Luminae

[judatt]

43 minutes ago, Northern Aurora said:

 

My husband is generally not a picky person but he is picky about this.  He wants food which should be hot to be served hot.  And I agree with him -- lukewarm eggs are just not appealing.  We never had much success so now limit our breakfast items served in the suite to be hot tea, juice and so forth.

I didn’t think my wife was on this board 😎. This is my pet peeve. Hot food must be hot. On our last cruise on Freedom I had to send the escargot back a couple of times because it just wasn’t hot. They did learn 😳. 

[C-Dragons]

1 hour ago, dkjretired said:

Room service comes from MDR, not Luminae in most cases.

But the Royal Suites are closer to Luminae so their room service would come from that galley.

 

[Happy Cruiser 6143]

2 hours ago, dkjretired said:

We did that on Summit and it was very nice for a change.

 

Don, I just noticed your signature.  I'll bet you know somebody I went to high school with, Duncan Higgins.  Send me a message if you do.  lajessen at yahoo dot com.

[CHEZMARYLOU]

That's what we're hoping.

[towel-animal]

Saw multiple posts on this thread mention having breakfast from Luminae sent to your suite — is this the standard suite room service breakfast menu? Or must one call room service and specially request Luminae menu items when ordering? 

[CHEZMARYLOU]

We don't order a hot breakfast very often but the pastries definitely came from Luminae.  I don't know if this was standard or because I requested it.  The post by C-Dragons is referencing the Royal Suites on Edge class ships, which is what we are sailing in on Edge.  They are right next to Luminae so it would make sense that breakfast would come from that kitchen.

[cangelmd]

On 6/6/2021 at 10:29 AM, George C said:

We did Petit Chef on our last cruise, loved the show will do it again, I like Tuscan just for the antipasto other than that we will do dinners in Luminae, wonder if we can get butler to get us the antipasto we are in a royal suite on summit,next month.

Are there any hot dishes in the antipasto? If it is a typical predominantly cold selection of antipasti, and you arrange with the butler ahead of time, they might be able to do it.

We floated a similar idea with our butler in a Royal suite, but he said the kitchens of the specialty restaurants didn’t like to do hot dishes because it reflected badly on kitchen, they couldn’t ensure quality. We also had issue of traveling with another couple who were in a Sky Suite and didn’t get unlimited specialty. The butler did do a plated, seated dinner for us, but it was off the regular room service, which was ok, we wanted a simple limited dinner that night.

Maybe raise the issue with the shoreside concierge when they call?

[George C]

5 minutes ago, cangelmd said:

Are there any hot dishes in the antipasto? If it is a typical predominantly cold selection of antipasti, and you arrange with the butler ahead of time, they might be able to do it.

We floated a similar idea with our butler in a Royal suite, but he said the kitchens of the specialty restaurants didn’t like to do hot dishes because it reflected badly on kitchen, they couldn’t ensure quality. We also had issue of traveling with another couple who were in a Sky Suite and didn’t get unlimited specialty. The butler did do a plated, seated dinner for us, but it was off the regular room service, which was ok, we wanted a simple limited dinner that night.

Maybe raise the issue with the shoreside concierge when they call?

The antipasto in Tuscan was just cold meats and cheese . 

[LGW59]

17 minutes ago, George C said:

The antipasto in Tuscan was just cold meats and cheese . 

I had a wonderful antipasto in my suite, asked to add artichoke and olives…done

[George C]

4 minutes ago, LGW59 said:

I had a wonderful antipasto in my suite, asked to add artichoke and olives…done

I sure that was included also , my memory is not always the best .

[LGW59]

36 minutes ago, George C said:

I sure that was included also , my memory is not always the best .

I’m the president of that club.  I have just 2 kids, boy and girl, I frequently call them by the others name 🤪

[Kevinwinston2019]

Would Celebrity consider Laminae as a specialty restaurant and pay the upcharge?

[Happy Cruiser 6143]

21 minutes ago, Kevinwinston2019 said:

Would Celebrity consider Laminae as a specialty restaurant and pay the upcharge?

No.  Luminae is the assigned dining room for those in suites.  A suite passenger may invite you to dinner and pay the upcharge on a space available basis with the approval of the maitre d', but you can't just buy your way in on your own.

 

[justcrusn]

On 6/6/2021 at 7:45 PM, CHEZMARYLOU said:

 We never had much luck with hot foods being much warmer than lukewarm.  Possibly the situation has improved.  We just stick to hot tea, juice and croissants.

I’ve tried bringing hot food to the cabin, straight from the buffet or whatever. It’s a challenge!

Even though they cover the plates, it’s a five minute or more trip to some cabins so I just accept that eating warm (not hot) breakfast is the price of having breakfast on my balcony.  They also stop somewhere close and call you to let you know it’s on the way.
If you want it HOT eat closer to the source….

[isdoo]

As we are in a RS, on our next cruise we plan to maybe have one breakfast in Luminae, but the rest will probably be on our balcony (if warm enough)

For lunch it will be Sushi on 5 or Lawn Club Grill

For dinner it will mainly be Murano, but perhaps one visit to Tuscan Grill - or if we do not fancy going to dinner we will order room service. 

So very few visits to Luminae which became a bit boring on our last cruise. At times on that one we were happy to even just eat in the buffet. 

 

[chemmo]

2 hours ago, isdoo said:

As we are in a RS, on our next cruise we plan to maybe have one breakfast in Luminae, but the rest will probably be on our balcony (if warm enough)

For lunch it will be Sushi on 5 or Lawn Club Grill

For dinner it will mainly be Murano, but perhaps one visit to Tuscan Grill - or if we do not fancy going to dinner we will order room service. 

So very few visits to Luminae which became a bit boring on our last cruise. At times on that one we were happy to even just eat in the buffet. 

 

 

To us (like yourselves) variety in dining is as important as the food itself.

 

Breakfast will be one or two Luminae, a few croissants and coffee on the balcony, an insuite delivery or two and even a grab some English bacon and French bread to make into a sandwich back in the room. I do wish the room service menu would offer some ‘easy’ breakfast items like bacon sandwiches...I think they would have more chance of getting deliveries to the rooms hotter if they simplified some choices. 

 

Lunchtimes we will enjoy a Porch or two, a Suchi and a room service. We tend to want our lunch to be light so as not to spoil our evening meal. Porch and Sushi do offer lighter bites. The snag with the buffet for us is we tend to go in saying we will ‘just get a bit of salad and a sandwich’ then spot that it is ‘pie day’ or ‘fish and chips day’ and the temptation overtakes the healthy light lunch sensible option...

 

Evening meals to us are our evening entertainment (along with pre and post dinner drinks)...We like to start with an appetite to make the most of them and to linger and enjoy the different atmospheres each speciality venue offers...

 

For us Luminae has a nice ambiance and great service and I can understand why some guests love to eat every meal there. Just not for us we enjoy variety...

[cangelmd]

3 hours ago, chemmo said:

 

To us (like yourselves) variety in dining is as important as the food itself.

…

 

For us Luminae has a nice ambiance and great service and I can understand why some guests love to eat every meal there. Just not for us we enjoy variety...

Since there seem to be a number of first time suite cruisers following along, I want to add to the above.

Luminae seems to have a 14 day meal rotation plus the Daniel Boulud selections ( one app, entree and dessert IIRC), plus you can order off MDR and get a plain steak or chicken, etc. They also have all the constraints of the Vessel Sanitation program in terms of freshness and quality of the food. Basically it is cruise ship food fancied up. The service is excellent- they try hard to get you at the same table and waitstaff, even though it is anytime dining. It’s as if they wanted the best of old fashioned 2 seating dining plus allowing you the freedom to eat when you want. 
The problem that Chemmo is alluding to is simply that after you’ve done a few weeks in a suite, it gets to be a bit much in terms of repetition and heaviness of the food. I don’t think they delve into the second week of the rotation on 7 night cruises either. It is the MDR for the suites, just like the Retreat sun deck, it is nicer and has some definite advantages, but it is still a sundeck

[isdoo]

1 hour ago, cangelmd said:

It is the MDR for the suites, just like the Retreat sun deck, it is nicer and has some definite advantages, but it is still a sundeck

Yes, but it is a more exclusive, higher quality sun 😂 😂

[talljules1]

6 hours ago, isdoo said:

Yes, but it is a more exclusive, higher quality sun 😂 😂

Only in Luminae will they chew the food for you.

[dkjretired]

On 6/23/2021 at 1:34 PM, towel-animal said:

Saw multiple posts on this thread mention having breakfast from Luminae sent to your suite — is this the standard suite room service breakfast menu? Or must one call room service and specially request Luminae menu items when ordering? 

Room service in suites, breakfast or otherwise come from the MDR. I have read on occasion in the higher suites getting things from Luminae but that is generally not the case.

[dkjretired]

On 6/23/2021 at 10:56 PM, Happy Cruiser 6143 said:

No.  Luminae is the assigned dining room for those in suites.  A suite passenger may invite you to dinner and pay the upcharge on a space available basis with the approval of the maitre d', but you can't just buy your way in on your own.

 

Correct and the Specialties have the same menu every night, Luminae has a 14 day rotation.

[DaKahuna]

On 6/6/2021 at 11:18 AM, C-Dragons said:

If you are sailing on an Edge class ship, you also have the option of having lunch on the pool deck instead of Luminae. Not a lot of choices, but tasty and you can keep your bathing attire on.

Not sure about the pool deck but we enjoyed lunch at the Retreat Bar when the Edge was in port.  
 

we really like Luminae for the quality of the food and the service and take almost all our breakfast and dinners there.  We do lunch when available, but also do lunch at Raw on Five at least once per cruise.

[midwestchick]

On 6/6/2021 at 9:46 AM, C-Dragons said:

That's correct.

Thank you but what are the dining hours please. 

[midwestchick]

13 minutes ago, DaKahuna said:

Not sure about the pool deck but we enjoyed lunch at the Retreat Bar when the Edge was in port.  
 

we really like Luminae for the quality of the food and the service and take almost all our breakfast and dinners there.  We do lunch when available, but also do lunch at Raw on Five at least once per cruise.

Are you able to see the menu on your tv screen without walking to Luminae to look at their daily dinner menu?

[CocoCronut]

3 hours ago, midwestchick said:

Are you able to see the menu on your tv screen without walking to Luminae to look at their daily dinner menu?

I haven’t seen their menu on the tv previously (maybe didn’t know where to look) but you can (or used to be able to pre-covid) request a copy of the luminae menus for the entire cruise to be placed in your suite - this allows you to plan a bit better around the days you want to eat there and the days you’d prefer a speciality.