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On 5/25/2022 at 1:25 PM, Tony UK said:
We loved Murano and have been lots of times. Le Voyage sounded a similar concept although pricey!
We weren't sure whether to try the tasting menu. We did do it once in Murano but then reverted to the full menu, especially as we have the premium drinks package to contribute to our wine!
We have tried 2 very different menus in Eden. We did enjoy both, but the recent experience on Edge was amazing. We loved it and will be going again on Beyond in September.
The tasting menu does not include wines. The Som can work with your package to get you wines to pair though or even for a smaller upcharge. The upcharge for the wine tasting is $100.
On 5/25/2022 at 3:24 PM, Barn Goddess said:We were on the maiden sailing as well (Sky Suite 9125). Loved Luminae and it didn't feel crowded to us. But that could be the times we went to dine. Found the service to be wonderful (Juan Pablo was our waiter and he was fantastic). The food was a little underwhelming but still very good.
We wanted to try Le Voyage but it was sold out. We heard mixed reviews on it. However, most loved it, especially the wine pairings. Speaking of wine pairings - we did the premium wine experience with the Cellar Master. So fun and some really great wines - really enjoyed it!
We also dined at Cypress (meh), Normandy (LOVED), and Fine Cuts Steakhouse (so good!). We did not dine at Eden but did have lunch at the Eden cafe (off to the left, tucked away, when you are going towards Eden). The food was so good! Great sandwiches and salads.
We had a really great time and met some super nice people. I just wish it had been a smidge warmer. We were thankful for the blankets offered - they really helped ward off the cold when attempting to sit on the Magic Carpet or in the Retreat sundeck.The ship is lovely and I really love the bigger, more open design around the martini bar. I have never been a fan of the martini bar (don't care for martini's) and found it way too crowded/uncomfortable on other ships. The new layout is great - lots of seating, great people watching, can see the flair show, and can also enjoy the music. Loved it!
Food is so subjective, we just got off the Beyond Saturday. Luminae was just ok, loved Cypress and Normadie was just ok. We had the Champagne dinner in Fine Cut and were not impressed like we have been at other venues.
On 5/25/2022 at 6:31 PM, hcat said:We are used to BLU..but will be assigned to Luminae, food looks less simple than BLU.
Was it difficult to have dinner in BLU.. line up or call for availability? We orefer early dinners.
How crowded was breakfast in LUM?
Did they offer the Elite "lite" breakfast anywhere?
Our goal will be to avoid crowds and Covid!
The Elite coffee house breakfast is offered in Le Grand Bistro. Hardly attended at all.
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On 1/31/2022 at 7:32 PM, zitsky said:
Does anyone know if the Veuve Clicquot dinner is offered on the Reflection? I’m considering a cruise in September.
We had it onboard the Reflection in December 2021 and February 2022.
On 2/1/2022 at 1:27 PM, zoncom said:Whats the price for VC dinner? My BF gave me free air. Would be nice thank you. On Reflection April 18 TA and May 13.
Now $199 pp
On 2/4/2022 at 6:27 PM, Buckeye94 said:I was on the 12/11/21 Reflection sailing. VC dinner was visible on the app before sailing but could only be booked on-board. I went straight to Cellar Master and spoke to Nelson. He said the dinner would only happen if enough people signed up. Challenge accepted! I talked it up at dinner and other wine events I attended. A couple days later, Nelson tracked me down on the aft deck enjoying lunch to give me the good news and sign me up. $150 and worth every penny. Fantastic menu. Held in the private dining room in Murano. Conversation started slow, but we were all old friends by the end of the night. We all stumbled to Cellar Master afterward to thank Nelson and signed up for another wine tasting. The next day, I mentioned to the head sommelier that we had a great time and many of us would be at the tasting. She arranged to seat us together.
It's more than a dinner and fine wine. A wonderful experience. I will do this again!
I remember that night well! We had such a good time with all of you, we went back again in February with our friend and insisted we had to do the VC dinner.
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24 minutes ago, Seany527 said:
I paid $830 for airfare. You’re really confusing.
The pricing was advertised as "Starting at". This means the lowest pricing would be $1999 per person. Other dates and other gateways can be more. Mine cost more as well, but the starting prices on my date were the $1999 when you include the lowest priced cabin and lowest priced airfare. This is what starting at means. I didn't book a 2C so obviously, my price is more. I'm not flying from MIA or some of the other $500 gateways, so my price is more.
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2 minutes ago, Seany527 said:
They advertised airfare was included. When bookings were released it was not included. It’s as simple as that, no matter how you want to spin it. 💁♂️💨💋
Here’s a freezer and it’s full of food for $2000, come pick it up.
Thanks for coming. We lowered the price to $1500 but the freezer is no longer included.
Wow, what a deal but what am I going to do with all this food?
We can sell you a freezer for $830. 😑
No spin at all. It's called simple math. Prices start at $1999 including airfare. $1499 + $500 for airfare IS $1999. I'm sorry that is so difficult to understand.
With your freezer example if they said they were giving you a freezer full of food for $2000 and instead had a freezer without food and a gift card for $500 to a grocery store, you probably would argue that is deceptive as well. But if you had the freezer full of food and all the ice cream was melted, you'd complain about that too.
Some people just aren't happy regardless.
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On 4/27/2021 at 12:32 PM, Seany527 said:
Try again. To say airfare is included and not include it, is dishonest whether they lowered the starting price or not.
Balcony is $2000pp and free airfare for a total of $4000.
Balcony is $1500pp and no airfare. Airfare with Flights by Celebrity is $830pp for a total of $4,660.
Thats $660 less in my account.
You have a tendency to blurt things out with no substantial backing.
They indicted that pricing would start at $1999 per person. Starting pricing. Not that your price would be $1999 per person. I don't know of any company that says starting pricing and that covers every single date or every cabin. When they opened, the pricing did not include airfare. How could it? It was never $500 per person for every possible gateway. Cabins started at $1499 per person. Starting airfare was $500. Seems to me that totals $1999 per person.
How is that for substantial backing?
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2 minutes ago, Shadow9612 said:
May I ask how people are determining the number of unbooked cabins? Are you actually going thru a mock booking deck by deck and counting for each stateroom type?
I often see people referring to stateroom availability but I don't know how to check.
Thank you so much (and sorry if this is a silly question).
Yes, that's how to do it. You can only count unbooked and assume how many are booked.
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1 minute ago, Jeremiah1212 said:
I responded with the totally wrong ship in mind.
Millennium has 1,079 total cabin.
456 of those are either inside or ocean view.
632 have a balcony.
That does make the situation a bit more problematic if everyone had to move to a balcony if things turned ugly, but I think the 'demand' seen on this board versus the general public are very, very different things.
I did count them up today (I know, crazy). After the Revolution, Millennium has 1108 cabins. 471 are inside or oceanview. That leaves 637 balcony. I'm willing to take a chance since everyone will be tested twice to get on, adults will all be vaccinated and the other protocols in place.
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12 hours ago, Seany527 said:
This is my first time sailing with Celebrity and thus far I’ve experienced some rather questionable sales practices.
When they first announced their St. Martin sailings they advertised airfare would be included in the price. As we know now, it wasn’t included and since booking they have had huge sales with Flights by Celebrity which would have saved me roughly $500pp
Then they advertised gratitudes were included. Because I booked after final payment, I had to pay immediately when I booked. Everything was all set and then a day later I had an additional balance due, which coincided with the gratuities amount. My credit card was charged and it took 3 phone calls and 2 weeks later to have it refunded.
Meh.
At least I’ll be on a cruise again soon.
The prices they came out with were $500 less than they originally said to account for the airfare. No dishonestly here.
Sounds like the gratuities was an error. Whenever I book Celebrity with gratuities included, the system adds then subtracts the cost of the gratuities. It usually takes a day or two. This too is not dishonest, it was a computer glitch. Not sure how your credit card was charged as they don't store your card.
11 hours ago, Bruin Steve said:NO! It is NOT a capacity issue. Look at the available cabins...They aren't filling the ship to 50% selling just balcony and above...Offering some Insides and OVs is just a way to get near or reach the 50% mark by giving customers some more lower priced options. They will still stop at 50%.
Just that they offer those cabins does NOT mean you can make the inference they're going over the stated 50%. It just means they are expanding the customer pool from which to fill the 50% by allowing some people who were priced out of the higher categories due to affordability, You only do this if you aren't hitting the desired percentage with your original plan.
Exactly! I get so tired of people thinking that everyone is out to do something nefarious. My first thought was maybe they are opening it up to employees, but then I looked at the number of cabins booked and figured it was designed to have a lower price point to maybe attract a few more bookings.
11 hours ago, Shadow9612 said:I'm confused.
If X states* they are only selling balcony cabins and sailing only at 50%, then they open up inside and OV for sale, how do they not go over 50%?
For every inside sold, they then take a balcony out of inventory?
*I am not saying X stated those conditions. I'm just trying to understand the capacity vs. $ issues that have been raised or implied.
By not selling more than 50% of the cabins available. As with all cruise lines, even if cabins are available, they might not be able to sell a room if full ship capacity has been reached. There are more berths on nearly all ships than what they can sell. If most rooms that sleep 4 only have 3 people, they can sell more cabins than if there are 4 in the cabins. It's a numbers game they have played for years.
1 hour ago, HS2BS said:So what happened to the “pent up demand and record breaking bookings”?
Even with a “all passengers and crew vaccinated”, inside and ocean view cabins could be problematic if any out break were to happen. A better solution to Celebrity’s booking situation would to reduce balcony prices to a more reasonable price and issue OBC refunds to existing booked guests.
Just to make a small correction to grandgeezer, as of yesterday(4/26/1), there were 276 vacant balcony cabins out of 536 available = 27% occupied. [No A1 cabins are shown except the accessible on deck 9]
I never complained about the price, but know that it was unusually higher then previous cruises, but we want to return to cruising, but safely.
Hal.
There is a lot of pent up demand and record breaking bookings... for 2022 and beyond. A lot of cruisers don't want to be the first. Many don't want to fly to another country to cruise.
Just because there are 276 vacant balcony cabins doesn't mean that they are selling all 276 of them.
There are a lot of assumptions being made about what Celebrity is doing, but to assume that they are not doing it safely is wrong in my opinion. Remember, you can always cancel and get a full future cruise credit up to 48 hours prior with Cruise with Confidence.
1 hour ago, jelayne said:If there are 536 and 276 are vacant then 260 are booked that is about 49% booked not 27%.
You are correct that about 50% of the balconies are booked in this scenario, but about 27% of the ship. We don't know though if all of the cabins were open to book in balcony and above for all sailings. On my sailing, there are 784 cabins that are either not released or still available to book. Possibly 37 more as there are no A1s available to book, which seems odd that they sold out completely. This means that 74% of the ship is not booked. We don't have a way to know how many rooms are blocked from booking or actually booked so you can't figure it out that way.
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12 minutes ago, Host Grandma Cruising said:
Thanks for the information. Can I just ask a couple of questions - how long is your cruise and can you remember what the minimum bid allowed was per cabin? Thanks
The cruise is 12 nights for a transatlantic. The minimum bid was $200 pp and the maximum was $500 pp.
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We bid in mid March the same day we received the offer for our April 20 sailing. Bid $500 per cabin for Explorer and Discoverer (two separate rooms) from verandah to CC and received the decline today. Was considered weak, but at the time there were 10 available staterooms to upgrade to.
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So, is 9002 just one big room? We are booked in 13002 next month which was originally booked as a two bedroom suite. I had my TA contact the company after finding out on my own that it was now a one bedroom suite, but she was assured that it was still two separate rooms. We didn't need two bedrooms, but having a separate bedroom in non-negotiable for our group. Someone posted photos and a diagram of another corner grand suite which showed two rooms and that calmed my fears a bit. Should I be worrying here? On the deck plans, 9002 looks like it's the same size as 13002 but it's just so hard to get more detailed info!
9002 is not the same category as 13002. 9002 is a fantastica suite while 13002 is an aurea grand suite.
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So the OP steals a fixture (reed diffuser) and no one feels the need to take him up on it?
Sorry but he sounds pretentious. Trying to look the gastronome but in fact makes himself look like most people's impression of a glutton. I mean, Margaritaville, Senjor Frogs and Hard Rock Cafe, as well as fawning over a bloody donut, says it all really.
You season food to your own taste, if there isn't enough salt or pepper in something, add it yourself, but don't hang a company out because they don't put salt in anything. Here's a clue, there is usually a salt and pepper shaker on the table.
The reed diffuser is something you are allowed to take home when staying in an Aurea cabin. It is one of the perks of booking that experience.
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Exactly!
I did go to guest services on the day before disembarking, and got a print out from them. When I saw the negative balance, I figured I was good to go. After all, they had my credit card number... so they could easily refund to my card. It never occurred to me that they would prevent me from disembarking until they could give me cash. Who refunds in cash?!?!:'):')
Believe it or not, it is on the terms and conditions.
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Height isn’t the problem, the layout of the bathroom is very small a lot of people have said that their knee has to rest against the wall when they’re sitting down on the toilet so I’m sure that’s what was being referred to :) one thing you may enjoy is the adjustable height of the shower head
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Maybe against the sink but they would have to be very, very tall to rest against the wall.
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First off, I requested to cancel the day before the excursion. Second, it was a beach excursion... and it was raining and windy.
If I had been in the Yacht Club, I bet I could have cancelled.
Even so, on many cruise lines if you don't cancel before the cruise starts, you are out 100%. 50% is a more than generous refund. Carnival does not refund in full, Disney does not refund at all. Each cruise line has their own terms and conditions. Saying that being in the Yacht Club would have allowed you to cancel without penalty is conjecture on your part.
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But a whole lot of the situations we ran in to are likely to remain. I think MSC knows who their core customer base is (the Europeans) and they will never do anything on any ship that the Europeans wouldn't like, even a ship that the public relations team actively promotes as being for the North American market.
I also think some of the customer service issues reflect the culture of the company. If they fight tooth and nail to not have to refund a $59 beach excursion on a rainy day, that probably reflects the company's entire attitude towards passengers... and those things don't tend to change much over time unless somebody really high in the organization realizes there's a company-wide problem and decides to make a push to turn things around.
If you had cruised on MSC on one of the other ships (other than Divina), you would notice a very different experience so I would say they have American-ized some things on the ship. The bottom line is that this is an Italian company. You can't expect that they are going to change things completely so that they are a Carnival or Royal Caribbean. Anyone who expects that, will be disappointed.
I do have to ask in all your research before booking MSC and after you booked, did you consult with a travel agent who knows MSC? I think your expectations would have been more realistic for this cruise line had you done so. My travel agent explained the differences between the experiences and this particular cruise line which has allowed me to make an informed choice on my cabin, experience and sail date. I would never book a cruise within the first 3-4 months of a release of a new ship without fully expecting issues with service, food and the like. I actually have the same type of room as you did booked for my sailing in May and I am excited about it. My problem with the room is that it is a little narrow, but had I wanted a larger room and more exclusivity, I would have booked the Yacht Club. I actually had a grand suite booked initially, but when my agent informed me what my layout would be, I switched to the whirlpool room and believe I will be happier.
[/font][/color]This is not a pizza so it cannot be compared with the other picture. I think you Americans call this accident a "pie".
Of cause MSC would rather turn all their cruise ships into container ships before they serve this to their guests. At least I hope so :cool:[/left]
[/color][/size][/font]
One interesting thing in this review, I never thought it would be possible to cancel booked land excursions without a very good reason. Amazing that you could do this because of "bad weather".The fact that the cruise line gave you back 100% is amazing to me. I have been on several cruise lines and most will not give any refund unless the vendor cancels the excursion or the cruise ship does not make it in to port. 50% refund is very generous! My guess is that something happened on the excursion, maybe the rain came and they ended up giving a refund as a goodwill gesture and you just happened to get that benefit as well.
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My TA tells me that I am not eligible, because the Classic package was gift.��Being told this is not available on my sailing (Dec 15, 2018). They really need to get their stories straight.
This is a fairly new item to prepurchase. Call back and say you want the upgrade to deluxe or premium and give the code 536UPGAD. If they say you can't, ask them to check with a supervisor.
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This has already been covered. It's not the same as Divina. They charge for wings.
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I did hear the nachos are free though!
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So what happens when there are 3 Black card members sailing in one cabin? Can only 2 of them partake in the complimentary meal?
No, it says that every black card member gets a meal.
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yes, but i think the change is that it is 1 meal per black card member - NOT what is mentioned in your link:
Complimentary Speciality Restaurant “Tasting Menu” Dinner (no beverages)[black] per cabin. Members are entitled to enjoy a tasting menu dinner for 2 at aspeciality restaurant once during the cruise
this is what the bantering back and forth has been about, that they changed from 1-black card member dinner for 2 ...... to 1-black card member, dinner for 1....
No they didn't. It is still dinner for two, but if two black members occupy one cabin, it is just one meal. If I'm traveling with a non-black member, their meal would be complementary. The very next sentence is "Members may extend their invitation to one occupant of the same cabin only once and only if the cabin mate is not a black card member."
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Hmmm, seems as though the "1 meal per cabin" for Black members has been in operation since July 2015 according to this
Bottom of page 3
I thought it was supposed to be per cabin and was surprised when it was per person when we were on Divina. I thought it was a mistake when onboard. Looks like they are just enforcing the old rules.
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Has anyone with a Bella or Fantastica cabin that came with the free classic beverage package been able to upgrade to deluxe? I have been told this isn't possible, but with the Mealtime upgrade available and the classic to deluxe for Aurea, I just don't understand why they can't.
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Thanks for the update on 11002. Did the balcony have room for a lounger. And secondly did they take room away from the balcony by putting up a balcony divider at the very front of the "cove" thus making the balcony smaller. Overall, what were your impressions if you can say. Thanks
For some of us, it's too late to switch cabins. So hopefully it will be ok.
It is interesting that they were not allowing people to take pictures of 11002. Makes one wonder why.
Thanks again.
The room was NOT on the tour. I asked for special consideration to view the room and to do so, I offered to not post pictures as the room was not completely made up. Please don't read anymore into this than what it is.
The balcony is not smaller than a regular balcony. They did not take away space. I don't recall if there was a lounger out there. As I said, I was originally booked in there and I chose to change when I thought the living room and bedroom were reversed. I was pleasantly surprised by the layout. I wish there was a door to the bathroom from the bedroom, but it is what it is.
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I sure hope my cabin has a separate bedroom I was disappointed when I found out it wasn’t a 2 bedroom and more importantly a 2 bath but if it was just one giant room. I will be very upset
It isn't one giant room. The drawing on MSC's site is not accurate as far as the layout. I went into 11002 two days ago. I don't have pictures as the room was not part of the tour and the only way I could get in was to agree to not take them.
When you get to the end of the hall, the door is on the right side, not straight ahead. There is a hallway that was pretty wide straight to the living room. The first door on the left was the walk through closet. In the closet was a door to the bathroom. I didn't go in there, but my friend did. I forgot to ask if there was just a shower or a bathtub too. The second door on the left is the bedroom, which you have seen the picture. At the end of the hall is the very large living room and straight ahead is the balcony. The balconies all appear to be the same size as the other balcony rooms, just because of the metal decor on the side of the ship, some are a bit more obstructed than others.
I had this room booked but switched to an SJ3 instead. I'm pleased to see that the living room is on the side instead of the bedroom.
Celebrity Beyond Le Voyage
in Celebrity Cruises
Posted
In response to question 2, at this moment it can but it will be changing in the very near future. We received a gifted specialty dining for two on the last cruise and were told it could not be used at Le Voyage.