Dining in Blu

[dkjretired]

I'm sure you will enjoy Blu. One thing to keep in mind when choosing your dining time: the dining experience takes much less time in Blu than it might in the MDR (not having eaten dinner there on Equinox I can't say for sure). We were generally done within 1 1/2 hours. The meal was really well paced and there was little lapse between courses.

 

You are correct, we did eat in the dining room one night and it was longer than our experience in Blu..

[Orator]

Some posters on another board have incorrectly concluded that one is rushed in Blu. As stated on this tread, service in Blu is at your pace. I never felt rushed and was told to take my time and enjoy the meal. I was extremely satisfied and looking forward to dining in Blu on my December 14th cruise. My waiter and , assistant waiter will be there and I will do what I can to sit at their table They were teriffic and I wrote Celebrity to commend them on there professionalism.

[AJD]

Dining style is very much a matter of taste and we prefer a more leisurely pace than was the norm in Blu during the recent Equinox 14 day TA. It was possible to slow the service down but you had to work at it as they wanted to seat and serve table groupings in the same time frame.

[Orator]

Dining style is very much a matter of taste and we prefer a more leisurely pace than was the norm in Blu during the recent Equinox 14 day TA. It was possible to slow the service down but you had to work at it as they wanted to seat and serve table groupings in the same time frame.

 

Did you have the flexible option on the TA cruise? I believe that the 11/14 cruises was the first with the new option. That option makes a difference in that there are no longer table groups and service is by table.

[AJD]

Yes, the TA was the first with flexible dining in Blu and it really worked very smoothly. However they did try to fill up sections of tables as people came in. We found that it was easiest to set our own pace for the meal if we were able to get one of the tables that were a little out of the groups.

 

By the way I meant to say earlier that you were right about the wait staff; they were all excellent.

[librarylady19]

Some posters on another board have incorrectly concluded that one is rushed in Blu. As stated on this tread, service in Blu is at your pace. I never felt rushed and was told to take my time and enjoy the meal. I was extremely satisfied and looking forward to dining in Blu on my December 14th cruise. My waiter and , assistant waiter will be there and I will do what I can to sit at their table They were teriffic and I wrote Celebrity to commend them on there professionalism.

 

I concur with Orator's assessment of the service in Blu. Not once did we have to wait between courses, dishes were cleared and silverware replaced immediately, water & bread refilled....a delight! If only I could dine at Blu every night!! it is hard to find that level of service anywhere.

[AJD]

Librarylady's comments demonstrate how one man's meat is another's poison, we have completely opposite ideas of good service.

 

For us dining is event to be savored in a leisurely fashion. We don't want our plates cleared or silverware replaced instantly and especially don't want our next course served immediately we finish the previous. That is exactly the service we try to avoid and any restaurant where that is the norm would fail to reach our criteria for a up market restaurant. This was one of the reasons we felt let down by Blu and why we don't think Blu compares well with Celebrity's specialty restaurants where we can linger two to three hours over a meal.

 

Neither view is right or wrong just a matter of taste.

[luvtocook]

AJD, we totally agree with you--dining is a leisurely experience and we hate being rushed. We have our favorite restaurants here that we frequent and they know we like to spend a couple of hours enjoying our dining experiences.

We have several times asked & then reminded waiters not to place our entrée orders until we tell them we are ready, never have problems doing that.

There are 6 of us sailing Equinox together in AQ next Feb and will dine in Blu each evening other than specialty night reservations. It will basically be our "visiting" time together as we all do different things during the day, so we want a nice slow paced dining experience.

We plan to make a 6:30 reservation for each evening so we have plenty of time.

[Gracie115]

Librarylady's comments demonstrate how one man's meat is another's poison, we have completely opposite ideas of good service.

 

For us dining is event to be savored in a leisurely fashion. We don't want our plates cleared or silverware replaced instantly and especially don't want our next course served immediately we finish the previous. That is exactly the service we try to avoid and any restaurant where that is the norm would fail to reach our criteria for a up market restaurant. This was one of the reasons we felt let down by Blu and why we don't think Blu compares well with Celebrity's specialty restaurants where we can linger two to three hours over a meal.

 

Neither view is right or wrong just a matter of taste.

 

 

Agree....and I share YOUR view....hope that we can do that in Blu...we will relay our feelings 1st night and hope that will be all we have to say..

[Iceberg100]

Willkommen !

If you want to dine in Blu you should have either the early or late dining time but you can dine at any time. If you have CSD on your booking then you are eating in the main dining room and not in Blu. So I recommend getting it changed.

 

Sorry I have taken a while to post this info, having returned from the Equinox Trans Atlantic on 22nd Nov.

You may remember that we upgraded to AQ at the last minute but all our info showed CSD. We could not get it changed before we went. A few people said we would not be able to dine in BLU, so we were ready for a battle.

When you turn up at BLU to eat they take your stateroom no and log it onto the computer. I think this tells them you are AQ and may even divert a portion of your gratuities (we prepaid). There was no problem that CSD was on our booking. The stateroom class gave you the access. We also ate in the main dining room a few times using CSD, again no problem. We eat late so any lines had gone. We had the best of both worlds and were really happy. So happy we are doing the same cruise again next year!!

Cheers

 

Mike

[The Anchor Banker]

Sorry to ask something that seems so basic to all of you but:

 

What is Blu and how does it compare to the MDR? Is there an extra charge? How much?

 

What is AQ? Extra cost? What's included?

[larmal]

Sorry to ask something that seems so basic to all of you but:

 

What is Blu and how does it compare to the MDR? Is there an extra charge? How much?

 

What is AQ? Extra cost? What's included?

 

Blu is a restaurant for they who are booked in Aquaclass (AQ). No extra charge. It seems to be a smaller restaurant and more relaxing with different menu than i the MDR. The extra cost for upgrade to AQ depends on when you are leaving. You could find out if you try to book.

 

Lars