Taking a break from Celebrity after our Eclipse cruise

[Mynki]

Those dried out hamburgers exemplify why one should only get hamburgers that are direct from the grill, not sitting out in some pan. When I want a hamburger I go to the mast grill and ask them to give me one of the ones they are currently cooking (not reheating). Very big difference...and BTW, very good hamburgers when you get them this way.

 

You missed the smiley in my post then. I was being sarcastic. They look awful!

 

The Luminae signature burger is the best on the ship by a country mile. The ones from the mast grill are acceptable. But not in the same league. ;)

[FlorenceItaly]

You missed the smiley in my post then. I was being sarcastic. They look awful!

 

The Luminae signature burger is the best on the ship by a country mile. The ones from the mast grill are acceptable. But not in the same league. ;)

 

I agree. I love the Luminae signature burger!

[richard1s]

Thousands of people cruise annually and a very small percentage post here. We are returning to Eclipse after a 2 year break (last year on HAL). I am going with an open mind as to what may have changed. Most people don't cruise yearly and when they get the chance to do so, I think they go hoping to have fun and relaxation. For sure, the food is important but there is something for everybody.

What a great way and attitude to start any vacation experience. There are many dining venues on all cruise ships, especially Celebrity, to be too concerned. I am skeptical when I see people seemingly obsessed with complaining and carping about the "buffet".

 

When my vacation pivots around the details and pictures surrounding the buffet "dinning experience", I know I have too much time on my hands and far too much negativity going on inside me.

 

The buffet on Celebrity is no different, and probably better, than most cruise lines. It's a buffet, not fine dining, I think most rational people understand that.

[keithm]

there's nothing wrong with those hamburger patties. Those patties are identical to any hamburger patty you will find in any 4* + restaurant in dallas, texas! :d

ewww!

[keithm]

You missed the smiley in my post then. I was being sarcastic. They look awful!

 

The Luminae signature burger is the best on the ship by a country mile. The ones from the mast grill are acceptable. But not in the same league. ;)

The Mast Grill burgers come from Sysco. We use the same type on our burger/dog company cook outs. They taste fine. It's knowing how to cook them that counts.

[Mynki]

The Mast Grill burgers come from Sysco. We use the same type on our burger/dog company cook outs. They taste fine. It's knowing how to cook them that counts.

 

Looks like you could teach the chefs on board a thing or two then!

[bigbenboys]

Thanks for the review. I remember one cruise it was hard to get a drink on the Reflection or Silhouette in the Caribbean at the sunset bar. I'm thinking because they removed bar deck 14 aft. We returned last month from our 3rd cruise in a suites. It was our best cruise ever. We were on Millennium in Asia. I would say I only got very few drinks outside of Michael's Club or Luminae. Oh the bar was not open at bingo in the Cosmos Lounge. We are on Solstice in Aqua in May. I'm still enjoying Celebrity.

[Cruise Junky]

I wouldn't characterize Celebrity's hash browns as fried bread, I would say they're more like hockey pucks, only less flavorful.:eek:

 

I never said they were good hash browns ;). You could kill someone with them

[Duanerice1]

What a great way and attitude to start any vacation experience. There are many dining venues on all cruise ships, especially Celebrity, to be too concerned. I am skeptical when I see people seemingly obsessed with complaining and carping about the "buffet".

 

When my vacation pivots around the details and pictures surrounding the buffet "dinning experience", I know I have too much time on my hands and far too much negativity going on inside me.

 

The buffet on Celebrity is no different, and probably better, than most cruise lines. It's a buffet, not fine dining, I think most rational people understand that.

 

 

 

We were on the Eclipse in December for 10 nights and didn't go to the buffet. I take that back, one day we grabbed some pizza when coming back on the ship. We actually used room service, Aqua Spa café and Mast grill for lunch. Room service for breakfast most days. Put me an a buffet together and it equals overeating! Just can't help myself :)

 

 

But, Celebrity has one of the best buffets around.

[TFLG]

What the hell happened to the Mast Grill on the Eclipse. It was really bad on our Nov cruise too. I've eaten there on the Equinox and Sostice and I don't recall those ships being this bad. Certainly not gourmet, but edible at least. The burgers on the Eclipse were like cork, I could have used them as a coaster and the fries were always cold. Funny thing is I don't recall all the crock pots in the buffet in Nov. Maybe I was just eating different stuff. BTW, a pot for Indian food/curry is pretty much normal but who the hell puts french toast in a pot? It was on a serving tray in Nov (and not really very good then either). You should have tried the English bangers, they were really good. but the black pudding was terrible;). I hit the egg station every day and got fried or poached eggs. Hard to screw those up too badly. There was some trerrible stuff on the buffet, but there was also some pretty good food there too. Oh, and I do agree on the pizza, that is a weak excuse for a pizza they serve.

 

The Eclipse was by far the worst of the S-class ships I've been on. I still had a great vacation but it will be a long time before I go back on that ship! I also thought the cruise director was a complete tool! (tool = not good for those not up on current slang)

[GottaKnowWhen]

...But that's where the good service ended. Finding a bar server was as hard as finding Lord Lucan. We gave up and went to the bar for our own drinks in Oceanview, Sunset Bar and Martini Bar...

 

I agree, I think the Chef's Tour we did was quite nice! And I understand that the rest of your review reflects your experience and your reaction to that experience, and I can't argue with that. However, I will offer a contrary view to the above portion of your review. We had consistently excellent service from Judi and Daniel and others while sitting in the vicinity of the Martini Bar, even though we were drinking wines and not martinis. Our couple of times in the Passport Bar were also at least ok service-wise as I recall. Overall, one of the things that impresses me about the Celebrity experience is the high quality of service and the commitment of the staff to take care of us. Our cruise experience is RCL and Celebrity, no "luxury" lines, so maybe I don't have an adequate base for comparison. But based on what we have experienced to date, as long as I can find interesting itineraries on Celebrity, we will keep on cruising with her.

[TFLG]

The Martini Bar service was fine for us although if it was hoppin it could take some time to get a drink (perfectly understandable). But getting a waiter to serve you there was near impossible and you could easily wait 15-20 minutes to get your drink once ordered (we were there nearly every night). The Passport bar, World class bar, sky lounge, quasar and ensemble were fine too. However, I agree with uktog on the other locations. The pool bar and the sunset bar were terrible, the bar staff were not at all friendly and the servers were few and far between. If you were waiting for a server at those locations you were usually going to be in for long wait. Which meant we usually went to the bar and interacted with the miserable bartenders. The pool bar being the worst in that respect. Those guys were just perpetually unhappy on our cruise.

[Catasetumkid]

What the hell happened to the Mast Grill on the Eclipse. It was really bad on our Nov cruise too. I've eaten there on the Equinox and Sostice and I don't recall those ships being this bad. Certainly not gourmet, but edible at least. The burgers on the Eclipse were like cork, I could have used them as a coaster and the fries were always cold. Funny thing is I don't recall all the crock pots in the buffet in Nov. Maybe I was just eating different stuff. BTW, a pot for Indian food/curry is pretty much normal but who the hell puts french toast in a pot? It was on a serving tray in Nov (and not really very good then either). You should have tried the English bangers, they were really good. but the black pudding was terrible;). I hit the egg station every day and got fried or poached eggs. Hard to screw those up too badly. There was some trerrible stuff on the buffet, but there was also some pretty good food there too. Oh, and I do agree on the pizza, that is a weak excuse for a pizza they serve.

 

The Eclipse was by far the worst of the S-class ships I've been on. I still had a great vacation but it will be a long time before I go back on that ship! I also thought the cruise director was a complete tool! (tool = not good for those not up on current slang)

 

Thanks for this response! I was wondering about whether these dutch-oven type pots were new, I was guessing they were. Nice to have my suspicions confirmed. I liked the Eclipse in all ways except the food. I agree that there were some good things - like the fresh fruit and the salad were mostly okay. But all those crazy pots! Food floating that shouldn't have been floating (IMO)! I don't eat a lot of heavy type foods at midday, so I didn't hit the carving station, which looked okay. The Paella they had looked super good, but it is just too much for lunch, IMO. I just wanted something that looks like my grocery store deli section - with different salads, hummus and fresh pitas, top-your-own baked potato, a taco bar, chips (this is a diet-buster for me, and I love them, doesn't anyone else?)...?? Sandwiches but no potato or corn chips?? Why NOT? It just threw me for a loop and I'm still trying to make sense out of it!

[Catasetumkid]

What a great way and attitude to start any vacation experience. There are many dining venues on all cruise ships, especially Celebrity, to be too concerned. I am skeptical when I see people seemingly obsessed with complaining and carping about the "buffet".

 

When my vacation pivots around the details and pictures surrounding the buffet "dinning experience", I know I have too much time on my hands and far too much negativity going on inside me.

 

The buffet on Celebrity is no different, and probably better, than most cruise lines. It's a buffet, not fine dining, I think most rational people understand that.

 

Hmm. I think I'm fairly rational. I didn't eat the bad-looking food, for instance. I don't eat in the specialty restaurants and I have a "normal" room. I'm certainly not looking for a "fine-dining" experience in the buffet. But I would expect something along the lines of my local grocery store's deli department for lunch - and there was nothing there of the sort. The buffet was nothing at all like my last cruise 3 years ago on Royal Caribbean.

 

I don't mean to carp on it, as much as try to understand it. They don't expect people to actually eat those scrambled eggs, do they? Take a look at them in my photos! My guess is that a lot of this food is served to the wait staff, etc...it's doing duel duty. If the guests don't eat it (not many did from my experience) then they give the leftovers to their employees? They're trying to do more with less is my guess. They will be doing it without me on their cruise line in the future, unless I can figure out a way to get most of my food on-shore. The Eclipse was a lovely ship and my vacation was great, except for what you see in the photos.

 

https://www.yelp.com/biz/celebrity-cruise-lines-miami?hrid=rJqH9n7frKACrEHU_T8y4Q&utm_campaign=www_review_share_popup&utm_medium=copy_link&utm_source=(direct)

[Eloise4Ever]

Thanks for the review. I remember one cruise it was hard to get a drink on the Reflection or Silhouette in the Caribbean at the sunset bar. I'm thinking because they removed bar deck 14 aft.

 

Just wanted to check that I am reading this correctly? There is no bar on deck 14 of Reflection and Silhouette, aft of the buffet? We have cruised on all Solstice class ships with the exception of Reflection and Silhouette and find the bar at the aft of deck 14 very handy as we like to eat out on deck when at the buffet. I wanted to try Reflection and Silhouette but would think twice if this bar is missing from those ships.

[Lois R]

Just wanted to check that I am reading this correctly? There is no bar on deck 14 of Reflection and Silhouette, aft of the buffet? We have cruised on all Solstice class ships with the exception of Reflection and Silhouette and find the bar at the aft of deck 14 very handy as we like to eat out on deck when at the buffet. I wanted to try Reflection and Silhouette but would think twice if this bar is missing from those ships.

 

The bar is up on deck 15. Just go up one deck and you will find the SUNSET BAR.

[Eloise4Ever]

The bar is up on deck 15. Just go up one deck and you will find the SUNSET BAR.

 

Thank you Lois, I am aware of the Sunset Bar on Deck 15 but that bar is on the other 3 Solstice class ships in addition to the Aft bar on Deck 14. I can see the Sunset Bar being very busy if it is catering to all those looking for a drink aft on decks 14 and 15. Kind of frustrating if you are trying to enjoy a meal on Deck 14 but have to schlep up to Deck 15 and wait to be served. Not very safe either if you are carrying a couple of drinks down the stairs on the return journey.

[upwarduk]

---Very busy if it is catering to all those looking for a drink aft on decks 14 and 15. Kind of frustrating if you are trying to enjoy a meal on Deck 14 but have to schlep up to Deck 15 and wait to be served. Not very safe either if you are carrying a couple of drinks down the stairs on the return journey.

 

When I last sailed on Celebrity, there were waiters who would serve you a drink at your table with a meal.

[wallie5446]

After 9 pages of back n forth, the thing I find amazing, except for the OP that is 'taking a break', many that find 'issues' with the Celebrity product, still have more sailings booked!

 

In the end, it ain't really bad, cause they keep getting repeaters.

[FlorenceItaly]

After 9 pages of back n forth, the thing I find amazing, except for the OP that is 'taking a break', many that find 'issues' with the Celebrity product, still have more sailings booked!

 

In the end, it ain't really bad, cause they keep getting repeaters.

 

 

 

It's the lure of the drink package, LOL!

[upwarduk]

After 9 pages of back n forth, the thing I find amazing, except for the OP that is 'taking a break', many that find 'issues' with the Celebrity product, still have more sailings booked!

 

In the end, it ain't really bad, cause they keep getting repeaters.

 

Celebrity have won the 'Best all round Cruise company' in the large ship category , winning with 4/5 ships- Reflection, Silhouette, Equinox & Eclipse. This is from 2016 Reviews to Cruise Critic .co.uk.

[GottaKnowWhen]

...My guess is that a lot of this food is served to the wait staff, etc...it's doing duel duty. If the guests don't eat it (not many did from my experience) then they give the leftovers to their employees? ...

 

Wrong. There is a separate galley for the crew. Food not eaten from the buffet is composted and/or incinerated and disposed of.

 

 

I have been on Celebrity ships for about 70 nights over the last 2-3 years. I can say I have been in the buffet maybe 10 times? Including breakfast and lunch, never for dinner. The MDR does adequate breakfast and a good lunch. The buffet does do a better job on omelets and the Mast Grill does do a better job on burgers than the MDR. But overall I have found the buffet offerings to provide a good variety. Excellent french fries! Note my opening comment above - food put out at the buffet is discarded if not eaten by passengers; no reuse of the "leftovers", no passing it on to crew. If they were to put out 10-15 varieties of cold cuts and cheeses, there is just that much more waste to discard at the end of the mealtime.

 

 

My only issue with the Celebrity buffets was on a Silhouette transatlantic. A very popular speaker was scheduled for 1100-1200 in the main theater. So at noon several thousand of us headed for the buffet and the stock of napkin-wrapped flatware quickly vanished.

Edited February 15, 2017 by GottaKnowWhen
Extend remarks

[BosoxI]

Hmm. I think I'm fairly rational. I didn't eat the bad-looking food, for instance. I don't eat in the specialty restaurants and I have a "normal" room. I'm certainly not looking for a "fine-dining" experience in the buffet. But I would expect something along the lines of my local grocery store's deli department for lunch - and there was nothing there of the sort. The buffet was nothing at all like my last cruise 3 years ago on Royal Caribbean.

 

I don't mean to carp on it, as much as try to understand it. They don't expect people to actually eat those scrambled eggs, do they? Take a look at them in my photos! My guess is that a lot of this food is served to the wait staff, etc...it's doing duel duty. If the guests don't eat it (not many did from my experience) then they give the leftovers to their employees? They're trying to do more with less is my guess. They will be doing it without me on their cruise line in the future, unless I can figure out a way to get most of my food on-shore. The Eclipse was a lovely ship and my vacation was great, except for what you see in the photos.

 

https://www.yelp.com/biz/celebrity-cruise-lines-miami?hrid=rJqH9n7frKACrEHU_T8y4Q&utm_campaign=www_review_share_popup&utm_medium=copy_link&utm_source=(direct)

 

 

I asked once but I guess you missed my question: on what cruise line did the buffet and the food in general suit you?

[jbuch02]

We are regular cruisers and have been Celebrity loyalists since 2003. We've seen the transition from the early Century Class ships, to Millennium and now Solstice. We've cruised some 38 times. Our first on Mercury in 2001, 30 times since then. We've seen the management changes and the changing character of the product over the last 15 years. We can offer perspective and that's what I'll try to do in this post.

 

Our last cruise? ......... Carnival Sunshine. We typically book inside or OV cabins. On this cruise of 5d, we booked the Captain's Suite to accommodate a meeting place for 4 other family members who cruised with us (2, besides us, in the suite, 2 in an inside cabin elsewhere) over the Holidays. This is the equivalent of the Penthouse Suites on a Celebrity ship, a bit smaller perhaps but at $400/d/p (with four comfortably occupying these quarters), it is quite a bit less expensive (we've never booked a Celebrity Suite and don't plan to in the future).

 

The Carnival suite experience was nice. Different. There was no butler but we received some type of unexpected perk each day in our cabin ....... specialty dinner for 4, Champagne, wine, chocolates, a fruit basket. Nice touches. We felt well served and somewhat special. The nicest part of this suite is that it is just above the bridge and bridge wings. The huge balcony is forward facing, partially glass enclosed and you can see both forward over the bow and all the way aft. We all spent a lot of time here taking advantage of the exclusivity this cabin offered.

 

Our next two cruises are with Carnival: Vista in a week and Glory in August. Our next two cruises are with Celebrity - Infinity in December of this year and Solstice in March of 2018.

 

The salient point is that all the cruise lines we've sailed (Celebrity, NCL, RCL, Oceana, Costa, MSC, Carnival) have different characteristics and even the ships in the same fleet will have a different feel to them. We enjoy that but we have always used Celebrity as the standard and bar to reach.

 

......... until maybe 2-3y ago which I also associate with the accession of Lisa Lutoff-Perlo to CEO. I don't blame her for much of anything that has changed with Celebrity and it has changed, really changed. Her job is to generate revenue, keep Celebrity profitable and keep the share-holders happy. She's done a good job at that if you examine public records.

 

She has also been influenced, in my view, by the competition and accordingly has set out to capture a certain segment of the market that has no problem paying for "Modern Luxury" and the "Suite Life." The value cruiser, while still accommodated on Celebrity cruises, may find equal or better value elsewhere. Regardless, we still like the feel and character of Celebrity ships. We know lots of the staff after 30 cruises with the company and it's always fun to renew acquaintances.

 

We sailed Carnival on one of the older ships, Inspiration and still in service, in 2008 and, compared to Celebrity at the time, not even close in terms of food quality, accommodations, service, entertainment and the like. Since then? Well, we enjoy Carnival having first sailed with them in the modern era of their ship upgrades in 2012. We enjoy the price first. Compared to Celebrity for equivalent accommodations (inside or OV) it ranges anywhere from 50 to 150 dollars per day, per person less. The food is as good. There are more restaurant venues and lower up charges when there is one. Perhaps per person staffing is about the same as Celebrity and occasionally you will see the same kinds of apparent short staffing in various venues that you'll see on Celebrity.

 

The character of the staff however is different. Like Celebrity's corporate memes, there just seconds before you need it, modern luxury, etc, Carnival touts fun. The staff is all about fun. We don't find it intrusive, some do. Overall, staff are engaging, very friendly and at all times, fun to be around.

 

I've always felt that Celebrity has done a very good job of translating their corporate motos and objectives for service into performance at the ship level by their crews, hotel and restaurant/bar staff. I think as time has gone on though, they've squeezed, as the saying goes, about as much blood out of the turnip that is possible. I've been told by restaurant managers that the implementation of Luminae as well as anytime dining has been hard on them in terms of numbers of staff available to provide a level of service that they would like to deliver. As well, we were disappointed to see the Ocean Liner themed restaurants go away to be replaced (except on Millennium I believe) with homogeneous, and in my view, downgraded versions of the Tuscan Grill. In order to keep pace with the expanding dining venues of competitors in the cruise industry, particularly Carnival, Celebrity embarked on a plan to shoe-horn differently themed restaurants into their ships. They shoehorned anytime dining into a portion of the MDR and then Luminaie into another portion of it. I don't think they carried that off very well and restaurant managers present during this transition that I spoke to about it don't like it either.

 

In my view, Carnival has done a better job here. They've provided more and different dining spaces for the various choices diners might make on their ships. They two did this during major refits but it is better executed from an engineering stadnpoint. For example, for anytime dining, whihc is in a completely separate space from the fixed seating dinning area, you check in at a location that is separate form the dining room area where anytime diners are seated. At this location the staff manning it will know what tables/seats are available. If one is available, you'll be given a ticket, proceed directly to the door, present the ticket to the host and get seated. If there is a wait, you will be given a device that will flash when you are to be seated. This process avoids the irritating crowd that typically assembles just outside the any-time dinning venue you wish to be seated at for dinner. That there are more dining venues and options, completely separate and well spaced, also tends to lessen the crowd that wants to eat at any of them at a given time of the day.

 

Carnival cruisers seem less likely to want to dress up. We liked getting dressed for dinner and that Celebrity has, well, de-emphasized formal dining, a curious move it seems to me if they want a more spendy, upscale segment of the cruiser market, Celebrity isn't differentiating itself to the extent necessary for me to enjoy more formal dining and then pay more for a cruise to get it.

 

Carnival (and all the lines associated with Carnival Corp.) has assiduously avoided the perks that Celebrity started a few years back (good, better, best) and other cruise lines (Princess, NCL) have followed. At first Celebrity offered these perks to provide incentives to book OV and Balcony cabins, then started offering all four of them to book suites. It appears to me that they now just provide additional revenue and not incentives to book a particular cabin class. In order to compare cruise pricing on a per day basis, you have to do a good deal of math - simple but time consuming - to figure out how much more one is paying for a perk and if it is worth it. Sometimes it is, sometimes it isn't.

 

We have always liked the beverage package; we like the Martini bar and usually upgrade to the premium package on the first day but we've found we can save money by using our Elite Plus perk (drink tickets) between 5pm and 7pm and do fine with that - sad face - miss the Martini bar. So, if the price for that perk provides a savings, we get it, if not we don't. Point being, you have to do the math.

 

Cocktail and wine prices per serving on Carnival are comparable to those on Celebrity. However, their liquor policy is a bit more liberal. You can actually pre-sail purchase liter bottles of your favorite liquor along with mixers, 750ml bottles of wine, avoiding the 15% gratuity, and have them delivered to your cabin. On some ships, you can re-order but will pay the 15% gratuity. The pricing is high (Skyr Vodka, one Liter, $70) but on a per drink basis, this approach has value. You can carry a case of water or soda aboard, leave it with the porter at check in and it ends up in your cabin along with your luggage. Again, you have to do the math and cruisers looking for ways to cruise less expensively and for value should be doing it.

 

This has turned into a much longer post than I intended. I hope it is useful. There is nothing wrong with Celebrity; nothing wrong with any of the other cruise lines. Different in the eye of the beholder, all of them. For us, we're trying to stretch our cruise budget to cruise as often as we can for as little as we can per cruise and still enjoy it. I will say that, on balance, Celebrity no longer offers the value to us that it once did. For those willing to pay for the service in the Suite Life on Celebrity, it can be but we are just as happy on other cruise lines that offer something new, different or something of greater value to us. Shop around. Try something different every now and then. Come back to what you are comfortable with and we still find that in Celebrity.

 

Happy cruising.

[CRZR58]

Thanks jbuch02 for a well thought out and interesting post.