Some comments from last week's cruise on Zenith

[raymac46]

We just returned from a 7 day Bermuda cruise on Zenith (Sept30-Oct 7) and here are a few of my comments for your consideration.

• Zenith is A-OK. She’s an older ship, but in great shape. Our stateroom and bathroom were spotless and functional. The bed was fine and the bed coverings were in good condition, as good as any hotel we’ve stayed in recently.
  
• The Zenith crew is fantastic. Jeff Potts is a great cruise director. If you get lucky you might have George Fernandes as your cabin steward. We also had two great wait staff - our waiter was Pacheco and his assistant was Bagus. They couldn’t do enough for us.
  
• The Cova Café on Zenith is a delight. It’s roomy and well appointed – better than the one on M Class ships in our view. The library is also excellent – lots of good books.
  
• You will feel the ship’s motion on a cruise to Bermuda. Zenith is not a big ship and the ocean is well…the Atlantic. We had a rocky sail out to Bermuda and coming back was extremely rough – high winds and 25 foot seas at least. We had Bonamine and you’ll need it probably. The last night we skipped dinner because everybody in our family group was feeling a bit (or a lot) queasy.
  
• Bermuda is a wonderful place to visit and Zenith gives you the best experience with two days in Hamilton and close to that in St George. Take advantage of your Monday to sightsee and visit the beaches as you’re the only ship in Hamilton that day. Tuesday was a zoo in Hamilton and Horseshoe Bay with Empress in Hamilton as well, Explorer in the Dockyard.
  
• We took a taxi tour with Eugene Hewry on Monday and if you have 4 in your party it’s affordable and great fun. He’ll take you places the buses can never go and he’s a wealth of local information.
  
• If you are a military buff by all means visit Fort St Catherine near St George. It’s a well preserved piece of Bermuda history.
  
• You must be introduced to two other pieces of Bermudian culture – the Dark and Stormy and Rum Swizzle cocktails.
  
• The dining room dress code was well understood and the overwhelming majority of the passengers on our cruise complied with it. It was great to see this.

[ecslady]

Thanks for your review. Can't wait to set foot on board in 12 days!

[Deb C.]

Nancy:

 

Be nice to Zenith on your cruise because I'm boarding as you disembark in Tampa for 14 days! :D

 

Sounds like Zenith is doing just fine these days! :cool:

 

Thanks Raymac for your review!

[Betty4]

Thanks - I was wondering about recent adherence to the dress code, and you can't get more recent than your trip! We are leaving this Saturday on Zenith's last 7 day Bermuda run of the season. Worried about the weather and rough seas, but I have my Bonine and I'm getting a patch prescription today. When you say 25 foot waves, can you walk/stand during that?

 

Which cabin were you in? It sounds like you had great service all around. Any advice on how to spend a rainy day on shore (just in case)?.

[raymac46]

Thanks - When you say 25 foot waves, can you walk/stand during that?

 

Which cabin were you in? It sounds like you had great service all around. Any advice on how to spend a rainy day on shore (just in case)?.

Yes you can walk and stand but you'll need most of the hallway. Hold on to the handrails on the stairs and stay off the exposed decks as they'll be wet and slippery. You'd want to eschew high heels I think. You may not want to eat much.

It's pretty much a rock and roll experience. We had to re-pack during all this and it wasn't a lot of fun. Depends on how good a sailor you are. Our tablemates had dinner during the bad weather but Sally is the granddaughter of a WWII Navy admiral and daughter of a retired USN commander. It's in her genes I think.

We were in cabin 5071 dead amidships. Doesn't help with the roll however.

Our table was #2 right in the port side aft corner of the restaurant.

We had no rainy days when we were there but I could suggest a visit to the Crystal Caves or maybe the Aquarium at the Flatts.

Watch out for Pacheco on your cruise and tell him that the Canadians from Table 2 late seating on the Sept 30 cruise say hello. He is usually handing out trays at the buffet in the morning.

[Sky Sweet]

Hi Raymac :)

 

Did you miss any of the amenities of a newer ship, such as a balcony?

[bilgeboyPa]

HI Ray,

I was on Zenith this past May and George was my cabin attendant. He is excellent. Great service,. We were in cabin 5140. It was an inside.

I thought all the service onboard was outstanding. It was a great experience...

Jeff

[raymac46]

Hi Raymac :)

 

Did you miss any of the amenities of a newer ship, such as a balcony?

Well, remember this was a seven day cruise with 4 days in port. Also the two major sea days were not the sort of ones you'd be sitting out on a balcony anyway. :D Still and all, it was fine to cruise without a balcony.

We spent lots of time in the public areas and met plenty of great people, especially on sail-in and sailaway. We found out we can survive quite nicely with a big picture window, even if we don't have a balcony. I'd still want an outside cabin however, especially if the weather turns nasty.

[CaroleSP]

Thanks - I was wondering about recent adherence to the dress code, and you can't get more recent than your trip! We are leaving this Saturday on Zenith's last 7 day Bermuda run of the season. Worried about the weather and rough seas, but I have my Bonine and I'm getting a patch prescription today. When you say 25 foot waves, can you walk/stand during that?

 

Which cabin were you in? It sounds like you had great service all around. Any advice on how to spend a rainy day on shore (just in case)?.

When the seas are a bit rough, the pool water floats to great heights coming over the side of the pool. It is a great photo op. Be careful not to touch anywhere near your eyes after touching the patch. Have a great time on this old gal and take good care as we board for the 13 night repo when you disembark.

[Charles4515]

Thanks - I was wondering about recent adherence to the dress code, and you can't get more recent than your trip! We are leaving this Saturday on Zenith's last 7 day Bermuda run of the season. Worried about the weather and rough seas, but I have my Bonine and I'm getting a patch prescription today. When you say 25 foot waves, can you walk/stand during that?

 

Which cabin were you in? It sounds like you had great service all around. Any advice on how to spend a rainy day on shore (just in case)?.

 

I was also on this sailing my 4th on Zenith and 5th sailing to Bermuda. This was not normal rough. There was a northeaster that we sailed through on Friday. Yes, you can walk and stand during 25 ft waves. That is something I learned Friday! I was able to go to dinner, I don't get sea sick, but a lot of people skipped it.

 

On the dress code there were quite a few who did not wear jackets on the one informal evening.

 

On the shape of Zenith, I would say the public rooms are in very good shape and they have reupholstered a lot of furnishings and replaced a lot of carpet. since last May when I was also on Zenith. The cabins need a refresh though. They have replaced some cabin carpets but not all and the cabins are dated. One thing I noticed since last May--quite a lot more maintenance and cleaning going on.

[Charles4515]

We just returned from a 7 day Bermuda cruise on Zenith (Sept30-Oct 7) and here are a few of my comments for your consideration.

 

[*]Bermuda is a wonderful place to visit and Zenith gives you the best experience with two days in Hamilton and close to that in St George. Take advantage of your Monday to sightsee and visit the beaches as you’re the only ship in Hamilton that day. Tuesday was a zoo in Hamilton and Horseshoe Bay with Empress in Hamilton as well, Explorer in the Dockyard.

 

Horseshoe Bay was great on Monday. That is the best day to go before the other ships arrive. Tuesday I went to another beach to avoid the crowds. This time it was Elbow beach. Not as pretty as Horseshoe but not many people there.

[Vic The Parrot]

Thanks for your input!

 

It looks like the "little darlin" of the X fleet is kept up to snuff.

And glad you enjoyed your visit to Bermuda. Nothing else like it in the world!

[blambition]

We were on this sailing also and I had debated with myself about commenting on the cruise. I have noted that anything negative is not warmly received so I thought twice about writing. I decided to put my two cents in.

The ship is very well kept up. Knowing in advance that she is 14 years old I was very impressed at how clean the ship was and that the public rooms and hallways were so well maintained. The crew were always cleaning and polishing the ship and I never saw any area that was worn out. Our cabin was 5099 outside right next to the aft staircase and I never heard any noise at all. I actually expected to hear a squeak or two since she is older but with the exception of being able to hear my friends in the next cabin if we were both in the bathroom area at the same time and running water you could not hear a TV or drawer closing etc. The beds seemed to be new as they were very hard and had great support and when we requested extra pillows that was no problem. Our cabin steward was the best.We never saw him, however our room was always spotless. I will say that there were little holes in the sheets that I noticed one day, but what the heck.

OK, so what was our complaint you are asking. Believe it or not it was the dining experience. I will say yes I did love the Cova Cafe goodies. Our first night at table 42 we found out right away that sitting on one side on the table was going to get you jarred in the back continually by the waiters and almost hit on the top of the head with their trays. Lucky for us it was a table for 6 and we had only 4 people so we sat on the opposite side before our first course was delivered. Our waiter did not speak English clearly so we were never quite sure what he was saying and he was not overly friendly. The food itself was with the exception of the beef dishes were very plain and boring and unexciting. The menu really lacked any imagination. I should at this point say that I have sailed on more than 65 cruises of various lengths and this is the first time that I can remember that we ate dinner in town choosing to pay for a nice lobster dinner instead of eating in the main dining room. We also ate in the optional dining room one night and even though my steak was completely cold I think we enjoyed it more than our main dining room experiences.

I would like to point out that we loved our bar server in the main dining room Soleman who we tipped extra at the end of the cruise. He went out of his way to bring my girlfriend and my DH a coke every night since we had coke cards. We also tipped our assistant waiter extra as he was very nice and I believe he was new. He did what he was told and I do not think it was his fault for the short comings we saw. I really think others may have had better sevice with other waiters but the food would have been the same no matter where you sat.

I guess the fact that Celebrity is so known for it's food it was disappointing in that respect however I will give them credit in the other departments. Boarding was very smooth and entertainment was excellent. We saw several shows, not the production ones. The ship's cruise staff did a great job of putting on activities.

I guess all in all my big complaint was the food and everything else was really very good however as we all know the food does play a big part of a cruise vacation. Other passengers we spoke to said not to judge Celebrity by this experience.

Everyone I know has always loved their Celebrity cruise and raved about the food so I guess it was the luck of the draw for us. We are not that picky about food and I guess the good news is I don't have to diet as much now that I'm back home.

Anyone planning on going to Bermuda next year I will say that it is a great destination and we loved everything about it. Being from California it was for us a long haul and most passengers we met seemed to be from the east coast. The fact that the Zenith is a smaller ship did lend itself to meeting more passengers that the mega ships. I really feel that Bermuda is an ideal vacation spot and the fact that you can dock right in Hamilton and St. George is a huge advantage.

 

Vicki

[Drew B]

We were on this sailing also and I had debated with myself about commenting on the cruise. I have noted that anything negative is not warmly received so I thought twice about writing. I decided to put my two cents in.

 

Well, I for one WELCOME any comments you have to share as long as they are honest and specific. Your comments certainly were, and I appreciate it.

 

Did you find that most people felt the food wasn't very good? Did you, perhaps, just make a lot of unfortunate selections?

[Captain Cosmo]

Hi Blambition - appreciate you taking the time to post your honest review. There have been a lot more comments of late about the decline of the food in the main dining rooms on X. I wouldn't really know if the food has gone downhill, as I took my first cruise this past April on Infinity. I will say that I was somewhat let down by the lack of spice (or even salt) on many of the dishes, and the lobster had the consistency of a radial tire. Its not that the food was "bad" - it jusn't wasn't what the Celebrity commercials had lead me to believe it would be. The buffet food was not up to the quality of the average hotel buffet. Meanwhile, in the specialty restaurant the food was incredibly good although obviously at an additional charge. I do think that food is a big part of the cruising experience, so I was particularly disappointed in the midnight "Grand Buffet" - which consisted of attractive ice sculptures and carved fruits decorating a table which primarily held cold cuts and cheese - hardly my idea of a Grand Buffet. I would love to see Celebrity put some effort into improving the buffets and the main dining room food, but it seems like they are more interested in cutting corners to increase profits.

[Drew B]

I agree. I found the main buffet HORRIBLE. However, the additional stations (pasta, pizza, deli) made it much more tolerable. Still I would rather eat in the spa cafe, the dining room, or room service than at the buffet.

 

I was overall pretty pleased with the food in the main dining room, but I ordered 50% off the vegetarian menu, which probably meant my dishes got more attention from the chef...

 

I was so impressed by how the midnight buffet looked, and having come from late seating just an hour or so before, eating more food was the LAST thing on my mind!

[blambition]

Thank you for accepting my comments and I will comment a little futher. I have cruised since 1980 so I remember the days of Sitmar and such (Holland America, Princess) when every meal was a feast. You could special order every night and they would not bat an eye. I did ask about a chocolate souffle on this cruise and the answer I received was it is requested every cruise and they could not possibly make it. My question is if it is always requested why don't they add it to the menu. Sorry I got off track...anyways the ships got bigger and food became more bland. Mostly I believe because it is harder to feed thousands insteads of hundreds of passengers. The bigger ships became the more difficult it seemed to get really tasty meals.

More recently food seemed to have improved again on the larger ships and they are adding more restaurants choices .When we were on the Golden Princess last year I was very impressed with everything they served including one soup after another that was better than the last. Every meal was a delight. Zenith does not offer a specialty restaurant so that was no an option.

We were also on Monarch of the Seas last year and again I was surprised at how much better the food had become and how much more flavor it had.

I don't really expect a ship to have top quality four star restaurant style food as they once did however this experience really lacked. Again the beef dishes were all very good quality and when I did have to send back a lamb dish it was replaced with a beef dish that was tasty. I just would have preferred to have been able to order something other than beef on the cruise. We even choose to have lunch in Bermuda to avoid eating on the ship so that makes a lunch and dinner that we ate in restaurants not because we wanted to experience the local cuisine but because we were avoiding the ship's food.

I never went to the buffet as we had late sitting. To me the desserts that were chocolate were not good and the the ones that did not have chocolate in them were better. Only problem here is I'm addicted to chocolate!

I will say their coffee in the dining room is far superior to Princess!!!!

If food was not so important to cruising I would sail on Celebrity again in a heartbeat. I just think that maybe they really are going downhill so I will continue to read other's reviews and see what they say about the rest of the fleet.

 

Drew B

The people we talked with at open sitting and the rest of my party ( 4 of us) all disliked the food. We made different selections at dinner and I tried various different lunch items although I mostly ate upstairs by the pool and tended to go with a slice of pizza or a hamburger. The buffet items just didn't appeal to me but that does not surprise me. Again what did surprise me was just how wonderful Princess' food was. I think this only added to our being let down as we all went on the Princess cruise last year. Don't think I'm pushing another cruise line because I'm not as I've sailed many and that is not my intention. I'm just telling my latest experiences. Believe me we didn't have a great food experience on the Sun Princess 10 years ago. To me a cruise line is only as good as how they are doing now, not how they were 5 or 10 years ago.

Vicki

[Charles4515]

If food was not so important to cruising I would sail on Celebrity again in a heartbeat. I just think that maybe they really are going downhill so I will continue to read other's reviews and see what they say about the rest of the fleet.

 

The food on this Zenith sailing was definitly underwhelming. It has gone downhill. Even the ice cream in the dining room was botched, very grainy. In contrast I was on Crown Princess a month before this sailing and that is still fresh in my mind. The food in the dining room on Crown Princess was a lot better.

[raymac46]

We had a great waiter and followed his recommendations for dinner selections every night. In retrospect we probably had a beef entree more often, but we thought the dinner experience was fine. We even enjoyed a turkey entree one evening since it was getting close to Canadian Thanksgiving.

We've learned that the best buffet selections are those from the grill or pasta stations at lunch. We had waffles from the grill in the mornings so we were content.

[slotaddict]

Thanks for your honest review. My experience with the Zenith food was quite different, with the exception of the lobster which was soft, it was terrible, the waiter insisted on bringing me another, which I couldn;t eat, I was full, but I gave him an A for trying so hard to please. I was on her last January, so I cannot comment on the Bermuda runs. I think that everyone is entitled to their opinion about whatever did not live up to their expectations.

[tuggers]

I am certainly not one of those who can not listen to a negative when dealing with X. It continues to be a favorite of mine but that does not mean that I don't enjoy other lines or fail to see their faults. I am glad that you took the time to post the good and the bad and am so glad that this thread has remained friendly and not deteriorated into flames as some do if a complaint is dared to be made.

I have a friend who just returned from a b2b2b2b on Z and he noted that the menu changes had made a big difference in the food. And not for the better! He told me that the staff is somewhat embarrassed, having sailed so long with raves about the food, they are having a hard time with the complaints which they know to be true. He told me that he ate mostly beef because it is the one thing they continue to do well.

Such a shame. X really seems to be trying to cut costs at the expense of their passengers and reputation. I wonder how long it will be before they either run off their loyal repeaters or someone wakes up and replaces the current management.

Having just returned from Grandeur, I can say that the food on Z will surely will be better than that, though. There were way too few decent choices. And way too many disappointments. I won't even go in to the two nights that we were told to order dessert at the same time as the rest of our meal!!!

I am leaving on a b2b Z 10/21 so you can be sure that I will be sending back live reports on everything, including the food. The good, of which I hope to find a lot, and the bad, hopefully saying the food has at least improved a little!

[wvufan]

We were on the 9/23 Zenith and had no trouble putting on weight;) :D It was a great cruise and we hope to be repeats next year.

 

While the breakfast and lunch buffets were not great, the alternatives such as waffles, sandwich bar, burgers, etc. worked out OK. As far as the evening meals in the dining room, I was very pleased. I have some diet restrictions which involve no shellfish or alcohol. Most nights I ordered both fish and a meat. As my diet usually required separate preparation from the menu item, perhaps that is why they were so good. Anyway, the fish was great every night. The only real food downer was that the pizza was not as good as on other Celebrity ships.

 

Tuggers, we sat with your friend at the hotel director's table the last formal night-very interesting guy. We only talked about you a little-all good:) .

 

OOOEEE:D :D Bob and Phyl

[Cachecara]

We were on Zenith 9-0-06 and the food was very good. Our waiter was Sergey and he mentioned his experience on X was 3 contracts, so he was very familiar with the menus. One thing he mentioned on the first night is that each night he would give his personal reccomendations regarding that evening's choices. He jokingly stated that did not mean that we necessarily should take those choices as our own selection, but that we should strongly consider them. LOL Then he would go through each item, each course and rank them as he described the item. Usually he was right on the mark and generally the beef entrees came out ahead. Lobster night was particularly good, which is very unusual on any cruise. I wondered if they actually had gotten a different type lobster, everyone at our table--all experienced cruisers were surprised. The tails were large --like you would order in a fine restaurant and cooked perfectly(at least the ones our table received).

 

He also told us, that his current contract was up in a "couple weeks" and that many of his "friends" were also going home about this time. I am not suggesting that the entire wait staff rotated by any means, but I do have to wonder if there was some significant staff changes early Oct/late Sept. I know Ana in the Martini bar was ending her tour in early Oct.(about now) and at least one Sommelier who also was leaving. So you just have to wonder if a new staff rotation was being "broken in".

[blambition]

I want to continue to thank you all for listening to my comments and not taking offense to them. I certainly have only posted them because it was our true experience and I would hope to see an improvement in the food department and we were very impressed with all the other areas of the ship. The Zenith is very very well kept for a ship of her age!!!! Again the dinner dining may have had a lot to do with our waiter who we all know can and does play a large part in our overall dining pleasure.

WVUFAN we were invited to dine with the hotel director for the last formal night ,but decided to regretfully decline due to the fact that our companions were not invited and we did not want to leave them to dine alone on formal night. Sounds like we missed a fun evening.

Again thanks for listening.

Vicki

[momofmeg]

I want to continue to thank you all for listening to my comments and not taking offense to them. I certainly have only posted them because it was our true experience and I would hope to see an improvement in the food department and we were very impressed with all the other areas of the ship. The Zenith is very very well kept for a ship of her age!!!! Again the dinner dining may have had a lot to do with our waiter who we all know can and does play a large part in our overall dining pleasure.

WVUFAN we were invited to dine with the hotel director for the last formal night ,but decided to regretfully decline due to the fact that our companions were not invited and we did not want to leave them to dine alone on formal night. Sounds like we missed a fun evening.

Again thanks for listening.

Vicki

 

Vicki I posted back to you on the Fashion board under your "velvet in Oct." thread. I clicke don your thingie but it doe snot work.

 

I go by Janie and there is a bunch of us gals over in the Float Away Lounge who post on this now huge thread. Feel welcome to pop in over there. you will recgonize it as I was the OP of that thread.