kwokpot

Yes. This is a casino comped cruise. We were offered a comped inside and we upgrade for a few dollars $60 for the cabin,to a junior Oceanview. Unfortunately these cabins are smaller than the standard inside so in hindsight the standard inside cabin is actually larger One bright spot about cabin servicing is they continue with twice daily servicing. Unfortunately this morning there were no hand towels or face cloths. The evening service brought hand towels but no face cloths. They must be challenged with face cloth supplies. We didn't have them on embarkation,had them on days 2,3,4 and none on 5 and 6. Facial tissues are in the hair dryer drawer in the desk. There's no bar soap available so luckily we brought our own.

Photos from our dinner at Butcher's Cut Steakhouse. As a Diamond level member this was our complementary specialty dinner which is ordered from a special menu. As previously mentioned everything about the dinner was outstanding, food and service. The NY strip was tender, flavorful and grilled to the requested temperature. The only criticism is we were seated on the promenade balcony so it was extremely noisy with all the music going on below. Of course that's not the fault of the restaurant and asking to be seated inside the main restaurant would mitigate the noise issues.

*Overall the ship is in excellent condition.The ship is huge. There's plenty of space dedicated to walkways and hallways, and the main indoor promenade is wide and is used for many events. I do find the flow of some of the decks challenging, for example getting to the gym on deck 16 is bewildering and I have resorted to going into the buffet and walking up one deck.

I'm currently on the Meraviglia"s 6/30/24 cruise from Brooklyn. Just some quick thoughts and observations on Day 6 of our cruise. For background this is our 3rd MSC cruise,2nd time on the Meraviglia (1st time during inaugural year from Genoa, Italy) and this will be our 114 cruise. * Overall service is abysmal. I know MSC follows the European model of service without a smile, but there really a nonchalant attitude that pervades the entire ship. *The MDRs are the most uneven in experience I have ever encountered. *Breakfast is the worst. They don't put out water glasses since they expect everyone to drink juice. Getting water is a chore. On brunch times water glasses are out since I guess the thought process is you don't drink juice if you have lunch type food. The service during breakfast is very odd. They seat you on sections and the servers initially swarm over to serve you coffee,juice,and pastries. Then they take your food order. Once the food is delivered, all the servers disappear and go to another section where they seat another group of passengers. In other words there's no dedicated service team that stays at your table section for the duration of your meal. So getting coffee refills is an exercise in futile. All breakfast food has been served COLD. Cold toast and eggs. Every morning. They don't make eggs to order, fried eggs are will done,as us all other eggs. *Buffet is a mess. There never enough water glasses or coffee mugs. The beverage centers are always out of coffee. The food actually is pretty good at the buffet. Great choices and food is hot. TBH you're better off eating breakfast in the buffet if you want hot food. *Cabin service is lacking. They have been running out of towels. Every day we have incomplete towels. *Butcher's Cut is a shining star in this dull universe. Food was excellent, as was the service. Everything was outstanding. I'll write some more at the end of the cruise,but this probably ranks the worse of all of our cruises. This was so far below our experience on the Seashore two years ago weit seems like a different cruiseline.

No,the benefits of the cabin stay with the booked passenger,so you cannot transfer the suit benefits from your friend to your husband.

The symbol doesn't indicate where the connecting door is, just that it's a connecting cabin.

Very true. Unfortunately in these kinds of situations you need to be a little more proactive and forceful with asking for immediate results.

The OP hasn't sailed yet. They are talking about the initial booking invoice, NOT the onboard cabin charges. You're confusing the OP's situation.

Your first post was Wednesday. Did you call again yesterday on Friday?

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.