Ah!! The Celebrity Treatment...How Did It Affect Me?

[many cruises]

I'm sorry to say that I called Celebrity Customer Service to attempt to get copies of the Infinity (7 night) Alaska dinner menus & I wasn't treated "famously. " We are booked on the Infinity to Alaska in July & we would like to see the dinner menus to decide which night to go to the alternative restaurant with a large group. The customer service agent I spoke with acted like my question was ridiculus. I asked if she could contact the ship so I could get the menus faxed to me prior to the cruise. She said she had no way of doing that & acted irritated with my request. She also told me the menus are constantly changing & that my group would have to wait until we were onboard. This seems like such a simple request... they certainly didn't go out of their way to help me.

[hshowalter]

I think your request was asking alot of celebrity. They give the passenger the best service of all major cruise Lines. My wife & I were on the Millie O3-05-06.on the 14 day South America cruise & 3 days 12 people were killed on an independent tour & Celebrity had no responsabilty;yet they paid for the relatives & a Rabbi to come to Chile. Having been on 54 cruises I can tell you celebrity Is truly #1.

[Eleris]

I can only imagine that you are joking with us since this request for dinner menus is so far out there! They will have a choice of a fish, beef, fowl, pasta or you can have Salmon, Steak, or Chicken Breast everynight. You can always find something you like. As for bothering the main office with copies of the dinner menu be serious they have how many ships carrying how many thousands of passengers on any given day. Try calling any famous hotel and getting a copy of their dinner menus and see how quickly they fax them to you!

[Suite Travels]

Just a suggestion. You can ask for the next evenings menu when you go to the main dining room or you might ask them for all them when you board. Cruise ship's usually rotate menu's so what you had on your last cruise may not be offered on the next. If you want something special just give your head waiter 24 hrs notice. We have sailed Celebrity a few times and the food is quite good and better than some well touted land based venues.

[frchteaze]

I think what everyone (including Celebrity) should have told you, is that the menus are pretty much left up to the chef to decide from a given selection. I haven't had any cruises yet, so I'm only talking from research, but there are many threads around here and on other sites that talk about how the menus come about. Basically, there are at least 9-10 different menus and the chef can swap them up as he sees fit before the start of the cruise. So there's really no way to know exactly which night will be which menu, other than you can pretty much guarantee lobster on the 2nd formal night.

 

The X customer support person shouldn't have been so rude. So I don't blame you for being upset, but all in all, if you have that large of a group wanting to make alternate dining reservations, there really won't be any one night where everybody hates the menu. Someone will have to give up something that sounds good, but I bet all of you will enjoy the alternate dining. I say pick a night that probably won't be a formal night and go have fun regardless of what the main dining menu looks like!

[chily3]

to Alaska in July & we would like to see the dinner menus to decide which night to go to the alternative restaurant with a large group. .

 

The only real menu you might want to consider when booking the Specialty restaurant would be the last formal night when they serve lobster in the main dinning room. Otherwise the main dinning room meals really do not matter when taking the experience of the specialty dinning. We always do this and have the wine paring on the first time but not the second or third. To us it is well worth at least two times minimum.

 

Mike & Emily:)

[cruising with marti]

All I CAN SAY, IS THE MENU WILL BE , WHAT IT WILL BE.:)

PHIL

[fllady]

Infinity menus:

 

http://www.thepreismans.com/Infinity%20menus.htm

BTW, The specialty restaurant tables are for 2-4-6. If you need 8, then request the wine cellar.

[catmand]

So, you have a request that you think should be honored and because it is not, there is something wrong with the entire cruise line?

Sorry, I am one who thinks this request is out of line.

[basket]

I'm sorry you don't feel you were treated famously and I'm sorry that the agent was rude but I think your request was out of line. I would be surprised if you would be able to get eight people to agree on what menu they disliked to go to the specialty restaurant on a specifc evening anyway.

What you generally can find out from other cruisers on this board is what nights are formal, semi-formal or casual and make your decision from that information.

I'm curious -- have the other cruise lines you've sailed sent you their menus and told you which specific evenings they would be served?

[lysolqn]

Perhaps the reason customer service acted like the OP's question was ridiculous is because it is ridiculous! This OP can't be for real...must be someone out for a troll. If it is legit, pity the other passengers and crew sailing with Many Cruises!

[frchteaze]

Lord knows I can be one of the first people to jump on someone for being ridiculous and/or stupid, but I really don't understand why all of you are giving the OP such a hard time for this. Some people are just weird about food. (Myself included.)

 

I don't think this thread is any stranger or more "out of line" than all the posts talking about the bleach stain on the chair or the worn patch of carpet in the martini bar.

 

I could be wrong here, but if the customer service rep had simply just told the OP (in a polite nice voice) that they couldn't give them menus ahead of time because they don't know ahead of time which menu will be which night, the problem would have been solved. Asking a question about menus is not ridiculous; berating the OP because they asked the question is.

[MLT53]

My husband and I were on the 4/17 cruise to the Mexican Riviera on the Mercury. It was our first cruise, and it was so incredible that we have become totally hooked on cruising. Celebrity is a wonderful company, in our opinion, and we were pampered on that cruise.

 

My husband asked for a copy of one of the Celebrity menus to show our family and friends how incredible they were. We were told that there is a copyright on the menus, and that they were sorry they couldn't give us one. We were disappointed, but we understood.

 

That might be a reason they wouldn't send you one.

[Longboysfan]

All I CAN SAY, IS THE MENU WILL BE , WHAT IT WILL BE.:)

PHIL

 

And what it will be is very good.

[Susan-M]

This seems like such a simple request... they certainly didn't go out of their way to help me.

 

I think that Celebrity must have to draw the line somewhere and sending out menus to future passengers is probably on the other side of that line. Once they started mailing or faxing menus to one person.... it would probably escalate to the point where several new job positions could be created to handle the demand.

 

It sounds like you are putting a lot of effort into making sure that every detail is looked after for your group cruise - and your group will probably have an excellent time because of the careful planning. But I would just take a chance on this one and plan your alternative dining on a night other than formal dining, unless your group prefers to miss one of the formal nights.

[bepsf]

Maybe the OP was trying to schedule her grillroom dinner on "Liver Night"

:rolleyes:

[Lsimon]

Celebrity treated me fabulously again, and I can't wait to go back!

 

I'd relax and go with the flow. If I were you I'd plan on going to the specialty restaurant on a mid-cruise sea day - if there is one. Personally, I like to avoid the first couple days as these are nice for getting to know your table mates (if you don't already know them) and you dining room staff.

 

I also prefer a sea day, or a day we get back relatively early, as I like to start the specialty restaurant a little earlier than my normal late dining seating - as you can easily take 2 to 3 hours for dinner in this restaurant if you're not rushing - especially if you have a good group for talking.

 

I'd avoid the day after boarding and the second to last night, as these are usually formal nights - and I prefer the dining room on these nights.

 

Finally, know that you should go to the specialty restaurant ASAP after boarding to make, or confirm, your reservation. I read in a recent thread that they have dining room menus so you might be able to confirm your chosen night at this time. Also be aware that you must be a member of captains club, and have booking ID for all guests, to make advance reservations. They also accept only groups of 6 or less for advance reservations, although once on board they will sometimes allow tables of 8 if space is available. Eight is a little bit of tight squeeze, with the wine room having the largest table for this.

[many cruises]

This is in response to my post. First, I want to thank all the posters who made many suggestions & for posting sample Infinity menus. I am fully aware of the wonderful food & service that passengers receive on Celebrity, because one of our best cruises was on the Century. I was treated "famously" on the Century and because of that great cruise we are going on the Infinity. We fully expect our cruise on the Infinity to be terrific too.

 

I don't think my request was out of line. What was out of line was the customer service representative's rudeness and irritation. If the customer service rep. had politely told me they cannot give the menus out ahead of time, rather than acting irritated...the phone conversation would have ended on a positive note. Unfortunately, this did not occur and that was my major problem with the phone call.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[GMoney]

I think what everyone (including Celebrity) should have told you, is that the menus are pretty much left up to the chef to decide from a given selection. I haven't had any cruises yet, so I'm only talking from research, but there are many threads around here and on other sites that talk about how the menus come about. Basically, there are at least 9-10 different menus and the chef can swap them up as he sees fit before the start of the cruise. So there's really no way to know exactly which night will be which menu, other than you can pretty much guarantee lobster on the 2nd formal night.

 

 

While chefs may have some limited latitude with menu preparation, my experience is that the food line-up is pretty stable and planned well ahead of time 1) b/c of the lead time needed to purchase food and get it on board and 2) to provide a consistent experience fleetwide.

[flashdog_1]

Please note at the bottom of the front cover: day one, day two etc.

 

The menus that fllady so kindly posted for a 7 night cruise will be accurate UNLESS the chef for whatever reason changes to a different number. That happened on our Panama cruise in 2004. It was an 11 nighter, but we had one menu called "night 14." Perhaps because it included Thanksgiving, it had to be varied. The maitre 'd pointed this out to me when I asked him a question when I saw him with a menu in the Lido. I asked, "is that tonight's menu?" He pointed to the "Day 1" on the cover and said, "yes, it is the same every time." So if you have already been on an X cruise, youknow there will be Hake the first night.

 

At the time of my first cruise on X my son was in culinary school and I asked my room steward if he would be able to obtain a copy of each menu for me. He did so. On subsequent cruises in the morning I asked the steward to obtain that night's menu so I could decide if I wanted room service or to go to casual dining. He did so, but I gave it back each time.

 

Have a wonderful time!

[ldoc31]

This seems like such a simple request... they certainly didn't go out of their way to help me.

 

You wanted them to contact a ship at sea and then fax you the menus so you could decide on alternative dinning. If this is a simple request what would you consider a difficult one? Of course the service rep should not have been rude but I imagine this one probably put her over her patience limit.