LIVE: Infinity Suite Class Dec. 22 5-day Xmas Cruise

[GenerationX]

Dinner in La Petit Chef:

 

Ok, let me start by saying I went into this meal with a bit of a chip on my shoulder.  I LOVED Qsine.  It was my favorite speciality  restaurant for dinner (the Porch takes that title for me for lunch, but alas, no Porch on M-class).  I loved that Qsine let you try such a wide variety of foods. I even maintained an excel spreadsheet of the dishes we’ve had, must get again and must try on future sailings.  I was CRUSHED when I heard the concept was changing to some kind of virtual reality dinner show.  However, I’m a strong believer in trying new things and Jeremy is up for anything that involves steak and lobster, so we decided to give it a try.

 

We ended up having a great time.  I found the 3D projection show of the chef cooking the meal really unique and entertaining and I thought most of the food was delicious.  I wasn’t impressed with dessert (a chocolate sundae, yawn. Soufflé could have been such a good show!) but the boulliabasse was the best I’ve ever had, the lobster was cooked perfectly and the steak rivaled one of our old Qsine favorites: the Painters Filet.

 

I found that the spacing of the “acts” was sufficient for Jeremy and I to still enjoy dinner conversation while we ate. It would be nice if the longer “intermission” was a course earlier though.  Right now it’s right before the last course and, apologies if it’s crude to mention, but after 3 courses of wine and water and pre-dinner coffee and cocktails, I was desperate by then for a ladies room trip.

 

My only concern is sustainability.   While the show was entertaining, it’s not something I’d come back to see over and over like the old Qsine.  I mean once I’ve seen the tiny chef catch a lobster from the ocean on the side of my plate once, I don’t need pay to see him do it again.  

 

However, as Jeremy and I were eating dessert we came up with a theory on where Celebrity may be going with this.  Here’s our theory:

 

The current LPC is a “beta test” to see how the concept plays with cruisers. If it’s successful, they’d buy/add different shows/meals over the course of a sailing (e.g. night 2 LPC cooks French food, night 4 LPC cooks Indian food, etc.).  The lawyer in me also wonders if, in order to get the deal done with the vendor who does all the animation, they had to give them exclusive rights for the initial contract term, but at sometime in the future, old Qsine may come back with only select nights mixed in as LPC (e.g. port nights are old Qsine menu and sea days are LPC show).  We noticed that the all the old Qsine branding has been preserved (servers still wear the Qsine logo chefs coats and the onboard messaging describes this as “La Petite Chef at Qsine”).  But of course, that could also be because they wanted to go live with the concept before they had time to get a full branding refresh done. But I’ll keep wishful thinking!

 

Photos below. Apologies for the quality of the food photos, the lighting in the restaurant between acts was odd.  Maybe to make it easier for our eyes to adjust when the animations started again?  Note the cute little footprints in the chocolate sauce on the side of the actual sundae.  In the show, LPC accidentally stepped through the sauce as he was adding the garnish. 😁