ArkansasCruiser73

We traveled previously on summit and had a similar experience. Although it was still a good vacation, summit was our least favorite experience. I just assumed it was an off week. In contrast constellation was an amazing trip and was One of our best trips. I think century was only better than summit because it was our introduction to cruising. 

We did a five night on celebrity summit. The only negative was we were not ready to leave. It was an amazing vacation and was probably our best. It actually made me fall in love with cruising celebrity again. The passenger average age appeared to be closer to 40s and we noticed less kids on our trip, but that varies based on school schedules. We are doing a 5 day/4 day back to back next year and if we have even half as good a vacation it will be amazing. 

We have been doing 2 cruises a year for the past several years and I cannot agree that I have encountered a significant loss in quality. We have noticed changes which depend on perspective for an improvement or decline. Much depends on the ship. The silhouette is our favorite followed by the constellation based on the quality of the crew.

In the original posters comments I see it as one bad event spoiled the entire trip. I see this as a common theme among negative trip reviews. It is unfortunate to feel you lost out on something you were looking forward to. life happens and making the whole trip about one day, event or excursion is a recipe for a bad vacation. When planning a vacation around a single event it will most likely result in an unsatisfactory vacation.

Short answer is no. Not for any gameplay where seconds count.

You can have latency spikes that go into minutes which would cause most mmo servers to sever your connection. On our last trip in March we had times where internet delayed for a few minutes randomly. Even simple mobile phone apps would stall and lose connectivity.

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We are sailing on silhouette next week. Last year when we sailed on silhouette we were able to disconnect the hdmi cable from the ship tv service and use our own hdmi cable for our devices. We plan on bringing our switch this trip as well.

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Here is my take on Celebrity for what it is worth. We have had a mix of cruise experiences since 2011. Our trip a year and a half ago on Constellation was perfect. I could not have had a better time. Our trip last November on Summit was a mix of good and bad. From that perspective you could say there was a decline. In my view it was a different ship and like a hotel you will have varied experiences across the chain. It also appeared that trip the staff seemed to be recovering from the previous voyage. Just like weather varies, so will the staff and related experiences. Overall, the trips I have taken since 2011 have all been worthwhile and memorable in some way. In my opinion the quality in 2000 and 2004 on Century were higher quality. There are noticeable changes since that time, but are consistent with changes across the industry. I will continue to cruise with celebrity as long as I find value for my money.

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We sailed end of November 2016 and the ship was in good shape overall. We stayed in a royal suite which was refreshed, but we had several maintenance calls for the first time on a cruise.

Our safe was broken, the tv, the phone, the bathtub sprayed water up instead of in the tub, and the fridge barely cooled drinks.

That said, outside of our room we didn't notice any excessive wear. Biggest issue we had was the lack of enthusiasm by the crew in the shops, main dining, and cafe al bacio. Luckily we had access to michaels and Lumenae and the staff there made up for the service lacking elsewhere. We did cancel a future cruise on summit, but we would sail it again at a later date.

Short: good cruise but not as good as constellation trip a year earlier.

Good: Michael's lounge, Tuscan ( dined 3 times and would have done more), bar areas fast and friendly, pool area wasn't too busy considering it was thanksgiving week, not too many kids, outdoor theatre was a great time at night, captain Kate was great and friendly, fast embark and disembark.

Bad: room was in bad shape post refurb, many staff not interested in being at work, main dining was very slow service and had seating issues for my mother in law who has walking issues.

Overall, I have been very happy with celebrity over the past several years. We have had some great cruises like Constellation in 2015, 2012 silhouette, and 2013/2014 on reflection. We had a bad cruise this past thanksgiving on summit. I don't view the bad experience as the new trend but rather the exception.

On the summit cruise most of the staff was detached or unavailable. It was the first time I couldn't get service in cafe a bacio a few visits and actually had shops where the staff was in another shop chatting with another crew member ignoring customers. We also had repair staff in our room nearly every day for repairs the staff noted or things like an safe that died with valuables inside. Many other issues but this gives a general idea of why It wasn't a good trip. If this had been our first cruise with celebrity it would have been our last, but we are fortunate to have experienced great vacations on celebrity and encountered staff that goes above our expectations to give us a memorable vacation.

It is a good thing that celebrity experiments with new concepts or they will get lost with changing times. Some of these changes may suffer based on how effectively they are executed. With change some customers will decide another line is a better fit or will miss how some things use to operate. Feedback through future purchases and customer retention is what Celebrity will notice to revert changes or expand test ideas. I don't think Celebrity has lost their way as much as they are taking a course that not everyone is going to enjoy and may reflect a different target audience.

On the lunch specialty, it is inconsistent. If you go on Day X you may get charged and on day Y not get charged. If you encounter issues I would recommend going to Michael's lounge. All of our issues were dealt with quickly in Michael's lounge to our satisfaction.

I will give you the answers based on our experience in December on Constellation and our trips on Reflection in 2014.

1) We like to allocate all our tip money at the start and I wondered if you have both a room steward and butler for the suite or just the butler who also cleans? I know the butler's gratuity is $3.50 per person per day but I wondered what the steward gets from the prepaid gratuities? Also typically what would be an average additional tip at the end for both these members of staff? I'm aware there could be a higher expectation given the room.

A) You will have a butler for setting up reservations, attending to your primary needs and questions. I always let the butler know of any expectations or special events like birthdays. We also run through the stocking of the mini fridge, ice, and our general schedule. The room attendant will take care of cleaning, bed turndown, etc. They room attendant and the butler usually work as a team.

2) I have heard differing views as to the laundry. Some state it's a service you can use twice as a perk of the room. I assume this is an unlimited amount of items though? it would be good to know I can get there and get all my jackets sorted on day 1 / day 2 and it saves me getting them dry cleaned here. Others have reported it is simply unlimited for the duration.

A) We had 2 coupons for laundry and 2 for some pressing of garments. There is a limit to the number of items which is generally what fits into their laundry bag that they provide. Pressing is limited as well. If I remember correctly it was 2 items total.

3) How easy is it to organise a little party / gathering? Can the butler bring mixers / snacks for free? Can they send out invitations? I'm aware alcohol served to the room is not included but i think we start with a fair bit in the room already as a perk.

A) Our butler did setup a small gathering for us. we have done this in the RS and CS across a few ships. Our butler did arrange for other parties to be notified, we did have some afternoon snacks like cookies and snacks like you find in the café al bacio (coffee shop). If the alcohol comes out of your mini fridge it is covered by the RS. On a few occasions we were provided complimentary sparkling wine.

4) Do you have any other tips regarding the RS? What can you use the butler for in general beyond the obvious reservations and serving etc?

A) The butler is your main contact for any questions you have. So from scheduling specialty dining, priority disembarkation, verifying special events like celebrating an anniversary, etc. If you want something to make your experience better the butler is a good place to start.

5) Has anyone tried the in suite dining where it is served course by course? We'd love some info on this.

A) We have done this a few times and it is course by course like the main dining room. We also had over a few guests and they were treated as well as those of us in the RS.

6) How does the minibar work and what can you have in it?

A) We mostly used our as is, but the butler was willing to swap our anything at our request similar to what is covered by the premium drink package. Our primary use was for cokes so we typically had a dozen cokes at any given time in the fridge or in the dining area near the mini fridge.

7) Where is the reserved theatre seating?

A) Usually it's near the stage in the lower section. We have only taken advantage of this once, typically we just sit wherever unless there is a full house.

8) Can you eat in the specialty restaurants for lunch? On port days or just sea days?

A) This one is conflicting based on the ship and experience. There are limited options for lunch dining specialty restaurants. For reflection you have bistro on 5 and on a few ships you have the porch. The suite restaurant is typically only open on at sea days and is part of the suite experience. We were on reflection 2x in 2014, but they have changed the porch and bistro on 5 since that time. On our trips we ate at bistro on 5. The march 2014 was much better as they had changed the menu some by the December trip. I think there is more info in other posts as to what the current menus look like.

The wife and I started cruising with celebrity when we were in our 20's. We were sold right away on the experience. We are the Friday night on the cough sort. We cruise celebrity because we have very busy work schedules and Celebrity is the perfect down time for us.

Our trip is pretty low key. We do light shopping, enjoy the nightly shows, and spend an hour or two a day in Cafe al Bacio. The rest of our time is spent getting in some sun and spending a few hours at each port. We usually do a night or two at the specialty restaurants for a change of dining pace. Depending on ship we also do varied events during the day. We both really enjoyed the glass blowing on Eclipse. The primary people that won't get the most out of celebrity are the ones looking for the amusement park experience or are looking for the young party scene. There are younger couples on celebrity, but in our experience which has been 7 day cruises, there is usually a low mix of young children (except during the holiday cruises) and few hard core party types. Overall, I would describe it as a relaxed vacation.

Good ones Tommy. Our first cruise we went overboard :rolleyes: on excursions and now try and now plan for a little more freedom.

All,

I have been reading the threads off and on over the past year and notice some of the complaints are related to people either being new to celebrity or cruising. I figured a new thread for suggestions might help others make the most out of their cruise on Celebrity. Please post any pointers you may have for new and veterans alike that go overlooked.

My pointers/suggestions are:

• Understand the travel insurance and make an informed decision. Make sure you understand what would be covered and what you are risking by not getting the travel insurance.
  
• If you have a special event like an anniversary or birthday you want recognized at dinner, remind your waiter the night before. Even if you noted this during booking, it's a good idea to remind your waiter the night before so it doesn't get overlooked.
  
• If something is important, talk to the staff.
  
• Your room attendant will make an effort to meet you the day of boarding. If you want chocolates on your bed, towel animals, bottled water replaced, a better time to service your room, an extra chair in your room, etc. make sure to talk with your room attendant. Things change so something you expect might not be standard or may be replaced with something new. They cannot always provide what you want, but a good staff will make an effort. If you expect something, let them know!
  
• If your room attendant, butler, waiter, etc. aren't providing the level of service you are expecting make sure to talk with them. Every passenger wants to be treated differently and they may not realize you are unhappy with the service. Let them know in a polite way why they aren't meeting your expectations.
  
• If you are making extra requests of the staff, tipping doesn't hurt.
  
• Most important, showing respect to the staff will go a long way and can be more important than tipping. If someone is a jerk to you in life how much effort do you make in meeting their expectations?
  

I have been sailing Celebrity since my early 20s. We have sailed Reflection March of this year and had a great time. There was a wide mix of ages on board. My suggestion would be to ask your kids if the activities available are things they would enjoy. Some people spend much of their at sea time just relaxing in between stops. For us, the available shows, activities during the sea days, and the ports were everything we could have wanted. The only downside to our cruise was time went by so fast it is hard to believe it was a week. We are booked again for November!

There should be a link at the same place to generate (order mailed) tags. Should be a small link on the page after completing the docs.

On the web page there should be a link to print/or generate your tags where you do your online edocuments / online check in. It isn't always easy to see it on screen.

As a side note, you can call and have Celebrity generate the mailing of your luggage tags, but that can be a 15-45 minute hold.

Luggage Tags

To print or request luggage tags, you must:

• Complete your online check-in

• Have your cruise eDocs issued

• Allow 49 days or less before you sail

Ensure all bags have luggage tags attached before arriving at the pier.