I promised in my last post about my cruise onboard the Celebrity Constellation that I’d talk about food separately. Well the wait is over!
The food was, to summarise: wonderful. I came back with a few extra cruise pounds but that’s to be totally expected. Everyone on board has access to the Oceanview Cafe, which is where the main meals are as part of the all-inclusive part of being on a ship. And usually all-inclusive buffets get a really bad reputation. (And I’ve eaten from some not very good ones myself!)
But the Oceanview Cafe was completely different! All the food was lovely, and a lot of it was cooked to order in front of you. For example, there was always a pasta station where they would whip you up a combo, a stir fry station and a grill station. One night there was a crepe station for dessert where they prepared crepes cooked in triple sec and simple syrup for you and then you added the topping of your choice. (This was probably my favourite night for obvious reasons). But there was also always a buffet selection of salads, pizzas, breads, desserts, curries, rices, and main dishes that went along with the theme of wherever we were docked. (For example, there was an arancini selection when we were in Naples, and a paella section when we were in Cartagena).
And the food from the buffet was really high quality! One of my favourite dishes (besides the crepes) was a potato korma one night. It was delightfully spicy, which was a shock as usually batch curries for European based travels tend to be a bit bland. One lunch I even sampled some salsa, which I gobbled up! (And being from New Mexico, I am a salsa snob at times.)
If you didn’t want breakfast in your room, you headed to the Oceanview Cafe, where again at breakfast times, it was a combo of made-to-order (poached eggs, omelettes, waffles) and buffet. And did I mention that the Oceanview Cafe was open 24-7? Not all stations, but if you got hungry in the middle of the night, you could still pop in for some pizza, or a sandwich. Or you could order complimentary room service.
Poolside, there was the Poolside Grill which would whip up hot dogs, burgers and veggie burgers in the blink of an eye, and by the thallostherapy pool there was the AquaSpa Cafe. I only ate lunch there towards the later half of the cruise, and I regret not discovering it earlier, as it was some of my favourite food on the ship. It was all lighter, healthier options, and it’s where I went for things like avocado wraps, or one of my favourite things I ate on the ship, a quinoa salad with pomegranate, coriander, tangerine and tomatoes.
As an AquaClass guest, I took most meals in the Blu Restaurant (which is for AquaClass only). They were open for lunch and dinner and provided delicious complimentary table service meals. I had the most glorious tomato salad there one night and every food provider on the ship was excellent about providing me meat-free options, and Blu went out of their way to change dishes from the menu slightly so that I could have them. (For example, I really wanted the truffle risotto one night and they were happy to make it without chicken and parmesan for me!) I only ate breakfast at Blu one morning (because I’m a solitary creature in the mornings) but when I did have it there it was fresh and lovely. One fabulous couple from the Wirral that I was chatting to go on cruises multiples times a year and have done for decades and they say that the best English breakfast on the sea is at Blu on board Celebrity ships.
So whilst a lot of food options on the ship were meat heavy, every venue allowed those with dietary needs (vegetarians, allergies, intolerances) to be catered to.
Another venue that I frequented was Cafe al Bacio, the coffeehouse, on board. It wasn’t on the menu, but they were keen to whip me up incredibly tasty dairy-free iced coffees with a dash of vanilla when I requested.
For those that wanted something different from Oceanview Cafe or Blu, there were a lot of specialty restaurants on board. There was the elegant San Marco, CellarMasters (for wines and whiskies), the Martini Bar, the Ice Bar, Sushi on Five, the Tuscan Grill (Italian steakhouse), a Gelataria (if the free soft-serve at Oceanview wasn’t enough!), and Qsine.
The specialty restaurants cost extra on top of your all-inclusive package (usually by head instead of by the dish) but considering the price and quality, it’s a good deal. If you were paying on land for a similar dinner, you’d be paying a lot more.
One night I ate at Qsine for a change and was absolutely delighted by it. It prides itself on being innovative and playful.
I started with a lovely salad that came with an insanely good pomegranate dressing (I could have put that dressing on everything) followed by a range of pureed vegetables (the pureed sweet potato was my favourite) and then for my main, I had the shish kebab with saffron rice. The kebab was usually filled with a variety of meats on the skewer, but they happily made mine with just veggies. It was fresh and divine. (All of this was ordered off an iPad at the table instead of a classic menu). At some point during the meal playful chocolate covered strawberries were passed around. And then to order dessert there was a rubik’s cube/fortune teller like box to play with to see the options. I ended up ordering the red velvet cake with a variety of toppings and frostings so that I could decorate it myself. (Which I loved doing, obviously. I don’t think there was anyone else there who worked on their’s so meticulously.)
One of the Celebrity calling cards is their focus on extremely high quality food, and that that is one of their distinctions from other cruise lines. I think they certainly achieved that!
Have you ever gotten really great food on a holiday when you didn’t expect it?
***I was a guest of Celebrity Cruises, but as always, all thoughts and opinions are forever my own. I was under no obligation to write positive things about the cruise. But I am writing because I literally have nothing negative to say about it. ***
