Food on Celebrity

[Jjohnb]

I will weigh in (always a problem with my scale) on this subject which is near and dear to my stomach! I approach the topic with the background of one who has spent nearly 2 years of his life as a passenger on more than 40 different cruise ships (11 cruise lines) which I believe helps as a basis of comparison. I am always amused when I see some folks trash food on cruise lines upon which they have never cruises (you see this when they sign with all their past cruises). Ok, so here is my take based on 25+ years of cruising (70 days in past 10 months). The food on all the mass market cruise lines (this includes Celebrity) has declined over the past several years. They try to make amends by offering us alternative restaurants where, for an additional fee, we can get cuisine that approaches the type of food we used to get in the regular dining rooms. Celebrity gets a lot of credit on these boards (and elsewhere) for the quality of their food and presentation, but IMHO this is more myth than reality. We have found food on all the mass market lines to be hit or miss, and it can vary by ship, week, day, etc. The only lines upon which we have had consistently top notch food were Crystal and Radisson (now Regent), but on those lines you do pay a lot more for the high quality (perhaps not a lot more than overpriced Concierge service). We do love cruising (2 more long cruises in next 4 months) but go on the ships with the knowledge that if we are lucky, we will enjoy good banquet food and if we are unlucky we still not starve. You are kidding yourselves if you expect really great cuisine on ships that feed thousands of passengers in a few hours.

 

Hank

 

Thank you Hank, I think your comments/observations are 100% correct.

[geoherb]

I never had any truly bad food on Celebrity. And our servers have been very eager to please.

 

Compared to other cruiselines, I've found the dining room experience to be a bit better on Celebrity. Having sommeliers is a good idea. (On Princess, the assistant waiter takes wine orders and serves it.) However, in practice, our sommelier was too busy to adequately serve all the tables to which he was assigned. We were fortunate to schlep our own wines to the dining room most nights and have him open it because we arrived right away. Our tablemates sometimes had to wait until after their appetizers had been served to even order their wine.

[02143]

No eye rolling from me...My parents are frequent cruisers and sailed Carnival for the first time last month and raved how wonderful the food was!

 

My parents, who are reasonably competent diners, left Royal Caribbean for a cruise on Celebrity and were quite displeased with the food. They thought it compared poorly to RC, which seemed strange because we all know Celebrity spends more on food than Royal Caribbean. They then tried Princess and liked the food there. So they won't be going back on Celebrity, no matter how much I praised it, and if I want to cruise with them it will likely be on Royal Caribbean.

 

It's a strange world. Perhaps we're best served talking about the style of cuisine and service rather than whether it's good or not, because judgment will vary so much.

[mylove]

We were on the Galaxy this past April and loved the food,but some things we actually weren't use to, duck quail and such good but very rich.We were told by our waiter Kumar excellent waiter by the way,that most cruise lines serve food already made all they do is heat it up,Celebrity is one of the few that still start from scratch.Weve been on 16 cruises and have always found something good to eat,we'll be on the Galaxy next year for 28 days,"gotta love her".

[Hlitner]

I really do not see the wine Sommeliers as a postive these days. We are wine drinkers and will always have a bottle of wine with dinner (the outrageous cost and mark-ups are another topic) on any cruise. Most of the other mass market cruise lines (perhaps all of them by now) have eliminated sommeliers and leave the serving to the waiters. Since the waiters depend heavily on tips, and they now get the 15% mandatory service charge on wine, most of the waiters are really good with wine service. On Celebrity, the sommeliers are often overworked (particularly on formal nights) and service can often be slow or sporatic. We will often slip the sommelier $20 on the first night and tell him/her we like to have our wine before our dinner (smile). Most of the time this does get us good service, but its not 100%. Given that some of the wines on Celebrity are marked-up by over 600%, you would expect perfect service!

 

Hank

[Tinwoman]

I was just on the Galaxy Med. cruise, and I was really looking forward to the good food I had been hearing about. But was disappointed, for me it was very bland, the soups were for the most part good, and the main entree good, but not great.

I did love the ship though, and everything in our room looked new, and sparkling clean.

[halos]

I The food on all the mass market cruise lines (this includes Celebrity) has declined over the past several years. Hank

 

This is the one thing I disagree with in your statement. The fact is that my first Carnival cruise the food was awful and has improved over the years, not declined. By 'over the years' I mean continously over the past 10 years. Because Carnival is continously ridiculed by a lot of people on these boards, imagine my surprise at being a little disappointed in Celebrity's offerings. It's not that the food on X was inedible (ok, the burgers at the grill were. And the honest fact is that I usually don't eat burgers on a cruise, but the buffet food wasn't that great so one day I tried a burger...big mistake)

Maybe my past 2 Carnival cruises I was just lucky?? Who knows. What I do know is that over the past 2 years, the overall comments and reviews on Celebrity have become increasingly negative, yet the Carnival boards have been very positive lately.

Passengers I spoke with on the Infinity cruise told me that they prefered food on other lines...RCI and even Norwegian (although they didn't like Freestyle dining AT ALL, they said the food was superior to Celebrity's)

Celebrity is a very nice product...it's just not as good as some people think it is. The sad thing is that people get their minds 'set' on one line...I don't see the logic in it. Why have a monogamous relationship with a cruise line???

If you don't try others you really don't know what you're missing.

[Hlitner]

Halos, I stand corrected! You are absolutely correct that Carnival has really improved their food over the years. While everyone who had never been on Carnival was busy knocking the line, they were doing quite well, making tons of money, and buying up all the so-called better lines. I would also give very high marks to the way Carnival organizes their buffets so that there are virtually no lines or crowding. Our first Carnival cruise happened by accident when Regency went bankrupt after we had booked a Christmas cruise. Since I had promised my daughter (than 13) that we would go on an Xmas cruise we grabbed the only remaining cabin on any ship which was the Carnival Sensation. I recall being greeted with a free glass of Champagne (they only did this on their holday cruises) and they sure made a good first impression. We have since cruised on two more of their ships and have always been pleased. Its not our favorite cruise line, but when they have the right price and it fits our schedule we have no problem with that line.

 

Hank

[thatbloominplace]

we have cruised on many lines over the last 20 years. the decline in food is the result of the need to fill more and more rooms with passengers at a lower and lower cost per person. cruises on rci are much cheaper now than they were on our first cruise with them 18 years ago, but the food was better in the main dining room then than it is now in the specialty restaurant. the same can be said for holland america and princess. i have settled in to the fact that mass marketing has resulted in a homogenization of the lines and the food. by the way, i also went on carnival and did not like it at all. you will have to move up a notch to get that old service and quality back. oceania was like like cruising 20 years ago but it is considerably higher than the mass markets. this is my first celebrity cruise and i am hoping for considerably better food than rci with which i was very disappointed last time. there was a big drop in the food on rci in just three years. i know i will enjoy the cruise and the ship, but hope to feel pampered by the dining area.i'll report when we return in january.

 

steve

[thomasale]

I too am anxious to see a review of the 11/27 sailing of Constellation. We had that cruise booked for our 30th anniv but switched to HAL 10/14 Southern Carribean cruise. I enjoyed the HAL cruise but did not enjoy dinner as much as I had on our previous Celebrity cruises.

 

Dining IS so subjective that my opinion really doesn't matter. That being said, give my marks to Celebrity for the whole experience in general. JMHO

[Keith1010]

My wife and I have cruised on Celebrity seven times. Our first six times were annually from 1993 to 1998. At that time, the food on Celebrity was wonderful and made this cruise line very unique from those cruise lines that it competes with.

 

We enjoyed the various venues. The breakfasts were very good, the luncheon buffets were very extensive between cold and hot entrees, and the food for lunch in the restaurant was great as well. And, the dinners in the restaurant were fabulous in our opinion. And, while they prepare meals for so many people we always found the meals to be great with wonderful presentations from the appetizers to the entrees to the deserts. We always recommended Celebrity to friends and others who asked us about cruising and always gave it very high marks for its food and service.

 

We took a break from sailing on Celebrity and sailed again this past March on the Summit. We thought that ship was beautiful and thought that the service was better than ever. But, the big disappointment was the food. We found the quality of the food from that served at the buffets and in the dining room to be average at best and the presentations no longer unique. I used to give Celebrity a grade A or A- for food but now would give it far below this level. The one area that we thought was wonderful was the specialty restaurant and yes, we found that between the quality of the food, the presentation of the food, the outstanding service and the ambience of the restaurant that it was competivite if not slightly better than the food that we have eaten on Seabourn and Crystal. I know food reallly comes down to opinion but all I can say is that IMHO, whereas we found that in the 1990's that food was one of the highlights in taking a Celebrity cruise that it was no longer the case for us on this past cruise. To us it was no different than other mass market lines and that is too bad.

 

Keith

[Kay and Hal]

For what it is worth, I want to "weigh in" with my two cents. I cannot compare to any other cruise lines, inasmuch as the only other cruise I took with a line not being Celebrity was with Carnival quite a few years ago. Also, I want to say I surely will cruise Celebrity again, and overall we had a great cruise.

 

BREAKFAST

 

We had a Concierge Class room service breakfast all but one morning and they were very good. My wife noted that some of the yogurt she received was even of the "organic" variety, which she informs me is much more tasty (and expensive) than the non-organic variety.

 

LUNCH

 

We enjoyed some of the healthy choice dining in the AquaSpa Cafe, sandwiches from the Seaside Grill Aft, took part in the lunch buffet in the Seaside Cafe and on the last day had hamburgers and hotdogs in the Seaside Grill Poolside.

 

Overall, the lunches were good. We enjoyed the pizza as well as the light fare in the

Aquaspa. After a few days of the healthy eating, we needed a change. If you enjoy salmon you will be in "seventh heaven" in the AquaSpa. If not, it will probably be hit-or-miss for you.

 

DINNER

 

Overall, I would give the San Marco Restaurant dinners a C or C+. The soups were excellent, and the appetizers and desserts were good. The salads were uniformly poor in our opinion and the entrees only fair.

 

Regarding the salads, maybe some of you would consider us "salad snobs." We hate iceberg lettuce; we both think it is tasteless. One night we had the "red and green leaf lettuce." There was not one piece of red leaf lettuce on either Karen's salad or mine. Another night the menu listed three different types of lettuce in the salad, none of which being iceberg. Yes, the majority was iceberg.

 

I enjoy my beef and I must say that overall the beef was not even close to that served in the chain restaurants like Longhorn or Lone Star. The beef served on the ship I found to be very thin cuts and more often than not they were tough. I had veal the first night as well as some seafood. Again, more of the same problems, the veal not at all tender, scallops overcooked thus rubbery.

 

In fairness, I must add that Karen felt all of the chicken dishes she had were good.

 

OCEAN LINERS SPECIALTY RESTAURANT

 

 

Like everyone else has said previously, the service is wonderful and the setting is beautiful. The dishes being prepared tableside makes it seem that much more personalized. Unlike everyone else, however, we did not think the food was uniformly outstanding.

 

My wife had the same entree on both nights, the Steak Diane. As good as she thought it was the first night is how bad she felt it was the second night. The meat was overcooked and tough the second night. Also, she ordered the asparagus as an appetizer on the second night. She thought it was tasteless.

 

Regarding the Caesar salad, neither of us enjoyed it the first night, but that may well be just us. We both enjoy "Americanized" Caesar salads, without a hint of anchovies. While it was being prepared, we both asked for "no anchovies please." Our preparer said that was impossible, that he has to put "at least a little" bit of anchovy paste into it. Well, suffice to say, we did not enjoy this salad, my wife even less than I.

 

The only other salad option on the menu is what is called a "Russian Salad." my wife called it a "mayonaisse salad," she felt it was very bad. I would liken it to a crunchy cole slaw.

 

The goat cheese souffle is wonderful, as were the desserts.

 

Would we do a Specialty restaurant again? No doubt we would, but again, we would know going in that on any given night.......

 

Hal

[stebul]

Just off the Summit, and I'll chime in with some "me toos".

 

We enjoyed the AquaSpa Cafe breakfasts and lunches, as well as the Normandie specialty restaurant (3 times). We enjoyed the omlettes, pizza, and sushi areas of the Waterfall Cafe. The waffles that many people rave about on CC were, I felt, fairly standard (I have had better at many coffee shops). The buffet breakfasts and lunches compare well with our other cruises on HAL.

 

Why did we go to Normandie 3 times? Frankly we felt the quality and consistency of the Cosmopolitan dining room food was poor. This was a 14 day cruise, and there was little variety in the menu. Every night it was fish; chicken; pork, veal or lamb; and beef (with a different sauce). There were no local specialties offered that deviated from the standard menu (as we have had on HAL). We felt most of the food was bland and was often overcooked. Too many salads and side dishes were flavored with bell peppers instead of spices. The beef was seldom tender. Fish was seldom flakey (often rubbery); I don't know for sure, but I think all of it was frozen. Vegetable portions were very small. Overall, the dining room food was equivalent to what you would expect at a large banquet at a Marriott or Hilton in the US 10 years ago. Celebrity really needs to rethink their dinner menu.

 

Our dining room service was very good. Everyone at our table made special requests in attempts to improve the standard menu (different vegetables and sides, more of one item or less of another). The waiter and assistant waiter always accomodated these changes, and accurately delivered what was requested.

 

We have had much better food on HAL and Oceania (I know that is not an apples to apples comparison with Celebrity). As others have said, I don't think it possible for any ship to serve better than average food to 2000 people within a 3 hour period. Our experience has been that smaller ships have much better food. Despite this, we will probably cruise with Celebrity again since our primary consideration is itinerary. I am very eager to see how Celebrity handles 700 passengers on their "new" Journey ship.

[Keith1010]

stebul, we also enjoyed the Aquaspa for lunches. We discovered it by about the third day of our 14 day cruise and enjoyed our lunches there for the rest of the cruise.

 

I do differ on one point. When we sailed with Celebrity throughout the

1990's there food was way above average (not as good as say Crystal or Seabourn) but far superior IMHO to any of the other mass market and premium cruise lines and while the M Class ships didn't exist then we still had ships that carried 2,000 or so passengers. At that time, the variety of food, the quality of food (back then no iceberg lettuce), and the presentation of the food were far superior than what they offer today in all of the restauarants with the exception of the M Class specialty restaurants. And, within a three month period we sailed on one of the Holland ships after one of our Celebrity cruise and again we found Celebrity's food to be way above Holland's in all of these categories.

 

After having sailed Celebrity so many times in the 1990's and having recommended the line to so many of our friends, while we greatly enjoyed our Los Angeles RT cruise to Hawaii on the Summit, the one area that was very disappointing for my wife and me was the food. Again, we sail on luxury lines too such as Crystal (about 1,000 passenger's) and Seabourn (200 passengers) so I am not comparing the food to them. I am just comparing what we experienced a few months ago with Celebriy to what we had experienced with Celebrity in the 1990's and it was not the same I'm afraid to say.

 

Keith