RichYak

It must be true. I read it in a Captain’s Club email. 🙄

21 hours ago, LindaConn said:

does anyone know know which cocktails are covered…

This is too much stress. Just think about it this way: the classic package gives you a $10 discount ($17 discount with premium) on each beer/wine/cocktail you order. Worrying about what is or isn't "included" aka less than $10 is too much work.

If you're going to be drinking mostly premium cocktails with top shelf liquor, or regularly ordering premium water, then it probably makes $ense get the premium beverage package. Otherwise, stick with the classic and drink whatever you want.

23 minutes ago, phoenix_dream said:

I have seen people reporting the cruise only rates on new cruises decreased by way less $$$ than the perks actually cost.

Isn't this true of any Celebrity cruise only rate? Why would it be different for the Retreat?

2 minutes ago, tfred said:

X (like every other company) isn't going to discount their best product.

They've been discounting it for years via the move-up program.

I would assume they've run the numbers to make this an easy decision: selling more suites at cruise-only rate to Zeniths probably results in more revenue than filling those same cabins with move-ups. Everybody wins, except those hoping for move-up luck.

10 hours ago, markeb said:

Jason Liberty keeps saying that demand has been increasing for RCG as prices have increased. That's in their public filings, so there has to be a basis in fact

"Demand has been increasing" can be a nebulous phrase. It could simply mean they have more bookings year over year. They also have more capacity to fill with new ships, so if bookings were the same as last year, that would be really bad, and more bookings would not necessarily be good unless it was a LOT more.

I'm just not sure how RCG actually defines "demand".

1 hour ago, 1Virgo said:

 Tonight, same place, same Champagne

Same bartender?

5 hours ago, FamilyAtSea.travel said:

Well done YC and Mustafa.

All I can say is, WOW! What an incredible response from Mustafa. This was very well handled IMO.

31 minutes ago, mac_tlc said:

To each his or her own. I’m sure others, including us, have had memorable times on a cruise ship outside a bar. 
 

Variety is good. Plenty for everyone. 
 

mac_tlc

No doubt. And nothing I wrote was meant to imply that you couldn't have memorable times on a cruise outside a bar. If it came across that way, it was not my intent.

20 minutes ago, mac_tlc said:

It is interesting how different people value different things. My wife and I have never sat at a bar on a cruise ship. Having one or not is zero impact for us. 

16 minutes ago, FamilyAtSea.travel said:

We feel the same about swimming pools.

We feel the same about productions shows, and karaoke, and casinos, and bingo... the list goes on.

A bar is a gathering spot, a natural conversation starter. It's a way to meet people. If you walk into a lounge and there's only one person in there sitting on the right, you naturally sit way on the left so you don't invade their personal space. If you walk into a bar, you start a conversation with that one person. It's natural.

The 3 most fun evenings I can recall on any cruise ship were at the Sunset Bar on Edge, at the Martini Bar on Millennium, and standing at the no-seats bar in Summit's Retreat Lounge. There were 6 or 7 couples congregating at that small bar along with the best and most entertaining bartender ever. We were all whooping it up and having a great time.

All these great memories were started with meeting other couples at the bar.

1 hour ago, dlh015 said:

Straight up, no agenda review...love it! Thanks.

You see, and I was going to say that's a long list of "cons" for a cruise that exceeded expectations and was amazing but I refrained. Oh oops, I just wrote it didn't I 😂

1 hour ago, DaKahuna said:

I believe this needs to be a qualified statement.

No, I'm sorry, it doesn't. I don't need to qualify my own experience. Others can and should feel free share their experience, as you have. But I'm not qualifying my statement because you had a bad butler.

1 hour ago, hcat said:

hate theads where 2 or more parties get into a bickering match. waste of everyone's  time!

I'm usually one of the combatants, so this is a refreshing change for me. 🤪

36 minutes ago, dcbiker97 said:

We just got off a 9 night on Constellation. There was live music in the Retreat Lounge at least 2 of the nights. Unfortunately, it was only one set right before dinner time.
 

The Suite Manager also arranged to have the magician from one of the main theater shows do a set one evening before dinner. There wasn’t an empty seat in the Retreat Lounge. Sure wish they would do that sort of thing consistently across the fleet. 

This has been my experience also. One or 2 times during a sailing, an entertainer like a solo guitarist, would play a 45 minute set in the lounge. Unfortunately, that's it.

1 minute ago, Jeremiah1212 said:

I think some of the confusion is Sky Suites were not allowed into Michael’s Club until late 2015. 

This makes far more sense.

3 hours ago, Ex-Airbalancer said:

Noticed , there is nothing for the other 95% of the passengers 🤣

I noticed this too. They only upgraded where it would directly result in more revenue--reclassifying staterooms as Retreat and adding/upgrading more infrastructure to support them.

1 hour ago, bigbenboys said:

I might be wrong, but I remember sky suites and Celebrity suites had limited access to Luminae in the beginning. 

Luminae was introduced in April 2014. I dont remember how any months the access was limited, but it was.

I really don't know if you're right or wrong so I want to be as respectful as possible. I'm struggling to imagine Luminae on an M-Class ship with only RS and PS (10 total cabins) being permitted to dine there. This is based on the restaurant's size and number of tables alone--to limit that space to 20 or so people for dinner. I just can't logically wrap my head around that even being a possibility.

19 minutes ago, jcpc said:

Thank you so much for posting your thoughts on your YC experience.  I enjoyed reading your posts and agree with just about everything you posted... I will, however, say that once outside the YC the MSC experience is not really for me

Thanks for your kind words. I intentionally stayed pretty silent on the "outside the YC" experience for one main reason: this was a sailing out of NYC. It's just a different kind of crowd that sails out of the Big Apple and it comes with it's own madness, regardless of cruise line. Would I be evaluating non-YC MSC or just another NYC sailing? I couldn't be sure.

That being said, I didn't have too much of an issue outside YC. We went to one show, which is the typical amount for us, we shopped, visited a couple bars. We walked the promenade frequently, saw one of the dome shows. Some spots were crowded, but it was fine. There are spots on Celebrity that are crowded, but fine too. The big difference that I can see now is that I can do pretty much an entire cruise without leaving the YC other than for laps around the track. I can't possibly do that on Celebrity.

Again, that's just us and the way we sail. I just want to put it out there, describing it as best as I can, and let anyone reading this decide for themselves if it's right for them.

24 minutes ago, ourpartyof6 said:

Thank you .. Its the Constellation !!

Here is the link to Constellation's Roll Call forum. That's where your thread belongs. Enjoy your cruise!

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/193-celebrity-constellation-roll-calls/

No charge for coffee or tea in the morning via room service. I would give a small cash tip to whoever delivers.

54 minutes ago, George C said:

I don’t recall seeing that and we just got off Summit Thursday

Maybe someone got smart and finally removed the stools. This YT video from March 2022 shows the stools on both sides of the center wall.

56 minutes ago, George C said:

Service was spectacular never had to wait for more than a minute to get a drink and no problem getting doubles (which we also got at yacht club)

Service has always been very good in the Retreat Lounge for me. In some cases, it's been spectacular.

The last thing I think I need to touch on is Butler service in YC as it compares to the Retreat. At the Captain's cocktail party, all of the butlers were introduced. I didn't really count, but there had to be around 10 of them. There are 92 YC cabins on Meraviglia or 9 cabins for each butler. When you compare that to recent threads referring to one butler covering 20-30 sky suites on X, the difference is clear.

Our butler was fantastic. He made sure we had wine and cheese every night in our cabin. There was a fruit bowl, occasional macarons, more still and sparkling water than we could drink (not limited to the head-scratching 2 bottles like on my last Sky Suite sailing), whatever we wanted. My wife mentioned the dates she enjoyed as one of the small plates served in the lounge. The next day, there was a box of dates in our stateroom.

Butler service in YC blows away X Sky Suite butler service, or what's left of it, and is more on par with upper suite butler service.

I think overall, if you enjoy the comforts and perks of upper suites on Celebrity, MSC YC might not meet your needs. If you regularly sail in Sky Suites, you'll be very happy sailing YC with better facilities than Celebrity ships as a whole, and with better service, AND a lower price.

Thanks for following along.

13 hours ago, RichYak said:

Retreat lounges are so antisocial. On Summit, there are two seats that face a wall. What are they thinking?

FYI, here are the seats I was referring to in the quoted post.

And by the way, this photo is from Celebrity's own Summit fact sheet. They chose to use this photo--a conscious decision. Two stools facing a wall. They're actually highlighting the antisocial nature of this particular Retreat lounge. Make it make sense.

8 hours ago, Shadow9612 said:

On Silhouette, in the retreat lounge, I thought there was bar seating (sort of a 'U' shaped bar)....

 

 

The venue that Celebrity uses for the Retreat lounge on S-Class ships has a bar with seating. The designed-from-scratch Retreat lounges on E-class do not. The M-class venue also has no bar seating. 
 

it’s an unexplainable and huge miss IMO. 

Retreat Lounge vs Top Sail Lounge

On most Celebrity ships, the Retreat Lounge is an afterthought. They took a space meant for something else and turned it into a suite lounge. The Top Sail lounge is the hub of Yacht Club. 
 

Some Retreat managers are better about entertainment in the lounge. Top Sail has live music each night—pretty good too. Like the Retreat, there’s a captain’s cocktail party. One day, there was a magician performing sleight of hand tricks. There was also high tea one afternoon. 
 

There are 3 key things that Top Sail has that the Retreat Lounge lacks:

1. Bar seating. This is how you meet people or chat with the bartender about different cocktails to try. Huge miss on Celebrity. Retreat lounges are so antisocial. On Summit, there are two seats that face a wall. What are they thinking?
 

2. Full espresso machine. That self serve coffee-pod machine in Celebrity’s lounges just isn’t the same. There’s no need to leave the YC lounge to get Cafe al Bacio style coffee drinks. 
 

3. Constant small bites of food refreshed all day. In Retreat, the area exists but is only used for breakfast and pre-dinner bites. 
 

YC lounge doesn’t have a self serve fridge but it’s not necessary. Your butler will stock your fridge with anything you want and refresh as often as needed. 
 

Unlike the Retreat, seating is comfortable in Top Sail lounge. It’s also more comfortable in the restaurant. No lumbar pillows necessary like in Luminae. 
 

Landslide win for YC’s lounge. No contest. 

1 hour ago, Liao said:

Just curious if you have ventured outside of the YC at all?  If so, what are your thoughts on the rest of the ship?

For sure, many times. She’s beautiful. The promenade with the video ceiling is stunning and a hub of activity. The pool decks were very crowded.