Question for recent Celebrity cruisers.

[MISTER 67]

We’ve been on 10 Celebrity cruises, 5 before the pandemic and 5 after, for the most part everything has remained pretty much the same including the service and entertainment, the ships are still very clean and well maintained. There has been some nickel and dime issues with things like a charge for room service and up charges on some items in the MDR.

As far as food, there has been a definite decline in the MDR of quality and selection, someone said it’s down to Golden Corral level, I won’t say it’s declined to that level, I’ll just say that it was at an A level before and now probably a B or C+ now. I’m thinking that Celebrity wants passengers to fork out extra dollars in the Specialty Restaurants and as long time cruisers of 42 years that is something we aren’t willing to do, we remember when food was always excellent in the dining rooms of all the lines we sailed and remember nights when Caviar and Champagne were served on the Formal nights.
What has really impressed us is the food in the Ocean View Cafe, outstanding selection including a different food theme everyday with everything being very tasty, we always have breakfast and lunch in the OVC and can’t remember something we didn’t like.

One thing I don’t understand is the great selection of desserts in the OVC but at dinner in the MDR Cheesecake is not available every night like in the past, only 1 night now, Cheesecake is one of our favorites and it was nice that it was available nightly just in case you didn’t care for any of the other desserts that evening.

Edited September 19, 2023 by MISTER 67

[MISTER 67]

On 9/17/2023 at 12:06 PM, Baggy178 said:

 

 

It's probably just me but if a holiday company started with any of that nonsense about putting in bids to upgrade to a higher level I'd tell them where to shove it.

Doesn't anyone have any self-respect these days ?

The more you indulge these grifters the more they're going to rip you off.

 

Excellent point, we remember the days when loyal passengers were given upgrades at no additional charge.

[Cruise till you drop]

..

Edited September 20, 2023 by Cruise till you drop

[Honolulu Blue]

16 hours ago, MISTER 67 said:

we remember the days when loyal passengers were given upgrades at no additional charge.

This reminded me of the time back in 2021 when I was offered an upgrade from an OV to a balcony onboard the Summit. I'm not so sure how loyal they they thought I was, since that was only my second Celebrity sailing. More important, IMHO, was the fact that there were barely 300 passengers onboard and very few of them were in OVs. I declined their offer, btw.

[D. B.]

16 hours ago, Honolulu Blue said:

This reminded me of the time back in 2021 when I was offered an upgrade from an OV to a balcony onboard the Summit. I'm not so sure how loyal they they thought I was, since that was only my second Celebrity sailing. More important, IMHO, was the fact that there were barely 300 passengers onboard and very few of them were in OVs. I declined their offer, btw.

I had similar offers in 2021 and took them up on it every time.

The first one was on Millie in June 2021 on the First X cruise post Covid. Only 471 guests made the trek to St. Maartin so X was glad to see Us.

[kirtihk]

On 9/17/2023 at 10:53 AM, kywildcatfanone said:

I value someone's personal experience.  How can anyone dispute it, unless they were right beside you the whole time. 😀

Even if "they were right beside you", it doesn't matter, because if, for example, someone (who sits next to me) cannot even look at caviar or despise, and I enjoy it more than anything else, just imagine that's person's review on such a food item!

 

From the other hand, as I previously wrote on a few occasions (and see similar to some others' comments like "we don't cruise to eat salads or mashed potatoes"), a cruise a special event when one might at least expect some extra ordinary food choice for an also special (AKA really high) price.  If I like plain bread and wine and need nothing else to eat during day (which is true) I don't assume that on a cruise only these 2 items (along with say limited salads, mashed potatoes, and cheesecake) will be served for me to be satisfied with food.

[Cat4158]

On 9/18/2023 at 10:12 PM, hcat said:

Thanks for posting...did not entice me very much.. but you seemed to be happy..that's what counts.

 

Some  pics are upside down...but even so, there were many I could not figure out.  The bacon,  omelet, fruit, cheeses and shrimp cocktail looked okay.  Not sure why so many dishes are literally swimming in broth or sauce..esp shrimp in the green stuff.

 

hope we can get plain un sauced food in BLU

 

Maybe just ask for it without the sauce? 

[kywildcatfanone]

On 9/21/2023 at 3:42 PM, kirtihk said:

for example, someone (who sits next to me) cannot even look at caviar or despise, and I enjoy it more than anything else, just imagine that's person's review on such a food item!

Technically if they don't eat something I wouldn't expect them to comment on it at all.  At least I don't. 

On 9/21/2023 at 3:42 PM, kirtihk said:

From the other hand, as I previously wrote on a few occasions (and see similar to some others' comments like "we don't cruise to eat salads or mashed potatoes"), a cruise a special event when one might at least expect some extra ordinary food choice for an also special (AKA really high) price.  If I like plain bread and wine and need nothing else to eat during day (which is true) I don't assume that on a cruise only these 2 items (along with say limited salads, mashed potatoes, and cheesecake) will be served for me to be satisfied with food.

As permeates most threads across most lines now, cruise lines are moving away from "special" experiences with food and focused more on serving items that they can purchase at a value.

We used to go to Crown Grill on Princess for formal nights and quit a couple of years ago because the quality of the food is diminished.  That seems to be the case with all main stream lines now.