Is Luminae still the ideal dining experience?

When my family discusses whether or not to book a specific cruise, one of the first questions out of Dad's mouth is "Is this a ship with a dining room like Luminae?" Or technically he says "a dining room like Luminare" because he can never remember what it's called. Luminae is a separate main dining room (MDR) with its own menu that is exclusive to passengers booked in suite cabins. It's a smaller venue with a concept of more upscale food and better service. It also means that you won't have to make a reservation or sit and wait for a table to be available. We loved our first experience with this venue on Celebrity Equinox. I often tell the story of how one morning I joked with a waiter that if I accepted his offer to bring me anything else, he'd have to roll me out of the room. Without missing a beat, he replied "We can do that!" I replied "You really are full service here then!" He said "Yep!" and both the waiter and I fell into a fit of giggles. 

One of the extra helpful aspects of Luminae dining on an S-class ship like Equinox is that you can order either from the Luminae menu, the regular MDR menu, or any combination of both. Like the appetizer from Luminae's menu but the entree from MDR? No problem. Want an appetizer from both menus? No problem. This is allowed because the ship's design features a shared galley between the two venues. When you head down to the deck to visit Luminae, it's literally a matter of turning to one side for MDR and the other side for Luminae. This feature came in handy a lot for me since I, even as a foodie willing to try anything, had a hard time finding something I wanted on Luminae's menu. Unfortunately, the newer bigger ships in the Edge class (Edge, Beyond, Apex, Ascent), have Luminae built up on a higher deck within the Retreat Sun Deck space so it's not feasible on those ships to order something from the regular MDR while dining in Luminae. 

After spending nine days on Celebrity Equinox with Luminae access, I think the pedestal we placed Luminae on after our first sailing has started to crack a bit. As is the case everywhere post pandemic, the level of service and the level of product wasn't always at the level it once was. Some days, we'd have very attentive and fast service, other days I'd wonder whether they swam all the way back to land to retrieve our orders. At one point, we had plates put in front of us without a word and the server disappeared before I could get a word out to explain that this wasn't what we ordered. Sometimes though it's the good attitude and the reaction to the frustrations that make the difference. We had a good laugh with the apologetic maitre'd because what we received by mistake looked really tasty. We ended up ordering it at a future breakfast. 

A nice touch I enjoyed about Luminae is that they took the time to remember our preferences. I had spotted Vitamin Water as an option in the Oceanview Cafe's (buffet) drink menu and asked about having it for breakfast in Luminae. From that day on, they kept a Vitamin Water Zero Orange available for me every morning. Sadly, an injury onboard and the resulting repeated visits to the medical center throughout the rest of the cruise meant that we rarely got to visit Luminae until dinner on the last night. Immediately, the wait staff came over to "tease" about having my Vitamin Water ready only for me not to show up. Once we explained our absence, they quickly apologized and explained that they assumed we'd simply been eating in specialty dining all week. It also then turned out to be our worst service of the trip and we opted to leave without finishing the meal. Our server came rushing over when he saw us gathering our things shocked that we weren't ordering dessert. His response to our explanation of disappointment was to launch into a plea to give them a great score on the post cruise survey. Living off of room service and what I could carry back to our cabin from the breakfast and late night buffet options while spending my days pushing a wheelchair around the ship is not a diet plan I recommend. I think this might be the first cruise I returned from having dropped 10 pounds!

I shared the menus on my social media channels when we did get to dine in Luminae so I'll just share some food porn highlight photos. What follows is our first lunch onboard. More will be shared in future posts.

Kale salad with quinoa, orange supremes, and a white balsamic vinaigrette. I give it a 2 out of 5 but then, it's kale. Does anyone rate kale a 5 out of 5?

English Pea Soup with Smoked Bacon and Brown Butter Crouton - Dad's appetizer. 5 out of 5. He wished he could have ordered it again.

Grilled NY Steak Frites with Béarnaise Sauce, Sauteed Spinach, and Parmesan Wedge Potatoes - Dad's entree - 5 out of 5 but of course he is Mr. Meat and Potatoes.

Creamy Lobster Roll with a potato roll, celery, creme fraiche, and french fries. There is a bit of debate about whether this is offered on every cruise and most often only is at lunch on embarkation day. We did notice that the embarkation day lunch menu repeated on day 8. Many report that they only liked the filling and chose to order it with a salad so they could dump the roll's contents on top of the salad. I personally enjoyed the meal especially for the soft versus crusty roll.

Creamy Dark Chocolate and Dulce de Leche with a Mango Marmalade - both chose this for dessert. Chocolate on top of chocolate with a swizzle of dulce de leche across the pieces. All that was missing for Dad was a scoop of chocolate gelato on the side and the whole thing buried in whipped cream. No worries readers, Mr. Picky Eater still pushed aside those mango marmalade turned jello cubes because "I don't know what they are." How he ended up with a daughter who only likes chocolate in small doses I'll never understand. I liked the artistic aspect but I would have been just as happy with some vanilla ice cream.