Food & Beverage Update from the President

[horseymike]

40 minutes ago, hcat said:

Celeb Cold Cuts.... YUM!

 

 

 

Did they open a subway onboard ?

[mahdnc]

Darn, I thought the swan puffs were coming back.

[RTShaker]

1 hour ago, jcpelly said:

Lets hope they also tried the great looking but god awful deserts at the buffet and something can finally get done about that.  How hard can it be to bake a cake and slap some frosting on it that actually has some flavor to it.

I made some comments about the desserts back in 2017 about the lack of taste and the lack of consistency between ships. Most notably a "chiffon" cake that was excellent on the Eclipse (light and airy) and horrendous on the Equinox (dense and flavourless). Corporate apologized profusely and added a small OBC to my next cruise.  I think a lot of it had to do with the use of prepackaged cake mixes vs made from scratch. Most of the cakes seem to use the same base with only the decorating differing, so they all taste the same.

[hcat]

6 minutes ago, horseymike said:

Did they open a subway onboard ?

even subway now uses better looking meat!

[mac_tlc]

The top part of this menu is the prior “Classics” menu:

 

 

The middle part of this menu is the old “Classics” dessert menu.

 

 

I found these is an old thread by vtcruising. She was all things E-class and passed away way too soon, before Apex was launched. 
 

These were old Cyprus menus. By looking at the first menu and the “Celebrity Signatures” section, you can see the “variety” they used to have.

 

Mac_tlc

Edited November 2, 2023 by mac_tlc

[paulh84]

1 hour ago, zitsky said:

 

You’re missing something.  Celebrity sells very expensive wine by the glass packages then delivers sub par wine.

 

Like I said, if you’re wanting great wines, you know to skip the glass and buy the bottles. You’re not getting $50+ bottles offered by the glass.

[Rustyman]

Credit where credit’s due, on the face of it it looks like they have listened, or been forced to listen, to the many of us who have been very critical of the MDR offerings. Now waiting to see the reality of the changes and if all is positive we shall keep our 3 sailings next year, so fingers crossed.

[Georgia_Peaches]

37 minutes ago, horseymike said:

Did they open a subway onboard ?

That's offensive to Subway, whose cold cuts look so much better than the intestines on display in this pic.  🤮

[terrydtx]

36 minutes ago, Jim_Iain said:

 

I have to agree with you.   It takes some big kahuna's to admit that we made mistakes and we are now trying to fix some of them.   Many a CEO kicks in their heels and say It's my playbox and we will play by my rules. 

 

I heard many good things potentially about increasing variety in the MDR --  What about Luminae -  They have had the same boring menu for 10+ year and on Edge class we don't have the ability to order off the MDR menu. 

 

I'll hold off my opinion until my next cruise.   We board Edge -  the day after Thanksgiving

Jim, I agree, what about Luminae?  After 12 days on the Apex in September we found the Luminae menu boring, they did add a few new items but nothing memorable. We saw more duck and other fowl and a lot less beef. I will say the best improvement was the new Boulud menu items, the cold corn soup was delicious as was the Duck leg entree. We have 22 days on the Edge in January, and I hope the Luminae menu has a lot of improvements.

[NMTraveller]

1 hour ago, zitsky said:

 

You’re missing something.  Celebrity sells very expensive wine by the glass packages then delivers sub par wines.

I have found some good wines on Celebrity.  You just have to walk all of the way over to Cellar Masters and pay an upcharge even with the premium package.

[NMTraveller]

Did we get the chocolates at turndown back?

[RichYak]

1 hour ago, zitsky said:

 

You’re missing something.  Celebrity sells very expensive wine by the glass packages then delivers sub par wines.

Celebrity sells a wine by the glass package? That’s news to me. 

[terrydtx]

Just now, NMTraveller said:

Did we get the chocolates at turndown back?

We got the chocolates every night on the Apex in September, we were in a SS if that makes a difference.

[Spudd]

4 minutes ago, NMTraveller said:

Did we get the chocolates at turndown back?

I'm on Eclipse right now and there are chocolates every night. 

[NutsAboutGolf]

4 minutes ago, NMTraveller said:

Did we get the chocolates at turndown back?

The new rule is, unless they recently changed it, you get them on the first and last nights only, it’s by request for every night and there are many reports of folks not receiving their requested chocolates due to the attendant forgetting

[FlutePrayer]

3 minutes ago, Spudd said:

I'm on Eclipse right now and there are chocolates every night. 

We got ours every night on the Eclipse a few weeks ago as well.

[High on the Seas]

51 minutes ago, mahdnc said:

Darn, I thought the swan puffs were coming back.

That would make my day. 

[Jim_Iain]

10 minutes ago, terrydtx said:

Jim, I agree, what about Luminae?  After 12 days on the Apex in September we found the Luminae menu boring, they did add a few new items but nothing memorable. We saw more duck and other fowl and a lot less beef. I will say the best improvement was the new Boulud menu items, the cold corn soup was delicious as was the Duck leg entree. We have 22 days on the Edge in January, and I hope the Luminae menu has a lot of improvements.

I'll let you know -   we will be on for 26 day  Nov/Dec.   

When we were on Apex in April May for 32 days -   The poultry chef on the first 2 couldn't cook to save his life.   It was like trying to eat road kill.   When you take poultry off their already limited menu it was tough.   At least for the last 11 days they had a new poultry chef and he did a great job.   The were in the midst of the change over and didn't have the Daniel B's menu available at all.

[Live2Cruise4ever]

We cruised on CC starting in 1996. It was fantastic. Food was awesome!!  I loved the cold fruit soups! Loved Horizon and Zenith. Mercury we had President's suite and sky suites. Galaxy and Century.  Then Royal Caribbean bought them.  Immediately started seeing little things going away. We were very sad to see this happen. Mostly cruising HAL now and the food is great, even the buffet. I know all the lines had problems with the pandemic and we will stay with Holland America Line. 

[doghog]

9 minutes ago, NutsAboutGolf said:

The new rule is, unless they recently changed it, you get them on the first and last nights only, it’s by request for every night and there are many reports of folks not receiving their requested chocolates due to the attendant forgetting

We were on the Eclipse 8 October and received pillow chocolates every night. Didn't even think to question the stateroom attendant about the possibility of not having them each night. Each chic evening we got two pieces each. 

[tschwa2]

So should I keep my 5 night specialty package for my 6 night cruise next month or cancel and try the MDR.  It was bad in August.  Tough lamb, bad steak, blah choices.  I would rather eat at 6:30 and have good food in the main dining room but will take 8-9p in the specialty restaurants if that means better food.  

[goofysmom99]

Unfortunately, I disembark after 16 nights on the day before Thanksgiving.  It took me a long time to reach zenith and I never thought I'd leave Celebrity.  But food is one of the primary reasons I cruise.  I have to cook gluten free every single day at home and look to cruising as my happy place where someone else does the cooking with all the restrictions GF entails.  What X did to the MDR this past year is unforgiveable, especially with so much cheap, cheap, cheap pasta. It took playing undercover boss to discover the menus stink?  Really?  What insight, a true lightbulb moment.  What in the world were they thinking to even try these boneheaded management moves in the first place?  Celebrity has lost my trust completely and this horse has bolted (cruises booked with other lines for 2024/5).  At least all my future X bookings were made while on board so will lose only $100 each.  Well, I'm for sure taking two short ones on Summit but after those, at least for now, my plan is to just let the the 2024/5 bookings fade away at final payment.  Certainly not giving X the courtesy of advance notice, much the same way they notified me in advance of their cuts. 

 

I sincerely hope the MDR food improves. I'll wait for reviews to come in before I pay money to find out for myself.

[NMTraveller]

5 minutes ago, tschwa2 said:

So should I keep my 5 night specialty package for my 6 night cruise next month or cancel and try the MDR.  It was bad in August.  Tough lamb, bad steak, blah choices.  I would rather eat at 6:30 and have good food in the main dining room but will take 8-9p in the specialty restaurants if that means better food.  

I am keeping my specialty reservations.

 

It sounds like there are more choices on the MDR menu,  but I did not hear anything about putting the quality of the cuts of meat back...

Edited November 2, 2023 by NMTraveller

[hcat]

56 minutes ago, mac_tlc said:

The top part of this menu is the prior “Classics” menu:

 

 

The middle part of this menu is the old “Classics” dessert menu.

 

 

I found these is an old thread by vtcruising. She was all things E-class and passed away way too soon, before Apex was launched. 
 

These were old Cyprus menus. By looking at the first menu and the “Celebrity Signatures” section, you can see the “variety” they used to have.

 

Mac_tlc

Do they still have the rack of  lamb and beef  tournados and duck?

 

..thanks for remembering Vt cruiser..just came across the b day card she left for me on EDGE... Hope all the original Edgies are cruising strong!

[NutsAboutGolf]

5 minutes ago, doghog said:

We were on the Eclipse 8 October and received pillow chocolates every night. Didn't even think to question the stateroom attendant about the possibility of not having them each night. Each chic evening we got two pieces each. 

 

Now I wonder if they changed it.  I first saw the rule here on CC then experienced it firsthand in August on the Summit.  I'm also guessing there are times when the attendants forget and other times the attendants want to be nice and leave them in every room they're responsible for