Disappointed

[Bo1953]

6 minutes ago, TeeRick said:

OK here comes the age-old Philly cheesesteak debate.  Pat's or Geno's?  LOL!

To add in a 'new age' place for cheese steaks V-Street... LOL

 

[mayleeman]

I am trying to figure out why someone would cruise 150 times on a line with such horribly lowered quality. Surely the decline was discernible sometime in that period of time?

Edited May 14, 2019 by mayleeman

[neilrr]

Oh.... How I miss the days of Chef Michel Roux and when you paid to be a Captain's Club member...🍸😊 

[Bo1953]

51 minutes ago, TeeRick said:

OK here comes the age-old Philly cheesesteak debate.  Pat's or Geno's?  LOL!

I will advance V Street as one of the best...

 

Bon appetit and not bon voyage

[hcat]

1 hour ago, neilrr said:

Oh.... How I miss the days of Chef Michel Roux and when you paid to be a Captain's Club member...🍸😊 

 

And Celebrity was its own cruise line with smaller ships..not a Royal C clone!

 

Overall, food  for us on EDGE was very good to excellent , so  experiences and opinions differ as always!

[jkgourmet]

1 hour ago, Bo1953 said:

I will advance V Street as one of the best...

 

Bon appetit and not bon voyage

 

I'll recognize that it may be delicious, but it cannot be called a "cheese steak".  It has neither cheese nor beef.  Even their own menu doesn't use the words cheese or steak.

 

WIZKID PHILLY

grilled seitan, mushrooms & onions, rutabaga wiz, long roll

[ALWAYS CRUZIN]

What I do not understand is that the food quality and grade on Royal ships are far better than the upscale Celebrity ships. Every Royal ship we have been on had excellent food. Every Celebrity ship we have sailed on had good to below average food. That is my experience. What about you? I am not talking about the Specialty restaurants.

[ALWAYS CRUZIN]

7 minutes ago, hcat said:

 

And Celebrity was its own cruise line with smaller ships..not a Royal C clone!

 

Overall, food  for us on EDGE was very good to excellent , so  experiences and opinions differ as always!

Bet you did not eat at the buffet than. Terrible food and warm to cold hot foods. Actually had to cut the mashed potatoes in a pot to get them out. That is how dry they were. The meatloaf was cold.

[neilrr]

Hi everyone:

 

I understand everybody has different experiences and food is very subjective.  We have approx. 40 cruises under our belt and we have been on RCCL a couple of times and the food could not compare to Celebrity, Princess and HAL. This is about as good as it gets in the mid-priced cruise lines until you make the jump to Oceania and Azamara.  When we ordered a shrimp cocktail the waiter on RCCL said "you can only get it on certain days." The food was average at best and service was fair.

 

All the cruise lines have specific demographics they cater to. The ships' demographic on RCCL is 30's/40's - mostly families with children.  The kids were running around all over the ship.  The Captain had to make announcements for parents to supervise the children. I will take the service and food of Celebrity over RCCL anytime... Don't even get me started on NCL - those initials are not even discussed in our household after one trip with them. The worst food we ever had on a cruise line in their MDR and they served the same thing 3 days in a row in the buffet for lunch.

 

Everyone finds their niche... I like Celebrity better than Princess; my Partner likes Princess better than Celebrity in certain aspects...  I guess that what makes the world go round....

[Fixit2010]

How exactly does one define poor quality.  As mentioned above, it is subjective.  Oner persons disappointment is another persons satisfaction. Last time I sailed X they had the bistro on 5 and ipads in Qusine.

I am sailing this year with them and I will be able to see for myself if there has been any decline and if there has, I will personally e-mail LLP while I am on board.  Likewise, if its very good, I shall still feed back my opinion.

[perditax]

Food quality is not entirely subjective. A cut of meat can be cooked incorrectly, gristly, etc. Fruit can be underripe/overripe. Seasoning can be under-done. These things may not matter to some people, but they are certainly quantifiable. 

[TommyD3]

4 hours ago, mayleeman said:

I am trying to figure out why someone would cruise 150 times on a line with such horribly lowered quality. Surely the decline was discernible sometime in that period of time?

The decline has been quite steep this calendar year. Before then I was quite happy. I believe that they had a budget reduction a few months ago. Some of my favorite dishes were completely removed this calendar year.

[Orator]

1 minute ago, TommyD3 said:

The decline has been quite steep this calendar year. Before then I was quite happy. I believe that they had a budget reduction a few months ago. Some of my favorite dishes were completely removed this calendar year.

Agree with your observation that the decline has been steep this year. I did speak to the Executive Chef and F&B Manager on Eclipse and food was noticeably improved on the second part of the B2B. I also noticed that some of my favorite items were removed. No more Chicken Kiev or Chicken Cordon Blu at least on the 12 menus I experienced. Ate in the Oceanview for two dinners since nothing on those menus appealed to me. It was crowed there at 6:30PM. 

[Stateroom_Sailor]

5 hours ago, jkgourmet said:

 

Whether we like it or not, Celebrity will decide ALL these issues based on the bottom line.  As long as decreased services, food, etc don't decrease income and profit (they are NOT the same), they have no financially sound reason to change.  

 

That is the nature of capitalism.  AND it's the goal of every corporation: best results for their stockholders.  

 

Don't like the changes?  Vote with your dollars.  Take your business elsewhere.  IF that affects the bottom line, something will improve.  But I don't expect that passenger booking will decrease.  New cruisers will arrive and not compare to the good old days.  Those with their precious loyalty status will continue to book and *****.

 

I kept my opinion to myself UNLESS another passenger brought up the food issue first.  Still, it ended up being a main topic of conversation about 1/3 of the time.  You hit the nail head, I heard more than once, "...but now that we're Elite, we'll just have to hope something changes..."

[ALWAYS CRUZIN]

My knowledge comes from 70 cruises on 7 different cruise lines. Poor quality: Cold instead of hot, mashed potatoes hard as a rock,  If you have a chance, cruise on the Harmony and you will have the best food since the old days. Everything and I mean everything was excellent. Just cruised the Celebrity Reflection Apr 1st. loved the cruises and the ship and the food was exceptional to say the least. Yet, it did not compare to the Royal Caribbean Serenade of the Seas we sailed on in January. Not all ships on the same cruise line offer the same excellent prepared food. The only great food on the Carnival was in the steak house. Otherwise acceptable. 45 cruises on Carnival alone. At 74 we still like fun. AS for taste, that is not what I am comparing any of this to. That is preference. Variety, preparation, temperature, quality. 

[Stateroom_Sailor]

18 minutes ago, TommyD3 said:

The decline has been quite steep this calendar year. Before then I was quite happy. I believe that they had a budget reduction a few months ago. Some of my favorite dishes were completely removed this calendar year.

 

Bingo.  The OP may have noticed subtle declines over the years, but they voted with their dollars based on 2017 or 2018 quality.  Likely they were after final payment, and locked in with airfare and hotels, before they realized what was happening.

 

Unless you've sailed in the last couple months, you might have the proper context of where we're at here.

[citronella]

Food is subjective - the most over used phrase on Cruise Critic !

 

Anyone can tell if the quality of food is poor or good.  Not everyone likes the same food but that’s a different story. If I’m travelling on a mid-level priced  cruise ship like Celebrity, I expect the overall quality of food to be good - not as good as a high end fine dining restaurant - but good. If it’s not, I won’t be back. 

 

As for complaining if I find the food poor - no, I’m not going to bring it up at every meal - I’ll make a comment to Celebrity and just not come back.

 

Or........I’ll start a thread here “I WILL NEVER SAIL CELEBRITY EVER AGAIN EVEN IF IT’S THE LAST CRUISE SHIP ON EARTH ! “

[Gonzo70]

1 hour ago, Fixit2010 said:

How exactly does one define poor quality.  As mentioned above, it is subjective.  Oner persons disappointment is another persons satisfaction. Last time I sailed X they had the bistro on 5 and ipads in Qusine.

I am sailing this year with them and I will be able to see for myself if there has been any decline and if there has, I will personally e-mail LLP while I am on board.  Likewise, if its very good, I shall still feed back my opinion.

 

Food quality is objective, it is taste that is subjective. For example, a Snickers bar is mass produced with cheap quality ingredients, but many find the taste good. A steak in the US is graded with regards to quality - Prime, Choice, Select, Standard, Commercial, Utility, Cutter and Canner (this is purely an objective scale). Additional measures can be taken to increase texture and taste such as dry-aging, proper storage and degree of freshness (again all objective). Whether it is cooked to the proper temperature is also objective and seasoning is largely (though not completely) objective. Then there are some additional factors that have a good degree of objectivity, but some subjectivity sprinkled in, such as creativity of the dish and attractiveness of the presentation. While some people might prefer the taste of a McDonalds' hamburger (subjective) the quality of the beef pales in comparison to a dry-aged prime steak at a good steakhouse (objective). Food awards such as Michelin stars focus mainly on the objective aspects  of food quality.

[mek]

28 minutes ago, Stateroom_Sailor said:

 

I kept my opinion to myself UNLESS another passenger brought up the food issue first.  Still, it ended up being a main topic of conversation about 1/3 of the time.  You hit the nail head, I heard more than once, "...but now that we're Elite, we'll just have to hope something changes..."

Well, I'm Elite and I won't hesitate to do something different next time.

[jkgourmet]

15 minutes ago, Gonzo70 said:

 

Food quality is objective, it is taste that is subjective. For example, a Snickers bar is mass produced with cheap quality ingredients, but many find the taste good. A steak in the US is graded with regards to quality - Prime, Choice, Select, Standard, Commercial, Utility, Cutter and Canner (this is purely an objective scale). Additional measures can be taken to increase texture and taste such as dry-aging, proper storage and degree of freshness (again all objective). Whether it is cooked to the proper temperature is also objective and seasoning is largely (though not completely) objective. Then there are some additional factors that have a good degree of objectivity, but some subjectivity sprinkled in, such as creativity of the dish and attractiveness of the presentation. While some people might prefer the taste of a McDonalds' hamburger (subjective) the quality of the beef pales in comparison to a dry-aged prime steak at a good steakhouse (objective). Food awards such as Michelin stars focus mainly on the objective aspects  of food quality.

 

All quite accurate; however, I'd guess that 90% of the population couldn't tell the difference between dry-aged, prime and choice beef except by the price.  When it comes to food, most people value quantity over quality. 

[J_Kepler]

24 minutes ago, jkgourmet said:

 

All quite accurate; however, I'd guess that 90% of the population couldn't tell the difference between dry-aged, prime and choice beef except by the price.  When it comes to food, most people value quantity over quality. 

 

Also price is another factor.  Higher satisfaction comes with higher prices regardless of quality.

 

I think there is a bit more objectivity to food quality but the issue can also be mixed in with what people want.  My wife loves escargot so when it is there - she is all over that.  Many of the fish and chicken dishes will be different from home with sauces and seasonings.  Glad the food isn't like mom used to make.  She used to cook pork until it was the consistency of shoe leather.

[mayleeman]

59 minutes ago, J_Kepler said:

She used to cook pork until it was the consistency of shoe leather.

So, your Mom left it in a condition suitable for something at least. My mother used to tell her friends that my brother and I were the only kids she ever heard of who looked forward in college to getting back after holidays to dorm food. 

 

On topic: We loved the food and service on the Reflection last month (well, not the Aqua afternoon canapes so much, but we usually got back hours after). Any glitches were taken care of immediately. 

[Fixit2010]

1 hour ago, jkgourmet said:

 

All quite accurate; however, I'd guess that 90% of the population couldn't tell the difference between dry-aged, prime and choice beef except by the price.  When it comes to food, most people value quantity over quality. 

So true.  I use the "Fixit" scale.  If I like it then its good, if I don't then its not.  Simples! 

No need to use some theoretical algorithm to tell me if its good, I got taste buds. 

Yep I may be in that 90% but does it bother me? Nahhh.

[phoenix_dream]

8 hours ago, mayleeman said:

I am trying to figure out why someone would cruise 150 times on a line with such horribly lowered quality. Surely the decline was discernible sometime in that period of time?

I respectfully disagree.  Recently we had our 51st cruise on Celebrity, also on the Eclipse.  The food (and much of the service) was seriously a step down (or more) than many of our recent cruises and for that matter any other cruise on Celebrity - and we have cruised them six times this year alone.  I do feel that overall the quality has declined but is generally somewhere between good to excellent.  It was not so on Eclipse (unlike the 28 days we spent on her early last year when the food and service were excellent).  

 

I also want to speak to those who say it should be brought to someone's attention onboard.  We in fact did do that with the service (in Blu) and it did improve considerably.  But I personally don't feel it makes a lot of sense to try to escalate the issue with the food.  Are they going to change chefs onboard??  Are they going to get better ingredients??  Are they suddenly going to have supplies of the several food items they were out of (or nearly out of)??  The answer to all is 'no'.  All it would serve to do it make us even more uncomfortable and feel like constant complainers (which I assure you we are not).  Maybe I am wrong to think this way, but that was our feeling onboard.

[mek]

1 hour ago, phoenix_dream said:

I respectfully disagree.  Recently we had our 51st cruise on Celebrity, also on the Eclipse.  The food (and much of the service) was seriously a step down (or more) than many of our recent cruises and for that matter any other cruise on Celebrity - and we have cruised them six times this year alone.  I do feel that overall the quality has declined but is generally somewhere between good to excellent.  It was not so on Eclipse (unlike the 28 days we spent on her early last year when the food and service were excellent).  

 

I also want to speak to those who say it should be brought to someone's attention onboard.  We in fact did do that with the service (in Blu) and it did improve considerably.  But I personally don't feel it makes a lot of sense to try to escalate the issue with the food.  Are they going to change chefs onboard??  Are they going to get better ingredients??  Are they suddenly going to have supplies of the several food items they were out of (or nearly out of)??  The answer to all is 'no'.  All it would serve to do it make us even more uncomfortable and feel like constant complainers (which I assure you we are not).  Maybe I am wrong to think this way, but that was our feeling onboard.

I agree, while I would make a comment about consistently poor service or food that is not served hot, I would never speak directly to the chef(s.)  This is not cooked to order food, so I don't see the point.