michaelwh

Yes, subjectivity doesn't really come into the fact the menus have been reduced - and a decision has clearly been made (for some reason) to focus on the "plain" things, which are often less interesting than dishes I can make myself for dinner during the week. By contrast, looking at Royal Caribbean's new menus, it appears they have decided not to worry about offering the staple plain dishes every night, and just have a rotating selection of more interesting choices instead. I don't have much time for this notion that "as long as there's something, and we can eat it, it's fine". The food is a key part of the offer - and for a lot of money. It's not something I want to put up with, just so I can have the honour of being on a Celebrity ship. Some people clearly see that differently, but it's Celebrity putting food front and centre in the marketing, so it needs to be worth the money.

I think there are two separate issues here... Carnival's menus read like contemporary restaurant menus, with an international influence. Celebrity's, unfortunately, don't. I was on the Reflection in July, and the menu was boring. Bluntly, I wouldn't go to a restaurant at home with such a lack of creativity (and no real starters). Then there's the quality of the food. Celebrity is possibly historically better - I have no personal experience of Carnival, but that seems an accepted fact. But there is no reason why Celebrity couldn't produce good quality dishes similar to the options on the Carnival menus. As it stands, however, the food on Reflection was both boring and (in my opinion, and that of my family's) of a standard far below what I've been used to on Celebrity over many years.

I was on the Reflection a couple of weeks ago, and had a very similar experience, I'm afraid. The big thing was the lack of choice. There were no daily changing starters apart from soups and salads (except for one night, when a spring roll was on - but unfortunately the pastry was tough). And the main courses section was dominated by the same plain steak, salmon and chicken each night. With the mashed potato, but on the Reflection it was broccoli instead of green beans. There were also virtually no choices that weren't French or Italian inspired - it just wasn't very adventurous. From a company that once prided itself on food, this was a very noticeable change. And I'm not sure who it's aimed at, as the slightly younger demographic they're clearly moving towards appreciates good, interesting food.

I'm currently on the Reflection, and it appears we're getting a version of the menu that was so controversial in the Equinox a few weeks ago... The differences seem to be that certain things (e.g. shrimp cocktail) are on every night, but they are merged with a much reduced version of the old menu. The upcharge items are on it too. My take on it so far is that the number of dishes on offer isn't too bad - it's just that when three of them are grilled steak, chicken and salmon, they're quite...dull. And I don't really want soup or salad every night as a starter. It feels like if they'd wanted to cut down the menu, they would have been better off starting from scratch.