publicpersona

Yeah, whenever you read something like "For your convenience .." or "We've made some exciting changes!" you know you are about to get screwed.

You are right. I stand corrected and apologize for my response. Threads like these thrive on hyperbole, of course, and I confess to using it as much as anyone. What I really mean to say is that I don't care for pillow chocolates. Or canapes. And actually was annoyed by towel animals. If I had made a list of top ten things I love about Celebrity ten years ago, none of those items would have been on the list. However, of the ten things that would have been on my list ten years ago, I think probably 7 or 8 of them are now gone.

Neither the post I quoted nor my comment said anything about pillow chocolates. I was commenting that if all one required to have a great cruise is to literally be on a ship at sea, a container ship would suffice. I've enjoyed almost all of my 70+ cruises not just for being on a ship at sea, but because we were constantly having our expectations exceeded with how well we were being treated. I'm on Equinox next week and plan to have another great cruise. But given that Equinox is being used to test things that will piss customers off ($2 for a cookie?), I'm mindful that we could be disappointed.

Sounds like you'd be better off on a container ship. MSC has those.

You're right .. I was speaking about ordering by the glass. And MDR was actually better about this than the other bars on the ship. I liked Cellar Masters, but as far as I know, Cellar Masters no longer exist on any ship, except perhaps Infinity class where they have a bar by that name but it is not at all a wine bar.

This is absolutely true. I've found that ordering any wine results in a pour of whatever's open. When I challenged this in the Sky Lounge one time, the bar staff educated me that there was no "menu", but the wines in that little book and in the app were just "examples" of wine.

There are medical scenarios where distilled water is required. The goal is to have the least likelihood of any contaminants. Desalinized water on a cruise ship is perfectly fine for drinking, but not ideal for some other purposes. When we don't have a drink package, we carry on our limit of bottles of water primarily to have a supply of water bottles to take ashore. To me it tastes better than water from the tap, but I don't mind drinking tap if I need to.

Nope .. that's why I went back and deleted my post. Sorry.

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It used to be a great value for wine drinkers when it was priced at $20 or $25. Now at $45+$9 = $54 (onboard price, per my pending cruise drink options), not a good value at all. There would be six stations with two wines at each representing different countries, and someone at each station to talk about the wines. There were some cheeses and crackers available also. It was basically all you can drink in an hour. The experience was particularly good when the weather was good (not too hot) and they'd have it out on the lawn.

Be equally careful of cruise line gift cards purchased at a discount from online gift card resellers. They are very difficult to actually use. You can't, for example, go online to make a payment on your cruise with them. You have to talk to someone to get it applied. And when I did get connected to someone to apply it, they wanted to verify that I was a travel agent. Wait .. what? Fortunately, I did get it applied eventually, but lesson learned.

It isn't called the Boil 'n Bake for nothing. Larger items get the neck irritators attached. Smaller items probably go into mesh bags that are labelled. I sent a suit for dry cleaning once, and when it was returned to the cabin, I just put it in the garment bag for the trip home. When I took it out at home, it was very obvious that it too got into the Boil 'n Bake.

No. There is no Elite benefit of happy hour on the first night. Never has been. Nothing has changed. It makes perfect sense. Would I rather have some more free drinks? Sure. But they aren't there.

Cheeseburger. Wait .. too soon?

I mentioned in my comment above that we were doing Concierge class on our next sailing because the delta in price was insignificant. That was an understatement. They are basically paying us $4 to get the concierge benefits. In that case, I don't mind the daily banana.

This fairly recent YouTube video does a good job of describing the benefits. Although we are doing Concierge on our upcoming cruise, it was because the delta in price was insignificant. I don't put much value into having a banana left in the room every day. But if you see benefits of value to you, go for it.

You may be looking at old deck plans on another site. Celebrity shows 9360 as C2. There are no C3s. Celebrity Equinox Deck Plans | Celebrity Cruises

Read my comment above. The answer is often "whatever is open." Celebrity doesn't really commit themselves on what wines they will have for classic package, describing it as "A selection of vintages from around the world" or some such. So yes, the wine they will serve you came from some winery that exists on this planet." They make contracts to purchase table wines in huge quantities at as little as $2-$3 per bottle. That's the La Terre(ibble) and similar wines. I'm not saying you can't get a good wine on Celebrity. I'm saying you have to be vigilant and keep an eye out for what they are really pouring. Also, you are much more likely to get what you order (and have paid for) in MDR than at the pool bar.

I knew that for several years, they seemed to be outside the norm but still happened occasionally, but I did not know that they were categorically ended fleetwide. Anyway .. hence the "if".

If you have a drink package, the Elite HH drinks are moot. Order what you want from the drink package of which the HH drinks are a subset. If there is a HH event in the Sky Lounge (with hors d'oeuvres, etc.) bar service may or may not allow you to order package drinks. I've been told no problem at all, and I've been told that I had to order from the HH list. Depends on phase of the moon, etc.

Wine drinkers don't fare very well with drink packages. The bar staff generally don't know the first thing about wine, and you are lucky if you get the same varietal of wine, much less the same winery. The standard seems to be whatever is open at the moment. Ask for a premium level champagne and you probably get that prosecco in the refrigerator, the same as a Classic package guest would get. The MDR can be a little better in this regard, but not always. I've ordered a Mer Soleil when it was on the Premium list and been poured La Terre. One time when I inquired about the discrepancy, I was told at the Sky Lounge bar that the wine list was just "examples", not something you actually ordered from. So if that New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc that you ordered has all the characteristics of one from South Africa instead, you're probably not wrong.

That is how I usually look at it. However, I don't mind there being an option to get a specialty dining entree in MDR. Perhaps we couldn't get a reservation or didn't want all the accoutrements of the specialty restaurant .. just hungry for a steak and the closest thing to it on MDR menu that night was pork and cabbage. I've done it once or twice I think. So I said no evidence exists that any such thing was being considered, and you asked me where I saw that there was. This is what makes Cruise Critic so special.

What is the point from whose perspective? From the cruise line, it's just another revenue enhancer by removing the main option for complimentary dining. They might argue that the buffet remains available. Besides, I was just explaining what I perceived the person was thinking about, not there exists any evidence whatsoever that X was considering anything like that.

I think from the context the person you were responding to mistakenly believed that there was an upcharge for eating in MDR at all. That wasn't true during the test, though the argument could be made that if you wanted a decent meal, you'd have to pay an upcharge. Fortunately (we hope), that is moot since the orphanage-style food is gone, and the more familiar MDR entrees have returned.

Looks like for our Aug 27 sailing the menu is back to more normal. That’s good, although I know it could change again.