NMTraveller

All because of a 4% hike in metro prices.

20 minutes ago, sissyb said:

I have just booked an Edge cruise for March 2020 (first Celebrity cruise).

 

Booked the 3 day specialty dining package and now see I can’t make reservations until we board?  We are afraid we will get horrible choices. Not sure of the reasoning for this. Any thoughts or experiences would be appreciated. 

 

Also so wanted to book a 3 day thermal spa pass, not available. The only one available is the weekly. Is this booked up already?  I thought of getting a weekly couples pass but when I add it to the cart it only allows me to choose myself or my husband not both of us. So I was unclear as to how that whole process worked. Any insight would be appreciated. 

 

Thank you in advance 

 

We found out that you have to book the weekly in order to get sea days.  We were able to book the couples weekly on board. The spa is rather busy on sea days.  You may have a difficult time finding a lounger on the first sea day.  The spa is tranquil and quiet in the evenings.  The weekly lasted for the full cruise.

We had the 11 day specialty dining.  We got there early and booked the 11 nights.  Fine Cuts is difficult to get into on Sea Days.  Fine Cuts and Eden are best.  The rest are very average.

48 minutes ago, TeeRick said:

Eden is a much more beautiful space than any Sky Lounge that I have ever seen.  I would say it is a good alternative but not a direct replacement as some just like a forward view better.  Honestly in all of our cruises on Celebrity ships we rarely if ever went into the Sky Lounge except for occasionally to the Elite cocktail hour.  It was a large piece of ship real estate that sat near-empty most of the day.  It was used at night for bands and DJ's.  On Edge that happens in The Club.

The appeal of SkyLounge is that it is a nice quiet place to go have a drink with a view second to none.  Emphasize quiet and view second to none.  Eden is noisy and loud and difficult to find a seat in that is not obscured.  Edge in general is a noisy ship.  Fine Cuts is noisy.  
 

Years ago when we were on Oasis we booked our first Celebrity Cruise.  Now it seems like Celebrity is heading towards the crowded and noisy Oasis experience.  Not a fan.

I highly prefer the older Celebrity ships.  More refined quiet and relaxing.

The luxury cruise lines are all smaller ships for a reason.  Yet Celebrity adds room for 400 more people on Edge.  What a downgrade.

If you like Oasis you will like Edge.  Not a fan of either.  Even the spa was packed on Edge on sea days.

3 minutes ago, C-Dragons said:

Oh, I didn’t mean to imply that Eden is a “direct replacement” for the Sky Lounge. 😊 But it can be used for all the same purposes that guests have used the Sky Lounge on other ships. On our Edge cruises there was musical entertainment not only in The Club, but also in Eden and at the Martini Bar.

Rear view vs front view.  I will take the front view every time.  Perhaps they should put the bridge on the rear end of the ship.

2 minutes ago, C-Dragons said:

Respectfully, we will have to disagree.

Eden can be tough to find a seat that is unobstructed, Sky Lounge is easy.

1 minute ago, C-Dragons said:

Eden is the replacement for the Sky Lounge and is used for the occasions/events you mentioned.

It is on the wrong end of the ship.  You always had Tuscan Grill for the view out of the rear.  Eden is loud and Sky Lounge is quiet.  A very different experience and a downgrade.

I did go on the bridge on Edge.  They could have served me wine and given me a pass and it would have been almost as good as Sky Lounge.  

The Sky Lounge is a nice place to go when pulling into port or pulling out also.  The bridge is in this part of the ship for a reason.

Neither is Fine Cut quiet.  I sure miss Muranos.

3 minutes ago, kearney said:

I love doing specialty dining on the first night. They give discounts for a reason.... people don't think about doing this so early in the cruise... so the restaurants are quiet. While I prefer Murano's over Tuscan Grill... there is nothing like sailing out of Ft Lauderdale and along the coast with the sun setting behind you sitting in a quiet restaurant sitting by the large windows looking back at the city...   We have done this in the past on Royal Caribbean's Brilliance of the Seas ... dining in Portofino's sailing out of Tampa Bay and on other cruises... a great way to start a cruise... and end a hectic travel day.

She is sailing on Edge with no Tuscan Grill so that would be Eden with the view out the back.

On 10/13/2019 at 7:44 PM, Host Jazzbeau said:

 

Good – you are closer to a 'natural river cruiser' than some of those who find they hate it because there are no casinos, no roller coasters, no theater shows or multiple venues with music and games.  A river cruise is very intimate and laid back.  Not necessarily relaxing though: every day there are 1-3 included shore excursions which almost always include walking on cobblestones and start right after an early breakfast – then back to the ship for lunch, then the second excursion – then back to the ship for a quick freshen up, cocktail hour and/or meeting about the next day's program – then everybody troops down to the dining room for the single sitting [and many river cruise ships have few tables for two].  After dinner, there will be a piano player in the lounge – and a few times per cruise a local group will come onboard to entertain for a night [e.g. a French chanteuse with accordion accompaniment or a classical trio].  Then everybody's tired, so it's back to the cabins for an early night to prepare for tomorrow's early morning. 

 

If you are sociable, it's wonderful – we have always met compatible folks early on and created our regular dinner table group.  We've never felt like we were 'in someone's pocket' for the entire cruise, because you can easily get yourself into different excursion groups.  

 

Two other groups of folks who don't like river cruising are those like Garbo who 'want to be alone," and those who plan to skip all the organized activities and hire private tour guides at every port [this is logistically difficult because the schedules are at the mercy of the lock masters and the docking locations at the mercy of the harbor masters – sometimes the ship even moves from one town to another while everyone is off on an excursion].  Some compare the cost of a river cruise to an ocean cruise and complain that you have to pay more, for a smaller cabin – and if you don't take advantage of the included excursions the value proposition really falls apart.

 

Those are all the negatives.  There are obviously many more positives, or river cruising wouldn't be expanding at such a rapid rate.  DW and I love ocean cruising, especially on small ships – and we also love river cruising.  None of the 'negatives' I mention above bother us.  But we also try to maximize our experience:  we sail on AMA because the cabins are larger and the ships more spacious than some other lines, and the food and service are at the top of the game.  AMA does split the shore excursions into fast-, regular- and slow-walker groups – and they strive to let the slow walkers see everything by minimizing down time [e.g. shopping].  AMA isn't all-inclusive, which helps keep the price down a bit [since the included wine and beer is all we need – and they now have a free 'happy hour' before dinner].  The other river cruise line we would consider is Crystal, which really strives to bring their ocean cruise experience to their river ships [e.g. food choices and onboard entertainment] – but with only four ships their itinerary choices are very limited. 

What other extra expenses are there with AMA.  We do just drink wine.  Are some of the excursions extra?

We book specialty restaurants every night.  The last night is fine but not as busy which is good.

I like the Sky Lounge because it has a view second to none and it is quiet in the evenings until late night dancing starts.

Eden was noisy and the singers were very average.  Eden restaurant had very good singers but strange skits.  The Eden restaurant should put together a coherent show with their talent.

Edge is all digital.

The fake 10s remind me of a disreputable car dealership.

If you really are a 10 you should not have to beg for that score.

2 hours ago, ipeeinthepool said:

 

This is a recent trend, I've seen this with several other businesses not just Celebrity.  Their goal is to always make you completely satisfied.

Fudging the scores does not make me completely satisfied.  I do not play the fake 10 game.

If they are tracking I will stop providing inputs so that there is no retribution for a bad score.

Nice to know.  I gave shore excursions a 2 on the last Edge Cruise.  Yes I did bring it to their attention and guest services 2 or 3 times.

I won’t sail Edge again or Apex without a sky lounge.

1 minute ago, davekathy said:

Can't imagine not having the Sky Lounge whether it's for getting away and chilling out on a sea day, evening CC HH or other entertainment venues during the day or evening. Bummer! 

The Sky Lounge was my favorite place on the ship.  Now my preference is for non Edge ships or HAL.

2 hours ago, ipeeinthepool said:

 

So, do you think it will be a problem if they build more ships with the same features.

I would say yes.  
 

I view these changes as negatives.

The magic carpet can be fixed if they so choose to.

A balcony should be a balcony.

Did they put the Sky Lounge back in?

That was a negative on the Edge as well as them consolidating the entertainment areas into larger venues.  If I wanted a large ship feel I would sail Oasis.

14 hours ago, ipeeinthepool said:

 

Unless LLP told her management that the Edge would be No 1.

Pretty hard to do when you get rid of the Sky Lounge, sell rooms with moveable windows as balconies, and your Magic Carpet needs to be renamed the Very Windy Carpet, and they are still working out the bugs.

I always found that the larger the ship the better the entertainment.

A notch above Carnival...