BosoxI

2 hours ago, Pennstateman said:

We see no reason to try anything new like the so-called infinite veranda.  We think the status quo is always best.

 

People buying things from a website whithout going to a store?  Ridiculous.

 

Love,

Sears Roebuck and Company 

 

Have you ever heard of a Sears Roebuck catalogue?  Are you aware that for many years houses could be purchased through a Sears catalogue?

Be not the first by which the new is tried, nor the last to cast the old aside.    Wisdom that still has it's appeal to many people.

Celebrity gives nothing away without reason, so they must have some concern over the bookings to date.  We canceled our first Edge cruise  which would have been in April.  Our IV cabin would now cost over $2000 more than what we would have been paying.  But I just counted the empty IV cabins on that cruise and there are 46 of them  That does not strike me as being a lot on a cruise three month away.  I wonder how many IV cabins Edge has. 

19 hours ago, johhnnyt said:

FYI Flights by Celebrity- I did make my air reservations today by telephone (the website gives you incorrect much higher pricing) for the EDGE TA in Nov 1st 2019
$1081 for business class on Delta nonstop flight on October 29th JFK---->FCO (also tried on Kayak and lowest air for biz class on a main stream airline was ~$3000)
Also was told that they have a new program where you can book your air now at the rate you want, but don't have to pay until your final payment is due for the sailing.

We are on that same TA, at least until I absolutely get cold feet for the Edge.  You are in business class, not economy comfort, I take it.   Slightly off topic, but have you booked a hotel in Italy?  We have booked one at the San Giorgio in Civitavecchia but they are prone to canceling w/o warning so I think a change is in order.

Interesting but I don't understand the need, not that my perspective makes any difference.  We just stack our folded shirts,  pashminas, sweaters etc in these very handy bins

On ‎1‎/‎4‎/‎2019 at 6:43 PM, phoenix_dream said:

So where on the survey do you actually have a place to discuss what you didn't like about a cruise?!?!  They did away with that section years ago.  Now they only want to know more about what you did like.  The one and only reason I ever fill them out now is to mention those staff members who have done an outstanding job.  Otherwise I would not bother, but I don't want to hurt them.

I put any critical comments in the first comment box I run into, regardless of what it's stated purpose is.  

6 hours ago, Edward51 said:

 

Well said.  

 

I also think the t-shirts were an anomaly.  Perhaps they had a tux printed on the front.

Uh-uh.  White tee shirts.  No collar.  Chic nights are a joke but this has been adequately discussed

4 hours ago, markeb said:

 

 

Pretty sure that’s a safety thing. Same as behind the scenes tours, etc. Men wouldn’t have been allowed either, BTW. 

There are a few steps that could prove challenging to a very few people,  but Equinox is the first time I had seen the rule enforced.  I don't believe anyone complained as the invitation makes the requirement clear.  My point is that Celebrity can enforce it's rules when it wants to

On the December 21 Reflection cruise on a "Chic" night, I saw two men wearing white tee shirts at dinner time in the MDR.  I doubt they were the only two.

On an Equinox cruise last September women wearing open toed shoes were denied entry to the sail away event on the ship's prow.  Celebrity can enforce rules;  they choose not to selectively.  Or does Captain Kate rule with a strict hand?

12 hours ago, B-Rizzle said:

 

Right?!?!?! Promo videos are just that, to give us an idea. I appreciate the people are concerned about health and I'm sorry I can't afford the Edge right, but I''d do my best to give it a fair chance!

 

Oh no!Yes, this promo is a great reason to not swim on Princess Boats! Good luck! Come on peoples, promos are meant to be fun

 

You've been asked several times to explain your obsession with Eden but you continue to dance around the subject.  I guess this tells us all we need to know.

Thanks to the three people who responded so quickly and civilly to a traveler in need.  You're exactly the type people we hope to meet on board.  And three out of four is good enough to lead any league, if you know what I mean.

5 hours ago, RedneckBob said:

 

As Charley Harper would say, "I Understand".

 

The problem is all cruise lines including Celebrity want to be the best, so called luxury, 5 star lines, so to achieve such a status, they must make everything top of the line including the food served in the MDR, half of which I never heard of. On several occasions I did try a soup that was Greek to me, like a Greek potato soup, I tried it, it was nothing special. Also on the menu was beef cheeks. Now I can take beef tongue but cheek?  I talked with the MDR Assist Manager and he did complaints about soups were too spicy, etc. Now do you understand.

Oh, I understand but too spicy?  The trouble with much of cruise ship food is that it's too bland.  Soups usually are too salty.  Cooking for 3000 people can't be easy. 

Please pardon me for asking, but I cannot easily find recent information.

We'll be taking our first Oceania cruise in a few months.  My SIL was on a Baltic cruise recently and said she and her friend had no trouble boarding with six bottles of wine each.  Is this standard procedure or a fluke?  I have no desire to cart six bottles of wine anywhere, but I would like to bring a lesser number on board.

She was in a standard cabin but said she called Oceania and had no trouble booking restaurants well in advance of her cruise.  We'll be in a Penthouse and assume we have to wait until fifteen days before sailing.  She was O Life, we are not.  Confusion reigns.

Thanks for any current information

51 minutes ago, Orator said:

And it's working! A number of very high number Zenith cruisers either have stopped cruising Celebrity, or discussing moving to another line. I know one "top cruiser" who has cancelled future cruises with Celebrity and considering another line. I know Celebrity will be delighted if they leave since the cabin they would have had will now be occupied by higher spenders who don't cost Celebrity benefits. 

It sure is working.  We started with bookings on two Edge cruises;  we're down to one now and it's only a matter of time before we're down to zero.  The more I read of people's Edge experiences, the less I want to cruise on her.  We've been Elite + for years and my wife hates to lose the benefits, but two cruises on Regent in 2018 have opened our eyes,  In March we're giving Oceania a try.  I have seen enough tee shirts on chic nights to convince me Celebrity is now merely a backup, not our first choice.

On ‎12‎/‎31‎/‎2018 at 4:31 AM, cruisestitch said:

 

 

Second, the OP wrote this "and one of the ports was changed a few weeks ago from St. Thomas to St. Croix.  A number of people on our roll call were very disappointed because they'd been to St. Thomas a number of times and specifically booked that cruise because they'd never been to St. Croix."

 

But I think it has something backwards.  Was the cruise itinerary changed from St. Croix to St. Thomas?  What was written doesn't make sense.

 

 

Am I glad to read your comment.  I read the OP's twice and thought 2019 was to be the year of my complete mental decline

Hey, Redneck Bob, I can open a can of chicken noodle soup at home.  When I'm on a ship, I want things I don't encounter easily or regularly at home.  I can grill a steak with the best of them, so why would I order it on a ship, if more challenging dishes are on the menu?

The service was very good, the maître d'hôtel was excellent, as were the two sommeliers.  Most of the meals were fine but nothing to write home about, and the restaurant is quite noisy, making conversation difficult depending on where our table was located.  We did B2Bs on the Silhouette this month, so we dined in Blu twenty one times.  We learned that  what was described on the menu was not always what was delivered to the table.  Grilled trout turned out to be two skinless filets of fish which might have been trout but could easily have been tilapia.  They were served in a bowl, and looked to be poached, and certainly were not grilled.  Lump crab risotto:  there was no sign of lump crab, in fact there was no sign of real crab.  Instead eight or ten threads of what our local supermarkets sell as Krabmeat to distinguish this man made concoction from real crab were  laid across the risotto.  That was what was passed off as lump crab.  A waiter told us that Krabmeat was also used in the crab cake appetizer which was to appear on the menu later in the cruise.  Apparently, anything that was supposed to have crab in it actually had this ersatz mixture.  One night my wife mentioned to our server that I had been salivating all afternoon over the prospect of digging the marrow out of the veal shank in the osso bucco being served that night.  We were immediately informed that the veal was off the bone.  Osso bucco is a classic Milanese dish.  The marrow in the bone is a prized delicacy and without the bone, there is no osso bucco. It's that simple.   Surely, a professional chef knows this.  How can Celebrity pawn this off on it's customers, most of whom are well traveled and surely know what defines osso bucco.  Incidentally, for those who have forgotten their high school Latin, osso means bone. 

We continued for a third leg but in a veranda on the Reflection.  We ate every night in the MDR and we had splendid meals each time.  The meat which tended to be tough on the Silhouette was as tender as it could be on the Reflection.  Lamb chops were perfectly prepared and I almost didn't need a knife to cut them   I had a second order and they were equal to the first.  Given the choice between Blu on the Silhouette or the MDR on the Reflection, sign me up for the MDR.  It has occurred to me that the MDR on our September cruise on  the Equinox was also excellent.  And Luminae is quite average,   So why pay extra for Aqua or a suite?

To be sure, there were some excellent items  served in Blu.  The steak tartare was excellent, the best I've ever had.  The salmon tartare was also outstanding.  Sweetbreads were served one night and fortunately, I had the foresight to order a double portion.  They were well prepared and served on breaded slices of tomato.  Very good, a real delicacy, and hard to find.  But overall the meals in Blu were passable, not at all memorable, with few exceptions.  My advice is if you see one of your favorite dishes on the menu, be sure to ask what goes into them.  Any restaurant can run out of certain items and restaurants on a ship are probably more prone to shortages.  When this happens, isn't it appropriate for the cooks to inform the wait staff who should advise the diners that changes have been made? 

13 hours ago, B-Rizzle said:

 

T

 

 

First world problems much??? Maybe next time you need to wear a disguise.

Aside from the bad manners of a man initiating a handshake with a woman or a stranger calling someone by first name without permission, there is the matter of sanitation on a cruise ship.  Celebrity properly and constantly asks passengers to wash their hands often and well.  In addition antiseptic hand lotion dispensers are posted at the entrances to all restaurants and a worker squirts the stuff on the hands of every passenger boarding the ship.  Or at least tries to.  So a waiter should know better than to shake hands with people who are about to dine.  Of course you wouldn't know any this as you haven't ever been on a cruise ship, or do I have the wrong person? 

Finally, what does your comment above mean?  It's nonsensical

On ‎12‎/‎21‎/‎2018 at 8:51 AM, bEwAbG said:

We're just supposed to let people bother us because they're being paid to do so?  No thanks. The only people who would possibly defend being willingly annoyed by performers are relatives of the performers, the entertainment staff who came up with the ill-advised concept, or passengers who have no boundaries. I don't care how hard someone is "trying" when the result is that they're making people feel uncomfortable. Remember who is paying the bills. 

 

And if you don't allow them to bother you, you're the hater.  We all should know where the hate is really coming from in today's society

On ‎12‎/‎13‎/‎2018 at 7:51 PM, hcat said:

Not even happy even  if confined to EDEN,,,they should keep it in the Eden show space...leave the rest of us alone! Rude to sit down uninvited!

 

from a review posted by jt 1120..main Celeb Board 

 

"......Eden is a venue that presents performance art. Singing, acrobatics and other street fare-styled performances are featured. For our tastes, we found it to be a bit weird. Plus, once you’ve experienced it, there’s no reason to go back and the Eden area represents quite a bit of real estate on the ship. If you eat there, someone will come to your table and talk to you. They tell you they are from the planet Wu or something strange like that, and we just didn’t care for it. I’m hoping that they do other things in the space like soloists, duos or perhaps comedians. It just felt under-utilized.,.."

It's also rude and bad manners for a waiter to extend his hand to my wife and then turn to me and do the same, but that's what happened in the MDR on the Reflection last week. .  And in Blu on the Silhouette the week before a waiter addressed us by our first names constantly.  I said nothing in either case but maybe I should have. 

This afternoon I cancelled our April sailing on the Edge.  Too much money for too iffy a product.  Actually, I had been tending towards cancelling for some time and several conversations with people who had been on her iced the deal.  My wife is disappointed but I really feel confident this was the right thing to do.  There will be plenty of time to take cruises on her at some future point, perhaps when the cost is less.  .  I spend so much time on the veranda but the Edge seems to offer no more than sitting in front of an open French door while in my bedroom.  I guess I'm just a dark paneling, fireplace, library kind of guy.

What about the ship itself.  Really tired or in reasonable shape?  Especially Sky Suites and AQ.  Thanks

Now I'm curious as to whether there is a pattern.  Some say those who booked at the lower rates have been bumped, but I wonder if it's random or based on timing.  I have seen people claim, accurately, no doubt, they paid in full a year in advance and still received the bad news.  Has anyone with an Italian surname had a problem?

1 hour ago, Tealing said:

We stayed there in October before our cruise and had no problem. Service was excellent and they even arranged a shuttle to the port.

I'm anxiously awaiting Orator's next posting naming the hotel, but I'm betting this is the San Georgio.  My last trip to Civitavecchia was a good one partly because I covered my bets with the SG  without paying up front by booking a second hotel and canceling the SG a month in advance.  I got cold feet when visiting Trip Advisor and seeing that some folks were put in an inferior hotel but were not allowed to pay that hotel directly.  Seemed there was a chance the SG was pocketing the difference, though, to be fair, I couldn't determine that for sure.  Forse ladri.  At least Orator got a week's notice which is more than most have gotten.

Boy, there seems to be a spate of real reviews ecently, and I appreciate them tremendously.  Thanks, Turtles 06, especially as we'll be doing a B2B starting 11/30.  We haven't been on the Silhouette in a few years, but now you have me hoping the food will be as good as it was on the Equinox this past September. 

 on a cruise with two friends my wife and I were in a suite on the first of a back-to-back. Michael's Club hostess was a very nice woman, and on the second leg when we were only in an aqua cabin, she invited us to enjoy Michael's Club. That was without our suggesting or even hinting that we would like to use it. We felt a bit awkward knowing that this was something we were not really entitled to, so we only took advantage one time when four or six friends were gathering.

The nicest thing about the elite breakfast is that it is not crowded usually and on the Solstice class, it looks  aft, over the wake.

Tissot  can be found in so many shops in the islands. Remember to bring the model number of The watch you're interested in and go to town.  As others have advised, the ship is no place to buy really good watches or jewelry. But a more modest purchase might be justified if OBC is involved