iandjm

Total discrimination against singles as you are forced to buy the package and WiFi separately losing any discount offered to couples.  Oddly if you do manage to book a single stateroom (which frequently cost more than having a twin room as a solo) they only change you once for the drinks and WiFi package.  It’s about time Celebrity sorted themselves out.   

4 hours ago, zanderblue said:

Sorry folks but I feel I need to vent a little. We had a poor experience on Solstice a couple of months ago, but the Infinity was worse.

 

Just off the Infinity this morning in Lisbon. Food choices from the menu in MDR were very poor.

Most evenings for appetisers it was 3 soups and 2 salads or vice versa, with possibly one other item; eggplant caviar and salmon tartar spring to mind. The usual ever present onion soup, shrimp cocktail and escargots disappeared randomly through the trip.

The entrees fared worse I thought. The menus changed late in the day with the substitute items poorly thought out. One night we had braised shin of veal on the menu, to be told at table that it was not available and was replaced by steak Diane. Only problem there was we were then left with…..

Steak Diane which was grilled sirloin steak with mushroom sauce

Steak n chips which was grilled sirloin steak with fries

and

New York strip which was grilled sirloin steak with vegetables

 

Most entrees came with green beans, carrots and mashed potato. Although one night broccoli replaced the green beans.

 

No beef wellington to compete with the lobster tail and no prime rib on final night, although it had appeared on the menu, only to be replaced with braised short rib at the table.

 

I do appreciate that food can be subjective, but my gripe is less to do with food itself and more to do with the removal of dishes and the overall reduction of choices.

 

There is no way that these changes are an enhancement. The wait staff were mostly embarrassed by it all and were encouraging folks to mention it in the survey.

 

In addition to this we experienced issues being seated consistently in same section. We were allocated to 5 different sections during the 9 nights and had to wait more than 40 minutes on 2 separate evenings, this was despite having reservations made for the same time every day at time of booking. We were only a 4 top and were never difficult in trying to get seated. 
I did note that select dining was allocated the larger lower dining room instead of the usual mezzanine upper level and did wonder if the additional select numbers might have been the cause???

 

The ship is in reasonable condition overall, although there is some general wear and tear due to age.

 

We did enjoy the cruise in spite of the MDR issues, but probably won’t be back with Celebrity anytime soon, unless there is an improvement. So sad and disappointing!

 

 

Exactly the same food being served 2 weeks ago on Silhouette. Dreadful presentation and choice compared to past experiences.  

The new menus offer poor choice and reduced quality sadly.  Just back from Silhouette, and it was not at all good. You could tell the waiters were a little embarrassed at what they were serving too. 

On 9/29/2023 at 8:02 PM, KKB said:

I booked a solo cruise for next summer.

When I booked, it shows an insane rate for AI...basically appears to charge for 2 people.

When I called the CS rep said that is what I would have to pay to add AI.

This seems insane to me that I cannot add AI for just me since I am traveling solo.

Anyone have experience with this? (seeing double AI for solo but being able to add it when calling?)

Thanks

Well I checked today. Look how much a solo now has to pay for what is only WiFi and drinks now. Disgusting. 

17 hours ago, KKB said:

I booked a solo cruise for next summer.

When I booked, it shows an insane rate for AI...basically appears to charge for 2 people.

When I called the CS rep said that is what I would have to pay to add AI.

This seems insane to me that I cannot add AI for just me since I am traveling solo.

Anyone have experience with this? (seeing double AI for solo but being able to add it when calling?)

Thanks

Totally agree. I have had experience of this. It is blatant discrimination against solo travellers.  The executive office gave me a load of waffle when challenged, as usual.  

I am and have booked Princess and Oceania. 

400% This is discrimination. My first reaction to your question is book with a decent cruise line that values you as a solo traveller.  Celebrity don’t, and to make it even worse when you try and book all in as a solo they charge you double!  There are no excuses for it to be honest.  

Maybe elite plus will be insulted by being offered one free cookie per cruise, along with the existing one scoop of gelato. 
seriously though if this is true, the direction this company is going is not at all good. 

On 8/19/2023 at 3:10 PM, jelayne said:

I’m sorry your dining experience wasn’t up to par.  Maybe there were some supply shortages that impacted your sailing.  
Looking at the menu for the current Silhouette sailing I see the 1st night prime rib, lobster night, pork a couple of nights, lamb, fish and turkey ( as you mentioned) in addition to the vegetarian options.  
They did have something I had not seen before which was a choice of 3 sides; Yorkshire pudding, cauliflower cheese and buttered potatoes. 
 

 

Aaaaaaaaaaah. You mentioned the dreaded Yorkshire puddings.  Tried them on most nights in Silhouette last year.  Stone cold and as hard as concrete each time.  Even when the matre d went and got fresh ones specially.  The meals were mostly pretty dreadful and worse than a £8 carvery meal in the U.K.    

8 minutes ago, terrydtx said:

Thos were all changes that did not require mass redistribution of personnel and layoffs and were much easier to back peddle on, this change will be much harder if not impossible, if they decide they made a huge mistake.

Totally agree. It’s a bad decision, devaluing a product. 

18 minutes ago, zitsky said:

Do you have examples of back pedaling?  I’ve not been on Celebrity very long.

Charging for burgers at the mast grill.  
removing most casual option in the ocean view during the evening (these have increased somewhat since the decision)

Looks like the Celebrity stupid ideas department has struck gold again. The times they have come up with a ridiculous idea, it has created as PR disaster and they have had to back pedal their decision, creating nothing but bad feeling.  

Looks like the Celebrity stupid ideas department has struck gold again. The times they have come up with a ridiculous idea, it has created as PR disaster and they have had to back pedal their decision, creating nothing but bad feeling.  

I have given up on the premium package now after several cruises hunting down the real champagne on Silhouette. After all the package is advertised as having it.  Funny about the supply problems as Oceana are serving it at every bar! 

This sadly sums up most executive office communications. They just don’t care anymore. It’s sad but true I am afraid.  If your cruise was cancelled they used to offer a form of lift and shift, but not anymore. 
There is no longer any point being loyal to the company as they don’t show much loyalty back.  
I am booking more and more princess cruises in the future, for far more sensible prices.  
happy cruising 

10 hours ago, Betsynh said:

Hubby and I are hopping on the Milly in Los Angeles on May 6th for her trip to Vancouver. Thanks so much for your review so far. I have a few questions…

 

Any opinion about the entertainment? We love fun dance music where we flail around and pretend we’re a lot younger! Is there a decent piano bar vibe anywhere? I loved all your food pics, have you noticed whether there are many gluten-free options (denoted by a wheat symbol on the menu)? Have you checked out any shows? Anything you’d recommend? We’re really excited about the excursions we’ve booked — it’s our first trip up the west coast — but any tips about the ship and great places to chill are most welcome. I cheaped out and booked an inside cabin and am waiting to see if our MoveUp is accepted. Lol… 

 

 

See you onboard. Coming over from

the U.K. and doing the 6 night cruise as part of a longer holiday 😁

20 hours ago, phoenix_dream said:

For people who have never been there, or not been there often, I think it is a very nice port.  The area around the port has a lot of nice little shops (may not thrill the men but many of us of the fair sex like that).  You can rent a golf cart and drive around the island which is fun in and of itself.  I personally like the nice little botanic garden they have.  I would absolutely rather have Monterey as there is of course much more to do, but I think Catalina Island is a great stop.  

It’s ok but not for what is now a 9 hour call 

5 minutes ago, mnocket said:

Just wondering, is the reason for the change that the ship must travel at a reduced speed and therefore it will not arrive in SF until the following morning?

Well that’s the result. At the same time they have extended the stay later at Catalina Island, so the obvious option to leave Catalina a little earlier, run at a slower speed (more than 9 knots which is more like drifting) and still make San Francisco the day before was missed.   An even better option would have been to skip Catalina Island entirely (it wasn’t in the original itinerary) and do two full days in San Francisco.  

21 minutes ago, terrydtx said:

How much do you think it costs to be cruising in circles on the missed day in fuel use alone?

8 knots only requires the smaller diesel generator which they added to the M class a few years ago.  It is a capable of propulsion up to 9 kn and the hotel supply on its own.

Just now, terrydtx said:

Not rubbish, in the US most ports charge docking fees in 24 hour blocks, not by the hour.

So I guess celebrity have saved a fair amount by cutting our stay from 2 days to one compared to the original itinerary? 

15 minutes ago, maggie.1008 said:

I am on Oceania May 11th for seven nights. Our Monterey stop has been cancelled and rescheduled as a sea day. Our SFO overnight has not been cancelled yet.

we are not going to Catalina so we might be on the ship to Ensenada and nothing else.

Cruise to nowhere on Oceania will still be fine with me. Cheers 🥂 

Any cruise on Oceania is fantastic 😁

4 hours ago, sewingbee said:

I've spoken to celebrity about this and so has my Travel agent and have been told, no port fees to be returned as they don't pay extra to be there overnight, it's just a set fee to dock, so no refund to come! This was the port we were most looking forward to so gutted it's been shortened!

That has to be total rubbish. Ships pay to be in port by the hour so Celebrity are saving a small fortune halving the port stay. 

1 hour ago, Arizona Wildcat said:

Really?

Monterey effective March 1st closed the port by cutting off all on shore staff.  Not the fault of Celebrity 

The whale issue with slower speeds is new for 2023.  Obviously effects schedules.

How are either of these the fault of Celebrity.   

I would hope that any passenger who is unhappy could cancell without penalty. 

The reason we feel it is celebrities fault is that they have also extended the port stay at Catalina island, which does not warrant more than a few hours stay. If we had left there mid afternoon we could still have cruised at a slower speed and arrived at San Francisco the day before, allowing an overnight in the city. 

I am also on this cruise. To initially lose Monterey and have that substituted by Catalina island was disappointing (Catalina island is a few miles from Los Angeles, where we board, so we spend 17 hours drifting around before anchoring there)
To now lose one whole day in San Francisco and have the port stay in Catalina Island extended so the ship can now travel painfully slowly from what is a port that nowhere near warrants a whole days visit, is pretty bad.

I appreciate the reasoning of slowing down for whale migration (which has been known about for centuries) but I believe this is just being used to justify the fuel and port charge savings that Celebrity wishes to achieve. 
To be honest I would have rather skipped Catalina island and drifted to San Francisco to have two days there. San Francisco is one of the highlights of the whole trip. Now we have only 8am - 5pm there, which is just not adequate for a city of that size. The ship could easily have been scheduled to cruise at the lower speed and arrive the evening before, allowing us an evening out in the city.

I have worked out the speed we now need to maintain after leaving Catalina island to get to San Francisco at the new time and it’s under 8 knots! 
Celebrity need to realise that we are not as naive as they think!

llutoff-perlo@celebritycruises.com works for me