kwokpot

This is something that can be fixed on the spot. I'm not sure why you have to 'wait'. There's nothing to research,tell them that's not what you booked and you want it rectified right then and there. Escalate to a supervisor if needed. You need to be more insistent on what you want them to do.

TBH I don't see why it's necessary even in cold weather itineraries. There are plenty of cruiselines, namely NCL, where I don't think ANY of their current fleet has an indoor swimming pool that's available to standard cabin passengers. Same thing with Carnival's newest ships. Even Royal's Oasis, Voyager, and Freedom Class ships don't have any all weather pools(Later Oasis class ships have enclosed the adults only solarium hot tubs/wading pools. And of course Celebrity themselves previously didn't have family hours. So if the corporate's family geared cruiseline have ships with every imaginable doodad for families and kids but no indoor pool I don't see why a family hour is needed on their Celebrity line.

Also Carnival.

Yes, correct, there's free drinks while actively playing in casino on Celebrity. Actively playing means having your card in a slot machine with money in the machine and/or playing at a table game (BJ, poker, roulette}. Must be ordered from a roving server. With regard to the welcome champagne it is no longer offered as you enter the ship but from what people have said here on CC it's being offered at Cafe Al Bacio during embarkation. I haven't sought it out myself so I can't vouch for this.

$1,200 exactly and up.

FYI that isn't how it's done and I would have raised holy hell. All cruiseline bars service tap water with or without ice.

No this isn't a new benefit. If you are Elite+ status or higher you get complimentary premium Coffee and teas throughout the day every day of your cruise. It's available at all ship venues that serve espresso based coffee drinks and venues that serve the Arte of Tea premium tea selections. This benefit doesn't include ANY bottled water of any kind or sodas/flavored seltzers;however, those beverages can be obtained, in unopened bottles and cans, at the daily Captain's Club Happy Hour from 5-7pm as long as you're at Elite or higher status.

I beg to differ. If you've attained a high enough status and the cruiseline's loyalty club is robust enough to give meaningful benefits, the chances of you staying with that cruiseline vs going to another cruiseline where you don't have any status and thus no additional benefits is very high. That's the whole point of ANY loyalty program. Look at how hotel and airline loyalty programs work. Customer retention and stickiness is the name of the game. https://www.constantcontact.com/blog/loyalty-programs/#:~:text=Loyalty programs entice customers to,CLV increases%2C so does revenue.&text=Loyalty programs focus on customer,acquire new customers as well.

I'll repeat my question; why do you think that's the case? Without crunching the numbers and doing an analysis of the cost benefits of each component of the various loyalty programs it's impossible to predict what is and isn't more profitable vs having the best Loyalty program for customer retention. How 'sticky' are cruise passengers and to what extent does a loyalty program further customer retention? The most recent changes seem to indicate the REVERSE of what you're saying, since the enhancements to the loyalty programs seem at face value to be beneficial to the customer and all about customer retention and expansion within the RCC, to create further 'stickiness' to the Corporation's brands.

Have you done the analytics to confirm your hypothesis? BTW I was a Business Analyst for a bank before retiring, so it's always about the math. I'm not sure how you came to the conclusion that if Celebrity, with regard to loyalty drinks benefit, went with the Royal program that it would be less profitable.

Going to Cococay and adding more 3-4 nights cruises. The Solarium having permanent family hours.

The toiletries are different in CC with standard IV cabins using unbranded toiletries made for Celebrity and CC cabins having Bigalow products.

If Celebrity went will a voucher system there wouldn't be a limited drink list but instead a dollar value to each voucher,say $15, which can be used for all beverages sold on the ship. Any beverage whos' cost is higher than the limit one would be charged the difference plus gratuities on the differential. That's how it works on Royal and why there are many people that prefer that system since it allows one to get a better drink. On Royal you can get a frozen Pina Colada with your drink voucher while that's not an included drink on Celebrity's HH drink list. So quality vs quantity.

Just to be clear while there's no BAR in the Retreat Lounge on the Edge drinks are ordered and served TO YOU by the roving waiters. Whatsmore the bars on the other E-Class ships is more of a service bar since there's no seating around the bar, so while you could conceivably stand and lean there and converse I'm not sure why you would do that when there's seating merely 5 feet away.

It would be helpful to know what cruiseline you've been sailing so people can give you comparisons and additional thoughts. As others have said, the Edge Class of ships, expecially the Ascent and Beyond, would seem to fit more to what you're looking for. Other cruselines with similar ship within a ship area would be NCL's Haven Class and MSC's Yacht Club. You should look into those lines as well, the dates you're interested in, and see what ships are available and compare and contrast all three lines. But regarding Celebrity. I would choose the Ascent, Beyond, Apex, Edge in that order.

It's also available in the MDRs.

I'm curious how many waters and sodas you take on average a day during Celebrity's HH? And for the record, I LOVE Celebrity's Elite+ coffee benefit and agree it's far superior to Royal's in lounge offering. My point is if Celebrity went with a voucher system the coffee benefit would remain the same, so you wouldn't need to use the vouchers to get coffees an/or teas and can use the vouchers solely for water and non-alcoholic beverages, of which you could use for premium waters.

I think you're assuming if Celebrity treated Cocktail HH as they do on Royal that the Elite+ Premium coffee and teas benefit would disappear. I don't think that in the LEAST, since Royal has the Crown Lounge with the self service espresso based coffee machine. Since Celebrity has no such thing, the Elite+ coffee and tea benefit would HAVE TO REMIAN in order to have the benefits remain the same. At issue with the Celebrity benefit is the limited nature of the complimentary drinks. Value wise Royal is a better benefit since it applies to ALL drinks up to $14 and those exceeding you pay the difference including tax and gratuity. That's a $70/day drink value for Diamond+passengers. On Celebrity, if you wanted a better and/or drink that's not included you have to pay full price, no discount is given. That's terrible!

The HVAC shuts downs,so that includes heat as well as AC. Yes, closing the bifold doors will help keep the colder air from traveling as fast into the rest of the room,but with the heat off the entire room will eventually cool down from whatever temperature you set. What we did was leave the bifold doors open,open the window,and enjoy the Icelandic fiords without coats until we were too chilly,then close the window to warm up and just enjoy the views with the window closed. Then repeat the process when we and/or the room warmed back up.

Yes,I've been on two different MSC cruises,2 different ship designs,and going on my 3rd MSC cruise the end of the month. The ships are beautiful,more similar to Celebrity's S-Class ships regarding interior design. The Meraviglia Class is almost a carbon copy of Royal's Quantum Class in overall layout. I haven't sailed in Yacht Club but standard class is similar to Royal in overall cruise experience. Food is European style and is ok/good - similar to Royal or Carnival but not as good as Celebrity.

Maybe not on this thread but there are countless other threads where people think it's a better version of a verandah cabin rather than a better version of an OCEANVIEW cabin.

100% agree. For the record I LOVE the IV cabin, for what it really is. The point of these continuous threads about this subject is to educate people about the realities of what the IV cabin is and isn't. I have no problems whether people like or dislike this type of cabin. My pet peeves are twofold;those that pass on erroneous information about these cabins, and those that seem to want to convince themselves of the marketing verbiage that an IV is somehow a BETTER version of a real veranda/balcony cabin;they are nothing alike and in no way shape or form similar. I laugh when people say IV cabins have less noise than traditional verandas;OBVIOUSLY since your always inside your room while on a real balcony/veranda you're standing outside on a platform that attached to the outside of the ship and literally can be interconnected by opening all the partitions.

MSC calls it an Infinite Oceanview. https://youtu.be/wILbkyc9Ams?si=lwH-ilIqKOrvDA6a

You can call to change your cabin to the bed configuration you want as long as it's the same category. You should call and have it changed!

They could be confusing the term as the next cabin category up from INSIDE or INTERIOR, but as you stated there's no cruiseline that uses the term outside for an Oceanview or Window cabin category since it doesn't make any sense.