Celebrity Eclipse Dining Review - May 28, 2023 sailing

[Alsmez]

My DH and I just returned from our maiden voyage to Alaska on Eclipse, marking a happy return to cruising after four long years away. While we have sailed the S-class (Equinox, Silhouette and Reflection) many times before, our last cruise was on Summit, so we were pleased to come “home” and visit all of our favorite S-class venues. However, many of the recent negative reviews and reports of cutbacks I read pre-cruise had me feeling a bit trepidatious, especially when it comes to food and drink – as a certified foodie and devoted wine aficionado, the dining experience is important to me. Fortunately, Alaska was breathtaking in every way, making this one of our all-time favorite vacations despite some negatives on board. Don’t worry, there were plenty of positives too!

 

Before I dive into my dining review, a bit about me: I am an avid cook, occasional food writer, natural yeast baker, sausage maker, and chocolate/sugar art dabbler. We live in NYC, so we are privileged to be surrounded by some of the world’s finest restaurants and every cuisine and ingredient imaginable. I realize that taste is subjective, but quality and skill of preparation generally are not, so I will try to include both opinions and objective observations here. I know I have high standards, but if Celebrity is going market itself as a “modern luxury” line, I feel they should be up to the task of meeting (or exceeding) them! And now, the review!

Edited June 8, 2023 by Alsmez

[Alsmez]

MDR and Buffet

I’ll begin with the two included dining venues onboard. After our first Celebrity cruise on Equinox in 2011, we decided that the MDR is not our thing and have elected to eat mostly in specialty restaurants (or Blu/Luminae if applicable) ever since. However, we do typically try the MDR at lunch or dinner once per cruise, just to see if anything has changed or improved since our last trip. I was sorry but unsurprised to find that the MDR was as lackluster as ever, maybe more so given the menu changes. I checked the dinner menu nightly and rarely saw anything tempting – first courses, which used to be somewhat interesting, have been whittled away to uninspired salads and soups for the most part. Second courses now rely heavily on inexpensive meat and fish (turkey, cheap cuts of beef and trash fish like tilapia featured prominently), as well as starchy vegetarian options. We had lunch there on a sea day and although the service was better than usual, the food was generally poor. A veal dish that was supposed to be braised and wrapped in crispy phyllo was actually stringy beef in soggy dough; my salmon was horribly overcooked, undersalted and lukewarm when served. DH ordered pad thai, which came as a sticky lump of rice noodles with a bit of soy sauce drizzled on top and a few shrimp thrown in the bowl. Runny key lime pie to finish (see photos). It may be unfair to judge the MDR on the basis of one meal, but we weren’t willing to waste more time or stomach space on it. In fact, we ended up going to the buffet afterwards for lunch since we ate no more than a bite or two of what was served in the MDR. 

 

Speaking of the buffet, I was actually very pleasantly surprised at the variety and quality of the food in the buffet given both our previous experiences (which have been a mixed bag) and the negative reports that surfaced earlier this year. We ate breakfast and/or lunch here daily, plus dinner on the 5th and 6th nights of the cruise. Breakfast was the same quality and variety (both good) that we have always experienced on Celebrity ships, though I cannot judge breads/pastries/waffles/etc. since I stick to protein at breakfast. The salmon, bacon, sausage, eggs to order, etc. were all excellent and mostly at the correct temperature, which is critical. Lunches were also generally very good, with a few duds (greasy, leaden fish and chips; tough burgers and minute steaks) and a few standouts (crispy fritto misto, fabulous Indian, Indonesian and Filipino braises, a better-than-expected selection of cheese and salumi most days). DH loved the various bone-in chicken preparations (fried, roasted in mole, jerk, etc.) and ribs. Pizza was decent when hot and fresh. One thing I wish they would add to the buffet is a selection of crudites – I love raw vegetables but I hate messing around with their salad bar setup, so it would be nice to have an alternative. Variety was adequate given the rotating “theme” each day (one day Mexican, the next Italian, etc.).

 

Dinner was a bit less successful for us, at least on the 6^th night, which happened to be lobster night in the MDR. They REALLY phoned it in in the buffet. The selection was probably half of what it had been on the previous evening (or at lunch) and outside of a nice roasted brisket at the carving station, I found very little of interest. The main event was trays of pre-cooked burgers – chicken, salmon, beef, turkey – all of which were dried out, greyish in color and generally frightening. I visited the stirfry station for some variety and put together a selection of vegetables, only to find out that the only sauces on offer were teriyaki, sweet soy and regular soy sauce. Seriously, no sriracha or chili sauce? Also, they stated it would take 15 minutes or so to be prepared (likely due to understaffing). I requested regular soy and pepper flakes (I hate sweet stir fry) and waited for it since there was nothing else I wanted, but ended up disappointed – outside of the pepper flakes, it had no flavor at all, and was overcooked to boot. Pizza to the rescue, I guess. There was also a very tasty orange cake on the dessert table that night, light and moist – but I had to taste three or four other terrible cakes to find the one good one. Somehow I managed not to take a single photo of the buffet this cruise – you’ll have to use your imaginations, but I expect most of you know what X’s buffet food looks like by now. 😊

 

 

Edited June 8, 2023 by Alsmez
Spelling

[Alsmez]

Specialty Restaurants: Murano

We purchased a 5-night dining package for this 7-night cruise, with the intention of dining in Murano for four of those nights (including the first night). For night two, I reserved Tuscan Grill, which ranged from meh to horrid on our last couple of S-class cruises, but we wanted to give the new menu one chance to impress us.

 

Sadly, our night one dinner in Murano was a huge letdown. The menu has barely changed since our first Celebrity cruise, and although I knew that, I was disappointed to find that the standard of preparation has gone from land restaurant-quality cooking to barely better than banquet hall. The tableside lobster was as good as ever, but my veal main was tough and dry, served on a too sweet, totally congealed sauce. DH’s rack of lamb was absolutely laughable – I didn’t know lamb chops could be that tiny. There was no more than a silver dollar-sized “eye” on some of them, and they were poorly butchered, with shards of bone and gristle clinging to the meat portion. While I understand this is partially a sourcing issue, the chefs in Murano should have cleaned up the butchery at a minimum, or preferably removed them from the menu since they were so subpar. They were also tough and overcooked – understandable given their size, but really unforgivable at the price point. Seasoning was all over the map – some elements of each dish were far too salty, while others had no salt at all.

 

I opted for cheese for dessert, which was all delicious, well-ripened and a varied selection, but they seem to have done away with the cart and allowing you to choose your own adventure – I was simply presented with a plate bearing a small slice of eight different cheeses. Not the end of the world, but a bummer for a cheese lover like myself. DH wasn’t interested in any of the dessert options so ended up with ice cream. Service was slow and uneven, and very much lacking the personal touch we have always experienced in Murano.

 

 

Edited June 8, 2023 by Alsmez
Spacing

[Alsmez]

Specialty Restaurants: Tuscan Grill

Fortunately, Tuscan was a vast improvement over our previous experiences there – so much so that we ended up switching two of our remaining Murano reservations to Tuscan (and the third to Sushi on Five, more on that in a moment). All three of our meals in Tuscan were solid, though a few dishes were hit-or-miss and the meats were mostly not great. I would say the food overall was a step up from Olive Garden – it’s not a place I would frequent if I had other options, but it is definitely better than the MDR and on this cruise, better than Murano. Service has always been an issue on previous visits to Tuscan but not so this time – we had three different waiters and all three did an excellent job, as did the sommelier and support staff.

 

Across three meals, we tried most of the main menu, including the pork belly, crab cake, calamari, burrata, carpaccio, lobster rigatoni, beef pappardelle, strozzapreti carbonara, ribeye, veal marsala, grilled branzino and broccolini and mashed potato sides, as well as the entire dessert menu (six items). Bread basket was much improved from our previous visits (in stark contrast to Murano, where the bread basket has devolved into stale rolls from the buffet) – the soft sourdough had great tangy flavor and the warm parmesan focaccia was delicious if a bit greasy.

 

Appetizers were mostly strong, outside of the crab cake on the last night, when it became a breadcrumb cake with a hint of crab. The cider sauce on the pork belly, like most sauces on board, was too thick (and there was too much of it), but once I scraped most of it off, the pork itself was lovely and tender. Burrata was creamy and decadent. Calamari a bit tough but the coating was light and crispy. Pastas were always perfectly al dente, although massively oversauced. Swimming in it, in fact – and the sauces themselves were too thick. However, when I requested an order of lobster rigatoni “light on the sauce,” it was dry – a sure sign that no one was keeping an eye on the consistency of the sauces and adding pasta water/butter to thin or enrich as necessary. The alfredo and the carbonara sauces, neither of which should be a basic white sauce, were actually both the same basic white sauce – typical of low-end Italian restaurants (in the US, anyway). Don’t order the carbonara if you are expecting an egg-based, creamless preparation because you’re going to be disappointed.

 

Meats were something of a weak point. I had the grilled branzino the first night, which was fine but not outstanding – a bit overcooked and underseasoned. Crispy garlic chips were a nice touch, though. DH tried to order the skirt steak the next night but was warned away by our waiter, who said there had been a lot of complaints about it being tough. I’m guessing it was inside skirt, which is cheaper but always tougher than outside skirt. He ordered the ribeye instead, which was also kind of tough, LOL. We’re spoiled by the whole prime ribeye subprimals I wet age and cut into steaks at home, but it was still better than the sad lamb at Murano! Veal marsala the following night was better, but oversauced. Sides were quite good, particularly the al dente sauteed broccolini, which I ordered every night – best vegetable prep on the ship!

 

Desserts were largely too sweet for my taste but I am not really a dessert person. They were all generally well executed with one exception – the spumoni donuts. These were greasy and tough, with a flavorless and visually unappetizing green filling (supposedly pistachio, but definitely did not taste like it!).

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited June 8, 2023 by Alsmez
Spacing

[Alsmez]

Specialty Restaurants: Sushi on 5

We hadn’t planned to dine at Sushi on 5 this time around because it historically hasn’t made sense with the dining packages – they only gave you a $30 or $35 allowance to spend while the packages usually work out to $40+ a night. However, I happened to read here that they had raised the allowance to $50 on Solstice, so I stopped by the reservation desk to inquire whether that was the case on Eclipse as well. The reservationist told me they were offering a $60 allowance with the packages – a good deal indeed! We ended up spending $107 of our $120 allowance and ate very well – we each had a ramen slider (my favorite thing on the menu!), then split some dumplings and five or six rolls. As we have always experienced, Sushi on 5’s food is comparable to a mid-level sushi takeout joint, although I did notice that the slices of fish topping our various rolls were thinner than they have been in the past, and the filling to rice ratio was somewhat lower than it should be. Regardless, that amount of sushi would be $100ish at a mid-level place at home, so no real complaints other than that I was too full to order the yuzu sorbet for dessert!

 

 

 

Edited June 8, 2023 by Alsmez
Spacing

[Alsmez]

Bars and Bacio

That about covers dining – now a brief note on drinks and snacks. At the risk of sounding petty, I was rather disappointed that they cut the welcome champagne at embarkation. I know, it’s a dumb thing to miss, but there was just something so festive about it, that physical sign that vacation has begun. Sigh. Another little cut that may be costing X more than it is saving in the long run. Anyway, we had the premium package and got excellent service at all of the bars, all week long. Liquor selections varied bar to bar, but all of the standard mid-range gins/vodkas/browns (Bombay, Grey Goose, Absolut, Jim and Johnny, etc.) were widely available, as well as quite a few nicer bourbons and scotches at the Ensemble Lounge. Mixed drinks could be questionable if you ordered something esoteric, but the basics (bloody Mary, mimosa, Aperol spritz, daquiri, etc.) were prepared competently (except the time DH ordered a screwdriver and ended up with someone’s version of a sidecar, LOL).

 

Wine, however, was a MASSIVE fail. I don’t expect to be drinking Chateau Lafite Rothschild on a beverage package, but I do expect to have a decent selection of reds, roses, whites and sparkling available by the glass ship-wide, and ESPECIALLY in a venue called Cellar Masters. The wines available by the glass in CM were a JOKE. I forgot to snap a photo, but there were maybe 4 each red and white and 2 each rose and sparkling, typically 1-2 at the classic price point and 1-2 at the premium. Reds were super pedestrian, cheap pinot, merlot and cabernet with not a single Italian or South American option. Whites and rose were equally boring, just a cheap French pink that they were out of half the time, oaky chardonnay and a “premium” yet awful Aussie Sauv blanc. Elsewhere on the ship, every single white I tried, other than the Villa Maria Sauv blanc (which is only okay), was sweet, watery or both. They had stocked up on an Australian rose called Two Truths while Eclipse was in Oz, and it’s a good thing they did, because the only other “rose” they were serving was white zinfandel. White f*cking zinfandel. WHITE ZIN IS NOT ROSE, IT IS KOOL-AID. DH had to specify “dry rose” every time he ordered a glass in order not to get white zin, and he still ended up with white zin 25% of the time. I did have a very nice red Bordeaux blend in Murano, but it was not available anywhere else on board that I could find. Tuscan had a few Italian reds but they were mostly mediocre and also not available elsewhere. The only readily available sparkling wine was the dreadful Celebrity Vintages or something even cheaper and crappier. This was one of the most noticeable cost-cutting measures and something Celebrity should rethink immediately if they want to retain their “upscale” customer base.

 

Bacio on 5 is our morning stop for coffee and interestingly enough, it was FAR less busy than I’ve ever seen it. Coffee and service were good, but the pastry case looked substantially less tempting than on previous cruises. The couple of things I tried were not great – the almond croissant and pain au chocolat, for instance, were shadows of their former selves. We got a free scoop of gelato with our CC status and it was not worth the price we paid for it. We’re not big sweets eaters so this didn’t matter much, but it did contribute to a feeling of general decline, IMO.

[Alsmez]

Post-Cruise Thoughts and Summary

As I mentioned above, this was a FANTASTIC trip. The various dining-related foibles we encountered did not detract from our enjoyment of the cruise overall, and we remain fans of the S-class and Celebrity in general. That said, we are planning to sail an E-class ship for our next Celebrity cruise (probably 2025), and we are booked on Virgin Voyages for a winter getaway in 2024. Time for something new. Like the ship herself, the entire S-class dining experience could use a refresh. Menus and concepts (particularly Murano and the MDR) are tired – they have been for a long time, but the pandemic accelerated the shift away from the formal, three+-course menu structure that was already underway. Celebrity clearly understands this, given the dining venues they developed for the E-class – it’s time to upgrade the S-class with a modern concept of its own. The price-to-quality ratio of the specialty restaurants is also WAY off unless you book at a substantial discount, evidenced by the plethora of empty seats at every restaurant we patronized. Celebrity needs to remember that people can always cancel these reservations and packages, and they will if they feel they’ve paid way too much for a poor experience on night one. The included venues had their highs and lows, but the cutbacks are much too obvious in some places, especially the MDR. Cruise lines have their work cut out for them in the post-pandemic era and Celebrity will need to step it up in the dining arena if they want to maintain their position as the “luxury” mass market line.

[NMTraveller]

Thank you for your reviews.  The pictures are worth a 1000 words...

 

It is sad to hear that specialty dining has declined as well...

Edited June 8, 2023 by NMTraveller

[fizzy1]

I really think it is hit and miss , also depends on chefs on different ships at different times  Shoudnt be like this but this happens in land bassed restuarants 

[Alsmez]

2 hours ago, fizzy1 said:

I really think it is hit and miss , also depends on chefs on different ships at different times  

 

True, although we have never had a poor experience in Murano before. I think the lower quality meats are a fleetwide cost saving measure that is really hard to disguise in a place like Murano, which has a protein heavy menu.

[RichYak]

Thanks for this thorough review.

[NMTraveller]

Does Muranos still have the Dover Sole?

[Alsmez]

41 minutes ago, NMTraveller said:

Does Muranos still have the Dover Sole?

 

Yes - here's a copy of the menu we were served. Slightly different from the last cruise we took on the S-class in 2018.

Murano-menu 2023.pdf

[TraderSam]

Thank you for taking the time to put your thoughts into words and posting the photos. 

Sounds like I'm going to return from Alaska slim and healthy. 😔

[Alsmez]

2 hours ago, TraderSam said:

Sounds like I'm going to return from Alaska slim and healthy.

Well, there are worse fates...😉 Don't worry - we managed to eat quite well despite some missteps. I'm sure you will too!

[lv2cruisgrl]

Thanks for the review.  It is sad that dining room dinner has gone downhill.  

 

 

 

 

[suzyluvs2cruise]

Thank you for the excellent review. We sail on Eclipse in November and have also purchased the 3 night dining pkg. Very disappointing to hear about both the food fails and lack of decent wines with the premium pkg. We have sailed most recently on EDGE and APEX and they both had decent wines. I do have to laugh....and agree....about the White Zin. Just because it's pink doesn't make it a Rose! 

 

[foodsvcmgr]

MDR sounds much worse than the surprisingly good dining we experienced last month on Liberty of the Seas.

I realize they are separate entities under the same corporate umbrella, but makes no sense for the supposed “step up” brand to have inferior food.

Looking forward to the experience of an Antarctic drive by in January, the food and condition of the ship, not so much….

[Chardonnay Char]

I appreciate a review from someone who knows and cooks food and isn't delighted with talipia.  Thank you.  

[NMTraveller]

OMG.  If they are feeding us tilapia I will use that for chum out of the back of the boat to catch something suitable for dining.

[bjahil47]

White f*cking Zinfandel is my wine of choice.  Guess my palate is not as refined as yours!  🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️

 

Happy sailing!

[Azllama]

We had the same MDR food experience on our Eclipse cruise last march out of Sydney. Mast Grill burgers also had that gray color! I through the food might improve once they got back to the USA. Looks like it didn't! 

[Alsmez]

15 hours ago, Azllama said:

We had the same MDR food experience on our Eclipse cruise last march out of Sydney

I wondered if the ship having just come back to North America from Oz might have something to do with the food quality in general - using up the last of supplies bought elsewhere, etc. I sincerely hope things improve for future sailings!

[Azllama]

5 hours ago, Alsmez said:

I wondered if the ship having just come back to North America from Oz might have something to do with the food quality in general - using up the last of supplies bought elsewhere, etc. I sincerely hope things improve for future sailings!

We were thinking the same thing, cleaning out the pantry!! 

[bnurick]

Thank you for the review as we have the Eclipse booked for three upcoming cruises.

 

I recently completed a transatlantic on the Silhouette.  I agree Tuscan Grille has improved a lot.  Service great and I modified the dishes some and it worked well.

 

I ate Murano 3-4 times and requested the same server 3x after having one that wasn’t likeminded.  I found the food excellent but for the Dover Sole which was dry.  I actually started with cheese paired with wine.

 

Wine is a big deal for me so I bring my own bottles.  After I run out I move to the Louis Jadot burgundy and Goldeneye Pinot noir that work well.  I ordered a bottle of the Sassacaia one night in Tuscan which I enjoyed.

 

My only MDR experience was so bad I didn’t return.  The OVC is great for breakfast and lunch.  Dinner was about pizza only, unless they had ribs.  I also enjoyed chicken wings and sliders at Craft Social for an extra cost.

 

Cheers and thanks again.  BN