NutsAboutGolf

With LLP who was the CEO and President, you hardly ever saw the RCG (parent company) logo anywhere. When Laura came on, they stripped the position's title of CEO, Laura is only the President of X. RCG's CEO is Jason Liberty, a former CFO, and now we see the RCG logo everywhere. We'll probably never know for sure but it wouldn't be surprising if RCG is behind the cutbacks Social media seems convinced updated MDR menus are coming yet that could be nothing more than reversing some of the cutbacks

With low expectations, ask the Captains Club concierge if they'll add benefits to your friend as they have made exceptions in the past

The parent company, RCG, eliminated the CEO title of X, while LLP was CEO and President, Laura is only the President

Bora Bora has lots of ships visiting including NCL, unfortunately, none are X. When it comes to cruise ship stops, it's often the local governments who collect port taxes and local businesses who want ships to visit versus lodging/hotels and locals who don't want the congestion

When Carnival bought a newer Costa ship they called it "Costa by Carnival" so with X, will probably just be called "Celebrity by Royal Caribbean" well before it flounders

Too bad they don't offer takeout! lol

Thanks. Sounds like there could be some passenger-friendly changes coming. Cruise Critic is the best source of info in a summary format as some of the FB groups have little-to-no moderation. Reading the 100+ comments about Cookiegate on the Sailing Group was exhausting

@fstuff1 If anyone on board could order the double cheeseburger and post a pic and how it tastes, it would be appreciated as I am curious if it's more gourmet than the mast grill/buffet burgers. Otherwise, great detailed review!

MInd sharing the Q&As?

Absolutely great news. Laura and her team surely had an accurate representation of the food quality and taste. I do hope her team grabbed food items from the kitchen at random as it's not uncommon nowadays to receive food that is both overcooked and served lukewarm. Otherwise, I'm sure she was served perfectly cooked food served piping hot food items. I also doubt she experienced a long wait for her dishes which is the least of MDRs concerns as most are willing to wait for good food

VLoggers TheTravelingGambler stated they spoke to the F&B manager of the Equinox where the cookie was being piloted. The manager said the reason for the removal was to keep Cafe Al Bacio's congestion down and that doing so at the same time as piloting the premium cookies was "bad timing" so they reverted back to how things were. I've cruised on X 134 nights since the pandemic, at Cafe Al Bacio I have coffee twice a day, once first thing in the morning and one late in the afternoon assuming the port schedule doesn't interfere so am very familiar with Cafe Al Bacio, and waiting in line. Head to Cafe Al Bacio at around 830-9am on a sea day, you'll see 10-20 people in line, possibly a crew member or even an Officer taking drink orders from those in the line. I haven't noticed anyone anyone ordering cookies in the morning. In the afternoon, there are usually under 10 people in line, and in my experience, I again cannot recall anyone waiting in line exclusively for cookies, usually, it's a COFFEE and a treat which could be a cookie or a slice of cake. The overall point is the COFFEE is causing the congestion, not the cookies so if I could take a Vegas bet, I bet they were trying to eliminate complimentary cookies fleetwide other than in the MDR. Too intentional to be a coincidence/bad-timing I suggested to social media that if the complimentary cookies causing so much congestion at Cafe Al Bacio, why not again offer the premium cookie and put the free cookies next to them? It reportedly took 2mins to back each cookie so that crew member is most likely twiddling their thumbs why did they wait. The reply I received started with "Thank you for your feedback, we've forwarded it (blah blah blah)" and they could have left it at that, yet they ended with they have no plans to bring back the premium cookie at this time 😅

Just another example of X correcting a 2023 policy change. Off the top of my head so far they have brought back more dinner buffet options, brought back the ribeye and prime rib, brought back the complimentary cookies at Cafe Al Bacio while removing the cookie for a fee, reversed their vaping policy, seemingly bringing back every day classics and lobster and filet at LPC The only new and innovative thing was the premium cookie but they blew that by removing the free cookies at cafe Al bacio; they were still available at the buffet but if cookiegate never happened, for how long?

Some of the best pizza recipe developers do not perfect a single specific pizza type and stop, they take talents and develop another type. If one has a shop run by this guy, he wins all sorts of awards and offers different styles of pizza at the same shop. If one ends up visiting Vegas, they need to stop at Pizza Rock downtown. Some of the best pizza I've ever had https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Gemignani

They usually have a sign to make GF crusts on request. They'll make you anything you want including calzones assuming they have the ingredients and one will need to wait 10-15mins. I doubt they have premium ingredients and have never tried bringing other items from the buffet for them to put on a pizza but you can ask

Thanks for sharing as this is showing action. Far better than the Q&A where they claim everything is fine

Agree. Here's a transcript from RCG CEO Jason Liberty: The comment surprised one of the panelists on the CNBC show, Tyler Mathisen, who asked Mr. Liberty doesn't he want to maintain a land vacation value gap in order to attract customers and keep demand up. Mr. Liberty responded, "We always want to be as competitive as we possibly can be, but of course, we want that gap to be much smaller." ""

They're 0-2 for recent pilot programs. The actual reason for the cookiegate uproar was self-inflicting by X with their continued cutbacks and new fees. Optional premium cookie for a fee today, end of complimentary cookies tomorrow, end of all complimentary treats at Cafe Al Bacio next month, and the $2 cookie fee increases to $12.50 on Jan 1st 😂

RCI said the same thing about a lobster tail fee. I'm sure no one said "Loved the new fee!" or "Booked a suite on board because of the new fee!"; we all know they received nearly all negative feedback and still implemented the fee fleetwide. RCI's statement on the matter:

With what I highlighted, I agree with you on-premise yet many corporations are abusing the inflation excuse. First, we need to identify the rate of inflation and various websites point out that the TOTAL from 2020 to now/2023 is just a tick under 15%; this is just a baseline guide, nothing more and of course, there are expectations in some industries. X's fares for example have increased way above the rate of inflation all while decreasing the service and product. However, I can still go to McDonalds and get two double cheeseburgers for about $4 or (what I often get) a large coffee for $.99 by using that app offer. I personally don't see a ton of increases in airfare compared to late 2019-early 2020 but do see massive, at times mindblowing, increases in hotels. I made top Hilton status last year and this year it appears I won't make the lowest status because often Airbnbs have favorable offerings at less than half the cost or more due to free parking if the hotel charges high parking rates

Assuming an independent tour departs a bit after the ship is scheduled to clear, nothing wrong with that. I will mention on this year's Greenland cruise on the summit, that there was one ship tour on a tender port that met in the theater an hour after the ship cleared, they waited another 2 hours (I think?) for the tour guide to show up but was a no-show. Not X's fault by any means, just SOL for those who lost their port day

If one wants mashed potatoes this year, they're in luck, order just about any MDR entree and you'll get an uninspiring scoop of them. Mashed potatoes were apparently added to "All Included" 🙃

Good to know. With tender ports, priority is good in theory but I don't see it well enforced. I'm Elite +, when in a tender port, priority disembarkation states to meet in a lounge where a crew member will escort you off. The problem with this is, that the line will be 20 people with one crew member leading the way while leaving the back "unguarded" so before you know it, another 20 just joined the line. Additionally, I've seen folks get off the elevator on the gangway deck and just join the end of our captains club priority line

Let us know when they're ready to stop listening/discussing and start taking action. A good start would be to increase their food budget by reducing the marketing budget that sends out four emails a day

Quick version, 15mins before the ship is scheduled to be cleared, take the stairs to the gangway and you'll ultimately be waiting in a line to get off, possibly earlier than the ship is scheduled to Long version, half the time the ship is cleared 10-15 minutes before it's announced over the PA. While waiting for the ship to be cleared in a NON-tender port, there'll be a hoard of people waiting to get off the ship ASAP. Sometimes they're allowed to line up on the gangway deck but usually, it's the deck above where a crew member is "guarding" the stairs to go down to the gangway deck. In that case, everyone is lined up in the upper stairs. Either way, you'll either see the line or will be directed to the line On tender ports, just a datapoint, on my last sailing, the first tender with passengers left a half hour before it was scheduled to be cleared

I 100% understand the disappointment of a cancelled port but the ignorance of ongoing global conflicts is baffling to me. Back on topic, let's see what happens, here's the X link to the port guide https://www.celebritycruises.com/ports/aqaba-jordan