MISTER 67

As we very seldom get off the ship anymore, food and entertainment are very important to us. Holland America has really scaled back in both departments and we have stopped sailing with them. We are booked on the Reflection in a few weeks and if things are as bad as I've read on some reviews we might just have to look somewhere else to spend our vacation dollars.

The Equinox was sailing at about 80% of capacity and at the time that was our 7th cruise with Celebrity. I have no idea why we received the upgrade and we were willing to pay a reasonable amount, we just were in the right place at the right time and we were dealing with a really nice person. Things like that you never forget and even though we are 4 Star Mariners with HAL and Elite with Princess going forward Celebrity is now our cruise line of choice, in fact we are booked on the Reflection in a few weeks.

HAL can keep their upsells, a couple of times they offered us upsells and the rates were higher than the rate on the HAL website. I liked the old days when the lines gave loyal passengers free upgrades. BTW on the Celebrity Equinox last June we went to guest services as soon as we boarded and asked about the charge from an inside cabin to a veranda, lo and behold the nice lady at guest services upgraded us at no charge. I offered her a nice gratuity and she refused but I insisted and she finally accepted the gratuity.

Not in Florida.

Great photos, brings back some wonderful memories of our cruise to Greece, Turkey and the Greek Islands in 1999.

We have taken 69 cruises but only 2 on Royal Caribbean. We are looking to sail this summer on the Granduer out of Tampa, we sailed on her sister ship the Rhapsody of the Seas back in 2017. We loved the ship as we are not wild about big ships, not a lot of bells and whistles but nice decor and very clean, the food was very good as was the entertainment. So that was 6 years ago and I was wondering what kind of shape the Granduer is in and is Royal cutting back on things like just about every other cruise line is.

So many things to see. Try to do the Taormina trip if your port is Messina in Sicily. The previous poster is right on the things to see in Istanbul, nothing to add, Haiga Sophia is amazing. Ephesus is a great trip, you will walk on the same walkways that Marc Antony and Cleopatra walked on not to mention St. Paul. In Santorini, it's the town that is worth the trip with great views of the island and harbor, make sure you take the ride on the tram down the mountain to get back to the pier and tenders. Of course in Athens, the Acropolis and Parthenon are a must as is a stroll through the Plaka. Take time to see the changing of the guard at the Greek Capital building, you can walk there from the Plaka. From Naples we had a great tour stopping in Sorrento in the morning and Pompeii in the afternoon, Pompeii is unbelievable with great views of Visuvius. Have a great trip.

I didn't ask that, I asked why is there a gratuity charge on top of the price for the second lobster when your waiter is already serving you anyway and getting a cut of the daily gratuity charge. Can't make it any clearer than that.

Explain to me why there is a gratuity charge on a second lobster tail, the waiter that brings you the lobster is already getting paid from our daily gratuity charge plus we always tip our waiter with cash at the end of the cruise.

We were on the Rotterdam in an inside cabin last April, smaller cabin than what we've had on other HAL ships especially the bathroom though the shower was a nice size. Would I book it again if the price was right, yes.

We are loyal 4 Star HAL Mariners and we are not happy with HAL right now, our cruise on the Nieuw Amsterdam in December was terrible with lousy food and bad entertainment. When we did get something decent in the MDR the portion was ridiculously small, I had sole one night and ate the whole thing in 3 bites. One morning in the Lido buffet I was served frozen scrambled eggs that obviously someone forgot to heat up. The Lox were not fresh and were grey. Pre-made sandwiches in the Lido for lunch were a joke with one slice of meat and wilted lettuce. Dessert left a lot to be desired, HAL's famous bread pudding a couple days were bread soup. The best thing in the LIdo for lunch was the salad bar as everything was fresh and was able to get what I wanted except there was no bacon for a Cobb Salad, there was plenty of bacon for breakfast and I couldn't figure why there was never any bacon for lunch for a salad, left me scratching my head. HAL is also rationing out butter and other condiments, in the Lido you had to ask for butter as it was out of reach as was cream cheese, in the MDR they gave you a nice selection of rolls but with 3 small slivers of butter, we had to constantly ask for more butter. We only had morning cabin service with no turn down service and of course no chocolate mints on the pillow, first time in 69 cruises that has happened. Since the start up in late 2021 we have cruised 7 times 3 on Celebrity, 2 on Princess and 2 on HAL, Celebrity was the best, a bit better than Princess and a lot better than HAL. We sailed on the Equinox twice last summer and the Infinity in October which is the sister ship of the Summit, truthfully it was one of our best cruises ever with great food and super entertainment, the ship was clean and spotless and remarked to my wife how beautiful the Infinity was, perfect sized ship as are the HAL Signature class ships which are still our favorite ships along now with the Infinity. We are booked on the Reflection in a few weeks and I have also been reading about the cutbacks on Celebrity that started on January 1st, so to say I'm concerned is putting it mildly, if things on X turn out to be as bad as HAL I guess we will give Princess another try but I'm reading about cutbacks with Princess also. It looks like we are in a new era in cruising with all these cutbacks and extra charges which borders on gouging, we will either have to bite the bullet or find somewhere else to spend our vacation dollars.

No, it's just plain gouging.

You know what they say, you can't tell a book by its' cover.

All of us here at the Daily are praying for you and hoping you will be up and around in no time.

What also stinks is the 18% gratuity charge, same goes with drinks which I think is 20%, we are already paying gratuities on the automatic daily fee charge. This is nothing but plain gouging. Shame on Celebrity.

Get well quick.

I hear you, all the lines at once decided to cut things drastically, HAL is just as bad and though we had 2 great cruises with Princess in the late fall of 2021 I've read that things have gone sour with them also. We love to cruise with the ship for us being the destination, if things continue on the downhill same path, we will have to find something else to spend our vacation dollars on.

This difference in entertainment is pretty big, Celebrity by far has better entertainment especially in the main showroom. Music Walk on HAL is getting old and so is the BBC TV shows that HAL is trying to pass off as entertainment. We had a horrible cruise on the Nieuw Amsterdam last month with lousy food, when the food was decent the portions were miniscule, I had Sole one night and with a portion so small I finished it in 3 bites. The entertainment was pathetic. We are staying with Celebrity and Princess while HAL has lost 2 very loyal 4 Star customers.

Good for you, we feel the same way but unfortunately it seems the industry is heading to the point that if you want a really good dinner on a cruise ship you will need to pay ridiculous prices in a specialty restaurant on the vessel. We've been cruising since 1982 and it's a shame it's coming to this, so many changes down through the years and most of them not good.

A "homer" is someone who usually works for a company and thinks the company can do no wrong. I've only heard of it in a sports context when a radio or TV announcer is overly partial to the team he is announcing for. I have no problem with it but some sports fans think that an announcer should not be partial at all.

Exactly plus we are paying the daily gratuities, service should be the same all over the ship.

Good to hear, let us know later in the week how things are going. We are on the Reflection in a few weeks.

We're booked on the Reflection in a few weeks so we will have to wait and see if things are as bad as I've been reading. As I said on another post, we are 4 Star Mariners with Holland America and we are done with them after a lousy cruise last month, there are other places to spend vacation dollars.

Exactly. The onboard experience is very important, for us the ship is the destination. Living in Florida and because we refuse to fly anymore we do 3 or 4 Caribbean cruises a year. Holland America has lost our business as they have cutback on the food and entertainment pretty drastically, I hope X isn't on the same route, we cruise on the Reflection in a few weeks and I guess we will find out then. Let me add we had a fantastic cruise on the Infinity in October, in fact entertainment and food wise, one of our best ever.