Awful State of Ocean View Cafe for dinner

[Accessor]

2 minutes ago, bonagrad said:

I'm approaching my late 40s , am a DINK, planning on early retirement in Florida with the intention of cruising a lot more.  We are Elite, due to being Diamond on Royal and planned on cruising X a lot more.  I have potentially decades of cruising ahead of me.  I'm about to do 180 on Celebrity and look elsewhere.  Is that a smart business decision to alienate younger generations when they need passengers to fill new, larger ships?

 

We are early 50's have cruised probably over 500 days at sea with just about every cruiseline. Have you  tried Virgin? The food is outstanding, no crowds, fun vibe, and no noticeable cutbacks since they started. Virgin is to me, a great alternative in X, if you are more foodie driven vs fake luxury appearances. The crew is BEST of the best and superior to any line we have been on. No buffet, it's a made to order (no waste) food court that has high quality offerings.

[Ipeeinthepools]

4 minutes ago, TopoChico said:

There’s always Gelato. Every ship has a Gelateria but I never see anyone actually eat it. Does anyone really want Gelato?  They seem to all have a big area dedicated to it.
I’d like to see a little sushi/tapas area instead.  Princess had/has? that and we loved it.  

 

I suspect the Gelateria gets a lot of use because my favorite flavors are gone by the end of the cruise.

[NutsAboutGolf]

26 minutes ago, chamima said:

 

That doesn't mean they don't read it - just means they've decided to ignore what they read or that eventually we'll all stop complaining.

OR that eventually they'll rescind.

Remember the pillow chocolates?

 

So we know FOR SURE that the pillow chocolates came back due to the CC forums and not on board complaints?

[NutsAboutGolf]

27 minutes ago, Ipeeinthepools said:

 

Or Kobe Beef Burgers

 

23 minutes ago, TeeRick said:

They were never real Kobe beef.  Just a marketing ploy.

 

Coincidently...

 

 

[NutsAboutGolf]

10 minutes ago, TopoChico said:

There’s always Gelato. Every ship has a Gelateria but I never see anyone actually eat it. Does anyone really want Gelato?  They seem to all have a big area dedicated to it.
I’d like to see a little sushi/tapas area instead.  Princess had/has? that and we loved it.  
 

I remember when they used to have sushi on all the buffets, really good sushi. Now  they have a sushi restaurant.. we paid $340 for four people. I literally got an $18 bowl of Oodles of Noodles soup with “lobster” but they forget to put the lobster meat in, he just swam around in the pot apparently.

 

You get a free scoop with CC status

[basil1]

1 hour ago, JeanieC,Aston said:

Rather sit in the OVC eating Fish Fingers saying ‘Yeh! This is the fine dining we paid $x000 for.

I wasn't aware fish had fingers. Who knew?? lol

[terrydtx]

I was happy to see the video posted so that the Celebrity cheerleaders and naysayers could see the changes, they have been denying on other threads, posted by someone who was actually on a cruise before and after the changes. Not really surprised as this is what was expected when Celebrity let a bean counter run the company. Add in the huge increases in cabin costs and it gets even worse. Our Sky Suite that we booked last February on the Edge for the January 2024 NZ cruise has gone up 40% since we booked. If we were booking today, we would be looking at Oceania or Viking Ocean and not Celebrity. We did book two weeks ago an 18-day South America cruise for March 2025 on Oceania. We had planned on booking the Equinox for 14 nights, but we can do 18 nights with Oceania for the price of 14 nights on Equinox with 4 more port stops. I am one of the ones on CC who sent an email to Celebrity Corporate about our dissatisfaction with the changes in service and huge price increases, and how they were driving us Elite loyalty members to look elsewhere.  So far all I have heard back is crickets. 

[chamima]

18 minutes ago, TopoChico said:

There’s always Gelato. Every ship has a Gelateria but I never see anyone actually eat it. Does anyone really want Gelato?  They seem to all have a big area dedicated to it.
I’d like to see a little sushi/tapas area instead.  Princess had/has? that and we loved it.  
 

I remember when they used to have sushi on all the buffets, really good sushi. Now  they have a sushi restaurant.. we paid $340 for four people. I literally got an $18 bowl of Oodles of Noodles soup with “lobster” but they forget to put the lobster meat in, he just swam around in the pot apparently.

 

When they first introduced the Gelateria it was really good gelato. So we went there.

But even before Covid what was served there was basically just ice cream.

[steveso]

My wife and I never like to eat in MDR's for dinner mainly because our vegetarian choices are far more limited off a menu but also because we don't really want the waiter option  which then really limits evening timings.(before anyone asks we always still pay the full gratuity). 

 

We were about to book a summer Silhoutte cruise when we saw about the changes and so we have gone for another cruise line instead and I have e mailed Celebrity to let them know.

 

The point that people make here along the lines of you won't go hungry at the reduced buffet misses the point that if 10 other cruise lines offer a better food choice then we will go for the other lines where we have more choice not to go hungry.

 

I totally understand many people love cruises because of the waiter service and MDR experience but there is a significant minority who much prefer the buffet option.

 

It will be interesting to see which way this goes across the industry.

 

 

 

[Vagabond Knight]

Watched the video and now I admit that I'm a little bummed about our upcoming cruise.  I won't let it ruin the cruise for me, but I was really looking forward to trying the themed dinner nights in the OV, as I'd heard they were pretty nice.  My husband and I cruised in Aqua for the last few years and so I always felt like I needed to go to Blu for dinner since we'd already paid for a dining upgrade (especially since we don't use the spa stuff associated with Aqua). I'm cruising with a friend this next time, and we didn't choose to go Aqua, so I figured it was a great opportunity to finally try the OV for dinner as I've been pretty pleased with their breakfast and lunch offerings in the past. However, the meager selections made it look like the passengers had decided to head to a buffet five minutes before it closed for the night. 

 

Does anyone know if Royal Caribbean has also significantly downgraded their buffet?  My friend is a Royal cruiser and this cruise was going to be her intro to "upgrading" to Celebrity. 

[Guest TopoChico]

35 minutes ago, terrydtx said:

I was happy to see the video posted so that the Celebrity cheerleaders and naysayers could see the changes, they have been denying on other threads, posted by someone who was actually on a cruise before and after the changes. Not really surprised as this is what was expected when Celebrity let a bean counter run the company. Add in the huge increases in cabin costs and it gets even worse. Our Sky Suite that we booked last February on the Edge for the January 2024 NZ cruise has gone up 40% since we booked. If we were booking today, we would be looking at Oceania or Viking Ocean and not Celebrity. We did book two weeks ago an 18-day South America cruise for March 2025 on Oceania. We had planned on booking the Equinox for 14 nights, but we can do 18 nights with Oceania for the price of 14 nights on Equinox with 4 more port stops. I am one of the ones on CC who sent an email to Celebrity Corporate about our dissatisfaction with the changes in service and huge price increases, and how they were driving us Elite loyalty members to look elsewhere.  So far all I have heard back is crickets. 

When Jacques Pépin is the Executive Culinary Director for almost 20 years, you can be certain your dining experience on Oceania will be top notch.  Jacques would not have his name attached to anything less than perfection. 
Jacques and his daughter Claudine were just on board in the Caribbean for two weeks, where they spent considerable time in the kitchen and giving presentations. Afterwards, they went to Oceania’s test kitchen. My next cruise will be on Oceania for sure. 

[MamaFej]

5 hours ago, cruise47 said:

The Chargers lost their playoff game.

Yes. That was made abundantly clear in the post you quoted. 

[NutsAboutGolf]

1 minute ago, TopoChico said:

When Jacques Pépin is the Executive Culinary Director for almost 20 years, you can be certain your dining experience on Oceania will be top notch.  Jacques would not have his name attached to anything less than perfection. 
Jacques and his daughter Claudine were just on board in the Caribbean for two weeks, where they spent considerable time in the kitchen and giving presentations. Afterwards, they went to Oceania’s test kitchen. My next cruise will be on Oceania for sure. 

 

Chefs play a big part in food yet the cruise lines also need to ensure they're budgeting for quality ingredients.  Have a Lawn Club Grill (fee) burger than a buffet/Mast Grill (free) burger

[sarbah77]

54 minutes ago, bonagrad said:

I'm approaching my late 40s , am a DINK, planning on early retirement in Florida with the intention of cruising a lot more.  We are Elite, due to being Diamond on Royal and planned on cruising X a lot more.  We have potentially decades of cruising ahead of me.  We're about to do 180 on Celebrity and look elsewhere.  Is that a smart business decision to alienate younger generations when they need passengers to fill new, larger ships?

 

I feel this a lot. This is our first cruise - mine, my husband, and one of our friends (we'd invited two others but life got in the way for them) - with Celebrity. I've been tracking on these boards in anticipation of our cruise on 1/28 but started getting more concerned when I first read about the dinner buffet cutbacks.  As a group, we don't particularly care for a long sit down dinner each night. We do prefer the casual grab and go option of the buffet, having done both with RCI. 

 

I reached out to my TA, who looked into it and came back with an answer for Celebrity last week. Because my TA is amazing, SHE emailed ME today and said "so I reached out again...." and confirmed that they say they're doing "theme nights" on the buffet. So I hopped back on the boards and, who knew! One of the lead topics was about the ship we're going to be on and how hamstrung the buffet has been. 

 

The fact that this all happened AFTER final payment without any recompense is very frustrating. This buffet is not for us. 

 

I will say, though, that our TA went to bat for us and we're less frustrated than we were, say, yesterday.

[NutsAboutGolf]

7 minutes ago, sarbah77 said:

 

I feel this a lot. This is our first cruise - mine, my husband, and one of our friends (we'd invited two others but life got in the way for them) - with Celebrity. I've been tracking on these boards in anticipation of our cruise on 1/28 but started getting more concerned when I first read about the dinner buffet cutbacks.  As a group, we don't particularly care for a long sit down dinner each night. We do prefer the casual grab and go option of the buffet, having done both with RCI. 

 

I reached out to my TA, who looked into it and came back with an answer for Celebrity last week. Because my TA is amazing, SHE emailed ME today and said "so I reached out again...." and confirmed that they say they're doing "theme nights" on the buffet. So I hopped back on the boards and, who knew! One of the lead topics was about the ship we're going to be on and how hamstrung the buffet has been. 

 

The fact that this all happened AFTER final payment without any recompense is very frustrating. This buffet is not for us. 

 

I will say, though, that our TA went to bat for us and we're less frustrated than we were, say, yesterday.

 

Buffet Theme days/nights are nothing new however perhaps they'll advertise this more

[pilot]

On the Apex now for a B2B. The buffet is very good for breakfast and lunch. Dinner buffet is very limited. You won’t go hungry, but the selections are very few. 
 

We eat dinner in the dining room so no big deal for us, but if you eat dinner in the buffet you will be disappointed. 

[AC Stew]

I've digested (pardon the pun) this entire thread, and I find myself fascinated by the divergent emotions expressed. Although, for those who freely admit to not frequenting the OV, that kinda makes your opinions somewhat less valuable to this discussion.

 

On a longer sailing we do enjoy the occasional relaxed dinner in the OV. We like the quiet, and the ability to select healthier choices. Ditto to those who've already explained our reasons.

 

I'm not going to argue about the need for cost cuts and the like. My own groceries cost more, everyone's cost more. My problem (in reacting to the video) is the fact that the reduced hot food offerings appear to have been marinating in the half-scraped pans for far too long! Very unappealing. I don't mind if Celebrity wants to reduce the choices, but OMG, give us fish and chicken and veggies that are more freshly prepared and nicely presented! And fried fish fingers ... seriously?! 

 

I agree with the folks who actually dine in the OV and can live with changes but concede that the changes have gone too far. As for hubby and moi, we'll see for ourselves in a few weeks.

[terrydtx]

13 minutes ago, sarbah77 said:

I reached out to my TA, who looked into it and came back with an answer for Celebrity last week. Because my TA is amazing, SHE emailed ME today and said "so I reached out again...." and confirmed that they say they're doing "theme nights" on the buffet. So I hopped back on the boards and, who knew! One of the lead topics was about the ship we're going to be on and how hamstrung the buffet has been. 

Since you are new to Celebrity you will soon find out what most of seasoned Celebrity CC members already know. Very seldom does the information given to TA's and passengers by corporate match what really is going on when you board. The people at corporate only know what they are being told to say by the higher ups to all inquiries. The only theme night in the video posted in this thread is that "you will get less for more" and you will like it. We very seldom have dinner in the OVC as we much prefer the MDR options.

Edited January 16, 2023 by terrydtx

[NutsAboutGolf]

Just now, terrydtx said:

Since you are new to Celebrity you will soon find out what most of seasoned Celebrity CC members already know. Very seldom does the information given to TA's and passengers match what really is going on when you board. The people at corporate only know what they are being told to say by the higher ups to all inquiries. The only theme night in the video posted in this thread is that "you will get less for more" and you will like it. We very seldom have dinner in the OVC but we much prefer the MDR options.

 

To add, another dynamic is shoreside employees who are the ones feeding the TAs, usually speak in fleet-wide terms yet each ship may do things a bit different

[terrydtx]

7 minutes ago, AC Stew said:

I'm not going to argue about the need for cost cuts and the like. My own groceries cost more, everyone's cost more. My problem (in reacting to the video) is the fact that the reduced hot food offerings appear to have been marinating in the half-scraped pans for far too long! Very unappealing. I don't mind if Celebrity wants to reduce the choices, but OMG, give us fish and chicken and veggies that are more freshly prepared and nicely presented! And fried fish fingers ... seriously?! 

Looks like there are no longer any cooked to order stations in the OVC and I sure hope the fried fish fingers are not Tilapia!!! A carving station of roasted Turkey?  The last thing I want on my cruise is turkey or liver and onions.

Edited January 16, 2023 by terrydtx

[Arizona Wildcat]

3 minutes ago, terrydtx said:

Since you are new to Celebrity you will soon find out what most of seasoned Celebrity CC members already know. Very seldom does the information given to TA's and passengers by corporate match what really is going on when you board. The people at corporate only know what they are being told to say by the higher ups to all inquiries. The only theme night in the video posted in this thread is that "you will get less for more" and you will like it. We very seldom have dinner in the OVC as we much prefer the MDR options.

Agree.  The choices are now more limited.  It felt similar to Royal which had far fewer choices than Celebrity.

If people stop booking things with stop declining.   Right now bookings are robust.

FWIW looking at a TA for 2024 and prices there were very similar to last year.  They prices varied greatly from cruise to cruise.

[terrydtx]

1 minute ago, Arizona Wildcat said:

Agree.  The choices are now more limited.  It felt similar to Royal which had far fewer choices than Celebrity.

If people stop booking things with stop declining.   Right now bookings are robust.

FWIW looking at a TA for 2024 and prices there were very similar to last year.  They prices varied greatly from cruise to cruise.

We have since 2019 only booked Sky Suites on Celebrity and felt the price we were paying was justified by all the Retreat perks and benefits which made a SS a really good deal. We are seeing the future pricing for SS's to be outrageous compared to what we are already booked or paid in the past. Our Jan 2024 Edge New Zealand cruise is 40% more than what we booked in February 2021.  We for now, are not booking any more Celebrity cruises past January 2024 and looking at alternatives like Oceania, which we already booked for a March 2025 for South America. We are also looking at a summer 2024 Oceania cruise from Boston to Montreal which we will book very soon.

[MustBCruzn]

6 hours ago, jean87510 said:

Its a habit of many years as an RN where I had to gobble my food down. 

 

This made me laugh out loud! I've been an RN for over 30 years, and I completely understand. 🙂 

[terrydtx]

23 minutes ago, NutsAboutGolf said:

 

To add, another dynamic is shoreside employees who are the ones feeding the TAs, usually speak in fleet-wide terms yet each ship may do things a bit different

I do have to say after years of dealing with HAL corporate they are no better than Celebrity with information. Last year we cruised on the Oosterdam in August that when booked, was supposed to have departed from Venice. I knew early last year we would not be going from Venice because of the big cruise ship ban. My TA repeatedly asked HAL about this and the same answer every time we were going to depart from Venice. After I heard on CC that all of last year's summer Oosterdam cruises had been moved to Trieste, my TA again asked HAL Corporate about the change.  They denied it until about a month before departure when we got the email from HAL that our cruise was being switched.

[NevadaCruiser2023]

19 hours ago, NMTraveller said:

Thanks!  This is a very good summary of the cutbacks.  I did not realize that specialty dining was going up also.  I should have guessed.

 

It is a very good view of the OVC in the evenings.

I did hear that some of the justification for reducing the OVC offerings was to cut back on food waste. I would imagine a great deal of food is wasted by passengers taking it and not eating it, or just dying on the buffet line. Dinner time isn't the busiest time for the buffet and most people (ymmv) eat in MDR for dinner, probably why they didn't touch breakfast or lunch.  I do agree, though, that those who booked prior to these changes, are justified in feeling a tad upset.  This reeks of bait and switch.  Celebrity may have smoothed over feelings by saying "we're changing some pricing on the cruise you've already booked/paid for, in order to maintain a sense of fairness, please accept this $xx in OBC, we hope you enjoy your vacation".