Shrimp and Medium Rare Beef

[charlielinda]

A friend Tuggers has reported from the Zenith that she's had trouble getting a shrimp cocktail at dinner. In addition she was told that they would only cook beef medium well or well. She's cruised many many times and never had this happen. Have any other recent Celebrity cruisers encountered this. We board the Zenith on Friday and I'm looking forward to my shrimp cocktail and medium rare beef!

[AnthonyF]

sounds ridiculous. May as well not eat if meat, lamb chops.... cooked medium or more.

 

As for shrimp cocktail there are other threads that mention that maybe you can not order whenever you want if not on the menu.

 

BTW there are recent pictures of food that shows meat cooked medium rare...

[osiebosie]

Just got off of the Constellation and we were told nothing under medium, because of diseases, etc. Since I order everything medium, it was okay with me and I never thought about it. I think dh ordered salmon one night, and, if I remember correctly, medium was the least they would cook it.

 

Yep, just asked my daughter and I remembered correctly.

 

We could always get shrimp cocktail, but not for canapes in the room.

 

Shay

[m steve]

That's worse than the liquor/wine rules. I always though that overcooking beef was only related to burgers and that solid cuts could be cooked as you like it.I guess the lawyers are now dictating food prep as well. Bye, bye X.. this will be my last cruise as I choose X for food prep better than Princess and HAL.

[greeneg]

They did this a couple of years ago and there was a fair amount of protest and adverse comment about it.

 

I hope that they are not going to start this sort of thing up again.

[Cachecara]

Was it possible the the hold on ordering shrimp cocktails and the ban on ordering rare meat was due to the possible status of illness on board? If I read that post correctly it sounded like they were doing this in response to the previous cruise having some virus issues. It sounded like it was a temporary situation until they got the possible virus under control.

[wiselindag]

CharlieLinda,

 

I did a double take at your screen name since I'm Linda and my son is Charlie... caught my attention! Anyway, I will be on the Century at the end of November and would be very surprised if they didn't have shrimp cocktail in the dining room. As for beef, I had medium rare (red, but not raw) beef every night for nine nights on the Century (yes I really enjoy this ship!) last year during the holidays. If Celebrity needs to know that people take their ships because the food and especially the beef is the best for the price and that beef-lovers will use a different cruise line if it isn't prepared to their taste, let's let them know!

 

I'll report back after I return at the beginning of December.

 

Best regards,

Linda

[ukbecky]

I hope TPTB are listening - we're leaving on our very first Celebrity cruise in December and my husband (who does not eat seafood) will FREAK if he cannot have beef med-rare or rare. I have never heard of that rule for anything other than ground beef and I'm not looking forward to listening to him complain about being 'forced' to eat over-cooked beef or chicken everyday for 15 days.

[GORDONCHICK]

In my book, if the beef isn't mooing and crawling across the plate, it's not worth eating. I will be looking into this seriously since we are booked for next September!

[GORDONCHICK]

I've emailed X to complain and referenced cc. I'll let you know what I hear.

[AnthonyF]

Sounds like a very short term correction. I will also complain vociferously, I need my meat rare to medium rare (knowing it will come medium rare). Maybe they'll remove the sushi also and cook tuna medium well....

 

Here are Pictures from Galaxy October 2006 cruise.... Looks Medium rare to me

 

http://www.worldisround.com/articles/315820/photo101.html

 

http://www.worldisround.com/articles/315820/photo175.html

 

 

Look forward to Celebrity's response.

[Seabee]

Just off the Galaxy two weeks ago...had rare meat about 5 times; shrimp cocktail three times even when not on menu.

[Andy]

CharlieLinda,

 

I did a double take at your screen name since I'm Linda and my son is Charlie... caught my attention! Anyway, I will be on the Century at the end of November and would be very surprised if they didn't have shrimp cocktail in the dining room. As for beef, I had medium rare (red, but not raw) beef every night for nine nights on the Century (yes I really enjoy this ship!) last year during the holidays. If Celebrity needs to know that people take their ships because the food and especially the beef is the best for the price and that beef-lovers will use a different cruise line if it isn't prepared to their taste, let's let them know!

 

I'll report back after I return at the beginning of December.

 

Best regards,

Linda

 

Hi Linda !

 

I agree with your comments. I am also booked on the same Century sailing as you. Century is one of our favorite Celebrity ships.

 

I was onboard Century last November, and this past March. I had no problems at all ordering beef Medium Rare, and others ordered Rare, and were never refused.

 

As Ed said, Celebrity tried this not too long ago, and were met with a great deal of protest. I hope they are not going to try this again, as some in our party (myself included) will be disappointed.

 

I will report back after my Cruise. I look forward to meeting you !

[Drew B]

Or you could just skip the meat entirely. X does some pretty great vegetarian dishes. Just ask for the vegetarian menu at each meal.

[BILLP1]

Drew,

 

PLEASE......

[Steamboatin]

On our 14 day Baltic Sea cruise on the Constellation this past May we each had shrimp cocktails for dinner every night of the cruise. Only 3 shrimp on most nights. If on memu than we got 4 shrimp that night. So 3 shrimp x 14 nights x 2 people = 84 shrimp, plus that extra one when on the menu.

[Betty4]

We were on the Zenith Oct 14 -21 (the cruise before Tuggers boarded) and were offerred Med/med-well/well the last 2 nights of the cruise. To me at the time, it was "offerred" more like a chef's suggestion - I had NO idea there could be a connection between the doneness of meat, bleached handrails and stomach viruses. It all came together thanks to CC boards, later thankfully. As for the meat suggestion, I said "No thanks, I'll take medium-rare." It was prime rib afterall. Without hesitation, it was served by my substitute waiter, cooked to medium rare perfection. The dining room looked full to me throughout the cruise, and I saw plenty of shrimp on the tables all around us EVERY night - I even commented to my husband that there must be a lot of CC readers on our ship, given the number of shrimp cocktails on the tables when it was not on the night's menu. Maybe the repo cruise did not get shrimp because prior cruisers depleted the supply - they are frozen shrimp, so probably not replenished as often as fresh foods. There were so many great appetizer choices, shrimp cocktail seemed boring. By the way, we had a substitute waiter the last 3 nights because ours was in quarantine with a "headache." I figured that one out myself!

[BrooklynGirl2]

I was on the same cruise as Betty4 (week before Tuggers) and I had beef medium rare all nights except the last 2 when they told us the meat had to be medium or medium well. I also didn't connect that to the bleaching on board.

 

Betty4...the waiter at the next station to ours went missing one night and I said to my dh uh oh...I think "A" must have the virus. He reappeared the next night and we asked him if he was ill and he told us no but he was quarantined because his roommate was sick with a virus and was in the infirmary. Was your missing waiter by any chance from Macedonia?? This was the poor guy's last cruise and he was supposed to go home when we disembarked. I hope he made it home okay.

 

Aside from the sometimes wet handrails none of the precautions taken affected us in any way. We just made sure to wash our hands often, especially outside any dining areas. If there was a noro outbreak it was very small. Kudos to X for taking immediate action.

[chasetf]

I've emailed X to complain and referenced cc. I'll let you know what I hear.

We ran into the same thing when we sailed the Zenith out of Jacksonville. It was a bummer eating dry shoe leather. Was not good for a beef eater.

[tbelian]

The bottom line is, the meat was served the way she wanted:

 

Bottom line, my medium rare Prime Rib was served.

 

Maybe it takes some doing, but if someone on an 'X' ship says no, ask someone else. Most likely you will get what you want. Let's not get all upset for nothing.

[Michele Noel]

Just returned from the Mercury. The menu now posts that you can have shrimp cocktail or escargot (sp) any night you choose (even both I guess). My DH eats meat very rare and they did just that. They also have hand sanitizers everywhere in the ship. Wonderful cruise.

[ukbecky]

Let's not get all upset for nothing.

 

I don't think any of us wants to argue about our meals on vacation.

 

So we complain about it now :)

 

How do they think the noro-virus/flu/e.coli/whatever gets deep into the middle of the steak?

[tbelian]

So we complain about it now :)

 

 

If it has not happened to someone, what would they be complaining about? That it might happen?

[dkjretired]

I don't think any of us wants to argue about our meals on vacation.

 

So we complain about it now :)

 

How do they think the noro-virus/flu/e.coli/whatever gets deep into the middle of the steak?

 

I agree, we have to see how this plays out. I am a little concerned because this seems to be an everygrowing trend in restaurants. I guess they are afraid of being sued. I remember a couple of years ago stopping in a local chain and asking for a hamburger medium rare and was told nothing below medium. I got something else and have not been there for lunch since that date. Check your menus on restaurants and they are really starting to push this.

[bububr]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061031/ap_on_he_me/salmonella_outbreak

 

Dave:eek: