Food quality sucks!

[FireEMT978]

Well,

Just got off of the 5/9/23, 12-night Hawaii Eclipse sailing. I'm sure that this will upset the "Loyalists"! But, the food quality was horrible on the Eclipse! I was on the 8-Night Beyond "Holiday sailing" from 12/26/22-1/3/23. The entire cruise, including the food was all phenomenal! As for our Eclipse sailing, I can't say enough about just how much the majority of the guests onboard were very disappointed with the food quality all over the ship. The buffet was pretty much identical, with minimal changes daily. The scrambled eggs were like soup! The quality of the "Celebrity" product has suffered severely! We looked up to Celebrity to be a big "Step up" in food quality! We now feel that Celebrity is being cheapened up, to save money/make the investors a larger profit. We feel like the exact same food that is being served on Royal Caribbean ships, is now the exact same food being served on Celebrity. It's really sad. The ships are sailing at up to 110% revenue capacity. And, they are still cutting the quality of the product. Many of us sailed during the restart immediately after the "Pandemic" to prove our loyalty. Now, I feel as if I should even consider booking anymore future cruises. While we have been very happy with my "move" from Royal Caribbean, to Celebrity Cruise Line, the current experinces will shape our future decisions. We dressed up in our "Finest" to go to the MDR on this cruise, only to find out that the "Aged Prime Rib of Beef" was not being served, as shown on the menu! Talk about a huge amount of the MDR guests being extremely upset! After 25 cruises in the past 26 years, the deficiences/intentional cutbacks are showing badly!

Edited May 25, 2023 by FireEMT978

[MisterBill99]

Not going to disagree about food quality being down, but you lost me when you put pandemic in quotes.

[C4HCG]

3 hours ago, FireEMT978 said:

Well,

Just got off of the 5/9/23, 12-night Hawaii Eclipse sailing. I'm sure that this will upset the "Loyalists"! But, the food quality was horrible on the Eclipse! I was on the 8-Night Beyond "Holiday sailing" from 12/26/22-1/3/23. The entire cruise, including the food was all phenomenal! As for our Eclipse sailing, I can't say enough about just how much the majority of the guests onboard were very disappointed with the food quality all over the ship. The buffet was pretty much identical, with minimal changes daily. The scrambled eggs were like soup! The quality of the "Celebrity" product has suffered severely! We looked up to Celebrity to be a big "Step up" in food quality! We now feel that Celebrity is being cheapened up, to save money/make the investors a larger profit. We feel like the exact same food that is being served on Royal Caribbean ships, is now the exact same food being served on Celebrity. It's really sad. The ships are sailing at up to 110% revenue capacity. And, they are still cutting the quality of the product. Many of us sailed during the restart immediately after the "Pandemic" to prove our loyalty. Now, I feel as if I should even consider booking anymore future cruises. While we have been very happy with my "move" from Royal Caribbean, to Celebrity Cruise Line, the current experinces will shape our future decisions. We dressed up in our "Finest" to go to the MDR on this cruise, only to find out that the "Aged Prime Rib of Beef" was not being served, as shown on the menu! Talk about a huge amount of the MDR guests being extremely upset! After 25 cruises in the past 26 years, the deficiences/intentional cutbacks are showing badly!

I don’t get the comment about upsetting “loyalists” other than to try to be controversial. Doubt anyone here would try to defend Celebrity against your first hand experience unless they were on the same cruise as you and have a differing view.

[bigAWL]

3 hours ago, FireEMT978 said:

We feel like the exact same food that is being served on Royal Caribbean ships, is now the exact same food being served on Celebrity.

...

While we have been very happy with my "move" from Royal Caribbean, to Celebrity Cruise Line, the current experinces will shape our future decisions. 

 

I'm curious if you have also cruised Royal Caribbean in the past year, if you have first-hand experience to compare the products as they currently are?  It seems to me the cruise industry in general is having trouble maintaining previous quality levels, and are cutting services across the board.

[Mark_K]

5 hours ago, MisterBill99 said:

Not going to disagree about food quality being down, but you lost me when you put pandemic in quotes.

I wouldn’t make too much of it.  Reading the post it seems the author is a fan of putting words and phases in quotes, often for no apparent reason.

[cruzeluver]

A whole lot of hyperbole but the only evidence of horrible food was runny eggs (not new, for as long as I can recall they have used the pre-scrambled eggs in a carton, this can be avoided by going to the omlete station and asking for fresh scrambled) and one menu item not being available.

[elmaexec]

38 minutes ago, cruzeluver said:

A whole lot of hyperbole but the only evidence of horrible food was runny eggs (not new, for as long as I can recall they have used the pre-scrambled eggs in a carton, this can be avoided by going to the omlete station and asking for fresh scrambled) and one menu item not being available.

You can’t avoid the runny eggs if you’re an early riser. The only eggs available when the buffet opens are those eggs. 

[Cruise till you drop]

I don’t deny your feelings about the food but it’s subjective based on expectations.  For example, I love runny eggs and hate it when they’re too cooked.

 

I’ve always found some good things to eat even when people on the same cruise had opinions the food was horrible.  Again my expectations are not high so it’s tough to displease me.

 

What I have found recently is that the food in the specialty restaurants aren’t that much better than MDR so we’ve usually just stuck with MDR food

Edited May 25, 2023 by Cruise till you drop

[Ex-Airbalancer]

6 hours ago, MisterBill99 said:

Not going to disagree about food quality being down, but you lost me when you put pandemic in quotes.

Also posting a wall of words , makes it harder to read 

[prmssk]

I want to preface this by saying food is very subjective.  We all have different tastes.  We order and select different foods.  And are comparing it to different experiences.

 

I was on this same cruise and was very happy with the food overall.  In talking with others, I also didn't hear any complaints so I question how huge an amount of people in the MDR were extremely upset.

 

That's not to say there were no misses (like I agree on the scrambled eggs) but I found the buffet had a lot of options that were very good and almost every dish we ordered in the main dining room was quite good and always hot.  We also really enjoyed the Spa Cafe.

 

Also, after sailing quite a few different lines in the last year and a half, this was the easiest buffet to navigate with my food allergy with the most options for me.  My only real complaint with the buffet is that there was not enough seating.

 

Since Royal Caribbean was brought up, I will share that I also sailed on Freedom of the Seas in February of this year, right after the switch to their new menus.  I had a very good food experience on the Freedom as well but Celebrity definitely was a step above that in quality.

[TeeRick]

@FireEMT978 first off thanks for your comments.  About food quality here, people will agree or disagree as it is highly subjective.  As @prmssk on the same cruise states in their response as liking the food.  But how do you define Celebrity Loyalists as you think they will be upset by your review?  It seems like a negative connotation. Why launch it ? I would think that many, many members here on the Celebrity Board who sail Celebrity dozens of times or more enjoy this cruise line and its ships and come here to talk about it.  They are varied in opinion and also have their own subjective comments about food.  If they liked it on their particular cruise - and don't agree with your negative take- why disparage them?  Sometimes we are all guilty of doing this one way or another.  Me included.

Edited May 25, 2023 by TeeRick

[MISTER 67]

We’ve been on 8 cruises since the start up with 4 on Celebrity, the food and variety on Celebrity was very good with no complaints, compared to Holland America it’s no contest, Celebrity is much better. We have also found the food and variety in the buffet on Celebrity ships especially on the Equinox and Reflection to be outstanding. Our first 2 cruises after the start up were in the fall of 2021 and the food was pretty good also but Celebrity was a little better.

 

Edited May 25, 2023 by MISTER 67

[CruisinShips]

It sounds like the OP was being specific about the issue being on the Eclipse (as they said they had a good experience on the Beyond).  I'll be on the Eclipse in October, so I am more curious about others' accounts of the food on that specific ship.

[TeeRick]

7 minutes ago, CruisinShips said:

It sounds like the OP was being specific about the issue being on the Eclipse (as they said they had a good experience on the Beyond).  I'll be on the Eclipse in October, so I am more curious about others' accounts of the food on that specific ship.

I would not worry too much in advance.  Others accounts will be subjective too.

[jelayne]

28 minutes ago, CruisinShips said:

It sounds like the OP was being specific about the issue being on the Eclipse (as they said they had a good experience on the Beyond).  I'll be on the Eclipse in October, so I am more curious about others' accounts of the food on that specific ship.

See post #10 and recent live from the Eclipse by @Ken the cruiser

Edited May 25, 2023 by jelayne

[FireEMT978]

5 hours ago, bigAWL said:

 

I'm curious if you have also cruised Royal Caribbean in the past year, if you have first-hand experience to compare the products as they currently are?  It seems to me the cruise industry in general is having trouble maintaining previous quality levels, and are cutting services across the board.

I have. This is my 9th cruise since the return. 7 of which were on Royal.

[Ex-Airbalancer]

8 minutes ago, FireEMT978 said:

I have. This is my 9th cruise since the return. 7 of which were on Royal.

Wow, 7 times on RCL , you are a brave person , 

we were on the Voyager of the Seas Arctic TA last September, it was pretty bad, people got off in Iceland to fly home because they thought the ship was that bad , 

[davekathy]

Looking forward to our October Pacific Coastal cruise on the Eclipse. 

[PTC DAWG]

So no fresh cooked egg station at the breakfast buffet?  

[FireEMT978]

9 minutes ago, Ex-Airbalancer said:

Wow, 7 times on RCL , you are a brave person , 

we were on the Voyager of the Seas Arctic TA last September, it was pretty bad, people got off in Iceland to fly home because they thought the ship was that bad , 

This was my 25th cruise in the past 6 years. So, I feel as if I have firsthand experience to base my expectations on.

[cgolf1]

45 minutes ago, MISTER 67 said:

We’ve been on 8 cruises since the start up with 4 on Celebrity, the food and variety on Celebrity was very good with no complaints, compared to Holland America it’s no contest, Celebrity is much better. We have also found the food and variety in the buffet on Celebrity ships especially on the Equinox and Reflection to be outstanding. Our first 2 cruises after the start up were in the fall of 2021 and the food was pretty good also but Celebrity was a little better.

 

 

We have sailed the Edge February this year and the Zaandam May of this year, and I found the MDR food to be much better tasting on HAL. The service in the MDR though was much better on X. As far as lunch buffet goes, X crushed HAL especially for someone on a gluten free diet. 

 

43 minutes ago, CruisinShips said:

It sounds like the OP was being specific about the issue being on the Eclipse (as they said they had a good experience on the Beyond).  I'll be on the Eclipse in October, so I am more curious about others' accounts of the food on that specific ship.

 

Apparently I am this poster now, there Beyond experience can't be compared because that trip was before the 2023 changes were implemented. Even though I was overall happy with the food on the Edge, I definitely noticed the changes.

[Alakegirl]

Runny eggs are fine with us.  We hate hard little nodules of eggs.

 

so yes, food is subjective

[prmssk]

9 minutes ago, PTC DAWG said:

So no fresh cooked egg station at the breakfast buffet?  

Yes, there are two stations for fresh cooked omelettes and poached eggs, and I'm sure they would be happy to cook other eggs.  Neither were ever all that busy whenever we ate.  

[cruisestitch]

I wonder if the OP ever spoke to any restaurant management staff about his concerns. What was their response?

[horseymike]

2 hours ago, elmaexec said:

You can’t avoid the runny eggs if you’re an early riser. The only eggs available when the buffet opens are those eggs. 

If the eggs are important to you go later. You have a choice.