Cruising89143

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.

I have all of the boosters including the most current booster and we still brought it home after a recent Freedom/ Symphony cruise in early November. Luckily it was very mild. Took an eight night cruise on the Solstice last month and no sickness. Hopefully we had built up immunity which helped. 🙂

MSC has a policy where your Voyagers Club status will drop back to classic unless you cruise at least once every three years and you must subscribe again to even get that if your status drops back. I think that they’re the only cruise line with that policy.

Someone currently on the Connie and Solstice confirmed it as well.

I wonder how full the ships are right now? The reason that I ask is last month we only had about 1650 guests on our Solstice sailing. I think the one prior to us was around 950-975. On our sailing all suites were fully booked so Luminae was busy. With 1650 guests, spreading them out between Luminae, Blu, specialty dining and the MDR makes me wonder just how busy the Oceanview was. I have no idea as we never ventured up there in the evening. I wonder if X is doing this until all ships start sailing closer to capacity? Not trying to take up or make excuses for X but thinking out loud. Maybe this is something that LLP should publicly address.

Yes. MSC is the only cruise line that’s private and we have no way of knowing their financials. I took a quick glance and if I looked correctly, RCG is over 19 billion in debt and Carnival Corp is over 28 billion in debt. That’s mind blowing or at least for me. RCG also has one Oasis class, three Icon class, two Edge+ class and two new Silversea ships under construction or on order.

I think that the only way out for the big three is filing for reorganization. Far too much debt. Right now they’re just kicking the can down the road. I may be wrong but for the amount that they all owe, I don’t see any other way. Celebrity is becoming more mass market by the day. The line that separates them from RCI becomes thinner each day.

Just read from another guest currently sailing on the Silhouette that the evening dining in OV has been drastically reduced. She stated that the pasta station and grill is now closed. According to this person about 3/4 of the area is closed and roped off. She was on this ship three weeks ago and she stated on this return in addition to the OV changes she also noticed the room service charge with the exception of the Continental breakfast, higher drink prices, no daily treats in Aqua. She did state that tea time in the buffet did not change. She stated that it was still “yummy”….. I don’t cruise in Aqua so I have no idea of what they received in the past. Just posting what she reported on social media.

I wonder how popular the retreat/suites will be once all of the FCC’s are used up? I suspect that was one reason why they were so popular. I looked at a few sailings in the retreat for 2023 and I refuse to pay those prices. Especially after experiencing the X retreat product last month on the Solstice.

I suggest keeping an eye out on Celebrity. Latest news coming from guests “currently on board” some of the ships is that X has decided to cut back on the evening offerings at the Oceanview. Not sure how deep this will go but it looks as though they’re trying to force guests to the MDR. Supposedly this just started this week. Happy New Year……🙂

Seems that if you read the other boards here, changes are now happening on just about every other cruise line. Some not as drastic but I think all of the cruise lines are so far in debt that is only the beginning. They will continue to look for more areas to save money. While some are stating that the current changes do not affect them that may be the case now but sooner or later one of the changes will. I’m not loyal to any cruise line. If I were, IMHO RCI actually offers better past guest perks than X does. I go with who will give me the best overall cruise experience.

I read the same comments on the RCI board. Seems that people cannot load the app on some new tablets. No longer supported.

What I’m seeing from Celebrity is happening across the board one way or another with other mass market and premium mass market lines. Today Carnival announced that they were raising gratuities and Wi-Fi prices.

Just finished watching the video on the making of the Aqua Dome. Definitely nothing else out there like it. Of course no one has matched the Aqua Theater on the Oasis class either. Looks like one of the other cruise lines tried to match Two70 from the Quantum class by moving it mid ship on their new builds but it did not look all that impressive to me. Some really bad site lines. Aqua Dome looks to be a great space with multi use day and night unlike the Aqua Theater.

The new charge is higher than RCI unless RCI raises their RS charge which is currently $7.95 plus the 18% gratuity. The other thing that I don’t like is the smaller martini glasses on X. RCI had the standard glasses and we actually found that RCI had better cocktails and bars than we experienced on the Solstice. Again, RCI may make a change also but right now they haven’t. I know that the cruise lines need cash but there will be no going back once things are back to normal “if that happens”…

Just more of Celebrity moving to the mass market segment. They have been mass market for a while but this move places them in competition with the other mass market cruise lines. I think X has an identity issue. They have no idea where they fit. They tried the “modern luxury “ tag. Didn’t work. They tried the “All Included” concept. Did not work. Right now we’re seeing an overpriced product. Based on our last cruise, X felt just average. LLP is no longer running this company. The bean counters are.