The flavors of Celebrity Infinity

We were surprised that we really enjoyed the food served on our Caribbean cruise with Holland America back in 2006; we expected it would be hard to find excellence in mass-produced food. So when talking with our more cruise-savvy friends, we were pleased to learn that a cruise with Celebrity would be a couple notches above that, that many of them considered Celebrity's food "phenomenal."

Ten days into our thirteen day adventure, I'm convinced that our friends define phenomenal differently than we do.

There have certainly been some hits over the course of our journey. A chilled apricot soup was worth repeating. The beef tenderloin was excellent. Our dining experience at the SS United States (an adventure worthy of its own post) was a definite home run. And the service was certainly first rate. But the food overall? Meh.

Once we readjusted our expectations in the main dining room (skip the fish; it will be dry. Ditto the pasta; it's rarely more than mediocre) we enjoyed the experience. It was with some amusement that I observed that with two years as a Daring Baker and several months spending Tuesdays with Dorie, I could have made every one of the desserts -- and several of them far better.

On the positive side, while we've indulged we haven't gone nuts calorically. This vacation isn't an excuse to eat our body weights in buffet food. We've done some really wonderful, very active shore excursions and tasted some sensational local foods along the way(again another post). We haven't stepped on an elevator (opting for the stairs instead), and we've actually seen the inside of the gym on this ship. A quick trip to visit the scale in the ship doctor's office indicates no gain, no loss.

From the archives...
In 2006 we were headed home from the Caribbean
In 2007 we made ravioli Aunt Lena style