lovescarborough

7pm and 9pm just over a week ago. The cast productions were new and quite good too.

Equinox

The limited menu card is on all the tables when the elite events are taking place in sky lounge. The other bars on the ship will show you the old list of drinks. Just to further add to the confusion at the captains cocktail party event last night they put out menus printed for the cocktail party with the new reduced list and refused to serve anything off the old menu ! We left and went to the Ensemble lounge where they served what we wanted. You couldn’t make this stuff up 😂

Sorry but you’re wrong there. Although the elite cocktail hour menu is shown in the lounge you can still ask for the drinks on the old menu and they will bring them, no charge. You can also go to most of the other bars and get the old menu. The only difference we’ve seen is that they usually scan your card but no charge. I agree it’s typical of Celebrity nonsense!

Currently on Equinox and can definitely report that Murano has not been full on the three nights we’ve eaten there ( booked on a package pre sailing and pre the new prices ). We sat down at 8pm and by 9 pm had been served three courses and only a few tables occupied. The current price for Murano onboard is $70 plus gratuity. Tuscan is $55 plus grat. Much as we love Murano this is just too much and it is obvious many people feel the same. In the past we have sometimes struggled to get a table but not this time.

We are currently on Equinox 9 nighter. Our first cocktail lounge event was last night and there are two more scheduled plus the Captains cocktail party. We were looking forward to having the lounge again but it really isn’t worth bothering with now. They roped off an area of sky lounge . There was no one on the door, in fact we haven’t seen anything of the captains club host at all. The waiters take your card each time . There are no canapés at all. We arrived at 5.30 and left an hour later . Most people had gone by then although not that many there in the first place. No atmosphere at all, not even background music. We had our usual gin and vodka tonics but looking at the card on the table they are no longer on the list of drinks ! Happily we haven’t been charged for them nor at other bars, so we’ve no idea what they’re up to. Are they just trying to restrict the menu so much that nobody comes and they can cancel them again ?

We used to love the Elite happy hour events and enjoyed meeting and chatting to new people over a drink and canapés. I’m sure I saw somewhere that they might resume this month although not every evening. Can anyone who has sailed this month confirm this and how many events there were ? We board Equinox next week.

The EU are supposed to be starting this sometime in 2024 but no specific dates yet. It was originally mentioned for 2023 but didn’t happen. It is free for under 18 and over 70 and lasts for 3 years. Very similar to the ESTA that Europeans and UK need to enter the US. There is talk of facial recognition and fingerprinting on entry but not confirmed yet.

This is where I’m confused as the order doesn’t mention gratuities. In the small print it mentions drinks and extras such as chefs table drinks and gratuities aren’t included but there is no mention of gratuity on my invoice or indeed how much . Have things changed since we last used a package in January this year ?

Having just booked a dining package for our next cruise in January, I am a bit confused about the gratuity. Is this included in the package price ? It was when we cruised in January but I’m not sure whether it is now?

No speakers at all on Silhouette in January. Over the years we’ve been to quite a few interesting talks so I really can’t understand why Celebrity have stopped them. Surely it doesn’t cost much to produce. In fact we’ve seen some cruise directors doing interesting talks too. Who remembers the good old days, not that many years ago , when they put on cookery competitions and audience members helped the chefs and acted as judges ? My hubby volunteered on one of these and I’ve still got the photos. They were great fun at little cost. Best of all were the crew talent shows .Some amazing singers and talented musicians !

Correct. We chose Azura for the Canaries itinerary . Over the years we have done the Caribbean nearly every January and are getting a bit fed up with long haul flights and Miami airport in particular! We love Celebrity but prefer the Solstice class ships to the Edge class. This January we were disappointed with both the food cutbacks and service on Celebrity ( Aqua class which is usually really good ) and decided that the big price hikes are just not acceptable. We used the speciality restaurants for half of the cruise. They were still very good. It seems like all cruise lines have gone the same way with the cutbacks and as such we wouldn’t want to be stuck with MDR for the whole cruise and certainly not with a fixed early dining time as we like to eat late. We’re disappointed that, unless we pay extra for the saver fare , we can’t be sure of our dining arrangements and whilst we’re happy that we would then get OBC it seems we may or may not be able to get bookings in the speciality restaurants.( You can use OBC to pre book on Celebrity. ) I really don’t care for the take it or leave it attitude when we’re spending over £3000 for a holiday. Still undecided whether to chance it or book a land based holiday instead.

Many thanks for your replies. We would only have OBC if we go for the select fare so maybe would be best to forget that and go with the saver fare, then we could book speciality restaurants in advance as we would be looking to dine there for at least half of the cruise. I’ve been reading other posts on here regarding MDR long waits for tables and am concerned we might not be able to dine in there at our preferred later time. Is there a chance we might be given early fixed dining which we absolutely wouldn’t want ?. I’m amazed that cruise lines are making things so difficult for people whilst all reducing quality and choice as well as service levels. They should be trying to retain their customers. We want a holiday not an obstacle course !

We’re looking at booking Azura for a Canaries cruise next January. We sailed on her on a Med cruise 10 years ago and although we enjoyed it we have stuck to our preferred Celebrity cruises since. However on our last cruise in January there was a noticeable decline in quality which I believe is happening on all cruise lines. Together with much higher prices we have now decided to try P & O again. So things I’m not sure about are , I’ve seen pictures of the superior balcony cabins but am not sure exactly what is extra over the normal balcony cabin ? Does it have a seating area ? If we book the select fare we get OBC which we would want to use in the speciality restaurants. I remember loving theEpicurean and the Glass house. Are these bookable before boarding using the OBC ? any idea of the cost ? Is anytime / freedom dining available? Do they still have wine packages ? I think we had a package of six bottles of wine that we used at dinner. Any help would be much appreciated! Thanks

On Silhouette at the end of January we were very disappointed with Blu. Although there were plenty of empty tables at around 8 pm we were always given a pager and told to wait, sometimes 20 or 30 minutes. It seemed more of a problem having the wait staff than finding a table. Indeed once we were seated it was always a 15 to 20 minute wait before anyone took our order or even offered a drink. We have used Aqua class many times and never had this problem. Unfortunately we weren’t alone as we spoke to several other couples, all with the same opinion. With regards to the menu, we also found it to be much reduced and some poor dishes, ( anyone like octopus? ). For the first time in 12 years cruising Celebrity ( Elite Plus ) we didn’t book another cruise onboard. Quite sad, but things need to improve.