Suite Luminae question - Constellation

[DebInAntigua]

We're looking at booking our first suite ever, on the Constellation after her refurb next year. The Luminae menu looks good but it is a bit limited. Are you able to order off of the MDR upon request, if you don't see anything to your liking on a particular night? DH is pretty picky.

[jelayne]

Just now, DebInAntigua said:

We're looking at booking our first suite ever, on the Constellation after her refurb next year. The Luminae menu looks good but it is a bit limited. Are you able to order off of the MDR upon request, if you don't see anything to your liking on a particular night? DH is pretty picky.

 

We were able to order from the MDR on Connie, Infinity & Summit both in Luminae and in Blu.  

[Want2Cruise 701]

Yes.  We've been able to order off the MDR menu.  No problem on any M or SClass ship.  

[bigbenboys]

You can ask your butler to see the Luminae menus or ask in The Retreat for the menus and decide if you like the dinner options a day ahead. If the app is up and running you should be able to see the menus their. If you dont see something talk to the staff in Luminae and come up with a custom meal for that day. You must give the staff 24 hours notice.

[George C]

We were able to order from regular menu in luminae in infinity and summit, you can look at menu for all the restaurants in micheals suite lounge just ask concierge. We are picky but loved food in luminae. Micheals is suite lounge on some ships there changing suite lounge to the retreat after ships get refurbished. Micheals has free drinks from early morning to late. Staff in both are great.

[CruisersTimesThree]

Dined in Luminae on the Summit, which is a M-class ship and also on the Silhouette, which is a S-class ship and was always given the MDR menu when I was seated.

Great options to be able to use both menus.

[bEwAbG]

Luminae is the primary reason to book a suite.  If he's going to only eat MDR food, then I'd factor that into the decision.  The Sky Suites on M-Class are not that big.

 

 

[DebInAntigua]

1 minute ago, bEwAbG said:

Luminae is the primary reason to book a suite.  If he's going to only eat MDR food, then I'd factor that into the decision.  The Sky Suites on M-Class are not that big.

 

 

Oh, I think he'll be fine most days. But once you factor out the vegetarian options and things that sound "exotic" to someone raised in a tiny southern USA town, there will no doubt be a few days where he will want another option. Looks like Luminae only offers about 5 entrees. In general he'll love the fine dining experience, he's just got a narrower palate than I do.

[bEwAbG]

1 hour ago, DebInAntigua said:

Oh, I think he'll be fine most days. But once you factor out the vegetarian options and things that sound "exotic" to someone raised in a tiny southern USA town, there will no doubt be a few days where he will want another option. Looks like Luminae only offers about 5 entrees. In general he'll love the fine dining experience, he's just got a narrower palate than I do.

 

I always tell people to ignore the descriptions and focus on what the base dish is.  There's usually a pasta dish, a red meat dish, a chicken dish, a fish dish, and a vegetarian dish.  Always ask the waiter for recommendations and listen to them.  They've yet to steer me wrong.  If you don't like the entree, they'll bring you something else, so you don't have to go hungry if you pick the wrong thing.  I'd err on always trying something from the Luminae menu versus picking anything from the MDR one because the quality of the latter is not as high.

[DebInAntigua]

Second question- Anything special about Luminae for breakfast? I checked out the menu in the app for an upcoming sailing and was surprised not to see more upscale breakfast offerings. Looked almost the same as MDR menu. Thought there would be eggs Benedict topped with crab and such but it seemed pretty basic?

[bigbenboys]

4 hours ago, DebInAntigua said:

Oh, I think he'll be fine most days. But once you factor out the vegetarian options and things that sound "exotic" to someone raised in a tiny southern USA town, there will no doubt be a few days where he will want another option. Looks like Luminae only offers about 5 entrees. In general he'll love the fine dining experience, he's just got a narrower palate than I do.

Let me tell you a story of a man call Jed. One of the reasons we started booking suites is because in Blu you could not order off the MDR menu. Yes some people have gotten meals from the MDR in Blu. I do enjoy Luminae on all Celebrity, but the Edge. I also do not eat "exotic" things. I dont eat Lamb, veal, pigeon, quail or pheasant. Dont get me wrong, if I'm at a dinner party and lamb is the only option I will eat it.

One night in Luminae I enjoyed my shrimp appetizer. My entree was pork and it was dry and not very good. I'm not one to send food back, but I did. I asked our waiter that we had cruised with a number of times. Please removed this entree. I asked if they could just bring me another shrimp appetizer. He went and had them make the shrimp appetizer into a entree.

Edited August 15, 2019 by bigbenboys
added words

[NCHPcruiser]

We have sailed on all M & S class ships in recent years and have always been able to order off the main dining room menu in Luminae.   Many times it was handed to us along with the Luminae menu.  Having also been raised in a tiny southern town I have no doubt there will something to everyone's liking.   Nothing is very exotic and we often ordered the vegetarian option as an extra for the table.  

 

[Plato123]

You can not order from the MDR menu when in Luminae on the Edge because the kitchens are quite far apart.  Hopefully they will not move kitchens around on the redone Constellation..

[hrhdhd]

15 hours ago, DebInAntigua said:

Second question- Anything special about Luminae for breakfast? I checked out the menu in the app for an upcoming sailing and was surprised not to see more upscale breakfast offerings. Looked almost the same as MDR menu. Thought there would be eggs Benedict topped with crab and such but it seemed pretty basic?

 

Breakfast is nice mostly because of the service. Someone will get you juice, someone will bring you tea or coffee, someone is roaming with a tray of yummy pastries, and of course you can order whatever you want off the menu.

 

It's a nice experience, but if you want quicker service to get off for an excursion, they will speed up accordingly.

[George C]

Agree service is one of the things that makes all meals in luminae special, also normally can get window table with great view. Very easy to get water and coffee refills

[misterkevin]

The menus in Luminae do not do the dishes justice. You can't judge the quality of the food in the restaurant by their minimal descriptions. After our Luminae experience this month on the Equinox, I can attest to this.

 

Breakfast entrees come with fingerling potato sides, both green and white asparagus, and sauteed wild mushrooms. The smoked salmon plate comes with caviar. The pastry dish at breakfast had the most amazing cherry cheese danish with candied cherries and puff pastry as well as chocolate and plain croissants, and muffins.

 

For dinner, the bread plate had a rotating selection of lavash (flatbread) with interesting spices. The seafood veloute has poached oysters in it. The Daniel Boulud Moroccan chicken dish sounds boring and tastes heavenly; same with his cold carrot ginger soup. Every meal in Luminae begins with an amuse bouche, there is a fresh sorbet palate cleanser before dessert, and in addition to dessert, there's a mignardise cart (see below) with the most delectable sweet bites I've ever seen.

 

We had the option to order what turned out to be more mundane offerings from the MDR menu, and they were just that, rather plain and not nearly as interesting. Luminae is unquestionably better than MDR and Blu, in my opinion.

Edited August 15, 2019 by misterkevin

[TeeRick]

23 hours ago, DebInAntigua said:

We're looking at booking our first suite ever, on the Constellation after her refurb next year. The Luminae menu looks good but it is a bit limited. Are you able to order off of the MDR upon request, if you don't see anything to your liking on a particular night? DH is pretty picky.

What type of suite?  Some come with complimentary specialty dining in addition to Luminae.  In general you can check all menus in Michael's Club/Retreat in the morning to compare Luminae to the MDR selections.  Also you can request special selections in Luminae with 24 hr advanced notice.  You will have plenty of great options.

[floatel_lvr]

This thread has been very informative... I am now looking forward to our first suite experience even more!!!

[Arubalisa]

21 hours ago, DebInAntigua said:

Thought there would be eggs Benedict topped with crab and such but it seemed pretty basic?

 Staff in Luminae is hard pressed to say no to any reasonable request. Our family had the world's best Key Lime pie at the Oceanview Cafe buffet on the day we were in Key West. We loved it so much, as a surprise, my husband requested that our family have it for dessert one night later in our week. He spoke to the Maitre 'd at Luminae and two nights later came our wonderful surprise!!

 One day at lunch there are crabcakes on the menu. If you requested a day before, I am sure the Luminae kitchen could scrape together some crabmeat to place a top your poached egg. Luminae and MDR menus aside, the food will be hot and for the most part, ESPECIALLY at breakfast, cooked to order. You can order your omelet with whatever fixings you choose. 

[varoo]

On 8/14/2019 at 11:54 AM, DebInAntigua said:

We're looking at booking our first suite ever, on the Constellation after her refurb next year. The Luminae menu looks good but it is a bit limited. Are you able to order off of the MDR upon request, if you don't see anything to your liking on a particular night? DH is pretty picky.

 

You may order whatever you like from both menus.

Just ask your waiter in Luminae for the MDR menu.

We only needed to ask for it once, and after that they would automatically bring us both menus every time.

 

[moneeman]

While this may not be "officially" available, my wife was able to order a Blu entree a couple of times (but was turned down the night they had halibut).  Also ordered off the MDR a time or two and by the end of the cruise they were handing us multiple menus.  We used the Celebrity app beforehand, which shows the menus for all restaurants, so we were typically prepared to order when we walked into Luminae.  I'm still salivating over the morning pastry selection.  One morning I had a granola parfait, fruit, a pastry, eggs with bacon AND a waffle.  I didn't plan to eat that much, but just kept ordering.  The Luminae staff was the best part of our cruise (apart from the beauty of Alaska).

[JFontaine]

Luminae also has the children’s menu, and for simple/plain eaters like me the twin filet on the children’s menu is one of the best steaks on board. 

[George C]

My only problem with luminae is it is closed for lunch on port days but open on embarkation and breakfast hours could be expanded.

[moneeman]

4 hours ago, George C said:

My only problem with luminae is it is closed for lunch on port days but open on embarkation and breakfast hours could be expanded.

On our recent cruise, Luminae WAS open for lunch on one of our port days.  It was the day we were in Icy Strait Point, so perhaps they opened because there aren't many options on land.  Interestingly, we had the best dessert of the entire cruise at that lunch, and at our request they set aside four more for us and our travel companions for dinner.

[George C]

On our March cruise lunch menu said trout which we love but they were out, so they replaced it with fantastic sea bass . Can not wait till February cruise and even though we have a royal suite ( our first) which gives us free specialty restaurants I sure most of our meals will still be in luminae.