OysterD

OK thats 3 of the unnecessary overly expensive shops I can think to get rid of and replace with... Culinary masterclasses. How to create Daniel Boulud signature dishes yourself. Maybe turn one into a dancing class studio. Offer various styles throughout the cruise. Turn one into a mock up of the bridge and have a simulator in there. See how easy it is to dock the ship (a friend just off first X cruise with his family commented how nice it was to see senior crew members around the ship so frequently, unlike other cruise lines. He did wonder who was left up on the bridge driving the thing though, but figured computers do most of it now!). A simulator might help keep the liability insurance down a tad.

Welcome to the future of everything I think!

This was my first thought. But didn't realise they previously offered cooking lessons? I can't believe insurance was the issue, that sounds a bit of a lame excuse. Other cruise lines do offer cooking classes and it's something I'd definitely sign up and pay extra for. How about taking the acres of wasted space that makes up all the shops/boutique stores and making one or two of them into a custom built kitchen for culinary lessons. On that subject, I absolutely hate the shops, I genuinely don't understand why so much space is given over to them and don't understand why anyone ever goes in them! What would be a better use of that space, any thoughts?

I was responding to Helen who claimed there had been a huge cutback in options on Apex. I just wanted to point out that wasn't the case.

I pulled all those off the app for the 4 MDR restaurants on Apex, for tonight. Either people don't realise you can order off any of the menus in any of the restaurants, or people just like to moan and then others jump on the bandwagon without actually doing any research. Oh and according to vegetarian friends of mine who just came off Edge, there are also more vegetarian options if you ask.

I just brought up the current MDR menus for tonight on Apex. I'm curious what the 'cutback' is: Starters Cauliflower Flan Salmon Gravlax Yellow Corn Soup Escargots Shrimp Cocktail French Onion Soup Chicory Apple Pear Salad Wild Musrhoom Barley Soup Creamy Spinach & Artichoke Dip Hot Melted Cheese Saganaki Greek Mezze Board Grilled Shrimp Turkey Terrine & Radish Carpaccio Coquille Saint-Jacques Baked Brie Cheese Roasted Pumpkin Salad Creamy Tuscan Shrimp Soup Eggplant Caponata Bruschetta + 3 starters off the kids menu Entrees Spaghetti a La Mallorquin Roasted Chicken Choucroute Pan Seared Cod Chicken Kiev Tikka Masala Tofu Broiled Salmon Grilled Salmon Slow Roasted Beef Brisket Lamb Kabobs Cypriot Coq Au Vin Homemade Kordelia Pasta Beef Sirloin En Croute Marmite Diepoise Duck Confit Slow Roasted Herbed Tuscan Pork Chop Pappardelle Alla Veneziana Strozzapreti Carbonara + 7 Entrees off the kids menu Add'l Charge Lobster Tail Filet Mignon Surf & Turf I've said before, but it's slightly frustrating when someone posts about vague 'cutbacks' which in reality are nothing of the sort. How can anyone claim that a choice of 18 starters and 17 entrees on one given night in the MDR (plus the option to have lobster or filet mignon every night, admittedly for an upcharge) is a massive cutback is just baffling. If you think that many starters and entrees isn't enough choice, maybe just stick to a land vacation in the US and go to a diner for dinner.

It's why I largely ignore the negativity from most of the posters who have been complaining non stop. There are maybe 10-15 who consistently post criticism and complaints, mainly about the same things just over and over again, or even worse, just vague references to 'constant cuts'. You get threads 30 pages long about a topic but if you break it down some posters have just opined the same view dozens of times on the thread. So we have 10 to 15 regularly stating negative views out of roughly 30,000 people who are cruising on Celebrity every week. This board is not at all representative of the cruising population as a whole. I have friends and know people who cruised with Celebrity in Jan, Mar, Apr, and just stepped off a cruise last week. Not a single complaint from anyone, everyone loved it and is looking at booking future cruises. Is Celebrity cost cutting? Maybe. Find me a business or a cruise line who isn't. Are the cost cutting measures enough to stop me or anyone I know from cruising with Celebrity? Nope. If i ignore the hyperbole on here, I can't even think of any actual serious cost cutting measures! Putting prices up for cabins, drinks and specialty restaurants aren't cost cutting, they're just price increases which has happened to every single product or service globally in the last year. The room service charge, could be argued if that's cost cutting or a price increase. Either way, it's a tiny amount compared to price of cruise and I haven't and won't order room service anyway. Food is subjective and I'll decide in a month if the quality has declined since last year. Yes there were some reductions in food availability for a month or two at the beginning of the year but who knows why that was. Personally I wonder if it was related to pretty much every cruise ship in the world suddenly being based out of Florida for the first time in 3yrs and supply chain issues related to that. Who knows. But I've looked at menus for current sailings and they look near identical to ones from last year, so I'm not at all worried about what I'll find next month. Perhaps when I cruise next month my friends or myself will be very disappointed with aspects of the ship, service or food. But I doubt that.

Interesting, we're now up to 30 pages of moaning about <5% of passengers going from having a named butler to a team of butlers. Meanwhile, over on Princess, the 70 page thread on massive changes which will affect most passengers negatively without spending more money, has just been locked lol.

I believe the OP was asking about Beyond and while I've not yet sailed on her I will next month so I've been reading everything I can. Pretty sure E class, which includes Beyond, does have more than just the nightly show in the main theatre. There are shows/musical events in Eden and also in The Club. I know the Eden shows aren't every night but there seem to be 3 or 4 on a 10 night cruise with live music on the other nights. There will also be various themed DJ sets playing in the different venues every night, and several silent discos during the cruise. Also regarding the ac in your cabin going off if your next door neighbour has their IV window open, is there any proof of that anywhere? I'm travelling with friends who will be in the cabin next to me in a month so we can certainly try that and see.

And I have to disagree with you. Do you expect an email every time they increase the price of any particular beer, glass of wine or cocktail on board? Does your favourite local restaurant or bar email you or call you to let you know they're putting prices up? Never happens. The prices just go up. Gratuities are different because they are automatically added to everyone's onboard account. A visit to a specialty restaurant is entirely optional, just like buying a beer or glass of wine onboard.

You're right, sometimes the pricing just makes NO sense. I've done mock bookings on a bunch of cruises before and sometimes found that booking in AQ (which has all included by default) has worked out cheaper than a veranda cabin with either then adding on the all included or sometimes even just adding on drinks tips and wifi separately. Completely illogical! The trick seems to be to just play around with various cabin and all included options to find what works best. I don't know if they do it on purpose or if there is a glitch in their system. Obviously a human can't check every cruise and every cabin/all included option for pricing discrepancies, but a simple bit of coding should be able to flag up anything like that and then they should correct it.

They could do it right now if they wanted...here in the UK we have a smaller supermarket/corner shop chain who has introduced robots which can deliver shopping to your door. These (or smaller version) could easily be introduced on ships!

No it's not typical. Have you read any of the live cruise reports recently, they've all been positive. Much like diners in Luminae cherry picking the menu, you cherry pick reports on food. I've noticed you jump all over any thread where anyone has a slight complaint about food yet nothing on the numerous threads where people are very complimentary of the food.

But how I look at things, from an efficiency standpoint, a team should be able to provide a better service. I don't know how many suites shared the same butler, it's largely irrelevant but let's say there were 10 suites per butler. Butler A has suites 1-10 and Butler B is given suites 11-20. Passengers in Suites 1-5 are very demanding, 6-10 also make certain requests, but passengers in suites 11-20 never have any use for a butler. Having only butler A assigned to 1-10 means he is run ragged and passengers 1-10 receive slow or poor service whereas butler B is sat doing nothing. If you combine them into a team and share the load, but without a dedicated named butler to those suites, passengers 1-10 get what they request from either A or B. This sounds to me exactly like what Celebrity are proposing according to the post you were replying to, in other words what Celebrity have said they are doing. And if it is the case that that's what they're doing, it makes this whole premature outrage and 15 pages of moaning before any official announcements were made, completely redundant!

I wonder if it's a demographics thing. I'm in my early 40s and cruise with friends and none of us have any interest in cruising the 'genuine 5* lines' even if the price was the same as an equivalent Celebrity cruise. We have no interest in spending a day on board knitting or napping or playing cards, we don't want to eat at 6pm and go to bed at 9pm because the ship is empty at that time and theres nothing else to do. I know those are stereotypical generalisations but the more expensive luxury lines do cater to a much older clientele. I think Celebrity are trying to reach out and attract younger cruisers who do want much of what true luxury lines offer, but without quite so much of the stuffiness and with a bit more of a lively atmosphere.

I doubt you would have seen any of that from decks 3, 4 or 5. Dolphins following the ship could only be seen from the Sunset bar on S class and you must surely agree the sunset bars on E class are far superior, especially the one on Beyond? Also have the option of sitting in Eden to watch dolphins following the ship, no interior spaces on S class to do that. I'm looking forward to spending a lot of time at the massive Sunset bar on Beyond in September, also enjoying the outdoor space in the rooftop garden. As much of a novelty I find the grass on S Class, there's just nowhere to sit unless you find a blanket and sit on the ground. To me it's just wasted space. Much like the solstice deck which was rarely used by anyone, probably because it was very often windy and too far from a bar. Don't get me wrong, I love Reflection and S Class but there is more I'm looking forward to about trying Beyond. The changes made between S and E are probably the exact changes I'd make if I was given the job of coming up with a new class of ship.

Fab, there are more! 🙂 10. Actually, I'll probably give you that one. I do love the deck 3 to top of the ship open atrium on S Class ships, together with the glass lifts which run all the way up. 11. Aww, back to having to disagree! Definitely can't see the sea from 80% of S Class interior public places. Not even close. Perhaps just have another look at a deck plan of an S Class ship and remember that there are just as many shops, art galleries, photo galleries, the casino, conference centre, celebrity central, more shops etc blocking any views out. I don't recall ever sitting anywhere on decks 3, 4 or 5 on Reflection to take in the 'view'. 12. S Class 122,000GT and 2,850 pax (Reflection 125,000GT and 3,047 pax). E Class 131,000GT and 2,918 (Beyond 141,000GT and 3,260 pax). Actually more interior space per passenger on E Class than S Class. Either way, Edge and Apex only carry 68 additional pax than most S Class ships but are 9,000GT larger. 13. I believe Eden can get crowded, we'll just have to get there early or stand. I agree, from what I've read maybe they should make the shows bookable or something to avoid the crowding. However, Martini bar on Reflection is much smaller and has far fewer seats around. On busy evenings it was very difficult finding a seat there. Luckily we eat later and stay up later so could normally find a seat by the time half the people had gone to bed! 14. Not sure how to respond to that one?! 15. I take one book with me, it's enough. So many people around the ships read on Kindle's or tablets, I'm not sure how much libraries are actually used now. Sure, there might be half a dozen people who might miss a library, but 5 or 6 people using it out of a ship of 3,000 probably isn't enough to warrant keeping them on new ship designs. Times change, people and habits change. The S Class ships were designed almost 20 years ago, before tablets and Kindles etc. We all like different things, and it's fine that you prefer S Class ships. But I sometimes wish people would preface blanket statements such as 'E Class ships are dreadful' with something like, 'in my humble opinion'. A lot of first time cruisers or new to Celebrity cruisers read these boards and when they see statements being extremely critical of something like a whole class of ships, (but don't have the context to realise that you're just very difficult to please! 😛 ) it can be quite off putting and make people nervous about an upcoming holiday they've just spent a lot of money on. I always believe there are two (or more) sides to every story and rarely take opinions on face value unless I've properly researched something or experienced it myself. Also figured it was worth rebutting some of your statements just to provide a bit of balance 🙂

1. We know you don't like the lack of a Sky Lounge, which as I've mentioned before doesn't bother me and probably won't bother most people (given how empty it always was on Reflection the last 2 times I've sailed on her). 2. IV cabins have been debated ad nauseum. Some people love them, some like, some are indifferent and some hate. I'll try one for the first time in September and may change my mind then, but I will probably like it. I know I will enjoy the IV being more private. I was sick of hearing the old woman in the cabin next to me coughing her guts up everytime she sat on her balcony last year. Didn't love hearing phone conversations from people below and above. Didn't love being able to see the aforementioned old womans feet underneath the balcony divider or smell her nauseating perfume! 3. There aren't fewer bars on E class compared to S class. I counted. 4. There is a World Class Bar on Beyond and presumably there will be on Ascent. Losing Cellar Masters is no big loss, it was ALWAYS empty whenever I walked past last year and we didn't set foot inside for a drink, ambience was all wrong for a Mediterranean cruise. Far too dark and gloomy. I don't want to sit in what looks like a 19th Century London Gentleman's Club after returning from walking around Greece in 35c temps. 5. You mentioned views/windows in a previous post and I was tempted to reply to that but couldn't be bothered because it was so ridiculous I figured everyone else already thought the same...you posted a photo of a shop to claim that E class ships have no views. Please find a photo of a shop on any ship which has views, and why would you want views from a shop anyway?! S Class ships have just as many enclosed expensive pointless shops. There are very few windows on decks 3, 4 or 5 on S Class ships and looking at my photos of those decks, most of the windows had shades. 6. Not even sure what that means. Not once did I try standing in the middle of the lawn club and taking photos of ports or the shore. There were cabanas in the way. Why would anyone want to stand in the middle of any ship to take photos of the shore? Walk 20 yards to the edge of the ship! (Which is possible on E class btw, in lots and lots of places). 7. Looking forward to trying the magic carpet. Wind or no wind. 8. We dined in Murano last year and decided we probably wouldn't again. Food was great, atmosphere was too stuffy and quiet.

Ignoring your use of the completely inappropriate and inaccurate word 'apartheid', to describe Celebrity (and most other cruise lines) having areas on their ships designated for suite passengers, I'm curious, what exactly do you expect? No cruise line should have any areas designated for suite passengers? All cabins should be identical and everyone on board should pay the same and receive exactly the same amenities? Oh, and I'm assuming you also refuse to travel on any airline that offers first class seats/lounges, or stay in hotel chains which have lounges for certain room categories, or use train companies that have a first class carriages. PS I much prefer a view out the back of a ship, and I'm not the only one. I found the forward lounge was empty most of the time on my last few cruises. Celebrity know exactly how many people use each area of the ship. If the Sky Observation Lounge was such a bustling popular area of the ship I'm pretty sure they would have kept it with their new ship designs. I'm glad they didn't.

Same. I can't stand Twitter, Musk et al and now everytime I see a ship or any marketing from Celebrity (in particular their small icon used in browser tabs) I can't help but see Twitter. I get there are limited things you can do with an X but they could have made it a bit less similar if they'd tried 😕

To the OP, I see you've booked Silhouette and hope you have a great cruise! We all value different things on a cruise and to you the kids club is important. I'll be on Beyond in a couple months which will be my first time in an IV cabin, and I reserve the right to change my mind after that! However, I've also been looking at Apex/Silhouette for a Norway cruise and my thinking is an IV might be a better option for a cool weather cruise, especially such a scenic one as through the Norwegian Fjords. In cabin views are somewhat limited with a traditional balcony/sliding door and then the overhang from the balcony above. I think it would be nice to wake up and open the blind to have comparatively unobstructed views out. I probably wouldn't spend much time sat out on a traditional balcony with the typical weather in Norway (it's mid July and currently 13c in Alesund). Also if there are 4 of you in the cabin does an IV cabin provide you with much more valuable inside space?

Nope, nothing to see here.....

I wouldn't worry about having to book quickly before a particular sale ends. As others have pointed out the last sale started sometime last November and whenever the arbitrary countdown timer got to zero it magically reset itself and added another week or so on. That continued for a good 6 or 7 months. I'd expect the current 'sale' to be the same. In reality this sale isn't much different to the last, which was 75% off 2nd passenger. Let's say a cruise is priced at 1000 magical beans per passenger, the first sale would have come out to 1250 total (1000 + (1000 x 0.25)). This sale would come to 1200 (2000 × 0.6) magical beans total, and with various tweaks to OBC offered there really isn't much in it. If you've seen a cruise you like and the best rate currently offered is booking directly with X then there probably won't be much difference between booking it now or booking it next week (don't hold me to it!) Apart from maybe a slight change in OBC or the cabin you wanted potentially getting booked in the mean time. Good luck and enjoy your cruise if you go for it 🙂

Still not entirely sure why you continue posting on here. You literally complain about every single thing. Even though you've not experienced the food this year you complain non stop about that. You're recent comments on here are the icing on the cake though... apparently the shows on Celebrity aren't good enough because ones in Vegas are better and the casino is too small compared to a Vegas casino. I mean, really? We get it, you hate Celebrity and they can't do anything right in your eyes. If you want to compare X to Vegas why don't we compare prices.... a mid week 1 night stay in cheapest room in TI; a caesar salad, chicken, and dessert (no drinks) in the average steakhouse there and then 1 ticket to see Mystere would come in at $430 total. Let's make it $500 total to include a lunch and room service breakfast. $500 for 1 day in a very average hotel, very average food and admittedly a good show. For 2 people it would be $840 for 1 day. So $420pppn based on 2 sharing. That would jump massively for weekend pricing. You can get rates cheaper than that in the Retreat and certainly much cheaper staying in AQ, and both include drinks.

Nothing out of the ordinary, no.