Dining on the Infinity

[BosoxI]

I'll be as brief as possible. The food on the recently completed Infinity T/A was not up to the standards we've come to expect from Celebrity. In fact some of it was inedible and should never have been plated. It's impossible to please everyone, I know, but I've never heard so many complaints from so many passengers. We were last on a Celebrity ship for 14 days over Christmas 2012; the food was very good. DW and I have been quite loyal to Celebrity during the last three years or so, but if Infinity quality is now universal, I guess we'll have to consider other lines again. I met one poor fellow who was especially concerned with the poor food quality, as he had booked three back to backs and didn't want to face Infinity quality food for another two cruises.

 

Some examples:

 

DW and I both ordered gumbo. Hers came first and looked like bad beef gravy. We both tasted it and found it to be what we imagine dish water tastes like. Also, there was no okra, no sausage, little rice, just an ugly thin broth. Simply inedible I canceled my order before it was served.

 

Osso bucco was half gristle. The two fellows next to us had the same problem, as did another passenger we met upon exiting the restaurant. I talked to others who ate earlier than we and they didn't have this problem, so I guess the late hour we dined left us with the dregs. I fully understand that certain items might run low, but the waiters should have been advised of the poor quality and the item should not have been served. What little meat there was was tasty, but a plate full of gristle is not a pretty sight.

 

Lamb shank- a beautiful, meaty, perfectly cooked shank had no seasoning. No rosemary, no garlic, no nothing. It could have been an excellent dish

 

Jerk chicken- it was good roasted chicken, not remotely related to jerk chicken.

 

A watercress salad came with one, that is ONE, sprig of watercress perched on a bed of lettuce. Why advertise something that won't be delivered?

 

Cannoli with ricotta filling was advertised. Fortunately, only one cannolo was delivered. I say fortunately because it was filled with a light, tasteless whipped cream-like concoction, not even close to what real cannoli are. The shell was crisp, I will concede.

 

As the ship left from FLL, provisioning should not have been a problem. I realize that some people eat to live and couldn't care less what they down, but these meals and others were not close to the quality we're used to on Celebrity. We're not foodies, believe me, but we do know good from bad. Should we now expect this on all Celebrity ships, or was this a abberation?

 

BTW three games of bingo cost $39 and six games cost $49. Wow! What a price hike. My wife looks forward to playing it, but at these prices, many people refused to play and the joint was virtually empty. Also. a martini in the Elite program could have been served in a shot glass (maybe a bit of hyperbole here)

[Lois R]

I'll be as brief as possible. The food on the recently completed Infinity T/A was not up to the standards we've come to expect from Celebrity. In fact some of it was inedible and should never have been plated. It's impossible to please everyone, I know, but I've never heard so many complaints from so many passengers. We were last on a Celebrity ship for 14 days over Christmas 2012; the food was very good. DW and I have been quite loyal to Celebrity during the last three years or so, but if Infinity quality is now universal, I guess we'll have to consider other lines again. I met one poor fellow who was especially concerned with the poor food quality, as he had booked three back to backs and didn't want to face Infinity quality food for another two cruises.

 

Some examples:

 

DW and I both ordered gumbo. Hers came first and looked like bad beef gravy. We both tasted it and found it to be what we imagine dish water tastes like. Also, there was no okra, no sausage, little rice, just an ugly thin broth. Simply inedible I canceled my order before it was served.

 

Osso bucco was half gristle. The two fellows next to us had the same problem, as did another passenger we met upon exiting the restaurant. I talked to others who ate earlier than we and they didn't have this problem, so I guess the late hour we dined left us with the dregs. I fully understand that certain items might run low, but the waiters should have been advised of the poor quality and the item should not have been served. What little meat there was was tasty, but a plate full of gristle is not a pretty sight.

 

Lamb shank- a beautiful, meaty, perfectly cooked shank had no seasoning. No rosemary, no garlic, no nothing. It could have been an excellent dish

 

Jerk chicken- it was good roasted chicken, not remotely related to jerk chicken.

 

A watercress salad came with one, that is ONE, sprig of watercress perched on a bed of lettuce. Why advertise something that won't be delivered?

 

Cannoli with ricotta filling was advertised. Fortunately, only one cannolo was delivered. I say fortunately because it was filled with a light, tasteless whipped cream-like concoction, not even close to what real cannoli are. The shell was crisp, I will concede.

 

As the ship left from FLL, provisioning should not have been a problem. I realize that some people eat to live and couldn't care less what they down, but these meals and others were not close to the quality we're used to on Celebrity. We're not foodies, believe me, but we do know good from bad. Should we now expect this on all Celebrity ships, or was this a abberation?

 

BTW three games of bingo cost $39 and six games cost $49. Wow! What a price hike. My wife looks forward to playing it, but at these prices, many people refused to play and the joint was virtually empty. Also. a martini in the Elite program could have been served in a shot glass (maybe a bit of hyperbole here)

 

Good morning, you might want to ask one of the moderators to

put this post over on the main Celebrity froum. This board is for

"roll calls" for specific sailings.

[BosoxI]

Yes, I meant to put it there, but I must be jet lagged and it wound up here. Maybe it is of some interest to those planning Infinity cruises.

[Phxazzcruisers]

Wow, I am really sorry to hear that. We have a cruise planned for next year in June on Infinity. I hope things get back to normal soon. Poor food would be a great disappointment,

[ghstudio]

Sounds dreadful. I have noticed that seasoning has been reduced significantly so the lamb shanks are not a surprise. Your problem with the watercress salad was similar to my problem on the Millennium where the onion soup had no onions. Celebrity desserts have gone downhill (IMHO), so I now order apple pie or apple pie with ice cream which they pretty much can't foul up.

 

Martini's at the elite cocktail event solution is easy...just order more than one. I've not noticed that the martini's come in smaller glasses though....just not in the extra large ones used in the martini bar.

 

You voted on the bingo pricing with your $'s...and that's the way to get Celebrity's attention. On our last cruise the casino tables were all $10 or more minimums and all were empty for the first night....they were changed to $5 tables the next night and people started to gamble. Voting with $'s works.

[voyager1964]

So far our experience with Celebrity is limited to a sailing on Constellation (Sep 2011, 12-night Med) and a sailing on Summit (March 2013, Caribbean).

 

During the first 3-4 days of our sailing, the food in MDR on Connie was wonderful. Thereafter, all of a sudden the food changed to the worse. The OP examples are fully applicable to what we experienced on Connie "thereafter." While we were not officially told about chef replacement, we were told that many ship officers disembarked in the middle of cruise.

 

On Summit, the food in MDR was consistently good. Moreover, a dedicated officer was walking table to table to verify the customer satisfaction with the food. That is, a quality control system was in place.

 

Many recent reviews of Infinity essentially repeat the OP complaints about food in MDR. I wish Celebrity read these boards and replace the chef on Infinity. It would be nice if the quality assurance procedure, piloted on Summit, were implemented fleet-wide.

[The Gypsy Rover]

My husband and I sailed on the Infinity seven years ago on a Panama Canal transit. We loved the ship, the facilities, the onboard lecturers, the spa lunches, but the dinners in the MDR were uniformly dreadful. We are now booked on the Immersive Wine Cruise on 9/6/13 because we had heard that the food on Celebrity was much improved. We'll be VERY unhappy if this bad food trend continues.

[CHEZMARYLOU]

We will be on Infinity in 2 years and will closely watch these boards for updates on the ship.

We've been happy with our last several cruises and hopefully things will improve.

 

 

Mary Lou

[ghstudio]

We are on the infinity in oct and in feb. if we find problems in oct, we will cancel the feb cruise.

[Redtravel]

Infinity food was okay most of the time. I did get some bad items which I got replaced. The MDR was usually good. The buffet was completely different. Real slop....and the dirty dishes piled up on tables was awful. They had only a few people cleaning up the buffet area. I tried to avoid the buffet. However, when the Infinity is in port, the MDR is closed. MDR is also closed on the BRUNCH day. The brunch buffet is nice if you get there at 10 am. Come later and it is so bad. The most consistently good food was the hot dags at the pool grill.

[BosoxI]

Yes, we and many others voted with our feet regarding the Bingo games. We were each given three coupons for the Elite drinks. Ordinarily, three drinks is about one too many for me, and the small glass was used in the Martini Bar, not the other venues we tried. I, too, took to grabbing a hot dog in the afternoon, and the hamburger was good, also; the one time I tried the pizza, it was not bad, not Princess quality, but better than usual for Celebrity. We do not cruise to eat hot dogs, hamburgers, and pizza, however. Not do I ordinarily order steak, ribeyes, or prime rib, but I did order the rib one night. Hearing the complaint of another passenger that his steak was so thin it belonged in a sandwich, I asked the waiter if the rib was also going to be wafer like. He said "How thick do you want it?" and I indicated 3/4 inch and medium rare. It came that way and was very good. A lesson learned for all of us.

 

Other than the food, the cruise was quite nice. The staff was uniformly friendly and helpful, though service in the MDR could be very slow. Not a problem for me, as I just wanted to relax anyway. Our room stewards were both excellent. The hostess in the Select diningroom was wonderful in a very difficult job. The guest lecturers were interesting, though I don't like being read to and two of them did just that. I usually try to avoid the entertainment, but DW dragged me to it more than once, and I confess, it was better than I had hoped for. So I don't mean to imply that everything was disappointing; it wasn't.

 

But I will say this: I like to eat, and if the food isn't reasonably good, the cruise can't be good. Had this been my first cruise on Celebrity, I doubt I would return. We will probably return, but we are being innundated with offers from other lines, some of which offer us Elite benefits, so we are being tempted to return to those lines. Tme will tell.

[radsailor]

We were on the Infinity in Feb and thought the food was quite good. The only problem we had was in the buffet one evening when I ordered some stir fry chicken. I got back to the table and bit into a raw piece of chicken. YUCK!!!!!!!!!!! I immediately complained and had the head chef at my table apolgozing. Fortunately I didn't get sick!