A few dining questions

[perakcruiser]

After having lost me about 10 years before (mainly to MSC), Celebrity has caught me back with a quite good offer on the good olde Infinity. It included a vast amount of onboard credit that needs to be spent now. Probably mostly on wine and coffee, but also on some speciality restaurants. 

 

1) Are these open only for dinner? I am talking about Petit Chef, the Tuscan Grill I booked already for dinner.

2) MDR is only open for lunch on sea days, right? The menu in the app for our cruise is only available for dinner, so I wonder if it will be open for lunch at all. 

3) Our cruise is longer than 7 days, the menu in the app only shows these 7 days. Will it repeat after that? 

 

Overall I could complain that the menu is rather disappointing, no Tuna or other "high end" fish, no Filet Milgnon, no Seafood special, not even duck breast, which I remember as excellent even after more than 10 years. I do not complain as the price was right, but I understand now the many angry posts on the forum 😄 

[cruisestitch]

3 hours ago, perakcruiser said:

After having lost me about 10 years before (mainly to MSC), Celebrity has caught me back with a quite good offer on the good olde Infinity. It included a vast amount of onboard credit that needs to be spent now. Probably mostly on wine and coffee, but also on some speciality restaurants. 

 

1) Are these open only for dinner? I am talking about Petit Chef, the Tuscan Grill I booked already for dinner.

there may be a Tuscan Lunch, once per cruise

3 hours ago, perakcruiser said:

2) MDR is only open for lunch on sea days, right?

 

yes

 
The menu in the app for our cruise is only available for dinner, so I wonder if it will be open for lunch at all. 

the app is incomplete and unreliable

 

3 hours ago, perakcruiser said:

3) Our cruise is longer than 7 days, the menu in the app only shows these 7 days. Will it repeat after that? 
 

no it won’t repeat.  There are fourteen menus.  
 

 

 😄

 

[chemmo]

5 hours ago, perakcruiser said:

After having lost me about 10 years before (mainly to MSC), Celebrity has caught me back with a quite good offer on the good olde Infinity. It included a vast amount of onboard credit that needs to be spent now. Probably mostly on wine and coffee, but also on some speciality restaurants. 

 

1) Are these open only for dinner? I am talking about Petit Chef, the Tuscan Grill I booked already for dinner.

2) MDR is only open for lunch on sea days, right? The menu in the app for our cruise is only available for dinner, so I wonder if it will be open for lunch at all. 

3) Our cruise is longer than 7 days, the menu in the app only shows these 7 days. Will it repeat after that? 

 

Overall I could complain that the menu is rather disappointing, no Tuna or other "high end" fish, no Filet Milgnon, no Seafood special, not even duck breast, which I remember as excellent even after more than 10 years. I do not complain as the price was right, but I understand now the many angry posts on the forum 😄 

Look at Norway Lady’s recent review, lots of MDR pictures and comments. Personally I thought the menu looked quite nice. The dishes looked well presented.

 

If you haven’t done Le Petit Chef before it is worth going. It is fun rather than fine dining. Much as many people find it a ‘once and done’ most thoroughly enjoy that first visit. I have never seen it open at lunch.
 

Many people are put off Sushi of Five because they don’t like sushi. However the menu is far more eclectic. We find it a great choice for a light lunch and as you can pay per item then you can order as much or as little as you like. It is never really busy, even in the evenings in our experience. On a few cruises they have had a special ‘Taste of India’ meal once per cruise. This is served family style, I have never done it but have read good reviews. Sushi is usually open sea days and on some cruises we have found it open on some port days.

 

We find the buffet can give a good option, especially on evenings when you are tired. They do have themed days, look at the Today sheet.

 

Look out for an excursion called Chef’s market. This involves a small group going with one of the executive chefs to local markets to buy food, return with it to the ship and later enjoy a meal including the bought produce. One of my friends did this and loved it.

 

Chef’s table is another nice dining option. We have done two, one was excellent the other was marred a bit by a loud couple but well worth a go if you haven’t done it before.

 

Remember room service is a nice dining option too and at very little cost. A great option for balcony meals lunch or dinner. I think their chicken noodle soup and sandwiches with fries is exactly what I want some lunchtimes.

 

Hope I have successfully given you lots of ideas, food wise, to spend your $$$!

 

 

Edited June 13, 2023 by chemmo

[Mark_T]

5 hours ago, perakcruiser said:

MDR is only open for lunch on sea days, right? The menu in the app for our cruise is only available for dinner, so I wonder if it will be open for lunch at all. 

3) Our cruise is longer than 7 days, the menu in the app only shows these 7 days. Will it repeat after that? 

The app reflects the current cruise itinerary, not your cruise...

 

So the length will often be wrong, mixture of port and sea days will be different, the number of Chic nights etc. So if the current cruise is port intensive it will look as though the MDR is not open at all...

[RichYak]

1 hour ago, Mark_T said:

The app reflects the current cruise itinerary, not your cruise...

IMO, the app reflects a default cruise itinerary for that ship, not necessarily the current one. It will change to reflect one's actual cruise a day or 2 prior to sailing.

[Mark_T]

17 minutes ago, RichYak said:

IMO, the app reflects a default cruise itinerary for that ship, not necessarily the current one. It will change to reflect one's actual cruise a day or 2 prior to sailing.

I usually find the number of days shown reflects the current cruise, but the app is so messed up that anything is possible 🙂

 

On our Eclipse cruise earlier this year it didn't even show the MDR menus for the first week we were onboard... Then it started showing the desserts only for a while...

Edited June 13, 2023 by Mark_T

[patty1955]

We were on the Infinity last week and were a little disappointed in the food. It's okay but not like it used to be. After 7 days, the menus started repeating, which we've never seen before. The buffet was fully stocked and the carving station meats were excellent. Most of the buffet was dishes that hide the poor quality of the ingredients (chow mein, beef stew, etc). 

Sushi on Five and Tuscan Grill were excellent, as always.

[mahasamatman]

11 hours ago, RichYak said:

IMO, the app reflects a default cruise itinerary for that ship, not necessarily the current one. It will change to reflect one's actual cruise a day or 2 prior to sailing.

 

The app reflects some imaginary itinerary on a ship that may or may not exist. Do not rely on the menus presented in the app no matter when you look at them.

[mpk]

14 hours ago, RichYak said:

IMO, the app reflects a default cruise itinerary for that ship, not necessarily the current one. It will change to reflect one's actual cruise a day or 2 prior to sailing.

 

I wonder what could possibly be the logic behind that...  🤪   The itinerary is known, it has to be to sell the excursions, dining reservations, and even the cruise itself.  ??

[RichYak]

54 minutes ago, mpk said:

 

I wonder what could possibly be the logic behind that...  🤪   The itinerary is known, it has to be to sell the excursions, dining reservations, and even the cruise itself.  ??

Logic? Celebrity? 🤣

[perakcruiser]

22 hours ago, chemmo said:

Hope I have successfully given you lots of ideas, food wise, to spend your $$$!

 

You definitely did, thanks!

 

21 hours ago, Mark_T said:

The app reflects the current cruise itinerary, not your cruise...

 

So the length will often be wrong, mixture of port and sea days will be different, the number of Chic nights etc. So if the current cruise is port intensive it will look as though the MDR is not open at all...

 

8 hours ago, mahasamatman said:

The app reflects some imaginary itinerary on a ship that may or may not exist. Do not rely on the menus presented in the app no matter when you look at them.

Great! So I worked thru the menus to find out which evenings I should book a speciality restaurant for nothing. Even made some notes 😄

 

Usually with cruises on other lines these restaurants are not frequented too much and it is never a problem to get a table. But with these Celebrity hundreds of $$$ OBC offers things will be different of cause. 

[chemmo]

24 minutes ago, perakcruiser said:

You definitely did, thanks!

 

 

Great! So I worked thru the menus to find out which evenings I should book a speciality restaurant for nothing. Even made some notes 😄Usually with cruises on other lines these restaurants are not frequented too much and it is never a problem to get a table. But with these Celebrity hundreds of $$$ OBC offers things will be different of cause. 

Recent reviews have indicated that LPC has been very quiet and some second seatings have been cancelled. This would imply that all the more OBC is heading to Tuscan and Sushi. We are on Infinity next year and have speciality dining included with our room so I think I will book in both restaurants in advance for the nights we plan on using them.