Celebrity food worse year over year.

[Dave H.]

Last year I sailed on the Apex, and now I am on the Reflection.

Beef has gotten dry, mealy, and bland.  I wouldn't bother with it at this point, it really has declined to the level of a school cafeteria.

The Caesar salad used to have grated parmeson cheese, now they use ground parmesan dust without any flavor.  Set aside the cheese and the dressing lacks any of the flavor from the now absent anchovies as well.  This is an always available item and even available from roomservice.  Such a staple falling off in quality is an intensely sad event.

Pizza has been ruined.  The cheese like that of the parmesan has been cheapened and worsened.  Also the amount of cheese in the pizza has even reduced in volume.  This is an always featured item and also on the room service menu, I found it to be more similar to an Elios pizza and I would prefer Tony's pizza to it.  It isn't even close to a Red Barron or a DiGornos pizza.  I used to like the pizza on this cruise line.

I had a caprese salad and the tomatoes were green and the red portions were a feint pink.  No licopene, no flavor, and an unpleasant texture.  The Buffalo mozzarella lacked any of the rick fat content that it is known for.

I had a bearnaise sauce that contributed wetness without any flavor.  I don't mean mild or subtle, I mean no flavor at all.

The troubles continue with food items completely absent.  There is no almond or oat milk on the ship: soy, lactose free, and regular milk only.  This ship has no oolong tea, it is one of the four teas listed on the menu and they don't have any plans of getting any.

This is not an exhaustive list but I have been noticing more and more deprecated items and then a culling of what items are even available.

[mac66]

Okay...well...thanks for posting 

[Traveling Mike]

On 12/12/2022 at 9:37 AM, Dave H. said:

Last year I sailed on the Apex, and now I am on the Reflection.

I think you are comparing Apples and Oranges.  I find the food changes from ship to ship.  They have different managers and different cooks.

[cruisellama]

On 12/12/2022 at 11:37 AM, Dave H. said:

Last year I sailed on the Apex, and now I am on the Reflection.

Beef has gotten dry, mealy, and bland.  I wouldn't bother with it at this point, it really has declined to the level of a school cafeteria.

The Caesar salad used to have grated parmeson cheese, now they use ground parmesan dust without any flavor.  Set aside the cheese and the dressing lacks any of the flavor from the now absent anchovies as well.  This is an always available item and even available from roomservice.  Such a staple falling off in quality is an intensely sad event.

Pizza has been ruined.  The cheese like that of the parmesan has been cheapened and worsened.  Also the amount of cheese in the pizza has even reduced in volume.  This is an always featured item and also on the room service menu, I found it to be more similar to an Elios pizza and I would prefer Tony's pizza to it.  It isn't even close to a Red Barron or a DiGornos pizza.  I used to like the pizza on this cruise line.

I had a caprese salad and the tomatoes were green and the red portions were a feint pink.  No licopene, no flavor, and an unpleasant texture.  The Buffalo mozzarella lacked any of the rick fat content that it is known for.

I had a bearnaise sauce that contributed wetness without any flavor.  I don't mean mild or subtle, I mean no flavor at all.

The troubles continue with food items completely absent.  There is no almond or oat milk on the ship: soy, lactose free, and regular milk only.  This ship has no oolong tea, it is one of the four teas listed on the menu and they don't have any plans of getting any.

This is not an exhaustive list but I have been noticing more and more deprecated items and then a culling of what items are even available.

Would agree there is some degradation in both menu offering and some food quality.  We did find meat dishes (despite being cooked properly) seemed dry, including  in "Fine Cut"  which in the past, was top notch.  Thought Apex was the weakest of the last 3 we've sailed,   Edge, Reflection, and Apex.   While in Luminae, we had items from the MDR menu instead of the daily Luminae offering.  ( Was not an appealing menu.)  We'll be on Beyond in March.  Fingers crossed.

[JeffB]

We'll be sailing on Edge out of Fort Lauderdale, 11n S. Caribbean departing 1/23/2023. Mike brings up a good point that food services onboard each ship varies. Still, Corporate drives the menu selections and prep - chefs have some discretion in plating and appearance. Food prep process is key. Each station in the kitchen from the sou chef on down involved in delivering the plate is going to be manned by people with different skills and motivation. Supervision and training is really important here. This alone is going to affect taste and appearance.

That Celebrity, at least in the past, has maintained a remarkable level of consistency in food quality and presentation is notable.  On recent cruises, talking with food service managers, all of them are dealing with supply issues. None of them will say it directly but I've had table staff in the restaurants, when asked, if they've seen a price crunch affecting produce, meat and fish. Yes, has been the response. That would mean lower quality produce and cuts of meat, frozen (questionable processing) seafood products - poorly frozen fish unless it is very carefully prepared is a non-starter for me. You can't make a cow leather grade sirloin taste juicy or cut like butter. Properly ripened tomatoes are a tough get. Wholesale fruit and veggie supplies from S. FL ports are pretty decent. Wholesale food sourcing is going to affect your like or dislike of a dish.

I'll check this out in both the Edge MDR and Luminae. No plans for specialty dining as Murano is the only one I really will pay the upcharge for and these are not on the Edge class ships. Maybe Eden - I do like the environment. I'll be reporting on the food issues noted on Apex and will post while I'm aboard.

[loki007]

we just got off a 6 night Apex sailing and the food was great. Service in the main dining rooms was a little suspect at times but no complaints about the food. 100x better than our summer Mariner cruise. 

[Lisa Barbier]

Just finished Celebrity Reflections cruise to Bahamas. All in all we really enjoyed it. The service was amazing, ship atmosphere wonderful, activities so fun- but the food so unpredictable! Some items really good, buffet so so. Biggest complaint would be the meat. Consistently undercooked- basically raw - from steak to meatballs, yuck. Even in the specialty restaurant-still way undercooked . How they serve raw meatballs is beyond me? Finally gave up and just stuck to chicken or fish. Too bad.

[barjpoe]

Any more comments on the food? I know it is a subjective area. 

[Gilley]

I was on celebrity Beyond last December and the food was excellent.  I found it much better than Royal ships with the exception of the Icon classes.

[Curt From Canada]

We have not been on a Celebrity ship in about a year, but every cruise was extremely consistent:

Some great meals … some mediocre meals. 

Very consistent in their inconsistency.

We have established a process to ask our waiter (and/or head waiter) what they recommended every night.  (Just like we would do in a land based restaurant that we were unfamiliar with).  The good staff know and do not hold back.

We are mostly not picky eaters, so this is our best attempt to get better quality meals. 
 

Curt from Canada. 

[asquared17]

10 hours ago, barjpoe said:

Any more comments on the food? I know it is a subjective area. 

we find the food to be excellent on celebrity! it is a definite step up from royal in a lot of areas and a new variety of offerings which is nice. 

there are always the occasional misses, but that can fall into the subjective category or just not the right dish to order. i echo @Curt From Canada comments about asking the waiter/head waiter — we avoided some of those not quite right dishes by doing so. 

here is a smattering of meals from our most recent sailing aboard xcel — these are from the normandie dining room (one of the 4 MDRs) and spice cafe:

 

 

IMG_2458.heic IMG_2456.heic IMG_2457.heic IMG_2397.heic IMG_2358.heic IMG_2356.heic

[asquared17]

ugh i am not sure why it won’t load them in the post

[Ogilthorpe]

1 hour ago, asquared17 said:

ugh i am not sure why it won’t load them in the post

I believe it is an unsupported picture format for this site. As a test,  I converted one to .jpg and it works (we darned engineers can't help ourselves sometimes when a technical issue presents itself) 

[asquared17]

shoot maybe because i uploaded them from a cloud album. let me try again!!!

thank you @Ogilthorpe!!

 

[barjpoe]

wow , thanks

[asquared17]

@barjpoe we also love the pizza onboard!! small batch — it’s delicious, and maybe not always as readily available as sorrentos but fresher and tasty! rarely do you ever need to wait but if you do, just give it a few mins and a fresh pie will come along

[loki007]

On 3/29/2026 at 6:12 PM, asquared17 said:

@barjpoe we also love the pizza onboard!! small batch — it’s delicious, and maybe not always as readily available as sorrentos but fresher and tasty! rarely do you ever need to wait but if you do, just give it a few mins and a fresh pie will come along

one of our favorite things to do is request a whole pie, grab some wine and sit outside and enjoy the back of the ship. 

[Curt From Canada]

1 minute ago, loki007 said:

one of our favorite things to do is request a whole pie, grab some wine and sit outside and enjoy the back of the ship. 

It may be my “Newf” heritage, but there is nothing so relaxing, renewing and refreshing than spending time with the sea. 
 

Curt from Canada. 

[Pattycruise]

On 3/28/2026 at 10:34 AM, barjpoe said:

Any more comments on the food? I know it is a subjective area. 

I sailed Celebrity for the first time in AGES, this past summer -14 days on Apex.  I was very impressed with the food. .  The choices-amazing. This is a 4 type of dining r rooms ship.  
just sailed Apex followed by 2 weeks on Xcel February into March and it was the same great experience.  We did specialty on Excel-Bora dinner,Bora brunch and Mosaic. Every meal was worth it.  I’ll be on a different class of ship in May so perhaps that will make it more comparable to Royal but the food on Celebrity is fantastic.   I got on Icon 2 weeks after sailing Celebrity and Icon main dining room has better tasting food than the rest of the Royal fleet despite having the same menus, but Celebrity topped it. 

[Mike n Ky]

On 4/9/2026 at 8:10 PM, Pattycruise said:

I sailed Celebrity for the first time in AGES, this past summer -14 days on Apex.  I was very impressed with the food. .  The choices-amazing. This is a 4 type of dining r rooms ship.  
just sailed Apex followed by 2 weeks on Xcel February into March and it was the same great experience.  We did specialty on Excel-Bora dinner,Bora brunch and Mosaic. Every meal was worth it.  I’ll be on a different class of ship in May so perhaps that will make it more comparable to Royal but the food on Celebrity is fantastic.   I got on Icon 2 weeks after sailing Celebrity and Icon main dining room has better tasting food than the rest of the Royal fleet despite having the same menus, but Celebrity topped it. 

We enjoyed the food on Celebrity as well. Last three cruises were on Royal, Icon, Allure and Star. Definitely found a big difference between the two Icon ships over Allure. I personally find the 'simplified' menu on Royal not to my liking. If I am going to go to a dining room I want an elevated experience and miss the old menus. Windjammer has pretty much everything you get in the MDR.