Cruising 2023 – It’s All About The Food

Will Changes In Menus Have A Negative Impact On Cruising?

Note: Please add your comments concerning your recent cruise experience to our comments below.

My wife and I have taken over 65 cruises with almost 40 being with Celebrity. Our most recent Celebrity cruises were a trans-Atlantic on Apex in 2022 and a Caribbean cruise on Constellation out of Tampa in January 2023.

What a difference! And yes I know they are completely different classes of ship, but I have never before seen a serious difference in food quality between different ships. The Constellation cruise was a disappointment. In the main dining room food took a really long time to be served (the dining room staff were still excellent but obviously short staffed). In our opinion the dinner selections were nothing like what we have been used to. On previous cruises we often had trouble deciding between a few good choices. On this cruise we had trouble finding something we actually wanted to eat.

One night, in an effort to find a better selection, we went up to the Ocean View buffet for dinner. The changes there were a problem as well. The grill was closed – no steaks, or pork, etc… The stir fry station wasn’t open and overall the buffet selections were greatly reduced.

There’s been a LOT of grumbling about the food onboard over the past six months. Several people suggested that the best staff and food were being provided to the newer ships leaving the smaller ships to become step children. This may not be the problem as we got hold of Celebrity’s new fleet wide menus last week and it was the same as we experienced on Constellation*.

We have no problem with the service onboard except that it has been significantly reduced. It wasn’t unusual to spend over a half hour in a lounge before being waited on.

We have also made cruises recently on Royal Caribbean and we have also seen their new menus and we have similar issues with their. We did a back to back in Alaska in May/June on Radiance of the Seas and while the menu didn’t meet our expectations the food overall wasn’t a disappointment. In August/September we cruised on Jewel of the Seas and overall the food was veery disappointing.

We are also booked on Celebrity’s Millennium in February/March 2024 for back to backs lasting a month, and we are seriously concerned. Like the month on the Jewel, that’s a long time to not be happy with the food. The good news is, that gives Celebrity another six months to realize they have an issue and time to hopefully fix things?

We understand that the cruise industry suffered serious loses in the Covid years and that may explain some of the cost cutting now, but in July 2023 Royal Caribbean raised its full-year profit forecast on after posting a record for quarterly revenue. Perhaps they should be concerned about how much more their loyal customers will be inclined to put up with?

*We do have some evidence that Celebrity’s Edge class ships with their four themed dining rooms does have a better menu. We were certainly pleased with the meals on our September Apex cruise.

If you have recently been cruising we would welcome hearing your opinion in the comments below.