Karynanne

I don't take either of those positions. Mine is:

 

3. Its none of my business how a cruise line chooses to treat its passengers. The cruise line knows its customers and what they need to provide them to fill their ships and make a profit. If I don't like what's being offered to me for the fare I'm prepared to pay, I don't have to sail with them - if I do like what's on offer I'll give them my business.

Well said.

We usually booked a Sky Suite (S2) on Resort Deck/Reflection, and occassionally hear some chair scraping, but nothing that bothers us. Only once did we hear very loud floor washing equipment in the middle of the night. The next morning our Butler asked us if we heard anything, and we said yes. Later that day, we received a letter from the Hotel Manager apologizing for our inconvience, and stated that no loud noises due to floor washing would occur after 10 pm at night. It was nice of them to acknowledge the passengers.

We have used the same TA for many years, and throughout those years, there have been numerious fare reductions. Never once has there been an additional fee.

Hope you have your luggage by now! :)

 

For future, I have attached an example of what I stick in the front, unzipped pocket of each piece of our luggage...even our carry-on's.

 

I also do not put my name tag on the outside of luggage, especially when leaving my local airport. I don't want anyone handling the luggage to know that someone at our address is out-of-town. I want the airline to look inside, or you can put a note on the flip side of your name tag to look inside the luggage to find the itinerary.

We essentially do the same thing. We always have a list of the hotels, ports, dates, and any email address and phone numbers. It may sound a bit obsessive, but in the world of airline travel, it's better to have all situations covered in advance.

Only excursions cancelled within 24 hours of the excursion are not refunded.

Not always. I've had to cancel an excursion, due to illness and it was within 24 hours. I didn't expect a refund, but was credited the amount a few days later. Maybe there had been a waitlist for this particular excursion, and they could fill my spot.

Hopefully the "changes" level out, and become the new normal.

I remember when Michel Roux left Celebrity, and there was substantial decline in the MDR meals. The posts on CC were rampant. And most were negative.

Change happens. I for one have faith that Celebrity will read the negative critiques, and make some adjustments.

Will it deter me from sailing on the cruiseline? Hopefully not. I've been a loyal cruiser, but if there really is a noticeable decline, we may just "jump ship", and see what Oceania has to offer.

Karyn

We live in the San Francisco Bay Area, and have dined in a many very good restaurants. It's difficult to compare large venue dining to small specialized restaurants.

But on the whole we feel that the MDR food is very good. Once in awhile there is a specific dish that's not up to par, but most of the time we enjoy our meals.

Karyn

Last straw for me...hourly, incessant announcements. That would drive me crazy.

We've seemed so many changes in the past 15 years, and expect more in the future. It's just a fact in life.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder...

Find these posts interesting because I kept reading about Choice Air on cruise critic so I checked some flight prices awhile back and found Choice Air to be extremely expensive - no deals at all. I had booked with Celebrity so it should have been less expensive but it wasn't, so I gave up. In future I will check them again to see if I can find any decent prices.

It depends on the itinerary. Choice Air international flights can be far less than booking directly with your chosen airline.

We've used them quite a few times, and have another furture one booked, and have consistantly found the prices less than 1/2 of the airline's price. BUT...I do upgrade "directly" with the airline, once given a "locator" number by Choice Air.

Hope this is helpful for you.

Karyn

Well okay then, I guess I need to amend my previous reply.

 

If they are in there to clean the restroom, then I stand by my earlier statement that this should not be an area for cost cutbacks.

 

But if they are only hanging around in there to greet you and hand you a towel, then this would be a good place for cost cutbacks.

 

Furthermore, anyone who is hanging around in there to hug the passengers definitely needs to be assigned something else to do instead. ;)

I would suspect that any crew that has "bathroom" duties, is on a rotating schedule. They probably work in many other areas of the ship also. As passengers, we really don't know if "behind the scenes" crew have been cut at this point. I'm sure Celebrity has assessed all areas of productivity.

We did a B2B from Sydney to Hawaii for 29 days, and we loved it.

We were on Equinox last Oct.,and there was a bathroom attendant in the ladies room outside of the MDR. She always greeted everyone with, "Welcome to my bathroom". The first time I heard it, I had to hide my giggle, but after a few more times, I found it to be a friendly greeting.

We have done this previously. We fly into FLL and have a car service drive us to a hotel in Miami. An easy process.

While most deposits are $100, suites require a higher deposit.

Not always. We booked a B2B onboard last October for a Suite and paid the $100.00 deposit per cruise for each of us. Total: $400.00.

Celebrity hasn't gone downhill. It has gone sideways. Bayley's background is finance, not customer service; thus, a little more focus on the stockholder and a little less on the consumer.

RCL stock has doubled in the last two years. Mr. Bayley apparently is doing something right to appease the stockholders.

Yup.

 

We all know that ignorance leads to bliss. ;)

Best post yet, Arno.

Were the "good ole days" better? I don't think so.

We have been cruising with Celebrity since 1999. It has been our only line of choice. We've seen lots of changes throughout that period. Some good...some not so good. But we realize that the only thing in life that is constant...is change.

We feel that the food is actually much better now. Smaller and healthier portions. Beautiful presentation, and a great variety of special restaurants. We enjoy the Oceanview Buffet on the S-Class far more than on the M-Class ships. We like the individual stations, that offer a specific grouping of foods, rather than walking through a long line of "cafeteria style" buffet lines. We too enjoyed the Acapella singing groups, but not having them now isn't a deal breaker for us.

But the ONE thing that will keep us with this line, is the level of professional staff and crew. They genuinely enjoy their work and enjoy the passengers. And that's a huge plus for Celebrity.

So if some of you are annoyed with the new changes...find another line that suits your needs. There are lots of choices in the industry.

We've always noticed quite a lot of coughing on a given cruise. The confined, contained areas spread viruses, and the drier air seem to contribute to this.

We've also had our fair share of colds and bronchitis while cruising also. There really isn't anything than can be done, except to stay home and isolate yourself all winter. Not my choice of action...

thanks everyone for your input,

Karyanne - a ROYAL suite, did you booked a GTY (W) Suite GTY?

Originally we had booked a Sky Suite. But after final payment, we saw that there were many higher Suites available. We had our TA wait until the Sky Suite category was sold-out, and then we had them take our orginal booking out of it's category, and put it into the GTY W category. We felt at the time that the least we could end up with would be the same Sky Suite we had orginally booked. The strategy worked well in our favor.

Also, we originally had paid a very high rate for our Sky Suite. After final payment, the fare dropped over $2000 per cabin. This MAY have been taken into consideration...but we'll never know for sure.

Karyn

Just because the public website shows no available suites on your sailing doesn't mean that's the end of the story. Most likely a number of suites have been removed from public access and are waiting to be assigned to people on guarantees such as yourself.

You're probably right. They sometimes temporarily remove Suites and then make the assignments.

We've waited three weeks for a Suite assignment, and were ultimately assigned a Royal Suite. A very lucky choice for us.

Good luck with your pending assignment.

Are you sure, We are talking about Stockholders benefits.

I play the game pretty well on finding the best way to get the best benefits before i book.

We just got off the Connie and I was told a Flat no on using my shareholders stock benefit while using my on board booking and the 123 promo we had going on.

I too have been told no with RCCL on using the on board booking with the shareholder with them.

Love to know if you are told something different.

Why don't you try and submit the form for Shareholder Benefits and see what happens. Then you'll know for sure.

The gelato at Cafe al Bacio is very good but doesn't taste near as good as the gelato in Italy. We do prefer the gelato at al Bacio vs the free ice cream onboard by far. I think the free ice cream is horrible but taste is subject and the long lines for the ice cream proves that.

The gelato in Rome is the best I've ever tasted! There is a shop near the Pantheon that Rick Steves has in his travel book. We had our's there, and it was fantastic.

We were given the VIP treatment last Sept. Embarkation was in Barcelona. We checked in, and then were escorted directly to our RS. A very nice experience.

I would also try viewing NFL games in the Casino Bar.