Food Quality on M & S Class Ships 2019

[Stateroom_Sailor]

Names are public.  This is meant for those who've sailed in 2019 (especially March and beyond) on M & S Class ships, and also have sailed Celebrity in the recent past.  Edge has a different dining setup, and not the direct comparison we're looking for.

[OzKiwiJJ]

We were on Solstice recently and really enjoyed the food in the MDR, especially the variety of appetisers and mains throughout the 14 night cruise. Desserts were a bit boring though, too much repetition.

[Sphynxlady]

We were on Summit last month and on Reflection in January and February. Food in mar was very good without exception. Good selection.

[DanaDanes]

I was on the infinity in 2016, silhouette 2018 and then infinity again 2019. Ocean view cafe had upped its game considerably on our last cruise. Better grill items, better seafood and spotlessly clean. I loved the salad station where they would toss/dress your salad. 

The mdr, while still giving terrific service, seeened to have gone down in quality. 

[vtcruising]

Just sailed on the Infinity (and sailed her a few years ago and have sailed other S and M Class ships over the last few years) and found the OVC to be the same - good to very good food. The Eggs Benedict station (poached eggs plus) was amazing, as always!

 

The specialties we went to were Sushi on 5 and Le Petit Chef at Qsine, which were both excellent! We had lunch at Sushi on 5 almost every day and really enjoyed the food and staff. The LPC food was superb - so good that we went back for the food, not the show. The bouillabaisse, lobster and steak were amazing! We didn't do Tuscan because our experiences there have been 50-50 across the fleet.

 

Blu was just not quite up to snuff for us this time. Meat didn't always seem to be the best quality, though we had some wonderful dinners - about 50-50 this time around. We had a few minor server issues, but in the end they were wonderful and the sommelier, Fernando, made the experience!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 24, 2019 by vtcruising

[Stateroom_Sailor]

While I think the staff are trying their all, we are bailing on Blu.  The food seem of similar quality, which means a more significant downgrade in Blu.  It is too short of staff, they seem more rushed.  The previous night the bread was getting stale, and I'm tired of nearly a week of smashed corn, beats, peas, and corn as bread spread.

 

Buffet was significantly downgraded the first two days with lukewarm food.  I noticed that this had improved yesterday, I could see steam off the soups.  Less fresh cook stations than our Infinity cruise last October.

[Husky61]

Food is too subjective to even offer an opinion.  What some food people really like, others may not.😄

[jkgourmet]

My answers from the millenium.  Literally.  We are still on it.  No Blu or Luminae experience because we won't pay extra for it (and shouldn't have to).

 

And we really really really miss Murano.  😞

Edited April 25, 2019 by jkgourmet

[Montana]

1 hour ago, jkgourmet said:

My answers from the millenium.  Literally.  We are still on it.  No Blu or Luminae experience because we won't pay extra for it (and shouldn't have to).

 

And we really really really miss Murano.  😞

Murano is definitely a loss. The only truly exceptional restaurant on Celebrity worthy of paying extra for a meal. Will be doing East Coast on Summit in September wondering about BlU

[chemmo]

5 hours ago, jkgourmet said:

My answers from the millenium.  Literally.  We are still on it.  No Blu or Luminae experience because we won't pay extra for it (and shouldn't have to).

 

And we really really really miss Murano.  😞

 

You know the lack of a Murano style restaurant is really putting us off booking M class....

 

We usually book a RS or PH so have speciality restaurants included. We are not big fans of Luminae so on M class that leaves us with Tuscan and LPC which is a once a cruise venue....Sushi is fine for an odd lunch but doesn’t offer the choice or ambience of a real speciality restaurant.

 

Murano’s and the M equivalents for us is our ‘evening entertainment’....We linger over the courses, enjoy nice wines with our meal, coffee and a liqueur to follow. We do like Tuscan but that is less of an ‘event’...

[vtcruising]

3 hours ago, chemmo said:

 

You know the lack of a Murano style restaurant is really putting us off booking M class....

 

We usually book a RS or PH so have speciality restaurants included. We are not big fans of Luminae so on M class that leaves us with Tuscan and LPC which is a once a cruise venue....Sushi is fine for an odd lunch but doesn’t offer the choice or ambience of a real speciality restaurant.

 

Murano’s and the M equivalents for us is our ‘evening entertainment’....We linger over the courses, enjoy nice wines with our meal, coffee and a liqueur to follow. We do like Tuscan but that is less of an ‘event’...

Agree.  We don't choose M Class cruises for the ship (have sailed on them for itinerary or charter), as we do S and E Class, partly because of the paucity of specialty restaurants. Gutting those wonderful ocean liner-themed restaurants and changing them to the more mediocre Tuscan Grill was very sad, IMO. We also thought of the ocean liner-themed restaurant dinners as special events and Tuscan just doesn't have that special feel for us. I can understand their move toward less formal concepts to potentially broaden the market, but think it makes those ships less attractive to us.

[Stateroom_Sailor]

We had Murano for lunch on Monday, and it was probably the best dining experience the entire cruise so far.  I honestly wonder if we would have been better off in a lower category cabin, and just bought a dining package. 

 

We're doing this strategy on Liberty of the Seas next year, $168 seems well worth it, especially with sea day lunch 

 

 

[Alsmez]

12 hours ago, chemmo said:

 

You know the lack of a Murano style restaurant is really putting us off booking M class....

 

We usually book a RS or PH so have speciality restaurants included. We are not big fans of Luminae so on M class that leaves us with Tuscan and LPC which is a once a cruise venue....Sushi is fine for an odd lunch but doesn’t offer the choice or ambience of a real speciality restaurant.

 

 

We ran into this problem when we decided we wanted to go to Bermuda this year - Summit was the only X option. We booked our first Sky Suite and are looking forward to trying Luminae, but it was sort of annoying to feel like we HAD to book AQ or a Suite to have a reasonable plan for dining. We have less than zero interest in Le Petit Chef and we're about done with Tuscan after two less-than-stellar visits on our last Silhouette cruise (we ate in Murano the rest of the cruise). If we like Luminae we will continue to consider M-class but if not, we'll have to eliminate those ships from consideration going forward.

[chemmo]

9 hours ago, vtcruising said:

Agree.  We don't choose M Class cruises for the ship (have sailed on them for itinerary or charter), as we do S and E Class, partly because of the paucity of specialty restaurants. Gutting those wonderful ocean liner-themed restaurants and changing them to the more mediocre Tuscan Grill was very sad, IMO. We also thought of the ocean liner-themed restaurant dinners as special events and Tuscan just doesn't have that special feel for us. I can understand their move toward less formal concepts to potentially broaden the market, but think it makes those ships less attractive to us.

 

‘Broadening the market’ I can understand as a focus for attracting more customers but when in actuality it is reducing options then logic fails....

 

We do love the M class PH and will I am sure at some stage be tempted by itinerary to cruise one again. However, as the itineraries we would probably choose would be 14 nights+ the issue arises again about dining.

 

We are aware that Luminae is loved by many and we do respect their opinion. However, we do find the menu really limited....Why would Celebrity feel the need to also offer the MDR menu on S/M class and be about to introduce MDR classics on Edge (following other threads)  if the menu was adequate? I still cannot think of any other restaurant on land or at sea that needs a ‘supplementary’ menu because so many guests find the choices limited...

 

 

 

 

 

[Northern Aurora]

While the last few years we have spent 60 to 90 nights on Celebrity ships, our only time in 2019 has been a recently completed B2B2B series on the Eclipse.  We were in an Aqua Stateroom for all three legs, so dined in Blu, the OceanView, Tuscan, Sushi on 5 and also Le Petit Chef.  Really felt that the quality was the same as in the past.

 

It is interesting to read the names of the posters.  Is my memory correct -- is someone "voting" who has vowed to never sail on Celebrity again, but seems to peruse the Celebrity CC board on a regular basis?  Or is my memory wrong?

[Stateroom_Sailor]

 

1 hour ago, Northern Aurora said:

 

It is interesting to read the names of the posters.  Is my memory correct -- is someone "voting" who has vowed to never sail on Celebrity again, but seems to peruse the Celebrity CC board on a regular basis?  Or is my memory wrong?

 

It is unfortunate if people are voting who haven't sailed recently, whether they quit months or years ago, or are high on Edge.

 

I created this poll after reading accounts from the Eclipse coastal, and personal experience.  All is of course subjective, and may vary by ship.

[hcat]

Not eligible to vote...sailed on EDGE...

Results are interesting..

[Luvcrusn]

22 hours ago, Alsmez said:

 

We ran into this problem when we decided we wanted to go to Bermuda this year - Summit was the only X option. We booked our first Sky Suite and are looking forward to trying Luminae, but it was sort of annoying to feel like we HAD to book AQ or a Suite to have a reasonable plan for dining. We have less than zero interest in Le Petit Chef and we're about done with Tuscan after two less-than-stellar visits on our last Silhouette cruise (we ate in Murano the rest of the cruise). If we like Luminae we will continue to consider M-class but if not, we'll have to eliminate those ships from consideration going forward.

Agreed. We don't book M-class unless booking Aqua or above because the specialty dining venues on those ships aren't appealing to us. We don't book Edge because we don't care for the IVs or the crazy pricing. That leaves S-class as our sweet spot with Murano still available. It's the only specialty we care for enough to pay the upcharge. While our last cruise on Silhouette the food quality of Blu remained about the same as our previous S-class cruises, the management of Blu did a poor job and made us wait every evening at least 15-20 minutes despite us varying our dining times and despite there being visible empty tables.

[Alsmez]

1 minute ago, Luvcrusn said:

While our last cruise on Silhouette the food quality of Blu remained about the same as our previous S-class cruises, the management of Blu did a poor job and made us wait every evening at least 15-20 minutes despite us varying our dining times and despite there being visible empty tables.

 

Interesting. We haven't been in AQ in a few years, but upon looking at the recent menus it is pretty clear that there have been significant cutbacks from when we last ate in Blu. Many of the menu items we enjoyed remain but have been downgraded in some way (i.e.: pork loin instead of veal, strip steak instead of ribeye, etc.), and the structure of the menu has changed from a four-course to a three-course experience (I know one can order as many courses as desired, but the restructure will likely persuade the majority of guests to order as the menu directs them to, resulting in both labor and food cost savings for X). We booked an AQ room for a 2020 to Alaska on Solstice and we're thinking of perhaps eating dinner in Blu one time while on Summit in May, just to see whether it still suits us. If not, we may start keeping an eye out for deals on a Sky Suite for the Solstice, or downgrade to a regular balcony and buy a dining package. 

[Ereggae]

Just got off the Summit, and among numerous other things, was very disappointed with Blu.  After two days buffet food tasted the same everyday.

[George C]

We did infinity for 9 nights last month in a suite, just loved food and service in luminae can not remember having better food in my 60 plus cruises over 40 plus years. 

[angiemom]

Off the Infinity earlier this week.  Found selection, preparation, quality and presentation of food in the main dining room to be very good.