Blu Questions

[Sader417]

First time on Celebrity.  Booked Aqua class on Infinity.

 

Does Blu take reservations.  Can't seem to book online in advance of the cruise.

 

[Treacher1]

No - just walk in - no reservations - 

[dkjretired]

Blu is your assigned restaurant and it is anytime dining for breakfast and dinner. Reservations are not accepted but most of  the time you have no wait, there may be a short wait at busy times. There will be a letter in your room explaining everything. Also, the letter will ask you to come on the first night at a specific time, you can just ignore that. On the first night you might get a pretty good offer for a specialty restaurant 

[MizDemeanor]

57 minutes ago, dkjretired said:

Blu is your assigned restaurant and it is anytime dining for breakfast and dinner. Reservations are not accepted but most of  the time you have no wait, there may be a short wait at busy times. There will be a letter in your room explaining everything. Also, the letter will ask you to come on the first night at a specific time, you can just ignore that. On the first night you might get a pretty good offer for a specialty restaurant 

 

Is the offer in your cabin? 

[dkjretired]

17 minutes ago, MizDemeanor said:

 

Is the offer in your cabin? 

 

We found the offer twice on a small piece of paper in the envelope. First time we found it after the fact.  Remember, they don’t always do it.

[MizDemeanor]

2 minutes ago, dkjretired said:

 

We found the offer twice on a small piece of paper in the envelope. First time we found it after the fact.  Remember, they don’t always do it.

Got it. Thanks! 

[LMC]

FYI-- We returned last week from the March 3 sailing on the Silhouette.  We have done Aqua Class 8 or so times, and have always enjoyed BLU.  I must say this was our worst experience by far!  We experienced a wait several evenings.  Once we waited only 15 minutes, understandable since we had just gotten out of the 7pm show with several other people. There were several more evenings when we waited 30-50 minutes which IMHO is unacceptable.  When we spoke to the maitre d we were told that there were several guests that were "lingering".  Yet when we were seated there were empty tables that people told us had been empty for almost an hour.  We ended up picking up a pager and then showing up when we wanted to, which was less than ideal but the only solution we could think of.  I would hope this was just an isolated situation.......

[Luvcrusn]

16 minutes ago, LMC said:

FYI-- We returned last week from the March 3 sailing on the Silhouette.  We have done Aqua Class 8 or so times, and have always enjoyed BLU.  I must say this was our worst experience by far!  We experienced a wait several evenings.  Once we waited only 15 minutes, understandable since we had just gotten out of the 7pm show with several other people. There were several more evenings when we waited 30-50 minutes which IMHO is unacceptable.  When we spoke to the maitre d we were told that there were several guests that were "lingering".  Yet when we were seated there were empty tables that people told us had been empty for almost an hour.  We ended up picking up a pager and then showing up when we wanted to, which was less than ideal but the only solution we could think of.  I would hope this was just an isolated situation.......

We had to wait every evening of a 12 night cruise on Silhouette in December. I think the issue was the maître d, Chykka ("Welcome to Paradise"), who seemed to linger by the hostess desk rather than truly manage Blu as I've seen others do. Although the wait wasn't long, it happened nightly despite empty tables. He had the hostess serving water! While he was a very pleasant fellow, I think he was the cause of the problem and not lingering diners. We varied our dining times anywhere between 7 and 9, so it really wasn't the time we chose, but the management IMHO. We never had a wait on other ships, even on Reflection which serves more diners because of having an extra deck of cabins.

Edited March 27, 2019 by Luvcrusn

[Sader417]

Thanks for the info.

[Edinburghgirl1]

We just came off a b2b on the Silhouette last Sunday and also found getting a table in Blu difficult at any time. This was our 6th time in Blu and will probably be our last. The waiters were great but the length of time the food took to come out from the kitchen was unacceptable. We missed several 9.00pm shows due to this. We also felt the Maitre D was the problem as he didn’t have his eye on the ball. We also felt some of the dished were below par. We have booked 3 further cruises for 2020 and 2021 and have gone back to the main dining room and will arrange a speciality dining package. 

[cangelmd]

Very interesting. We were in Blu on Sihouette in November 2018 and had totally different experience - different Maitre d though...

[lisiamc]

We’re just finishing b2b2b on Solstice, and have had to wait for a few minutes maybe two times in 45 nights.  We dine late-ish, but so have many others on these three cruises.  And lots of people linger if they’re not heading for the show.  It must depend a lot on who is managing Blu and how well they do it.  

[Straughn]

Just completed a b2b ( 5 & 4 nights) on Infinity, in Aqua. The demographic in Blu, on the first cruise, was older and seemed to preferred to dine earlier. I like to go to the earlier show, and maybe, or maybe not, stop for a glass of wine after the show. That got me to Blu in the range of 7:50 to 8:15. Never had a problem being seated. The second cruise, I followed the same schedule. Arriving within the same time range, I almost always encountered folks arriving at the same time. Sometimes, I was seated quickly, other times I had to wait and was given a pager. The demographic was younger.  The  maitre’d, Noriega, and the hostess, Natalia, were both actively clearing tables, setting tables, etc. If passengers choose to linger over dinner or a glass of wine, there is nothing that the staff can do.  

[keesar]

On the Solstice, there were several reserved tables for larger groups.  What was really annoying was that there was a table for 10 in a prime location by the window area.  The table was reserved from 5:30 when they opened until this group arrived at 7:00.  Most nights, only about 6 out of the 10 would show up.  There were two other non-prime  areas reserved for 7 pm but they came each night.  

[Edinburghgirl1]

I didn’t mind waiting for a table as it was usually only a 10 minute wait it was the length of time from ordering to receiving your food that I objected to. This is probably what caused the wait time for a table as for those already seated the length of time from start to end of your meal took much longer than usual.  We’ve eaten in Blu on Soltice, Millenium and Eclipse and never encountered any problems. 

[Fishkillbill]

On ‎3‎/‎27‎/‎2019 at 3:26 PM, Luvcrusn said:

We had to wait every evening of a 12 night cruise on Silhouette in December. I think the issue was the maître d, Chykka ("Welcome to Paradise"), who seemed to linger by the hostess desk rather than truly manage Blu as I've seen others do. Although the wait wasn't long, it happened nightly despite empty tables. He had the hostess serving water! While he was a very pleasant fellow, I think he was the cause of the problem and not lingering diners. We varied our dining times anywhere between 7 and 9, so it really wasn't the time we chose, but the management IMHO. We never had a wait on other ships, even on Reflection which serves more diners because of having an extra deck of cabins.

 

Interesting, it was on the Silhouette. We were on that ship last year. Not in Aqua class. The MDR service was the worst we have ever uncounted. 

[Fogfog]

One night of 50 min waits and empty tables--mismanagement--and I would be at GS and also asking to speak to Food/Bev mgr

That's insane. Clearly the M'tD needs more training

[Pentlands]

Never had to wait, but crowded, close and ate a lot from main restaurant menu, Blu food not to my taste.

[OnTheJourney]

First time booked in Aqua in a few months so looking forward to trying Blu; however, on most cruises we have usually booked select (or my time) dining times before the cruise. Not sure what to do this time. I suppose it's possible we might end up eating in Blu the entire cruise, but perhaps not. Should I book select times in the MDR and then just cancel as needed once on board? Or just not bother for now and reserve MDR times as we feel the need to once the cruise gets underway?  

Edited April 14, 2019 by gretschwhtfalcon

[dkjretired]

3 minutes ago, gretschwhtfalcon said:

First time booked in Aqua in a few months so looking forward to trying Blu; however, on most cruises we have usually booked select (or my time) dining times before the cruise. Not sure what to do this time. I suppose it's possible we might end up eating in Blu the entire cruise, but perhaps not. Should I book select times in the MDR and then just cancel as needed once on board? Or just not bother for now and reserve MDR times as we feel the need to once the cruise gets underway?  

 

Blu is you assigned dining room, you do not have an assigned seat in the MDR.  Blu is anytime Dining, you just walk in.

[OnTheJourney]

Thanks dkj....I was mostly wondering about IF we decide we want to try the MDR instead of Blu....

[helen haywood]

Don’t know what ship you will be on, and even that seems to change from sailing to sailing, but we were in AQ on Equinox last month and I had made a reservation for the first night in the MDR.  I got conflicting information here on Cruise Critic as to whether that emailed confirmed reservation was valid or a glitch in the website that meant nothing.  We were seated in the MDR without any comment.  We went back to the MDR (different strokes for different folks but Blu most definitely was not for us!) the last three nights without a reservation and neither the hostess nor wait staff said anything.  YMMV

[the_dylaness]

Wait times for seating in Blu weren't bad on EQ in 1/2018 but WOW the service was slow.

I mean, they made a snail covered in molasses slinking down flypaper look fast.

We were a party of four and dinner routinely took about 2 hours if not a little longer. I mean, I don't want fast food, but I also want to enjoy the other aspects of the ship, dancing, music, etc. 2 hours each night at dinner seemed crazy to me, I suspect the "lingering" passengers have either passed out from hunger or are more likely just waiting on their entrees...

Edited April 14, 2019 by the_dylaness

[OnTheJourney]

17 hours ago, helen haywood said:

Don’t know what ship you will be on

 

Summit...

[Oville]

Off Edge today, never a wait for breakfast or dinner.  On other ships the dreaded beeper.

Edited April 15, 2019 by Oville