NutsAboutGolf

Thanks for sharing. There wasn't a debate about whether cookiegate and the outrage were real, the debate was about what was cookiecake and why was there such outrage. What was CookieGate: Some who were on the cookiegate sailing incorrectly stated all free cookies were gone as they did not realize they were still in the buffet (reportedly there weren't any chocolate chip flavored ones). On the other end of the spectrum which includes this Q&A, didn't realize X removed them from the cafe coincidently at the same time they implemented the fee cookie. Why was there such outage: To oversimplify the outrage, some could care less while others claimed it's another example of nickel and diming that will never end. My opinion about cookiegate: Since day one, I've been a fan of the fee cookies as long as free ones are still available, and reached out to their social media about trying fee cookies again assuming they leave the free cookies in the cafe. Received a response something like thank you for your feedback it was passed along

The OP did say "European Cruise". Also, while most European countries use the Euro, some mainly in the north and east do not. Monte Carlo was a blast, we "bought" 100 Euros worth of 5 Euro MC chips as souvenirs and our friends and family loved them

You nailed the product but let's not forget about the service. Even in 100% positive reviews we often hear something like "Our stateroom attendant was great despite them being responsible for 20 rooms", "MDR service was pretty slow but they were training new staff", "Cafe Al Bacio was so good it was worth the 15min wait in that long line" etc

My WAG (Wild A$$ Guess) is this is because Celebrity is mainly a US company and you being from NZ are on the opposite side of the IDL. It's still a mistake/bug

Assuming you're bringing a Mac or PC laptop, they both have built in hotspots which does the same thing a travel router does and they're far easier to set up. For Macs, in the settings search for "internet sharing" and for PC's it's "mobile hotspot". I've successfully used them both on X's starlink many times. Test this out when your free, put your phone in airplane mode, and setup a laptop hotspot and connect to it to verify it works. Will take you under to a minute to test PC: Mac:

If we didn't complain, we'd have vaping, no pillow chocolates at all, no free cookies in the cafe, the dinner buffet would be only 7 items, and the complimentary prime rib and ribeye would have been permanently replaced by the double cheeseburger

Or they have the "what can we get away with?" mindset. It's quite bold of RCI to ask people if they'd pay a fee for pizza as its very an inexpensive food item for them to make

When there's outrage here on CC, 99% of the time, we're a tiny sliver of what's happening over on that other social media site over in multiple groups which have groups by ship, their own roll calls, etc. Cookiegate wasn't a product of CC, those groups already dubbed the cookie for a fee "cookiegate" before it was even mentioned here on CC. The same goes with the MDR double cheeseburger (RIP!).

For @CruisinShips

FYI, accurate titles attract those with the answers you're looking for; case and point, your question above all is a move up question yet that isn't mentioned in the title. I don't have the answer but there is a long moveup tracker thread if no one posts the answer you're looking for

Like I was saying in the other thread, they keep raising prices and use the excuse they're closing the pricing gap between themselves and land-based vacations but whether or not they're realizing it, they're also closing the pricing gap between themselves and true luxury lines. As it repeatedly gets mentioned here, you pay a little bit more on a true luxury line and receive a lot more

You login without the VPN and once connected, turn on the VPN. I've done this many times

Just the fact they spent half the Q&A session addressing their shortcomings is quite telling

Same with Royal Caribbean

It's just one of many scenarios. Some significant others can stay asleep if their rooms IV opens, while others wake up simply by hearing their neighbors open. Personally, I enjoy sitting on the balcony during the day time as I NEED a coffee first thing in the morning and much prefer Cafe Al Bacio over the room service/buffet coffee. Since I'm semi-dressed, I'll go to the gym after or walk the track if the weather allows

Great, I’m glad you enjoy them; we had to sail on them once due to being AQ and it didn't spoil our vacation. I have always said they have their fans and usually the fans are those who generally do not sit out on their balcony. Anyone is welcome to vacation as they wish

Spot on, damage control is a great way to put it. To oversimplify it: "don't believe anything you read online, everything is fine". Just wanted to comment I'm under the impression the IVs on the Edge 5 are here to stay as there would be a ton of expensive structural engineering required to REPLACE some IVs with traditional balconies. However, perhaps there are some creative solutions such as ADDING an additional top deck that is exclusively traditional balconies

The Traveling Gamblers spoke about it as they spoke to the F&B manager, without a picture, that's about as credible as it gets. F&B Manger said the reason the free cookies were removed was to reduce Cafe congestion and that it was "bad timing"

Agreed but I'm sure there are contractual obligations and/or penalties. I'm very curious to see what's after the E-Class

X, do better with your food and increase the food budget. You used to be known as the foodie brand, now you have to answer a bunch of questions about the reduction in food quality and selection Initially, I was happy they were taking some of what they call hot topics but in many cases, they were like politicians, answering only parts of the topic A few examples... Cookiegate: They answered something like they charged a fee to keep down the congestion and didn't do a good job communicating it. That's only part of cookiegate as they simultaneously removed the free cookies from the Cafe. While free cookies existed in the buffet (and reportedly while the fee cookie was for sale, not the chocolate chip flavor) with all of X's cutbacks, how long would the free buffet cookies last? For what's worth, I'd be a fan of the fee cookies as long as the free cookies were available. Not sure why they don't try fee cookies again but leave the free cookies in the cafe Why did AI change? Something like to serve you better and we now allow Sail Only with Aqua...IMO, they dropped tips because, unlike wifi and drinks, it costs X the full price. X has to pay the full tipping amount to the crew. With wifi and the drinks, they sell them at "retail" prices but it costs them "wholesale" prices While there were some food questions asked, it was quite vague and shifty, "we removed some items but brought them back"...They eliminated the everyday items and added SOME of those items back on a rotational basis

There are free VPNs you can use where you can change locations/regions

For now, sure, but what about tomorrow? In the future, is X more likely to ADD additional free menu items or CUTBACK existing ones?

You're right. Another thing he mentioned in the earnings call was that they found that short cruises are a (his term) "on-ramp" for new cruisers. I'm sure the majority of their earning call covers RCI but X has progressively increased their short sailings since their restart

It wasn't from a lack of wishful thinking

To be fair, this is pretty much always the case when it comes to folks posting their youtube videos; it is the dream of many to make hundreds if not thousands every time they post a video. If the OP cares, they're far better off doing three short videos, one with "the top 5 things I loved about X/'Nox's food", "the top 5 things I hated about X/'Nox's food", "the top 5 X/Nox's food tips". It is hard to watch just one of those videos, if you watch one you'll want to watch the other two