Oceanview Cafe dinner service being eliminated?

[cw2go]

3 minutes ago, bnurick said:

 

It was lunch. Happy to cruise by and see what dinner has going on if y’all want to know…  What time would be when to go for accuracy?

 

I'd guess between 6:30-8pm Thank you for being willing to do this for all of us that are curious/anxious regarding the cut backs. 

 

Enjoy your cruise! 

 

Patty 

[RichYak]

10 minutes ago, bnurick said:

Happy to cruise by and see what dinner has going on if y’all want to know…

I think it's safe to say that's the ONLY thing we all want to know in this thread.

[harz99]

19 minutes ago, kguerriero said:

Might be a dumb question, but outside of room service, are there any food options onboard the ships (specifically thinking M-class) open after 10PM? 

Princess had the "International Cafe" (What I would think is an equivalent to El Bacio?) open 24 hours, and while it wasn't much, in addition to pastries they did offer a small selection of paninis and salads in a case available for free at any time. It was a nice late snack, and if Celebrity was able to do something similar, that may take some of the pressure off OVC at dinnertime and later.

There is a "Late night snacks" offering in Ocean View from around 10/11pm, a few bits of cold cuts, salad and staleish breads, with some pre - made rolls which looked to be lacking in the filling department, and slices of pizza. I ended up making my own sandwich from whatever was available as despite asking/pleading and messaging the Restaurant Manager they couldn't/wouldn't consistently provide a dairy free option (cheese with everything).

[NMTraveller]

6 hours ago, LMaxwell said:

 

That's because a cheaper cut of beef can never totally be masked with more expensive sauce. I understand your points

If you must use a bunch of ketchup it is not worth consuming.

[NMTraveller]

7 hours ago, mayleeman said:

 

Trying to decide what to do with the OV based on attendance after making it a shadow of what it was is like the television networks moving shows into horrible slots week after week and then cancelling them for poor ratings.

This.

[NMTraveller]

8 hours ago, seabeew said:

I think part of what’s going on with Celebrity and the downgraded food options can be attributed to having a new CEO in place. Richard Fain, longtime CEO and Chairman of the Royal Caribbean Group, retired about a year ago. He was replaced by Jason Liberty, the former Finance Director. 
 

Bean counters are running the show.  That explains the cuts that will anger most cruisers.

[NMTraveller]

9 hours ago, SueMo said:

A couple other things we noticed while on our Silhouette cruise last week:

No bananas at the breakfast buffet except for some pre sliced in the yogurt section.

Lots of people wearing shorts & t-shirts in the main dining room in the evening (even saw one man with flip-flops).

We  never got a water glass refill at dinner.

The waiters never gave unsolicited recommendations, but if asked, we learned to get something else.  After two nights of overcooked fish, our waiter didn’t recommend the crab encrusted flounder—said it was “fishy”.  We got it anyways and it was hands down the best meal of the week, tender, flaky, tasty, and not fishy at all!

 

We were on HAL’s Nieuw Statendam in October and the Lido buffet for dinner for the most part offered the same entrees as the main dining room.  Probably as many passengers ate at the buffet on port days as did in the dining rooms.  Once upon a time I would have ranked X superior to HAL, but in the area of food quality & service, not any more— especially on the Pinnacle class ships.

I might have to try HAL again.  The food choices for me are important.

[LMaxwell]

4 hours ago, bonagrad said:

Again, what's with the immature emoji?  What exactly are you rolling your eyes at?

When that's the level people communicate at, you can't also expect them to have an explanation behind it.  

 

I get the same treatment here too; it's like some people don't have Slack/Teams/GChat and can't multi-task or type 100WPM.  That's fine.  Some of us can. When you know the point you want to make, it doesn't take a lot of time invested to make it. But to those who can only communicate emoji style, they think it takes a lot of time and work. 

[Oville]

21 minutes ago, NMTraveller said:

I might have to try HAL again.  The food choices for me are important.

Adios, we have never liked HAL but to each their own.

Edited January 13, 2023 by Oville

[BermudaBound2014]

I’m doing a live thread from the Constellation and have posted photos of every item available at the ocean view cafe tonight. 
 

Assuming there is some rotation, and the buffet isn’t scaled back anymore on nights that aren’t embarkation, the offerings are acceptable to me. 
 

[bnurick]

Ok, so on the Edge and just went through at 6:10PM before our dinner. Compared to lunch it’s 50% open.  The front station’s are just at or below 50% and the back pizza station open as well in addition to the ice cream station.

 

Compared to lunch I didn’t get the feeling there is any quality issue, just trying to align food supply with demand. 
 

Further, in walking to Eden the main dining had lines to get in, so from my view that is where more passengers are going.  This sailing is 90%+ full too.
 

Lastly, I am going to drop a bunch of pictures I took in no particular order so you all can see (zoom in) what I saw.  Standouts were the fresh pizzas, the made to order stir fry and the station that had jerk chicken (looked really good). Salad bar is not my thing but had everything. It’s also night #1 so they are figuring the passengers out.

 

I also have a live thread going too with more pictures of our experiences. 
 

Cheers from the Edge!

  

Edited January 13, 2023 by bnurick

[NMTraveller]

5 minutes ago, BermudaBound2014 said:

I’m doing a live thread from the Constellation and have posted photos of every item available at the ocean view cafe tonight. 
 

Assuming there is some rotation, and the buffet isn’t scaled back anymore on nights that aren’t embarkation, the offerings are acceptable to me. 
 

I saw your post and let me just say that it looks like a big disappointment for the evening buffet...  You will not starve but ...  I would probably swim all of the way to shore to get a better meal.

Edited January 13, 2023 by NMTraveller

[BermudaBound2014]

2 minutes ago, NMTraveller said:

I saw your post and let me just say that it looks like a big disappointment for the evening buffet...  You will not starve but ...  I would probably swim all of the way to shore to get a better meal.

what concerns me is that embarkation is typically one of the better evening buffets. I will update my live thread nightly. If they rotate some things in, I can live with this but I’m not a picky eater and my days of gaining weight on a cruise are behind me. If DH was with me he would be as equally disappointed as you, but tonight was an improvement over initial reports.

[bnurick]

19 minutes ago, bnurick said:

Ok, so on the Edge and just went through at 6:10PM before our dinner. Compared to lunch it’s 50% open.  The front station’s are just at or below 50% and the back pizza station open as well in addition to the ice cream station.

 

Compared to lunch I didn’t get the feeling there is any quality issue, just trying to align food supply with demand. 
 

Further, in walking to Eden the main dining had lines to get in, so from my view that is where more passengers are going.  This sailing is 90%+ full too.
 

Lastly, I am going to drop a bunch of pictures I took in no particular order so you all can see (zoom in) what I saw.  Standouts were the fresh pizzas, the made to order stir fry and the station that had jerk chicken (looked really good). Salad bar is not my thing but had everything. It’s also night #1 so they are figuring the passengers out.

 

I also have a live thread going too with more pictures of our experiences. 
 

Cheers from the Edge!

  

@NMTraveller I don’t know why you reacted with a HaHa to me, but I didn’t just spend my time walking my happy ass getting pictures for this thread because I work for you… 

Edited January 14, 2023 by bnurick

[NMTraveller]

8 minutes ago, bnurick said:

@NMTraveller I don’t know why you reacted with a HaHa to me, but I didn’t just spend my time walking my happy ass getting pictures for this thread because I work for you… 

Laughing at the buffet.  Or what is left of it.  Perhaps a bit better than previous pictures.

 

Maybe not bad if all you want is a quick bite.

Edited January 14, 2023 by NMTraveller

[mpdog42]

If you don't like the selection's at the OV...Just call Grub Hub or Uber Eats....Oh wait..Never mind😜😁

[Plum Happy]

 

4 minutes ago, NMTraveller said:

Laughing at the buffet.  Or what is left of it.

The buffet has always looked pared down like that at night on their ships.  If there are a lot of kids on the ship, they (in the past) had a station set up for them with chicken fingers, mac n cheese, etc., with foods kids liked and adults helped themselves to what they put on that station as well.

Edited January 14, 2023 by Plum Happy

[cw2go]

24 minutes ago, bnurick said:

Ok, so on the Edge and just went through at 6:10PM before our dinner. Compared to lunch it’s 50% open.  The front station’s are just at or below 50% and the back pizza station open as well in addition to the ice cream station.

 

Compared to lunch I didn’t get the feeling there is any quality issue, just trying to align food supply with demand. 
 

Further, in walking to Eden the main dining had lines to get in, so from my view that is where more passengers are going.  This sailing is 90%+ full too.
 

Lastly, I am going to drop a bunch of pictures I took in no particular order so you all can see (zoom in) what I saw.  Standouts were the fresh pizzas, the made to order stir fry and the station that had jerk chicken (looked really good). Salad bar is not my thing but had everything. It’s also night #1 so they are figuring the passengers out.

 

I also have a live thread going too with more pictures of our experiences. 
 

Cheers from the Edge!

  

 

 

Thank you @bnurick for taking the time to report your sailings OVC offerings. This is exactly what I was needing to see, looks perfectly adequate for my needs. 

 

Patty 

[bonagrad]

2 hours ago, Wakepatrol said:

If I was Celebrity I would refund all of these complainers ASAP. Get rid of headaches before they happen 

So, let me get this straight.  We spent thousands of dollars on a vacation based on very recent good experience.  Overnight, with no announcement, they dramatically change a fairly significant aspect of said vacation for some us, and we're supposed to just be happy about it?  We aren't able to voice out displeasure in a productive way?  I'm sorry you consider my displeasure a headache.  This isn't like a restaurant removing your favorite item from the menu.  We're simply asking that Celebrity to consider not cutting back so significantly.  Like I said, overnight they suddenly became the worst buffet at sea in the evening, which is pretty significant with where they position themselves in the market. 

[bnurick]

1 minute ago, NMTraveller said:

Laughing at the buffet.  Or what is left of it.

OK, no worries. I really did feel they are trying to find the appropriate balance.  The demand just didn’t seem to be at the same level as main dining. I felt cook to order was pretty on point. And the jerk chicken looked really good and my Wife grabbed a beignet. 

[mpdog42]

12 minutes ago, Plum Happy said:

 

The buffet has always looked pared down like that at night on their ships.  If there are a lot of kids on the ship, they (in the past) had a station set up for them with chicken fingers, mac n cheese, etc., with foods kids liked and adults helped themselves to what they put on that station as well.

At this point...Chicken fingers and Mac and Cheese are looking pretty good right now!!😁

[bonagrad]

48 minutes ago, LMaxwell said:

When that's the level people communicate at, you can't also expect them to have an explanation behind it.  

 

I get the same treatment here too; it's like some people don't have Slack/Teams/GChat and can't multi-task or type 100WPM.  That's fine.  Some of us can. When you know the point you want to make, it doesn't take a lot of time invested to make it. But to those who can only communicate emoji style, they think it takes a lot of time and work. 

Very true!  My entire work week is doing a million things at the same time!

[WonderMan3]

7 hours ago, harz99 said:

I do wonder how many of the people entitled to dine in Luminae, ever go into the Ocean View Cafe of an evening...

I do at least once on every cruise.

[BermudaBound2014]

46 minutes ago, Plum Happy said:

 

The buffet has always looked pared down like that at night on their ships.  

 I disagree. This is different. Significantly  more pared down than previously on any ship I have ever sailed and I’ve been sailing since 1987.

[bnurick]

44 minutes ago, cw2go said:

 

Thank you @bnurick for taking the time to report your sailings OVC offerings. This is exactly what I was needing to see, looks perfectly adequate for my needs. 

 

Patty 

Honestly, thank you for saying thank you. I really just wanted to help and feel I am being attacked as the messenger. I truly didn’t feel they were trying to lower the bar, just demand has changed over time. Perhaps I am right or wrong. It really is irrelevant as it relates to me. 

 

Regardless, cheers from the Edge!