cangelmd

I will look for you! My husband will be the guy in the beard playing his first craps games - Hess been practicing his dice throws!

Thanks for the quick response, I will try to remember to pass on your greeting! I’m still working my way through the Eden cocktail menu, though, still got 2 more to go!

What class were you in? What was the wine selection like for your beverage pkg, if any? Did staff seem adequate to the number of passengers? I was on Apex on her first British Isles cruise in May after the transatlantic and I will be back in a few weeks for the TA back to FLL. In May, it seemed that there was a lot of new staff and a lot of staff in the wrong position if you will. We often have breakfast in the OVC and noted the usual service was lacking. Day 2 there were a lot of white shirts on walkie-talkies around and by Day 4, the service had improved. Service in the dining room was in general quite good (I think it is always a little rough on that first night). Wine was an issue. We went to a high end tasting toward the end of the cruise and the cellar master was speaking to some of the guests informally prior to the tasting, From what she said, they were having significant supply chain issues and didn't see when it would get better. I drank less wine and more cocktails on that trip than I ever have.

This was my understanding as well, OP said daughter was 15. Interested to see if anyone knows for certain.

Bar-laundry, laundry-bar, what to do??? I know which one I’d pick, and it has more to do with gin than detergent! 😉

My condolences to all our UK and Commonwealth friends!

I think that typically fir the Elite discount, it’s 30 or 35 items in the bag, with a pair of socks counting as 1 item. I remember the stuff the bag as being a special offered to everyone on longer cruises? If im wrong about this, im sure I will get rapidly corrected, but I know the last few times after we made Elite, we were counting out the items that went into the bag because it was by number of items. OK, wow! Please tell me you did laundry at some point during those 31 days! I’ve built a wardrobe of those wash and wear clothes and they do dry fast after squeezing out the water, but my exercise clothes have to get really washed after a bit!

Agree the EDEN is a must do! We’ve had one good meal and one meh meal at Fine Cut. Like land based steakhouses, the sides are shareable, and I think a small group (4-6) would be optimal for that meal. The restaurant is open to the central atrium and can be noisy at times. If noise is a concern, book an early time and ask to be away from the atrium. If you are celebrating a special occasion and want a reservation at a particular date and time, go ahead and make that res. Reserve Eden early, if you really want to eat there, they don’t book out the entire restaurant before the cruise, but it can be tricky to get a reservation if you aren’t flexible, although we have been fairly lucky in that regard.

We done 4 cruises since restart - Equinox, Silhouette, Edge and Apex, 2 in suites and 2 in veranda cabins (1 was an IV, of course). The worst service,was the 3rd cruise, end of March 2022 on Edge. Ship was half full, but suites were full. Some crew had been onboard for up to 9 months with no shore leave and there was a pretty significant Covid outbreak going on on board. The staff was exhausted, short handed and frankly demoralized. Staffing was inconsistent because the numbers of passengers and the cabins they sailed in kept bouncing around from one sailing to the next. Luminae was so unpleasant that we just left and had dinner in an MDR and in the OVC a couple of nights - had great service in the MDR, but the room was maybe one-third full. Having said all that, how much was cost cutting and how much was staff doing the best they could - who knows? You have to pack your patience right now and just enjoy the cruise, it will get better. Think the worst may have passed

I pack for a week and send out laundry about day 5. I also wash out things in my room, and that starts on about day 5 too. Our last cruise, 12 days, plus 3 in AMS prior, we sent out laundry twice, once first week once second, both bags almost full (we are Elite). I probably washed out and hung 5 tops/sweaters in the room. This was a cool weather, port intensive itinerary, with evenly distributed sea days - all that makes a big difference for me. The laundry is getting less reliable post-Covid. Allow 36-48 to get your things back, and the 4 days doesn’t surprise me Never send anything you aren’t ok with having washed on hot, really hot. Dry clean anything you are worried about. I had 2 interesting laundry things happen on our last 2 cruises, that I’ve never experienced before. I sent out a small bag on a 7 day cruise, just because it’s free and I could pack lighter, and it came back smelling like it had been washed in an old dorm washing machine - just faintly moldy. It’s was mostly undies and socks, so I sink washed the one shirt I absolutely had to have, and then cleaned it all back home. The 2 bags sent out on the next cruise was perfectly fine, so I’m saying smell was a one off. The other cautionary laundry tale - I got a bag back and I was missing a cotton PJ top. Our hard working cabin attendant tracked it down for me, it was on a hanger with a note ? T shirt and another cabin number. I realized when I looked at the laundry ticket that this relatively heavy T shirt pj top wasn’t obviously part of a pajama set, so they didn’t match it up with my laundry ticket. The next bag, I thought hard about how to fill out the ticket.

Perhaps more important, is the crew capacity coming up? On our March and May sailings, passenger counts were rising and the crew was not. Crew was also poorly positioned as the suites were full, and the rest of the ship half empty. Notably, on our last sailing, there was a lot of shifting abounding, especially during the day, and staff shortages became less noticeable.

There’s not a lot of shade on Retreat sun deck, it is a sundeck. On Edge, there are 2 side shade areas on either side up against the center stairs, both have couches, not lounge chairs, hard to describe easier to find. There are very few shady lounge chairs, except when the ship itself provides shade. One deck down, just off the Retreat Lounge, there is a great covered porch with dining tables shady and breezy all day. One of my favorite shady spots is the Magic Carpet, it has at least some shade about half the day, and is rarely busy before mid-afternoon. There’s another overlooked shady spot just above and to the side of the pool bar with sofas and chairs.

I’ve done 2 Edge cruises, one pre-Covid, full ship, inside cabin and one post Covid, half full ship, all suites full, we were in a Sky Suite. First of all, the suite itself is awesome, particularly the bed facing the sea and the bathroom. Storage is ample, but it’s arranged a bit different than other Celeb ships, so you will read some complaints - just poke around and check out everything. The storage under the bathroom counters and sink and the slide out desk in the living area - the little table in front of the full length mirror slides into the cabinet - are often missed. As for you questions, the answer is flexibility, if you want the absolute best lounge chair, it can be hard because there are chair hogs even in the Retreat! If you want a sunny chair, you will find one, just keep looking. For lack of a more complementary term, the Edge is a choppy ship, with lots of little odd decks and nooks and crannies. Exploring is much fun, but you might snort laugh at the person you overhear who walks into Eden on the last sea day and says “wow! Look at this room”- hint, don’t be that person, go to Eden on first day. As for dining reservations, if you are celebrating a special occasion and want a very particular date and time, make that reservation now, do not wait. Eden for dinner may already be unavailable.If you want a reservation in a full restaurant, particularly later in the cruise, speak with your Personal Host or the Retreat concierge. We’ve had best luck with Retreat concierge, again be flexible with date and time, there might be a cancellation. You can keep checking on the app, too, people cancel a lot.

I believe non-vaccinated still have to test

Are any of you in a suite? If so someone from that couple should submit that request through the Shoreside Concierge. Honestly though, if all 8 couples have reservations already, I think if you go to Tuscan and speak with the maitre d at boarding and you are flexible with 1-2 tables and the time that works for the Tuscan staff, they will come to an accommodation. With that many people, you might be able to pre-order appetizers for the table(s). Tuscan on Equinox at least is able to serve family style, that’s how the Chef Market dinner is served.

I think the app reflects what is current for your ship now. Dining hours and menus, show times are roughly accurate, but specifics may well change. Doesnt do you a huge amount of good un til about 2 weeks before. Just wait until you do muster drill - the app is worth it for that!

Yes, that is exactly correct, BUT we shouldn’t compare Luminae to fine dining. The quality of food, presentation, wine and experience in Luminae was/should be superior to MDR, but it is still an MDR. The experience and service in Luminae on E class is notably inferior to the experience on S class, including Reflection, in my opinion - when the dining room is full (when suites are full) it is unacceptably noisy and the service can be spotty. We’ve been on 4 cruises since restart, on 4 different ships, 2 E class, 2 S class, 2 in a suite and 1 IV and 1 balcony - one interesting thing that we noticed was the quality of the food was more similar across all the dining rooms than what we remembered pre-Covid with one notable exception and a few minor exceptions. I wonder if it’s a supply issue?

Are you on E class or S class?

Childrens menu should definitely be available with little to no notice - after all there could be children in a suite. The problem is getting it cooked in their galley because it is way too far from the MDR galley. That may be the part that needs notice, especially for baked potato or salad. I thought it was ironic that on E class, the choice in the MDR is 3x that of the supposedly more prestigious restaurant. Anyone who has been on Edge or Apex this summer as the ship gets more full - is it difficult for suite guests to have an occasional dinner in an MDR?

On S class, we ask for an MDR menu many nights, but order only occasionally. Personally, I find Luminae food to be a little short on veggies, and after 5-6 days, I start looking for things like Bibb lettuce or other plain green salads. I’ve also ordered a side of broccoli and a baked potato, although you may be able to get that just by asking, rather than looking at the menu. It’s rare that we would order an entree from the MDR, beef Wellington once. Mostly we are looking for soups salads and veggies. The Luminae desserts have the MDR beat mostly. The Greek yogurt dessert on Edge is outstanding.

Tough decision, we have visited some of those ports and some we haven’t. There are some things you should investigate. Several of those ports are a considerable distance from the cities they are associated with and others are closer to the city, but the port access is controlled or the port is very industrial, so that arranging private excursions is a more complicated. As far as I know Celebrity dropped all calls at Dublin, although who knows what will be happening by 2024. Brexit also played havoc with schedule’s because the EU played hardball with the cruiselines over immigration requirements. We were on the May 14 Apex British Isles cruise, and in our cruise we lost Dublin and Lerwick, Scotland, ended up overnighting in Liverpool and stopped in Cherbourg, France. Having said all that, if those itineraries were published before May 2022, I would not get my heart set on any of those stops- who knows what they will have to change! We did visit Liverpool, Belfast and Portland and thoroughly enjoyed those 3 ports, although we did different things than most people in all 3, except maybe Belfast. In my opinion Paris is too far away for a meaningful visit. If your “Edinburgh” stop is actually on the east coast of Scotland, that’s a super city. If the cruise is during the Tattoo- that’s a bucket list stop. Enjoy!

My DH swears that in the main part of Edge Luminae, the wall between the dining area and the service area/kitchen does not extend all the way to the ceiling, adding to the noise. I think the tables are closer together than on E class. He disagrees, but the room definitely seats more people. On our last Edge cruise, Luminae was much more crowded and noisy than the MDR - we left Luminae to eat there.

When we were on Edge in late March and the ship was half full, we just showed up to the MDR we wanted to visit (we were in Luminae) and were seated immediately. If the ship is more full, it would probably be courteous to make a reservation that day on the app or ask the maitre d, etc, if you are sailing in a suite. That part I would play by ear, depending on the number of pax.

Is this your first Edge cruise? The 4 MDRs are one of the highlights of Edge for me, I highly recommend taking 4 nights off Luminae and visiting each. Each has a small specialty menu, and I think you can order off the specialty menu in each, as well as the nightly menu that crosses all 4

If you are part of a larger group, 6 and up, certainly 8 and up, it is helpful to your group and to the staff to give them some heads up of when you are coming. They are going to try to seat you in the same general area every night, so you wait sometimes when it looks like there are plenty of tables. The relatively low staffing accentuates this. I think on CC people emphasize the reservation thing because they have read posts by outraged folk that had to wait 5 minutes. A bit of a wait, especially now, is pretty common, even in Luminae. But, if you r ok with a little wait, you can show up for select whenever you wish.