Cruising89143

There are a lot of ships listed on multiple sites. Another site has RCI’s Grandeur listed for 110 million. It’s been listed for years. As stated, any ship is for sale of the price is right.

The breakfast selections look very good. A nice selection.

At the martini bar it was a mixed bag but most of the time it was the smaller glass. At other bars, it was always the smaller glass.

Sad to read about Mazatlán. We were there last month and walked downtown and back to the ship with no issues. There was expats along the walk giving info and directions. Felt very safe at that time. No issues with PV either. Cabo was another story. We were constantly offered drugs, sex and tours along our walk to eat dinner at a local restaurant. I’m used to people trying to sell things in other ports but Cabo took it to a new level.

We were on the same cruise as you 12/03/22 sailing. The first photo is the smaller martini glass. The second photo is a standard glass. Third photo is the smaller martini glasses. I do know the difference between a standard size glass and a smaller glass. Also, the bartenders at both the martini bar and the Ensemble bar stated that this was the new size glass.

I was wondering this as well. The video shown shows very few people. One current “live” thread states they stopped counting at 100 so a decent amount of guests. I assume that X knows how many people dine in the OVC on average. If the numbers are indeed low then I can see the change. I haven’t been on Carnival in 18 years but their evening buffet used to be pathetic. A small salad bar, a few meats on the carving table, white rice, fries, gravy and frozen broccoli/cauliflower mix. Really bad. It may have changed but I’m not willing to find out. Not making excuses for X. They need to figure this out and communicate the changes and the reasons why.

I have been reading the various cruise boards over the last few weeks. Seems that changes are happening on just about every line. Complaints vary from package prices, entertainment and food. I expect that we will see more.

Many companies have moved away from TV with advertising. More and more have moved to online advertising on places like YouTube and other streaming areas. I see Celebrity ads multiple times daily on YT.

Agree that the prices in specialty dining are the same as a few months ago.

We were on last month and we were booked in the retreat. We had a CS with the large angled balcony. Nice room but small bathroom which we knew to expect. I think it depends on the individual. For us we were underwhelmed. The PDP comes with the retreat so we chose to enjoy cocktails at the various bars around the ship and other than a few minutes directly after boarding, never stepped foot in Michael’s Club the remainder of the cruise including for cocktails. We never used the suite concierge. Luminae was good (not great) but we enjoyed the specialty dining more. We dined a total of four nights in Luminae and two of those nights we ended up ordering from the MDR menu. We did enjoy lunch in Luminae. A much more relaxed experience. Our butler was nice but for the entire cruise he delivered breakfast approx. four mornings, took care of laundry once and brought requested blankets for the balcony. We did not use him a lot. Our choice obviously. We just booked the Solstice for Alaska and for the first time in over twenty years we opted not to book a suite. We booked a sunset veranda with AI and upgraded the drink package to premium and it was over four grand less than a Sky suite. We will dine most evenings in a specialty venue and still come out with a big savings. I know that everyone is different but we’re going to try this for a change.

Agree with the above. We were on last month and the process was so quick that we checked our luggage, entered the terminal and went right through the check-in process and was on the ship in minutes. No stopping. This was around 10:45 AM. Quick and easy. I did see the room on the way in but it was empty of guests.

This was one of my thoughts. I could see RCG folding some of the X ships into RCI who has some ships that will need to be replaced. As I stated in a previous post, the line that separates cruise lines like RCI and X is becoming thinner each day. It might come to this to survive. Carnival has the same issue. MSC is eating Costa’s lunch. I read an article a few months ago that stated Carnival Corp. needed to rid itself of some brands. HAL, P&O Australia, Cunard were a few lines mentioned for various reasons. I think the cruising landscape will look different in a few years. As you stated, time will tell.

I read that they put one into place for the TA community but I have yet to experience it on the guest side including twice yesterday where I gave up each time after over sixty minutes on hold and today I finally got through after over ninety minute wait.

Cruise lines stopped sailing at reduced capacity long ago. They need to fill every stateroom possible and that is EVERY cruise line currently in service. Covid is everywhere and to blame a cruise line on catching it is ridiculous. We caught it by having dinner with friends of ours and it wasn’t on a cruise. Sorry that your husband got sick and hope that he’s doing better but stop blaming Celebrity.

One area that I thought of. It seems that X is having a difficult time in staffing up at their call center. I would at least like to see the system upgraded to place a caller in line with a “call back” system in place of having to be placed on hold for long periods of time.

I really don’t see how they will be able to make changes without upsetting someone. What affects me may not affect another guest but in the end someone will be unhappy. I certainly understand approx. fifteen months of no income and now trying to pay off massive debt but I think X just needs to be careful as to what changes are implemented. IMHO there is no easy answer.

Those lemon tarts were very good. Rich but good. The muffins on the Solstice was another story. Small and tasteless. I counted one blueberry in the muffin. Actually it was only one blueberry each in both muffins.

We had the PDP on our recent Solstice cruise that was included with the Retreat price. At the martini bar 85% of our cocktails was served in the small we glasses. In every other bar, it was only the smaller martini glass. I asked the bartenders about the smaller glass in several bars including the martini bar. All stated the sane thing, it was a change. Not a big deal as we just ordered another cocktail but it seems like a cheap move by X.

Thanks for taking us along. Just getting time to read and catch up.

If VV were to place a ship out west we might try it but I’m not flying across country to try it. I’ve had enough of the Caribbean. Here is their new ad campaign that just recently broke. https://youtu.be/R-bBQFk-L6Q

Just order a second one. Last month on the Solstice the only bar that still was using the larger glass was the martini bar and it was hit and miss. All of the other bars had the small glass. At one bar the bartender just refilled our glasses from the shaker.

Trying to understand how there is a “half dozen” cruise ships lined up in San Pedro when the port can only accommodate two ships at once. The other ship today was the Discovery Princess which played the Love Boat theme last month when we were leaving San Pedro on the Solstice. With the way the two ships face and depending on where the OP was during sail away could leave one to believe that it was the Solstice playing the horn.

We used the laundry service last month on the Solstice. The items that went in for the wash and fold came back just as that. The items that went for wash and press came back on hangers without request.

Had a nice conversation this morning from someone within Celebrity’s Executive Office. I’m sure that I’m one of many based upon the comments. I kept it professional but gave my feedback based on findings from a cruise last month plus the recent changes. Not sure that we will see many changes but at least I spoke up. Last week we booked a late May cruise to Alaska on the Solstice. Right now it’s a fifty-fifty chance that we go. It’s the first time in over twenty years that we did not book a suite/Retreat. After the Retreat experience on the Solstice last month we found that it’s not worth the money on this ship. At least for us. Over $8200.00 per couple for a Sky suite and over eleven grand for a CS. The sunset balcony stateroom was a great deal even with the AI upgrade to the Premium drink package. On our cruise last month our butler delivered room service four times for breakfast plus delivered blankets for balcony use. Did not see the need for a butler. Other than five minutes just after embarkation, we never stepped foot in Michael’s Club again. We had the Premium drink package so we went to the different bars and lounges in the evening. We only dined four out of eight nights in Luminae and even then we picked some items from the MDR menu as the Luminae menu was hit and miss for us. We no longer see the value of the Retreat. It may different on ships with a full retreat but not on the Solstice. We did compare prices of the Solstice in a Sunset Veranda stateroom versus RCI’s Ovation in a hump large balcony stateroom. Both out of Seattle on the same date. RCI was actually more expensive by $100.00 and we would have had to purchase gratuities and internet.

So sorry for your loss.