Ascent Seafood Buffet

[Hawkstar33]

13 hours ago, Martini Queenie said:

It was on the last sea day last week on the Ascent. We didn’t go but others went and said it was a zoo with people lined up 30 deep to get the lobster. They said it looked phenomenal if you could deal with all the people pushing and shoving to get their instagram pics and food. 

I'm sure it was similar to a pack of feeding hyenas..Similar to  embarkation day in Oceanview.  I witnessed it on Edge...Didn't know they were having it. Happened to catch it during lunch one of the days at sea. Beautiful display that was attacked like it was the last meal on earth. Snooze you lose. First come first served.. Half full plates left on the table is not uncommon.  Terrible waste of food.. Yet, I believe it's more of a money saving issue, cutback.  The days of getting more for your dollar, are gonzo..

[TourDeCruise]

14 hours ago, hcat said:

which day of the cruise is it offered?

won't want to miss it!

 

13 hours ago, Martini Queenie said:

It was on the last sea day last week on the Ascent. We didn’t go but others went and said it was a zoo with people lined up 30 deep to get the lobster. They said it looked phenomenal if you could deal with all the people pushing and shoving to get their instagram pics and food. 

 

2 hours ago, DJChick said:

Our cruise on the Ascent ended Dec. 24th and the sea food buffet was on the last sea day, Dec. 23rd. It was a total zoo to say the least!! Buffet was supposed to open at noon. People were lined up before 11:30 am. Lines at noon were 30 to 40 deep. No plates left by the time you reached the beginning of where the food started. Different lines at the stations had different seafood items. Many people were in the wrong line for the items you wanted. No organization at all. After 40 years of cruising, it was the worse fiasco I have ever seen! People that were lucky enough to be in the correct line for the items they wanted, left the line with 2 plates of lobsters and raw shrimp piled to the brim! After a few sailings before our cruise, you would expect better organization from Celebrity and if not, do away with this free for all! Might have been better to add a $10 p/p surcharge at this point to control the crowd. 

 

The seafood lunch was on the last day (December 9th) of the Ascent Maiden Voyage cruise ending on December 10th. We did not go for fear it would be a madhouse. We opted for a nice quiet lunch at Grand Bistro instead!

Edited December 30, 2023 by TourDeCruise

[PTC DAWG]

Sounds like a passenger issue to me…just act right people. 

[NutsAboutGolf]

On 12/3/2023 at 11:39 AM, lv2cruisgrl said:

We have a nice special lunch buffet on Beyond this month.  Only seafood was shrimp and it was sad to see how much people piled on plates and only ate half of it.  

 

Like many things on Celebrity, the food looks a lot better than it tastes.  The bottom line is if the food tastes good, it gets eaten, and if it's really good, people go for seconds and even thirds.  Red Lobster has no problem with people's half-eaten plates, here's how the shrimp normally looks on Celebrity

 

[PTC DAWG]

52 minutes ago, NutsAboutGolf said:

 

Like many things on Celebrity, the food looks a lot better than it tastes.  The bottom line is if the food tastes good, it gets eaten, and if it's really good, people go for seconds and even thirds.  Red Lobster has no problem with people's half-eaten plates, here's how the shrimp normally looks on Celebrity

 

Red Lobster controls the portions on the all you can eat deal..that’s the biggest difference…many cruise passengers have no self control at the buffets. 

Edited December 30, 2023 by PTC DAWG

[NutsAboutGolf]

2 minutes ago, PTC DAWG said:

Red Lobster controls the portions on the all you can eat deal..that’s the biggest difference…many cruise passengers have no self control at the buffets. 

sure, those are some possible scenarios.  Another could be they had to wait in line for 5mins and would rather take more now so they don’t have to wait again later.  Yet my overall point remains, if it taste good, it gets eaten

[KeyLimeKayak]

It was held in the Oceanview Cafe on the last sea day on Ascent last week. No extra charge, but the buffet was PACKED and we opted to eat lunch elsewhere that day!

[DingoMom]

When we went in December, it was literally a zoo…and ‘hyenas’ would be an apt description. There were LONG lines, yet people were butting in and acting like they had no idea that there were lines. Most of the food was pretty good, but the lobsters were NOT. They were tiny Caribbean lobsters, and they had been cooked in such a way that it was IMPOSSIBLE to get the majority of the meat out. It all stuck inside the tail no matter what you tried to remove it. Moreover, the folks that got there early parked at their tables for the entire meal (even after they were finished eating), so seating after 12:20 was terribly hard to find.

[twins_to_alaska]

I was lucky to get it on the Ascent second pre-maiden voyage. I was in a suite but I still had that for lunch instead of Luminae. The shelled lobster tails were quite tasty I thought as well as the other seafood I ate.

Edited December 31, 2023 by twins_to_alaska

[Cleo21]

Answering my own question post cruising on the Ascent. Yes, the seafood buffet is the last day at sea, at lunch. It was very good with chilled shrimp, crawdads, fried calamari and tempura seafood, three kinds of ceviche (cod, shrimp, scallops), beautiful red snapper and other fish, mussels.   The ceviches were not the best I've had, more like a seafood salad, but very acceptable.  It is a bit of a zoo, with the chilled station line up starting half hour pre buffet opening.  I found the station with crawdads and chilled shrimp settled down quickly though, so you might want to start with the cooked sea food, it had almost no line up to start with. savor it and then move on to the chilled station.  It's also chocolate fondue day, and that line up is slow because staff serve you (which is fine by me, it could be a real mess otherwise).  I didn't see any hording really, maybe I just didn't notice it. I actually found many people were pretty selective about what they would eat.  

[doccide]

There was a huge lunch buffet including seaffod, prime rib last sea day on Beyond in August. But, didnt open intl noon.  By then almost every table was filled.

[Liao]

On 12/30/2023 at 7:01 PM, DingoMom said:

When we went in December, it was literally a zoo…and ‘hyenas’ would be an apt description. There were LONG lines, yet people were butting in and acting like they had no idea that there were lines. Most of the food was pretty good, but the lobsters were NOT. They were tiny Caribbean lobsters, and they had been cooked in such a way that it was IMPOSSIBLE to get the majority of the meat out. It all stuck inside the tail no matter what you tried to remove it. Moreover, the folks that got there early parked at their tables for the entire meal (even after they were finished eating), so seating after 12:20 was terribly hard to find.

Exactly this!  It's laughable (in a pathetic way) how people act when they have the seafood option.  You'd think they never saw a shrimp in their lives, and for some reason that is the station that causes the most commotion.  I suppose growing up in New England and having fresh seafood available whenever I wanted, I feel no need to act like a buffoon over a lobster claw or shrimp cocktail.

[PTC DAWG]

1 hour ago, Liao said:

Exactly this!  It's laughable (in a pathetic way) how people act when they have the seafood option.  You'd think they never saw a shrimp in their lives, and for some reason that is the station that causes the most commotion.  I suppose growing up in New England and having fresh seafood available whenever I wanted, I feel no need to act like a buffoon over a lobster claw or shrimp cocktail.

I feel no reason to act like a buffoon over any food…. 🙂

 

Although a nice fresh lobster roll would be great about now. 

[Salt Lifer]

I have experienced a lunchtime seafood buffet in both Beyond and Apex.  In both cases I believe it was held on the last sea day.  

[highway180]

2 hours ago, Liao said:

Exactly this!  It's laughable (in a pathetic way) how people act when they have the seafood option.  You'd think they never saw a shrimp in their lives, and for some reason that is the station that causes the most commotion.  I suppose growing up in New England and having fresh seafood available whenever I wanted, I feel no need to act like a buffoon over a lobster claw or shrimp cocktail.

Yes, and the shrimp were extremely small. Definitely not worth the bother. Myself, walked in, turned around and walked straight to Raw on 5 and had some excellent seafood. Although I had to pay extra....well worth it!