hulamoon

Do they serve the menu on port days as well? 

Thank you  for all the comments and pictures. It helps me understand the new direction in suites. 

Of course we aren’t allowed to discuss TA’s here, or I am sure many people could steer you in directions that are worth 8 to 10 percent and sometimes better. 

I have also heard of many people who book directly who got extra’s. I asked but never got anything by going direct. 

Most importantly, have a great cruise!

I would do it. I gave up an S3 recently for a guarantee W and ended up in an S1. Of course one never knows what will happen but I would spin the wheel again.

I laughed so hard I cried at this ad. It is funny and surprising.  It finds common ground across generational mind bending experiences with the young woman and Grace Slick’s White Rabbit music.

I enjoyed Eden, but I wasn’t sure most passengers would be able to suspend their logical minds to do so.

I hope they retain the premium luxury experience. Even if it’s not modern luxury.

They are definitely all in with the Eden experience.

Thank you Celebrity, cruise critic members and my roll call for sending emails. It means a lot to us on sea days and those days we realized we saw the show multiple times. Gone are the days there are too many new things to do that are true activities, so I am happy for movies, now that the libraries are going. And non existent  on Edge. (I finally broke down and got a Kindle)

Cruise  lines go to so much trouble selling guests on being return guests, its nice if they remember what made us fall for the line in the first place.

Celebrity was once the only line we could escape to, to avoid smoke and get intuitive service. Times have changed. There are more options, I would love to see that amazing service return. We saw glimpses of it on Edge in December.

I have been enjoying your review. Looking forward to the rest of your travel posts.

5 hours ago, Happy Cruiser 6143 said:

 

No, you have not missed anything.  If you are in a suite, you can get a drink whether or not you are Elite or whatever and whether or not you have a drink package.  The trick was getting someone to furnish said drink.

They were checking us for the package in May. Pretty weird. I wanted to chock it up to inexperience but that wasn’t it. It was a far cry from the early suite experience and the desire to serve in those days. 

I wondered if they were making an attempt to stop serving drinks without package or status. It didn’t happen, let’s call it reluctant service. 

Will see how the next cruise goes!

44 minutes ago, TommyD3 said:

We were on the 8/24 sailing. The service was HORRIBLE !!! First drink was slow and refills impossible. The self service buffet was a definite improvement. No live music since there is no longer any place for them to perform. One night after waiting for 15-20 minutes for a wine refill we walked up to the bar. The waitress took the glasses and proceeded to leave (without them). Concierge came over and said she went on break and he called for a replacement. After dinner an assistant bar manager approached us after dinner. He apologized and said it would be corrected. No change !!! Normally at 5 PM neither of the concierges were present. After a few more tries we either sat in Ensemble or went to Ensemble ourselves to get refills !!! A big step down from "Michael's Club" !!!

I am sorry to hear that. I was hoping we were the only ones noticing the dip in service standards. Too bad they don’t play music anymore. We didn’t make all of them but enjoyed the ones we went to, when aware of them. 

Some cruises we had many new free movies, an impressive amount of choices and other cruises it was a small

selection. I hope this is full on back to the best offering. I could never figure what made it one way or another.

Thanks to all who posted and sent emails.

I am looking forward to enjoying the nice new screens after marching through Europe and on longer days on the TA!

On 9/14/2019 at 3:39 AM, MarkWiltonM said:

I will be sailing on Celebrity's Silhouette in February 2020 after a four year break from the cruiseline.  The last two years we sailed on HA Koningsdam and Nieue Statendam and we were impressed with the abundance of free movies and, in particular, the number of new movies that had recently been in theaters. They are great for rainy days or evenings where you've worn yourself out during the day on shore excursions. It seems like Celebrity is raising its prices to be somewhere between the "premium" and "luxury" categories.  So what do you get for the extra money?  The food on HA is at least as good if not slightly better and the staff on HA is much friendlier. On the other hand, I have missed Celebrity's Cafe al Bacio. I hope that is as good as I remember. 

 

I love the Cafe too and I suspect you will find it in order. The always amazing staff is more lax but the offerings are good. I look forward to your comparisons. Yes I loved the free movies that were not on our home premium channel yet. 

On 9/14/2019 at 1:37 AM, ak1004 said:

Frankly, I could never understand why someone would spend thousands on a cruise and then spend precious vacation time watching a movie in their cabin. Personally, I couldn't care less about movies, foot stools, cabin furniture, etc. To me, a comfortable bed and mattress are much more important. (speaking on which, I wake up every morning with back pain due to extremely hard mattress).

 

What really surprises me is that there are hundreds of posts about "cabin experience", but so few posts about declining food, lack of activities, over crowded ships, declining service etc. To me, this is the real cruise experience, but it seems that to most people it is much less important.  

I think we already have baked those experiences into the price. I don't find Celebrity crowded except when everyone is out and about. For years you had to upgrade to suites of specialty dining for what used to be MDR. The exception I recently had was on Edge.  Just trying to stop the erosion.

2 hours ago, CruiseLifeIsTheBest said:

The seriously tiny chairs were switched out during the 8/24 sailing. Got a shot before they were changed. 

I hope I am laughing with you about those chairs. Could be footstools?

It sounds like an airline guest area. I will be checking it out soon myself but I don’t understand why they would degrade it this way. But I did notice the decline in service compared to the early concept for bartenders. Not that it was horrid it just wasn’t the first class it once was. Maybe it wasn’t a mistake but a choice to cut costs and staff.

18 minutes ago, riredsox said:

There isn’t a bar in the Retreat Lounge on the Edge!  When we were there I asked an officer about that and he said everybody has brought that to his attention!  He said we are learning for the next Edge class ships.  Also no World Class Bar and he said that would be on the 3rd Edge class.  Even without a bar we still enjoyed it!

It seems like there was a big disconnect between what passengers like and the design. 

So, what? 

If there is not a bar in the retreat are people just sitting around? Do they go to other bars to get a drink and bring them in? Or is it a new concept, meditation like area.

The Edge just put in those nice big TV’s and we are going to watch movies on iPads? This is crazy. 

We are usually in suites but we took a preview in an OV. We were very impressed with the cabin, the TV quality and the food in Cosmopolitan.

I also care about foot stools and tables to use in balconies. When passengers posted they paid for suites but the benefit area was not accessible makes me wonder what the heck is going on. Is there a commitment to continue to be a premium line?

Ginnyfyr thank you for sharing the pictures. It is a lovely area. Are there new retreats on ships without bars? 

I board Nov 1st, taking a burned out husband who will not like paying for his beloved movies after paying more for a TA than we ever have. His idea of a vacation is to go slow and easy and charge his batteries. We liked that Celebrity had movies before they reached us at home. Why have those huge big beautiful TV’s? 

14 hours ago, Iamcruzin said:

The table hight is the normal hight for a coffee/ cocktail table. However  round is not the way to go in a confined space.Oblong would have been a better choice. Personally I would have preferred the TV folding table for it's hight and flexibility  to accommodate small areas and  being portable. 

Maybe this will be what will be done a set of TV trays for food service and to use laptops on the balcony.

2 hours ago, vtcruising said:

Sorry, misunderstood. We heard some rumors, but I don't think it's happened. Hoping that Apex will be better - I'm sure they don't want the same firestorm....🙂

I packaged it into my letter about free movies.  It's where we work when on a cruise and darn it you need a table. 🙂 When I first heard about  the furniture, I didn't say anything, I figured surely it would be fixed.  I hope sanity and usefulness returns to furnishings. 

1 hour ago, vtcruising said:

The sky suites received a coffee table in place of the Kelly Hoppen rockers. 

Ok, yes I caught that. I was hoping for dining table outside.

On 4/20/2019 at 7:52 AM, vtcruising said:

Thanks for the pictures! Hopefully when that suite gets its balcony table as seen in the other thread, all will be well.  🙂

So I seem to have missed the Edge table, is there one? I thought I was looking at pictures of S class table. I included my desire for a table when I emailed Celebrity, they did not assure me a table was coming to Edge, but maybe they didn't know.

I received a reply back from my letter concerning the balcony table and the movies. The author assured me my concerns would be heard. It takes numbers though, please write and post if you want a change.

We watch and enjoy the movies, if you cruise a lot you have seen all the shows, I am not interested in evening cable.

Secondly that table is a joke, we not only use it for meals we work a few hours on vacation and we set laptops out on the balcony table to be near the ocean.

They probably put the table budget in the rocking chairs. 

Please write CelebrityOneTouch@celebrity.com

14 hours ago, Wine-O said:

 

You just go to the roll call connections page, pick the ship, then scroll down to the roll call date.  It's not rocket science.  🍷

 

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/127-celebrity-“connections”-roll-calls/

I agree. I just tried it and it is simplified. Maybe there was a change, but for quite a while it was very difficult for me to connect with the roll call.

I need to copy and paste the instructions! Didn’t  we give up formal

night so we didn’t have to pack extra to Europe? It’s crazy.

Next it will

be a class and a sales opportunity to teach us how to hook up a free movie and purchase the equipment!