Food on the Serenity

Over the past few years I've been on the Celebrity Summit twice and the Celebrity Infinity once. I have not been on a Crystal cruise in 4 years. My wife and I recently booked a Mexican Riviera cruise on the Serenity in January and are looking forward to getting back on a Crystal cruise. The food on Celebrity was very good. Overall, the quality and presentation exceeded our expectations. Over the past few years, has Crystal's food gotten better, worse or stayed the same? Is the food quality and service on the Serenity any better, worse or the same as the other two ships?

[Stacy]

Hi Jim... I can give you one opinion, mine. In the last 8 years I've been on Crystal Harmony twice, Crystal Symphony once and Crystal Serenity once (last month). I've also been on Celebrity Summit once, Century twice, Millie once, and Mercury twice. I'm booked on Mercury in January and Century in April of next year. I went on Crystal before Celebrity. In the beginning, I believed Crystal was better than Celebrity. BUT, having been on Serenity (we wanted to experience Crystal "one more time") and can say that I won't be booking Crystal in the near future. Celebrity is a far better value in my opinion. Both have amazing presentation but I think Celebrity has better tasting food. I like their soups and deserts much better... Crystal does a better job with fish. If you honestly like what we call "froo-froo" food, Crystal has more of that. Personally, I don't care for pate or caviar. Crystal has more expensive food... more lobster, crab, beef cuts... but I still like Celebrity's food better. I've also sailed with Costa, HAL, Princess, Carnival and Royal Carribean, once each. As you can tell, I'm partial to Celebrity.

Stacy

Thanks for the info. I definately agree that Celebrity is a great value and I'm sure we'll be back on Celebrity in the future. There are a few things I miss by not cruising with Crystal over the past few years. I'll write up a review in January.

While Celebrity food is far better than all the other mass market lines, you simply cannot compare it to Crystal. Because the number of passengers is so different on the two lines, Celebrity has to mass prepare their food while most of Crystal's food is prepared to order. You can also order many things that are not on the menu, while you cannot do that at all on a Celebrity cruise. We were able to order special main courses and desserts every night if we wanted, but that's impossible to do on a Celebrity ship. The basic ingredients and cuts of meat and seafood is far superior on Crystal. There's also more tableside preparation of food on Crystal which is a very nice touch. We were on the Summit in January, and while we were impressed by the food for a mass market line, it in no way compared to the quality, variety and presentation of Crystal's meals.