Awful State of Ocean View Cafe for dinner

[bEwAbG]

Next step will be converting the MDR into a buffet with limited choices.  Or maybe a hibachi grill on the pool deck for you to grill your own tilapia.  Line up starts at 3pm.

[bonagrad]

3 minutes ago, bEwAbG said:

Next step will be converting the MDR into a buffet with limited choices.  Or maybe a hibachi grill on the pool deck for you to grill your own tilapia.  Line up starts at 3pm.

I mean, I'm all for a Korean BBQ!  Nobody every goes hungry there!  The one on Virgin looks pretty good to me!

[terrydtx]

8 minutes ago, bEwAbG said:

Next step will be converting the MDR into a buffet with limited choices.  Or maybe a hibachi grill on the pool deck for you to grill your own tilapia.  Line up starts at 3pm.

The only thing Tilapia is good for is throwing it overboard for chum. My favorite local Mexican restaurant is known for fantastic fish tacos made with fresh grouper. Last fall they started using Tilapia and got destroyed on social media for the change. After a few weeks of poor publicity, they switched back to fresh grouper and added $2 to the cost and they are as good as before and selling as good as before.

Edited January 19, 2023 by terrydtx

[Whinenowine]

9 hours ago, Goldenknight said:

 

(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 

 

A much more watered down version of this happened to us on the Edge last April. We were in the Retreat but despite loving Luminae we had some breakfasts on our balcony and splurged on dinners at Fine Cut and Raw on 5.  When the M'd of Luminae saw us while walking around on the ship he said he'd missed us at the restaurant and asked if everything was ok.  Though a bit awkward I took it for genuine caring (and it might truly have been!), but in retrospect I have to wonder if there were ulterior motives.

[rcrabb1513]

On 1/15/2023 at 7:26 PM, WrittenOnYourHeart said:

 

And if cruises are booked with non-refundable deposits? All you get back is $100/person and the rest in a FCC. So though it's not the price of a cruise, X gets to keep most of the money from those and you're out a cruise AND the money.

We are probably in the minority but we are done with cruising.  Increasing prices with cutbacks in service has chased us away.

[chamima]

This is from someone currently on the Constellation. 
How spooky is it that they’re tracking where you eat!!!

I find this WAY more disturbing than reducing the buffet. 
@Whinenowine - At least your Maitre D' just saw you walking around  - this person was tracked down and got a phone call in her cabin!!!!

 

I had two interesting phone calls/messages yesterday. The first was from someone from the dining room asking why I had only taken dinner there once. I explained that the menu was not particularly appealing but also explained my disappointment with the ocean view cafe offerings. I got the feeling it wasn’t her first rodeo with ovc complaints. Regardless she was pleasant and encouraged me to go to the MDR more often. We shall see. Tonight’s menu isn’t terrible. 
 

Second was a message inviting me to use any of my obc to book a future cruise. I still have $100 but I don’t think I’m going to give it to Celebrity. I want to keep my options open. Things are very much in flux across the industry. 

Edited January 19, 2023 by chamima

[RichYak]

7 minutes ago, Whinenowine said:

 

A much more watered down version of this happened to us on the Edge last April. We were in the Retreat but despite loving Luminae we had some breakfasts on our balcony and splurged on dinners at Fine Cut and Raw on 5.  When the M'd of Luminae saw us while walking around on the ship he said he'd missed us at the restaurant and asked if everything was ok.  Though a bit awkward I took it for genuine caring (and it might truly have been!), but in retrospect I have to wonder if there were ulterior motives.

So my understanding of how the gratuity pool worked was that your standard grats went where you ate. If you don't eat in the MDR one day, that day's gratuities go somewhere else. In that respect, this behavior could be a money grab by the staff. That's how I felt every time I read one of these accounts. It could have also been a customer survey score grab, but that seems less likely. However now corporate is trying to drive people into the dining rooms too, so there must be something else to it.

[Salt Lifer]

5 minutes ago, chamima said:

 

This is from someone currently on the Constellation. 
How spooky is it that they’re tracking where you eat!!!

I find this WAY more disturbing than reducing the buffet. 
 

 

I had two interesting phone calls/messages yesterday. The first was from someone from the dining room asking why I had only taken dinner there once. I explained that the menu was not particularly appealing but also explained my disappointment with the ocean view cafe offerings. I got the feeling it wasn’t her first rodeo with ovc complaints. Regardless she was pleasant and encouraged me to go to the MDR more often. We shall see. Tonight’s menu isn’t terrible. 
 

Second was a message inviting me to use any of my obc to book a future cruise. I still have $100 but I don’t think I’m going to give it to Celebrity. I want to keep my options open. Things are very much in flux across the industry. 

 

If the new trend is to hound you over where you eat, then the cruise experience will have been degraded to nothing more than a telemarketing call or those kiosks in the mall who hound you when you walk by.  

 

That said, I truly feel for the food services staff on the ships.  They are probably reviewed/compensated by how many people eat in their venues and the reviews they get.  They are probably suffering because of the boneheaded decisions of the Celebrity C-Suite.

[Guest TopoChico]

16 minutes ago, AnnaNicole said:

Agree.  Quality over quantity of choices.   

After reading through a live thread from one of the newer, larger ships posted by a “retreat” guest, I have a different perspective. Now I’m PISSED so this may be somewhat rambling.
The sheer abundance of quality food items in different ship venues offered on this woman’s cruise absolutely blows me away.  Did they pay extra for it? YES. Did we pay extra too?  YES.
The drink quality and food options offered to these guests were sooo far above and beyond anything we could have EVER gotten on our sailing, even at an upcharge.  We had a Premium beverage package and most of the liquors advertised were “not available.”

 

They literally could not make a PAINKILLER anywhere on the ship because they were out of Coconut cream.  How does that even happen on a ship on a Caribbean cruise?  I live in Pennsylvania and I never run out of coconut cream in our garage tiki bar. If you come here and you want a painkiller in February, I can make you one.

We had two mediocre at best “specialty” dining pretend restaurant options on the Millennium. 

 

I say two specialties because I don’t count Le Petit Chef or Q-sine or whatever it is they’re calling it.  Why they still have this childish ridiculous waste of time and space is beyond me.  We’ve done it twice over the years. It was blustery overpriced folly.  It sat empty every single night we were on this time and on almost every cruise we’ve been on.  They literally beg guests to dine there.  (We walked past it on our way to play ping pong every night. Getting our workout in 😂) It was always empty.  I literally would not eat there even if it was free.

 

Keeping Qsine open when no one is going, now that’s REAL waste. If a billion dollar company in the HOSPITALITY industry specializing in feeding people on the water is indeed employing “real” chef's who can not figure out how to effectively manage and budget food waste to run a cost-effective dinner buffet, yet they keep silly pretend restaurants with animated cartoons running amuck on the plates open to serve no one, who is running their kitchen operations? How can they see this as anything other than complete contradiction.
We had no dinner buffet. All unappetizing Slop. We had a specialty pretend combo steakhouse/Italian restaurant that was serving Outback/Olive Garden quality food.  Why are they even combining the two? On land, do we go to Italian steakhouses? No. Actually, I am being generous calling it that level of quality.  The food, quite frankly - sucked. We ate in it twice. I got some sort of pasta dish the first night and it was awful. My husband said why did you order pasta in a steakhouse? He didn’t enjoy his meal.  I said why did you order steak in an Italian restaurant? We were both correct. 

The pretend sushi restaurant served supermarket quality rolls and oodles of noodles soup. $300+ for 4 people. $50 for a half-bottle of saké. They made PF Chang look GOURMET. That restaurant also sat empty our entire cruise. Since it was right next to Cellar Masters -and we were often there, since it was the only place on board to get a decent drink if you don’t enjoy frilly martinis and a lot of pretend fun…(not a martini bar fan) 

I can say we never saw more than two or three tables full at SO5 at any given time. When we were there, we were the only guests at 8:00 pm. I believe one other table came in. 
If they can’t figure out how to properly feed people who are in their demographic and on their ships, they have wayyy bigger problems than just closing a buffet. 
I'm not even going to mention the dining room because it was so heartbreaking to see them serving such low quality items, we avoided it after the few meals we had. 
 

I'm pissed because we spent money, and not a small amount of money, on a vacation where we were literally scrambling at all times to get a decent meal. We failed on all accounts. We paid a lot extra on board and still came up hungry.
Yet, I see there are other passengers on other ships still being offered extravagant dining and opulent drinks for the same upcharges we were paying.    

One evening at Cellar Masters towards the end of the cruise, we sat with an aerospace engineer at NASA, his wife and a couple who owned a small vineyard restaurant in California. The main topic was how surprisingly bad the food choices were.  We were all in the sailing for the itinerary and had all sailed multiple times on X before.
 

Is that what Celebrity wants?  This was not a crowd of rubes scratching around for a “hot dog” in a buffet. We all knew what quality is, we paid for it and we all felt we got rolled.  

 

 

 

[bonagrad]

Note what I just received from Royal regarding Icon of the Seas.  Over a dozen complimentary options!  Meanwhile their "Premium" brand offers 1 1/3 complimentary options!

 

[Guest TopoChico]

4 minutes ago, bonagrad said:

Note what I just received from Royal regarding Icon of the Seas.  Over a dozen complimentary options!  Meanwhile their "Premium" brand offers 1 1/3 complimentary options!

 

We were on Royal out of San Juan in April.  It stunk, the food was actually worse than X. Which is how we ended up on Celebrity in November, thinking it’d be better. 

[LMaxwell]

All changes have a cascading effect. Logically the MDR could not improve due to this. By the sounds of it shaving corners in MDR is having a compounding effect on the downward trend. 

[barbette165]

If the changes do have an impact on whether customers return or not, it will become very quickly apparent to X in how much business the Future Cruise department is generating. The percentage of passengers who book a future cruise on board is probably very predictable and will not vary that much from cruise to cruise. These sales will be closely monitored and if there is an observable and consistent drop across the fleet then action will surely be taken. (Any resolve for "This is the last time I cruise with Celebrity" will likely be strongest whilst on board and then diminish with the passage of time, when the grass offered by the alternatives doesn't seem any greener).

[Pinboy]

15 hours ago, Wakepatrol said:

Yet - Joe from Schenectady somehow knows better

I haven't read much on this thread, but, to mention:

There's way tooooo many of them on CC--- but, in keeping with the " theme(s)" of this site ( Cruise Critic ) they are doing an excellent job. Pick a subject--- they will find something to criticize.

The OVC, better known to us, as the " Slugfest on 14 "---too many rude, pushy, food wasting, loud slobs.( Pas pour moi-- not for me ). 

Dining is a very important part of our cruises--- Been there, done that, no more tours, seen the Newlywed game xx times, cheered like crazy at the Welcome to Celebrity show xx times when the CD shouted " Any Canadians on board ", etc, etc.

We enjoy the spa café, Specialty restaurants ( on occasion ), Tuscan Grill breakfast #2, and always seem to find something to enjoy at dinner in the MDR.

If we want room service--- no big deal--- I'll gladly pay the $9.95--- I don't give a hoot whether the Daily Gratuities include it or not---

We're lucky to be able to go on a cruise and just go with the flow.

 

 

 

 

[Guest TopoChico]

1 minute ago, Pinboy said:

I haven't read much on this thread, but, to mention:

There's way tooooo many of them on CC--- but, in keeping with the " theme(s)" of this site ( Cruise Critic ) they are doing an excellent job. Pick a subject--- they will find something to criticize.

The OVC, better known to us, as the " Slugfest on 14 "---too many rude, pushy, food wasting, loud slobs.( Pas pour moi-- not for me ). 

Dining is a very important part of our cruises--- Been there, done that, no more tours, seen the Newlywed game xx times, cheered like crazy at the Welcome to Celebrity show xx times when the CD shouted " Any Canadians on board ", etc, etc.

We enjoy the spa café, Specialty restaurants ( on occasion ), Tuscan Grill breakfast #2, and always seem to find something to enjoy at dinner in the MDR.

If we want room service--- no big deal--- I'll gladly pay the $9.95--- I don't give a hoot whether the Daily Gratuities include it or not---

We're lucky to be able to go on a cruise and just go with the flow.

 

 

 

 

When was your last X sailing? 

[bonagrad]

9 minutes ago, TopoChico said:

We were on Royal out of San Juan in April.  It stunk, the food was actually worse than X. Which is how we ended up on Celebrity in November, thinking it’d be better. 

Unfortunately, I think this is ship dependent.  They are kind of ignoring the smaller, older ships, which of course are the ones that sail out of San Juan.  I personally love sailing out of SJ.  We were on Odyssey last year as the first half of our side-by-side with Apex.  The food was great, in fact minus the 1,400 unattended kids, it was a great cruise.  Followed up with an even better Apex cruise.  We were pumped to book X again after it.

 

Now, we were on Voyager to Canada/NE in September.  Much different food experience.  The food wasn't necessarily bad,  but the variety was lacking and not as good as Odyssey.

[RichYak]

15 hours ago, Wakepatrol said:

Here you have a Billion dollar operation and probably some smart bean counters who are getting first hand information from those in the trenches and can see exactly what’s going on.

 

Yet - Joe from Schenectady somehow knows better

I can't believe that a full 15 hours has passed since this post, and no one has created a burner CC login called @Joe_from_Schenectady to thank you. Come on people, this is the internet!

[scaught]

50 minutes ago, bonagrad said:

I mean, I'm all for a Korean BBQ!  Nobody every goes hungry there!  The one on Virgin looks pretty good to me!

It's really good. Highly dependent on who you end up sitting with in terms of the fun factor, but the food/drinks are good. 

[butterfly4108]

I have thoroughly enjoyed this thread!!  Thank you!!  My hubby and I thought it was "just us" as our last two cruises (one with Celebrity and next with NCL) were the worst we've ever experienced.  No shows (unless you consider comedians and magicians) and the worst food we've ever had!  I swear I lived on bread and fruit because nothing seemed edible or even recognizable when it arrived to your table!  Service was also lacking sadly....I guess this is the new "norm" but I sure hope not or road trips may be in our future instead....we miss the old cruising!  Thank you again for your posts all!!!!

[Pinboy]

5 minutes ago, TopoChico said:

When was your last X sailing? 

About 2 yrs ago----

I just can't believe things have changed as much as posted on CC.

( food quality, cut backs, additional charges , menu selections , service ).

We will see for ourselves very soon.

 

 

 

[bonagrad]

7 minutes ago, RichYak said:

I can't believe that a full 15 hours has passed since this post, and no one has created a burner CC login called @Joe_from_Schenectady to thank you. Come on people, this is the internet!

That sounds like a caller on sport talk radio!  Joe from Schenectady you're on!  Hey there, first time caller, long time listener!

[AnnaNicole]

6 minutes ago, RichYak said:

I can't believe that a full 15 hours has passed since this post, and no one has created a burner CC login called @Joe_from_Schenectady to thank you. Come on people, this is the internet!

I would argue there are some very astute cruisers who are quite likely decision-makers in their professional job.    So, who is to say Joe-from-Schenectady is not Joe-CFO-Fortune500?   

 

Not all management teams are good and/or effective.  There are corporate turn around specialists for a reason.

 

 

[AnnaNicole]

5 minutes ago, butterfly4108 said:

I have thoroughly enjoyed this thread!!  Thank you!!  My hubby and I thought it was "just us" as our last two cruises (one with Celebrity and next with NCL) were the worst we've ever experienced.  No shows (unless you consider comedians and magicians) and the worst food we've ever had!  I swear I lived on bread and fruit because nothing seemed edible or even recognizable when it arrived to your table!  Service was also lacking sadly....I guess this is the new "norm" but I sure hope not or road trips may be in our future instead....we miss the old cruising!  Thank you again for your posts all!!!!

The bread is very good.   🙂

[Guest TopoChico]

1 minute ago, bonagrad said:

Unfortunately, I think this is ship dependent.  They are kind of ignoring the smaller, older ships, which of course are the ones that sail out of San Juan.  I personally love sailing out of SJ.  We were on Odyssey last year as the first half of our side-by-side with Apex.  The food was great, in fact minus the 1,400 unattended kids, it was a great cruise.  Followed up with an even better Apex cruise.  We were pumped to book X again after it.

 

Now, we were on Voyager to Canada/NE in September.  Much different food experience.  The food wasn't necessarily bad,  but the variety was lacking and not as good as Odyssey.

Agreed.  
We’ve sailed out of San Juan 12 times I think, did a couple b2b on Princess and X. Only once on RC.  Food in the past was always stellar. I absolutely despise the term “foodie” but I am one.  Not a snob and not into small plates with a lot of fluff, but I enjoy well-prepared food,whether it’s from a buffet or a restaurant venue.  I grew up working in my family’s restaurant and I worked in the food and beverage industry my entire career.   I co-owned a fairly popular restaurant for 5 years with my sisters pre-kids. My part was creating the menus and preparing the food for the first two years.  We added a young chef right out of CIA who could serve 100 people elegantly on $50. Exaggeration, of course, but he knew his trade and he did it well. It just blows me away that X with all their resources can’t get their sh*t together and make people happy across the board.   

[Guest TopoChico]

16 minutes ago, Pinboy said:

About 2 yrs ago----

I just can't believe things have changed as much as posted on CC.

( food quality, cut backs, additional charges , menu selections , service ).

We will see for ourselves very soon.

 

 

 

I seriously do hope you have a great experience because that’s what we all want.
 

But naysaying others relaying their recent experiences because you can’t believe things have changed…..is not going to make it not true.