Galley Tour

Cruises: 7+ cruises

Review: 1

Helpful Votes: 4

Review summary

Cindy and I were in severe need of a little distraction from real life and at the last minute, we jumped on to a cruise ship for a 5 day Carribbean Cruise. Me being me, the criteria for choosing a cruise line was the FOOD. I did some internet research and also spoke with longtime family friends who do lots of cruising and a result we booked with Celebrity Cruise Lines, reasonably priced and known for a better than average food standard in the cruise industry. We were not disappointed! Whether we ate at Blū, the upscale restaurant included with our cabin catagory, Cosmopolitan, the main dining room, Ocean View Cafe’s impressive buffet or even the poolside Burger & Hot Dog bar, all of the food was very good, often unique and creative, and always well presented. You can’t go hungry on a Celebrity Cruise! Cruise lines usually offer group tours of the ship but I’m not a group tour kind of guy. However, I really wanted to get some insight for CCB so I stopped by Guest Services and explained that I’m a Foodie with a Foodie Facebook page and would love to get a quick peek at the Galley and maybe a picture with a Chef. I was asked to wait there and within 2 minutes I was introduced to Celebrity Summit’s Executive Chef, Shyam Kumar Jeetun. My timing had been perfect and Chef Jeetun quite graciously took me an extensive and truly informative tour of the most impressive Galley I’ve ever seen. It was like a sea of Stainless Steel with the giant versions of all my cooking equipment, and lots of it. 2 giant mirror imaged galleys for the main dining plus special galleys for each of the several speciality restaurants. This place operates with military precision on a 24/7 basis thanks to 140 onboard Chef’s and Sous Chefs. There are Server traffic controls including one way food pick lines, elevators, and escalators. No choice, this Galley services a collection of dining rooms and specialty restaurants serving over 2,000 guests daily from early breakfast to the midnight buffets. For the record I could never stay awake for the Midnight Buffet. They make nearly everything from scratch, onboard. Soups, Sauces, Breads, Ice Cream & fluffy light Sorbets, Desserts, beautiful Pastries and the list goes on. The very few items purchased commercially included Hot Dog Rolls, Hamburger Rolls, Gluten Free products and Sugar Free Ice Cream. And cleanliness? The entire facility is sanitized in between each meal service. Same with each buffet station. Just spotless. You wouldn’t think that the dishwashing part of the tour would be interesting but I was fascinated. Staff separates all soft food waste from hard waste mostly bones. The soft waste gets sent through a mascerater system which turns in into a liquid held in a tank. The tank is discharged once the ship is at least 20 miles out to sea and makes for very happy marine life. The bones are condensed, held and picked up at the port to be recycled into Dog Food. To my Foodie friends, if you’re looking to take a cruise, check out Celebrity! This is NOT a paid promotion, I swear. Join us for foodie fun & education at Facebook Group #CaptainCooksBackyard

Embarkation

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

Onboard Activities

Entertainment

Service and Staff

Ship Quality

Cabin / Stateroom

Ports of call

Miami, Florida

Nassau, Bahamas

Cozumel, Mexico

Disembarkation

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