kwokpot

ALL the mainstream cruiselines, Royal, Celebrity, NCL, Carnival, MSC, Princess counts fully comped cruises in their loyalty programs and any benefits that comes with your status you receive on fully comped casino cruises on all those lines.

The Virgin Thermal Suites are in no comparison to those found on NCL. Two things stand out. First is the Co-ed changing rooms. Once you past the reception desk you'll come to a hallway with individual changing rooms on one side (similar to try-on rooms in clothing stores) and the other side has individual shower stalls. Past those and you'll find a locker section for you personal items and clothes. I don't understand for the life of me why they didn't REVERSE the placement of these things and have you walk directly into a locker area. Anyway I thought I wouldn't like this unusual arrangement but it in practice it was OK. It definitely saves alot of space instead of two single sex changing/shower rooms. The second major change from all other thermal suites is the absence of individual heated tile loungers and in its place are slabs of heated stone platforms. So instead of lying down on your own heated lounger you have to find a space to lay totally horizontally flat on a heated stone surface. I think it's a terrible idea. It's not comfortable and you're at the mercy of where and how others are laying down. The Thermal suite is beautiful to look at, but not particularly practical in use.

If you don't already know the jogging track spans decks 15 and 16, meaning two sections of it are on an incline and decline. It's probably the most inventive cruiseship running track and it traverses different parts of the ship.

That might be the answer!

Yes, we've also never been invited to any of that either. Isn't that tied with Zenith status though?

In the OP's situation if they are they same room type it makes it easier to have the ship officially switch rooms. In my situation last year on the Solstice it was a bit more complicated. I was traveling with my sister and her husband. I had a casino complementary Veranda which I had my sister as the 2nd occupant. My husband had a casino complimentary Concierge Class room that included a classic beverage package and free wifi, and my husband added my BIL to his room. So I needed to switch cabins with my BIL. Given the cabins types and benefits were different and the benefits are assigned to the individual that was initially booked in the cabin, we couldn't have the ship officially switch two passengers. So we ended up just getting extra keys for me and my BIL to use to get in and out of our new cabins, but use our original key cards for all other transactions.

Thank you for your thorough response. What you wrote is what I had thought is Celebrity's general policy. The accompanying card says Welcome home and the guests first names printed on the face of the card and inside is a message addressed to who I assume is the main guest welcoming them to the Solstice. I couldn't tell from the photo who it's from. It's the current sailing on the Solstice. My initial question to OP was if they were in Retreat Class and they said no, which is why I asked follow-up questions. Don't get me wrong, I think it's a wonderful gesture and as I said previously it's nice to see this being done when we all are somewhat down on Celebrity for their cost cutting measures and changes. It's just that we've never received a gift in this manner that wasn't due to the cabin type gifts, Captains Club status gifts, or maiden voyage gifts The gifts that accompany cabin types generally don't have your name printed on the card face. Not being Zenith Level I don't know how personalized those gifts are.

The responses so far show that there is indeed personalized Welcome Back gifts (that are non cabin or CC related benefits) given by the Hotel Director and there doesn't seem, at least on the surface, a pattern or qualification to receive such gifts. It's a very nice gesture especially when we are concerned about Celebrity diluting their brand with various cutbacks. We've taken eight Celebrity cruises since the pandemic, sailing on every E-Class ship in the fleet, and haven't received such a welcome back gift so I was curious how pervasive this practice was.

Are you Zenith level?

I asked that and there was no response to my question. I don't think it's an inappropriate question to ask on a Celebrity specific social media forum how they came to this gift that they choose to share with the forum.

Yes, on the Ascent and Beyond they enlarged the Grand Plaza and centered the Martini Bar do there's seating around. They added those infinity pools on the Portside of the Rooftop Garden and the garden itself is larger and better designed. The Sunset bar is totally different with it's Mediterranean theme and it's much larger with a shaded bar area. There more seating areas in the Aft section adjacent to the Sunset bar. World Class Bar and Le Voyage are not found on the first two ships. Blu restaurant has better views and the Retreat facilities are totally different in that Luminae is now located forward right with all the other Retreat amenities. They really did try to address some of the shortcomings of the first two E-Class ships.

On another Celebrity Social media forum someone posted a photo of a bottle of Decoy wine and a lovely personalized note that was left in their cabin welcoming them back on Celebrity. I asked if they knew why they received it and they were a bit coy and didn't answer the question. They're in Aquaclass and it wasn't from the casino. Do other people receive Welcome back gifts from Celebrity? I can honestly say we've never received anything that wasn't from the casino department. Just curious.

They are basically the same ship except for a few minor differences. The biggest differences are on the pool deck where on the Ascent they put all those large umbrellas for more shady seating if desired and the elimination of one of the decorative seating areas near the pool bar. Otherwise the changes are minor. The Ascent and Beyond are different than the previous 2 ships, the Edge and the Apex.

Yes. We have done this and it isn't an issue. You can go to Guest Relations and get extra keys for the other rooms. So you would use the new keys to get into and out of the cabin and your original keys when ordering drinks, disembarking the ship at the ports, etc. In other words the new keys are solely for getting and out of the exchanged room. Everything else you need to use your original keys. So it means you'll need to carry 2 sets of keys. You can add a label to the new keys to make it easier to indicate which key is for room entry only. Having said that if the sole reason you might want to change rooms is bed placement then TBH waiting until you get onboard is a stupid way to do it since you can know RIGHT NOW what the bed placement is in each room and make you decision NOW. Just look at the Celebrity deck plans and look at your rooms and look at where there's a nook or notch in the cabin walls. If the little nook is near the window then the bed is by the window. If the little nook is closer to the middle of the room, then the bed is by the bathroom. This method is 100% accurate. There can be many other reasons you want to change rooms with other people you're traveling with that may necessitate you being in the room until you decide, but bed placement is something you can know now.

Yes, that was my thought as well and I was trying to convey that in the discussion since someone had the opinion that it's not a big deal and everyone knows how to figure it out. I begged to differ.

Welcome. I would say it's more of a concern on the M and S class ships. We've been on those class of ships in a Verandah with an overhang and although It wasn't dark and gloomy you never received direct sunlight onto the balcony unless it's sunrise or sunset so it wouldn't be ideal for sunbathing out on your private balcony.

Yes, they are, but my question is whether that information is somehow coded on the systems that TAs and/or Celebrity's own agents use. In other words do those professionals have to use the same trick? My sense is there isn't a separate indicator for professionals. The reason I ask is on a separate Facebook Celebrity forum I was having this discussion about bed placement and someone said just check at the time you're booking your cruise with whomever you book your cruise with and they will know. I chimed in that's not necessarily the case. We frequent the Hard Rock Casino Hotel in Atlantic City, NJ and the check-in agents have a cheat sheet for one of the hotel towers as to which rooms have a walk-in stall shower vs a bath tub/shower combo you have to step in. My sense is Celebrity doesn't provide that kind of information.

OT: Since I know you're a TA I wanted to ask you a question. Do TA's or Celebrity's own booking agents have access to bed placement on E-Class ships? I know the trick to figuring it out from the Deck plans (since Celebrity doesn't given indications on the Deck Plans) but I'm wondering if there's a Cheat Sheet so to speak.

We were in an IV cabin #12291 on the Ascent and yes there was the overhang. It wasn't an issue. It's not dark and gloomy if that's your concern. Since an IV cabin isn't a real Veranda cabin with a true outdoor space, the overhand was irrelevant to whether it's a good cabin.

Disregard. It's wrong..

It seems they did the minimum upgrades that are needed to prevent the public spaces from looking shabby. It looks like they removed the white sheers in the Grand Foyer which I always found quite dramatic as it framed that space and contrasted with the glow of the translucent stone staircase.

100% incorrect. The transfer company provides two transfers and they don't care where the pickup and dropoff is. You will receive an email approximately 3-4 weeks from the sail date asking about your personalized choices for your cruise(In room bar setup choices, excursion choice,etc). One of the questions will be if you want pier parking or transfers. If you choose transfers you'll then receive another email a few days after you respond to the first one directly from the transfer company. It will ask you from where and to where you want your first and second transfers and time frames. Helpful hint:If two people are traveling make sure both names are registered at the hotel. We had a situation where the primary name on the cruise booking wasn't the same person who checked into the hotel. When the driver asked for Mr.So and so there wasn't anyone by that name in the hotel, and it was a source of confusion.

The Celebrity transfer isn't inexpensive. If you have a party of 4, it would actually be less expensive to take a private transfer. And if one is mobility challenged it absolutely makes sense to take a private transfer. You have to look at the whole situation.

For people needing a taxi after taking a Celebrity transfer wouldn't it be just easier to take a private transfer from the ship to wherever you need to go?

While that is certainly true, what people are saying is the ALL of Celebrity's spas, regardless of Ship Class, have the bare minimum of spa facilities, and one could say that they actually don't since none of Celebrity's Thermal suites have a water feature (Whirlpool, hot tub, lap pool, wading pool). The Solarium doesn't count since it's not within the Thermal suite. Considering the cost of the Thermal Suite pass on E-Class ships they aren't a good value when other cruiselines, NCL and MSC come to mind, have provided far better thermal suite/spas in all ship classes, down to the smaller 70,000 ton class. It's not too long ago that cruiselines like Royal provided HUGE single sex spa facilities that were free of charge to use.