Tigerfnan23

We've done IV on two hot weather cruises and while we enjoyed aspects of the room we definitely lost all room cooling within a couple minutes of opening the window and it took quite a while to get the room cooled back off.  Obviously this isn't as much of an issue on cooler weather cruises. 

Maybe I've just been looking in the wrong locations but the VV cruises I've priced for a standard balcony are a good deal more expensive than the Celebrity equivalent.   I do realize you get better food with that price but even adding in specialty dining several nights on Celebrity it's still more on VV and thats with a premium drink package included in the Celebrity price.  Until that gap narrows I'm afraid we'll stick with Celebrity although I'll admit the VV experience is quite intriguing.  I've only priced VV on their website however so maybe there are deals to be had elsewhere out there.  

We've ended up in concierge on E class ships on a couple of move up offers and the only thing we've really enjoyed was having access to the upgraded pillow options.  Most of the rest of it was of little or no value to us but ymmv. 

We liked them but only when we could get them via move up over an OV for a couple hundred dollars.  No way we liked them enough to pay full price, which seems to be the concensus and why we can get them dirt cheap via move up.  

My wife is mid 50s and didn't really enjoy cruising based on her experience with other cruise lines.  I had done a few Celebrity cruises before and convinced her to give them a try and she loved the E class ships.  Did Apex and Edge and are trying out Beyond later this year.  She isn't a foodie so any food issues aren't really a issue for her but she really enjoys the decor and ambiance of the ships, along with the entertainment options.  I've enjoyed some of the pre Edge class ships in the past but I'm not sure she would be as impressed with those.   So while we may not be the intended demographic we've definitely become Celebrity cruisers based on these new ships.  

We always do it because it makes sense financially based on our drinking habits and it's also nice not to have to bother with receipts, room charges,  etc that invariably come with the classic package if you're drinking many drinks a day.  

Drink package has become a bit of a rip off anyway so no way you should be paying for two of them for one drinker.  Just go a la cart.  

My guess is that the test had little, or no, impact on casino revenue so it was discontinued.  Celebrity has had no issue ignoring complaints that are near universal in the past so don't pat yourself too hard on the back for thinking your complaining suddenly changed their mind about something they were going to roll out otherwise.  

We walked off with our luggage at around 8am, grabbed a shared cab and arrived at the airport a little after 9.  

We spend  maybe 3-4 hours per cruise in the casino.  We don't smoke or vape but I doubt a few people vaping would make us not enter the casino and it certainly wouldn't make us cancel a cruise since the casino is only a tiny fraction of the cruise ship. Now if we gambled several hours a day and had health issues then maybe that's different but the casinos were pretty empty our last couple of Celebrity cruises so not sure how many people fall into that category.  Perhaps it's those same underutilized casinos that are causing Celebrity to look at things that might generate more revenue there.  

We enjoyed our two Celebrity cruises over the last year.  Unfortunately due to price increases we are booking land based travel for our vacations next year.  The days of Celebrity cruises being any real value, relative to other options, appear to have passed.  We hate to take a break from cruising, but there are many other ways to spend a week in an exotic locale for a good deal less.   Having said that, we experienced nothing on our cruises we would even remotely consider leaving a bad review over.  Loved them both.  

We recently did both and wore the same things to dinner at Each. 

We definitely like them better than ocean view but we would never pay full retail for one.  Just isn't worth it.  

When we sailed it was around 85% but the ship never really felt crowded.  Maybe tough to get a chair by the pool on sea days but that was about it.  

We try to just power through our first day.  At most we may take a one hour nap.  Then we head to bed around 9 and then are pretty much ready to go by day 2.  

The biggest benefit we've gotten from the concierge class is their enhanced pillow offerings.  Definitely recommend.  

We saw someone trying to bring a pizza onboard in Italy get denied.  They had to hand out the slices to the rest of us to quickly scarf down to avoid having to leave it behind. 

Weve done two Celebrity cruises in the last six months and I've gotta say dodging people using walkers was much more of an issue than dealing with passed out drunks.  

Our last two cruises the lowest we could set the room temp was 66 degrees.  We always bring a fan, primarily to help with noise but also to help keep things feeling a bit cooler.  We never worried about it being on when we left the room because it seemed to cool down quickly any time we needed it to.  

One would think that businesses whose services fall more into the "want" vs "need" category would be disproportionately impacted by poor economic news.  

We did Edge last fall and Apex this past week and loved them both.  

We are on a Celebrity cruise right now and priced a similar cruise for the same time next year since we were enjoying ourselves on this one.  All things being basically equal it looks like about a 50% Increase which just isn't something we would do, so I suppose we will either hold off on cruising for a while or look at other cruise lines, which we really don't want to do.  Its unfortunate since Celebrity has managed to nail what we are looking for in a cruise experience, but at some point we just can't justify paying that kind of money.

2 hours ago, kcbarker said:

It seems like the menu at this restaurant is only vegetarian. Is that correct? 

We are on apex right now and there are pienty of non vegetarian options.  

27 minutes ago, rmalbers said:

I just got off EQ and I agree with, basically, all the comments that people have made that have cruised since Jan 1.  I agree that the staffing issues are having the most impact.  The bars and MDR are definitely not staffed with as many people as before and that is very, very apparent.   One bright side is that the nightly entertainment in the theater seemed to me to be just as good as ever and it's the typical, 'there will be some acts that people like and some they won't' type of thing.  As has been shown and talked about many times the dinner buffet is cut back for sure.  The new MDR menus are also one of those things that some will like and some will hate.   Anyway, on staffing, it's really a question of are they trying to hire and can't or is covid taking out crew,  I'm fairly sure it's a little of both.   One of our servers disappeared after two days and a couple of others were wearing masks for a day or two then not wearing them.  Personally, my next cruise is on VO this summer and I'm not sure when I'll be booking a x cruise again, but it won't be until RCG gets out/mostly out of the financial mess they are in. 

I've wondered about the cause staffing issues as well.  Is Celebrity requiring all crew members to be vaccinated/boosted etc and, if so, is this why they can't find enough people?  Or is it something else?  Seems odd that crisis lines are all of a sudden unable to find people to work on their ships when this was considered a great opportunity for mamy people prior to the pandemic.  I realize it also extends to other industries as well as a large segment of society appears to have dropped out of the work force entirely for whatever reason.  

3 hours ago, WonderMan3 said:

I thought the burgers at the Mast Grill were great. That was pre-Covid though so maybe quality has declined.

Used to love Mast Grill also but tried it recently and was disappointed.  Didnt go back for the rest of the cruise.