Food on Explorer of the Seas vs Celebrity Infinity

[cibumcupio]

We've booked a cruise with Explorer for this October, and I am beyond excited. Thank goodness for this board, because I don't know what I would do with all that anticipation otherwise.

 

The only other cruise that I have been on is with Celebrity Infinity last summer. My husband and I are big foodies (all of our special occasions are celebrated by going to delicious restaurants), and we thought the food on the Infinity was great. I mean, not everything was excellent, there were definitely some misses, but all in all for feeding so many people the MDR always had something very tasty every night. It reminded me of very good college dorm food (okay, so I went to a college that was top 10 USNews for food). We also ate at Qsine one night and I've been wanting to go back ever since. That was definitely a must-try experience. We both love seafood and love trying new things. I fell in love with escargot on that cruise. Oh my goodness, I went from one order the first night to three orders the last. Am very happy to read on these boards that the escargot shortage is over and RCI has escargot on its ships too.

 

I know that Celebrity usually gets high marks for their food, but what do you all think about how it compares to Explorer? I see that the food on Celebrity is rated higher on cruisecritic, but how different is it really? And I know even with the same menus, the food can vary quite a bit from ship to ship. So how is the Explorer doing?

[asylum575]

We are just off the Explorer from the 8/22 9 night cruise. We ate in the MDR, 8 nights, they had the "Scallops au gratin" every day along with shrimp cocktail. I heard, but forgot to confirm with the waiter that the one night we missed (late port day in St Maarten), escargot was served. However, on the very first night, a casual night, I asked the waiter about escargot when I saw the scallops and he told me he wasn't sure if escargot was available.

On our Summit cruise two years ago, escargot was available every night along with tenderloin. On the Explorer, the every day steak was a NY strip. My DS ordered it twice med well and in was very fatty. He's picky, but it really was a bad cut. I ordered it once rare and got a fair medium rare steak.

Outside of the steak issue, the MDR was very good. I had some picky family members along on the trip and the everyday chicken breast was the safe choice. First formal night was tenderloin which was good, however it was only offered medium well or medium rare. I prefer rare. The picky eaters in my group did enjoy the steak. The second formal night was lobster tail. They were large in size, much larger than those 4 oz tails I've seen in the past.

We wanted to try Portofino's, but DS9 didn't want to go to camp, so we couldn't dine at Portofino, as the minimum age is 13.

[fishbonz]

Been on the explorer several times and always thought the food was good either in the MDR or the windjammer for dinner. But friends said that they changed the menu and dont know what they added or took away from it. Guess we'll find out next March when we sail on her again.

[lovetocruiserccl]

I'm glad to hear that escargot is back. My favorite. I like the food on the Explorer. I love Portifinos. But as always food is subjective. The good thing is if you don't like it you can order something different. And I'm sure you will also. Enjoy your cruise. We are counting down to ours 111 days to go.

 

Love To Cruise RCCL

[marci22]

I have been on Explorer many times and I have always enjoyed the food. We last went this past May, and we liked the new menus. We missed the nightly Indian selections, and when we mentioned it to our waiter, the headwaiter arranged for an Indian entree for us one night. It was very good.

 

If you want specifically cooked steak, go to Portofino. The MDR can only do medium well or medium rare, as another person posted. My son got the everyday steak in the MDR a couple of nights and he was happy with it. I think that one is hit or miss.

 

Ask your waiter what he recommends. They are usually good at steering you away from the less-popular items.