Cruise Raider

On the Discovery, we found similar wines at the Crown Grill Bar.

The Salty Dog Grill is up by the pool. They have a variety of menu options that are complimentary for everyone. It’s not really a place you would walk into .. it’s just a stand near Slice (the Noodle Bar on the Majestic). The Salty Dog GastroPub is another story. That is an actual sit down restaurant, albeit tar bar stools at a pub style table. There is an a la carte menu as well as a price fixed meal. If you are on the standard fare, you can purchase with option.

We have a Maine lobster truck ( I know, I never thought I’d buy food from a food truck) that stops in different locations throughout our area that is quite good. Pricey but really good lobster. Not much lobster meat in the roll, though. I think they are currently around $25 each.

I am probably not the best judge of lobster. But, I can tell if it is bad or barely edible. It has definitely improved since the restart. I do consider myself to be very up on my escargot. that was probably the best I’ve ever had.

I am with you! I am not a spring chicken so, I remember the days of going to the travel agent and getting the plastic folder with the tickets. That was at least 4 decades ago. Everything is so much easier now. I hate waste and am so much happier with the medallion and the app, everything is digital, orders are done online, no more stacks of paperwork to sort through every day in my cabin.

If you aren’t impacted by the noise, that is a perfect location! wWe were under the bar on the Marina deck and it was fabulous! We always take a white sound machine now and don’t much care if we are in a noisy location. I don’t think midship on a top deck is anywhere as rough as a forward (or aft) location on a lower deck. enjoy!

Interesting take … and I know some cruises can just vary greatly even on the same ship, not even just the same line. We recently cruised on etc Diamond Princess and didn’t like that ship at all. We were highly impressed with their entertainment and the food was great. The service, with a couple exceptions, was awful and their wine choices .. just the worst. Looks like both lines have cut back on their wine selections. The difference here was Celebrity always serves their wine in really nice glasses. Even a cheap wine tastes better if in a good wine glass. We’ve never sailed on an Edge class ship and are probably unlikely to do so as, we mainly cruise from the west coast only. We’ve always been able to drop off our carry on luggage in our cabin on Princess and never on Celebrity, including this last cruise. As far as the chaos at the pier, it was the same area that we just embarked at for the Princess cruise, just a different terminal. There was no priority line or waiting area as there was with Princess. Just one big blob of passengers pushing and shoving. We just waited patiently for it to disperse. No use in getting tangled in the chaos. I would say that on Celebrity, I was a bit surprised by the lack of one even one shrimp dish in the buffet. I ordered it in the MDR one day for lunch and it wasn’t great. I’m sure it was just a one off .. but we didn’t return to the MDR after that. We are not big eaters at dinner time so it wasn’t as though we didn’t go back there to give it another try because of that, though. I would say our biggest disappointment was the lack of activities during the day while onboard. On Princess, I know they’ve done their best to have several options of something to do throughout the day. You can do as much or as little as you’d like. The Celebrity wasn’t a bad cruise, just not what I remember from before the pandemic. Well, nothing really is but, I do feel like Princess really stepped up their game after the restart.

That has no bearing on why I like a ship. While some people love the wrap around promenade, I love deck 7 on the Royal class ships.

And if your tastes anre anything like mine, go to the furthest aft aisle for the best selections. My favorites were always there.

The Discovery is a Royal Class ship.

We’ve cruised extensively on both lines but mostly on Princess since the restart back in July 2021, otherwise known as the day I got my life back! While Celebrity has been our favorite cruiseline in the past, Princess took the lead when we did a side by side comparison in April. To start, we rarely book full suites but both rooms we booked were comparable balcony cabins. We cruised on Celebrity for one week out of San Pedro in LA and walked over to the next terminal to board the Discovery. These were the differences I noticed: The boarding for Celebrity was more chaotic (that’s more about the terminal than the cruise-line itself) We were able to drop off our luggage in our cabin closet and head for lunch in the dining room on Princess. Celebrity did not have this option. The classic beverage package on Celebrity didn’t include wines that Princess included on their Plus beverage package (that may all have changed by now as the wine choices on both lines are not great) The cabins on Celebrity kick butt but I do love the open closet design on Princess. The beds are also somewhat more comfortable on Princess. The buffet on the Royal Class ships are far superior to those on Celebrity .. on the Grand class ships, the complete opposite is true. Service was great on both lines! Celebrity served all their drinks, including the drinking glasses, in Riedel stemware. Wow! I’ve actually gotten martinis on Princess in a plastic glass as they were all out of the glass stemware. The procedures for immigration … without a doubt, Princess wins this one by a MILE! I think the food won out on Princess and I probably wouldn’t have said that in the past. The Crown Grill was phenomenal and half the price of Murano on Celebrity. I can honestly say, I really missed the medallion app and the medallion. There was really no place to get food midday on Celebrity unless you went to the Lido deck. I missed having a salad delivered to me wherever I may have found a seat, like I can do on Princess. We did go to the coffee house breakfast in the Tuscan a few times and the service was just so poor in there that we stopped going. I don’t need to feel special but hate to be completely ignored. The coffee drinks at Cafe Al Bacio on Celebrity was probably the absolute BEST I’ve ever had! We absolutely love the nonsmoking in the casino on Celebrity! The biggest difference was the entertainment, activities and events. We met several others that did the same side by side cruises and the consensus was, Celebrity was just kind of boring. There was always something fun to participate in on Princess. And if you felt like just relaxing with some quiet time, there was that, too! We didn’t have a bad time on Celebrity, far from it … it’s just that Princess suited us so much better. Again, it’s not always been like that, as Celebrity really was our favorite in the past. And there were things about Celebrity that we liked so much more. This comes from a frequent standard balcony cruiser so, that may make a difference. We are not demanding but do love decent to great wine. We are not foodies but can tell if it is just not great food.

They have an a la carte menu.

I love this so much!

My friend keeps calling or texting me talking me into this cruise or that cruise. I keep telling her I’m going to die penniless but happy! 😂

it’s ok … I do it all the time

Not with the plus package, but without the package, I’m sure you would pay for the room service but the per bottle price onboard.

I will start with the warning that things do seem to charge monthly but we’ve always been successful in ordering 6 or 12 bottles of water via the plus package by just calling room service.

You will have a desk chair you can take out and two footstools. Really, there is no need for your steward to bring out another deck chair.

I agree 100%! Maybe they will have more staffing available since they won’t need quite as many servers for Alfredo’s? Maybe that’s wishful thinking!

We used to get lunch offerings on Celebrity way back when for $30 pp. I think it’s doubled since then and now adds an 18% gratuity on top of that. Heck, the dinner menu pricing on Princess is still better than the lunch menu prices on Celebrity.

On our last two cruises, it was listed in the Patter which SD restaurant was open for lunch. It wasn’t just in the little section that lists bar and restaurant hours, it was in the main portion of the daily activities.

I would love that, too. But, it really all depends on available staffing.

Both passengers in the cabin must buy the plus (or premier) fare, which includes a beverage package, WiFi and gratuities at minimum. It now also includes 2 casual dining options. So, the fare for the Plus Package is currently $60 a day pp. so, it’s $120 for a double occupancy cabin. Gratuities per day for 2 passengers in a standard cabin = $32 a day WiFi for one device each for 2 passengers (non elite status) = $30 a day Plus Standalone Beverage Package for 1 passenger = $77 a day So, now, even without the casual dining, with the assumption that you would both purchase the WiFi and wouldn’t remove the gratuities, the charge for 2 passengers in a cabin would come to $139 .. even with just one WiFi device activation, it would still come out to $124 .. more than you’d pay if you both just each got the package fare instead of the standalone beverage package for one. I am sure Princess studied this carefully so, it wouldn’t really pay to cheat!

I am so happy they are offering this option. We’ve seen it available on our last two cruises, as the cruises were filled to capacity and those lunch offerings were probably in their test phase. So, we were on the Emerald and the Ruby and so, those ships only had the Crown Grill and Sabatini’s. They were each open on alternating dates on sea days. They offered the same menu as in the evening and the same pricing. If you had the premier fare package, you could use your allotted specialty dining in those venues. BTW, they were crowded, at least the one in the Crown Grill was. I never got up to see if Sabatini’s was also full.

When my CVP goes on vacation and I want a cruise booked with a particular cabin, I book it online myself and just put the cabin on a hold. I may have to do it twice if she’s gone for awhile. once you deposit it, she will do longer get credit for the booking. I happen to know another CVP and he did a booking for me once and assigned it to my CVP.