CruiseMrB

Useful (to us): Embarkation Day lunch - Can get crowded these days, was better in the past. Special Concierge desk - Have used it, works well. Cabin location - This has been a big thing for us. Binoculars in room Umbrella in room Cruise card wallet and bags Priority check-in Not Useful (to us): Canapes - nice idea, doesn't work for us as we were never in the room when they arrived. Sparkling wine - We don't drink alcohol, so I can't comment other than that. Never Used: Enhanced room service breakfast menu Exclusive Destination Seminar Laundry service Complimentary shoeshine service The times that we have sailed Concierge, it has always been a relative bargain to a standard balcony. Once, it was even cheaper with more OBC because of a special deal through TA.

If memory serves me correctly, the bed on Ascent (early January 2024, Concierge) was slightly firmer than other Celebrity mattresses. To us, it felt like a great, solid, well-built, new mattress. Even support especially at the twin bed split, very comfy.

Two Things: The Ascent cruise we were on switched from Select dinging time to Anytime dining for everyone once we were on board. We went to our Concierge level Concierge and she set us up with 6:00pm reservations in the same restaurant (Cosmopolitan, our choice) and same table. It's an extra step to recreate the same Select Time dining that we booked originally. Do that as soon as possible when you get on board. We had dinner at 6:00pm for all nights. You are in and out by 7:00 as long as you choose to not linger over coffee. We went to three 7:30pm shows in the theater, and got the seats of our choice by walking directly to the theatre after dinner. Let the waitstaff know if you have theater plans. EDIT: You could easily set up 6:00pm dining in different restaraunts, or throw in some specialty restaurant reservations, if you so chose. We talked to other folks on the cruise about this and different folks handled it differently.

Getting back to the thread, on our recent cruise on Ascent, my DW sat on the back outside deck of the Oceanview Cafe on Deck 14 at one of the tables to do her beading. She ended up having quite a few nice interactions with folks stopping by. It was great. On a previous cruise on Carnival, she encamped at a table near the Blue Iguana. Ended up making a pair of earrings for a crewmember that time. Crewmember was named Cherry, so she made cherry earrings. Image for reference of what beading is.

Lobster had very small portion once extracted from the shell, not all that flavorful. Extra portion only available at cost. My DW got the lobster and another different entree because it was so tiny. About the size of two or three shrimp.

Ate in Cosmopolitan every night. Pan Seared Cod and Corn Soup of the Cosmo-specific side was very good. Pan-Seared Duck was very good when it came around. The lobster night was disappointing. Beet Salad was great. Sacher Torte was very good. Get two the night it comes around.

Oh my spouse loves that. She loves the bass-droppy males singers, too.

Just off Ascent (7 Jan - 15 Jan). It does live up to its name. But that's because it's a brand new ship and it is fully staffed with great crewmembers from other ships in the fleet. It was at capacity, and it ran beautifully at that level. The final judgement will come when the original crew contracts start expiring and Celebrity staffs it as if it is just another ship.

Funny you should mention this. I was on Ascent 7 Jan to 15 Jan and had a big problem with the sound design of "Bridges". There was no sense of spacial relationship to the stage or theater whatsoever. The sound seems to come from everywhere and nowhere in particular. This is particularly a problem in this show as there is so much visual tracking happening on the screens - think Imax tours. It didn't match at all. Very confusing to my brain. One of the easier examples to describe is that a couple of times in the show, performers are coming down one aisle or the other, singing. You have no idea where in the literal world they are. They had entered the soundstage well before they physically arrived on the stage. There was no attempt to make it sound like they were coming down the aisle so that you could track them. The vocals were very compressed, in both frequency and dynamic range. I talked to the engineer, whom you saw was located way house right, and he swears there was no pitch correction, but it sure sounded like it. Awaken! was much better in design, but still had problems, just due to the nature of theater-in-the-round.

Just got off this Itinerary (7 Jan - 15 Jan). Wonderful, wonderful cruise. Great, experienced crew. Brought onboard from other vessels in the fleet. Fully staffed. Go see Awaken! for sure, and the other shows (Bridges and Residency) are well worth the time. Beautiful, calming ship. Runs spectacularly well at full capacity. The Indian food isn't so good - very bland, no smell whatsoever. Try the Greek instead. Bakery and Pastries were a standout. We didn't bother to get off in Nassau, because been there done that too many times. We walked around Cozumel and Grand Cayman on our own looking for birds - DW is a birder.

I saw Awaken! twice. The first time I was in the fourth row, dead center. From that close, it "read" very much like an intimate sensual ballet or Nocturne, in the best possible way. With lights and other stuff going on to add to the dreamscape. The second time, an hour and fifteen minutes later, I was in the front row dead center of the 5th floor balcony. From there, it was a big mind-blowing almost hallucinatory-type experience, albeit with less intimacy. Either way, this is the show to see. It works and the performances are great.

I actually do have fairly low bar for both. And yet I have been disappointed on most cruises. Especially burgers. Which are easy to do correctly. Weird.

Cruise Ship: Celebrity Ascent Dates & Itinerary: 7 Jan - 15 Jan 2024, Port Everglades-Nassau-sea day-Cozumel-sea day-Grand Cayman-sea day-Port Everglades We were looking for lots of sea days and this delivered. We didn't get off ship in Nassau (so another "sea day"), Walked around the two other ports looking for birds. Not much luck there, actually. Nice enough walks, though. Stateroom: 11232 - Infinite Veranda aft of aft elevators, Concierge level. First time on Edge Class, so therefore first time IV. We loved it. I know that IV's can be controversial, and I can see why. IV's can be analogous to convertibles. For a large portion of the year, they can be a compromise. But then there is that 20% of the days where it's absolutely magical. We hit that magical time and temperature. If we were in the room, day or night, the IV window was down. Beautiful views during the day, wonderful sounds of the ship on the sea at night. The only thing we were careful about was to shut the blinds when we left the room and in the mornings when we were docking at port in case there was another ship along side 10 meters away. We never bothered with the screen between the balcony area and the rest of the room. The rest of the room was very good. The shower in particular was great. Thanks to the CruiseCritic posters who mentioned the problem with the sofa leg sticking out into the room just looking to break your toes! We looked for that, and it really is a problem. We wrapped a towel around the leg and showed it to our room attendant. He chuckled a bit, knew the problem, and left the towel there for the duration. Dining MDR Equivalent: Cosmopolitan Restaurant, all nights, fixed time, same table, same staff. When we boarded, we found out that Ascent was only doing Anytime Dining, regardless of previous choice at booking. Again, thanks to posters here, I knew this was likely to happen. First day, I went to the Concierge concierge, and she set me up with Select Time dining again. We chose the restaurant. Waitstaff was terrific. Also, you are in and out in under an hour as long as you are not choosing to linger over coffee. Food was much better than previous Celebrity cruise. Everything tasted very good and correct for what it was. If I didn't like something, it was because I didn't like that thing, rather than being a bad version. This was across the board. OceanView Cafe: Excellent. Best buffet ever on a cruise. Every daily Chef's Special lunch was worth investigating and trusting if you had any inclination towards trying it. Only limitation was the Indian food. Not great, biggest disappointment in any of the food choices. Given the Greek brothers who captain the ship, do Greek instead. It was much better. Bakery and Pastries: Excellent. Best ever experienced on a cruise. From the dinner breadbasket, to the Sacher Torte, to everything in OVC. Just fantastic. Mast Grill: Very good. This is a very low bar, but best included cheeseburgers at sea. Better than Guy's Burgers on Carnival to my taste and experience. Pizza: Very good crust. Tasty. Very good to excellent included cruise Pizza. Specialty Restaurants: No opinion, did not use. Entertainment: The three big shows - "Bridges", "Awaken", and "Residencies" were all great. Go see all three. Same great cast. "Awaken" is my favorite by far. Went to both showings. Ascent Itself: Gorgeous. But here's the big thing. We were sailing at full double occupancy capacity, and that ship is designed to run incredibly well at that level. There was always a space to be or hide, there were always deck chairs, there were always towels. There was never a big crush in OVC at all until they announced the big seafood bar on the last sea day. I have never experienced a ship at capacity that felt this good. Crew: This crew was assembled from top crew members of other ships in the fleet. It shows. Summary: I'm hard pressed to want to sail on any ship not named Celebrity Ascent right now. This could change, but that's my first impression.

Travel Agent says it's not them, so it IS spam. Look out for these now.

Celebrity called back and stated it WASN"T them. Possibly sent by travel agent. Checking with them.

It's a confirmation message asking if you are really really going on the cruise (not in those words). Very similar to what a lot of medical offices are doing these days. You click on a Confirm button. Important - Celebrity Ascent sailing January 7, 2024 Secure Message: Start your vacation off right tomorrow by arriving within your selected arrival window with online check-in complete. Also, allow time for traffic delays on your way to Port Everglades and follow digital signage on your way to the terminal.

Received this text from 89361 at 9:00 am this morning for a cruise tomorrow: Important - Celebrity Ascent sailing January 7, 2024 Secure Message: Start your v... https://evb.gg/n#qok22s1gc3v/0cSRUggN or Reply with YES to confirm receipt. That looks as spammy as it gets! I did open up the link, but only in a Linux Virtual Machine instance I keep just for these kind of things. I did not confirm as requested even in the VM as nothing said or looked like Celebrity. It's probably OK, but I'm only 70% sure it's legit and that's not enough for me to click or respond YES. If I didn't have the VM set up, there is no way I would have checked that far. The link opened up a generic Everbridge secure messaging app with some pretty standard text. Yes, it's probably fine, and yes, it's probably Celebrity, but this set off alarm bells. They need to do a much better job than this. BTW, I have a call-back into Celebrity to confirm that this is their text. So it's gonna cost them time and money for not doing a better job.

The core of the problem is that anyone who cruises on an RCL brand is paying their interest expense and debt service. What happens on the ship is subservient to those line items. They have 11.50% apr debt they are trying to pay off that kept them alive in 2020, but did not give them any assets, such as as a new ship. In fact they are paying off 3 $1.5 billion dollar ships' worth of interest, without having a ship to show for it. So, in the short term, until 2025 at least, don't expect anything to change. And once we have gotten used to this level of non-service, that will become the norm. What are we to do? Several options: Don't cruise until 2025 and let other folks pay off the debt. Choose cruiselines more carefully, such as going to the luxury or ultra-luxury category. They seemd to have kept up their level of service a bit better. Live with it for now and know what you are getting into.

Glad to hear this. We waited until 7 January Ascent cruise because we wanted some of the hiccups (limited, from everything I've heard) and "new ship smell" - i.e. "outgassing" - to subside. Every report so far has been pretty positive. Here's hoping that continues! Not a big fan of the name. 30+ years of experience with spreadsheets, so this is both a misspelling and brings up bad memories. It was predictable on both levels, so I'm not giving Celebrity a pass on this. Rename the ship while they still have time. This is almost the equivalent of "Boaty McBoatface"

Really? That's exactly what we DON'T want. We LIKE the set time and place and have it taken care of before we board. It's a lovely thing for us.

As far as traditional set time (which does exist) MDR dining is concerned, per Celebrity website: "You’ll be assigned one of the four main dining restaurants, while having the option to dine in the other three upon request."

Can attest, though for shorter time - 2 days. Herniated a disc on an excursion. I ordered things from room service in a defensive manner - What could they screw up the least? Was still disappointed in quality.

Not OP, but one of things that we love about using the MDR is that you don't have to make a decision on where to go. In our case, it's usually 6:00pm set early dining, with the same wait staff at the same table. We love that simplicity. We too are scheduled for Ascent (in Jan, not Feb) and I also saw the same references on YouTube and elsewhere, along with conflicting information - such as your thread response. So, I am looking forward to the responses here also.

What could be going on is that downgrading out of suites generally has meant a greater loss and worse experience in the past than it does now in your mind. Your TA *might* have thoughts that this would be terrible, and you would hate it and would not use their services again. If you normally travel SS or better, than your TA is, in their mind, trying to protect you. Put your foot down and say downgrade it or transfer the booking to another TA who will. Overwhelm their fear of what possibly might happen with more fear from you of what will happen now.

Also have a cruise in Jan. Happened to be awake and at computer at midnight of check-in available day (23 Nov), so was able to get the earliest 11:30 am check-in. I can see wanting early, early boarding if I were staying in one of the port / FLL hotels the night before. Breakfast, check-out, go to the ship with little delay. Even if earlier would have been available, we would have chosen this time, as we are driving intrastate that morning. Any earlier and it would mean rushing or getting up too early and who wants to do that on vacation if one can avoid it? We'll get in the car about 8:00 or so, pit stop for gas and bagels, hit I-95, and be on our way on a straight shot south. Our only time limitation is Concierge Lunch ends at 1400. There have been times that boarding the ship later rather than earlier has worked out much better, especially when leaving from our closer-to-home port of Port Canaveral. Possibly easier transit through the terminal, rooms are ready, the hordes have left the buffet (depends on ship size), and we would only need a light snack before dinner. Something to consider if you have the flexibility to do so. I do get the "we paid for this day" aspect, for sure.