food quality on celebrity

[Dale Jr]

Ship Facts

Occupancy: 2850

Tonnage: 122000

Length: 1033 ft

Beam: 121 ft

Draught: 22 ft

Cruisespeed: 24 kts

Inaugural Date: Dec 01, 2008

 

Just the facts.

I am aware of the stated occupancy of 2850 which is based upon exactly two guests per room. Since they are going to be marketing more and more to families it is fairly obvious that normal occupancy will exceed 3000 and on heavy holiday periods they have stated that they will have in excess of 3600 people on board.

According to your reasoning, the perfect ships size for dining would seat 1

Where oh where did this come from? Certainly not from my reasoning.

[Casino Player]

Ive heard the food quality on Celebrity has gone down the past year. I sailed Millenium to Mediterranean 3 years ago, and the food was very good. This summer I sailed on a brand new RCCL ship, liberty of the seas, to caribbean, and the food was TERRIBLE...even the alternative restaurants were bad, and the ship had a virus outbreak, so many times food was not even available.

 

Since RCCL owns Celebrity now, is the food quality the same? My husband and I are huge foodies and Celebrity used to be known for quality food in the main dining area...how is it now?

 

We are considering a Century cruise over the holidays, but dont want to go if the food is going to be bad.

 

Greetings, RCCL has owned Celebrity Cruise Line for a few years now. I have been on RCCL in May 2005. The food was bad then and I'm not suprised it doesn't taste good now. My wife and I are foodies too.

The food quality on Celebrity Cruise Line is very good. I rate their chef's just a notch below the chef's of Carnival Cruise Line. It is almost equal. One advantage Carnival has is a 24-hour resturant. Celebrity doesn't have one. Celebrity has faster service as far as room service goes. You order and it's there within minutes. Sometimes as soon as you hang up the phone, in my experience. No other cruise line does that. On RCCL you are lucky if you get it at all. Service on RCCL in my experience is bad.

Go on the Century, you will have a good time. It is more of a sedate cruise than either RCCL or Carnival Cruise Line. There are no announcements. The only announcements Celebrity makes is upon embarkation and debarkation. Or if someone has to report to Customs, or Immigration. There are no hairy chest contests, hairy legs contests, horse racing or other activities like that. There are no announcements for "grazing time" when food is served. You look at the ships paper delivered the night before choose your activities and do them.

You should have a good time on the Century. Have fun and happy eating.

[woodofpine]

Hey, some of the best chili I've had has been at mid-mountain ski restaraunts. Of course, lack of oxygen inhances your taste buds or decreases your sense of taste, something like that ;).

 

I was going to say that you were probably raised skiing on better mountains than I - then I noted that you're a buckeye (as I was originally)... The chili I remember... would - at least keep you warm on a lift. But when your first runs are at Boston Mills Ski Area (as were mine) known affectionately - sort of - as 'the Big BM' - 'ya overlook the lodge 'cuisine'. :D

 

One thing about being a skier in FL - having to go 1,500+ miles for snow - you never end up at Boston Mills. In Austria's Arlberg, the mountain restaurants serve a big soft pudding like dumpling that they pour hot vanilla sauce over topped with cookie crumbles that are akin to crushed Oreos. That's on another meal in itself desert planet than anything I've had on frozen water or at sea... Yumm... :)

 

Seriously, despite the 'pretty bad' lunch buffet and the age worn naval structure, the dinners I had on the elderly down on her luck 'Regal Empress' were really surprisingly good - as were the dining room servers.

 

Among the big lines, I think X is fighting the good fight (in the galley) as best they can...

[C 2 C]

Fresh prepared to order food on the small ships beats the pants off of all the previously prepared sitting under warmers food that Celebrity and the others are putting out.

 

I would imagine the quality is going to suffer even more when the Solstice comes on line with a passenger count in excess of 3000.

 

Since you suggest that food suffers when ships get larger. then it should also improve when they get smaller. I see very little difference from Century to Galaxy to M-class ships. A larger number of passengers means more staff and preparation space. Celebrity is pretty consistent in their menu choice across their fleet. I can't understand why you insinuate it would automatically deteriorate on a new, larger ship where more specialty restaurants will also be available.

I expect that food on Celebrity will not be as exclusive as on the premium lines. I also pay less and am still satisfied with the product offered by Celebrity. It is the other aspects of Celebrity that attract me. A dance floor and two live bands nightly are more important to me than the difference in food offerings. I'm just glad we all have the choice of cruiselines that provide the options we prefer.

[dbh62ark]

Every time that I compared prices for similar sailings, Oceania seemed to charge a very high premium for that superior food.

The itineraries that I've researched comparing Oceania to Celebrity are very comparable in price, especially considering the superior quality found on Oceania. I am another board member who has tried Celebrity and Oceania and found Oceania to be a much better value for the price paid. There are some Oceania sailings that cost less than Celebrity, so it depends on where you're going and when.

 

Donna

[C 2 C]

There are some Oceania sailings that cost less than Celebrity, so it depends on where you're going and when.

 

Hi Donna:

 

I'm interested but have always been amazed at the price differentials. Do you have any examples of a great deal?

Have you looked at Azamara for comparable sailings?

 

Arno

[dbh62ark]

Hi Donna:

 

I'm interested but have always been amazed at the price differentials. Do you have any examples of a great deal?

Have you looked at Azamara for comparable sailings?

 

Arno

Do you have any examples that Celebrity is much higher, Arno? I'll show you mine if you show me yours--hee hee hee. No, I haven't compared Azamara because I don't think Celebrity can come anywhere close to measuring up to what I experienced on Oceania, and the messages I'm reading on the boards from those who have sailed Oceania and Azamara agree with that conclusion.

 

Donna

[C 2 C]

Do you have any examples that Celebrity is much higher

 

Here's one:

 

12 days departing February 13, 2008 on

Oceania Cruises' Regatta

 

Brochure Inside $3,998 Our Inside $2,149 You Save 46% Brochure Oceanview $4,598 Our Oceanview $2,449 You Save 47%

11 days departing February 18, 2008 on

Celebrity's Constellation

 

Cheapest Inside $1,349 Cheapest Oceanview $1,499

Cheapest Balcony $2,039

 

We're on Connie B2B in a 1A balcony for $1,500 pp booked 6 months ago. I can eat in the Specialty restaurant every day for the difference.

[Ma Bell]

Since my curiousity was piqued, I checked the fares in comparable cabins and Oceania seems to be twice as much. I would hope the food would be better.

[Drew B]

We have since tried both Oceania and Regent and have discovered what cruise food can really be like. There is no going back to the large mass market ships for us. Fresh prepared to order food on the small ships beats the pants off of all the previously prepared sitting under warmers food that Celebrity and the others are putting out.

 

 

This doesn't surprise me, but it's not really relevant, assuming a substantial price differential. Of COURSE you will get better quality if you pay much more. I wouldn't expect the food in a restaurant where I paid $30 per person to compare to the food in a restaurant where I paid $100 per person. I would expect the food in the $30 per person restaurant to be nice and the food in the $100 per person restaurant to be sublime. Guess what? I'd probably still choose the $30 per person restaurant most of the time. The differential between nice food and sublime food is not important enough to me to spend that much more money. However, if the food quality is that important to you and you are willing to spend more, good for you! I hope you enjoy your sublime dinners in the $100 per person restaurant! However, don't bash the $30 pp restaurant for not being as good as the $100 pp restaurant. That's not fair. For what you are paying, you shouldn't expect it to be!

 

Now, of course, all of the preceding is based on the supposition that Regent and Oceania are much more expensive than Celebrity. I know that Regent is, and I always assumed Oceania was, but I don't recall ever pricing a cruise on Oceania. If Donna is correct and they are closer in price than I thought, then that makes for another discussion. Donna, are you saying that sheer dollar amounts per day on Oceania are comparable or are you factoring in some sort of subjective "value" qualification?

 

Of course, even at the exact same price, there are other things that X has going over Oceania. With a bigger fleet, they offer a much greater variety of itineraries. Also, from what I've heard, the variety of entertainment/nightlife on X puts Oceania to shame. How important are these criteria in relation to the food quality? That's up to each cruiser to decide for him/herself... For me, itinerary and activity would probably win out over food (assuming the lesser food is at least pleasant). That is why I'm very open to "lesser" lines such as Carnival which offer tremendous variety of itineraries and activities. For others, food is the top concern. Neither position is right or wrong. It's just a matter of where your priorities lie.

[dbh62ark]

Okay, here’s my personal example from someone who has actually sailed both lines to be able to compare costs and value. I cruised the Insignia on a 14-night Med cruise for $3,600 per person and then Millennium on a 12-night Med cruise for $2,800 per person. After adjusting all the costs (prepaid gratuities on Oceania as well as small credit and larger credit on Millennium and we always book our own air and hotel), we paid $230 per person per night on Insignia as compared to $216 per night on the Millennium. Cabins were comparable, and that is a 2B balcony cabin on the Millennium. We were not sailing in high season on either cruise line, so this is an apples to apples comparison.

 

For the extra $14 per person per day, I had a cabin that was well maintain on Insignia as compared to the stained and worn carpeting and drapes that I had on the Millennium. I had food that was edible every time on the Insignia unlike a lot of the food that we were served on the Millennium. I didn’t have to wait in line constantly on the Insignia. So the small premium that we paid to sail Oceania was a great value. P.S. Anyone who knows me will tell you I am NOT a foodie but know nasty junk when I taste nasty junk. :)

 

Now I would like to see some concrete examples where Oceania is twice as much and a clear pattern to back up that statement not isolated incidents. Because I’ve been comparing too and don’t see a lot of examples of that. Side-by-side comparisons of comparable cabins like I used please. I’m sure the board members who won’t hear a word against Celebrity won’t find my spreadsheet of 10 cruises that we’re currently considering to be sufficient “proof”, but any and all other board members are welcome to e-mail me directly for my comparisons.

 

Drew, we also sail primarily based on itinerary, so that's why we sailed the Millennium. But it was very disappointing compared to our 2005 Baltics cruise on the Constellation.

 

And I have to say that while I paid only slightly more, I would pay 50% more for Oceania because the quality is worth it to me. It's head and shoulders above our Celebrity cruises.

 

Actually, I must say that I'm glad that everyone doesn't like Oceania because the ships are sailing full, and the passengers that they do have are just delightful. :)

 

Donna

[Drew B]

Drew, we also sail primarily based on itinerary, so that's why we sailed the Millennium. But it was very disappointing compared to our 2005 Baltics cruise on the Constellation.

 

And I have to say that I would pay 50% more for Oceania because the quality is worth it to me. It's head and shoulders above our Celebrity cruises.

 

Actually, I must say that I'm glad that everyone doesn't like Oceania because the ships are sailing full, and the passengers that they do have are just delightful. :)

 

 

Great! Well, hopefully Oceania's quality and value will lead to enough success that they expand their fleet. If so, they can offer more varied itineraries. I'd love to try them.

[dbh62ark]

Great! Well, hopefully Oceania's quality and value will lead to enough success that they expand their fleet. If so, they can offer more varied itineraries. I'd love to try them.

Actually, they are expanding their fleet with some new ships. I hope you get the chance to check them out too.

 

Happy travels,

Donna

[Dale Jr]

............Also, from what I've heard, the variety of entertainment/nightlife on X puts Oceania to shame........

 

"Shame" is a word I really don't think applies here.

 

The only difference is that the large mass market ships have "production shows" whereas the smaller ships such as Oceania, Regent, Silver Seas, Seabourne etc limit themselves to lounge acts. I personally think those production shows are a waste of time and that they wouldn't be capable of selling a single ticket if they were a land based venue. If I want to see a production show I'll go to Vegas. The lounge acts on Oceania are no different than those on Celebrity and the way they rotate entertainers in the cruise industry are probably the same people eventually.

 

And for what it's worth I think you would be hard pressed to find anyone who would tell you there is a more intimate and relaxing location than the martini bar on the Oceania ships. It is such a shame that Celebrity/Azamara removed the martini bar out of their ships two ships to enlarge a casino that was already too big for the number of passengers.

[Drew B]

Point taken. I happen to attend production shows on X and really never take advantage of any of the lounge acts. Like I said, it's all a matter of personal priority. Of course, the cruise I would most like to take is the Xpedition Galapagos trip, and that cruise has no entertainment, from what I've been told. No single element sells me on a trip. It's the sum total of all of the various elements that allows me to make my choice, and in most cases, I would be perfectly happy with a lot of the different options...

[jackdiamond]

We sailed on the Millennium in February and March of this year; and, the food was, as usual, excellent. We expect the same situation to obtain on our sailing on her in April of next year.

[Ma Bell]

I would like to try Oceania if the prices weren't ridiculous. I just looked at a Med itinerary for a concierge cabin on Oceania and it was $6700 pp compared to about half that for CC on Celebrity. The cabins appear to be very similar. I'm sure we will try them if we find something interesting. It's not that we couldn't afford to pay the price, but I'd rather do two cruises than just the one. For the $6700 we are doing 29 days Australia/NZ and NZ to Honolulu through the So. Pacific in a Sky Suite.

[wave master]

As one who is not promoting any cruise line, I think the small amount of extra money for a truley "premium" or "luxury" cruise whichever you want to call them is well worth it. While Celebrity is still not that far behind in the mainstream market in terms of what you receive in my opinion it would be well worth teh extra money. The bottom line is always is that you get what you pay for. I still sail on certain Celebrity ships and have a great time, but I am not just tuned in on any one single brand of cruise line.

[C 2 C]

For the $6700 we are doing 29 days Australia/NZ and NZ to Honolulu through the So. Pacific in a Sky Suite.

 

"Inferior" food or not, you are making me envious. Enjoy the accommodations and the experience. I only wish we could handle the flight.

[Ma Bell]

Thanks Arno, we're really looking forward to the cruise. It's probably a good thing the food is so bad or we would gain entirely too much in 29 days.:D

[Drew B]

As one who is not promoting any cruise line, I think the small amount of extra money for a truley "premium" or "luxury" cruise whichever you want to call them is well worth it. While Celebrity is still not that far behind in the mainstream market in terms of what you receive in my opinion it would be well worth teh extra money. The bottom line is always is that you get what you pay for. I still sail on certain Celebrity ships and have a great time, but I am not just tuned in on any one single brand of cruise line.

 

 

I'm sorry, but I don't understand your post at all. Which line are you calling "premium" and which are you calling "luxury"? From what I understand, those distinctions are not considered interchangable. I tend to hear both Celebrity and Oceania being referred to as "Premium" and Regent referred to as "Luxury".

 

Also, based on what are you saying that the difference is a "small amount of money"? That seems to be a sticking point for many of us here.

[npb]

After reading all the Oceana raves, I thought we would give it a try, but found the difference in cost to be more than I am willing to pay. If I find a better price, we'll try it. Until then, I am happy with X

[sam1948]

We were on Celebrity Millennium Sept. 23 for 14 days Eastern Med. cruise, there were so many people complainted about the food, special breakfast buffet,every morning the same. As for the sit down dinners we were very disappointed,might be there is why you have to pay 30 $ to get to an other restaurant. There were only the last formal night that we had broiled lobsters. the rest dinner just fair to worst. My sisters were on Golden Princecess Jun. 07 for Alaska, the food quality and variety were much better.

[Dale Jr]

Point taken.

Thank-you

 

Of course, the cruise I would most like to take is the Xpedition Galapagos trip, and that cruise has no entertainment, from what I've been told.

 

And that is the other point I meant to make about Oceania with regard to entertainment. Most of their cruises are very port intensive, such as a Galapagos trip, and most people tend to have dinner and then pretty much head back to their cabins to prepare for the next day. As such alot of the entertainment they do have is not well attended which reduces the tendency of the cruise line, in my opinion, to want to expand it.

 

Since everybody here is comparing prices of Oceania to Celebrity I thought I would take a look again and was pretty much surprised with what I saw. It used to be that the fares were pretty similar but there seems to be a much wider gap now. I looked way into the future for those cruises still being offered at the 2 for 1 rates and I admit even those were higher even after taking the free air into account (as an example on European itineraries you can drop from $600 to $1000 per person off of the fare for airfare to equate it to Celebrity). It proves the basic theory of economics with regard to prices correlated to supply and demand I guess as Oceania does sell the bulk of their cabins very quickly.

 

I had no idea I was paying so much more than I had been on Celebrity for my cruises now!!! You do get what you pay for however and there are more positives, once again in our opinion, than just the food.

[C 2 C]

My sisters were on Golden Princecess Jun. 07 for Alaska, the food quality and variety were much better.

 

Unless the same person tastes the food on both lines a comparison is impossible. We were on Golden Princess for two weeks three years ago and I was not happy with the beef dishes on Princess. Food is just too subjective a topic for one person to tell another what is good or bad. I suggested the specialty restaurant only for those people who pay much higher fares on the smaller ships for a similar culinary experience.

 

When we cruised Summit last week my breakfast was practically the same every day. 6 types of fruit from the Spa Cafe mixed with a variety of nuts and dates. At lunch I had a wrap or made to order sandwich. At dinner time I always had five different choices from which to choose plus my favorite cold/hot soups. I find it quite surprising that Millennium offered nothing that you liked. Try a Princess cruise next time and let us know how the food compared. Some cooking styles are just not tight for certain individuals. However, Princess does produce better Pizzas than X.