Crystal Serenity Food and Dining Review

hello Cruisers and welcome to another Cruise report Cruise review today I'm going to give you my review of the food and dining aboard Crystal Serenity I'm going to cover all of the different dining venues that we tried and at the end of this video I'm going to tell you my number one single best thing I ate on crystal Serenity during our ight [Music] Cruise [Music] this video is sponsored by Generations Visa service the hardest thing to review on a cruise ship is food because everyone has different tastes different likes and dislikes so food reviews can be very subjective even Ricky and I often disagree on various dishes in restaurants I tend to be a little bit more adventuresome when it comes to dining I love spicy food the hotter the better I love Thai food Vietnamese Indian Etc Ricky's tastes are more subtle she prefers More Southern style flavors like fried chicken french fries hot dogs Pizza you know real food neither of us are really big on Seafood even though Ricky does love caviar which is kind of strange she's more into Seafood than I am we rarely eat breakfast I'm on an intermittent fasting program where I skip breakfast all together and Ricky would rather sleep than eat now a lot of YouTubers show videos of themselves shoveling food into their mouths while trying to describe what they're eating we ever take a different approach trust me nobody wants to watch me eat on video I'll describe the different dining venues and tell you about most of the items we tried in each of those venues and of course when it's meaningful I'll tell you what I liked and what I didn't like let's begin with Crystal Serenity's main dining venue Waterside restaurant now on our previous Crystal Serenity cruises back in 2013 and 2015 this space was called the crystal dining room and back then it had a very dark kind of elegant and formal Decor but in 2018 or 2019 I'm not sure which this space was completely redesigned and renamed as Waterside Restaurant when we first walked through Waterside restaurant on this Cruise our first re reaction was hey we love what you've done with the place the restaurant is now light it's much less formal feeling yet still elegant and sophisticated now we had two meals in waterite our embarcation Day lunch was there so yes the restaurant is open on embarcation day otherwise on our cruise it was open for breakfast every day and lunch on C days of course gets open for dinner each evening and the menus at lunch and dinner change each day the lunch was pretty basic I ordered vegetable cream soup and a cheeseburger I always like to conduct a test of a cruise ship's cheeseburger I was pleased to see that Crystal does offer onion rings as an option so I ordered those instead of the french fries Ricky ordered a French dipped sandwich with french fries the cream of vegetable soup was excellent and perfect perly seasoned I ordered my burger cooked medium and it arrived more like medium rare at best it might have even been a little more on the rare side honestly the burger was just okay the Patty was thick the meat was good it just lacked flavor it needed some seasoning the onion rings would have been good had they been left in the fryer an extra minute or two they were a little undercooked and kind of mushy Ricky's French sandwich was the better choice in my opinion it was a pile of thinly sliced roast beef served on a crusty roll her french fries unfortunately suffered the same fate as my onion rings they just needed more time in the hot oil to get crisp the service however was over-the-top excellent our second meal at Waterside was our last evening dinner on board and we were joined by our friends and fellow travel Riders John and Sandra nen from Halifax on this evening I ordered the asparagus soup a Caesar salad and the picata melanese which was a little confusing on the menu where the dish was described as pan fried ve scallopini parmesan egg batter with spaghetti tomato sauce in my experience the term picata usually refers to a ve dish prepared in a lemon butter sauce but the description is what I actually received which resembled ve scallopini served with a tomato sauce the asparagus soup was great all of the soups I tried on Serenity were excellent some of the best I've had the Caesar salad was very good I would say it's one of the better Caesar salads I've had on a cruise ship the ve main course unfortunately was not great my ve seemed undercooked to the point that it was hard to cut the breading was kind of soggy it wasn't crisp Ricky's Walnut risoto was very good we did not order dessert but John had the sule and said it was excellent the marketplace Buffet is the ship's Leo buffet and one of the most popular dining venues on crystal Serenity before I tell you about our experiences at Marketplace I'd like to remind you once again how important it is to have a valid current USA passport when you plan to travel outside the USA you may not know this but your passport must be valid for at least 6 months Before you depart the USA for international travel if your passport is within 6 months of expiration you could be denied boarding this past summer we had a very tight window to have our passports renewed because we had an upcoming trip Less Than 3 weeks after our previous cruise we couldn't risk shipping our passports off to some inefficient government agency and depend on them to get the new passports back to us in time for our crews and that's why we use Generations Visa passport and Visa service we downloaded all of the required forms right from their website and we fedexed everything to them along with our old passports within 10 days we received our brand new passports which will be good for 10 more years now in addition to passport services J Visa can also provide you with any necessary travel visas many countries around the world require a Visa such as China Brazil and Russia rather than going to various foreign consulate websites trying to do all this yourself gen Visa has everything you need right on their website gen Visa delivers fast easy and secure Expediting of passport and Visa applications and they even offer same day issue for Urgent applications we highly recommend that you let gen Visa guide you through this process of obtaining a foreign Visa or a US passport okay back to the food the marketplace Buffet is located on Deck 12 aft and is one of the better buffets you're going to find on a cruise ship the buffet is open for breakfast and lunch every day there is no Buffet service at dinner neither Ricky nor I ate breakfast on this Cruise in the buffet however our friends and fellow journalists John and Sandra nen did have breakfast at Marketplace and they seemed very pleased with it we did have lunch at Marketplace several times and found the selections to be varied and quite good the menu changes every day and some days they have special ethnic themes such as Asian or seafood they do have some items that are available every day such as boiled shrimp with cocktail sauce the delicious salted pretzel bread sticks and many others there was plenty of seeding for two inside the restaurant and they have a nice deck space after of the restaurant where you can dine al fresco drink service was excellent and a selection of red and white wines or beer are always on offer after our very first meal here the waiter knew our favorite wine and would always ask if we wanted a glass the service was superb our only knit to pick with the marketplace is that much of the food is self-service which means you have to grab serving spoons that dozens or hundreds of other guests may have handled it appeared to us that there were plenty of crew members working at Marketplace to be able to offer this service and I'm sure if we asked them to do so they would have we thought it was interesting that Crystal does not allow self-service at the beastro but it does at the marketplace our other suggestion is for cruise lines to place disposable plastic gloves that guests can use before handling the utensils I'm speculating that cruise lines have such an aversion to using anything plastic that they're resisting this simp Le solution to germ spreading nevertheless the food quality at Marketplace would get a four out of five from us and the service a solid five out of five atmosphere and seating Comfort would also get five out of five now I mentioned the beastro and it's located on Deck six midship overlooking the atrium this space is one of our favorites this is the best place to go for early morning coffee they start serving coffee from 6:00 a.m. and they're open until 6:00 p.m. they offer a continental buffet breakfast from about 7:00 a.m. till 11:30 a.m. in the afternoons Sherie and other snacks are available here until 6:00 p.m. on some days and 5:00 p.m. on others I visited the beastro every day for early morning coffee this is where I brought my laptop to work on my daily Cruise blogs and by the way you can check out our daily Cruise blogs from this cruise on our website now I'll put a link in the description of this video you can read our day-by-day experiences now everyone seems to agree that the beastro has the best coffee on the ship they have a barista that can make any of your fancy cappuccino or lattes or whatever you call these things I'm a fan of just plain black Americano myself had it every day and loved it Ricky loved the hot chocolate here each morning at the beastro they offer a wide selection of pastries fruit cereals juices sliced Meats cheeses and breads now 10 a.m. each day they bring out the pastis denata which is a warm flaky pastry filled with a delicious custard and guests would line up to get these and this particular pastry was worth standing in line for they were superb so if you're on board Crystal Serenity make sure you check out the beastro it's a great place to go for morning coffee or to stop in for a quick afternoon snack Umi Uma is Crystal's Asian inspired restaurant from Michelin starf noou mahesa it's located on Deck 7 aft the restaurant was rebranded as Umi Uma in 2018 and in 2023 this space was completely refurbished the decor is now light modern has a much more casual feel than what we remember in the past the sushi bar is still intact and while reservations are required for dining in the restaurant No Reservations are required to dine at the sushi bar every guest gets one complimentary meal at Umi Uma per Cruise there's a large selection of sushi and sashimi offered at the sushi bar and you can even order from the full restaurant menu on our first visit we dined with our friends John and Sandra nen the waiter informed us that at umum they like to serve dishes family style the meal started with a huge platter of sushi rolls Sashimi that we all shared the waiter also said if we wanted more of anything to just ask and he would bring it everyone agreed that all of the sushi and the starters were delicious outside of the sushi the rock shrimp Ura was my favorite starter and we ended up ordering seconds on this it was so good Ricky's main course was their signature miso black cod which was always her favorite at Silk Road John and I ordered the Australian wagu be fillet which was fork tender and also delicious if you love sushi or you love Asian food in general a visit to Umi Uma is an absolute must this is one of the best if not the best Asian inspired restaurant at Sea aeria diido is an Italian specialty restaurant that replaces what was prago back in 2015 and this is a completely redesigned restaurant as of 2023 the decor is modern it has a more elegant dressy Vibe than the more casual Umi Uma the menu is completely different than prao was and gone are the ICONic cream of mushroom soup and a bread bowl and the Beef Carpaccio on our cruise those dishes were offered one evening in the Waterside Restaurant the menu here is varied enough to please most any taste I ordered the tortelli starter which consisted of three large dumplings filled with brazed beef Gorgonzola cheese and figs and it was amazing for my main course I ordered the lamb chops which were perfectly cooked medium Ricky ordered the beef tartar starter and while not the same as the beef carp pcho of prgo it too was delicious for her main course Ricky had the salt baked sea bass it was light flaky and excellent we were just about ready to order dessert when a beautifully decorated and delicious chocolate cake was brought to the table in recognition of our anniversary 29 years together thankfully the restaurant staff do not disrupt the otherwise peaceful sophisticated Atmosphere by breaking into song they did however stop by the table when the cake was presented to wish us a happy anniversary and even offered to take a [Music] photo tastees kitchen is another specialy restaurant that's open for late lunch every day from 1: to 3:00 p.m. and it's located just forward of the marketplace Buffet on Deck 12 starboard dinner service service is offered each evening from 6:00 p.m. till 9:00 p.m. and although reservations are required guests are welcome to dine here as often as they wish and there's no charge this is the most unique dining venue on crystal Serenity and in our opinion the most improved on our previous Serenity Cruise in 2015 frankly we were unimpressed with tastes and considered it to be our least favorite dining experience back then on this sailing we were joined at dinner once again with our friends John and Sandra nen we ordered a variety of dishes which were all served family style so that everybody gets to try a little bit of everything this menu is filled with a wide variety of very unique ethnic oriented dishes and we ordered many of them to try rather than spend a lot of time going over every single thing we ordered cuz we ordered a lot I'll try to tell you what I feel like were the best ones at ta's kitchen the crispy fried prawn dumplings served with plum sauce were so good we ordered seconds the gbus Alo were delicious shrimp prepared in a garlic lemon butter sauce the California street tacos with swordfish also deserved an order of seconds I don't even like swordfish but these were great the chimu steak was one of my very favorite items and I devoured several slices more than my share but for me the best dish of the night and perhaps of the entire cruise was the Mongolian style lamb chops these were to die for there were several other great dishes we tried but these are the ones that made the biggest impression on me for dessert Ricky had the bananas foster which is not your traditional tableside preparation version but it was still good so tastes has gone gone from worst to first for me this was my favorite meal of the 8-day cruise now the Trident Grill is kind of the Burger Bar deck 12 midship Portside they serve a late Riser breakfast from 10:00 a.m. to 11: and lunch from 11:30 to 6:00 p.m. they serve hamburgers hot dogs chicken sandwiches some wraps and there's some other snacks and fruit that's available here as well right next door to Trident Grill is Scoops ice cream where you can get a variety of hand dipped or soft serve ice creams in a cone or a cup once per Cruise the Stardust Club is transformed into the Stardust Supper Club and becomes sort of like an old school supper club with live entertainment and a delicious meal we don't recall Crystal offering this back in 2015 so this was all new to us there is limited seating in Stardust Club so make sure you let your butler know early that you wish to attend on our sailing there were only 252 guests so I don't think it was an issue but if the ship is full it could be so we showed up early at 6:45 and there was already a line beginning to form however we did arrive early enough for us to share a table for four with a good view of the stage the evening menu was a reduced offering from the Waterside Restaurant to start off the meal I ordered the lobster Medallion which was very good I don't normally eat lobster but this was really good Ricky ordered the mushroom tart and one thing you learn about Ricky is if she does not like something she just simply won't eat it she ate all of the mushroom tart the starters were followed by a Jerusalem artichoke cream soup which was also very good all the soups once again have been excellent Ricky and I both ordered the prime rib for our main course and it too was superb I believe John and Sandra ordered the chili and sea bass which also looked very nice and for dessert we all got the dark chocolate mousse with salted caramel panacotta [Music] amazing just in case you haven't had enough to eat that day ch offers late night Gourmet snacks from 11:00 p.m. to midnight in three different locations around the ship Avenue Saloon Crystal Cove and [Music] pulse afternoon tea service is held each day in Palm Court on Deck 12 forward from 3:30 p.m. till 4:30 p.m. tables are set with tablecloths and servers deliver a multi-tiered tray of delicious finger sandwiches and sweets to each table fresh warm scones with clotted cream and strawberry jam are some of the best I've had anywhere there's a selection of six different te's offered on the menu and they are provided as tea bags not loose tea on our sailing Tea Time Entertainment was rotated each day between a Pianist a violinist and the ship's DJ one day on our cruise they put on an elaborate chocolate afternoon tea on this very special day guests can peruse a wide variety of chocolate treats while waiters are on hand to fill your plate with as many as you like this is a very special afternoon tea service that should not be [Music] missed Crystal offers 20 24-hour complimentary room service in all sweet categories the room service menu is quite extensive during restaurant hours guests can order from the Waterside menu we did not try room service dinner on this Cruise our friends John and Sandra did and they said the meal was served course by course course by course room service is very rare and only found on the very best cruise lines we did order room service breakfast on the day of disembark our Butler Ral arrived at our requested time and set up our dining room table with tablecloth linens and all the table settings you would enjoy if you were having breakfast in a fine restaurant Ricky's Banana Pancakes were hot and delicious as was my Waffle on a longer sailing we would definitely take advantage of room service for [Music] dinner in our opinion the food overall has improved on crystal Serenity from our last Cruise in 2015 as for my favorite meal on board surprisingly it was our dinner at Taste Kitchen and those Mongolian lamb chops were my favorite dish of the eight days if you're in the market for a luxury cruise and you enjoy fine dining and great food you're going to love Crystal serenity [Music] I want to thank you for watching this video and if you enjoyed the video please take a second to give it a thumbs up that really does help our YouTube rankings and until we see you next time smoth sailing

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Views: 5,874

Keywords: cruise review, cruisereport, chris dikmen, caribbean cruise, cruise, cruise travel, luxury cruise, cruise photography, travel, travel photography, cruise line, cruise ship, cruise ship review, cypress, cruise vlog, cruise blog, cruise blogger, cruise vlogger, cruise with ben and david, la lido loco, cruise with, crystal cruises

Id: BsNA3wC3kBo

Length: 25min 5sec (1505 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 18 2023