Celebrity Silhouette Main Dining Room Experience an Embarrassment

[thebutlerdidit]

2 minutes ago, Dreamer68 said:

LOL!!! Personally, I think a sprinkle of chopped fresh herbs, an edible flower here or there, a microgreen sprout or two and yes, a smear or droplets of sauce does wonders with the brain! There are published research articles about this being true or at least the perception of how the food taste can be based on how the food is plated!! 

I’ll tell you right now, a cafeteria style scoop of mashed potato does nothing for me.

[Pinboy]

2 hours ago, Winemaker_1 said:

What have I gotten myself into?  I just put down the deposit on my first Celebrity cruise..  And I've heard nothing but bad news about Celebrity since.  

I see you are new to Cruise Critics---

Please don't give it one minute of thought--- nothing wrong with Celebrity-- good food, good service. clean ships, so so entertainment, a few dumb games or activities( you don't have to participate in them ).

If you order something and don't like it--- the Waiter will change it

If you order something and want another serving---the Waiter will bring it.

If you prefer a table for two in the dining room--never a problem.

Just go and enjoy the cruise like 99% of the passengers.

( FYI--- I am not a Travel Agent and do not work for Celebrity ).

Here's a hint--- If you see that there are no round tomatoes and you gotta have one--- just ask.

They will get you 4 --- then you won't have to start a thread on CC about it like someone did a few days ago ( LOL )

 

 

[Winemaker_1]

Thanks.  Yes, new to CC and new to cruising.  Celebrity (in the Retreat) will be my first.  Then another on Silversea late next year.  I'm looking forward to both of them and hope that what I read on this thread is an anomaly.  

[NMTraveller]

8 hours ago, nikel said:

 

Specialty should be a choice because you want something different....NOT because the MDR is so bad !!

I totally agree.

When you have a non refundable deposit and airfare already booked sometimes it is best to make lemonade out of lemons...

 

In the chance that I consider Celebrity in the future I will add specialty dining into the price comparisons.

Edited August 29, 2023 by NMTraveller

[gapiro]

Just got off silhouette an hour ago…

Our first trip on a celebrity ship. Having done virgin and Cunard before 

the MDR DINNER was ok. 
not amazing

not terrible 

bit like standard pub grub. 
The flank steak , was lovely, OH had a steak dianne another night and it was massively over cooked (well sone when asked for rare) but edible. 
it would probably be passable for a week cruise but any longer you’d get very bored of the options. 
We tried speciality dining one night and that was good but comparable in quality to Cunard MDR. 
The wait staff were lovely but spread thin. 
HOWEVER

I would strongly recommend not bothering with MDR for breakfast (90m to get the same food you get in two mins from the buffet) or lunch (just slow)

[ladylemondrop]

Part of me wonders if they have adapted the menu to UK tastes (in their opinion) as it is sailing out of UK? i.e. Mashed potato, yorkshire puddings etc...? If so, as a UK resident I would ask please DONT! 

I would much prefer the previous menu options of baked potato as a side dish etc. 

 

I hope that people who have recently sailed, or are about to, contact Celebrity to voice concerns/opinions. I will be there in less than two weeks, and will happily report back.

 

Just say NO TO MASHED POTATO! 😁

[NMTraveller]

1 hour ago, ladylemondrop said:

Part of me wonders if they have adapted the menu to UK tastes (in their opinion) as it is sailing out of UK? i.e. Mashed potato, yorkshire puddings etc...? If so, as a UK resident I would ask please DONT! 

I would much prefer the previous menu options of baked potato as a side dish etc. 

 

I hope that people who have recently sailed, or are about to, contact Celebrity to voice concerns/opinions. I will be there in less than two weeks, and will happily report back.

 

Just say NO TO MASHED POTATO! 😁

These menu changes have been propagated to all of the ships...

 

They are on my next cruise.

[conquesodor]

It's unfortunate that there are no pictures of the "cafeteria style" meals that the OP describes. My experience in the MDR on Summit last month was excellent. A few example pictures should speak for themselves:

[phoenix_dream]

16 hours ago, Winemaker_1 said:

What have I gotten myself into?  I just put down the deposit on my first Celebrity cruise..  And I've heard nothing but bad news about Celebrity since.  

You will still have a great time I think.  What is happening overall IMHO is that Celebrity used to be an excellent cruise line.  Recently they have been making changes presumably due to revenue loss from Covid that are perhaps bringing Celebrity down from excellent to maybe good or very good.  Some of the frustration you read about also was from testing some ideas that many of us thought were horrible, but they rolled those back.  So it's definitely not all bad news - it's just that these new changes are very noticeable to loyal Celebrity cruisers and we are not happy with many/most of them as they are less than the experience we remember, and thought we were paying for when we booked.  A new cruiser would likely not even know the difference (with the possible exception being maybe some unhappiness with the food?)  

[doghog]

16 hours ago, Winemaker_1 said:

What have I gotten myself into?  I just put down the deposit on my first Celebrity cruise..  And I've heard nothing but bad news about Celebrity since.  

Exactly why I never let others opinions or experiences, positive or negative have any effect on our future cruises or plans to book more future cruises. I like reading and respect what others have to say, but...

[killaypirate]

46 minutes ago, conquesodor said:

It's unfortunate that there are no pictures of the "cafeteria style" meals that the OP describes. My experience in the MDR on Summit last month was excellent. A few example pictures should speak for themselves:

That must have been early last month before the changes were introduced. We sailed on July 24 & had the new ‘improved’ school dinner menus.

[thedriver23]

We was on this cruise, and I had no issue with the food in the MDR, other than the sides being the same every night.

 

Yorkshire pudding, Buttered Potatoes and cauliflower cheese.

 

13 nights it did start to feel a little samey, and we had 4 nights eating in speciality - maybe that was the reason.

 

But we felt the food was good - I have attached a couple of photos - as always they never seem to do it justice - the lobster I was disappointed with.

[Rustyman]

2 hours ago, conquesodor said:

It's unfortunate that there are no pictures of the "cafeteria style" meals that the OP describes. My experience in the MDR on Summit last month was excellent. A few example pictures should speak for themselves:

Your photos show how it used to be, always excellent, current cruises fall well short of this unfortunately.

[conquesodor]

8 minutes ago, Rustyman said:

Your photos show how it used to be, always excellent, current cruises fall well short of this unfortunately.

 

I'm still looking for photos that clearly demonstrate this. Maybe someone will do so here?

[Rustyman]

10 minutes ago, conquesodor said:

 

I'm still looking for photos that clearly demonstrate this. Maybe someone will do so here?

I ate there for 12 nights and believe me it was nothing like it used to be or your photos.

[conquesodor]

49 minutes ago, thedriver23 said:

We was on this cruise, and I had no issue with the food in the MDR, other than the sides being the same every night.

 

Yorkshire pudding, Buttered Potatoes and cauliflower cheese.

 

13 nights it did start to feel a little samey, and we had 4 nights eating in speciality - maybe that was the reason.

 

But we felt the food was good - I have attached a couple of photos - as always they never seem to do it justice - the lobster I was disappointed with.

Thanks for posting some pictures. The middle dish (with some sauce) looks pretty good, but I'll admit that the other two look rather plain.

[ladylemondrop]

2 hours ago, thedriver23 said:

We was on this cruise, and I had no issue with the food in the MDR, other than the sides being the same every night.

 

Yorkshire pudding, Buttered Potatoes and cauliflower cheese.

 

13 nights it did start to feel a little samey, and we had 4 nights eating in speciality - maybe that was the reason.

 

But we felt the food was good - I have attached a couple of photos - as always they never seem to do it justice - the lobster I was disappointed with.

Bland…. 
And the mash looks awful! Stodgy lump. 
Thanks for sharing these. 

[HMR74]

On 8/20/2023 at 1:09 PM, doghog said:

It does suck. Speaking from first hand experiences from pulling mandatory KP while in basic training. 

better than grease traps

[doghog]

3 hours ago, HMR74 said:

better than grease traps

Or the garbage rack. 🤢

[NMTraveller]

On 8/28/2023 at 5:02 PM, Pinboy said:

I see you are new to Cruise Critics---

Please don't give it one minute of thought--- nothing wrong with Celebrity-- good food, good service. clean ships, so so entertainment, a few dumb games or activities( you don't have to participate in them ).

If you order something and don't like it--- the Waiter will change it

If you order something and want another serving---the Waiter will bring it.

If you prefer a table for two in the dining room--never a problem.

Just go and enjoy the cruise like 99% of the passengers.

( FYI--- I am not a Travel Agent and do not work for Celebrity ).

Here's a hint--- If you see that there are no round tomatoes and you gotta have one--- just ask.

They will get you 4 --- then you won't have to start a thread on CC about it like someone did a few days ago ( LOL )

 

 

You can have my mashed potatoes.  I will save them all for you ...

[hcat]

10 hours ago, conquesodor said:

It's unfortunate that there are no pictures of the "cafeteria style" meals that the OP describes. My experience in the MDR on Summit last month was excellent. A few example pictures should speak for themselves:

it speaks but not great!   Yikes!

[NMTraveller]

11 hours ago, thedriver23 said:

We was on this cruise, and I had no issue with the food in the MDR, other than the sides being the same every night.

 

Yorkshire pudding, Buttered Potatoes and cauliflower cheese.

 

13 nights it did start to feel a little samey, and we had 4 nights eating in speciality - maybe that was the reason.

 

But we felt the food was good - I have attached a couple of photos - as always they never seem to do it justice - the lobster I was disappointed with.

Do you get a choice of mashed potatoes or veggies?

[HMR74]

3 hours ago, doghog said:

Or the garbage rack. 🤢

I never had the garbage rack, where was Basic? I had Ft Knox which was like a country club. Circa late 1969 after graduation, was 23 at the time.

[seasidemama]

Just a theory - but is Jason Liberty being paid by a competitor? Looking on a macro level on all the changes since he took over it seems like a  plan to sink both X and RC slowly but surely.

 

Once the early bookings from last year and this year dry up, I wonder what 2025 1/2 and 2026 will look like. Once you lose long time customers to other lines and fail to provide value to new ones, very hard uphill battle to gain the same consistent booking numbers back.

[doghog]

9 hours ago, HMR74 said:

I never had the garbage rack, where was Basic? I had Ft Knox which was like a country club. Circa late 1969 after graduation, was 23 at the time.

1970, Lackland AFB. Drafted. I was 18 years old. And the food got worse after that at times. So just when you (not you specifically) think the food or a dinning experience is bad...