On Equinox now. My opinion on mdr and buffet.

[Smmessineo]

Just a quick post. Boarded the 22nd. MDR menus haven't been returned to the old good ones yet ( I think I read here that's starting in  November. )

And there hasn't been any chef's daily special added . So the menu is definitely sparse. 

However, the food is excellent at every venue.  And the buffet has the best variety that I've seen since the restart.  There have been different themes each lunch and dinner. BBQ, Mediterranean, Caribbean, and now German tonight. We've decided to just eat at the buffet this cruise. 

As for entertainment, I recommend the Broadway Revue with the Celebrity singers. They're good!

Edited October 24, 2023 by Smmessineo

[Texed]

Thanks for posting. 😊 

[kywildcatfanone]

We were on last week.  Was really good the first 2 days then trailed off a bit to us, but there were plenty of options.

 

One night they only had pound cakes for dessert,  like 8 of them. Seemed odd to me.

The first 2 days they had chocolate brownies which were good, then never again.  

 

They provide a lot more for lunch than dinner, which would be fine if they had fewer but better options.

 

Again, didn't go hungry but wasn't amazing either.  They had brisket for lunch one day and it was the best thing I ate all week.  Wish they had it more than once.

 

Glad you are enjoying!

[CruiseDuck]

Glad to hear the buffet is good. I had previously read  they had really limited the variety of food there. Do you remember the hours the buffet is open? We will be boarding in November. Thanks!

[markeb]

15 minutes ago, CruiseDuck said:

Glad to hear the buffet is good. I had previously read  they had really limited the variety of food there. Do you remember the hours the buffet is open? We will be boarding in November. Thanks!

 

Times are in the app. Looks like something from 6:30-2:30 pm, then dinner from 6:00-9:30. I "think" there's something available from early until 1:00 am. We're on her in about 3 weeks as well.

[ouiswim]

18 hours ago, CruiseDuck said:

Glad to hear the buffet is good. I had previously read  they had really limited the variety of food there. Do you remember the hours the buffet is open? We will be boarding in November. Thanks!

We will be going for Thanksgiving. Anyone know if they serve traditional Thanksgiving dinner?

[MisterMet]

On 10/24/2023 at 4:41 PM, Smmessineo said:

Just a quick post. Boarded the 22nd. MDR menus haven't been returned to the old good ones yet ( I think I read here that's starting in  November. )

And there hasn't been any chef's daily special added . So the menu is definitely sparse. 

However, the food is excellent at every venue.  And the buffet has the best variety that I've seen since the restart.  There have been different themes each lunch and dinner. BBQ, Mediterranean, Caribbean, and now German tonight. We've decided to just eat at the buffet this cruise. 

As for entertainment, I recommend the Broadway Revue with the Celebrity singers. They're good!

Thanks for the update

[Jim_Iain]

On 10/25/2023 at 1:32 PM, ouiswim said:

We will be going for Thanksgiving. Anyone know if they serve traditional Thanksgiving dinner?

Been on many Thanksgiving cruises.   They have a huge Thanksgiving selection of Carved Turkey and all the fixings in OVC for Lunch.  Never looked at dinner.  

 

In all other dining rooms they have either an on menu or off menu selection of Turkey Dinner.   The normal menu choices are also available.

 

The ship is decorated for Thanksgiving and next day they tear down and start decorating for Xmas

[bikerunner]

1 minute ago, Jim_Iain said:

Been on many Thanksgiving cruises.   They have a huge Thanksgiving selection of Carved Turkey and all the fixings in OVC for Lunch.  Never looked at dinner.  

 

In all other dining rooms they have either an on menu or off menu selection of Turkey Dinner.   The normal menu choices are also available.

 

The ship is decorated for Thanksgiving and next day they tear down and start decorating for Xmas

Exactly this, always enjoyed the Thanksgiving lunch in OVC they have.  Its amazing how fast the changeover is with Christmas decorations that go up

[Jim_Iain]

57 minutes ago, bikerunner said:

Exactly this, always enjoyed the Thanksgiving lunch in OVC they have.  Its amazing how fast the changeover is with Christmas decorations that go up

 

We ended one cruise on Christmas Eve in Buenos Aires and each day more and more decorations would show up.    By departure she was fully decorated with both Christmas and Hanuka decorations.   that year the two celebrations had a very close date.

[horseymike]

On 10/24/2023 at 5:02 PM, kywildcatfanone said:

We were on last week.  Was really good the first 2 days then trailed off a bit to us, but there were plenty of options.

 

One night they only had pound cakes for dessert,  like 8 of them. Seemed odd to me.

The first 2 days they had chocolate brownies which were good, then never again.  

 

They provide a lot more for lunch than dinner, which would be fine if they had fewer but better options.

 

Again, didn't go hungry but wasn't amazing either.  They had brisket for lunch one day and it was the best thing I ate all week.  Wish they had it more than once.

 

Glad you are enjoying!

better lunch options than dinner suggests pushing the specialty restaurants to increase revenue.

[horseymike]

On 10/24/2023 at 4:41 PM, Smmessineo said:

Just a quick post. Boarded the 22nd. MDR menus haven't been returned to the old good ones yet ( I think I read here that's starting in  November. )

And there hasn't been any chef's daily special added . So the menu is definitely sparse. 

However, the food is excellent at every venue.  And the buffet has the best variety that I've seen since the restart.  There have been different themes each lunch and dinner. BBQ, Mediterranean, Caribbean, and now German tonight. We've decided to just eat at the buffet this cruise. 

As for entertainment, I recommend the Broadway Revue with the Celebrity singers. They're good!

Glad to hear you are enjoying your cruise so far , hope that stays consistent for the duration.🍀

[RedIguana]

2 hours ago, horseymike said:

better lunch options than dinner suggests pushing the specialty restaurants to increase revenue.

Maybe to push for ordering upcharge from MDR. The specialty restaurants are typically pretty full, especially for prime time, and they pretty much control demand for specialty via price (sales if available capacity, full price if not. That is why full price is up to $55-$60 now instead of $35).  The buffet is the expected venue for the majority of passengers for breakfast and lunch, whereas the MDR is the expected venue for the majority of passengers for dinner. If anything the cuts to the buffet (thankfully appears to have been reversed some) would be designed to push passengers back to the MDR, as the specialty restaurants do not have the capacity to serve more than a fairly low percentage of the passengers onboard.

[horseymike]

2 hours ago, RedIguana said:

Maybe to push for ordering upcharge from MDR. The specialty restaurants are typically pretty full, especially for prime time, and they pretty much control demand for specialty via price (sales if available capacity, full price if not. That is why full price is up to $55-$60 now instead of $35).  The buffet is the expected venue for the majority of passengers for breakfast and lunch, whereas the MDR is the expected venue for the majority of passengers for dinner. If anything the cuts to the buffet (thankfully appears to have been reversed some) would be designed to push passengers back to the MDR, as the specialty restaurants do not have the capacity to serve more than a fairly low percentage of the passengers onboard.

Excellent point.