my DH thinks is perfect.  If the soup isn’t hot enough for me I just send it back, twice if necessary.  The staff learns very quickly that I like very hot food and by day 3 at the latest they deliver my food wearing gloves or hot pads. 

[H2OH!]

We are also on board.  Burger during embarkation was good but the fries are not the same.  Dumped on the plate and tasted bad.  DH and I both left the fries when we typically devour them.  Just for kicks we ordered the berry cobbler for dessert.  The crumble Had the texture of sand, was dry and had an odd taste. It was so bad we laughed out loud…like what in the world is happening. Lol

 

dinner last night and tonight were good.

 

day 5 and 6 dinner menus are completely unappealing to us so when we boarded we tried to get in Eden for our 27th anniversary. Was told the retreat host had to check. Keep in mind we were one of the first people on board by 11:10 am. Learned today that they are sold out and too bad for us. Hmmm….we are elite plus (half way to zenith) and in suite where we allegedly get priority.  We’ve never had this problem before…. Board and get reservations…those days appear to be over. They called tonight with an 8 pm cancellation but passed. 
 

Our butler told us due to online reservations, they are sold out and that they don’t hold as many slots for suites like they use to. She brought us chocolate covered strawberries tonight which is a nice gesture.
 

we shall see how the rest of the week goes!! 

Edited November 29, 2022 by H2OH!

[Guest 4-2-N-8]

2 minutes ago, H2OH! said:

We are also on board.  Burger during embarkation was good but the fries are not the same.  Dumped on the plate and tasted bad.  DH and I both left the fries when we typically devour them.  Just for kicks we ordered the berry cobbler for dessert.  The crumbled Had the texture of sand, was dry and had an odd taste. It was so bad we laughed out loud…like what in the world is happening. Lol

 

dinner last night and tonight were good.

 

day 5 and 6 dinner menus are completely unappealing to us so when we boarded we tried to get in Eden for our 27th anniversary. Was told the retreat host had to check. Keep in mind we were one of the first people on board by 11:10 am. Learned today that they are sold out and too bad for us. Hmmm….we are elite plus and in suite where we allegedly get priority.  We’ve never had this problem before…. Board and get reservations…those days appear to be over. They called tonight with an 8 pm cancellation but passed. 
 

Our butler told us due to online reservations, they are sold out and that they don’t hold as many slots for suites like they use to. She brought us chocolate covered strawberries tonight.  
 

we shall see how the rest of the week goes!! 

What type of suite?

[H2OH!]

Just a sky suite 1….cost was 8k for two,  

 

never had this problem in the past…whether in a sky suite, celebrity suite, signature suite or royal suite ( these are the cabins we have sailed in).  Things change and they clearly want restaurants pre sold.  We were use to boarding and deciding based on menus. We would know menus before hand due to cc members or review them in Michael’s club then get into speciality restaurant if unappealing. That will not be the way to go in the future. 

[jelayne]

5 minutes ago, H2OH! said:

We are also on board.  Burger during embarkation was good but the fries are not the same.  Dumped on the plate and tasted bad.  DH and I both left the fries when we typically devour them.  Just for kicks we ordered the berry cobbler for dessert.  The crumble Had the texture of sand, was dry and had an odd taste. It was so bad we laughed out loud…like what in the world is happening. Lol

 

dinner last night and tonight were good.

 

day 5 and 6 dinner menus are completely unappealing to us so when we boarded we tried to get in Eden for our 27th anniversary. Was told the retreat host had to check. Keep in mind we were one of the first people on board by 11:10 am. Learned today that they are sold out and too bad for us. Hmmm….we are elite plus (half way to zenith) and in suite where we allegedly get priority.  We’ve never had this problem before…. Board and get reservations…those days appear to be over. They called tonight with an 8 pm cancellation but passed. 
 

Our butler told us due to online reservations, they are sold out and that they don’t hold as many slots for suites like they use to. She brought us chocolate covered strawberries tonight which is a nice gesture.
 

we shall see how the rest of the week goes!! 

Eden is very difficult to get into unless you book way before boarding, on Beyond Le Voyage is the same and it is a smaller venue.  We have been in suites on E class for 5 cruises and on every cruise there are Suite guests trying to get reservations in Eden, most don’t get them.  Being Elite Plus doesn’t really matter ( there are tons of us).   Unless you are in a high end suite the odds of getting into Eden without booking ahead are not good. 

[H2OH!]

5 hours ago, Cruising Princess said:

Currently on Beyond with my hubby.
We ate lunch in Luminae on embarkation day yesterday. Very dissatisfied with the quality of the food. Frozen butter, cold soup, undercooked thick cubes of bacon in Cobb salad with watery under seasoned chicken (all 5 small bite sized pieces), undercooked thick French Fries that tasted like the kind you get in freezer bag from food store, and a apple berry crumble that was dry dry dry like they forgot to add butter to the crumble. 

Worst is that Celebrity changed a lot of the dishes on the menu for the rest of the week.  Gone are some of the expensive cuts of meat and fish.  The menus just do not look appealing. 
Tonight is Chic night. I’ll share feedback/update in next few days. 

we agree 100 percent!  We were shocked,  the fries and crumble were the worst food we’ve ever had anywhere in the world!

Edited November 29, 2022 by H2OH!

[jelayne]

3 minutes ago, H2OH! said:

Just a sky suite 1….cost was 8k for two,  

 

never had this problem in the past…whether in a sky suite, celebrity suite, signature suite or royal suite ( these are the cabins we have sailed in).  Things change and they clearly want restaurants pre sold.  We were use to boarding and deciding based on menus. We would know menus before hand due to cc members or review them in Michael’s club then get into speciality restaurant if unappealing. That will not be the way to go in the future. 

We check the menus on the app, and they don’t vary often, so we know which days we don’t care for and book our specialty restaurants 4-6 months  in advance. 

[H2OH!]

1 minute ago, jelayne said:

Eden is very difficult to get into unless you book way before boarding, on Beyond Le Voyage is the same and it is a smaller venue.  We have been in suites on E class for 5 cruises and on every cruise there are Suite guests trying to get reservations in Eden, most don’t get them.  Being Elite Plus doesn’t really matter ( there are tons of us).   Unless you are in a high end suite the odds of getting into Eden without booking ahead are not good. 

Understood. Just sharing that things have changed based on how we have operated in the past. I mentioned elite plus because someone  on these boards would ask that too… I know there are a ton of elite plus. 

[Guest 4-2-N-8]

6 minutes ago, H2OH! said:

Just a sky suite 1….cost was 8k for two,  

 

never had this problem in the past…whether in a sky suite, celebrity suite, signature suite or royal suite ( these are the cabins we have sailed in).  Things change and they clearly want restaurants pre sold.  We were use to boarding and deciding based on menus. We would know menus before hand due to cc members or review them in Michael’s club then get into speciality restaurant if unappealing. That will not be the way to go in the future. 

Thanks.

 

Reason I ask is trying to decipher if they are segmenting service even by stateroom type within retreat.

[Guest 4-2-N-8]

5 minutes ago, jelayne said:

Eden is very difficult to get into unless you book way before boarding, on Beyond Le Voyage is the same and it is a smaller venue.  We have been in suites on E class for 5 cruises and on every cruise there are Suite guests trying to get reservations in Eden, most don’t get them.  Being Elite Plus doesn’t really matter ( there are tons of us).   Unless you are in a high end suite the odds of getting into Eden without booking ahead are not good. 

What qualifies as a high end suite?

[H2OH!]

This is our first cruise post pandemic. Last cruise was January 2020 on equinox . just sharing I was surprised that our usual process is now caput!
 

 

 

[H2OH!]

3 minutes ago, 4-2-N-8 said:

What qualifies as a high end suite?

If things are still the same, royal suite and up are high end suites. 

[Guest 4-2-N-8]

1 minute ago, H2OH! said:

If things are still the same, royal suite and up are high end suites. 

I just made the cutoff. I'm in an infinite veranda, or what they call an Edge Villa (which to me seems like a genuine infinite veranda).

 

I just wanted a real balcony. And ability to look straight up and see stars and sky.

[morfred]

39 minutes ago, H2OH! said:

we agree 100 percent!  We were shocked,  the fries and crumble were the worst food we’ve ever had anywhere in the world!

Uh oh. We sail in 2 days.

[Guest 4-2-N-8]

Just now, morfred said:

Uh oh. We sail in 2 days.

Bring a bag of Cheetos. Could be a good fallback option to have Chester Cheeto as a compadre. 

[NutsAboutGolf]

1 minute ago, morfred said:

Uh oh. We sail in 2 days.

 

There's still time to buy the specialty dining package

[morfred]

6 minutes ago, NutsAboutGolf said:

 

There's still time to buy the specialty dining package

I was assuming that because I am in a suite that I might get some type of preference once on board. That may be an incorrect assumption.

[Guest 4-2-N-8]

1 minute ago, morfred said:

I was assuming that because I am in a suite that I might get some type of preference once on board. That may be an incorrect assumption.

What type of suite?

[jelayne]

1 hour ago, 4-2-N-8 said:

What qualifies as a high end suite?

Royal Suite and above.  Those suites get unlimited specialty dining included with the suite and there are 16 of those suites on the Beyond. 
 

[grandgeezer]

1 hour ago, H2OH! said:

Just a sky suite 1….cost was 8k for two,  

 

never had this problem in the past…whether in a sky suite, celebrity suite, signature suite or royal suite ( these are the cabins we have sailed in).  Things change and they clearly want restaurants pre sold.  We were use to boarding and deciding based on menus. We would know menus before hand due to cc members or review them in Michael’s club then get into speciality restaurant if unappealing. That will not be the way to go in the future. 

Our last cruise, before the pandemic, was in August 2019 and we stayed in a Sky Suite, on the Equinox. We paid about $4,400 for two, including all four perks. Pricing will continue to rise as long as there are people willing to pay it. although they had a limited menu, we ate all our meals in Luminae, there was no need to even consider any of the specialty restaurants.

[Guest 4-2-N-8]

24 minutes ago, jelayne said:

Royal Suite and above.  Those suites get unlimited specialty dining included with the suite and there are 16 of those suites on the Beyond. 
 

Are passengers in these staterooms differentiated by service from staff compared to that afforded guests in other cabins? From what I gather on this site, not really, which seems to cause consternation for some in the higher suites.

 

I also have deduced from comments that the Celebrity Suite and Sky Suite passengers get little more than access to the Retreat and Luminae venues. Based upon critique of Luminae food quality, a terrible reason for Celebrity to bill such higher prices for those rooms.