Buffet for supper?

[mygirlscats]

oops, double post!

[SoBaycruiser]

This is my first time posting here. I've come to these message boards because of my concerns about the dining. We just booked an 18-day trip around Cape Horn on Celebrity's new ship Journey (which is one of Renaissance's old ships). We chose this cruise for two reasons - the itinerary includes Antartica and the smaller size of the ship (only 700 passengers). We sailed Tahiti on an identical ship 6 years ago. We loved the lack of formality, free open seating at dinner and fewer passengers. I have a sciatica problem and have trouble sitting for long periods of time. Two hours of dining may be enjoyable from a social point of view, but not from a physical one. I was surprised when we booked the trip that they asked for early or late seating. I was also surprised that they said there would be 4 formal nights. It appears from comments here that Celebrity prides itself on its more structured dining. I am having second thoughts now that the Celebrity cruise is right for us. However, I will continue to check back here as posts start to come in after Journey's maiden voyage in April.

Rita

[Drew B]

This is my first time posting here. I've come to these message boards because of my concerns about the dining. We just booked an 18-day trip around Cape Horn on Celebrity's new ship Journey (which is one of Renaissance's old ships). We chose this cruise for two reasons - the itinerary includes Antartica and the smaller size of the ship (only 700 passengers). We sailed Tahiti on an identical ship 6 years ago. We loved the lack of formality, free open seating at dinner and fewer passengers. I have a sciatica problem and have trouble sitting for long periods of time. Two hours of dining may be enjoyable from a social point of view, but not from a physical one. I was surprised when we booked the trip that they asked for early or late seating. I was also surprised that they said there would be 4 formal nights. It appears from comments here that Celebrity prides itself on its more structured dining. I am having second thoughts now that the Celebrity cruise is right for us. However, I will continue to check back here as posts start to come in after Journey's maiden voyage in April.

Rita

 

From what I've heard, this new class of ships which includes Journey is likely to have open seating and no formal nights. I don't know if that is something that will be the case from the beginning or if it will morph into something different. This has not been confirmed, but you very well might get what you want.

[jaxon41]

Hi Swmrgrl: Just to add my thoughts.. We did a NCL Freestyle cruise in Hawaii last year and hated it....will never cruise with them again because of it. The highlights of all of our previous cruises has been our dining experiences....not just a place to eat but as Mom said, a place to meet and interact with some wonderful people. Our freestyle dinners often took over 3 hours with waits of 30 to 40 minutes between courses....and this with only 1/2 the room full of people.....it was a total disaster as far as we were concerned. Please be open to the wonderful world of Celebrity food and service in the dining room ....I think you'll be pleasently surprised!

 

Mtnmom4

 

ditto

[hajekfam]

It could be that the Journey's cruises that are taking the place of the Zenith already booked cruises will still hold to the Zenith norm (formal nights, two seatings, etc). You might have to wait until the Journey becomes truly part of the Expedition class and has its own itinerary until it becomes like the Expedition with no formal nights, etc.

[masterbaker]

In defense of NCL, the Hawaiian cruises on NCLA are a run as a different company, just as RCI and Celebrity are run separately. NCLA's problems with it's American crew is no secret on cruiseboards. There are also several older ships in the NCL fleet that were built before freestyle was even an idea that don't offer as many dining or entertainment options as the new ships in the fleet. They were great when NCL offered traditional cruising, but when people make an opinion of freestyle from sailing one of these older converted ships and not from one of the new NCL ships built specifically for freestyle, then they have missed the boat (so to speak).

[Charles4515]

Sorry, we are already booked on the Millennium for Dec :D .

 

Anyway, we are just trying different cruise lines. I have heard that NCL is not all that great. And on DCL (our previous 2 cruises) if you choose not to dine in the main dining area, you have to order off of room service menu which is not that swift, or go to a buffet. So, OK if we do a Celebrity cruise to try out what we want??:D

 

I don't care for NCL myself and don't recomend it, but Princess has Anytime dining with very good dinner buffets available every night and it's a darn good cruise line. I have been on many Princess cruises and do recomend Princess. Sure you can do Celebrity but you are missing the lines sweet spot if you skip the main dining room. In essence you are not really doing Celebrity.

[Charles4515]

While we do prefer alternative dining choices and the freestyle type of experience, we chose Celebrity for our Panama trip based on the itinerary. We sailed on Holland America to South America last March and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves on that itinerary as well. They had a casual buffet until 8 pm at night and te waiters brought the main course you selected to your table. You chose the salads, soup, yourself. The food was great and the staff got to know us and our preferences after 2 days. We almost never ate at the same time each day due to our schedule and ate in the formal dining room once during our 15 day cruise. We also are trying Princess later this year - again based on the itinerary and the time we want to travel.

 

With any vacation, you have to be flexible. From the informtion provided there are other choices if we prefer to eat outside the main dining room. I'm still looking forward to crusing on this ship.

 

I have been on the Summit. One of my favorite Celebrity ships. But I would have picked a Princess ship doing that itinerary if I was planning to skip the main dining room. Princess's anytime dining is set up for that. Celebrity is a lot less flexible. Three of my Celebrity cruises have been eleven days. They had three formal evenings and three informal evenings, so a majority of the evenings onboard are dress up. That should tell you something. However if you can get along on HAL I guess you will survive on Celebrity :-)

[swmrgrl]

I didn't realize that people would be waiting for you to show up at the table. On HAL we found out after 12 days of sailing they had set aside a table for 3 of us by the window for the whole cruise and we could have come in at any time to eat since we were in a penthouse. The concierge or room steward/butler did not inform us of this otherwise we would have made sure to notify the appropriate person to give our table away. The way it was explained to us was we could eat anywhere - so we did.

 

I will definately make sure the Maitre'D knows if we do not plan to attend. I am always amazed at the information a person finds out on these boards. I am enlightened on dining reservations now.

[Muushka]

I don't care for NCL myself and don't recomend it, but Princess has Anytime dining with very good dinner buffets available every night and it's a darn good cruise line. I have been on many Princess cruises and do recomend Princess. Sure you can do Celebrity but you are missing the lines sweet spot if you skip the main dining room. In essence you are not really doing Celebrity.

Gosh, you don't give up do you :) .

 

I am quoting myself from a previous quote of mine in this thread. Please read that I have, in fact, already done a Celebrity cruise (just 3 weeks ago) and am fully aware of what dining in the main dining room is like. We dined there for 4 nights!

 

We also will not be dining in the main dining room next time we cruise. We truly enjoyed our Century cruise last month and we had wonderful tablemates, but.......

 

1. We both did not like donating 2+ hours to dinner

 

2. While our waiters were nice, neither (esp the assist waiter) ever learned our preferences. Well maybe on the last night, but every other night I had to ask for my iced tea with no sugar and with lemon. Got really old and did not make me feel special in the least.

 

3. We are also not fans of dressing up so it will be casual and verandah dining for us!

 

We tried the casual dining for 1 night on our last cruise and we really enjoyed it.

[Charles4515]

Gosh, you don't give up do you :) .

 

I am quoting myself from a previous quote of mine in this thread. Please read that I have, in fact, already done a Celebrity cruise (just 3 weeks ago) and am fully aware of what dining in the main dining room is like. We dined there for 4 nights!

 

Have you tried Princess or NCL? They are geared to the flexible dining you prefer. You are wasting your money going on Celebrity.

[Tinwoman]

Have you tried Princess or NCL? They are geared to the flexible dining you prefer. You are wasting your money going on Celebrity.

 

And you are wasting your breath. :p I had to laugh, I just can't get over those whom sit around wringing their hands worring that someone may not dress and go to dinner. :rolleyes:

 

 

Muushka, just go and enjoy. :D

[Muushka]

And you are wasting your breath. :p I had to laugh, I just can't get over those whom sit around wringing their hands worring that someone may not dress and go to dinner. :rolleyes:

 

 

Muushka, just go and enjoy. :D

 

You betcha!!! :) Thanks

[Charles4515]

Gosh, you don't give up do you :) .

 

I am quoting myself from a previous quote of mine in this thread. Please read that I have, in fact, already done a Celebrity cruise (just 3 weeks ago) and am fully aware of what dining in the main dining room is like. We dined there for 4 nights!

 

Have you tried Princess or NCL? They are geared to the flexible dining you prefer. You are wasting your money going on Celebrity.

[mygirlscats]

You mean the other features of the ship aren't worth the money? Doesn't dinner taste just as good on your balcony as it does in the dining room?

 

I cruised NCL "freestyle" in the Med last summer and it was a disappointment. The overall level of service was not good at all. There's more to a cruise than the dining room experience (but maybe for some of us that IS the cruise!). On NCL I could go to any restaurant... if I had made reservations in advance, otherwise they were often full up. Their buffet was plain awful and their room service menu extremely limited.

 

If I want to do spontaneous and casual dining on Celeb, I can just call room service and get anything that's being offered on the menu that night (during dining hours, anyway). That in itself is a huge step up.

 

I have yet to cruise Princess...I'll get there someday...but I'm learning that each line has its own atmosphere and "personality". It ain't just the dining room that makes the difference!

[SoBaycruiser]

 

If I want to do spontaneous and casual dining on Celeb, I can just call room service and get anything that's being offered on the menu that night (during dining hours, anyway). That in itself is a huge step up.

 

Is there an additional charge for room service? Additional tipping? If so, how is it done? We've never been on Celebrity.

[Drew B]

I agree that the dining experience is just one of many things offered on an X cruise. One person may prioritize that very highly, while for another, it is not that big a deal. As long as a person's actions don't negatively impact others, I don't understand the need to interrogate or harrass him/her just because they value things differently.

[Faygelah]

My favorite thing on X is to play Scrabble with my Honey in the Cova Cafe after breakfast while sipping latte and eating a chocolate croissant. What?! That's not your favorite part of cruising?! You're not even planning to play Scrabble??!! You say you're allergic to chocolate and can't eat the chocolate croissants??!! Why on earth would you want to cruise on X if my favorite part of cruising isn't your favorite part?? You should definitely choose another cruiseline. :-)

[Charles4515]

You mean the other features of the ship aren't worth the money? Doesn't dinner taste just as good on your balcony as it does in the dining room?

 

I cruised NCL "freestyle" in the Med last summer and it was a disappointment. The overall level of service was not good at all. There's more to a cruise than the dining room experience (but maybe for some of us that IS the cruise!). On NCL I could go to any restaurant... if I had made reservations in advance, otherwise they were often full up. Their buffet was plain awful and their room service menu extremely limited.

 

If I want to do spontaneous and casual dining on Celeb, I can just call room service and get anything that's being offered on the menu that night (during dining hours, anyway). That in itself is a huge step up.

 

I have yet to cruise Princess...I'll get there someday...but I'm learning that each line has its own atmosphere and "personality". It ain't just the dining room that makes the difference!

 

Other than dining there aren't a whole lot of other features on Celebrity. Just joking, but I am not responding to having dinner on your balcony one night or eating at the casual buffet one night, I am responding to those who don't plan to eat in the dining room at all. Celebrity is one of the most traditional of the mainstream cruise lines and the grand dining room and dressing up are a major part of what you are buying. That is why you see a lot of complaints posted when Celebrity does not enforce the dress requests. The dining room is one of the major features. On the other hand NCL and Princess sell you Freestyle and Anytime dining. That is what you are buying on those lines, a more sponaneous and causal approach. That is their major marketing.

 

I was disappointed by NCL too and thought their buffets were awful, but I have not been disappionted by Princess, but your milage will vary. There are many opinions. Princess has buffets in the evening with no waits and some very good itinerarys. Any buffet is going to be somewhat less the the dining room but the Princess buffets were good. Love the cold seafood buffet they have the first night on Crown Princess. lobster, crabs and shrimp.

[Charles4515]

They really need to fix the duplicate problem.

[Drew B]

Celebrity is one of the most traditional of the mainstream cruise lines and the grand dining room and dressing up are a major part of what you are buying.

 

 

In sum, perhaps, but not necessarily for every cruiser on every cruise. People can have a variety of motivations for choosing what they cruise, and their choice may not be based on what is being advertised.

 

McDonalds is clearly about the burgers -- that is it's raison d'etre. I don't eat meat, but I absolutely love McDonalds' french fries. Does that mean I should not go to McDonalds for fries because I will be foregoing what they are most well-known for?

[SPRAGUS]

I was on a Galaxy 11 night cruise to the Med. last Dec.. We also chose to not dine in the dining room. I often have to dress for occasions due to my job and dressing for formal night was not interesting to me or my traveling companion.

In my opinion formal nights were awesome due to the fact that quite a few do go the the dining room and you have the ship basicly to yourself. We chose to dine in our room or the casual dinning. (Trust me you won't go hungry!:D ) We just asked our stateroom attendant when he wasn't busy what our options were and he gave us all the low down.

It was really fun to dine on different area's on the ship or on our balcony.

Don't be put off by those who said "why would you chose Celebrity if you don't want dress up".

For me it is a great cruise line for us because our kids are grown and no grandchildren yet, and there just is not a lot of children, so it is a relaxing and wonderful time to reflect and recharge. The age group of cruisers are good for us too.

Enjoy your cruise!

 

 

 

This month we will take our 15th Celebrity cruise,and have enjoyed the formal nights along with casual dining. Dining and meeting new people is great but sometimes you just need to relax completely. We intend to skip the dining room this cruise and try all the other options available. Since ours is a 7 night cruise it will go by so quickly we want to be on our own time schedule. Somehow I know we will meet some interesting people doing the same thing. You have so many options, just enjoy your cruise!

[DeepWaterMariner]

Our next Celebrity cruise is eleven days and we have decided to blow off at least one of the three formal nights and go for casual dinning. After dozens of cruises beginning when cruising was far more formal than it is on Celebrity, dressing up for formal night is no longer a highlight of a cruise. For the informal nights we will test the limits of the dress policy. For us dinning is not the end all and be all of a Celebrity cruise. We like other aspects of their product and try to work around the parts that are less desirable for our tastes.

 

BTW, Personal Choice dinning on Princess doesn't free you from the evenings recommended dress but Princess has less formal nights and all non-formal nights are casual. Also, NCL is the only line that has ever turned me away from a dinning room due to violating the dress code...I was in jeans which are unacceptable in the main dinning room.

[mygirlscats]

Is there an additional charge for room service? Additional tipping? If so, how is it done? We've never been on Celebrity.

 

Pvmeistral, neither have I! However, when we got room service on Royal Caribbean and NCL, there was no extra charge. Tipping is at your discretion; I think it's appropriate to give something if you get a full meal delivered and set up, but if they just hand you a plate of cookies at the door and disappear, then I'm apt to leave it at that.

[Drew B]

Pvmeistral, neither have I! However, when we got room service on Royal Caribbean and NCL, there was no extra charge. Tipping is at your discretion; I think it's appropriate to give something if you get a full meal delivered and set up, but if they just hand you a plate of cookies at the door and disappear, then I'm apt to leave it at that.

 

For me, it depends who delivers the room service. If it's my cabin steward, I don't tip on the spot, but at the end of the trip, if they've delivered a lot of room service, I increase their tip accordingly. If it's somebody else making the delivery, I tip in cash. If it's just cookies or something, small, I may only give a dollar, but I don't completely stiff them if they've brought something to me...