karmamule

The review link is broken for me. Does it work for others? Regardless, lovely pics, thanks!

True. And, to bring it back a little more on the original topic, we're big fans of trying many cruise lines rather than focusing on one. (Especially now that loyalty benefits are getting watered down). We've been on MSC, RCL, NCL, Celebrity, Carnival, Virgin, and will (finally!) be adding Princess to the list next year. It's fun to sample the variety of ships, restaurants, and see how each cruise line has their own style. No one line stands out for us, we've found things to enjoy on all of them. Least favorite is probably Carnival (other than the great free food options), and fave is a 3-way tie between MSC (in the YC), Celebrity, and Virgin. Even if you're not as fed up as the OP is with Celebrity, variety is the spice of life for us.

Their parent company RCL must really love them because they're bringing IV-style rooms to their new pride and joy, the Icon of the Seas.

Our last cruise before the pandemic was 14 days on the Meraviglia in the Yacht Club and we loved it. You're going to have a wonderful time. What a great way to treat yourselves! Oh, and congratulations and I hope your wedding is fantastic. 😀

We'll be on the Summit for the first time this fall out of Boston in Aqua class (room 1100). Getting a glimpse into what's in store for us in Aqua class is wonderful, thank you!

They're such spectacular cabins. We were in one in January and it was our favorite ever.

Of all the lines we've been on we've found MSC's specialty restaurants to be the most ho-hum. We almost always leave them saying "Well that was good" but w/o a sense of wow we have to go back soon. Looking forward to trying Hola Tacos again because of several reports of how good it is, unlike when we tried it a little over a year ago. Our next is a B2B as well so we'll be going to some specialty restaurants more for the sake of variety than feeling like we'll be getting substantially better food.

We've found Butcher's Cut to be "fine" for what it is but it's not an "OMG must go there" experience. As others have said the filet in the YC is just as good. We do still like to go to Butcher's Cut at least once for the varied breads, appetizers and desserts. My partner always gets a filet but I like a good ribeye so will usually have that at Butcher's Cut.

We booked a 14 day YC on Seascape for next year and have been to all the ports multiple times. We'll definitely get off the ship for the 2 days at Ocean Cay but other than that we'll very likely just enjoy the empty ship like you're saying. We are cruising with some friends for the 1st leg of the trip so they may end up cajoling us into being a bit more active but otherwise, yeah, lazy days lounging around on an uncrowded ship are golden.

We'll check out the details when we get on the ship. Thanks!

Oh I didn't know you could use OBC for tips! We have a LOT of OBC for our upcoming cruise on the summit so it's very helpful to know that's something we can do with any unused portion.

I'm hoping that it's just a problem with how the OBC is being presented on the bill and not that you were actually charged for it. Good luck!

We did very well in the casino on the Apex (our only Celebrity cruise so far) and loved that it was non-smoking. No major jackpots but several nice payouts in the $1000 range that kept us going steadily throughout the cruise. We've been on 3 MSC cruises (Seaside, Meraviglia, and Seascape) and did ok on all 3 trips. Nothing particularly notable good or bad. (As an FYI we are fairly frequent visitors of the casino, only play slots, usually once a day for an hour or two, sometimes twice a day on sea days). MSC's casino on the Meraviglia felt a little larger and more spacious to us than the one on the Apex. (But the Apex casino was still fine.) MSC's casinos also felt more crowded in general than on the Apex. The smoking isn't terrible while in the casino on an MSC ship BUT we hate how it does leave lingering cigarette smell on any clothes we wear there. We ended up having our 'casino outfits' for each MSC cruise so we limited the # of items affected.

This is very true for us as well! We haven't been on as many cruises, but we've been on NCL, MSC, Celebrity, Virgin, Carnival and RCL and every cruise has been a delight. There is always something disappointing, but in each case that's been outweighed by all the fun and relaxation we have. We feel like we'll be tending to book more on Celebrity and Virgin in the future, but you never know when some new ship or great itinerary will catch our eye.

Whatever processes generate Celebrity's e-mails have some issues. We have an upcoming fall cruise and had booked it back when the Indulge package was still around. A couple weeks ago I got an e-mail asking if I wanted to upgrade from Classic to Premium drinks package for my upcoming cruise. Since the Indulge package included Premium drinks I was surprised. Called their customer service and after checking the rep confirmed we did indeed already have the Premium package and said I could ignore the e-mail.

Same for our prior back-to-back of two 7 days. Only had to register CC once.

A few weeks I booked the two of us on a 14 day on Seascape for next February and one of the grands on 16 were shown as available and we grabbed it, so that must not be a hard and fast rule.

Even without taking the low price into account the service, facilities and amenities of Yacht Club are top notch. When you DO take into account how much lower the fares are compared to Celebrity Retreat, RCL Sky class or above, or NCL Haven it's quite amazing. We had a great time in the Retreat on Celebrity Apex but when it came time to book again we got 14 days in a YC Deluxe Grand Suite on the Seascape for less than 7 days in a similar cabin in the Retreat on the Beyond.

It's very useful. There are a handful of people whose posts usually annoy me and CC is a much better place after I've ignored them. You'll still see their posts if someone replies to them and quotes the original post, but it's still an improvement.

Thanks for the replies! That's what I suspected, but good to know for sure. I always find it helps to set expectations properly before the cruise to avoid feeling annoyed during it.

Back a few years ago we booked 14 days on Meraviglia as two 7 day cruises B2B. On day 8 in Miami we had to disembark then immediately board again. Next year we have 14 days on Seascape but it was listed and booked as a single 14 day cruise. Will we still have to disembark and reboard on day 8 or is it different because it was booked as a 14 day cruise? Not a big deal either way, I was just wondering while idly daydreaming about the cruise ☺️

So good to read this before our 11 day Canada/New England this fall. We were a little nervous because this will be the smallest and oldest ship we’ve ever been on, but a top notch crew will make almost any cruise excellent.

We'll be on the Celebrity Summit this October and MSC Seascape next February. Both got 100 scores in their most recent reports. Here's hoping they keep their quality up and the Seaside gets its act together.

We were just on an 8-day Valiant Lady cruise in the Caribbean and it was a great experience. Crew were friendly and service was great, passengers were a good mix of people and didn't feel like a 'party hard' crowd. (There was plenty of partying but contained to the appropriate spaces or times). If you want to try a VV cruise but avoid the shorter ones this is also a good choice.

We were 'Celebrity virgins' too when we went on our January cruise on the Apex. Lots of great tips from other posts above. I'd definitely recommend dining at least once at Eden. It's our favorite specialty restaurant from any cruise ship. (And we've been on NCL, RCL, Carnival, MSC, and Virgin). We were also surprised we liked the filet mignon from Le Grand Bistro more than the one at Fine Cuts. We also enjoyed the Rooftop Garden more than the mixed reviews led us to believe. We're normally not fans of big shows on cruise ships, but we loved both shows we went to in the Apex's theater. They used its giant screen well, and the singers were all excellent. It's a great ship, and we'll definitely be back on another Edge-class ship in the next couple years. We hope you enjoy it all as much as we did!