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They have a canvas covering that will give some shade at least some of the time. If you zoom in on this photo, you can see them forward of the penthouse (with a Sky Suite and Concierge Class room between the penthouse and first Royal Suite.

The MDR kitchen is a very long ways away from the Luminae kitchen on Edge Class ships. I had no problem ordering off the MDR on an M class ship last week. S class kitchens are closer as well.

No, Celebrity is not all inclusive. I've heard there are some glitches in the website today so you may have booked a cruise only fare.

We were also on this same cruise. I didn't go to the comedian but my husband who did said he really enjoyed it, one of the best comedians he has seen on a cruise in a while. The boring, dark, dull decor you describe is the traditional cruising vibe many of us like. But it absolutely is not vibrant. Celebrity ships that have been revolutionized have much lighter colors and a more modern feel. The Edge class I think takes that a step further with more color. But Celebrity will likely never be quite the vibrant colors of an NCL or even Royal ship. This ship is also smaller than most (if not all) NCL and Royal ships so it will be a different atmosphere. Before you completely give up on Celebrity, you might want to at least look at the Edge class ships. They may have more of what you are looking for. Since we all have different things we want out of a cruise, it's nice to have variety both within a specific cruise line and among all cruise lines.

You should dock at the International Pier. It looks like there are only two Royal Caribbean Group ships in port that day (Brilliance of the Seas and the Beyond) so both would have room at their normal pier.

I don't know if you are talking about my posts but we were kind and respectful in every interaction we had with our butler. And our requests were not demanding or really asking for much (a fruit bowl, limes, room service twice). And the one request we did make that I knew was a bigger ask (robes) was asked in a way that was made clear we were just asking what was possible and would accept no if it was not possible. And my husband even still gave him some additional tip money despite the lack of good service. That doesn't mean we have to be happy with whatever service (or lack thereof) that we received. Even staff who have lives can still do their jobs well. People who pay a lot of money for an upper suite should be able to expect a certain level of service.

You will want to book all the specialty dining reservations you know you will want through the shoreside concierge who will contact you 2-3 weeks before you sail. We had no issues getting the reservations we wanted in those last couple weeks before we cruised. Once on the ship, we personally had more difficulty changing a reservation (although others have had better luck making changes once on board).

No, she missed her revolution but just a matter of weeks when COVID hit. I don’t imagine they will think about restarting the revolution until Celebrity is in a better financial spot. She did get a nice refresh (new furniture, carpet, paint, etc. in public areas) in July of 2021 before her restart.

Yes, her husband was able to persuade AT&T to remove quite a few of the charges but it still cost them more than they were planning.

I have a friend who signed up for the AT&T Cellular at Sea package prior to the cruise and still came home to huge unexpected fees. I didn't go through her bill or anything to know exactly what went wrong but it did not work out well for them. I have heard similar stories from others. So I strongly suggest anyone going this route to make sure they research enough so they truly understand everything that is covered and what is not covered.

Just going on a cruise in a basic room gives you more than you can expect at home (someone to make your bed, cook your meals, serve you, etc.). So you already are expecting more than you get in daily life. You are just drawing the line in a different place than others as to how much more you expect on a cruise. And you are booking a specific room type for different reasons than those who book one for the amenities including what a butler can do.

Thanks for all your comments. We probably should have followed up with the Retreat Manager one more time but the last way we wanted to spend our already too short cruise was doing more follow-up, especially after the first conversation didn't change much. Yes, I went into this realizing we might not get robes (or pajamas) and we were very careful to word our request in a way that we just wanted to know what was possible. Our follow ups were all focused on whether our butler had asked his supervisor about our request. We really just wanted an honest answer. Aside from Galapagos next year which I imagine isn't a true Retreat experience, our next suite experience will actually be in the Yacht Club. It will be first time on MSC and I am curious how it compares.

Our cabin attendant left two additional robes on our bed to take home this evening after we again asked our butler about getting new packaged ones - they were even more used than the ones in our closet, one with mending on the back that was coming apart. I feel like that made it even worse. (We did pick out the best of the ones we had and left the mended ones in the closet.). I'm not going to let our butler/concierge experience ruin this vacation but I am disappointed in that aspect of our trip.

So after following this thread so closely, now that we are on our way back to Tampa as our cruise comes to an end, I thought I would share my experience. We are in the penthouse on the Constellation. This was our first upper suite and quite a splurge for us (as it probably is for most). The room blew us out of the water. I'm not sure you can beat the deck of the penthouse on an M class ship. Our embarkation day was also truly amazing. All I had to do was mention penthouse, and they were escorting us around all the lines of people and to the head of the security line, which was a huge benefit as the coast guard inspection really delayed boarding (this was Tampa's return to the US from Europe). Upon boarding, we were escorted by Concierge Kaya to our room and then to Luminae for lunch. Luminae staff have been amazing. And before I go on to the issues we had, we truly had an amazing cruise and I'm glad we did it. But I'm really disappointed in our butler and even the concierge. Our port changed from Belize to Costa Maya and with the change from a tender port to a docked port, I wanted to be able to watch sail away and so immediately upon boarding asked the concierge to change our Tuscan Grill reservation. We were told there was not any availability until much later than we wanted to eat. Our butler didn't check in with us until late afternoon on embarkation day and when he did, he was clearly in a hurry and more concerned with making sure we understood that any room service we ordered would arrive cold. He also told us he had just boarded that day but that he had previously been a Butler on the Eclipse. We handed him a sheet of our requests as he ran out which included basic things like a fruit bowl, limes, and afternoon snack preferences, He clearly didn't even read the sheet until at least day 3 (and it was a five day cruise). We had to follow up several times on the things that mattered to us and some things never got fulfilled. Fairly early on the Retreat Manager did stop in. She caught us off guard so we weren't ready to respond but we did hesitate and mention a number of requests that hadn't been fulfilled like the fruit bowl. She managed to send someone else up with a fruit bowl but never checked in again and honestly we didn't want to spend more of our vacation chasing down requests. We got way too many treats in the room yesterday but absolutely nothing any of the other days. We asked if we could get robes to take home and when we followed up yesterday, our Butler's response was, "didn't I tell you that was approved?" and then he looked to our room steward and said it was his area. He said if we don't get packaged robes, we should just take the ones we have been using. Packaged robes have not arrived yet and we have already done most of our packing. Maybe my expectations were too high after reading others' experiences but I didn't expect to have to continuously be following up on things. I'm still really glad we did this. The Scarlet Lady did a full turn just off our balcony yesterday morning which was absolutely magnificent to watch. And we docked right the Infinity in Cozumel who arrived after us and left before us. So we truly had some memorably experiences in this suite. But I don't think I would book an upper suite again for the amenities after this experience.

We just did valet parking through the port for the Constellation that sailed yesterday. Based on the car location from our car app, my husband is pretty sure the car is parked in covered parking. It was pretty easy. We paid in advance, pulled up to where the porters were and alerted one of the individuals directing traffic that we had valet. A valet quickly came and gave us a ticket. Last year we parked in the surface lot (uncovered) right next to terminal 6 and aside from the drop off lane, you really can't get any closer. It was very convenient (although fills up fast) but is not covered.

Sure, but prices are going up everywhere and the cruise lines sat without any revenue for over a year. A business has to make money somehow and they are going to do that by setting prices as high as people are still willing to pay. As the consumer, we get to decide when those prices have gone too high and stop buying the product or service.

Keep in mind 5% is a very small amount. That's only $50 on a $1,000 bid. I doubt these multipliers are going to typically do anything besides break a tie.

Yeah, I can’t find where OP said it is non-refundable and in my experience when OBC is given as a refund for something, it usually is refundable.

Are there any codes on your invoice? Such as one that starts with "Bev"? Many of us are familiar with the various codes and may be able to decipher them.

Here is the Port of Tampa schedule. Click on your sailing on the calendar and it will list the terminal. Celebrity usually uses Terminal 6. https://www.porttb.com/cruise-schedules

Gratuities are the same for an OV as they are for a verandah. It isn’t until concierge class that they start increasing. And they definitely didn’t increase $12 per day per person recently. Unless I’m missing something, it doesn’t seem right.

Depends where it is going. There are still some protocols for TransPacific cruises.

As long as the passport is still valid, the US will not deny a US Citizen entry so a passport with still a couple months on it will be no problem to get home in an emergency. The six month rule relates to non-citizens entering a country. Countries don’t want non-citizens/non-residents getting stuck and then overstaying any visas/time limits for tourists. The issue in your case is that you have to get into Canada first and it sounds like Canada does have a 6 month rule for non-citizens entering.

Yes, although your beverage and Wi-Fi packages would not be upgraded to the premium versions unless you had already paid for those upgrades.

All the reports I have seen very recently have all been TAs or TPs headed to Australia where rules are still quite strict.