poeticlicensed

Remember the two buck chuck phenom? Sometimes I can find a decent wine at TJs, but def not 2 buck chuck

The thought of a Moscato with a burger makes me queasy. Thats really unfortunate. Even with limited training they should know the very basics.

I have a neighbor who went to school to be a sommelier after be sold his company and retired. He told us a trained sommelier makes big $$$. No way can a cruise company afford to hire dozens of sommeliers for each ship Most likely is that the head sommelier on the ship is educated, and he/she gives training to the staff. Its fine with me, I know enough about wine to tell them what I like and have them bring me wines to try.

We've done select and set time.alnost never had to wait with select. I cannot wait til after 8 to eat, so we generally choose early seating, but if we are on an excursion or don't make our seating, we just go to the select section of the MDR. Never had a problem.

Well thats just a pain in the derriere

I used to live near some tomato farms that would grow the best beefsteak tomatoes. There is nothing better than a tomato sandwich on good bread. Most tomatoes I find to be inedible, so I generally don't eat them anyway. I just can't see getting so bent out if shape about a tomato that I went to guest services. I worked with the public for several years early in my career and we used to keep a running list of all the crazy complaints and complainers we got. I bet the folks at guest relations still talk about the tomato guy.

I'm generally not a fan of search functions, but on CC, you need to make sure you change the default from "any search words" to "all search words". I get better results that way. I wish they would set the default to that, because sometimes I forget to change it

Likewise, we typically book verandah, have done concierge and aqua if the price is right. My opinion is that celebrity is raising prices more than other lines, and while i like them, I'm not willing to pay more than I perceive the value to be. We don't have the budget or inclination to do suites or move to a luxury line with butlers, flights, private transport and what not. Not sure what our next move is. We are booked on a TA with HAL, but I hesitate jumping in with them full bore until I see if its a good match. On top of that, X seems to be focusing more and more on Caribbean sailings and as a longtime FL resident, I'm done sailing the Caribbean. We will look at lines like Oceania, but I've also sailed MSC (not in YC. I know the horror of it all) and it wasn't bad at all. And they have a more European focus with their itineraries. There's also much travel to be done that is better suited to land based travel. So we will be looking at that also.

I totally understand the disparity in rates, based on demand, season, location etc. But you would think that wifi and booze would cost pretty much the sane, given that the cruiseline pays a negotiated rate via contract for booze and they are the ones providing wifi.

The all in package pricing is a mystery to me. I'm looking at one cruise and AI is 55 pp pd. On another cruise its 166 pp pd. I cannot figure out why such a disparity. One would think that drink costs, gratuities cost and wifi cost would be similar no matter what cruise you are on. Which leads me to believe its all made up so taking away tips is meaningless, given there's no baseline

So does the best price guarantee only hold if you call and tell them you saw your cruise at a lower price?

That is hilarious. I was still a bit unclear though. I guess he was upset because he likes grape tomatoes and they only had cut up full size tomatoes. I cannot imagine anyone eating a large tomato. I really hope people realize that fruits and veggies are seasonal. If you cruise out of growing season, you may find availability of certain foods lacking. I'd rather have no tomatoes than tomatoes that have been sitting in cold storage for months.

Someone please explain the round tomato thing. This is the second time someone made a reference to it. I need a good laugh today.

Well sure, if I was considering a suite, I'd be all over it. But let me know in the title, then I can decide. I crack up at the people who state they have double zenith status. All I can think of double secret probation. Seriously, I think many people who have achieved those status think that if they tell you their status it gives more weight to their answer. And for some its just a flex.

Same here. But honestly, if people would title their posts to indicate questions or comments about suites/retreat/aqua, etc, or those having to do with amenities are are only available to certain tiers those of us who rarely or never book in that cabin class or aren't at that tier don't need to bother looking at. For example, titling a post "Disappointed by Apex" would have me clicking on it if I was booked on Apex. But "Disappointed about my butler service on Apex" I probably wouldn't read since I would never book a cabin category that comes with a butler. Just like I don't read any post that begins "We are Elite", or "Elite [fill in the blank]", since I'm not.

What is double Zenith?

I was super bummed because on our last cruise the app showed short ribs that day, but when we went to the MDR no short rib on the menu

That would be unfortunate. If they make X like RCCL I'm out completely. My last Royal cruise cinched it. We hadn't been on Royal for nearly 15 years and were given a free cruise. It wasn't the food or the price. It was the noise. I feel like the Grinch when I say that, but the noise noise noise. They played music so loud in public areas I was literally covering my ears. By comparison, X is peaceful. I booked our first HAL cruise. Seriously looking at Oceania. I'd rather cruise less with better itineraries than move to Royal. Didnt like Carnival or NCL either.

We did the same. Booked a 14 night TA on HAL. Got the have it all pkg which includes tips, wifi, drinks, 2 nights specialty dining and 2 shore x. With all that, the price was 30% cheaper than a similar itinerary, albeit fewer ports, all in package on X that doesn't include any shore x or specialty dining. And I would have to upgrade my bev pkg out of pocket. It was a no brainer

This is my take. We aren't Retreat or Suite people. We book plain old balconies. We want to cruise the Fjords so I've been looking for some time now. What I've noticed is that while everyone is raising prices, something is out of whack with Celebrity. Looking at next July, with similar itineraries, dates, cabin class, I'm seeing celebrity is much pricier. We are talking the difference between 330 pp pd and 490 pp pd if you add each cruiseline version of all in. And some lines are more generous, including specialty dining or shore x. So after Oct 4 that 490 a day will be over 500. That is too big of a difference to ignore. And while I like the Celebrity experience, I dont like it enough to accept such a large disparity in pricing

Blue cheese souffle

I feel the same, but I'm having issues finding decent prices. We aren't interested in the Caribbean, as we've BTDT too many times. And that seems to be the direction Celebrity is heading.

I booked our first HAL cruise a couple of months ago. Hoping its a good fit for us. Our most recent cruise on X was good, but since we mostly cruise on X, I did notice the cutbacks. Fewer choices in the MDR. And sadly my beloved martini bar just wasn't good. We are convinced they are using cheaper booze and mixes. And since our itinerary was a bit port heavy, I found that I didn't care as much about ship activities, even on sea days. And I realized that I'm just not into bingo and I thought the trivia and silent disco is not for me. And I hate those game show activities where they use pax to provide entertainment. I was underwhelmed by the shows. There were only 3 nights of 7 that they had a real stage show. Otherwise it was magicians and comedians. Honestly I'd rather listen to a lecture or some music. So yeah, some of the things that I see more and more on X are not the things I'm interested in. I realized during this cruise its about the itinerary, the food and the service for us. We definitely noticed the cutbacks in the MDR. I would love to try Oceania or Viking Ocean, but its gonna be a hard sell for hubby. He thinks smaller ships will be boring and full of snobby people. Its going to take a lot of convincing.

That's why they took grata off. People are gonna pay them. If they removed the bev pkg, you'd have a lot more people saying no to bundling.

Completely agree. People can complain and write letters, but I'm guessing this has been the plan for some time now. I'm now searching other cruise lines to find one that has the things I value.