lorimay

We were on Equinox in February. Show times were the standard 7 and 9 pm that we have seen on just about every Celebrity cruise we have been on. However, we were on the Edge a couple of weeks ago and the cruise director had moved the show times to 7 and 9:30. There was no explanation why the second show was 9:30 instead of 9 for the entire cruise. We heard lots of complaints that it was too late.

I was on the Edge earlier this month with Select Dining. We had reservations and didn't show up one night. We were not charged anything. I was never asked to check a box when I made the reservations, which was while we were on the ship via the app. An interesting observation - we were on the Equinox in February and Edge in March, but on the Summit in December and Beyond last October. There was a huge difference in the number of dirty dishes we saw waiting for pickup outside cabins on the cruises in 2023. We also NEVER saw a room service attendant in the hallways on the 2023 cruises. I think the charge for room service in regular cabins has made a huge difference in the staffing.

I had a stretchy clothes line with hooks on the ends on the Beyond. I intended to use magnetic hooks and stretch it in between. However there are holes in the tops of the infinite veranda folding doors that allow you to put the end hooks in and stretch the line across from one side to the other. It worked out great. I checked the Edge last week and it had the same thing.

I had the premium wifi package. I was on the Edge last week, also with the premium package, and the internet was not nearly as good. I was able to do zoom and meet calls but there was buffering.

7 and 9 pm for the shows in the theater.

We were on the Equinox a couple of weeks ago. On other cruises and this one, usually they bring one starter after the other if you order more than one. On lobster night, I tried to order surf and turf and the waiter refused to combine the entrees. He told me they had to come on different plates at different times. So my lobster came first along with my husband's, then they cleared my plate and brought the steak (including sides) and I split it with my husband. It wasn't ideal but it was ok. We found the dining room on Equinox was so screwed up that I'm not surprised they refused to do something out of the ordinary.

We were on the Equinox a couple of weeks ago in Concierge. Our "canapes" weren't even just strange - they were disgusting. Each day we got potato salad, chopped tomatoes, or one day a watermelon salad. It repeated quite often. Some days there would be two pieces of salami with tiny breadstick crackers. Sometimes two mini chocolate or coconut cupcakes. It was like whatever they had leftover went on the plate. If I had known we could ask for something else we would have.

Got off the Equinox two weeks ago. Had a portside aft cabin on deck 11 and even though we were across from the crew access door where they brough in the luggage, the cabin was the very quiet. No issues at all.

There are usually two lines clearly marked with signs at the Select Dining entry to the dining room - one side for guests with reservations and one for guests without. That was on S and M class ships. I do not remember two lines on the Beyond in the October. But either way you wait in the line - those without reservations almost always get a beeper. Even with reservations you might get a beeper.

Someone in the buffet brings food to your table? I haven't seen that in years on Celebrity. That would be worth a tip!

Many times all of your preferred dining times will already be full when you try to reserve on the app so that you are only given choices very early or very late for a "reservation" in select dining. You can just show up at the time you want to eat and they will accomodate you, but be aware that wait times have been very long recently on many sailings. Even with a reservation you may have to wait. Two weeks ago on the Equinox, which we booked only 60 days out, we were unable to get select dining reservations for our preferred dining times. We had 30 - 45 minute wait times each night if we arrived between 6:15 and 7 pm. Wait times were less if we arrived at 8 pm.

I did a two hour zoom call last week from my cabin on the Equinox with Starlink internet service and did not have any issues with the quality of the video or the audio. Did a transatlantic on the Beyond last fall, again with Starlink, and had very good service, including zoom calls, except when we were in the very middle of the Atlantic. I know there is never a guarantee, but internet service has been very good for me on these cruises. You might want to consider that your issue with MS Teams is just because it's MS Teams 😀

On the Equinox (just got off and was in a concierge cabin), a concierge cabin also gets you an invite to the helpad for a sail away, a meet and greet with the officers (separate from the captain's club one), a destination lecture, priority tendering and a disembarkation lounge with continental breakfast. The concierge was managing the disembarkation lounge and was calling numbers way before they were announced on the ship-wide PA. There were the usual - key holder, bag, bottle of sparkling wine, embarkation lunch. The only thing we didn't get that was advertised was priority seating in the MDR. Select dining was an absolute mess, waits up to 45 minutes for a table, and it would have been nice to have priority.

I just got off the Equinox yesterday. I did not have an all inclusive package but needed stream wifi as I was working all week and needed to be available for zoom calls. I called to book my wifi before the cruise so I think there was a 14% discount over the normal price, plus I got a Select Captain's Club discount on top of that. Yes, it was expensive. First day the internet was going up and down all day. Very little coverage on the balcony. I went to guest relations to see if there was anything that needed to be done as I had an important zoom meeting the next afternoon. They sent me to the help desk that was set up in the photo gallery. The person there was extremely nice and once I explained that yes, I knew what the internet was and that I was correctly connected to it, she took me seriously. Made some notes in the computer and then two IT guys came up and she explained the issue to them. Told me they would reset the connection and come back if it wasn't better. Next day, slightly better but I didn't feel like complaining again. Figured I would go to one of the lounges to do my meeting. Around noon there was a knock on the cabin door - two IT guys had come to install a personal access point in our cabin because they knew I had an important call. After that, it was really fast. As fast as my home connection. I didn't do a speed test, but I had absolutely no complaints on either my computer or my phone the rest of the trip. I did seek out the senior IT officer at one of the events to thank him. He was thrilled when I told him I had already put in a comment saying how great I was treated. He said no one compliments the IT department 😀

Currently on Equinox - this is our fourth cruise in the last 6 months on Celebrity on all classes. I have not noticed a decline in quality of food from the first cruise in October to now. I believe that there is a definite decline in quality since before the pandemic. Portion sizes are smaller and I believe they are using less expensive cuts of meat as others have noticed. But what's worse is that they have taken away so much choice. In the MDR, basically you have one meat, one chicken, one seafood and one vegetarian option for your main course other than the grilled salmon, chicken or "NY sirloin" steak in the classic menu. One of those options will be combined with pasta (beef and veal bolognese as the only beef the first night) or the seafood orzo on the next night. Last night veal roast and no beef other than the NY steak. The "homestyle" pork chop I had on the first night was tasty, but so tough I needed a steak knife. The woman next to me in the dining room asked for a steak knife too. If I were going out to a restaurant and only had those choices, I wouldn't go back. I understand they are cutting costs and cutting down on waste, but they could be more creative and offer a few more dishes. There is no mention of fine dining any more.

We're on this cruise with you and just be glad you can eat in Blu and not the MDR. It's a mess. The ship is full and there were no MDR select dining reservations available before the cruise. We knew we'd have to wait with our recent experiences on Beyond and Summit, so expected not to be seated immediately. We tried to get select dining reservations on board, but the dining concierge said she couldn't do anything except 5:30 or 8:30. First night we arrived at 7:00pm because on our other cruises this year, this was a good time. People going to the 7pm cruise had just left. Stood in line for 10 minutes (it was a madhouse with lines on both sides of deck 4 - the upper deck of the dining room) and got a beeper. Waited almost 30 minutes for a table. Service was so slow (and those waiters are working hard) that we missed the 9pm show. Clearly understaffed. They are serving champagne as you wait in line so they know it's an issue. I don't think it's just to be nice. Last night we didn't want to miss the 9pm show, so we arrived at 6:30. This time they had clear signs - left podium for reservations and right podium for those of us without reservations. After we got our beeper (5 minutes in line) and waited 45 minutes for a table. Once seated, waited and waited for service. One starter each and a main course, no drinks, and we finally got a dessert menu at 8:35. Dirty dishes sat on the table for a very long time. We skipped dessert. It wasn't just us. Maitre' d got called over to a table near us and they were clearly unhappy about the service. They kept saying "not the waiter's fault" but their table was full of dirty starter dishes for a really long time also. They were really angry and he got an earful. OVC seems normal breakfast and lunch, not the greatest food but you can always find something to eat. Didn't go for dinner, but at 10pm last night they had the pasta and pizza stations open, sandwiches, fruit, salads, desserts and ice cream. So a decent selection for a late night snack.

Oceania does a wonderful, elegant, traditional high tea in one of the lounges. There is also live music. However it's the same time as daily trivia, which is a big deal on Oceania.

In December it left from Terminal G, but the parking garage was full and we had to park in an open lot quite a distance from actual terminal. Beware if you have mobility issues that you may not be able to park right across the street. The parking garage is shared by the other terminals.

We were on the Summit right after Christmas and noticed a young adult male in the OVC who came in without a shirt on - not even carrying a shirt. Not at the entrance - all the way in the back, so he must have passed by tons of staff to get there. He stood there for at least five minutes having a conversation with his family party and no staff approached. I'm not sure what happened with him that day, but a couple of days later we saw the same guy in the same place shirtless again. However, this time my husband said he saw a staff member come over and we think he was asked to leave. I was shocked he wasn't turned away at the entrance. But then again (and not trying to start a proper attire in dining room discussion) we did see people in the dining room that probably should have been turned away if Celebrity's rules were actually being followed.

In October we did b2b from Rome to Barcelona and then Barcelona to Cape Liberty. The first leg only required a self test. We actually did those, tested negative, but didn't even have to show the pictures on boarding. However, I tested positive for Covid (and was very ill) on the day before Barcelona. My husband tested negative, so apparently that was enough to satisfy the testing requirement for the Barcelona to Cape Liberty leg of the trip. Long and not very pleasant story about quarantine later, they sent someone up to the cabin on day 5 after testing positive. This person was CLEARLY told to make sure that I didn't test positive again. I cannot be sure that she actually even inserted the test swab in my nose because there was no way she actually got a sample. The same thing happened to my husband who had tested positive on day 4 of my quarantine - same person, same method. My point is that I believe they are ticking the boxes but don't really want to know.

We did two cruises last year on Oceania, one on Marina in a penthouse and one on Riviera in a regular cabin. We found the decor on both ships was outdated and our penthouse suite had some pretty beat up furniture. But the bathroom in the penthouse was great and even in the regular cabin it was much nicer even than on our recent Beyond cruise. Yes, you do get some extras with the penthouse cabin, but not enough to make it worth the extra money. Our butler was worthless - didn't even keep our ice bucket full and never even stopped by to see if we needed anything. I know that might be unusual, but the only other perk worth it is that you get better dinner reservations (which is important since they are hard to get in some of the special restaurants). The food is good (MUCH better than our recent cruises on Celebrity) but not very much choice in the buffet and, we did not thing the main dining room food was very good. We spent many evenings in the buffet with steak, lobster and lamb chops cooked to order. As someone else pointed out, the ship is dead once the dining rooms close. A much older crowd than Celebrity and not nearly as much to do. We found the enrichment on the Beyond this fall much better than on either of our Oceania cruises and the entertainment on Oceania (what there was) was about the same. We took the O-life air and the excursions. The air department is 1000 times better than Flights by Celebrity - they are an actual travel service and not a flight consolidator. Excellent, flexible service. The excursions are really not worth the money so we would not do that again. I would really like to do a cruise on Vista but not sure if I would do Marina or Riviera again and I'm not a small ship person - so won't do the R class ones.

I think food is so subjective that it's hard to comment on individual items but overall we find the food is definitely lower quality than pre-pandemic. We spent 21 days on Beyond in October and just came back from a short cruise on Summit. On both cruises, there was a lack of quality in the Oceanview. The Indian food always looks good and there were limited Asian dishes (the same noodles every day with a different name). The fried chicken was unrecognizable pieces - the legs looked the same as the thighs? or whatever other pieces they were. You can always get plain food like a fresh salad, a sandwich, a thin grilled steak, grilled chicken breast, etc. But there isn't anything "fancy" or exciting on the buffet. And the sad part was that the dining room food was no better quality than the buffet. The beef stroganoff I had on the last night was so chewy it was inedible. The cheese ravioli the first night were clearly from frozen. One night the waiter waved off my husband from the Thai coconut soup - he said "I've served it many times and failed every time". Also, the service is so slow (Summit was better than Beyond because they weren't as short staffed) that the old days of extra lobster tails or a double something because you enjoyed it are long gone. It's simply not an option unless you are willing to sit there forever. My problem with the burgers is that they are so dry and compressed with fillers that they don't even taste like beef. Meanwhile, forget breakfast in the main dining room. All you are getting is the same buffet food except delivered to your table. There is absolutely no difference. I'm sure the food is better if you eat in Luminae or Blu but that's not us. On Beyond we ate in Fine Cut one night and although the steaks were much better quality than the dining room or buffet, the sides were extremely disappointing. I think part of our problem is that we did two Oceania cruises last year and while there were many things we did not like about Oceania and they didn't have a huge selection at their buffet, the quality of the food was so superior we are having a hard time going back to Celebrity. The good news about Celebrity is that no matter how bad the food is, the people serving it are always friendly and trying their very best to make you happy!

Just sat at breakfast with a gentleman who told me he and his wife have been on 25 or more cruises and this TA on Beyond has been the worst cruise ever mainly due to service issues. He is in Retreat. The Retreat lounge apparently has been closed for two days because the ceiling collapsed in the rough weather. He told me there have been wait times with beepers for Luminae and that even Retreat passengers have been unable to get reservations in the specialty restaurants. They were told to just show up at 8:30 at Fine Cut and they would get in. He said the food showed up at 10. He waited 45 minutes for a drink at World Class bar. we have been restricted because of Covid isolation but room service has been crazy long times (2-3 hours). Al Bacio was packed yesterday morning. I tried to order at the counter to stay and was told to sit and wait for table service. It took the one server over 30 minutes to get to me (I had to wave her over) and another 15 to get my tea. They were understaffed on the previous cruise also and the ship was only 2/3 full. We sat one night in Cyprus with dirty dishes in front of us for more than 15 minutes. It was like that in all the restaurants. It’s a shame - it’s a fabulous ship. So we’ll designed. More like a resort than a traditional cruise ship. But it doesn’t matter what the reason is - Celebrity should have planned for this and been more prepared. This is just bad management.

We were in the previous cruise and are now on the Beyond TA. There were no PPV movies on the previous Rome to Barcelona cruise either. I asked about it when I was in quarantine and told there were 50 movies available. There might be 50 programs available but most are poor documentaries and meditation programs. There are no recent movies at all available on PPV.

I made it out of quarantine today. They will not budge on the five full days for my husband and no one can explain how he was not tested for four days despite sharing the cabin. They did offer me a solo cabin if I wanted but I turned it down. All the crew is now masked so I suspect there may be quite a few cases. I heard quite a bit of coughing in the Oceanview today. Meanwhile, our stateroom attendant cheered when I walked out today and the room service supervisor who calls about meals told me how happy he was and seemed genuine. He gave me his direct number so we can call about my husband’s meals directly. I spoke with guest relations about the credit for quarantine. Most likely we will get one day of the 9-day cruise and 9 days of the 12-day cruise refunded. So probably a substantial amount. i don’t know what we could have done to prevent this. Probably should have gotten the variant booster before leaving. However, Europe is going through a major Covid wave at the moment. Last year our European cruise on Oceania required masks. Our Caribbean one did not. I managed to avoid infection until now and lived through the pandemic in no mask Florida so I think it’s all really a crap shoot. I suspect I caught it on the plane from the Italian woman behind me who coughed the whole trip. But who knows - the ships tour in Cinque Terra was packed on buses, ferries and trains. I guess it’s a story to tell at parties now -