Apparently the Celebrity Cruise line is renowned for its food. After five days at sea, we really can’t dispute that claim. The food is unique, plentriful, good and easy to find. The primary eating options were the Grand Restaurant – a formal dining room, the Island Cafe – a buffet with tons of options or Room Service.
We ate the Grand Restaurant all five nights as that was the one thing on the cruise you shouldn’t miss. We had a quibble with the dress code – we had three casual nights, one informal night and one formal night. Their definitions didn’t match our definitions – casual meant slacks and a dress shirt for men (I interpreted it to mean a polo shirt and slacks), informal meant dress pants and a dinner jacket (I figured a tie was good enough) and formal meant a suit or a tuxedo (I decided to don my suit for the first time since my brother’s wedding).
Once we got over the dress code, the food and service were excellent. We sat at the same table and were joined on various nights by Neil and Anna from St. Catherines, Ontario, Carl and Juanita from Detroit and Eugene from New York City. They were all our age so it was nice to have people to talk with and we enjoyed our conversations there.
Dinner started with a menu consisting of 5 courses – appetizer, soup, salad, entree and dessert. We had 4 choices of appertizer – the craziest I tried was pheasant terrini which was like pheasant in a pate form. I had crab cocktail one night and escargot (snails) another night. Becky had oyster rockefeller and duck gallantine and when we didn’t know what to get we went with the shrimp cocktail. For the soups we had three choices – two hot and one cold. The hot soups were fairly unremarkable – except I had a French onion soup that had so much cheese on it I couldn’t eat it. The chilled soups were different – Becky like her mango and apple soup and her berry and coumin yogurt soup. For salads we had 2 or 3 choices which were Caesar, Romaine or spinach with various other vegetables. They were always solid, although not terribly interesting. The main course provided us with 5 options – usually a pasta, a fish, a checken, a lamb, pork or veal option then a steak option. I had the veal the first night, then 2 nights or steak, the lobster then the duck on the last night. Becky had steak, shrimp, chicken, prime rib and the duck. The steaks were always good. The lobster was good too – I hadn’t had lobster in many years. The duck on the last night was good – kinda like ribs or brisket with less fat and more tender. Desserts were always great – we had tiramisu, creme brule, baked alaska, guava sherbet, chocolate iced parfait, and various fruited cheesecakes. Our service from Sabu and Carlton was always good. Carlton was the assistant waiter from Jamaica and we’d always quiz him on the menu and what life was like on the ship for the staff. I enjoyed a bottle of Shiraz which took 4 nights to drink and Becky enjoyed some white zinfadel. The wine was the only thing not included with the cruise price.
We never went to the Grand Restaurant outside of dinner, instead hitting the Island Cafe buffet for breakfast and lunch. Our breakfasts weren’t too unique – we mostly had croissants (which I love), fruit, eggs, hash browns, bacon and sausage. We had French toast and waffles a time or two also. For lunch we had lots of different stuff – pasta bar, salad bar, sandwich bar and pizza. The asian stir fly looked really good, but the line took forever there. They had juices and iced tea to drink. We most enjoyed the chance to look out over the ocean from the 11th floor of the ship as we ate.
Rivaling the Grand Restaurant was the convenience of room service. It was free(!) and available from 6am to midnight. We tested it out for lunch the first ship day just because we had the luxury of being lazy. I had steak, clam chowder, iced tea and a dessert while Becky had a combo pizza with anchovies and dessert. Becky decided she’s not a fan of the anchovies. On the last night I tested how late the room service was open by ordering food at 11:30pm. That hamburger made for a nice midnight snack.
There was a pool bar that had tacos and burgers that we never tried and an optional restaurant that would cost $25 more per person each night. Since the Grand Restaurant exceeded our expectations we saw no reason to try that.
It was a real pleasure to eat new and different foods in a luxury dining experience. The best part was we didn’t have to cook, clean up or listen to Amelia’s screaming. We ate for two hours rather than trying to finish as soon as possible.
I was so spoiled by the constant eating that my stomach didn’t know what to do on the flight home when we went 7 hours without eating. I thought I was going to die.
Eric's space 