LIVE!!!!! From the REFLECTION TRANSATLANTIC - CHICAGOPAUL -

After lobster came the filet. The video for the steak was fun to watch and I thin the most realistic looking video of all. I’m hanging out in Cafe Bacio now and I’ll try to post some videos and see if I can get them to upload.

They recommend the steak medium. I never get anything warmer than medium rare. We both went with medium rare. The filet was good but had a couple stringy areas of it so I left maybe an ounce on my plate. The seasoning was very good and the steak was cooked to a perfect medium rare. I’m never a huge fan of steaks at sea since in Chicago I argue we have access to some amazing beef. While this filet would not rank as one of my favorites at sea (Lawn Club does a great job) I did think it was a good quality steak and the cook point was spot on.

After dinner dessert was served twice! First was a crepe brûlée rice pudding type of thing which was excellent. Very addicting. It was followed up with some ice cream.

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So what were my overall thoughts? I love the concept. The precision of the videos and the quality of the food were great. I was worried it would be all style and no substance but this was not the case. Our service was very good. My wine glass was full as was my water glass. Our waitress (I think her name was Aime) has great attention to detail. One of our friends we were dining with made a comment at the beginning of dinner, when the waitress asked about allergies, to make sure there was no mint. Mint, she said, was placed on top of the last dish and she said she’d make sure to exclude it. I filed that in the back of my brain and sure enough, no mint on his dish. While this is expected service, it was just something I wanted to note.

So the question is will Petite Chef be a fad and quickly die out or will it be a success? The proof will be in it’s full roll out. What I do know is they’re executing a solid plan that I found very enjoyable. So much so we will probably book it again this cruise if they have the availability.

I know many of you liked Qsine and I did too, but it was a restaurant that personally I never craved like I do Murano or Lawn Club. While Qsine put forth a solid food product it started to lack its marketing luster in my opinion. In a market that is ever changing the quirky concept of Qsine seemed to start loosing traction against the competition. Some may say this is a one time dinner and after that it is boring. That may be the case. I guess we will learn our second time around. While many celebrity cruisers are repeat, many are first timers and I think this concept will attract them and will serve as a wonderful social marketing vehicle.

At the end of the meal I walked out excited to share my experience. I walked out eagerly awaiting the opportunity to duke videos to my new ship friends and to share my thoughts with all of you. And my thoughts are good, happy, fun. If this is the reaction of the majority of Petite Chef diners then I think they’re onto something.

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Each plate looks amazing! Can't wait to see the videos!

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I really appreciate all the info, photos, critiques of food and bar services and staff in general. Looking forward to meeting you April 27th @ Sail Away...Sunset Bar~:p

 

I did not see any wines by the glass on the menus for "La Petite Chef". Are there any available...or only by the bottle?

 

Good news that the room service fee is only for late night and very early morning:D Thank you for clarifying that as the App does not mention the time criteria!!! Yikes!

 

While I did not ever notice you posting on the Roll Call, I did add your names to our RC Spreadsheet on our cruise's WIX Website.

 

Becky

There are a couple wines by the glass but that is all. As far as room service goes it’s a $4.95 fee but only 11am to 6am.

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Paul, thanks so much for your detailed Qsine / Le Petit Chef review. Great pics! We also can't wait to see your videos.

After watching online videos of the concept, we would love to enjoy the experience ourselves, but would be very reluctant if the price does go up to $55 when fully rolled out, particularly with the fixed menu and very limited alternate. I'm sure many others feel the same way. Our Reflection sailing is in June, and we're hoping that Celebrity has second thoughts about the anticipated $55 charge.

With regards the wine we ordered what we would usually and got them - I don’t think we even saw the wine list!

So what were my overall thoughts? I love the concept. I was worried it would be all style and no substance but this was not the case.

At the end of the meal I walked out excited to share my experience. I walked out eagerly awaiting the opportunity to duke videos to my new ship friends and to share my thoughts with all of you. And my thoughts are good, happy, fun. If this is the reaction of the majority of Petite Chef diners then I think they’re onto something.

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Hi, chicagopaul,

Thank you for taking time out of your cruise to do such wonderful, thorough postings! Your photos are great, and I appreciate your positive and honest approach.

We are on the Reflection 7 May r/t Civitavecchia. There is a lot of discussion regarding LPC: a group of us from the Roll Call have planned an evening of dining together at Q, but since we've learned of the change from Q to LPC we are trying to learn as much as we can. Your review has certainly helped! Thank you!(y):champagne-toast::)

Hello Everyone! It has been a few months since I've been on here but it is that time again for me to start another live blog and I am thrilled to be doing so.

 

Today is Thursday April 12th and Edward and I will be flying out this evening to FLL in order to join the Reflection tomorrow morning for her Atlantic crossing.

 

This will be our 3rd transatlantic cruise and 2nd one going eastbound. In total this makes our 14th....I think 14th...Celebrity Cruise. For what it is worth, we are Elite Plus on Celebrity. For those of you who do not know us, we are in our 30s which would make us on the "younger" end of the age spectrum with regard to transatlantic cruises. We're from Chicago so even though it might be a little cool towards the end of the cruise in Europe it will definitely be better than the weather we're currently having here.

 

If you followed my last cruise blog in December you would know that we stayed in a Royal Suite. Unfortunately that was not in the cards for us this time and we're staying in a regular verandah cabin :eek:

 

Add Ons Purchased

Premium Drink Package for both of us

9 Night Specialty Dining Package

Once on board we will purchased the unlimited internet for both of us

 

We have not eaten in the MDR in quite some time, but we definitely will this cruise and we will be sure to report back and give you our unbiased opinions. We also haven't stayed in a standard balcony cabin in a couple years so it will be interesting to see if we notice any changes.

 

As usual my goal is to post 10 photos each day along with the daily program as well. I'll also be posting photos and video more instantly to my Instagram account, so if you have Instagram you can follow me. My name on there is PaulKBlackburn if you see a guy in a suit as a main photo and then a bunch of photos of liquor and food you've found the right profile!

 

I want to encourage all of you to ask as many questions as possible! What I have really enjoyed about writing these live blogs is it forces me to sit down and recount my previous day. I find that in doing so I appreciate my vacation more and find that I "slow down" just a little bit to take a look around and realize how lucky we are to be on such an amazing holiday. So please ask away! If you want to know what type of merlot they have by the glass, just ask. If you want to know who is working at a certain venue just ask.

 

If you're reading this and you are going to be on the cruise PLEASE STOP BY AND SAY HELLO! We love talking to everyone and I really enjoy gaining everyone's insights into cruising and of course life in general.

 

Below is a quick little youtube video of me explaining what I wrote above and a good way for you to put a face and voice to this live blog. Thank you to everyone who follows along!

 

 

 

Hope you two have a wonderful trip! I have a question with regard to entertainment - we were on the Reflection last week and on the last night we saw a great comedian. Just don't remember his name. Wonder if he is on the transatlantic sailing. Think his name was John?

Dinner looked excellent! We enjoyed Qsine but thought the menu was essentially upgraded pub fare. Good food, fun atmosphere, but nothing special.

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Continuously enjoying your posts.... :-)

 

Do you know or did they tell you whether Qsine still exists on other ships like the Constellation which we'll embark about 2 weeks? I always wanted to try Qsine because I love asian food.

Qsine is not an Asian restaurant, but they do have some Asian inspired dishes on the menu which can be found on Celebrity's website.

Think of it as a tapas style restaurant where there are many dishes to choose from to get a little taste of many different types of food.

The presentation is a big part of what makes Qsine unique.

Many thanks, Paul! I certainly appreciate all the details you provided about Le Petite Chef. So glad that you did enjoy it too...

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Chicagopaul, I'm really enjoying your review/posts. I searched youtube for Le Petit Chef and there were several videos, some from the developer, going back to 2015, which show all the courses. Interesting concept and looks like fun. But also looks like a one and done type of thing, especially if it winds up costing $55.

Given the infrastructure it takes to present LPC, I doubt it's a one and done kind of thing.

Given the infrastructure it takes to present LPC, I doubt it's a one and done kind of thing.

Since they can't alter the menu, I meant one and done for me.

Paul, thanks for the reviews and answering questions. Looking forward to joining you on April 27, although I think I'll spend my vacation dollars in the other speciality dining venues.

Good Evening Everyone. So it is 1am here and we just got back from the casino. We played for a little over an hour and broke even so I’m happy with that!

I have a handful of things to report for the day but let me back track to last night to discuss room service.

As mentioned before the late night room service charge (11pm to 6am) is $4.95. We ordered food around 1:10pm and here is what we ordered...I’ll preface this with the fact that we decided to order all this food for you so we could provide a comprehensive review haha.

We ordered the following:

Pepperoni Pizza, Spaghetti, Turkey Club, Mac n Cheese, and two orders of chicken skewers.

The food took roughly 40minutes to arrive but all was piping hot when it did. The room service attendant was extremely friendly and professional. Everything came exactly as ordered. The turkey club was the highlight. The Mac n cheese was comparable to Stoffer’s so that can be a good thing for some or a bad thing. The pizza was pretty tasty and Edward love the spaghetti. The chicken skewers were a bit over cooked and slightly dry but I liked the yogurt sauce that came with it.

Here are a few room service photos.

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The fries look pretty tasty! Were they good?

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ChicagoPaul,

I have a question about beverages in Le Petite Chef. Is the wine menu just that one page...or are those the "Special Le Petite Chef" featured wines? We have the Premium Bev Pkg...yet only 1 red & 1 white offered by the glass. Did you just buy a bottle...or bring a bottle with you? Or were there other wines from their "Classic" Celebrity list to select from? We are not "wine snobs" but there are some things we don't care for...

Your reviews have been immensely helpful. Appreciate in advice any additional insight you could offer.:)

Likely we will meet @ the Blackjack table, although not a fan of "single deck".:cool:

Becky

Good Morning from Tenerife! We arrived safely this morning. The weather is in the 60s. High today of roughly 70. Partly cloudy. Slight breeze. Pants and a polo weather I would say.

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The fries look pretty tasty! Were they good?

 

 

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Yes! Excellent fries actually.

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ChicagoPaul,

 

I have a question about beverages in Le Petite Chef. Is the wine menu just that one page...or are those the "Special Le Petite Chef" featured wines? We have the Premium Bev Pkg...yet only 1 red & 1 white offered by the glass. Did you just buy a bottle...or bring a bottle with you? Or were there other wines from their "Classic" Celebrity list to select from? We are not "wine snobs" but there are some things we don't care for...

 

Your reviews have been immensely helpful. Appreciate in advice any additional insight you could offer.:)

 

Likely we will meet @ the Blackjack table, although not a fan of "single deck".:cool:

 

Becky

Hi Becky! I ordered the merlot but I did hear others ordering wine that was available by the glass at other bars and it wasn’t a problem. Someone at our table ordered a coke too and it was delivered quickly.

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Dinner last night was at Tuscan Grill. We started at the martini bar around 6:30 without any dinner plans. We figured we’d build up an appetite and just see what we could walk into. We had no problem getting a table for 2 at Tuscan around 8:15.

Carpaccio above

Burrata Salad. The tomato was incredible too!

Crab cake. Very good. Tasted very fresh.

Meat lasagna is pictured above. It was very meaty and not too heavy on the cheese. Personally I prefer the opposite. The sauce was fantastic but there wasn’t enough of it. It is very good overall, so if you get it be sure to ask for extra sauce on top. It will make it much better.

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Fig gelato is pictured above. Phenomenal. Get it. Get it. Get it. Edward had his usual vanilla gelato.

They brought a second round of double espressos by accident. Yes we drank them. Yes it kept us up!

Service was great in Tuscan. It took us a few minutes to initially meet our waiter but from then on everything was amazing. Our waiter was José from Colombia and he did a stellar job.

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Are the outdoor pools heated? I know the pools on the Solstice are heated when I was on the Alaska cruise. You would see the steam coming from the pools. It was quite nice to use the heated pools and hottub in cooler weather.

The pool is heated. No steam coming off it though. Here is Edward testing it in the cold.

Regarding your question for a table for 2 in MDR we had zero issues. We walked in just before 8 and were seated immediately. I’ve spoken to others and they all said they’ve been lucky with two tops. But you want to avoid the after show rush so if you see the gaggle of people coming from the theater you better hurry!

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Thanks for sharing the photos and what you've heard so far. Will look forward to your full review when you can post it.

 

 

 

I've seen some videos of what Le Petite Chef is like on youtube. It does look cute and all, but with such a limited menu I don't see how it's not a "one and done" type of experience. If you don't get the full experience from the "Other" menu, that's even more concerning to me. I get that people are excited about something new, but it still seems a bit short sighted to abandon Qsine entirely. Perhaps they are simply experimenting at this point, but if it wasn't for Cruise Critic, we'd have no clue that we might not have the regular Qsine experience when we board. For those of us who like Qsine and have been looking forward to dining there, it feels like the rug was pulled out from under us.

 

 

 

Is there any chance "classic Qsine" will be available for lunch on sea days? I realize that's most days for your TA, just thinking ahead to my med cruise a week from now.

I don’t know. We haven’t seen it on this cruise. I’d love to see them open for lunch with the old QSine concept.

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