Currently on Equniox

[Cruzinram]

Now on Equniox and as we have watched Celebrity over the last 25 years slowly take the downward trend, it has finally hit rock bottom. Food quality in MDR is just plain awful. We have started eating in the Buffet and even found some dishes worse than before. Add all of the things that have changed in 25 years we have been loyal customers, even DW has seen the light. Our HAL experience in October was far superior to what we are seeing on this Voyage. I think we are finally done. Sad to see Celebrity become what it is today.

[PTC DAWG]

I sailed on EQ this past September..found the service exception and food nicely prepared with good taste.  We did eat in  places other than MDR though a few times.

 

Sorry you are not getting what you expected..maybe it will get better.  

[hiccups]

We were on Equinox in June and didn't have any issues with the food.  We've taken one cruise on HAL and found it to be the worst of the half a dozen lines we've tried.  Different strokes for different folks, I guess.

[NaplesKnitter]

We are on the Equinox now also, and we have had wonderful meals everyday so far! 

[d9704011]

Have recently cruised on EDGE, REFLECTION and SUMMIT and found the food very much to my liking.  Am looking forward to a cruise on EQUINOX later in 2020 and am confident the experience will be of the usual high quality I’ve come to expect from Celebrity over the last 10 years or so.

 

OP, hope you find an experience more suitable to you with a different line.

[chemmo]

OP...We were on Equinox in September and loved our cruise.

 

Please ask for a meeting with the M’D or Food and Beverages manager and clearly express what is going wrong for you in the MDR (cold food, poor service, long waits....). Try to be as specific as possible. Not only will there be a chance then of turning your cruise around you will be helping the next guests...

[jelayne]

Food is very subjective and the taste can vary depending upon the Chef.  We were on a  B2B cruise where the Chef changed between the 2 sailing .  On the first sailing the was far to salty for our taste, during cooking demos the Chef would keep adding salt saying salt brings out the flavor of the food.   Next sailing, same menu, same ship , different Chef and the food was much better.

[Phxazzcruisers]

On the over 50 + cruises with Celebrity over the years we have never been disappointed with the food.  We have not noticed  a negative change in the food over time.  We have had instances where a particular mean was not to our liking, but the dishes were immediately replaced by ones that we much preferred.Of course, food is very subjective, and if Celebrity is not to you personal liking, then so be it.  Find a cruise that suits your tastes better.

[bikerunner]

I agree that food is subjective. I was on the reflection over thanksgiving and found many, to many, things I really enjoyed. There was just one meal were something was overdone for me and it was replaced promptly without issue.  Service was stepped up from my cruises prior,  they were not bad, this one just seemed much more on the spot.  I notice this and observe it since I use to run hotels and restaurants.  But everyone does have different tastes and likes.  

[CulverCityCruisers]

We spent 24 days on Equinox in Oct- Nov of this year and found food to be outstanding.  If there was something we didn't like in the MDR we asked for something else.  Today and 25 years ago is not a fair comparison.  That's like saying that cars were so much cheaper to buy 25 years ago than today and were build better.  Things change and sometimes for the worse, but overall we think Celebrity does an amazing job serving upwards of 2500 to 3000 passengers a day.  25 years ago most ships were smaller and heald 900 to 1200 passengers.

[phoenix_dream]

Everyone has different expectations.  Have sailed 53 times on Celebrity, with 7 cruises in the past year alone.  Some food has been better than others but overall I find the food good to very good to excellent.  Yes, I think the food was better in 1992 when I first sailed X, but then again memories tend to not always be accurate.  But bad food?  A dish here or there but overall have never experienced it.

[miched]

We sailed on the Equinox in Oct.   it was one f the few times that we splurged on a suite for a special occasion.

 

With over  50 cruises and 25 on X I would rate it at the bottom of our list and that includes many on Carnival with Carnival being rated in the top 30.  
 

There was something missing.   The service was great but the Capt. and CD were invisible.   We  rarely seen them.  It was Capt Demtrios M. And and I think the CD was Carlos ??? .    Don’t know who the Capt Club Host was.      The entertainment, and etc was all lacking.   It was the only time that I ever gave rating of 2s in many areas.   It is also the first time on board that I didn’t purchase a Future Cruise.   

Can’t complain about the food.   It is a matter of taste and likes.
 

Normally in the past if I gave a rating of less then 10 or not exceeded I receive a follow up to know why.   I didn’t get any this time.

 

i read reviews and comments made by others on roll call and many felt the same.

 

I hope that your cruise improves and so more enjoyable.
 

Happy cruising 🌊🚢🇺🇸🌅

 

 

Edited December 18, 2019 by miched

[Travrat]

Sorry to hear that your dining experience is below par. I am sailing on Equinox this Saturday. All cruise lines seem to have deteriorated in food quality over the last 25 years. I have had some bad dinners on every cruise including Crystal and Oceania but overall they both have a solid dining program. I find that ships sailing from European ports have better quality food than ships sailing out of Florida. I am not loyal to any cruise line as I get bored sailing on the same line year after year. I have been on 30+ cruises including 4 on Celebrity. In my opinion I have never thought the food was great on Celebrity. I usually book 4 nights in specialty restaurants on a 7 night cruise. I hope the food in Murano and Tuscan Grill is good. They certainly better be as Celebrity is charging $70pp to eat there!

[gordylad]

we were on Equinox in September and although we enjoyed MDR we are getting a bit fed up of the same menu every time we are on so this year we had a few nights at the buffet which was excellent.

[ipeeinthepool]

11 hours ago, CulverCityCruisers said:

We spent 24 days on Equinox in Oct- Nov of this year and found food to be outstanding.  If there was something we didn't like in the MDR we asked for something else.  Today and 25 years ago is not a fair comparison.  That's like saying that cars were so much cheaper to buy 25 years ago than today and were build better.  Things change and sometimes for the worse, but overall we think Celebrity does an amazing job serving upwards of 2500 to 3000 passengers a day.  25 years ago most ships were smaller and heald 900 to 1200 passengers.

 

I don't think many cruisers would trade the modern ships of today for the ships of 25 years ago.   Today's ships are safer, more comfortable, more efficient and frankly more fun.  FWIW, the same can be said about cars.  I don't think many people would select the family sedans or economy cars from 25 years ago compared to today's safer and more efficient cars, trucks and SUVs.

[aml3679]

Sorry to hear about your bad experience.  We have been on the Equinox a few times and have an upcoming cruise in February.  Glad the positive comments outweighed the negative.  That being said, as many have commented, food is subjective. There are plenty of places to eat.  We loved the specialty restaurants and the service, as always, is outstanding.

[terrydtx]

We are just the opposite of the OP. After 10 years of sailing with HAL, we decided to try X again. We have one previous X cruise on the old Century in 2009 in the Western Mediterranean. I can say that in the last 10 years many things have changed or gone away for the worse on HAL too. Food is so very subjective but I found the food on our Alaska cruise in July to be good but not as good as previous cruises. On HAL we prefer their Signature Suite cabins but you get no suite benefits like a private MDR or even early or priority boarding. HAL is implementing fleetwide a new dinning concept called Club Orange for  private breakfast and dinner dinning for all Neptune and Pinnacle suites. However any other non suite passengers can opt in to CO for an extra $35-50pp pd. Plus all ships except the two new Pinnacle Class ones have roped off portion of the 1st floor MDR  for this new Club Orange. Nothing like X Blu or Luminae's private dinning areas.    This was the final straw with HAL, so we are booked on a 2021 Infinity AQ Class cabin and looking forward to have the use of Blu. On paper X's AQ Class looks very comparable to HAL SS in cabin size and price but AQ has so many more benefits. We are also trying our first real premium cruise next year on a 10 day Viking Ocean cruise.

[Travrat]

5 minutes ago, terrydtx said:

We are just the opposite of the OP. After 10 years of sailing with HAL, we decided to try X again. We have one previous X cruise on the old Century in 2009 in the Western Mediterranean. I can say that in the last 10 years many things have changed or gone away for the worse on HAL too. Food is so very subjective but I found the food on our Alaska cruise in July to be good but not as good as previous cruises. On HAL we prefer their Signature Suite cabins but you get no suite benefits like a private MDR or even early or priority boarding. HAL is implementing fleetwide a new dinning concept called Club Orange for  private breakfast and dinner dinning for all Neptune and Pinnacle suites. However any other non suite passengers can opt in to CO for an extra $35-50pp pd. Plus all ships except the two new Pinnacle Class ones have roped off portion of the 1st floor MDR  for this new Club Orange. Nothing like X Blu or Luminae's private dinning areas.    This was the final straw with HAL, so we are booked on a 2021 Infinity AQ Class cabin and looking forward to have the use of Blu. On paper X's AQ Class looks very comparable to HAL SS in cabin size and price but AQ has so many more benefits. We are also trying our first real premium cruise next year on a 10 day Viking Ocean cruise.

Aqua class cabins are the same size as all regular cabins on X and are not as big as HAL’s SS cabins. Only benefits of Aqua Class are Blu and Persian Garden. The Blu dining room is very nice and has better service but the food is not that much better than MDR. I prefer to book a regular Veranda cabin and spend the difference on Specialty dining unless there is a great deal on Aqua Class. 

[Travrat]

15 hours ago, Cruzinram said:

Now on Equniox and as we have watched Celebrity over the last 25 years slowly take the downward trend, it has finally hit rock bottom. Food quality in MDR is just plain awful. We have started eating in the Buffet and even found some dishes worse than before. Add all of the things that have changed in 25 years we have been loyal customers, even DW has seen the light. Our HAL experience in October was far superior to what we are seeing on this Voyage. I think we are finally done. Sad to see Celebrity become what it is today.

Other than the disappointing dining how is everything else - entertainment, bar service, etc

[wpgcycler]

Sorry, but I just don't find general claims such as "food quality in MDR is just plain awful" to be helpful or even credible for that matter. Can you provide any details at all? And when you say you "found some dishes worse than before", it sounds like you didn't enjoy them the first time so, why would you think you would enjoy them a second time? 

[deliver42]

I just got off the Equinox last Saturday, and i can honestly say we totally loved the cruise, and the food, regardless of venue.Booked the Edge while on board.

[poffles]

Okay .. I seldom post to challenge what someone is saying that can be subjective but I just have to here in order to say I personally view this as unbelievable!  I have been on Equinox twice (well three times as one was B2B) and the most recent was July/Aug this year and there was nothing wrong (to this level) with the food and I ate in both MDR and the buffet.  Is it 5 star???  ...  I don't know cause I am not sure if I have ever eaten 5 star food, but to say 'plain awful' and that they have 'hit rock bottom' ... come on ... is this a serious review??????  If so I feel your pain as you suffer through your trip on that 'awful' ship.  Wow!

 

I would not challenge the better/worse than something else, or not to your liking, but stating it as you have with regard to the food is hard to comprehend. 

Edited December 18, 2019 by poffles

[K.T.B.]

2 hours ago, wpgcycler said:

Sorry, but I just don't find general claims such as "food quality in MDR is just plain awful" to be helpful or even credible for that matter. Can you provide any details at all? And when you say you "found some dishes worse than before", it sounds like you didn't enjoy them the first time so, why would you think you would enjoy them a second time? 

 

I wholeheartedly agree with your sentiment.  Opinions on food is extremely subjective.  What one person likes, another person will hate.  For example, I love pepper-rusted prime rib, my wife does not.  If that's what we both got in the MDR, our opinions would obviously differ in the enjoyment of the meal.

 

So much more detail is needed by the OP other than "the food quality is just plain awful".  WHY is it awful?

[mayleeman]

This thread needs to be taken with a grain of...um...salt.

 

This is the third time since September the OP has said they won't be cruising on X anymore. Once because of the reduction in free movies, and another because of that now-deleted $14 fee for the CBP as a perk.

[kag19]

Sorry the food on the cruise did not meet your expectations.  Food is very subjective but we absolutely loved our MDR experience on Equinox.  Food and service were outstanding!  We loved the Sommelier too.  Much better than the wine service and selection on any Royal ship in the MDR.   We loved the buffet as well.  We normally don't ever go to the buffet but gave it a try a couple days for lunch and were pleasantly surprised!  Pasta station especially was delicious!