Food

[Flatbush Flyer]

1 hour ago, Velvetwater said:

 

 It amuses me that people still pay for speciality restaurants on luxury lines when they have shelled out £2k-3k for 7 days.Some posters need to realise that not everyone can afford cruise a,b or c or prefer to spend their money on other pursuits.

 

Horses for courses and all that but I don't cruise for the food on the ship (the choice is nice enough however) but experiencing food on land..well...thats a completely different story. My husband will tell you  about the trek we had to find Casu Marzu in Sardinia. 🙂

Just to be clear: There's never a charge for the specialty restaurants on Oceania (or airfare/air credit, beverages, internet, et al.). If you are flexible about time and sharing, you can eat at them as often as you like. BTW, it's not "better" food than the GDR or Terrace Café. Rather, each "specialty" venue is devoted to a specific cuisine with a dedicated kitchen/staff and intimate setting.  

As for the cost of the cruise itself, don't make the mistake of basing your decision solely on the cabin price. Doing the math for inclusive pricing (e.g., international airfare) of premium cruise lines may surprise you as regards true value for your $$$.

[MicCanberra]

Nothing wrong with the MDR on X, or with Blu (Aqua class) or even Iluminae (suites). I would go with whatever cabin class you prefer, you can always dine in a specialty restaurant if you want to.

[SRF]

Funny thing, people seem to expect fine dining in the MDR on a cruise ship.  But how many fine dining restaurants serve over 2000 people per evening?

 

😄

 

[Flatbush Flyer]

4 minutes ago, SRF said:

Funny thing, people seem to expect fine dining in the MDR on a cruise ship.  But how many fine dining restaurants serve over 2000 people per evening?

 

😄

 

Yet another reason to avoid big ships. 🚢 

[leaveitallbehind]

21 hours ago, George C said:

Totally agree but you can save 20 or more dollars a meal by prebuying a specialty package. 

That may depend on the cruise line.  With RCI and Celebrity we have always been able to get discounted prices on board as well as they are always selling them during the week.

[leaveitallbehind]

16 minutes ago, SRF said:

Funny thing, people seem to expect fine dining in the MDR on a cruise ship.  But how many fine dining restaurants serve over 2000 people per evening?

 

😄

 

That is actually a very good point.  IMO, while the MDR food is good for what it is, it is a mass preparation and mass service.  The specialty restaurants typically only serve a hundred or so people per seating with individual menu preparations - much more as a typical restaurant - from their own kitchens in our experience.  The choices and preparations are also more upscale as well.

Edited January 14, 2019 by leaveitallbehind

[MicCanberra]

4 hours ago, SRF said:

Funny thing, people seem to expect fine dining in the MDR on a cruise ship.  But how many fine dining restaurants serve over 2000 people per evening?

 

😄

 

I think that generally they do a fantastic job, perhaps not quite fine dining every time but for a table for two, it is very close. Obviously having more people on the one table starts to detract from that. Having many larger tables around starts to become event dining, even still they do an admirable job on service and food quality.

[Velvetwater]

15 hours ago, Flatbush Flyer said:

Just to be clear: There's never a charge for the specialty restaurants on Oceania (or airfare/air credit, beverages, internet, et al.). If you are flexible about time and sharing, you can eat at them as often as you like. BTW, it's not "better" food than the GDR or Terrace Café. Rather, each "specialty" venue is devoted to a specific cuisine with a dedicated kitchen/staff and intimate setting.  

As for the cost of the cruise itself, don't make the mistake of basing your decision solely on the cabin price. Doing the math for inclusive pricing (e.g., international airfare) of premium cruise lines may surprise you as regards true value for your $$$.

 

For me personally, I see my ship as my vessel to to get to a,b and c so the cabin price is my biggest consideration. Don't get me wrong, I adore being at sea but I am happy many vessels so what you may look for may not be high up on my list. We have priced up various luxury cruises vs mainstream lines with every else added and for our wants the first option has come up cheaper.

 

I was under the impression Oceania did charge for one or two things after my Great Auntie and Uncle discussed their cruises. Saying that though...it could have been one of the other similar lines such as Azamara...they tend to have similar tastes to you and top up their cruise fun with P&O voyages.

 

I agree with Canberra than the large ships do a fantastic job for the amount of people and choice. I think some do expect too much from the MDR on these lines...especially on formal nights.

Edited January 14, 2019 by Velvetwater

[George C]

5 hours ago, leaveitallbehind said:

That may depend on the cruise line.  With RCI and Celebrity we have always been able to get discounted prices on board as well as they are always selling them during the week.

On my last celebrity cruise they had discount on first couple of days only , did not see any oasis last month , just depends . 

[NantahalaCruiser]

On 1/13/2019 at 11:44 PM, Flatbush Flyer said:

Just to be clear: There's never a charge for the specialty restaurants on Oceania (or airfare/air credit, beverages, internet, et al.). If you are flexible about time and sharing, you can eat at them as often as you like. BTW, it's not "better" food than the GDR or Terrace Café. Rather, each "specialty" venue is devoted to a specific cuisine with a dedicated kitchen/staff and intimate setting.  

As for the cost of the cruise itself, don't make the mistake of basing your decision solely on the cabin price. Doing the math for inclusive pricing (e.g., international airfare) of premium cruise lines may surprise you as regards true value for your $$$.

But you do have to pay extra for alcoholic beverages over and above the wine with meals.

[Flatbush Flyer]

1 hour ago, NantahalaCruiser said:

But you do have to pay extra for alcoholic beverages over and above the wine with meals.

If you select the wine/beer at meals ("house") package as your complimentary O Life perk, you can convert it to the unlimited all booze/all day "prestige" package for $20/person/day extra. BTW, that includes the 18% gratuity.

[NantahalaCruiser]

20 minutes ago, Flatbush Flyer said:

If you select the wine/beer at meals ("house") package as your complimentary O Life perk, you can convert it to the unlimited all booze/all day "prestige" package for $20/person/day extra. BTW, that includes the 18% gratuity.

I realize that; but that is not the same as:

 

"There's never a charge for the specialty restaurants on Oceania (or airfare/air credit, beverages, internet, et al.)"

[Flatbush Flyer]

2 hours ago, NantahalaCruiser said:

I realize that; but that is not the same as:

 

"There's never a charge for the specialty restaurants on Oceania (or airfare/air credit, beverages, internet, et al.)"

Pretty much every cruise line separates "beverages" from "alcohol". All non-alcoholic "beverages" (e.g., sodas, pellegrino or other bottled water, specialty coffees, juices, etc) are always included on O. You can even request that your cabin fridge be stocked with specific items).

Edited January 16, 2019 by Flatbush Flyer

[dkjretired]

On 1/14/2019 at 10:16 AM, SRF said:

Funny thing, people seem to expect fine dining in the MDR on a cruise ship.  But how many fine dining restaurants serve over 2000 people per evening?

 

😄

 

 

They used to do it, I’ve been sailing Celebrity for 25 years and none of their specialties, Luminae or Blu can match the MDR 25 years ago in terms  of food and service. Back then they were considering #1 in food.

Edited January 16, 2019 by dkjretired

[LHT28]

On 1/14/2019 at 3:19 PM, Velvetwater said:

I was under the impression Oceania did charge for one or two things after my Great Auntie and Uncle discussed their cruises. Saying that though...it could have been one of the other similar lines such as Azamara...they tend to have similar tastes to you and top up their cruise fun with P&O voyages.

 

Maybe they were referring to  the wine pairing dinner on the larger Oceania ships

La Reserve  has a fee  but  seats only 24 pax it is  a 7 course dinner with wine

Then the private dining room seats 10  also has a fee for the room  if pax want to hold private dinner  party ..

Other Specialty  restaurants are included in the fare

All alcoholic beverages  have fee  unless you have 1 of the beverage packages

[Greg901]

How would you rate the MDR on the conquest? We are not  food snobs but like a good meals. 

Edited January 20, 2019 by Greg901

[lenquixote66]

We went to Specialty restaurants on NCL and they were great. On every other cruise line we are on we dine in the MDR.We were on a Cunard cruise that only had one dining room and everything was fantastic.

[Hlitner]

On ‎1‎/‎12‎/‎2019 at 11:58 PM, 4inayear said:

Does everyone think it is worth it to upgrade to the specialty resteraunts?  Is the main dining room that bad?  We love the food in Blu on Celebrity but are confused over this system.

I will address your exact question.  We used to really like Aqua and did it on several cruises with OK results.  But then we noticed that the quality of cuisine in Blu was gradually declining while the cost of Aqua kept increasing.  On one cruise we got tired of all the various braised meats ( i.e. lamb and beef) that all tasted alike.  We found ourselves ordering more and more items off the "secret menu" which were MDR items such as Escargot, Onion Soup, etc. that one could get in Blu.  So on our last Eclipse cruise (21 days) we booked a much lower priced regular balcony cabin (upgraded to Concierge) and purchased dining packages that covered 14 of our 21 dinners.  We had 10 dinners in Murano, 1 in the Tuscan (awful), 1 in the Lawn, and 2 in Qsine.  The food in all those venues (with the exception of the Tuscan) surpassed what we would get in Blu.  And Murano was about as good as anything we have experienced on any ship.   Since we were able to purchase our dining packages during a 20% Off sale, our cost per meal averaged about $25 per passenger day.  We saved more then that by not booking Aqua Class, so in a sense we did not pay any extra (over the cost of Blu) for those restaurants.  On the Gala nights we ate in the MDR...since those are the nights when the MDR has their best menus.

 

Getting back to Blu...the first time we booked Aqua we thought Blu was terrific.  But on subsequent cruises we found that menu items were either the same (which started to get boring) or declining.  And consider the silly little things like the crudites and dips would did not change over many years.  Or the nightly bread offerings which also did not change over many years.  I could mention a quick comparison to being in the Yacht Club on MSC (with its own restaurant) where the bread offerings changed at every meal!  And that dedicated restaurant (called Le Muse) was open for 3 meals a day...7 days a week (even when in port)!  

 

When compared to cruising in MSC's Yacht Club we found the entire Aqua concept a very distant 3rd class experience.  And on a cost per day basis we thought we got a lot more for our money on MSC (which did cost more per passenger day then AQ).   We once posted that we thought Aqua Class was worth about $25 more per passenger day then a much lower cost balcony.  After our last AQ experience we dropped that number to about $20 per passenger day....which is the value we put on Blu above the MDR.   We also thought that many of the AQ cabins were in an inferior location (directly below the pool deck and in the huge shadow cast by the overhang).   AQ no longer had unlimited bottled water, the afternoon hors d'Oeuvres had declined to things like melon wrapped in inferior proscutto, celery, and perhaps an Olive.  About the only thing we thought was nice were the silly footstools on the balcony (also in Concierge).  

 

I doubt if we will ever book Aqua on a future cruise unless it is sold for less then the price of a decent balcony cabin.  On the other hand,  we do not have any future Celebrity cruises booked (we used to have at least one or two booked at any time).  On our recent MSC Divina cruise we had to decide did we want to book another cruise in the Divina's Yacht Club or on the Silhouette (in a Concierge or suite).  DW and I talked about the decision for about 5 minutes...and with no hesitation booked another MSC cruise in the same Yacht Club cabin!  When evaluating the pros and cons of both cruises/ships it was not even close.   

 

Hank