Kreative03

On 3/10/2024 at 6:44 AM, CruisematicVA said:

We scored a great deal on the UDP a couple days ago that ends up being cheaper than the specialty dining meals we had booked and gives us the option to a specialty restaurant for every lunch and dinner.

 

My question is, if you had the UDP, would you still enjoy a couple meals in the MDR, or would you eat every meal in a specialty restaurant?

 

When we were on the Celebrity Ascent over Christmas, we didn't get to one of their MDRs until night 5 and we realized then that their MDRs are significantly better than we would ever been in we wished we would have enjoyed them a couple more times turn our cruise.

 

Is the MDR on the Icon icon as good as they are on the Celebrity Ascent or is it more your typical crowded MDR with average food and service?

 

Just off Icon with UDP and a couple of things to note

1)Booking onboard left us with limited availability when it came to dining times in most if not all venues. This included MDR.

2) Large group dining was almost impossible to accommodate booking onboard.

3) MDR quality and service was outstanding. I’ve noticed on the first few months of new ships they tend to hit it out of the park and that is the current case onboard. We did MDR twice.

4) We used UDP for Playmakers but never ended up using Basecamp or  Izumi in the Park credits based on how we used the ship.

5) We found Chops and Izumi lacking relative to prior experiences. We did Giovanni’s twice and all courses disappeared. We made the decision to skip a second Chops to head back there and took literally any time they would give us.

happy to answer anything else 

5 hours ago, kaysha2004 said:

Kids on a Celebrity cruise AND in the Retreat?  I feel sorry for your fellow passengers who look for a peaceful experience in the retreat.  Leave the kids at home, then there's no problem with a babysitter.

You must be fun to cruise with. I promise, my kids are cute, the older one is exceptionally polite (and well traveled) and I enjoy spending time with them. We’ve never not felt welcomed in the Retreat, no matter the ship. Every now and again we want to enjoy a show or specialty dining that they might not and rather than subjecting everyone to something they aren’t into, we would prefer a few hours of babysitting. 

9 hours ago, Arizona Wildcat said:

Available on all ships at an hourly rate of $19.  Only time it was an issue was on a Christmas cruise with several hundred children on board.

When they switched it to Retreat only it was moved to $30/hr for up to 3 kids in the same family. Have you done it lately and did they revert the pricing?

I’ve tried and attempted to get babysitting on ships since the the Covid restart without much success. And have had another kid since 🤣. It’s been advertised as recently as 2023, so I’m still optomistic. Has anyone actually been able to obtain this service, and on what ship? Going on Beyond this summer and am oh so hopeful we can get it for even one night.

7 minutes ago, happy cruzer said:

Wow, please share more about your experience on harmony.  I really want to have lunch on port days at sabor at 2.  And at Johnny rockets.

 

what other restaurants did you try?

You can only get lunch on sea days using UDP. We wrongly assumed that 4pm would be coded as dinner instead of lunch since they  have continuous service and the same menu at each meal. We ate at all restaurants on harmony - sabor and JR for lunches on our sea days, and we did Izumi 2x and Giovanni’s 2x. We can’t handle main dining on Royal, so we’ve just understood UDP is what we do now. We’ve never been on a ship with playmakers, so that’s new to us.

I’m trying to ascertain if my credits will allow  non-dinner hours snacking. Basecamp for example seems to close at 8pm but is listed solely as snacks.

Is there a time for the daily credit? I know on port days lunch is not included and we got hosed once on Harmony for not paying attention at Sabor when we tried for an early happy hour.  

This looks like it was a 6/1 change, implemented on all cruises subsequent to that date.

@Norwaylady - I had it properly set up, and this was in the midst of the cruise, so I had changed nothing in the 85 steps of getting online on the infinity :-). The most frustrating was having network intermittent connectivity while sitting in one spot—as I am ok with slow, I just can’t stand the constant dropping and failure to reconnect. I can’t imagine having tried to work on the ship and felt terrible for the crew manning the ilounge desk with nothing to offer except “keep trying”

On 6/11/2023 at 1:52 PM, Mark_K said:

There was a long discussion about this a few weeks ago.

 

Another menu item deleted

Thanks for the linkup. I missed it but it’s a nice summary.

desserts also gone on the Eclipse. But curiously the kids menu has retuned its missing items.

I got off on Saturday - agree it is absolutely  terrible. Almost worse than when internet was contained to the onboard computers.

They have embarrassing tech issues as the icing on the cake for that ship, which just highlights how badly it needs a long dry dock to be revolutionized. They need to stop giving 4 devices free and worry about the bandwidth. I never need to see this error message again on a ship. Absolute trashfire of a Wi-Fi offering.

17 hours ago, wrk2cruise said:

Yes it was introduced fleet wide at the very end of May.

Sad to hear it. I’m usually a spoiled luminae diner as of late but being back in the MDR I was looking forward to my favorites. Time to book up some specialties.

All - I haven’t been on board a ship since mid-March, but apparently the MDR has taken classic desserts down to two. Hope you weren’t a cheesecake or chocolate cake fan (hint: that’s everyone in my 10 person traveling party). Our waiter confirmed that they are limiting classics, and he felt confident the other two might reappear, but not on this cruise.

I’m curious if this is the case fleetwide? I’m heading to the Eclipse next Sunday and will be so sad for two weeks instead of one if this is the case.

My Daughter was 2 weeks from 3 on the Apex innaugural. Almost no children onboard. They would not accept her — claim was due to insurance, even though she met the potty trained requirement. Same thing for my nephew 4 weeks away that same year on a different ship . YMMV when aging kids up across programs, but we’ve met a hard limit on the “are they 3” question several times over.

Babysitting is restricted to those in Suites, and is subject to ship availability. I have yet to have it offered since return to cruising, but that doesn’t mean it hasn’t happened. It will be charged to your folio so yes, OBC can be used.

Hopefully someone with experience recently can let you know about Eclipse.

For excursions, many have strict age limits and many can accommodate infants that are not shown. Do not assume you can book the whole family if the infant shows online as “not bookable”. Since you have a larger group it is helpful to contact Private Journeys to help make the booking and they know most of the actual restrictions.

11 hours ago, mac_tlc said:

We were on the 10/31 sailing and spoke to a few crew members that were due to leave for vacation in the next couple weeks. Most of those on board when we were there had been on since the restart.  Maybe the new crew members are still getting their sea legs. 

 

I believe Houssain in the Retreat Lounge has departed, but Joao and Amber are still there until 12/19. They were great. 

 

If you happen to go to Luminae and have Jose as the waiter, tell him "Mama and Papa" say hello !!!!

 

mac_tlc

I indeed saw about 50-75 departing crew when I arrived at around 10:50am. There are folks on varying contract lengths it seems. 

12 hours ago, RichYak said:

With all due respect, a review that leaves out the negative issues is not particularly helpful. At that point, it's just spin. I'm hopeful for you that the remainder of your cruise is enjoyable, but for better or worse, whatever happened happened. There's no point in pretending it didn't.

Fair point. But I tire of reading reviews of day 1 experiences that have colored the entirety of someone’s voyage. I’m not the most seasoned cruiser, but I’ve been on my fair share of boats in a variety of environments. I promise to be more detailed at a later date.

@Ovillewe had already purchased up to the ‘new’ premium package so we didn’t lose anything we already had by upgrading.

I’m avoiding calling out specific issues because I’m hopeful it will get vastly better.

Hi all - back for one last cruise of 2021 to round out the year. Happy to post a few observations and answer any/all Q&A along with taking photo requests.

Day 1 hasn’t been great. Issues with requests, inattentive service at best in most areas, and some downright bizarre staffing choices. I’m giving it the benefit of the doubt, but am comparing this cruise to high bar experiences on Apex (inaugural) and Summit (near end of St. Maarten season). There are only about 725 pax onboard which is similar to how we experienced Apex, but I feel like the crew ratio is off.

We are traveling in a suite - this time acquired via moveup. (I am hearing the upgrade fairy also visited folks onboard as well….looks like I could have saved $$) so I have access and will have views on the Retreat services/spaces.

Nassau tomorrow!

To clarify, I don't have an issue with being asked for the actual document as many times as they feel necessary. I was on the first cruise out (Apex inaugural) and my vaccine documentation was never actually viewed by crew -- so I am very happy they have stepped it up.

However -- I do feel like they are wasting their energy and don't have a coordinated database they are working from. All they are asking in these emails are "are you vaccinated"  I'll keep answering every time they ask, so long as we get to cruise 😀

So far I'm on the 5th request from the 4th entity at Celebrity, not counting the info included from my TA at the time of booking. And yes, we've responded every time.

2 emails from an individual sales rep, 1 email from Verified Vaccine (a celebrity email address), 1 email from Celebrity Cruises Digital to complete a form, and the request to upload documentation during check-in.

Can anyone beat that? I think they're double-triple checking on account of the fact they've already seen my vaccine paperwork twice in 2021 🙂

Adding to this topic - I had a spend $500 get $150 for Celebrity on my Amex Plat. Just did a MoveUp and it is posted as Celebrity Cruises, so i triggered it and got $150 back from the moveup. Not half bad 🙂

• Ship:  Edge
• Length of Cruise: 7nights
• Cruise Sail Date: 11/21/21
• Date email offer received: 10/31/21
• Captain’s Club Tier: Elite+
• Booked through Celebrity Direct OR via TA: TA
• Current Cabin: Infinite Veranda 
• Bid?  Yes/No: Yes

If YES -  Bidding Details:

• Cabin Category: Celebrity Suite 
• Bid Offer: $1680 CS, $1075 SS
• Notification Date: 11/17/21
• Accepted / Rejected: Accepted -- Celebrity Suite

General Comments (offer details, etc.) 

Bid on 11/4, Bid for Sky Suite went expired on 11/10 while CS remained as pending and I could not change/cancel my bid. Finally cleared the upgrade on 11/17 ~10:30am eastern. First sign was CC charge, followed about 30 mins later by email from MoveUp.

Bid minimums (pp)

Concierge Class: $50

Aqua:  $100

Sky Suite: $1k

Celebrity Suite:$1500

Royal Suite: $3k

Edge Villa: $5k (sold out)

We're travelling in a larger group and had issues finding availability on the pre-cruise planner for specialty restaurants. Since we are a party of 9, our TA reached out to coordinate the booking since it won't do that many in the planner. Now the dining is pre-booked, but we have to call X and pay directly for it, leaving our giant sums of OBC untouched. Anyone find themselves in a similar boat? Could your OBC be used to pay instead of a CC?

It has varied between the two and depends on embarkation port and the regulations at the time, it seems.  I went on one sailing where they very specifically required PCR and when I showed up they told me it could have been an antigen, or that the test they were administering onsite would have been solely enough. My thought would be plan for a PCR and the time it takes to get it back. If it ends up allowing an antigen, then even better :). 

We utilized Camp at Sea this summer on Apex (June) and Summit (July). There are even Camp at Sea masks 🙂 (or the RCCL Kids Crab Masks as well)

They did combine age groups at time for staffing needs, but yes they are fully open on all ships AFAIK.