Oceanview Cafe dinner service being eliminated?

[Charles4515]

13 minutes ago, dandee2 said:

A few years ago there was very important aspect of the cruises experience that Celebrity tried to eliminate - The chocolate left on the pillow at turn-down. They reinstated the chocolate after the bad press they got.

Why was that important? It is a nice touch but it is not important. 

[Charles4515]

It does not sound like the end of the world from a report posted from Apex. 
 

 

 

[LMaxwell]

23 minutes ago, Charles4515 said:

It does not sound like the end of the world from a report posted from Apex. 
 

 

 

End of world? No. But Sounds pretty chintzy to me. They cut out the best parts. No international station. The grill and the stir fry. Now trays of pasta based chicken dishes and a meager salad bar. 

 

If your preferred restaurant removed half the menu you might not like it either. IJS. 

 

 

 

 

[MamaToMany]

59 minutes ago, Charles4515 said:

Why was that important? It is a nice touch but it is not important. 

So I get chocolate on my pillow, but almost zero dinner at night? I call BS. How is that anything resembling good business practice? (I booked free room service, full Oveanview Cafe hours, and much more. Its all gone.). What I bought and what exists now are two VERY different products. And that’s not in any good way.

[Charles4515]

51 minutes ago, MamaToMany said:

So I get chocolate on my pillow, but almost zero dinner at night? I call BS. How is that anything resembling good business practice? (I booked free room service, full Oveanview Cafe hours, and much more. It’s all gone.). What I bought and what exists now are two VERY different products. And that’s not in any good way.

No dinner at night? Are you kidding? There are multiple dining venues. 

[mnocket]

10 hours ago, bonagrad said:

The person who responded thanked me for my feedback and noted I made good points and that they'd review and see what they can do.

Sorry, but this sounds like the verbal equivalent of a canned email response.  What are they going to say?? "You made poor points and we are going to ignore them"?

[mnocket]

3 hours ago, Charles4515 said:

It does not sound like the end of the world from a report posted from Apex. 
 

 

 

Much appreciate this. I'd like to see more such reports - hopefully with pictures.  There must be a bunch of empty buffet stations.

[hcat]

oceanview is good when you get back late from a port day/ excursiion...or a day when one needs a break from regular dining

 

other than NEVER eating Tilapia, we will manage..Burgers would be nice..

[Los_Pepes]

In my experience, albeit limited, I have learned that the buffet is the single largest source of waste on a cruise ship. We all know that X is trying to cut costs and scaling back the buffet seems like a no brainer when it comes to cost cutting. 

[manmachine]

8 hours ago, Charles4515 said:

Why was that important? It is a nice touch but it is not important. 

Because that is where the cutbacks start.  
 

 

[LMaxwell]

Margaritaville at Sea, a 2 night cruise on a passed around 30 year old ship, to Freeport, a horrible industrial port - Now has a better casual dinner option than Celebrity. 

 

Sad. 

[mac_tlc]

We need @BennyBrun to go on a Celebrity cruise ASAP. Nobody does a better job of photographing the buffet!!

 

BTW, if you want to know what it “used to be”, find one of his live reviews from Apex last year. 
 

mac_tlc

[chamima]

6 hours ago, mnocket said:

 

 

16 hours ago, bonagrad said:

The person who responded thanked me for my feedback and noted I made good points and that they'd review and see what they can do.

Sorry, but this sounds like the verbal equivalent of a canned email response.  What are they going to say?? "You made poor points and we are going to ignore them"?

 

I recently ( but just before all  of the cutbacks) wrote an email to LLutoff asking when Celebrity would re-instate Luggage Valet and got the same phone call with the same response.

It seems, instead of addressing issues, Celebrity has hired a very empathetic sounding young lady to respond to people and make them feel "heard".

[Oceangoer2]

10 hours ago, WonderMan3 said:

Not clear what you are talking about in regards to pasta. There were not "3 pasta options" listed in that celebrity text. Of the three you listed above only one is technically a pasta dish. The pasta station is totally different where you can make your own pasta with choice of pasta type, sauces and mix-in veggies and meats. That is a big loss, for me anyway, as it was one of the stations I always visited when having dinner at OVC.

Yes...you're right.  A station involves a choice;  a prepared dish does not.  And....2 of the 3 are generally served with pasta but not necessarily.  Since I've never dined at dinner in the OV, I should not have commented.  mea culpa.

[NMTraveller]

10 hours ago, Charles4515 said:

Why was that important? It is a nice touch but it is not important. 

That is where you slip from being a luxury hotel to a Hampton Inn.  You won't see turn down service at a Hampton Inn.

 

Now we are talking about going from an upscale buffet to a scaled back Golden Coral buffet.

Edited January 9, 2023 by NMTraveller

[Charles4515]

29 minutes ago, NMTraveller said:

That is where you slip from being a luxury hotel to a Hampton Inn.  You won't see turn down service at a Hampton Inn.

 

Now we are talking about going from an upscale buffet to a scaled back Golden Coral buffet.

I have never considered Celebrity luxury. That is just marketing. Celebrity buffets have never been upscale. Upscale buffets are Azamara and Oceania. I don’t know anything about Golden Coral. Never been to one. 

[Arubamoose]

1 hour ago, mac_tlc said:

We need @BennyBrun to go on a Celebrity cruise ASAP. Nobody does a better job of photographing the buffet!!

 

BTW, if you want to know what it “used to be”, find one of his live reviews from Apex last year. 
 

mac_tlc

 

Absolutely!  I salivated over his review before we went on Apex.  

We had such an amazing time on Apex that we booked Edge for B2B this February.

I am not expecting the same experience but hopefully it will be good.

I've never been on a bad cruise.

[NMTraveller]

46 minutes ago, Charles4515 said:

I don’t know anything about Golden Coral. Never been to one. 

It is a low end buffet,  much like  the OVC in the evenings,  but with more choices.

Edited January 9, 2023 by NMTraveller

[C4HCG]

14 minutes ago, NMTraveller said:

It is a low end buffet,  much like  the OVC in the evenings,  but with more choices.

😁to compare the OVC unfavourably with Golden Coral???? We had the misfortune to visit a GC once and never again, thankfully they don’t have them in the UK.

[Charles4515]

12 minutes ago, NMTraveller said:

It is a low end buffet,  much like  the OVC in the evenings,  but with more choices.

I passed by a lot of Golden Corals and passed them by. For some reason from the look they had I thought they were cheap steak places like Sizzler. 

 

I don’ think the cuts in Oceanview dinner are a good thing but it sounds like the Oceanview diner is providing what was intended. A casual alternative where you can dress sloppy. 

[NMTraveller]

So X cheeses out on the dinner buffet and then what happens next?  People stop coming and then they close it down.  My prediction.

Edited January 9, 2023 by NMTraveller

[manmachine]

Some of the people responding to this post like it’s no big deal remind me of the Black Knight from Monty Python’s Holy Grail:  ‘Tis but a scratch!’

[Ex-Airbalancer]

4 minutes ago, Charles4515 said:

I passed by a lot of Golden Corals and passed them by. For some reason from the look they had I thought they were cheap steak places like Sizzler. 

 

I don’ think the cuts in Oceanview dinner are a good thing but it sounds like the Oceanview diner is providing what was intended. A casual alternative where you can dress sloppy. 

That is a silly comment 

on one cruise my partner had Covid , I tested negative, I was was only allowed eat or drink  in  the room,

so I would pick up food from Oceanview to take back to room to eat because didn’t want to wait around for 2 hours to get cold food from room service 

At that time in April ship was 60% filled , OV had a limited choice and about only thing hot was the grill and stirfry 

[gkbiiii]

What happened to "Modern Luxury," the whole basis for the Line's identity and ad campaign? 

[gkbiiii]

I should mention the Dinner Offering at the Buffet on Apex, was greatly reduced for dinner, compared with last Christmas aboard! All the top officers, only seemed to eat there at lunch.