OysterD

Sailed on Reflection last year a couple of weeks before it went into dry dock. Stayed in AQ and the sofa in my cabin and friends cabin next door had been changed out at some point away from the awful deep red fabric ones to the newer beige ones. I don't think all cabins have had that change though so I have a feeling the older red sofas remaining can look a bit tatty/naff. Someone feel free to correct me on that one. Regarding the rest of the ship, all the balcony hand rails were being painted as we were on board, we had wet paint signs up one day. They were also actively sanding/grinding down areas of the ship which had some rust and repainting them. I thought the ship was in great condition, the only thing at the time which stuck out to me was the wooden decking around the hot tubs and pools was worn, cracked and peeling and in a not great state, but I believe all that wood was replaced during the dry dock. I wouldn't hesitate to sail on Reflection again, it's a great ship in great condition and the only thing that really gives away its age is some of the colour and decor choices.

On the UK sites of X and Oceania, a Sky Suite is £1000pp less than a PH2 Suite on Oceania. And as you say, a Sky Suite would be a fairer comparison cabin wise. So actually, for the equivalent cabins, Celebrity is 30% cheaper than Oceania.

Slightly odd comment! A couple of years ago when there were talks of possible post brexit trade deals between the UK and US there was near unanimous agreement from the UK side and population as a whole that any deals should not result in the UK being forced to allow imports of US meats. They are pumped full of chemicals, antibiotics, growth hormones, chicken is routinely washed in chlorine etc and standards are much lower than here and across the EU. The levels of antibiotics in US cattle are roughly 10x that of UK cattle. One of the few things that actually united the country, nobody wants US meat!

Actually the cruise line is called Celebrity, and the name to me doesn't indicate I should expect Celebrities on every sailing, so that's a slightly bizarre comment. Just like you shouldn't expect all HAL cruises to be in either the Netherlands or America.

Is your guess...or you know something for sure? I'm hoping not, and at the very least change the name because 'perfect day' sounds utterly cheesy and the whole concept to me sounds more like a hellish day!

Wasn't it about this time last year they had the sale on removing the single supplement for most if not all cruises? Maybe a repeat of that? Personally I've zero interest in any plans to have a private resort stop in the Caribbean. Little to no interest in cruising the Caribbean anyway and would honestly prefer they didn't have most of their ships there over the winter.

Sadly this is true. We had treatments last cruise after winning vouchers to use there but those vouchers turned into more of a liability! The $100 voucher would get you pretty much nothing so I had to pay something to get a treatment, fair enough. But then at the end of a relaxing 1 hour treatment just when you're on the verge of being asleep the spa employee disappears for a few minutes and comes back with a long list of facial products that you 'definitely' need which amounted to just under $1000! Caught slightly unawares and with a hard sell, but still having some of my wits about me, I left after buying just one item, the cheapest, off the list. I probably won't bother with the spa again but if I did I would make clear that I've no interest in buying anything beforehand and I'd at least not be caught completely off guard at the end of the treatment!

I am curious, when did you last set foot on a Celebrity ship? Or any cruise? From the literally hundreds of negative complaining posts you've made since January one would expect you've been on multiple, utterly abysmal cruises in the last few months and each was no better than the experience one might expect on an overnight truckers ferry.

Somewhat on topic, if you get the specialty dining package of say 3 or 4 nights, can you use one of those for the Dinner on the Edge or is that completely separate and needs booking and paying for separately? I'm assuming you can use one of the nights for Le Voyage?

Actually the complete opposite. I've priced up vacations in the US that I've taken in the past, including stays at the Wynn in Vegas and various hotels in Florida. In each case the per night room only price for the same 10 days we will spend on Beyond this September is more than we are paying. And as for complaints about a $50 upcharge for specialty dining...has anyone seen the prices of equivalent restaurants on land these days? 50 is a bargain. At the SW steakhouse at the Wynn a soup, 8oz filet with carrots and fries will cost you $140 before tax and tip. A bowl of pea soup is $24. If you want a second bowl of pea soup that will be another $24. If you want 2 bowls of soup and a salad and two main courses in a specialty restaurant on a Celebrity ship it's all included in your $50.

We're doing the same cruise this September. I think we're planning on Corfu being our beach stop, beautiful island and some wonderful beaches around.

I really wouldn't fret about the ice onboard. That's whole next level unnecessary worrying!

Is the answer to how many times you saw them bring out bagged frozen veg from supermarkets a massive zero times? Because that's not how galleys work. They don't sling a bag of frozen veg into the microwave and then take said bag into the serving area and tip it into a bowl. Incidentally, most frozen veg is fresher than most 'fresh' veg. It has to be frozen within a few hours of being picked, unlike 'fresh' veg where what you see on a supermarket shelf will have been days or weeks since it was picked. I had a quick check back at your trip report from September, I remember reading it at the time because you were on the sailing before us and don't really remember any criticism of the buffet at the time. In September you said: "I tried some of the roast turkey from the buffet it was pretty good. The fresh vegetables are cooked well" Not sure how we went from the turkey being good and the veg well cooked to the turkey being dry and the veg being overcooked.

I don't believe it either, we were on Reflection last September also and there was nothing at all wrong with the food in the buffet. Fully stocked for breakfast lunch and dinner and quality was great. @calicakes what exactly was so terrible about it? Everyone else i spoke to on our cruise in Sept had nothing but good things to say about the food.

They did state they had a very high number of last minute bookings in Q1 which is a big reason revenue was higher than expected. Most of the changes that some viewed as negative were in the first couple weeks of Jan. Also I'm really not seeing prices skyrocketing like some claim. Suites have risen in price, I agree. But they're still being sold at those higher prices so who can blame X for keeping them that high. Prices for veranda/inside/AQ haven't really jumped that much higher tbh. Slight increases yes, but not enough that it seems to be putting people off. We booked an Asian cruise in AQ for Nov '23 while onboard last year. We left that booking open but decided to go on Beyond this year instead. We paid same for that as we did for our '22 cruise. We've now moved our Nov '23 Asian cruise to Nov '24 and the price is the same. 8 months after original booking made and weve moved it to a cruise a year later than originally planned, and the price is the same. . I guess it depends when they ordered the 5th ship. They did state the financing for Ascent was already sorted before 2020. Also, please not Excel... I spend most of my days working on Excel, I don't want to be reminded of work onboard!

Sorry to hear it took you half a day to book train tickets but looks like you had a great day anyway 🙂 https://www.thetrainline.com/ I normally use this for train tickets here in the UK, they also sell tickets for continental European trains.

Royal Caribbean Group managed to beat all forecasts with their first quarter earnings, just released. Turns out, contrary to what some on here would have you believe, its not all doom and gloom and actually record bookings and on board spend meant the first quarter only had a small loss and full year profit expectations were just revised massively upwards. Overall capacity for Q1 was 102% and they are now expecting full year EBITDA to exceed the previous record set in 2019. Not bad going if you ask me. I guess the vast majority aren't quite so bothered about a particular cut of beef or paying for room service as some would have you believe.

I was on Reflection in AQ last September and just took a look at the Blu menus for the current sailing - they look very similar with identical number of menu choices now as they had last year. Blu has always had fewer choices than the MDR but I wouldn't say those choices were disappointing or limited.

Personally for me, September is just right. October can be a little cool/more unpredictable in certain places. Also some tourist spots/some bars and restaurants etc will have more reduced hours/not open at all as the main tourist season draws to an end. I've been to Greek Islands at the end of October before and found a lot of beach bars/cafes/restaurants etc closed.

If your goal is to see as much of parts of Europe as you can in a 2 week period while also being able to relax, I think a cruise is a great way to do it. I've done many many road trips around Europe and while you can see much more if you just get a car and drive around, it can be exhausting. If you dont stay in the same place more than a night or two you end up living out of a suitcase that never gets unpacked, constantly checking in and out of hotels, navigating traffic and rush hours, spending half your time deciding what and where to eat, looking for things to do in evenings or just retiring early because you're exhausted! One of the beauties of a cruise is waking up in a different port/city/country every morning after having made zero effort and wasting zero time to get there! Yes you could fly between a couple of cities on a 2 week break but then you end up wasting effectively a couple days of your holiday getting to/from and sitting in airports. Trains across Europe are great but lugging bags around can be a pain! For a first visit to Europe, a cruise is a great way to get a taste of the cities and countries you dock in and to decide if you'd like to visit again in the future.

I wonder if they are targeting who they send their surveys to then, I've had two in the past 6 months or so asking me general questions about what I look for and my priorities etc. Granted, a lot of the questions on the last survey were a load of drivel and all about diversity, environmental and social impacts etc. I did let them know that whether they fund schools and social programs in Caribbean Islands is pretty far down my list of priorities when booking a cruise!

Curious why it was such a disaster? Couldn't you have just looked at any deck plan, anywhere (easily available on celebs website, the app, all over the ships) and realised in 30 seconds there was no lounge at the front? Surely it didn't take 2 hours of walking all over the ship? Also why should a luxury line have a forward looking lounge? As I've said before, the E class equivalent is Eden which is far superior and has 3 story windows looking out over the wake. That is far more luxurious to me than 8ft high windows looking over the front of the ship.

Pretty sure that most definitely wasn't the reason, hopefully you said that in jest?! A 14 night cruise which would often require a day or so travelling etc either side will often end up being 16 or 17 days away from home. Unless you're retired, not many people under 70 can take 2.5 to 3 weeks off from work/school in one go. I could probably stretch to a 12 night cruise but anything longer would be a struggle. If Celebrity want <70yr olds on their ships, they need to offer shorter itineraries. Which they do. I'm fairly sure handing out an extra $100 of OBC to a handful of shareholders was very last on their list of priorities!

Again, it's not a cut. You can't run a company using your line of thinking. How can anyone possibly justify keeping thousands of square feet of real estate which is barely used just in case <1% of passengers want somewhere quieter that nobody goes to. The E class equivalent of the sky lounge is Eden. Yes it's at the back rather than front of the ship but thats a bonus not a negative - there is nowhere indoors on S class ships to sit and relax and just watch the wake which I'd much prefer than sitting watching out the front. You'd be hard pressed arguing that Eden is a 'cut' versus the sky lounge.

I'm not an engineer, but the smallest suite is at least 50% wider than the IV cabins. I would doubt very much that they could have made an opening IV window that wide, or if so it would have been cost prohibitive and the additional weight and mechanics needed to open it would probably have led to a higher failure rate. Alternative would have been to have one standard opening IV and a fixed pane in each ss suite I guess but that would mess with the aesthetics and generally be a bit odd plus not sure what they'd do for the suites that were wider still.