michel roux gone, what a difference!!!

[C 2 C]

Hi, food is always subjective. As you can see, most folks on this thread are not happy with the food.

 

Hi Lois:

I was glad to see the end of the relationship between X Michel Roux. Just as the same shows, jugglers, jokes are repeated with nothing new in several years, the food to me was getting boring. I want to see something new being tried and I just want to hear from one frequent cruiser "boy was the food ever an improvement over the last cruise."

We had an awesome time on Infinity in the evening casual area because the food was made to order, including tasty vegetables. For lunch I can eat a wrap almost every day and be happy. In the dining room I would just like to have more choice. This is not an X-only problem. HAL and Princess offerings are similar in trends..

BUT.. you can order specialty items in the dining room on X and that to me is the difference...

[warmwinds]

I'd say we have pretty adventuresome palates and we have always loved X's food - I'm just concerned because it seems there has been a RECENT trend downward - maybe it's just getting the kinks out. It usually is pretty interesting and creative, but not crazy. For example, you won't just find a piece of broiled fish, a boiled potato and a vegetable (unless that's what you want) - everything will have a sauce, herbs, etc. (which will be described on the menu and which you can ask to be omitted if it's something that doesn't appeal to you).

 

What I can't tolerate is overly salted food (both for taste and medical reasons), and several people have mentioned that the soups have been salty recently.

 

I'd go with an open mind. As a matter of fact, I've decided NOT to tell my husband what I have read here, because sometimes you can be "looking" for things wrong. It's too late for me since I read these boards but at least for him if he thinks the food has gotten worse it will be an honest assessment.

[hillgirl20]

We have always enjoyed it too. Summit to Alaska in May, 06 and Mercury to Mex. in March, 07. Soooooo many choices.:)

 

Pat

[Lois R]

Hi Arno:)

 

Well, I will back on Mercury next month and will see how things

go and I agree with you about choices and wraps;) I love a good

tuna wrap....or chicken.....put a little pesto and cheese in it and

you have a great lunch. I know there was a wonderful grilled tomatoe

and eggplant openfaced sandwich in the Dining room for lunch one

day. It was really good!

 

Hi Pat:D

[Gold Coast Cruisers]

Do hope the Pasta Bar is still there.:eek: That is my favourite place for a snack when we returned from port at the end of the day. It kept us going until late dinner sitting.

 

Jillybean:)

[pcur]

Well, hopefully it is was just a " bad week- or two" . I loved the food on my X- cruises. I did not feel any change after the " Roux- exit" neither on my Millenium cruise or Infinity cruise last May. I am sorry to hear your expierences- it´s sad when expectations are spoiled by the real thing! As you I also look so foreward to the exellent food.

Greetings

Michael

 

Me, too! The food on the Millie in May was great!! DH loooooved the pasta station in the buffet.

[amanda blake]

Do hope the Pasta Bar is still there.:eek: That is my favourite place for a snack when we returned from port at the end of the day. It kept us going until late dinner sitting.

 

Jillybean:)

 

the pasta was still good....hope it stays that way as it was the meal of choice for many nights....

[Alaskan Traveler]

I have always enjoyed the pasta bars on all cruise lines, but man can not live on pasta alone!

 

I think that almost everyone has enjoyed the food on Celebrity in the past. The big question is with the new head chef, will Celebrity be able to continue that great food, which for me is one of the biggest things that they have going for them. It will be interesting to get some more opinions from those that have been on Celebrity RECENTLY.

[amanda blake]

yes I agree....we all enjoyed it..that is why we are still hoping to return to the old glory days...hope it is still possible..hey I would pay more if it is the cost cutting that is responsible for this..and of course it is....but to stay competitive it is not always the lowest price that is the ticket but the quality of what you get for what you pay....

 

yes very interested in those recently returning...

 

and we all need to get those comment cards filled that they leave in our staterooms....praising what needs to be praised and offering positive criticism when that is due...just hope someone notices....

 

this is the weekend my letter gets written to celebrity....

[amanda blake]

Hi Amanda,

 

I don't have your email address on this machine and I will not be able to see my other address until Monday. I have had a very nice email, similar to the one you mentioned. I asked that my other post be deleted and I see it has been.

 

On the matter of a proper critque:

 

I thought the critique paperwork provided by Celebrity at the end of the cruise isn't really adequate. They may get approaching 1000 forms per cruise with lots of tick boxes that can be entered in a spreadsheet and a very short space for other comments.

 

Given the timing it is likely that the majority of the comments would have been anodyne leading to the typical corporate response - no one else has complained :)

 

There was a major omission on the critique and I told her - there was no where on the form to mention the sterling service the ice cream parlour maid :)

 

~~~~~~~~~

 

Ooops, dog walking time

 

yes the critique is far from adequate...there needs to be more space to write in comments..I filled in all the available spaces all around the last page...making really hard to read...needed to just attach another page....

[skandls]

We were on the Constellation June 30, 2007 thru July 14, 2007. The dining room food was disappointing. Our last X cruise had been in 2003 on the Summit and the food was good. On the June cruise we ended up eating pasta or pizza with a salad for lunch in the buffet since the other choices were not very good.

 

I did write a letter to Celebrity and let them know what we thought about the food. Others at our table wrote comments on the opinion card about the quality of the food.

 

The service was fabulous and the ship was wonderful - but cost cutting was very evident in the menus and quality of the food.

[Garrick]

Do you have his name?

 

 

On Galaxy, the Hotel Manager Phillip Herbert, was visible around the ship and highly approachable. He also made a point of getting other officers to be available at the Captain's Club party.

 

Phillip came over from Crystal... VERY nice man.

[Shirley and Les]

I wonder about the procedure Celebrity uses when making a major change such as, an overhaul of the dinner menus. A major change, in addition to having to satisfy about 20,000 customers per day (roughly 10 ships, 2000 passengers each), there are huge impacts on preparing specifications for the the cuts of meat and side ingredients, getting bids, picking vendors, training the cooks and food prep people, integrating the new foods into the supply chain. etc., etc., etc.

Before making wholesale changes, I think 'X' would have some test panels to rate old vs new and state their opinions.

I am worried the problems stated by recent cruisers are simply the result of changing suppliers for the existing menus to reduce costs. I think any extensive taste testing would have involved past passengers and it would have leaked to this CC board. I hope I am offbase but I do want to hear some favorable reports about the quality of X food.

Since each customer dictates the contents of their dish, the pasta bar comments aren't very significant about the overall quality of the 'X' menu.

Les

[Alaskan Traveler]

I wonder about the procedure Celebrity uses when making a major change such as, an overhaul of the dinner menus. A major change, in addition to having to satisfy about 20,000 customers per day (roughly 10 ships, 2000 passengers each), there are huge impacts on preparing specifications for the the cuts of meat and side ingredients, getting bids, picking vendors, training the cooks and food prep people, integrating the new foods into the supply chain. etc., etc., etc.

Before making wholesale changes, I think 'X' would have some test panels to rate old vs new and state their opinions.

I am worried the problems stated by recent cruisers are simply the result of changing suppliers for the existing menus to reduce costs. I think any extensive taste testing would have involved past passengers and it would have leaked to this CC board. I hope I am offbase but I do want to hear some favorable reports about the quality of X food.

Since each customer dictates the contents of their dish, the pasta bar comments aren't very significant about the overall quality of the 'X' menu.

Les

 

You raise a very good point and I also wonder how they make the decisions when they overhaul the menus. This could well mean selecting different vendors and changes in preparation. Given a choice I would have hoped that the food would have remained as it was before, as every cruise in the past, I thought the food was good. Often times changes such as this do result in a cost saving of some kind to the cruise lines.

[Pontius Navigator]

Is changing vendors really the answer?

 

It is unlikely that ships in different oceans and seas are supplied from just one vendor. The beef has, I think, been universally praised and the fish almost as equally condemned.

 

I would imagine soup preparation, bread baking and desert creation are all in-house affairs and very difficult to be affected by the suppliers.

 

It is just curious that similar comments are coming in from cruisers on different ships, in different parts of the world, but over the same time period.

 

It would be interesting the see a company response. Equally interesting, today, my Sunday paper refers to several instances where company EOs have been internet-scared and ignored blog sites at their peril. They say that once the blog hits critical mass and appear high on a Google search they are in trouble as most of the comments will be negatives. They mention Cadbury's Chocolate who did not react to a salmonella scare, British Airways and its cabin crew strike or National Express over a coach crash. I am sure you can add several Amercian companies to this list.

[warmwinds]

I think it takes such a huge capital outlay to build these new Solstice megaships, that X found it necessary to cut corners on their current ships - I think they will live to regret this. They will have a huge number of berths and a lot of unhappy customers. Their excellent food was one, if not THE, main thing that put them a step ahead of their competition. If the food becomes ordinary, one has a whole slew of cruiselines from which to choose, and we for one certainly will.

[Pontius Navigator]

Following my own advice I did a Google search. The first hit features 'nocruise' at http://www.reviewcentre.com/reviews89844.html

[raudacruise]

Following my own advice I did a Google search. The first hit features 'nocruise' at http://www.reviewcentre.com/reviews89844.html

 

If you read the entire review the complaints were centered on the ports (or distance from ports to the attractions) and costs of shore excursions. Didn't really have much to do with food.

[Pontius Navigator]

If you read the entire review the complaints were centered on the ports (or distance from ports to the attractions) and costs of shore excursions.

 

I did read it. The relevance was to the potential of bad reviews propagating on blogs etc which companies ignore at their peril. Poor value for money and food did feature. Poor value for money is also a common thread here either on this thread or others that have been posted recently.

 

One thread was 'Do the companies read these boards?'

 

The answer is clearly 'they should.'

[amanda blake]

well Pontius I have added a review for the Constellation...so now there is one with definite comments on the quality and taste of the food....and yes you make an excellent point that these should be paid attention to by those who make decisions ....

 

my letter is off...hope it too is paid attention to...I am sending it to Mr. Fein...CEO of Celebrity cruise lines...it will be positive and helpful in nature...

[C 2 C]

 

my letter is off...hope it too is paid attention to...I am sending it to Mr. Fein...CEO of Celebrity cruise lines...it will be positive and helpful in nature...

 

I hope you spelled his name right:

Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. Names Goldstein, Hanrahan President/CEO of Cruise Brands

 

MIAMI, Sept. 4 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd.

today promoted two of its top executives to president and CEO of their

respective brands. Nineteen-year Royal Caribbean executive, Adam Goldstein,

president of Royal Caribbean International since 2005, becomes president

and CEO of that brand, and eight-year Royal Caribbean and Celebrity Cruises

veteran, Dan Hanrahan, president of Celebrity Cruises since 2005, adds CEO

to his title as well. Both officers will continue to report to Royal

Caribbean Cruises Ltd. Chairman and CEO Richard D. Fain, and both changes

are effective immediately.

[cruiseyguy]

The most common complaint regarding cruise line food--even with upscale ships--is that the food is too bland, sometimes also described as boring, tasteless, forgettable, etc. It is bland for a reason--that's the way most cruise passengers want it, with "most" passengers being mature North Americans. The lines have learned that foods with unusual flavors, spices, ingredients or "looks" are often sent back or not ordered, resulting in significant waste. And while some might miss extra vegetables on the plate, experience over many cruises may have shown Celebrity that most of these veggies are not eaten. If that is the case, I would not consider minimizing waste to be "cutting back," especially if the missing veggies (or whatever) are available on request.

[Marabella2004]

I am hoping that they get it 'right' on the Connie before our November cruise. My husband is a vegetarian, and has always appreciated the special vegetarian menu that X provides at lunch & dinner - Never seen one anywhere else. Our waiters have always handed it to him at dinner, and it took away the stigma of not beeing a 'meat & potatoes" person. I sure hope that hasn't changed. :o

[amanda blake]

I will change it to Fain, or will call again and verify..I got the original spelling from Celebrity Information ....should I be sending it to anyone else? does anyone know? maybe it should go a few people....so to be noticed...

[cruiseyguy]

Mr. Fain is CEO of Celebrity's corporate parent, RCL. Mr. Hanrahan is President of Celebrity and the individual you should write. Going to "a few people" won't make it any more noticed although a well-written, factually-supported letter, rather than opinions, will have the greatest credibility.