cruiseerf

I know the Eclipse is in South America Patagonia etc.....I have seen few compliments or complaints about the current state of sailing? I will board in a few weeks. Does anyone have any "Fresh" information on being onboard? Staff? food? condition of ship, etc? Very quiet this season down there 😉Perhaps no news is good news? Safe sails to all!

We were on a cruise where people had brought on a microwave, and two crockpots! We also saw a blender once on the table? What a magical village we share together ;))))))

Keep in Mind that this might be from the last change of Celebrity several years ago. When they re-alligned the levels I became sapphire and was receiving $1000 per cruise to gamble with.....Within 1 year they divided the Sapphire category to "Sapphire and Sapphire plus".....and I was only receiving $500 per cruise. I have looked at the charts and they do say VIP lounge access so I would have brought it to the front desk to clarify if it was important.... Good luck to all!

Did a B2B2B on Millennium in Japan last October and it was a great trip. For us this was a doer, not a Caribbean sit on our butt type cruise. We had tours almost everyday and meals booked and every hour was accounted for, it was amazing, what a culture! Also, The Millennium is older, Built Lower and has less impact from winds of the ultra tall ships.....she was able to get into ports that some of the big high Princess ships could not.....She rides the oceans well. Also something to keep in mind! You are going to LOVE it! Enjoy!

I believe you will have Captain Matt Returning to helm these voyages. He is one of the BEST Captains Celebrity has....Serious captain, Great sense of Humour and a gentleman. He will be at your Zenith Meals etc, it is important to him and he believes in Celebrity. I have done this cruise many many times and it is a favourite....ENJOY!

Keep in Mind that Ecuador is as corrupt as most countries. Each ship must have a permit for X amount of people and each line gets X amounts of permits etc. This is to protect the environment. When RCL bought Silversea, there was a "situation" as Silversea and Celebrity held too many permits.....Certain cruises were cancelled while they worked this out....Silversea has new expedition ships coming out.....I am sure this is all connected to permits....

I know MSC was hiring any and all Celebrity butlers who applied due to the new managements butler changes....MSC was well aware and indeed took advantage. I believe this is why it is going to take Celebrity more time to ramp up their butler services after decimating it....Sad.

While I see that Celebrity is well within its rights to put you in any Cabin they see fit as per the terms and conditions.....Wrong is still WRONG and this was very wrong. They charged your card.....and waited 6 days before some Senior Executive made the call to bounce you? WRONG. I am in agreement that compensation should be the difference in price between the CS and the PH as an FCC. I had this years ago on Celebrity with a Royal Suite pre covid.......And my travel agent took it up several levels and we ended up sailing in the PH. Celebrity made us whole, this is not what happened to this OP, disappointing. I too had a problem on two of our cruises end of last year, where over 60% of the suites sailed empty including 1/2 the royals and Both PH's.....And the Move up upgrades were never processed....Twice.....I too wrote to LHB the president and someone called and tried to explain their mistakes......epic fail. What saddens me the most is seeing customer satisfaction and $$ in these situations go down the tubes while Celebrity continues to raise their rates by over 100% in some instances. Huge changes in how Celebrity see's customer loyalty and treatment. Sorry this happened to you, I hope you still have a fabulous trip!

Part of Travel is accepting changes.....After Covid, this happens more and more on many cruise lines. The only thing certain these days is CHANGE. You either have to move with it or move to another line I guess. Safe Sails!

Does anyone know who the Hotel Director currently is on the Eclipse???? Cheers!

I have been told the merger of the Captains Club and RCLs Crown and Anchor program will be in 2024. It will be interesting to see how that affects our benefits? The merged program makes sense as I have heard so many times, while waiting for onboard bookings, that they would prefer to take their grandchildren on RCL but they "don't get any points"......This should drive some new sales when it hits. I just used my triple zenith credit for my upcoming free cruise, very looking forward. Though not sure how much further I will progress as I have just done 4 Explora journeys cruises in January and they were Fantastic......Really a wake up call. Sometimes its nice to switch it up.... Safe sails to all!!!

Yes, Usually when these ships are being rolled out on schedule it is ship Number 3 that they can make structural changes to. Explora 2 will be mostly cosmetic I would think. Keep in mind that once the design is approved and keel is laid, etc, the insurance company must get involved in most changes. So even the smallest of changes on cruise ships start at 1,000,000+. Safe travels.

Thanks for comments. The ship was Fully staffed, Butlers and all as the SE Asia cruises were expected to be full in the retreat. I had thought that as well. Yes, it was an amazing way to see Japan.... But someone at Celebrity's home office Really Dropped the Ball here and I thought perhaps someone else had clarity. Now back to the Wine pricing ;)))))

First off let me say that the Millennium Japan cruises were lovely. Japan is different fascinating, interesting and checks all the boxes for Exotique. Add in Korea and you have an AMAZING destination cruise which this truly was. We had booked Sky suites on the Solstice years prior covid etc and had been bumped onto the smaller Millennium and it was fine. Suites were much smaller....but overall as a destination cruise, doable. Food in all restaurants was ok with Tuscan Grill being the weakest. That said, we were out almost everyday eating at fine sushi restaurants and various styles of Japanese and Korean foods...so by nightfall we were mostly tired and still full from our lunches. We had tours arranged in Every Port. About 6 months prior to our cruise, our travel agent emailed us that several passengers had received notices that our cruises had had an "inventory control problem" and had double booked passengers into cabins that were not there. Therefore some passengers were getting Bumped from our cruises (we were on B2B). Thankfully we never received this notice but I believe there was a past thread about this. Our ship had between 1800-1900 passengers and was lacking its full load of 2200. We were told that the Japanese gvt required them to stay at least 10-20% less than full as a safety precaution (after the previous japan covid debacles).....So I think this bumping of passengers was less of inventory control and more of trying to work with Japanese authorities to not "Jam and cram" their ships making them more a of a Petri dish. This was an interesting fact. The 4, Sep-Oct Nov Japan cruises on Millennium all showed "closed" on our travel agents website....according to her even on Celebrity's website. There was not a cabin to sell, Move or adjust. All 4, 12 day cruises were Closed off. Which was strange when we received our move up offers? IF the cruise is so full, Why are we being offered upgrades? But apparently full and closed are two different terms? Our 5 sky suite cabins bid for all upgrades in the ranges provided for our first cruise (would have been an additional 10-12K of revenue). Sadly, None of our upgrades were approved and other guests we met in The retreat also had the same experience. October 12th cruise......We had only 65% of our suites occupied and with both Royals and Celebrity Suites sailing empty yet nobody had processed these upgrades???? The financial loss for Celebrity on this is HUGE, especially as new management is doing everything they can to maximize revenue?? This made no sense? Second cruise occurs and again we receive our upgrade possibilities and again, NONE of our upgrades are accepted. For the October 24th cruise we sailed with suites at less than 50% occupancy. We had 1 PH, 2-3 Royal suites and several Celebrity suites all sailing empty with sky suites yet again? When I asked the hotel director Andrea Muegge why the onboard revenue did not see these empty suites and offer them to the B2B passengers at a discount the week prior? At that point it is lost inventory. She was very nice and said yes "Someone should probably have caught that".... would you move now? And I said absolutely not (we were on day 18 of 24 at this point)...But somebody dropped the ball here $$$. She said she should bring it up with the powers that be.....Which you know is as good as the circular file cabinet.... Again, With over 50% of the suites sailing empty...And upgradeable inventory which would not have changed passenger count......Why did someone close out these 4 sailings losing potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars? Celebrity uses an outside company to process the upgrades, the company owns the algorithm that decides who is upgraded where when etc. They analyze the cruises and determine the upgrade priorities. Then this is sent to Celebrity home office for review and then it is forwarded to the ship for final review (because they could have passengers trying to stay on etc)....And then home office authorizes the upgrade company to proceed and they all make $$$ and passengers are happy as well. A true win win. So my question and one I sent to Laura Hodges Bethge was a clear, What happened here? Why was nobody trying to maximize revenue on these cruises? Who was in charge here? As both a Very frequent guest and a stockholder ((yay RCL) why were these cruises destined to not succeed it seems? As you can imagine I received back a phone call from a Lady in the "executive offices".....she tried to tell me they have protocols and appreciated my feedback. The call was useless. She did not understand that NONE of the protocols had been followed and that was my point...... She "Understood" but could answer no questions....and I had to call her back several times as she was in work spottily. Nowhere. So There is the strange story of the Millennium Japan cruises. We are Very happy we took the opportunity to re visit Japan and it was a fantastic way to do it. I just wish we had more clarity of what was going on here regarding cabins? As an aside, when we were leaving on the November 5th the suites were once again at 50% occupancy.....what to say. Management needs a look at this. Wishing everyone Happy Holidays, Safe cruising and effortless travels. We would wholeheartedly recommend Celebrity cruises for Japan again......or any cruiseline.....so nice not to haul luggage and so easy to see the country. Cheers!

This ship needs a full refurb or she needs to be sold.....IMHO she is on her last legs. Terrible internet, mediocre air conditioning and stains on much of the furniture etc. She would have to have the most Amazing itinerary for me to consider her again......This refurb will be short for maintenance issues I am told as well.

There have been some big "leavings" at Celebrity cruises however I don't think Cornelius was one of them. IMHO food has taken a hit from Excellent to more Good/ok. I hope it improves or else we look around more. Safe Sails

They are combining RCL and Celebrity and leaving Silversea to its own as SS is a vastly different line, clientele and program. I too will be interested How they do this without alienating some as Celebrity awards points based upon spend and Royal upon days cruised, like the old X program. Also with so many people achieving the Top levels of these programs, it makes sense for them to put higher qualification #'s in play to keep the people striving to make "status", as there are now many Triple Zeniths and triple Pinnacle guests. I agree with Truecruiseaholic that the return of Zeniths in the Retreat lounge is a small gift for the dilution of benefits that is going to hit Zenith members from Celebrity. I would doubt they would touch the laundry benefit, however I think they may make Zeniths "pick a perk" either Alcohol or Wifi thus selling this as "providing more choices for their most valuable members".......time will tell, 2024 is going to be interesting. LHB is definitely all about monetizing and it is sad to see Celebrity going through so many changes not great for the cruisers. Don't even ask me about coco cay....Mass Market anyone? We always sailed Celebrity because we felt they were a stop above mass market....oooh well. Something for everyone I guess.

I am a huge cheerleader for Celebrity and this is a time of great change for this line. So Many employees have left for far greener pastures and Celebrity is still trying to sell X as a luxury line, when they are butchering the luxury experience on so many levels. Celebrity should replace their "X" with "$" because I really see their decisions no longer being based in customer loyalty and luxury product, return guests etc, and more based on $. My family used to exclusively travel on Celebrity, Everyone is Zenith or double Zenith on Celebrity. Our January cruises we chose to try a new line "Explora Journeys".....This is directly because we really don't like the way Celebrity as a line is changing. We are also looking into Virgin and have booked one Princess as much of Celebrity cruises staff have moved over to these lines. We are not swearing off Celebrity by any means, however it is time to look around as when we used to think about Celebrity, we thought about great service and food and itineraries.....And while the service still remains excellent the rest has become meh. So in answer to the question, Yes, the changes are our main reason to branch out and try new lines, experiences, itineraries etc. Safe sails to all!

Wouldn't be surprised, New management is clear that they want RCL and Celebrity to be far more aligned than two separate cruise lines.... I heard from an Employee recently that the Captains club and Rcl's program are looking to merge.....Something else to look forward to. Such progress.......

May I ask the total passenger count on the ship for the Crossing? Thanks in advance!

Just got an email from Crystal A&K and "Fernando" with years of experience is hosting the "new renovated" Crystal cruises World Cruise. He was a Silversea Institution when I was on Silversea for probably 200-300 days of cruising. An invitation to his table was always fabulous and oooh the stories he told, always without names 😉 This was a Tremendous loss for Silversea as many many travelers are indeed as loyal to Fernando as they are to Silversea....imho. Safe sails to all!

Hello All: I am so late to this review so perhaps some of my information is stale, but I promised I would come back and give you our thoughts and comparisons of Azamara and Celebrity. This board answered all of our questions and more, Thank you all for that! First off, we loved Azamara! So lets get that out of the way. Azamara reminded us of Silversea and Seabourn without the high ticket pricing. The beautiful older ship, newly renovated, Onward was well kept and our rooms were in great shape. We were in an Owners Suite in the back. We were on From Rome to Fort Lauderdale 19 nights including the crossing in End November 2022....ending in Miami December 1st. Food on Celebrity is formulaic and the food on Azamara was stellar, Iwon was an Excellent F&B manager. We had some service issues in the main dining room, but we adjusted our schedules. During our cruise the central lighting in the main dining room was unable to be dimmed so it was uncomfortable to sit there. So they jammed everyone around the outside tables and that was not the most quiet or intimate dining experience, somewhat loud and chaotic. My only food complaint about Azamara is that their sushi was mediocre.....Lots and lots of rice and little fish...it was fill you up cheap sushi. On Celebrity they have dedicated sushi restaurants where they put out some great low rice rolls, but they have the luxury of being a larger vessel and we recognize that. We ate many times at the two specialty restaurants and both were excellent. I would say same as the specialty restaurants on Celebrity cruises and included in the price of our suite on Azamara as well as on Celebrity. Buffet on Azamara was far higher quality than Celebrity and the service offered throughout the dining rooms was exemplary except for a couple for a misses, here and there. This is to be expected and I am not perfect either 😉 They also had some staffing issues with visiting the USA the first time and Embassies around the world are still struggling with work approving work visas in a timely manner etc. Ships always say you are lucky we have X amount of staff onboard, if there is one thing I have learned, never believe this on any cruise line. Staff is one of if not the highest expense of cruise companies, they do not take on staff if they are not going to use them. That said, as people began to travel some cruises were 1/2 full and then full the next cruise, so full cruise compliments were required. Now ships are pretty much full, so this is a non issue going forward. We met some 50+ cruises on Azamara people and they still love the line and service but say they see cutbacks since Azamara was bought by the hedge fund. We wouldn't know as these were our first Azamara cruises. We were invited to a big dinner with all the top suites one night.....Captain, first officer hotel director and 12 or 16 people.....Food was fine....not our thing, almost like a fake Michelin with neither the service or the food quality there. We had Captain G Onboard and were lucky to have dined with him one night on the transatlantic, such a nice guy, this was a lovely one on one intimate meal and this was a great one! Azamara with such small intimate ships provides most excellent services that big ships, even with suite class cannot. Bartenders knew us in a day, restaurants were aware of our dietary requirements and we were addressed by name by most staff by day 3....Bravo Azamara. The only position that was neither here nor there was the Butler.....We don't eat in our room so really they only helped us with laundry and bottled water in the room. We made our dining reservations during lunch the first or second day and we adjusted them as we needed. We had no problem dining anywhere when we wanted. I think in 19 nights we called the Butler 4 times? On these small ships it is easy to do it yourself...Where as on Celebrity with 2500-3500-4500 passengers, the Butlers are really fighting for you to get space in the specialties, spa etc. Our butlers were friendly and cordial, I just am not sure they are necessary on such intimate ships? I did have one special request and that was on the last day to take all my clothes and fold them and put them in the living room so I could pack them where I wanted. They did a great job. Service provided was warm and we could see that many of the passengers enjoyed talking with the staff and meeting staff that has returned again and again. We did as well, they work so hard and are away from their families, etc. There is a level of guest to crew social intimacy that you have on Azamara that you do not have on Celebrity or rarely have due to the larger ship size. There was also many many singles onboard and I believe this is because they never really feel "alone"....They feel they are traveling with family and there is a warmth here. Bravo again Azamara. Some negatives. I was told the owners suite on 6 had a stand up shower, this is not true. ONE of them has a stand up shower, the other suite is a handicapped shower bath combo that is an Epic Fail. The controls are behind the glass so you need to hop into the shower/tub combo......quickly turn on the water facing away from you....wait for it to warm and then enable the shower and you stand there naked waiting.....it is awkward and cold. I was in 6091 and that beast was sold as a stand up shower and this was most definitely not. 6088 where I eventually moved did indeed have a beautiful standup shower, like a royal suite on Celebrity, but apparently there are 3 of the 6 owners suites on the Onward that have these "Contraptions"...I will avoid at all costs in the future. We did have one awkward dinner in the Italian restaurant onboard. We had not been feeling well and were concerned since our cabin stewardess had caught covid on day 4 and was quarantined till day 11. We tested for Covid and were so far negative so that night we requested the Maître D seat us at a two top and not sit anyone next to us. He told us that was fine he would block it, placed us in the corner and the restaurant was empty it was 815PM etc. In comes this single woman who with 20 empty tables to choose, chooses the table right next to ours?? The Maître D had not communicated with the Assistant Maître D and then when I said to the lady , I am sorry this table is "blocked" she went on a rant that I can't do this and how dare I and blah blah blah.....we just sat there and watched this show.....Then we went back to our meal. After the drama subsided I did not feel I owed anybody any explanation as we were actually doing this as a precaution. Then the Maître D heard the commotion and apologized to us, offered a premium bottle of wine etc, and the assistant apologized and the waiter apologized, it was quite an uncomfortable scene. Thankfully we continued to test negative throughout the rest of the cruise. Entertainment was Fantastic onboard with the fabulous Eric De Gray onboard and of course the most lovely Martin and also Vassi on the piano and the entire fabulous show cast. We did not miss the big second rate shows onboard Celebrity and thought this "plan" of hiring entertainers for the social staff and cruise director etc was brilliant. These were some of the most vibrant and wonderful shows we have seen onboard any of our small ship cruising and we shared some quiet dinners with them as well. Lovely entertainment, lovely crew and we wish them all the best. Again, adding such depth to the intimate guest experience. We sadly left Azamara and transferred two days later to a Celebrity ship for a two week family Caribbean cruise. While there was culture shock, the ability to be somewhat Anonymous was kinda nice and we were happy to be there for a Family cruise! But let me be clear that Celebrity is no small ship cruise line even when in suites. And as Celebrity continue to maximize$ their suite product at customers loss, we are going to start to explore smaller options. Azamara reminded us of the joys of small ship cruising sometimes and how nice it is to "Change it up" and try new experiences! I know the End of February Azamara will break from Celebrity RCL, It will be interesting to see how things go. Each of Azamara's ships have about 8-10 years left on them.....They are either going to need to build new ones or merge.....Time will tell. If you have any questions, feel free to ask. Azamara was the clear winner of this comparison. Safe sails wished to all!!!!

I have had Over a hundred Butlers on ships from Silversea to Seabourn to Celebrity and now upcoming Azamara. I usually go over my pillow preferences, request lots of in cabin bottled water in my fridge, and provide the butler with my cleaning and pressing. Lastly, I really don't like Folding (or Vacuuming either) so the day before the cruise ends I usually request my butler take everything out of the closets and drawers and fold and place on the bed organized in piles by type...Pants, Shorts, shirts etc (I still re check). Then I just pack the folded clothes where I want. I tip extra for this service and make it clear I appreciate it. I don't like food smells in small spaces so I rarely order in. I have experienced many good, medium and bad butlers....but I make it work as it is only two or three weeks etc. In all my cruising I have only requested a butler change once. I also once received an online questionnaire from Silversea pertaining specifically to their Butler service asking about how often I used the service, could a cabin attendant suffice etc....As of now, they still have butlers for all cabins. On Celebrity they tried to change the title "Butler" to "Personal Retreat host" and that failed miserably and it is now back to Butler. Time will tell with Azamara and I look forward to meeting my butler whomever he or she is! Safe sails to all.

Was on the Infinity in the Caribbean and the internet was horrific. Reading emails was difficult with NO attachments, system continually dropped and re connected us, a myriad of problems. I believe Celebrity is spending the money on their newer ships Edge class and other ships have received a downgrade. Part of their "strategic cost cutting initiative".....Until Starlink is installed on the oldest ships, don't expect much in the form of connections, let alone "Streaming".

I am waiting to see who MSC buys? They are Cash Rich....privately owned and the Shipping side of MSC prints their own $$$. They are the 2nd largest ocean shipping company in the world with 700 ships! Besides growing their own cruise footprint dramatically over the last few years, why not pick up one of the established cruislines cheap and give them the toehold in the Caribbean they are gaming for? I am sure they must be looking at this. Time shall tell.