michel roux gone, what a difference!!!

[Karynanne]

We just returned from the Transatlantic on Connie today. We found the food to be very, very good. Yes, they are going through a transition, but a good one. One of the improvements were the salads. We found them to be just wonderful. The fish dishes were also extremely good.

 

Breads, soups, meats and especially the desserts were outstanding.

 

We had the opportunity to speak with some Senior Staff, and expressed our concerns about some recent reviews. They did say, they are aware of the postings on Cruise Critic, and read it all the time. We may be small in numbers, but our issues our heard.

 

The staff onboard were wonderful. Service was outstanding, and the ship looks fantastic. We did have a change in itinerary. Due to high winds in Newfoundland...we had to stay there overnight...and instead of going to New Brunswick, we went to Halifax, Nova Scotia instead. We were delighted!

 

Hopefully, the ongoing concerns of Cruise Critic posters will subside. The Constellation is a beautiful ship, and I for one, can't wait to be back onboard!

 

Karyn

[djquog]

Karyn, thank you so much for your post. Each day, at least twice, I check for postings from your cruise, and you started my day with a big smile.

 

Jan

[Texed]

Thanks Karyn.

[hajekfam]

For those of you recently back from Celebrity and newer menus - let's get down to basics. Are those delicious breadsticks still available each night?

[dbh62ark]

We also just returned from the Constellation Trans-Atlantic.

Welcome to CruiseCritic, and thanks for leaving your thoughts on recent Celebrity food experiences. If you haven't already found the section of the boards featuring ports of call, you will find an abundance of information there to help you make the most of your port calls.

 

Happy travels,

Donna

[Karynanne]

For those of you recently back from Celebrity and newer menus - let's get down to basics. Are those delicious breadsticks still available each night?

 

 

Yes, the breaksticks are still there! We really didn't find any change at all in the quality of the breads.

 

In response to "Let's be Honest"....food is subjective. We enjoy fine dining at home, and are really careful not to compare land restaurants to "sea" dining. But all in all, Celebrity does a wonderful job in creating delicious meals for their passengers.

 

To elaborate on this....about a month ago, we were in Las Vegas (with some of our fellow Transatlantic cruisiers). We had an opporutnity to have dinner at Emeril Lagasee's "Delmonico's" in the Venetian Hotel. It's touted as an extremely upscale steak chophouse. Well....we were very disappointed in the quality of food, and the service. It really made us appreciate how good a job Celebrity does.

 

Onboard we spent some time speaking with the Human Resource Manager. He is in charge of all the ongoing training onboard, and they are going to be making changes in many areas. He was extremely receptive to hearing our concerns. We asked him about land-based Customer Service reps. It wasn't in his area of control, but he would definately pass that information along. Mind you, we didn't corner him with complaints. He asked us, "If we had any areas that needed to be addressed". We were extremely complimentary, but gave constructive critiques.

 

All in all, the Company is in transition. Those of us that cruise frequently with Celebrity welcome changes...knowing that the company does have future plan for the well being of their passengers. They DO value their loyal customers.

 

BTW, the Elite coupon booklet did have some new changes! For $15.00 you could have an "All You Can Stuff" laundry coupon. It was a nice addition...

 

Karyn

[hajekfam]

Yes, the breaksticks are still there! We really didn't find any change at all in the quality of the breads.

 

BTW, the Elite coupon booklet did have some new changes! For $15.00 you could have an "All You Can Stuff" laundry coupon. It was a nice addition...

 

Karyn

Glad to hear that they haven't gotten rid of the breadsticks. At dinner, we always request a basket of just breadsticks for the table as the bread usually goes untouched.

Thanks for the info on the laundry coupon - I am glad to hear about it as we will be doing a 28 day back to back. Now only 2 suitcases will have to be overweight!:D

[raudacruise]

The "stuff the bag" coupon has been available to all Captain Clubs members (at least to the level below Elite) on 14 day cruises for quite some time - at least two years. No dry cleaning.

[satchiesmom]

hajekfam,

How the heck are you 2 doing? I'm sorry I can't rememer first names (Karen and Dan, maybe?) but we met you on our first cruise on the Century almost 4 years ago. Our names are Susan and John, though you probably don't remember us. You guys were so nice and had so much information about Celebrity, we really enjoyed meeting you. Have a great time on your upcoming cruise.

 

Susan

[amanda blake]

They are raving about the food and service.

 

 

texed, I wish they would post their "raves" here....

[amanda blake]

We also just returned from the Constellation Trans-Atlantic.

 

First off' date=' thanks to those of you in the martini bar for telling us about this forum. I have just spent the last two hours enthralled with the wealth of information about cruising. I am only sorry we had never heard of this site before.

 

We have an extensive background, dating back eight years and 13 cruises, with Celebrity. In the last three years both Bonnie and I have noticed a steady decline in the quality of the food and more specifically the quality of the meat. This cruise was definitely not an improvement in our opinion. I would hazard a guess that ones opinion on the food all depends upon what you are used to and to what sort of standards you wish to hold the cruise line accountable for.

 

The perception of cruise line food to us is nothing more than banquet style hotel food which falls far from the top of our list of fine dining experiences. Previously we compared the food to a decent banquet at a Holiday Inn type hotel, whereas on this latest cruise I don't think the breakfast or lunch spread was quite on par with what you might expect to find at a Days Inn. Dinners were marginally better, however most meats tended to be overcooked with very little flavor.

 

This was simply our opinion, but after reading through this forum it seems to be the general consensus for Celebrity at this time. Fortunately we don't cruise for the food for if so we would have given up cruising some time ago.[/quote']

 

well Texed, not ALL are raving..at least not in a positive way....just as I was about to think that things have improved by reading Karyns post...there is this...so not all is well in the kithens of the Constellation yet....

[Karynanne]

The "stuff the bag" coupon has been available to all Captain Clubs members (at least to the level below Elite) on 14 day cruises for quite some time - at least two years. No dry cleaning.

 

 

Yes, the "Stuff The Bag" has been available...but not at the $15.00 price. And it was for laundry only. Not dry cleaning.

 

Amanda, I can well see your concerns, regarding the food issue. But, I do know that the majority of our fellow Roll Callers were quite pleased with the menus. So it may be something of a "glass half-full...or a glass half-empty" attitude.

 

Karyn

[Drew B]

It also doesn't indicate a decline in the quality of the food. People who are dissatisfied now may have been equally dissatisfied a few years ago under Roux.

[raudacruise]

Drew, agree. It seems like there has been a hoopla over Roux hitting the road vs. what the real facts are. The menu has gotten stale, the per diem for food per pax has gone down or at best remained stagnant. This has occured over many years.

 

Having said that, the food is pretty good most of the time, outstanding other times. The specialty restaraunt is a steal even with the add-on charge.

[Squirrel's Mom]

We recently returned from a 7 day Alaska cruise on the Summit. We thought the food was very good but I thought the emphasis on pork and veal dishes was a bit heavy handed. When husband wanted more veggies, he ordered them and they were great. Soups were good and not at all salty. I am a confessed saltaholic and for the first time in all our Celebrity cruises I found myself needing to add salt and pepper to one squash soup. I did miss my ultimate favorite in the dining room -- lamb shanks -- but I don't know if it's been taken from the menu, wasn't served because it was only a seven nighter, or I missed it because we did miss two nights in the dining room.

 

Strangely enough, this was the first time ever that the lobster was great! REALLY!!! We split a second serving and hubby went back for more. It was tender, tasty and delicious.

 

Most importantly, those fabulous soft pretzels were still there. And I thought the pizza was significantly better (almost Princess quality).

 

Did notice that there were fewer ice cream flavors (peach almost every day and more sherberts) but it was, afterall, Alaska. We were able to enjoy that rum raisin treat twice however by making a request.

 

Never been a fan of the desserts on any cruise line and creme brulee and baked Alaska are boring to me. Give me something with ice cream and I am a happy camper! But let's lose that "After Eight", OK? Doesn't go with cheesecake at all!

 

Specialty restaurant was divine. Best dining experience ever (but that may have been the company!).

 

But the real thrill was that $15 laundry coupon. After a 6-day pre-cruise landtour nothing ever looked so attractive. And since both of us are Elite status, we both got (and used) TWO coupons. What a treat. No laundry waiting for me at home. LOVED it!!

 

Be interesting to be back in the Caribbean in February to compare.

[Gemmajam]

Face it folks--Celebrity has become mainstream cruising. Their competition is Princess Cruise Lines, which has gone down over the years in the food department. Celebrity needs only to stay ahead of Princess--which they can do even by cutting the corners that everyone seems to have commented on. If you want something a bit better you'll have to turn to Azamara, which has become Celebrity's focus. Some of you said you would not mind paying more for better. Well that's what Celebrity is hoping for and they have Azamara for those of you with finer culinery tastes--it has nothing to do with Roux leaving--he did not take his sacred recipes with him!

[ginagirl]

In August, we sailed on Princess to Hawaii, and several times during the cruise, they offered a special $14 charge for laundering to all passengers....elite status coupon was not necessary. Not only was the cost reasonable to ALL passengers, but items came back looking as if they were also pressed. I love Princess and am hoping that my upcoming cruise on Summit is as good as my previous Mercury sailing.

[raudacruise]

...realize they are paying more now and actually getting less...

 

I'm not sure where you came up with that. Cruise prices are very, very low vs. what they have been in the past. Fixed prices (i.e. fuel) are at an all time high.

[Karynanne]

Now that I have found my way around here a little bit I respectfully have to disagree with this comment. I found the roll call to our cruise that Doris had said to look for and all I have read so far is a definite disappointment with regards to the food and to a certain extent the service.

 

The glass half full/glass half empty attitude in my opinion refers to those who are not willing to uphold previous standards versus those who know what they used to get' date=' realize they are paying more now and actually getting less. There was a division on the ship of attitudes, so there is no surprise that there is a division of attitude here. That is to be expected I presume.[/quote']

 

 

Now it's my turn to respectfully disagree. This particular cruise was extremely reasonable, compared to previous 10-14 days cruises we have taken in the past. We booked this on the day it opened, so we were able to take advantage of the low fares.

 

My personal standards are very high, but I'm also a realist, and don't expect perfection. I have also never been the type to point out the negatives, but to concentrate on the positives.

 

We are not new to cruising at all. We usually take 2-3 cruises per year, and this has been for the past 9 years. We usually are with friends, so maybe since we keep ourselves occupied with their company, our attention is focused in other areas.

[hajekfam]

hajekfam,

How the heck are you 2 doing? I'm sorry I can't rememer first names (Karen and Dan, maybe?) but we met you on our first cruise on the Century almost 4 years ago. Our names are Susan and John, though you probably don't remember us. You guys were so nice and had so much information about Celebrity, we really enjoyed meeting you. Have a great time on your upcoming cruise.

 

Susan

Sure we remember you. That was the cruise that we convinced the studio where we take dance lessons to book for their first group cruise. Our instructor was trying to figure out how we knew so many people on the ship who weren't with the group. My husband was undergoing hip surgery soon after we came back and had his other hip done in November that year which is why we didn't do the second group cruise the following year. I think they cruised at the same time as you again. We were disappointed that we wouldn't get to talk to you again. Hope you have had some great cruises since that one.

Karen and Jim

[elena7seas]

Now that I have found my way around here a little bit I respectfully have to disagree with this comment. I found the roll call to our cruise that Doris had said to look for and all I have read so far is a definite disappointment with regards to the food and to a certain extent the service.

 

I took the time to read through all the responses from people who have posted from this cruise since their return. I would say that the replies have been quite mixed... there have been some people who were very pleased with the food, some who reported some diminishment in food quality from previous Celebrity experiences, and some who had both very good as well as less than stellar experiences with the food.

 

My last experience with Celebrity was on the Millennium in May. I must have done well with my selections, because I was almost always pleased with my appetizers and entrees. I hear the soups are great, but I usually pass up this course. Salads can be a weak point for X, IMHO...they could be more creative in this area. They are a little on the dull side, but have always been fresh. Desserts tend to be hit or miss for me...which is just fine. One or two bites usually does me....I really wouldn't want to enjoy them any more than I do :p . (My favourite dessert is a square of excellent chocolate!) I'd rather save myself for waffles with sour cherries at breakfast--or those yummy almond croissants!

[amanda blake]

very good comment that Celebrity only has to stay ahead of Princess...and that is not saying much...

 

also maybe Azamara is the way to go to get what we used to get in the past...we can want all we want but if Azamara is now deemed superior quality then Celebrity will certainly not go back to reinstating what they offered on the Connie and others before...

 

anyone done Azamara and can give some opinions on how the food compared...

[Richard Stein]

I have elite status with both Princess (23 cruises) and Celebrity (13). I did the Golden Princess to SA in 2/07 and am doing the Crown Princess to Canada/NE in 2 weeks. The food I've had on Princess while not up to Celebrity standards is pretty good. I am booked on the Mercury to Australia/NZ in 2/08 and on the Soltice in 2/09. While I am concerned about the food quality on Celebrity and have written them with my concerns, I will make up my own mind in February. I have been reading the reviews on this web site and have not seen the negative comments in the reviews that I have seen in this thread. On the Princess web site we had a first timer trash the food on the Crown Princess and had may others who were on the same cruise say it was not so. Celebrity is changing over their menu's and we can only hope that some of the problems mentioned are getting used to something different than we had in the past. Trying something new is NOT bad.

[lipping larry]

just like when we look back of earlier times in our life such as high school, college, b/4 kids, during kids growing up, etc. we tend to remember it a lot better than when we acturaly went thru it. i think the food on X is very good and never had a terrable meal. I also think that what the food was in the past was probably not as good as we remember just like earlier times in our lives. i am looking forward to my next cruise and will enjoy the food and probably put on a few pounds. i am an elite member as well as a founder club member. larry

[Richard Stein]

Larry I am also a founding Captains Club member who has sailed since the first season the Horizon did Bermuda. Even though we had to pay to join and there were no classes then, but I feel we were treated better in those days. I have not had a bad meal on Celebrity and only strayed from the fold after the merger. I am always looking forward to my next cruise and hoping I don't put on too many Lb's.