tfred

us too. It was an insane price

Yep. We booked a 12 night Rome to Venice cruise on SSea for 2024. It was actually cheaper than the Celebrity 12 nighter in a suite. Smaller ship that can go into smaller ports AND included excursions These are easier to decide than the standard Caribbean 7 night. Those are in and out of south Florida Even though we live in FLL area in winter trying Seabourne or SSea generally requires, flying to the port (probably not direct) and then another day or two in a hotel. Traveled for business my whole life so I know ho to do it. Just something about driving 30 minutes to Port Everglades that makes it easy. If I was still working the X model makes it very easy - fly to FLL on Friday, embark on Saturday and the fly home the following Saturday

if I was X I would be trying to raise my prices to keep them equal to land based resorts as well. Why give it away? Some of this depends on who the new suite customers are If they are brand new then that is what they are used to buying on land (Lets get a suite!!) then that is what it is. They really have no expectations of what goes on especially with Luminae and to some extent with the PDP. The Retreat lounge and sun deck are easy to understand for everyone. The established suite pax (those on Cruise Critic for the most part ) know that the PDP and Luminae included all those wines as of last year - X just moved the goalposts Lumina isnt just a better MDR - the menu definitely has a twist a that is impossible to tell from the X website. I like it but, there are no shortage of pax on FB that dont like the menu The PDP sounds pretty inclusive to the average new pax (who is paying more than $17 for a glass of average wine at a resort - no one) Their problem is getting dinged for $2 when they just dropped $10k for a suite. No one is going to like that for wines that they probably recognize as everyday Costco selections No one expects Barolos to be included with no up charge X should extend the Eden model of obviously different/better drinks and charge $10 more for those wines/spirits - but they have to be better. $2 is just the beginning of the "oh, come on" discussion with the Somm that doesnt make anyone feel good.

It may be that this gentleman’s very recent departure (from VP Food and Beverage to VP Hotel Ops) has caused this change Q4 2023 whoever the new person is may be the one who caused the change.

With the purchase of a $10k Sky you would think that anything on this list would be included it also doesn’t match the app. How hard can this be ?

I would be alot happier if the PDP wine selection was a tad more expansive Mouton Cadet red blends are pretty low end for "Premium"

Blu food is good - we like it. Food is always subjective but there isnt anything weird on the menu. Blu itself is smaller and great service. $70 for the upgrade is a good deal I dont see a problem at those times.

we have done some of the DIY vacations (tons of air, CC and hotel points) and had a great time as well We like an easy winter vacation (we live in south Florida) and a cruise a good choice Been on a few ships and like X. Although we had done two Crystal River cruises and they were phenomenal Really benchmark material X (The Retreat for us) has been great. Service, food, booze all good. The "magic " does wear off after a few cruises but what should remain is seamless service with an exemplary experience. On Apex in 10 days so we shall see if the money is worth it. A few other cruise line options for this kind of money

unfortunate That would not prevent me from having a good time ( I can survive on Aberfeldy ) but the chipping away at the edges is a problem. We aren't huge drinkers but better quality than I drink at home is something that I liked on previous Apex Retreat sailings

all I know was that better name spirits and wine were available in the lounge, sun deck and Luminae as of last year No winks or nods that this was special. now its Costco level spirits and grocery store wine in suites Spending $9k on a SS and $2-22 for "better" is a problem. They won't allow no up charge in the sun deck and lounge with an up charge in Luminae. Pax would be filling water glasses of Macallan in the lounge and walking to Luminae and not ordering anything in the restaurant

it is absolutely possible to a land vacation for less money in some great places the perceived advantage of a cruise is the "one stop shopping" - room, shows, booze, food within a resort setting. There is no shortage of suite cruisers on FB that are struggling to find a hotel in Fort Lauderdale for one night - these are not the people who can organize a trip to Santorini on their own. Especially with a group of almost any size ( and I have done it) the dynamics of cars, what time to you eat breakfast?, is very difficult. Cruises and Marriott/Ritz Carlton style resorts are very popular - try booking one in Florida right now - and they are expensive (easily $700/night plus food/booze) Cruises and resorts allow a group of any size to do what they want and just meet for dinner. A family of 4 (H/W kids) can set their own schedule and can do different itineraries

there certainly is a new crowd and many of them are from land based vacations /resorts I am not so sure that those same land customer spending $1k/night (or more) would be thrilled with the wine/spirit selection with the PDP They may have eaten in some better restaurants along the way that offer a good selection of booze. Dropping $200/day (as a duel occupancy room) and drinking the included Mouton cadet red blend isnt a plus in Luminae.

The "nice selection of other wines" has disappeared according to the wine lists on the app. That is the problem for anyone with a PDP and especially in a suite. In Luminae they always had something around that was pretty good - super tuscans, pinot noirs or just some interesting whites, rose. Now its house Chardonnays It was easy to ask for an appropriate wine for the course since there were some decent selections with no up charge If you wanted something special then the bottle list had a good selection. Now it appears that X is pushing you towards the bottle list since the math on by the glass selections doesnt make buying a bottle of that work out. This also puts the Somms in a bad spot since they dont have many selections to offer without a dumb up charge in a suite or some high priced bottle

A Sky Suite in any E Class ship is almost $11K for a week in the Caribbean - $1500/night. Not inexpensive. X should do what they can to offer at the least the appearance of value. Suite wine selections and food quality is something that pax can immediately see even if they are not wine lovers. With only one or two selections it is obvious they are cutting back Can hardly wait to see what the spirit selection looks like It may be that they are trying to increase bottle sales by limiting selection of better wine

probably need some actual drink menus for spirit and wine. Also, real life "did you get charged for that $19 glass of wine?" The selection of built in premium reds is Mouton Cadet Blend. Really, that is it in a suite?

what did they have with an up charge ?

other than the Aberfeldy 12, everything on the new PDP list is available in 1.75 liter sizes which is generally not an indicator of suite level drinks IMHO

Not having the elevated wine in the lounge is one thing but not having those wines physically in Luminae is another. They will be in Luminae and that will be the tale of the tape my other big question is Scotch whisky. Not a fan of the blends they have on the Premium list at suite prices.

could be the time difference. The area code was Wichita Kansas (middle of the USA, though they might just be using a US number to route through). Definitely a non-native English speaker lets see what happens on board

I e-mailed yesterday and received a call today. The call came from Wichita Kansas so I didn't pick up and they left a VM. I might have if it was a Miami area code but I dont pick up strange area codes My email outlined my displeasure of dropping a lot of money on a suite and then getting charged for better spirits and wine According to the VM, there are no up charges in The Retreat "area". They did not specify if that was the Lounge and Retreat deck as well as Luminae. Sounded like they were reading off a script which is the safe way to do it. Probably need some on the ship intel to verify but I have seen some posts on FB and they say they are up charged We are on Apex Sky Suite in two weeks so we will see.

This Looking at the wine list there is a real lack of wine that would be in the Premium category I looked at the Ascent 12/31 cruise and there is what appears to be an updated wine card in Luminae. In both red and white there is exactly one each listing for Premium wines. The Classic package has two each. None of them are inspiring and are basically house wines. The new wine and spirit cards are now essentially "Good, Better, Best" with the old Premium being "Better" (although I paid for best). It has gone from "ooh, I would like to try that" to "ok, I can drink that "

This is the problem to me. X didn’t bring in any new wine, they just repriced existing wines ( and I assume spirits) to put them over $17 so they could literally make an extra buck or two. if Macallan is on that up charge list I’ll pay it but I’m not coming back. Upwards of $10k in a sky suite and I’m paying $2.40 to drink was included last year ? Nope

all of this is true for us. We live in Florida in the winter and find it easy to drive to Fort Lauderdale (30 minutes) for a yearly January cruise. We liked X for a few years and now retired can are not restricted by schedule of ships. We sailed on 2 Crystal River (now gone) a few years ago and loved the no credit card aspect of the ships The Retreat offered that environment to us and also the big ship activities. On river ships we were tired with port intensive itin, so we just wanted dinner and some piano music with great food and wine/spirits. In the Caribbean we really don't do more than wander through town and then back on board. On those we enjoy the big ship activities when we want to go to shows, bigger casino and bars because we have the energy I dont mind paying close to SSea, Seabourne or Crystal but the X product (especially of recent) is not the equal of them given a few changes. I can do live without the butler, however the booze requires more money out of my pocket . I know its only 2 dollars but it is ridiculous to not include that for suites

us as well never seeing a price list . other than the occasional champagne in The Retreat, it was always spirits of some sort - scotch mostly with better rums, brandy (calvados) et al. If it was on the shelf it was free. I would hate to see a price list come out for that after dropping $10k

I came from the camera business and obviously it has been gutted by phone cameras The new iPhone results are superb for the everyday vacationer and better than most older cameras still in use. New cameras are expensive (generally over $1K) and somewhat bulky to carry - even the Fuji 100V which is fixed lens. Low light is what gets the phone cameras to look funky. I find that I have to bring a phone batter recharging pack with me since using an iPhone for photos, map directions and texts causes it to run down quickly I usually make a Shutterfly album of our cruise and find that even the largest prints (double bleed) look very good. I don't make wall sized prints (ran out of walls) but you can actually get some better, bigger prints with a phone.