Awful State of Ocean View Cafe for dinner

[TeeRick]

3 minutes ago, manmachine said:

I just checked the app for our cruise on 7/24.  It does not show us in Aqua, but the Room Service page also shows complimentary.  I will be anyone $100.00 if it is in fact complimentary by the time we board.  Any takers?

#CelebrityFalsePromises

The Celebrity App is notoriously not accurate.  

[manmachine]

19 minutes ago, TeeRick said:

The Celebrity App is notoriously not accurate.  

Still… false promises.

[Oceangoer2]

9 hours ago, NutsAboutGolf said:

Specialty dining, especially the meats are much better than the MDR.  Now is it worth a $130 all in for a couple (rhetorical)?

Cdn. $$s....$175 with 18% gratuity.  Cost has increased so much that I doubt some cruisers will find it a good alternative to MDR or a replacement to the OVC. 

[manmachine]

1 minute ago, Oceangoer2 said:

Cdn. $$s....$175 with 18% gratuity.  Cost has increased so much that I doubt some cruisers will find it a good alternative to MDR or a replacement to the OVC. 

Price has increased so much.  Cost has increased… some.

[Oceangoer2]

9 minutes ago, manmachine said:

Price has increased so much.  Cost has increased… some.

You misunderstood....'Cost' (or price paying) to the diner has increased.

Edited January 19, 2023 by Oceangoer2

[manmachine]

3 minutes ago, Oceangoer2 said:

You misunderstood....'Cost' (or price paying) to the diner has increased.

I am not disagreeing.  Just suggesting that the increased prices charged now far exceeds the increased cost of supplying.

[bnurick]

I believe Disney has stopped their buffet for dinner per our last sailing in September. Everyone can do their Main Dining Rotation or Quick Service. Sounding like a cruise line will be able to keep theirs going for dinner and be everyone’s new option.

[nelblu]

On 1/15/2023 at 6:36 PM, bonagrad said:

We as consumers need to keep the pressure on Celebrity to come up with a happy medium.  Becoming the worst buffet for dinner, overnight, is a really bad look.  

My only comment is that there seems to be no large crowds in the buffet and possibly matching the number of open buffet stations.

 

Also, no mention of the 20% grats on the second lobster.

[terrydtx]

1 hour ago, manmachine said:

I just checked the app for our cruise on 7/24.  It does not show us in Aqua, but the Room Service page also shows complimentary.  I will be anyone $100.00 if it is in fact complimentary by the time we board.  Any takers?

#CelebrityFalsePromises

This is very strange, just now the app for our June Equinox cruise shows the same as above. However last week when all these changes hit the fan, the same app showed the new change to $9.95 plus gratuities. I wonder if Celebrity is already back peddling on this? I wish I had screen shot the app last week. Just more of Celebrity being consistent about being inconsistent.

Edited January 19, 2023 by terrydtx

[morpheusofthesea]

Perhaps it was the food waste. Or the complaints of passengers witnessing so many other passenger faux pas. Or the lack of staff to properly serve. Whatever the causes the outcome can only be good for the health and safety of future cruisers. Here is a video of how easily the spread of pathogens at a buffet.

https://www.delish.com/food-news/a32493785/black-light-restaurant-experiment/

[MISTER 67]

2 minutes ago, terrydtx said:

This is very strange, the app for our June Equinox cruise shows the same as above. However last week when all these changes hit the fan, the same app showed the new change to $9.95 plus gratuities. I wonder if Celebrity is already back peddling on this? I wish I had screen shot the app last week. Just more of Celebrity being consistent about being inconsistent.

A service charge for room service is plain gouging, what are we paying the daily gratuities for. Shame on Celebrity and any other cruise line that engages in this gouging.

[NMTraveller]

1 hour ago, TeeRick said:

Until the number of new reservations are significantly impacted, Celebrity will continue on this path of reducing food,  services and quality and of course charging more.   Reduction in reservations will be noticed by their shareholders and current debt holders.  

Agreed.  It will take a while for them to notice.  Once you book you have committed a bunch of money, time, and resources.  They may not notice for a year or so.

[iandjm]

7 minutes ago, MISTER 67 said:

A service charge for room service is plain gouging, what are we paying the daily gratuities for. Shame on Celebrity and any other cruise line that engages in this gouging.

Seems like they have removed the desirability of the ocean view cafe, want people to go to an already overcrowded MDR, with its questionable food quality and service, and have started charging for a viable alternative, room service. Meanwhile their marketing continues to tell us how wonderful they are.   This is pure greed in my eyes and the beginning of their self destruction.  

 

[NMTraveller]

7 hours ago, Goldenknight said:

I posted (#533 in this thread, I think) about our five day sailing on the Solistice on Jan. 2.

 

Based on recent posts, here's a few more facts (not opinions), so judge for yourself:

 

(1) After going to the buffet on the first night, and finding it 80% shut down, except for the pizza and pasta, we went to Guest Services on day two.  Asked to speak to the Food and Beverage Director for the Solistice.   Ten minutes later, I sat down with Ivan, the F & B director and his head chef, Manesh.  They were polite.  I told them I was disappointed about the lack of selection at the dinner buffet, and also the cold food.  Their response:  Celebrity did in fact want to push everyone to eat in the MDR or in the speciality restaurants for dinner.  This was a cost saving measure because so much food is wasted at the buffet.  No response about why Celebrity didn't disclose this before our cruise.  Ivan also suggested that Celebrity thinks people "want to be served dinner".  (His words, not mine, and I disagree).  I told them we live in Las Vegas, buffets at our doorstep, we could have stayed home and enjoyed frozen EGGO's out of my freezer before eating pizza every single night.   Manesh said that the dinner buffet would have "two proteins" every night; we didn't see that.

(2)  We had never sailed Celebrity before, so I don't know the configuration of the MDR previous to our Jan. 2 sailing.  Because Celebrity's aim was to force everyone to eat anywhere except the buffet, that means they may have needed to add more seating.  This may explain my factual statement that two-top tables were shoved together just mere inches apart.  It was neither relaxing, luxurious, nor comfortable.  It was awkward . . . especially when people were coughing and sneezing A LOT on this cruise. 

(3) I can factually confirm that Solistice employees made note if you did not show up at your assigned table at your assigned seating at dinner.  We went once, didn't return. That night, sitting and relaxing at a nice window table in the buffet, along comes our head waiter for our table.  He asks us why we are not in the MDR.  It was awkward.  Then, unbelievably, he begged us to give only top ratings on the Celebrity survey post -cruise "because our salaries depend on those ratings."   Having sailed six cruises, exclusively on NCL, never once have we been (a)  hunted down, to find out where we were at dinner, and (b)  implored to give high ratings for anything on a NCL survey.  It was awkward .  . 

(4)  I only have six cruises on NCL with which to compare our single Celebrity foray.  We cruise because we want to totally relax, nap when we want, eat when we want, and have a few dining choices.  On every one of our NCL cruises, we eat the dinner buffet at least four out of seven nights., sometimes more.  It's convenient, it's relaxing, and no we do not go on a cruise because "we want to be served" as Ivan suggested.  Moreover, there is plenty of food wasted at the buffet at breakfast and lunch, so what makes dinner so unique . . . Nothing.  Other than cost saving nonsense.

 

For those folks who have upcoming Celebrity cruises and are upset that they didn't know of these changes, well, consider this:  we were totally blindsided because our Solstice cruise was the first ship to implement these changes, said Ivan.  Had we known, yes, we would have stayed home in Las Vegas.  We wasted money on airfare to L.A., a night in a hotel prior to sailing, and came home regretting it all.  

 

I am sorry that you had to experience this.  This is not the way that Celebrity used to be.  They used to be better than Royal, NCL, and Princess.  Now they have sunk to the bottom.

[Ken the cruiser]

1 hour ago, manmachine said:

I just checked the app for our cruise on 7/24.  It does not show us in Aqua, but the Room Service page also shows complimentary.  I will be anyone $100.00 if it is in fact complimentary by the time we board.  Any takers?

#CelebrityFalsePromises

Just checked our Eclipse Room Service menu on the App for our April TP B3B cruise. Here's what is currently listed for Aqua Class room service.

 

 

 

 

[terrydtx]

1 minute ago, Ken the cruiser said:

Just checked our Eclipse Room Service menu on the App for our April TP B3B cruise. Here's what is currently listed for Aqua Class room service.

 

 

 

 

Ken, see my post above #709, my app showed that last week but now it has gone back to the old no cost room service. Very strange and inconsistent.

[Ken the cruiser]

1 minute ago, terrydtx said:

Ken, see my post above #709, my app showed that last week but now it has gone back to the old no cost room service. Very strange and inconsistent.

What's funny is here's what's listed for regular room service. I guess in this case booking an Aqua cabin is not the best idea. But as you noted, change is afoot! 😂

 

[AnnaNicole]

7 hours ago, Goldenknight said:

I posted (#533 in this thread, I think) about our five day sailing on the Solistice on Jan. 2.

 

Based on recent posts, here's a few more facts (not opinions), so judge for yourself:

 

(1) After going to the buffet on the first night, and finding it 80% shut down, except for the pizza and pasta, we went to Guest Services on day two.  Asked to speak to the Food and Beverage Director for the Solistice.   Ten minutes later, I sat down with Ivan, the F & B director and his head chef, Manesh.  They were polite.  I told them I was disappointed about the lack of selection at the dinner buffet, and also the cold food.  Their response:  Celebrity did in fact want to push everyone to eat in the MDR or in the speciality restaurants for dinner.  This was a cost saving measure because so much food is wasted at the buffet.  No response about why Celebrity didn't disclose this before our cruise.  Ivan also suggested that Celebrity thinks people "want to be served dinner".  (His words, not mine, and I disagree).  I told them we live in Las Vegas, buffets at our doorstep, we could have stayed home and enjoyed frozen EGGO's out of my freezer before eating pizza every single night.   Manesh said that the dinner buffet would have "two proteins" every night; we didn't see that.

(2)  We had never sailed Celebrity before, so I don't know the configuration of the MDR previous to our Jan. 2 sailing.  Because Celebrity's aim was to force everyone to eat anywhere except the buffet, that means they may have needed to add more seating.  This may explain my factual statement that two-top tables were shoved together just mere inches apart.  It was neither relaxing, luxurious, nor comfortable.  It was awkward . . . especially when people were coughing and sneezing A LOT on this cruise. 

(3) I can factually confirm that Solistice employees made note if you did not show up at your assigned table at your assigned seating at dinner.  We went once, didn't return. That night, sitting and relaxing at a nice window table in the buffet, along comes our head waiter for our table.  He asks us why we are not in the MDR.  It was awkward.  Then, unbelievably, he begged us to give only top ratings on the Celebrity survey post -cruise "because our salaries depend on those ratings."   Having sailed six cruises, exclusively on NCL, never once have we been (a)  hunted down, to find out where we were at dinner, and (b)  implored to give high ratings for anything on a NCL survey.  It was awkward .  . 

(4)  I only have six cruises on NCL with which to compare our single Celebrity foray.  We cruise because we want to totally relax, nap when we want, eat when we want, and have a few dining choices.  On every one of our NCL cruises, we eat the dinner buffet at least four out of seven nights., sometimes more.  It's convenient, it's relaxing, and no we do not go on a cruise because "we want to be served" as Ivan suggested.  Moreover, there is plenty of food wasted at the buffet at breakfast and lunch, so what makes dinner so unique . . . Nothing.  Other than cost saving nonsense.

 

For those folks who have upcoming Celebrity cruises and are upset that they didn't know of these changes, well, consider this:  we were totally blindsided because our Solstice cruise was the first ship to implement these changes, said Ivan.  Had we known, yes, we would have stayed home in Las Vegas.  We wasted money on airfare to L.A., a night in a hotel prior to sailing, and came home regretting it all.  

 

After reading this review, I am seriously considering cancelling my Feb Solstice cruise (BCC).   I will have to cancel my airfare and hotel before it is too late.   

 

My husband and I were on the Reflection in December.   The food in the MDR was not very good.  We usually order an app or salad and an entree.    The shrimp cocktail was four tiny shrimp on lettuce.  The Branzino was so overcooked we couldn't eat it.   I HATE to waste food, but the fish was inedible.   We left and got a hamburger at the buffet.  I rarely eat hamburgers, but it was good.   We ended up eating in the buffet or sushi restaurant most of the week. 

 

Sushi on Five was excellent (as usual).   Cafe al Baccio was excellent.   I hope they don't cost cut there.

[bonagrad]

8 hours ago, Goldenknight said:

I posted (#533 in this thread, I think) about our five day sailing on the Solistice on Jan. 2.

 

Based on recent posts, here's a few more facts (not opinions), so judge for yourself:

 

(1) After going to the buffet on the first night, and finding it 80% shut down, except for the pizza and pasta, we went to Guest Services on day two.  Asked to speak to the Food and Beverage Director for the Solistice.   Ten minutes later, I sat down with Ivan, the F & B director and his head chef, Manesh.  They were polite.  I told them I was disappointed about the lack of selection at the dinner buffet, and also the cold food.  Their response:  Celebrity did in fact want to push everyone to eat in the MDR or in the speciality restaurants for dinner.  This was a cost saving measure because so much food is wasted at the buffet.  No response about why Celebrity didn't disclose this before our cruise.  Ivan also suggested that Celebrity thinks people "want to be served dinner".  (His words, not mine, and I disagree).  I told them we live in Las Vegas, buffets at our doorstep, we could have stayed home and enjoyed frozen EGGO's out of my freezer before eating pizza every single night.   Manesh said that the dinner buffet would have "two proteins" every night; we didn't see that.

(2)  We had never sailed Celebrity before, so I don't know the configuration of the MDR previous to our Jan. 2 sailing.  Because Celebrity's aim was to force everyone to eat anywhere except the buffet, that means they may have needed to add more seating.  This may explain my factual statement that two-top tables were shoved together just mere inches apart.  It was neither relaxing, luxurious, nor comfortable.  It was awkward . . . especially when people were coughing and sneezing A LOT on this cruise. 

(3) I can factually confirm that Solistice employees made note if you did not show up at your assigned table at your assigned seating at dinner.  We went once, didn't return. That night, sitting and relaxing at a nice window table in the buffet, along comes our head waiter for our table.  He asks us why we are not in the MDR.  It was awkward.  Then, unbelievably, he begged us to give only top ratings on the Celebrity survey post -cruise "because our salaries depend on those ratings."   Having sailed six cruises, exclusively on NCL, never once have we been (a)  hunted down, to find out where we were at dinner, and (b)  implored to give high ratings for anything on a NCL survey.  It was awkward .  . 

(4)  I only have six cruises on NCL with which to compare our single Celebrity foray.  We cruise because we want to totally relax, nap when we want, eat when we want, and have a few dining choices.  On every one of our NCL cruises, we eat the dinner buffet at least four out of seven nights., sometimes more.  It's convenient, it's relaxing, and no we do not go on a cruise because "we want to be served" as Ivan suggested.  Moreover, there is plenty of food wasted at the buffet at breakfast and lunch, so what makes dinner so unique . . . Nothing.  Other than cost saving nonsense.

 

For those folks who have upcoming Celebrity cruises and are upset that they didn't know of these changes, well, consider this:  we were totally blindsided because our Solstice cruise was the first ship to implement these changes, said Ivan.  Had we known, yes, we would have stayed home in Las Vegas.  We wasted money on airfare to L.A., a night in a hotel prior to sailing, and came home regretting it all.  

 

That is outrageous and really unacceptable behavior.  I'm thinking about firing off another email to the exec email to warn them that they really need to pay attention to these threads and what's being discussed on social.  They are tanking their rep among some of their most loyal customers.  Do you mind if I share this as an example how this continues to get worse?  If not, I totally understand.

[Cruising Cindy Lou]

10 minutes ago, AnnaNicole said:

After reading this review, I am seriously considering cancelling my Feb Solstice cruise (BCC).   I will have to cancel my airfare and hotel before it is too late.   

 

My husband and I were on the Reflection in December.   The food in the MDR was not very good.  We usually order an app or salad and an entree.    The shrimp cocktail was four tiny shrimp on lettuce.  The Branzino was so overcooked we couldn't eat it.   I HATE to waste food, but the fish was inedible.   We left and got a hamburger at the buffet.  I rarely eat hamburgers, but it was good.   We ended up eating in the buffet or sushi restaurant most of the week. 

 

Sushi on Five was excellent (as usual).   Cafe al Baccio was excellent.   I hope they don't cost cut there.

That is how we felt on Edge in December.  The food in MDR was not that great.  So we just choose to go to buffet most nights.  Sounds like my cruise next month may be more disappointing if OV is cut way back.  

[Islander500]

Maybe others have said this and I’ve missed it. I only eat at OVC for dinner when we are late returning from an excursion or on long cruises when we want a more casual, quick dinner some nights. It seems that X could reduce waste by closing stations, reassigning staff to MDR, and still provide much better options than shown in the OPs video for those who do eat dinner at OVC.  Add a station to fresh grill chicken, fish (not tilapia), steaks & fresh veggies to order, rather than large trays of pre-cooked food. Nothing like a nice Ceasar salad with fresh grilled protein on top.  To me it’s not about having 100’s of different choices at the OVC to serve just a few people, mostly going to waste, it’s about the quality of the choices. That video displaying the dinner options available should be embarrassing to X.  I don’t blame cruisers who frequent the OVC for dinner for being upset. 

[The_Big_M]

22 hours ago, grandgeezer said:

The only way this will change is, instead of whining on the internet, change lines or stop cruising all together. As long as the money is rolling in, nothing is going to change. If you can post specific instances where something was changed strictly based on written complaints only, please share with the rest of us.

 

Wrong, quite a few actually. Even just focusing only on Celebrity, and food, there was the extremely short lived change to charge for burgers at the Mast Grill. It was cancelled after a bunch of negative feedback, nothing to do with bookings being cancelled. And it similarly had a lot of negative feedback here.

 

Re: Mast Grill - Page 3 - Celebrity Cruises - Cruise Critic Community

[AnnaNicole]

Just now, Islander500 said:

Maybe others have said this and I’ve missed it. I only eat at OVC for dinner when we are late returning from an excursion or on long cruises when we want a more casual, quick dinner some nights. It seems that X could reduce waste by closing stations, reassigning staff to MDR, and still provide much better options than shown in the OPs video for those who do eat dinner at OVC.  Add a station to fresh grill chicken, fish (not tilapia), steaks & fresh veggies to order, rather than large trays of pre-cooked food. Nothing like a nice Ceasar salad with fresh grilled protein on top.  To me it’s not about having 100’s of different choices at the OVC to serve just a few people, mostly going to waste, it’s about the quality of the choices. That video displaying the dinner options available should be embarrassing to X.  I don’t blame cruisers who frequent the OVC for dinner for being upset. 

Agree.  Quality over quantity of choices.   

[Jobeth66]

1 hour ago, terrydtx said:

This is very strange, just now the app for our June Equinox cruise shows the same as above. However last week when all these changes hit the fan, the same app showed the new change to $9.95 plus gratuities. I wonder if Celebrity is already back peddling on this? I wish I had screen shot the app last week. Just more of Celebrity being consistent about being inconsistent.

 

My April Reflection is showing the $9.95+ 18% charge for anything except Continental breakfast.

[RichYak]

45 minutes ago, Islander500 said:

Maybe others have said this and I’ve missed it. I only eat at OVC for dinner when we are late returning from an excursion or on long cruises when we want a more casual, quick dinner some nights. It seems that X could reduce waste by closing stations, reassigning staff to MDR, and still provide much better options than shown in the OPs video for those who do eat dinner at OVC.  Add a station to fresh grill chicken, fish (not tilapia), steaks & fresh veggies to order, rather than large trays of pre-cooked food. Nothing like a nice Ceasar salad with fresh grilled protein on top.  To me it’s not about having 100’s of different choices at the OVC to serve just a few people, mostly going to waste, it’s about the quality of the choices. That video displaying the dinner options available should be embarrassing to X.  I don’t blame cruisers who frequent the OVC for dinner for being upset. 

I've said this before, if this were really about food waste, they wouldn't have shut down the made-to-order grill which isn't wasteful. This is about $$$.