Food quality sucks!

[Torfamm]

I wouldn’t let the food on either of your cruises over the last 6 months determine your future travel plans.
 

You could as easily have decided that you will never sail with any line but Celebrity based on your great experience in December as to not ever cruise with them again based on your cruise in May.

 

It’s a big jump to assume that the food has somehow become horrible on all Celebrity ships based one one cruise. On the other hand, if it was so awful that you wouldn’t risk going on another Celebrity cruise, you are definitely entitled to make that choice.

[TeeRick]

3 minutes ago, Ex-Airbalancer said:

Never mind Suite price , just a balcony with always included appears to be out reach for a lot of people 

With airline pricing , cruise pricing , hotels increasing , and even parking , it is going to like 2020/2021 sitting home and watching the garden grow 😢

We have been taking more land vacations instead of cruises.  We rented a house near the beach this winter in FL for a month, for about the Celebrity sky suite price for two for a 7 day cruise.  No brainer.

[Ex-Airbalancer]

3 minutes ago, TeeRick said:

We have been taking more land vacations instead of cruises.  We rented a house near the beach this winter in FL for a month, for about the Celebrity sky suite price for two for a 7 day cruise.  No brainer.

We have a November TAs book in 2023 and 2024 with Celebrity with some very good group pricing with Always included but after that maybe rent a place in Portugal / Spain 

[NutsAboutGolf]

4 hours ago, bigAWL said:

I appreciate this point of reference.  And with my first X cruise coming up in august, I have questions...

 

When you say "X's pasta" and "X's steak," are you referring to MDR, specialty, Blu, Luminae, or everything as a whole?  Would you choose different comparisons for different levels of dining on the ships, or on different ships?

 

Also, would choose similar comparisons for the corresponding dining levels on other cruise lines in your signature, like Carnival, NCL, (and Crystal)?

 

I'm a Platinum Disney cruiser, and I would rank their MDRs about the same tier as Olive Garden or Outback, with an occasional surprise hit.  But their premium dining is consistently well above those.

 

Generally the MDR as the majority on the boards have ate there.  We dine in Blu most of the time but often order off the MDR and understand the majority do not dine in Blu or Luminae (we have never been there)

 

I'll repeat what I've said about Carnival's food many times...Disclaimer, many will say "I don't cruise for chicken, BBQ or burgers" but this is Carnival's LUNCH, what "gourmet" lunch does the average X cruiser eat on X, the buffet (rhetorical)?  Carnival's free Guy's BBQ lunch beats anything I've had for lunch at X (I have not dined in Luminae or a specialty during lunch), Guy's free burgers literally destroy the mast grill, Shaq's free big chicken beats any chicken I've had on X, a big point of contention for many on X is their baked desserts looking good but them tasting incredible bland, not on Carnival, their baked desserts like their chocolate melting cake are fantastic.  On their newer ships, they made some specialty dining restaurants free apparently to reduce crowding, although they still charge on some older ships, their Asian/Mexican and Italian restaurants beat X's MDR

 

With X, I have seen ZERO food quality improvements, only cutbacks, from my first X cruise in 2019.  I don't cruise for the food and eat off the ship as much as possible as this gets better quality food, a sense of what the locals eat and can meet locals

[CruisinShips]

1 hour ago, C4HCG said:

Never heard of either of those but thanks for responding. For us as non - foodies, Olive Garden or Outback quality is perfectly acceptable.

Olive Garden is considered to be the bottom end of the Italian chain food concepts. Even Carrabba's is much better than OG.  Outback is a notch above them IMO as far as quality within its category.  Texas Roadhouse is a US chain that has surged to the top of the "family priced" steakhouses.  Capitol Grill, Morton's, Flemmings, Eddie Vs are the upper level.

[CruisinShips]

If food is at the top of you're priority list, then one may want to consider Virgin.  There are aspects of Virgin that likely won't appeal to older cruisers, but the food was certainly not among them.

[NutsAboutGolf]

5 minutes ago, CruisinShips said:

Olive Garden is considered to be the bottom end of the Italian chain food concepts. Even Carrabba's is much better than OG.  Outback is a notch above them IMO as far as quality within its category.  Texas Roadhouse is a US chain that has surged to the top of the "family priced" steakhouses.  Capitol Grill, Morton's, Flemmings, Eddie Vs are the upper level.

 

That's why I used the term "non-fancy chains"...Those mid-tier chain steakhouses easily beat even Le Voyage, not even worth discussing

[lv2cruisgrl]

15 hours ago, Host Anne said:

I haven't posted a review in a long time because I always try to provide a balanced point of view and honestly, our last several cruises have been well below the standards for Celebrity we've cruised for the past 25 years. I didn't feel I could provide those balanced reviews I was used to.  I have sailed Reflection, Beyond and Royal's Wonder of the Seas in the past six months.  I can attest that the food on both were well below par.

 

Reflection was in Europe at the end of the season.  Much of the time was spent ashore exploring the ports.  But we could definitely see the slide in food quality beginning to slip.

 

On Beyond a month later, we were in a Sky Suite so Luminae was our dining room. After two dinners and one breakfast we never went back... the food was the worst we've ever had on a ship.  Fortunately, were permitted to switch to Blu and it was a big improvement but we paid to dine in Luminae and none of the four of us had anything worth eating.  One specialty dining experience was good (Fine Cut) but the Rooftop Garden was awful.  Totally the opposite of the other times we've dined there on Edge and Apex. And we weren't the only ones who felt this way about Luminae.  We met several other couples who felt the same way and dined elsewhere.

 

On Wonder, the food was mediocre throughout except in one or two of the specialty restaurants but we weren't expecting great food.  We did expect far better food on Celebrity.  By the way, I was on Wonder as part of a group fundraiser.  No more Royal ships for me....way too many people.

 

Bottom line, for the first time in many, many years we do not have a cruise booked on Celebrity.  I don't like where they are headed.  I don't like gimmicky sales where prices are raised so 50% discounts can be advertised, etc.  I'm a patient person so I'll see where things go with new management but given ships sailing full, I'm not sure there will be many changes anytime soon.

We did Beyond Nov 2022 in a suite and ate almost all of our meals in Luminae and loved it.  Did Apex in March 2023 in a suite and same, loved it.  We did Wonder of seas in April. In a balcony and no more big ships for us. Food was not good! We are doing Beyond in November Concierge stateroom.   If food is as bad as some say we will be done! We also have Ascent booked for next year, will be interesting to see what we experience. 

[Ken the cruiser]

We were just on the Eclipse for 33 days from Sydney to Vancouver in an Aqua cabin and I lost 2 pounds! 😂 We ate in Blu for breakfast and dinner, and the MDR for lunch on sea days (with absolutely no complaints). On port days we ate lunch up at the OVC. 

 

I will say when we had to eat up in the OVC there were usually a lot of people, as it was a full ship. We only had to eat breakfast twice up in the buffet and it was OK. The scrambled eggs were watery, but I've come to expect that at the morning buffet on most any cruise line we sail. However, it would be nice if they had pre-cooked omelets near the grill, so one didn't have to always stand in that long line. I have to admit that was one nice thing we encountered on the recent NCL cruises we've been on. 

[ScottC4746]

On 5/24/2023 at 9:27 PM, 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!

We noticed the same thing Sept 2022 on Solstice, but once we started taking all the meals in the main dining room and avoiding the buffet, WOW WHAT A DIFFERENCE.

[NutsAboutGolf]

16 minutes ago, lv2cruisgrl said:

We did Beyond Nov 2022 in a suite and ate almost all of our meals in Luminae and loved it.  Did Apex in March 2023 in a suite and same, loved it.  We did Wonder of seas in April. In a balcony and no more big ships for us. Food was not good! We are doing Beyond in November Concierge stateroom.   If food is as bad as some say we will be done! We also have Ascent booked for next year, will be interesting to see what we experience. 

 

Why not buy a specialty dining package, perhaps every other night?  They could be on part of the flash sale right now...As you experienced first hand, when you pay for a suite you get better food

[FireEMT978]

2 hours ago, NutsAboutGolf said:

 

Generally the MDR as the majority on the boards have ate there.  We dine in Blu most of the time but often order off the MDR and understand the majority do not dine in Blu or Luminae (we have never been there)

 

I'll repeat what I've said about Carnival's food many times...Disclaimer, many will say "I don't cruise for chicken, BBQ or burgers" but this is Carnival's LUNCH, what "gourmet" lunch does the average X cruiser eat on X, the buffet (rhetorical)?  Carnival's free Guy's BBQ lunch beats anything I've had for lunch at X (I have not dined in Luminae or a specialty during lunch), Guy's free burgers literally destroy the mast grill, Shaq's free big chicken beats any chicken I've had on X, a big point of contention for many on X is their baked desserts looking good but them tasting incredible bland, not on Carnival, their baked desserts like their chocolate melting cake are fantastic.  On their newer ships, they made some specialty dining restaurants free apparently to reduce crowding, although they still charge on some older ships, their Asian/Mexican and Italian restaurants beat X's MDR

 

With X, I have seen ZERO food quality improvements, only cutbacks, from my first X cruise in 2019.  I don't cruise for the food and eat off the ship as much as possible as this gets better quality food, a sense of what the locals eat and can meet locals

Upon speaking to many friends that sail Carnival, I am very jealous of the choices of good quicks eats that they have. Celebrity's Edge Class ships are definitely "My speed". I have no interest in ever sailing on them, except maybe to try there food offerings. My only problem, is that the food quality on both Royal and Celebrity conitnues to slide downhill. It is the EXACT same food on both lines. The mystery meat burgers have gotten so bad, that I can barely stomach them. And, I can't sit for 2 to 2-1/2 hours in the main dining room, only to finally be served a meal that was not cooked properly.

[kirtihk]

On 5/25/2023 at 8:01 AM, Ex-Airbalancer said:

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

They shall just write - "Celebrity... Food... "Excellent!" "

[tce40]

1 minute ago, FireEMT978 said:

Upon speaking to many friends that sail Carnival, I am very jealous of the choices of good quicks eats that they have. Celebrity's Edge Class ships are definitely "My speed". I have no interest in ever sailing on them, except maybe to try there food offerings. My only problem, is that the food quality on both Royal and Celebrity conitnues to slide downhill. It is the EXACT same food on both lines. The mystery meat burgers have gotten so bad, that I can barely stomach them. And, I can't sit for 2 to 2-1/2 hours in the main dining room, only to finally be served a meal that was not cooked properly.

 

It sounds like you should look at other lines, then, and review their food situations.  Bon Voyage. 🚢

[Cruise till you drop]

2 hours ago, NutsAboutGolf said:

 

 

I'll repeat what I've said about Carnival's food many times... Carnival's free Guy's BBQ lunch beats anything I've had for lunch at X (I have not dined in Luminae or a specialty during lunch), Guy's free burgers literally destroy the mast grill, Shaq's free big chicken beats any chicken I've had on X, a big point of contention for many on X is their baked desserts looking good but them tasting incredible bland, not on Carnival, their baked desserts like their chocolate melting cake are fantastic.  On their newer ships, they made some specialty dining restaurants free apparently to reduce crowding, although they still charge on some older ships, their Asian/Mexican and Italian restaurants beat X's MDR

 

You hit the nail on the head.  Let me also add that the best Chefs table of all that we have done on Carnival, Princess and Celebrity, hands down Carnival takes the prize

[ldubs]

14 hours ago, Cruise till you drop said:

You fail to consider that on a given night, Outback and Olive Garden aren’t serving thousands of people at basically the same time (give or take).

 

 

Well that is true and might explain why, but it doesn't change what is.   Considering it really is a big banquet type dining, I think they do a pretty darn good job.  

 

I personally do not expect a gourmet experience on a cruise ship.  I expect that I will have access to meals I will enjoy and happily achieve that pretty consistently.    Just as an aside, the one area that is a general disappointment to me are Asian food offerings on cruise ships.  They always seem bland and flavors are just off to me.   Pretty big generalization, I know.  

[lv2cruisgrl]

1 hour ago, NutsAboutGolf said:

 

Why not buy a specialty dining package, perhaps every other night?  They could be on part of the flash sale right now...As you experienced first hand, when you pay for a suite you get better food

We usually do at least one restaurant, however it just doesn't seem right that after paying the high price for a cruise I also have to pay extra for a warm, edible meal!

[NutsAboutGolf]

20 minutes ago, FireEMT978 said:

Upon speaking to many friends that sail Carnival, I am very jealous of the choices of good quicks eats that they have. Celebrity's Edge Class ships are definitely "My speed". I have no interest in ever sailing on them, except maybe to try there food offerings. My only problem, is that the food quality on both Royal and Celebrity conitnues to slide downhill. It is the EXACT same food on both lines. The mystery meat burgers have gotten so bad, that I can barely stomach them. And, I can't sit for 2 to 2-1/2 hours in the main dining room, only to finally be served a meal that was not cooked properly.

 

11 minutes ago, ldubs said:

 

Well that is true and might explain why, but it doesn't change what is.   Considering it really is a big banquet type dining, I think they do a pretty darn good job.  

 

I personally do not expect a gourmet experience on a cruise ship.  I expect that I will have access to meals I will enjoy and happily achieve that pretty consistently.    Just as an aside, the one area that is a general disappointment to me are Asian food offerings on cruise ships.  They always seem bland and flavors are just off to me.   Pretty big generalization, I know.  

 

It doesn't though, cruise ships and land-base caterers have been doing this for several decades...Take the same chefs/cooking process, replace X's strip loin with Kobe steak, most would think the Kobe steak is better due to the higher quality steak.  Also, if one think the MDR steak is the same quality as Fine Cut, why go to Fine Cut at all?  The biggest contributor to the increasingly disappointing X dining experience is food quality; the kitchen teams budgets are not big enough to produce MDR food that's on par with non-chain restaurants

[grandgeezer]

1 hour ago, Ken the cruiser said:

We were just on the Eclipse for 33 days from Sydney to Vancouver in an Aqua cabin and I lost 2 pounds! 😂 We ate in Blu for breakfast and dinner, and the MDR for lunch on sea days (with absolutely no complaints). On port days we ate lunch up at the OVC. 

 

I will say when we had to eat up in the OVC there were usually a lot of people, as it was a full ship. We only had to eat breakfast twice up in the buffet and it was OK. The scrambled eggs were watery, but I've come to expect that at the morning buffet on most any cruise line we sail. However, it would be nice if they had pre-cooked omelets near the grill, so one didn't have to always stand in that long line. I have to admit that was one nice thing we encountered on the recent NCL cruises we've been on. 

What omelets would you precook? With all the add ins, such as mushrooms, sausage, anchovies, etc., there’s got to be hundreds of combinations .  How many of each and how long would you keep them before throwing them out,  where would you keep them, it would have to be under heat lamps to at least to keep them warm? We don’t eat any precooked item in the buffet for that reason. Would you take one of the premade one if it was made the way you want it, without knowing if it sat there for five minutes or five hours? I wouldn’t and I doubt if anybody we know would.

[drakes2]

15 hours ago, NMTraveller said:

Ah yes.

 

Celebrity used to be the foodie line.  They could now be the diet line....🤣

No kidding, diet line but that's not a bad thing. I still enjoyed my cruise 2 pounds heavier but thats from all the martinis I drank plus walking on all the excursions.  Came back to great food and cooking so its a WIN for me.  

[drakes2]

4 hours ago, Ex-Airbalancer said:

Never mind Suite price , just a balcony with always included appears to be out reach for a lot of people 

With airline pricing , cruise pricing , hotels increasing , and even parking , it is going to like 2020/2021 sitting home and watching the garden grow 😢

I just booked a Royal cruise on Sunday for my Grandson and I just a guarantee inside which we are fine with and booked flights Monday. Today those same flights are $300 per person more.   Also booked a Caribbean for myself for November balcony on deck 8.  Prices dropped $400 within a week so took advantage of that plus $650 OBC.   I generally don't purchase AI with my 240 minutes free wifi and HH drinks its plenty for me. If I want something not included I'll just pay for it. 

[Ken the cruiser]

1 hour ago, grandgeezer said:

What omelets would you precook? With all the add ins, such as mushrooms, sausage, anchovies, etc., there’s got to be hundreds of combinations .  How many of each and how long would you keep them before throwing them out,  where would you keep them, it would have to be under heat lamps to at least to keep them warm? We don’t eat any precooked item in the buffet for that reason. Would you take one of the premade one if it was made the way you want it, without knowing if it sat there for five minutes or five hours? I wouldn’t and I doubt if anybody we know would.

I can only speak for what I personally experienced on the NCL Jade on our 38-day B2B last Nov/Dec. At the omelet/fried egg section, they had a tray of very tasty omelets, many times with cheese and spinach or some other commonly ordered ingredients. My assumption is that they would add a few of the ingredients previously ordered the most at the omelet station. For me, I was just happy I didn't have to stand in line if there were already 2-3 people waiting. As far as when they were made, all I can say is they were hot and tasty! As far as the ingredients, I'm not that picky as I would then pour their chipped beef and gravy all over them. But if I was a serious omelet eater, I would stand in line and wait for my cooked to order omelet. I just enjoyed having the option. 😊

 

As far as where they were kept, they were of course placed under the heat lamp and were usually scooped up in a rather short period of time as it did get quite busy up there at breakfast time.

 

BTW when the 2 times we did eat breakfast up in the Eclipse OVC, the line at the omelet/fried eggs grill section usually had 4-5+ people waiting to place an order. If there was tray of premade omelets next to the grill, my guess they would be gone in relatively short order. But that's just my opinion sitting over here in the peanut gallery. 

Edited May 26, 2023 by Ken the cruiser

[Guest 4-2-N-8]

My experience with food in January/February on Beyond was very good.

 

Tried all the specialties, and with exception of Fine Cut (which I would rate fair, though they did have a really nice table decorated for us), every place we tried was really good - especially Eden, Le Voyage, Raw on 5, and (surprisingly, due to the comments I read on this site) LPC.

 

Luminae we used for breakfast in the restaurant or delivered in suite.

 

Didn't go near the buffet or MDRs, so can't comment on those.

 

Cafe al Bacio also a nice respite.

 

Having said all this, it is refreshing to see more griping. 🦖

[C 2 C]

Longtime Celebrity cruisers my remember the ongoing discussions whenever a culinary specialist was dumped for the latest trend.  I can't remember the names but there seems to be a culinary cycle of the good, the bad, the ugly.

I remember ordering rum raisin ice cream for dessert and not finding a single raisin  (the add on Baileys is my favourite ice cream combination).  I remember ordering Minestrone soup without a single vegetable and the Assistant Maitre'd suggesting that someone must have ladled from the top...

I used to order from the children's menu for the mini filet and tomato soup.

I remember when the spa cafe provided wonderful made to order selections.

I remember the cold soups, the flambe desserts...

Witnessing the disappearance of our  longtime favourites is painful.

As inflation impacts the price of our favourites at home, we adjust our tastes.

I think Cruiselines are cutting corners to recover from the financial disaster brought on by covid.

 

I also believe that people venting here has a very positive impact on cruise line practices.

Cruise lines are in business to make a profit but they can only do so by pleasing enough pax to return again and again.

 

[ldubs]

1 hour ago, NutsAboutGolf said:

 

 

It doesn't though, cruise ships and land-base caterers have been doing this for several decades...Take the same chefs/cooking process, replace X's strip loin with Kobe steak, most would think the Kobe steak is better due to the higher quality steak.  Also, if one think the MDR steak is the same quality as Fine Cut, why go to Fine Cut at all?  The biggest contributor to the increasingly disappointing X dining experience is food quality; the kitchen teams budgets are not big enough to produce MDR food that's on par with non-chain restaurants

 

I'm not sure I'm completely following other than I agree food quality is at least half the equation.  Budget must be the driving factor.   I'm also not sure I agree they produce MDR food on par with chain restnts, or at least some of them.