Blu, Yay or Nay

[Cruisegirl6]

Hello,

 

I would like to hear people's opinions regarding Blu (we are booked on the Beyond), any advice, suggestions, reference regarding the items offered on the new menu at Blu.

Likes/Dislikes of Blu

Anybody have the new seven night menus of Blu on the Beyond they can share with us?

I have another board going and getting mixed replies, does Blu still offer Onion soup and Cesar salad and can we choose an item that is served on the MDR menu?

 

Thank you all, excited to getting back to cruising again.

[mizLORInj]

It was ok.   This is based on Celeb Reflection in Feb 2022 so things may have changed.   I will say though that service was excellent.

[tfred]

We like it. The menu is good and has an edge to it. You may be able to order off MDR. Maybe not. They do have the classics menu steak chicken salmon. 
 

if you are a really picky eater it is not the place to be 

[ROYALBOY]

It’s the reason we book Aqua .

[zanyw]

Was on the solstice last week and dined in Blu almost every night. Service and food were fantastic. Ordered off the MDR menu a few times with no issues. 

[jelayne]

We enjoy Blu it is the reason we have booked Aqua for many of our cruises.  We like the menu, find the food and service to be a step up from the MDR.  
 

we have always been able to get escargot, shrimp cocktail, Cesar salad, French onion soup, baked potato and French fries in Blu.  As to ordering MDR entrees we have sailed mostly on S class and the kitchens are very far apart so ordering from MDR main menu wasn’t possible.

On M class it was possible as the  kitchen are in the same area, however I have read reports that that practice may be stopping. 

[miched]

It is called a clean cuisine.   Doesn’t mean that it is any healthier.  The Plant Based Beyond burger is good.  We had it a few times until we did some research on it. 

 

If you are booked on the Beyond you should be able to look at all of the menus for all of the restaurants on the App.  
 

Blu is nice.   If you want a comparison you can always try the main restaurants for breakfast, lunch on seas days, and dinner.   Look at the daily menu for Blu while on board and if they’re nothing that appeals to you go to one of the MDRs that night. 
 

Happy cruising 🌊🚢🇺🇸🌅

[Jim_Iain]

Download the Celebrity app and choose a current sailing you will be able to see all the Menus by day.

[D C]

We've learned that the "Spa Inspired" cuisine in Blu is generally not to our liking. 

We'll book in Aqua on M-class for room location if the $ is comparable to an otherwise preferred veranda.

[maxsales]

Most people seem to enjoy Blu but it's not for me.  I prefer the MDR.

[Moochi]

For folks who generally like heavier food and red meat, opposite from “healthy” or “clean” food, do you like Blu?

[emmas gran]

3 hours ago, Cruisegirl6 said:

Hello,

 

I would like to hear people's opinions regarding Blu (we are booked on the Beyond), any advice, suggestions, reference regarding the items offered on the new menu at Blu.

Likes/Dislikes of Blu

Anybody have the new seven night menus of Blu on the Beyond they can share with us?

I have another board going and getting mixed replies, does Blu still offer Onion soup and Cesar salad and can we choose an item that is served on the MDR menu?

 

Thank you all, excited to getting back to cruising again.

This is just like your original post 

[Cruisegirl6]

1 hour ago, maxsales said:

Most people seem to enjoy Blu but it's not for me.  I prefer the MDR.

Why not?

[mfs2k]

i like it for breakfast.

[maxsales]

9 minutes ago, Cruisegirl6 said:

Why not?

Don't like the menu.  The venue is just okay and the service is usually good.

 

With the premium you usually pay for Aqua class you could probably book concierge and it in a specialty restaurant ever night if you wanted too and still save money.

 

You can't book sail only in Aqua class.

[Redtravel]

Did it on Summit before pandemic.  Blu is a nice small venue with great service. However, we weren’t thrilled with the menus. We often asked for items from MDR menu.  Not sure if they do that now.  We didn’t like the cabin locations. Aqua class cabins are not in good locations.  We did it once. After that we booked concierge class.  We like cabins on decks that are between 2 decks of cabins.  

[K&RCurt]

We were in a Aqua cabin for the first time last November.  We and the couple we were traveling with on the Reflection REALLY liked Blu.

 

We thought the menu was great the service was fantastic and we enjoyed the atmosphere.

 

We also enjoy using the Thermal suite (Persian Garden) so we felt we got our money's worth over a Concierge cabin which is what we had sailed on previous X cruises.

[CaribbeanBound]

We thoroughly enjoyed Blu the only time we booked Aqua Class.  It's a small step-up from MDR.  Given the choice, I would eat at BLU.

[The Traveling Man]

We ate there almost every breakfast and dinner when we were on the Edge last year.  We were booked in the Retreat.  We tried Luminae for lunch on embarkation day and were thoroughly unimpressed, so we ate most of our other meals in Blu.  The F&B Manager all but begged us to give Luminae another chance.  We did have our final dinner of the cruise there, but thought it fell far short of our experience with Blu.  YMMV.

[NutsAboutGolf]

Food is about the same quality but they usually offer filet twice on a typical 7 night sailing although one will be when they offer Wellington.  The biggest benefit is that it’s more intimate setting and generally has better service.  However, while the MDR does have some tables spread out, a much higher % of Blu’s tables are close together

[NCteacherlovescruising]

I was in Blu for the first time in December on the Reflection. We loved the atmosphere, service was excellent, and food was good. We only ordered off the MDR menu one night, except apps. One of my friends ordered escargot every night, as I did the Caesar salad. I would certainly book again for the right price. We only had to pay an additional $200 over Concierge class and felt it was well worth it. 

[maggie.1008]

We mainly book AQ Blu for the smaller dining room. We have grown tired of the menu and think the quality of food is not near as good as it used to be.

Next cruise is Oceania for us. 
we have only been in Blu on S and M class ships.

[aggiejd2000]

For us, definite yay.  I don't know Blu is on E-Class but on S-Class it's great.

 

We were in Aqua on Solstice in November 2022 and on Reflection in December 2022.  The menus were about the same.  If you like lots of red meat, you probably won't like Blu.  There's steaks but it's not a very beef-centric menu over the course of a week or so.  If you like fish, you'll be happy in Blu. I think they excel in that area because of their small kitchen.  Perfectly rare seared tuna.  Fish with crispy skin.  But the other dishes are also very good.  Blu's menus are more creative than the ones in the MDR.  Blu has better vegetable sides than the MDR, which lean heavily on carrots, broccoli, green beans, and potatoes.  We ate in Blu every night and were mostly pleased.  We sailed on Solstice in June 2022 in Concierge Class and were disappointed with the food in the MDR.

 

The desserts in Blu are the same as the ones in the MDR.  We don't care for them that much.  We could have ordered apps and entrees from the MDR but rarely did so because we were happy with Blu's selections.  We saw many people around us order from the MDR menus on Solstice and Reflection.  

 

We like how Blu is more intimate.  You can go at any time, ask for the same section, and get the same servers.  The folks in Blu on Reflection were awesome.  Our server knew our names from the get go.  The manager is the nicest man, who came around every night to make sure we were happy.  The tables are a bit tight but we chat with others when we feel like it and if not, we don't.

 

We're not early risers so I've only had breakfast once in Blu.  It's nice but it closes at 9am.     

[boxkite]

We love Aqua Class, mainly for Blu which we enjoy for the more attentive service and you get your drinks faster than MDR. They also have a Blu drink menu with some tasty treats.

 

If you are a breakfast person, Aqua is the way to go. Large breakfast menu in Blu with food hot from their kitchen and if you want to eat in your cabin, the Aqua room service breakfast menu has just about everything offered from Blu itself.

[ExpressoMama]

To simply answer your question, our answer is: YEA😍

Edited January 27, 2023 by ExpressoMama