Luminae Wishes....

[chemmo]

We are amongst those who found Luminae right from the start a bit of a disappointment in terms of choices. If a menu needs ‘supplementing’ by offering the MDR menu as well there must be an issue somewhere. 

 

We have always enjoyed the service levels in Luminae, no issues there. They have always tried their hardest to accommodate us but now that on the new ships the MDR menu is not available isn’t it time for a review?

 

My first wish would be later breakfast times on sea days. 

 

My second would be ‘specials’ offered a couple of times a cruise...On Eclipse last year they did bring on a few fresh items from a couple of ports of call which were available in the buffet. With itineraries known well in front it would be so nice to enjoy something special just once or twice per cruise...

 

My third wish would simply be to offer just one or two extra entree’s...

 

I know many of you love the Luminae menu and experience, I am not criticising the experience or the quality of food presently on offer I am just saying that I think it could be improved....

 

 

[cruisestitch]

This is a big problem on Edge where they are unable to offer the MDR menu in Luminae because the galleys are not near each other.

 

Edited January 3, 2019 by cruisestitch

[Gordoncruickshank]

I think the whole timing of eating on sea days needs a bit of tweaking although my wife is diabetic and needs to eat shortly after rising so the early breakfast suits her. We find that lunch is far too early at 12.00 and we often skip this as we are not hungry then. I know that they have to get a break before evening service starts but even extending it to 2pm would help.

 

They do need to do something in terms of the number of entree's. A couple more would help but I can see issues on the Edge and the Apex as I would say that my wife will eat off the main dinning room menu 5 times over a 14 night cruise.    

[CHEZMARYLOU]

Our last 2 cruises we passed on dinner at Luminae 80% of the time.  The menu's are getting stale and the only thing on the MDR menu that we order is salad and escargot.  Since we have unlimited specialty dining we take advantage of that.  

[chemmo]

20 minutes ago, CHEZMARYLOU said:

Our last 2 cruises we passed on dinner at Luminae 80% of the time.  The menu's are getting stale and the only thing on the MDR menu that we order is salad and escargot.  Since we have unlimited specialty dining we take advantage of that.  

 

On S class ships we frequently do too.  On M class the choices are more limited.

 

This option, however, is only ‘free’ for top suite guests leaving those in CS and SS needing to supplement Luminae by paying for speciality dining.

 

I am sure even if my ‘Luminae Wishes’ were all granted we would still dine in the Speciality Restaurants some of the time but with the cost of suites we should be spoilt for choice!!!

[Gordoncruickshank]

2 minutes ago, chemmo said:

 

On S class ships we frequently do too.  On M class the choices are more limited.

 

This option, however, is only ‘free’ for top suite guests leaving those in CS and SS needing to supplement Luminae by paying for speciality dining.

 

I am sure even if my ‘Luminae Wishes’ were all granted we would still dine in the Speciality Restaurants some of the time but with the cost of suites we should be spoilt for choice!!!

We only do a RS on either special occasions or on the odd time that the pricing looks very cheap so we are in the CS/SS area and I suspect that as prices have risen that we will settle on a SS in the future. The S1s on S Class have more than enough space for us. 

 

What we do though is use the obc for booking onboard for the speciality dinning. I always carry a set of menus for Luminae and once I have found out the order that they are being used I will book these for the nights when it does not suit my wife although the loss of Qsine to the lpc has reduced the choice. The fixed menu there now does not suit us. I have been getting fed up with Murano- menu the same since we started with Celebrity in 2012- and there are only so many times you can do the Lawn Club and Tuscan. Tuscan changed a couple of years ago but the rest are needing a menu update (along with Luminae).

[chemmo]

I think many of us board now, request the Luminae menus for the cruise then book the speciality restaurants on nights we can’t find anything to suit! Again a reflection of limited choice....

 

We would also welcome a ‘refresh’ to the speciality restaurants although I would hate to loose the filet mignon and sea bass in Murano’s and the rib eye in Tuscan! We did prefer the pasta selection in Tuscan before the last menu change. I used to love the mushroom ravioli.

[vtcruising]

21 minutes ago, chemmo said:

I think many of us board now, request the Luminae menus for the cruise then book the speciality restaurants on nights we can’t find anything to suit! Again a reflection of limited choice....

 

We would also welcome a ‘refresh’ to the speciality restaurants although I would hate to loose the filet mignon and sea bass in Murano’s and the rib eye in Tuscan! We did prefer the pasta selection in Tuscan before the last menu change. I used to love the mushroom ravioli.

Agree, and also a fan of the mushroom ravioli that used to be in Tuscan! We had a truffled five cheese ravioli on the Edge in LPC that was almost as good (below). If they had that in Luminae, I would be very happy. 😉

 

Thanks for starting this thread. I discussed the menu issues with the Restaurant Manager on the Edge in November and he said that they would be tweaking the Luminae menus, but that it wouldn't be a major change. He also said that they were talking about offering some everyday items in Luminae on the Edge, to make up for the lack of the MDR menu. I'll see when we go back in a couple of weeks and give my feedback again, if there are no changes.

 

Edited January 3, 2019 by vtcruising

[CruisingTheWaves]

Since they're unable to offer the MDR because of the distance between kitchens, Celebrity probably should modify the Luminae menu a bit because in its current state it won't match everyone's taste. After all the rave reviews I had heard about it I was excited that we would get to try it on Edge, but after having a peek at some of the current options I am not so excited anymore, and sometimes have found myself picking the "favorites" in the MDR on previous cruises. I like French onion soup, so I usually get it at least once per cruise. Things like that are a go-to if nothing else on the appetizer list strikes my fancy. I'll have a harder time in Luminae, and because of that I've been trying to piece together the menus for each venue on each night so I can pick and choose which nights we wish to dine in Luminae. But I do think they need to make some changes for sure.

[CruisingTheWaves]

9 minutes ago, vtcruising said:

Agree, and also a fan of the mushroom ravioli that used to be in Tuscan! We had a truffled five cheese ravioli on the Edge in LPC that was almost as good (below). If they had that in Luminae, I would be very happy. 😉

 

Thanks for starting this thread. I discussed the menu issues with the Restaurant Manager on the Edge in November and he said that they would be tweaking the Luminae menus, but that it wouldn't be a major change. He also said that they were talking about offering some everyday items in Luminae on the Edge, to make up for the lack of the MDR menu. I'll see when we go back in a couple of weeks and give my feedback again, if there are no changes.

 

OMG mushroom ravioli in Tuscan was one of my FAVORITES. no more 😞 it wasn't on our last cruise on Reflection. I did manage to get the server to give me the recipe on the ship though so I can make it at home!

Edited January 3, 2019 by CruisingTheWaves

[Ginnyfyr]

We haven't sailed with Celebrity since 2017 and are very much looking forward to our cruise on Equinox next month. Are they still alternating the dinner menus in Luminae every other night or has that changed? 

[vtcruising]

1 minute ago, Ginnyfyr said:

We haven't sailed with Celebrity since 2017 and are very much looking forward to our cruise on Equinox next month. Are they still alternating the dinner menus in Luminae every other night or has that changed? 

They have a 14 menu rotation or at least did the last time I asked to see the menus. 🙂

[Ginnyfyr]

2 minutes ago, vtcruising said:

They have a 14 menu rotation or at least did the last time I asked to see the menus. 🙂

Thank you! Even more excited to eat all of the Luminae food now, lol

[chemmo]

We should start a campaign to bring back the mushroom ravioli!

 

vtcruising, so pleased you have already raised the issue. I will look forward to your future reviews.

 

Cruising the wave, if Luminae had its own section of everyday available items that would at least help! Like you I do like the onion soup, only snag is after eating it I am sometimes too full for anything else!

 

Ginnyfyr, evening menus change daily (14 in total). Breakfast menu is standard and there are three lunchtime menus that rotate. The difficulty is the limited number of choices on the evening menu, particularly the entree’s.

[WonderMan3]

They have made a few updates to the Luminae menu on Edge, basically added in a new entree or appetizer here and there, but yeah it could use further updating. Supposedly this revised menu is going to roll out to the rest of the fleet but there has been no notice of when. They did make it clear on Edge though that they will not be adding “everyday” items to the menu. I got that answer directly from the maitre’d and the chef when they visited our table one night. When I raised the issue of separation from the MDR and losing those options they did say that you could order items off menu but would need to let them know at least a day in advance and obviously it needs to things they have the ingredients to put together.

 

The good news here is that it appears that Luminae is not moving on M or S class ships during the Revolution updates so that means you can still order from the MDR menu there.

[Lastdance]

I would also like to see some every day items for my DH, as he enjoys just simple foods like chicken, potatoes and a vegetable.  However, with the price of suites being so high on Edge, Luminae may not even work for us after our April TA...lots of unknowns, but I will definitely speak with the chef. I have known about this for some time, and hope things improve...

Edited January 3, 2019 by Lastdance

[vtcruising]

Must be they thought about it and decided not to add some everyday items since my chat with Lazar on Nov 26th. It's too bad since it seems like an easy solution. They may still evolve as more and more people complain, either with the capability to make some everyday items or maybe will add some items to the menu. It doesn't really matter to us since we stopped ordering the MDR items anyway and made a point of trying things on the Luminae menu that we normally wouldn't try (and didn't regret it), but more options would be nice. We don't cruise as much as some and not in suites every time, so we aren't sick of the menu yet, but I can see how others might have an issue.

[dkjretired]

Just curious but when they say you can’t get MDR menu items, does this include onion soup, shrimp cocktail and crepe brûlée’s.

[TeeRick]

It would be nice to have the option of a traditional dinner salad or caesar salad every night.  My wife also frequently orders the escargot from the MDR menu.  I guess we will now need to discuss with the Luminae staff a day in advance.  This seems absurd to me.

[Gordoncruickshank]

10 minutes ago, dkjretired said:

Just curious but when they say you can’t get MDR menu items, does this include onion soup, shrimp cocktail and crepe brûlée’s.

I am pretty sure that it is down to the location of the new restaurant on the Edge. On the other ships Luminae's kitchen is close to the mdr kitchens.

[George C]

Our main complaint on luminae was hours for breakfast and lunch , just got off oasis rccl which had much longer hours for there suite dinning room.

[JFontaine]

Immediately prior to the launch of the Edge, a maître d told me that 80% of Americans (60% of others) order off of the Main Dining Room menu in Luminae.  I just can't imagine what they say to people with kids or teens who don't want the fussy Luminae menu.  Too bad for you??

[Happy Cruiser 6143]

When I'm sailing in a suite, I'd say my ordering in Luminae is 50% from the Luminae menu and 50% from the MDR menu.  So, yet another reason not to sail on the Edge.

[WonderMan3]

35 minutes ago, TeeRick said:

It would be nice to have the option of a traditional dinner salad or caesar salad every night.  My wife also frequently orders the escargot from the MDR menu.  I guess we will now need to discuss with the Luminae staff a day in advance.  This seems absurd to me.

 

Same here. I usually can find at least one appetizer or entree to choose from on their menu but sometimes I do feel like having a Caesar or some other simple item. 

[cruiserchuck]

We have only been in a suite once, but we thought the menu in Luminae was very good.  We never ordered anything from the MDR menu.  The only issue we had with Luminae was that a few of the guests were very loud and obnoxious.