Celebrity Food & Beverage Takes a Nosedive

[Cap_D]

There's been many posts about diminished food and beverage due to changes in menus, lesser quality ingredients, inconsistent and poor execution, and more.  Does anyone know if there has been any change in the head of food and beverage?  Has anyone seen any comments about the changes (besides Laura's September 2023 deflection and denial (at least with respect to Luminae))?

 

https://corneliusgallagher.com/

 

[cruiseerf]

There have been some big "leavings" at Celebrity cruises however I don't think Cornelius was one of them.  IMHO food has taken a hit from Excellent to more Good/ok.  I hope it improves or else we look around more.  Safe Sails 

[lv2cruisgrl]

I would love to know who and why all the changes. We can all speculate all we want, however we never really know the truth. It is sad when a cruise line we have loved for years is in decline.  So sad.

[hcat]

Who decides in the menus.?

From recent reviews it seems there are fewer offerings, combined categories of soups/ appetizers, poor quality meat/fish,   lots  of pasta  and nothing creative or outstanding .

 

Someone reported an 1$ upcharge for  extra veggies...C' mon now!

 

Seems E Class ships are better than others but no rave reviews lately.other than EDEN!

Edited October 4, 2023 by hcat

[Cruise till you drop]

🙄 OMG not another thread on food

[CHEZMARYLOU]

Maybe food will improve.  I just heard from my vacation planner that 26 planners, her included, were laid off. 

[paulh84]

3 hours ago, lv2cruisgrl said:

I would love to know who and why all the changes.

Money. 

[SchoolNurseMom]

We recently took a cruise on Royal and were very disappointed in the food. Nothing terrible, just not what we're used to after cruising with them for years. Our next cruise is next September on Celebrity Beyond and we are anxious to compare. 

[Jeremiah1212]

9 hours ago, Cap_D said:

There's been many posts about diminished food and beverage due to changes in menus, lesser quality ingredients, inconsistent and poor execution, and more.  Does anyone know if there has been any change in the head of food and beverage?  Has anyone seen any comments about the changes (besides Laura's September 2023 deflection and denial (at least with respect to Luminae))?

 

https://corneliusgallagher.com/

 

 

 

Ascent has some new offerings. Updated menus in MDR, new Le Petite Chef shows, new tableside items at Fine Cut, updated menus at Craft Social, Cafe Al Bacio and the pool bar.

 

Fleetwide, new wine lists, more updated cocktail menus, Murano will see some menu adjustments and they also emphasized additional training across the entire F&B program. 

[markeb]

10 hours ago, lv2cruisgrl said:

I would love to know who and why all the changes. We can all speculate all we want, however we never really know the truth. It is sad when a cruise line we have loved for years is in decline.  So sad.

 

You can read their last year's SEC filings (RCG level; they don't report subsidiaries separately). The two primary variable operating expenses are food and fuel (personnel costs are largely fixed in the short to midterm). They reserve the right to collect a surcharge when fuel prices go above a threshold. They don't reserve that right for food. Food prices are up. Beef prices are way up and supply is down (there's an ongoing drought in much of the US cattle country and no one expects real relief in beef production until at least 2024, and it will take several years to return to pre-drought conditions). Revenue for many cruises was largely set as long as two years ago when the ships went on sale, and before food prices took off. And the highest priced cabins have largely been the quickest to sell, even at the current high prices. 

 

I have no idea if it's impacting RCG more than Carnival, for instance. If it is, then Carnival did something right that RCG didn't. Or RCG is under more pressure from creditors. Someone flippantly said money, but that's almost certainly why. And it's not greed; RCG had an operating loss of $764M last year. After counting interest, their net loss was over $2B. The good news is that's a lot better than the almost $6B loss in 2020 and over $5B loss in 2021. The RCG leadership is made up of former CFOs and Operations people. This is what they do. I don't think they can get out of this mess by becoming uber efficient, but that's the leadership they have. And if their board didn't support them, they'd be gone.

 

What's interesting from Jeremiah's post is at the same time they're pushing efficiency, they're also trying to improve their F&B operations. Curious to see if they can somehow do both.

[hcat]

9 hours ago, Jeremiah1212 said:

 

 

Ascent has some new offerings. Updated menus in MDR, new Le Petite Chef shows, new tableside items at Fine Cut, updated menus at Craft Social, Cafe Al Bacio and the pool bar.

 

Fleetwide, new wine lists, more updated cocktail menus, Murano will see some menu adjustments and they also emphasized additional training across the entire F&B program. 

Looking forward to Ascent..and some of the new offerings.hope BLU is good!

 

Can't fathom the mashed potato binge.

How much more would it cost them to offer a loaded baked potato?  Or other veggies..squash, corn, peppers?

[tfred]

21 minutes ago, hcat said:

Looking forward to Ascent..and some of the new offerings.hope BLU is good!

 

Can't fathom the mashed potato binge.

How much more would it cost them to offer a loaded baked potato?  Or other veggies..squash, corn, peppers?

I think that part of this is the "where's my steak every night" crowd - as that is to them a  barometer of good food.  The natural complement to that is mashed potatoes   There is no shortage of steak and potato eaters on every ship (X and non-X ) that I have been on

 

that said, mashed are cheap and scalable to demand at low cost 

[hcat]

We like the classic  prime rib and some beef but not in large quantity.. salmon and other healthy choices including salads are what we look for..BLU works for us.  A good  stuffed baked potato can be the basis of a meal for me.

 

fish and  beef  prices now are very high but a creative chef can work around it..

[Cap_D]

Anyone know if they have tacos every day in the OVC on all ships?

 

[markeb]

26 minutes ago, Cap_D said:

Anyone know if they have tacos every day in the OVC on all ships?

 

 

I don't recall tacos in August on Equinox, but we were mostly grabbing salads and the very good Indian food. Those look pretty good, though!

 

I guess we'll see in November!

[mahdnc]

16 hours ago, CHEZMARYLOU said:

Maybe food will improve.  I just heard from my vacation planner that 26 planners, her included, were laid off. 

Sorry to hear that. Are they getting rid of CVPs entirely?

Edited October 5, 2023 by mahdnc

[rwright261]

I’m going to do a Liveish report from Silhouette starting next Wednesday and will aim to post photos of menus and food, so hopefully can give some real time information. 
 

My post can be found in the celebrity boards. 

[lv2cruisgrl]

18 hours ago, SchoolNurseMom said:

We recently took a cruise on Royal and were very disappointed in the food. Nothing terrible, just not what we're used to after cruising with them for years. Our next cruise is next September on Celebrity Beyond and we are anxious to compare. 

Agree we did Wonder of the Seas and the DR food was always cold and tasteless.

[hcat]

1 hour ago, lv2cruisgrl said:

Agree we did Wonder of the Seas and the DR food was always cold and tasteless.

Our last Royal C cruise was a few yrs ago on Oasis.. MDR menu,  food and service were sub-par. The deli along the Central park smelled awful and was over crowded. The steak house was  better than the MDR  as was the Specialty dining at night near the adult spa area.  None was as good as X....at least not back then.

 

We do not plan to return to Royal C..

[lv2cruisgrl]

1 minute ago, hcat said:

Our last Royal C cruise was a few yrs ago on Oasis.. MDR menu,  food and service were sub-par. The deli along the Central park smelled awful and was over crowded. The steak house was  better than the MDR  as was the Specialty dining at night near the adult spa area.  None was as good as X....at least not back then.

 

We do not plan to return to Royal C..

Agree we do not either.

[CHEZMARYLOU]

7 hours ago, mahdnc said:

Sorry to hear that. Are they getting rid of CVPs entirely?

Apparently outsourcing, possibly to Mexico and the Philippines. There is a recent thread on this topic.

[TeeRick]

15 hours ago, markeb said:

 

You can read their last year's SEC filings (RCG level; they don't report subsidiaries separately). The two primary variable operating expenses are food and fuel (personnel costs are largely fixed in the short to midterm). They reserve the right to collect a surcharge when fuel prices go above a threshold. They don't reserve that right for food. Food prices are up. Beef prices are way up and supply is down (there's an ongoing drought in much of the US cattle country and no one expects real relief in beef production until at least 2024, and it will take several years to return to pre-drought conditions). Revenue for many cruises was largely set as long as two years ago when the ships went on sale, and before food prices took off. And the highest priced cabins have largely been the quickest to sell, even at the current high prices. 

 

I have no idea if it's impacting RCG more than Carnival, for instance. If it is, then Carnival did something right that RCG didn't. Or RCG is under more pressure from creditors. Someone flippantly said money, but that's almost certainly why. And it's not greed; RCG had an operating loss of $764M last year. After counting interest, their net loss was over $2B. The good news is that's a lot better than the almost $6B loss in 2020 and over $5B loss in 2021. The RCG leadership is made up of former CFOs and Operations people. This is what they do. I don't think they can get out of this mess by becoming uber efficient, but that's the leadership they have. And if their board didn't support them, they'd be gone.

 

What's interesting from Jeremiah's post is at the same time they're pushing efficiency, they're also trying to improve their F&B operations. Curious to see if they can somehow do both.

Yes all good points.  The cruise industry and passengers are all now paying the piper for the extended pandemic shutdown and what the industry had to do to survive financially.  And coupled of course seriously high inflation over the past couple of years and supply chain disruptions.  These are facts,  undisputable, for all cruise lines.   The cruise lines today that deal with all of this best and get back to less debt and profitability will win.  But we all must recognize the major changes with more coming.  Not that we have to like it.  Some (like me) will not cruise for a period and spend money on other vacation choices.  

[Cruise till you drop]

22 minutes ago, CHEZMARYLOU said:

Apparently outsourcing, possibly to Mexico and the Philippines. There is a recent thread on this topic.

Princess has already gone that way based on my most recent calls

[goofysmom99]

7 hours ago, rwright261 said:

I’m going to do a Liveish report from Silhouette starting next Wednesday and will aim to post photos of menus and food, so hopefully can give some real time information. 
 

My post can be found in the celebrity boards. 

Could you please post photos of the actual paper menus?  I'm anxious to see how many and what items are designated gluten free.  Thanks in advance.  

[LuvCruzn4Evr]

11 hours ago, Cap_D said:

Anyone know if they have tacos every day in the OVC on all ships?

 

Crispy tacos every day...no. But there is a Mexican area where you can build your own and they will have either flour tortillas or taco shells and they have the tostadas every day so you can build your own nachos...YUM!!! They have all the fixins: chili, refried beans, queso, guacamole, salsa, jalapenos and sometimes beef or chicken fajita meat.