Food quality sucks!

[horseymike]

9 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!

You Fire Emt folks have a great reputation for your culinary talent , believe it or not that is hard to duplicate when feeding thousands of people at the same time , A sincere thanks for the service you provide to the community. Hope the food is better for you on future cruises 🚢.

[peanut head]

FireEMT, so sorry you were disappointed.  However, look on the bright side, your clothes still fit at the end of the cruise🤣.

[CruisinShips]

55 minutes ago, davekathy said:

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

We will be on that same one starting 10/1.

[ldubs]

2 hours ago, TeeRick said:

@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.

 

"About food quality here, people will agree or disagree as it is highly subjective."

 

I think food preferences are subjective.  Food quality, if talking about ingredients, shouldn't be. I've always been happy with Celebrity's offerings, though we haven't had the pleasure since covid.  

 

 

[FeelingCruisy]

We sailed 3 celebrity cruises since Nov. 2022 post pandemic.  Food has been OK except for our Blu, except Buffet is so overly salted, it's inedible.   Im not one who mind salt at all ,but the salt in some of their soups (dinner) and Indian lunch buffet is really inedible.   The daal, one of my favorite, and I go for Indian food a lot, was so salty when hot.  When it cooled  it's like Utah's salt lake.

 

Edited May 25, 2023 by FeelingCruisy

[bigbenboys]

1 hour ago, davekathy said:

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

We booked the 24 Sept 2023 Pacific Coastal cruise on Eclipse a while ago. I just book a cabin for my MIL and her sister. 

The OP is comparing past X food with current X food. We have sailed 5 times with X since the restart. 2 were in Aqua and 3 in suites. Blu was good both times. Luminae was a different story. Our last cruise was Sept 2022. The food quality just was not up to par. My thoughts were "Oh Richard you have just dined to many times in Luminae".  I did have a great thick prime rib in Luminae from the MDR menu. Also Sushi on 5 was very good. Then Jan 2023 and X announcing food changes. Was X already making changes before the Jan announcement.

The one complaint about the Lunch Buffet is the East Indian food the past 1 or so have had more fish dishes and very little chicken dishes. Looking forward to our Sept cruise.

[hcat]

the  "S"  word in the thread title turned me off..Civility goes a long way

[ldubs]

25 minutes ago, hcat said:

the  "S"  word in the thread title turned me off..Civility goes a long way

 

Huh, I don't find it offensive in this context.  I do think certain words might set a tone that takes away from subsequent comments. In other words, when I read the title I figured here comes an exaggerated rant.  

[bigAWL]

I'm wondering if the recent transpacific series of trips for the Eclipse might have led to a temporary inconsistency in food supplies that could stabilize again now that she will sail weekly from Vancouver for the summer.  I'll be on the 8/13 Alaska sailing, so that's my hope.

[skatelady]

We were on this sailing and the 18 night prior.  No complaints about food from us.  Oceanview at dinner time could be repetitive but we don't go there every night so not a big deal.  I only spoke to one person that wasn't happy with MDR food (usually sails aqua), but noticed their plate was clean so I guess it wasn't that bad.

[cruisinsusin]

4 hours 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.

We were on Eclipse in early March and felt like the food was quite good (MDR)

[lv2cruisgrl]

We mostly sail Celebrity and love it.  We just got off Wonder of the seas and noticed the food wasn't that great.  Less choices, cold (unless is a specialty restaurant), poor taste, etc. We sail Beyond in November and are worried it will be less choices and quality than we are use to.  If so we may have to rethink cruising.  

[hairymcclary]

5 hours 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.

Its definitely subjective as we were on the same cruise as the OP and thought that the food quality was outstanding particularly in the MDR. We ate there most evenings and found the choice, quality, service and temperature of the food could not be faulted. Everyone we spoke to on the cruise also thought the food was good - I can only surmise that the "huge amount of people" who were extremely upset about the food in the MDR were not any of the huge amount of people we met who praised it. 

 

5 hours 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.

 

[foodsvcmgr]

Have not sailed Celebrity since pre-Covid, but just got off Liberty of the Seas last week.

Despite many current food complaints on

CC, we were very impressed with the food quality and taste with their new menus as well as generous portion size.

If we get that level of food product or better on Eclipse this January we will be very satisfied.

[TMaine]

I agree food, like entertainment, is very subjective.  However I do agree in part with the OP.  We sailed Equinox in March 22 and again in April 23.  The March 22 cruise was one of the best ship experiences, including food, that we ever had. One year later, same ship, some of the same meals and they were markedly lower quality.  In fact, the April 23 cruise was one of our least favorite ship experiences.  I hope Reflection in August can change our opinions for the better of Celebrity.

[luvthec]

7 hours ago, PTC DAWG said:

So no fresh cooked egg station at the breakfast buffet?  

I was also on the 18 night SYD to HNL sailing and the lines at the egg stations were so long and disorganized it was hardly worth the wait.  When the OP says runny, he means egg soup.  My DH waited in line for 30 minutes one morning just to get a toasted muffin and omelette.  I was already long done with breakfast by the time he got back to the table.

 

We did start going close to 10 am and the lines were much shorter so it does depend on timing.  

[luvthec]

8 hours 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.

Like everyone keeps saying, food is subjective.  This was my first full X cruise (I was booted off the Reflection's last sailing in 2020).  My beef (no pun intended) was the lack of included options, especially for dinner.  You have the MDR (or Luminae/Blu) a pathetic OVC or room service.  The Spa Cafe closes at 2PM and the grill at 6 PM.

 

For a short cruise, not an issue.  For 18 nights, issue.

[Cruise till you drop]

8 hours 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 is hard to believe.  What was so bad about the ship that made people get off early and fly home from a different airport than the planned airport at disembarkation?

[Ex-Airbalancer]

23 minutes ago, Cruise till you drop said:

This is hard to believe.  What was so bad about the ship that made people get off early and fly home from a different airport than the planned airport at disembarkation?

Every was bad,

butter was like gold , impossible to get ,

mushroom caps replaced escargot, they ran out of all kinds of drinks 

Very understaffed , new staff ,

major chaos in specialty dinning ,

entertainment was 3rd rate 

even the captain was in Covid prison for over 10 days 

Hot water was missing a number of days , leaks in the hall

Only good thing was the ports , even after they  change one port and than cancelled it , they were great 

[jelayne]

57 minutes ago, luvthec said:

Like everyone keeps saying, food is subjective.  This was my first full X cruise (I was booted off the Reflection's last sailing in 2020).  My beef (no pun intended) was the lack of included options, especially for dinner.  You have the MDR (or Luminae/Blu) a pathetic OVC or room service.  The Spa Cafe closes at 2PM and the grill at 6 PM.

 

For a short cruise, not an issue.  For 18 nights, issue.

I have been on 17 and 18 N sailing and those venues you mention have always been the only included options. With a 14night menu rotation and the theme nights in the OV we found more than enough options.  

[luvthec]

9 minutes ago, jelayne said:

I have been on 17 and 18 N sailing and those venues you mention have always been the only included options. With a 14night menu rotation and the theme nights in the OV we found more than enough options.  

Have you been in the OVC since the beginning of 2023?  What theme nights?  I asked about this very thing and was told that the theme menus are "mainly at lunch".  There was stir fry, the Italian bar, salad bar, a meat carving of some sort with some vegetables.  

[George C]

I was not impressed by food in summit in match or beyond last November and we were in a suite , I definitely thought the quality of suite restaurant and specialty restaurants went down , last night on summit food was terrible in Tuscan I would have asked for my money back if it wasn’t free because of our royal suite, Le Petit Chef was excellent had dinner there a couple of times . 

[phoenix_dream]

I went back and re-read the original post before deciding on a response.  Food quality is of course subjective.  And every cruise will be a bit different due to the quality of the chefs and the quality of the food available at the embarkation location.  I have been on more than 70 Celebrity cruises, including probably a dozen or so since Covid shutdown and restart.  Only once did we find the food quality not quite up to par, but certainly not to the level that I would post anything titled and expounded upon so dramatically.  So call me a "loyalist" if that means I am not intelligent to have a valid opinion, but that is my experience.  I have not sailed Eclipse recently but I find it hard to believe the food was so bad that most of the ship was unhappy with it.  I am very curious how the OP even determined that so very, very many other passengers were mad or unhappy?  I am not familiar with this person so I went back and read some of his (her?) other posts.  There was a lot of drama in some of those as well.  So I accept that this was one person's opinion and take my grain of salt with it.  I am sailing Eclipse later this year and very much looking forward to it!

 

And as a final note, if the user name indicates the job, then I sincerely appreciate the work that fire departments and EMT's do and respect the OP in that regard.

[cheeseheads4ever]

I also would like to know why people would get off the ship and fly home?

We were on Equinox eating in Luminae during our January cruise and I thought the food was very good, ate breakfast, lunch and dinner there. Thought all meals were very tasteful and good quality.

We sailed on Beyond in April and ate in Blu. As I stated on another thread I like pasta, beef and potatoes. After the first night I could basically order anything off the MDR menu. I was hesitant to ask but some nights there was nothing that appealed to me on the Blu menu. The reason I was hesitant to ask was that on another thread cruisers said they won’t let you order anything but what’s on the menu in Blu because the restaurants are on different floors. I didn’t have a problem getting anything. My only food disappointment with food on Beyond was the burgers at the Mast Grill. Don’t think I need to elaborate on that.

Just my 2 cents!

[prmssk]

26 minutes ago, luvthec said:

Have you been in the OVC since the beginning of 2023?  What theme nights?  I asked about this very thing and was told that the theme menus are "mainly at lunch".  There was stir fry, the Italian bar, salad bar, a meat carving of some sort with some vegetables.  

Last week, the Eclipse had a made to order stir fry station, a made to order pasta station, a grilled meat to order, carving station, salad bar, an entire bar of quite a few varieties of bread, plus quite a selection of hot and cold dishes in the evening.  We were only up there one night for dinner and I don't recall if there was a specific theme but I was actually pretty impressed with the options, especially after I all I had read on this board over the last months.

 

It far exceeded the dinner buffet I have seen on any cruise ship (on a variety of lines) in the last year and a half.