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12 minutes ago, FamilyAtSea.travel said:

This will be our first Retreat experience (we've sailed suites on other lines but not Celebrity) and I definitely wish it was an Edge-class ship. 

 

We have a suite booked on the Sun Princess over Thanksgiving so I'm looking forward to comparing Celebrity's Retreat to Princess's Sanctuary, but I suspect it may not be a fair comparison. 

I’ve recently been on Sun Princess with access to their suite areas, and let me reassure you they are VERY MUCH on par with X’s Retreat. The Signature Lounge and suite only Sanctuary area is outstanding !! And come September the whole paid Sanctuary area on Sun is becoming a Suite ONLY area and for the location and amenities in the area , personally think it’s matches that of the Retreat Sundeck on the Edge Series ships. The Signature restaurant is also outstanding. 

6 hours ago, Ex-Airbalancer said:

I thought you might find some way to post some pictures 😁
Celebrity does a terrible job in Social Media

 

They should be sending out a daily email of the upgrades of the ship instead of those lousy emails of fake cruisers they send out 10x a day 

 

I’ve tried my best to get some insights to what’s actually happening, but as always they lock down their crew telling them to “not” post anything on social media for the duration of the dry dock.

I’m not giving up yet 🤣🤣

6 hours ago, FamilyAtSea.travel said:

How do things work after dry dock? Will Celebrity publish and official press release that details exactly what was updated? Or will we have to rely on guests to share these things online?

 

We'll be on the ship June 4th and I'm planning to do a live thread and I'll do my best to share everything, but there are two sailings before us so it'd be great to know sooner. 

Celebrity are terrible at promoting what goes on in dry dock for any of their ships.

in fact it’s non existent!!!! 
 

you’d think any company would want to “showboat” what’s coming, and not just leave it to a few guests post dry dock to post the odd update or two.

in the times of social media I really think they are missing the point 🤷🏼‍♂️ 

#JustSaying 

here’s the latest shot of the ships outside virtually complete. 
I expected the rest of the Retreat Sundeck to have been done, but with the basketball court netting still there, indicates that maybe it hasn’t. 
 

21 days in dry dock is time for a LOT of work to be done, but not a word from the company. 

Just now, Tyler414 said:

Gen Z was born in early 2000's....  Doubt that is their target audience.

the Z's start from 1997 and in todays would that's already 25+ , and very much fall into the target market 

11 minutes ago, kabmab said:

As Elite level cruisers, Celebrity has definitely changed.  Just got off the Apex and have one more X cruise on Ascent.  After that trying out Sun Princess (elite on Princess also).  Almost all people we talked to last week were first time cruisers or first time Celebrity cruisers.  They LOVED Celebrity.  Mostly Generation X, possibly their target market.

its now moving to the "GEN Z's" as the target audience and currently the most social media savvy 😝

On 1/13/2024 at 11:45 PM, zitsky said:

Has anyone done this?  Are any food options available to you or do you sit by the pool and read?  It shows on the planner at 2pm.  Is that when you leave?  But it does say “leave 1 hour before sailing”.

 

It looks like you can book a Spa treatment, extra cost I assume and arrange private transportation to airport or hotel.

 

My other option was to book a city tour and a nice dinner somewhere before a late return flight.

I use Extend Your Stay at the end of most cruises as its perk with zenith status.

You have to sign off like you do with the b2b process and hand in your sea pass card, you get a visitor card as a replacement for the time you remain on board. You also get wifi access for the duration and you can have soft drinks along with food from the Ocean view.

Your luggage will go off as normal (pit out the night before) and will be in a specific area in the terminal waiting for when you depart. They tend to like all those staying on to leave the ship by 2pm latest, and it's always a good idea to have a day bag if you chose to use the pools etc and then use the changing areas to shower etc prior to disembarking.

One thing I would stress is this is not currently available worldwide due to immigration issues and a lot of countries like the ship to have a "zero" count before starting the next cruise, therefore you have to get off the ship and only be allowed back on when boarding starts for the next cruise, by this time EYS is not worth it, and therefore not offered by the ship.

as others have already said, definitely don't miss out in Singapore.

On 1/13/2024 at 8:10 PM, Jamietravelstheworld said:

I am a very experienced cruiser but have my first Celebrity cruise booked for January 2025 on the Edge. Reading the posts here, everything is so negative. Should I cancel? Or are the people with positive things to say just not posting? No cruise line is perfect, and every cruise has made cuts due to budget, but is it so extreme on Celebrity. My favorite cruise line is Azamara and I often cruise solo. I also like Oceania but find there's not a lot to do on the ships. I like Princess too, but they don't do enough to engage the solo travelers or help them meet each other.

.... welcome to CruiseCritic 😝 

from the experience you have cruising with the lines you mention, you'll be perfectly fine and will have no issues finding your way around. 

Ive just been on Edge for 52 nights and the team are amazing and definitely has the best Captain in the fleet, who tag teams with a superb Cruise Director, always plenty going on.

5 hours ago, hcat said:

for us.... many of our negatives are  sourced from the new  corp mgmnt team.   They are not upscale cruise line people but more aligned with mainstream Royal C ..Hope they catch on to the  differences.

What new "team" are you referring to?

All new and recent promotions are from within Celebrity not Royal, its only Laura that's comes across.

Keith was/is X and so is Katina, so they are very much as "upscale" as can be.

All hotel, new build, F&B employees etc are all Celebrity. 

16 minutes ago, chromered7 said:

Does the new boss of Celebrity really care about their long established and faithful customers with the raft of changes she is implementing? Perhaps they are aiming for a new demographic of young passengers who have never experienced the quality that Celebrity once was?

That’s been the target market for several years, it’s just now been accelerated with the new CEO. 
Just gotta move with the times 

On 12/14/2022 at 6:37 PM, patty1955 said:

Don't bother. I signed up and it appears to be a virtual tour of the Edge. Very much like a badly designed game.

What did you expect LOL!! 
We’ve all seen how “amazing” their website is 😁

3 hours ago, Texed said:

Well, I can tell you this.  The captain we had on Reflection for our November 20th and 27th sailings went home to be with his wife who had a baby girl on Wednesday.  Congratulations Captain Matt. 😊

Correct, and he didn’t leave mid cruise … 🙄

On 12/15/2022 at 4:24 PM, MaineLobstah said:

We've booked our cruise for SA this coming February.  We'll be on the same ship we were on for the same itinerary that we sailed on in 2010.  Some friends we met on that cruise are also coming along, so bit of a reunion for us, and we are very excited.

As background info, I worked in high tech/IT for about 40yrs, so I'm pretty familiar with online systems.

 

I can honestly say that Celebrity has one of the most disfunctional websites I've dealt with in recent memory.  Half of the funtions just don't work, or they are dependent on another branch of their system that doesn't work.

I'm unable to use their flight search tool, as it just hangs.  I've waited 10mins...spinning circle of death.

The system says my info for the booking is incomplete.  I attept to complete it by adding my mailing address, and it rejects my entry with an error message that says "Your gender does not match your title.  Please change either gender or title to continue."

I tried becoming a female, just for the sake of expediency, no joy.  I can't find a "title" anywhere in my profile.  

 

I've emailed Celebrity regarding these issues twice now, with no response.

 

Is anyone else having issues with their website?

 

Lob

 

 

Maybe you can go into the “WonderVerse” and have a virtual meeting with someone to sort it out LOL 😂 

They need to direct their efforts into upgrading their older ships, wifi, app and website before wasting money on this METAVERSE stuff.

Clearly aimed at the “future” demographic with still a large amount of current X cruises not even owning a smartphone. 😝

oh wait a minute… all so they can claim to be the “first” cruise line to do it. 

blah blah blah …. 

There's cases on almost every cruise now - it's the "new normal" and its NOT going away.

Exactly why there's health protocols in place and anyone not feeling well SHOULD report to the onboard medical facility asap to get checked.

Still the safest place to be right now. 😁

Within the limitations of a Celebrity ship I personally think its probably the safest place in the world to be right now, and from reviewing a number of other lines health protocols I also think Celebrity is by far way out in front.

But as highlighted what happens pre-cruise and during the cruise (off the ship) is purely down to the responsibility of the individual and nothing to do with the company. 

Seems EQUINOX has a great crew right now, albeit sad to see Capt Tasos going (to Edge) I'm sure Capt Matt will do an equally amazing job.

On 5/27/2021 at 6:58 PM, baldilocks said:

What about the Constellation? She is overdue for a drydock and upgrade. Sailing January 24th....I hope.

Connie goes into dry dock 17th July.

On 5/27/2021 at 4:50 PM, upwarduk said:

All the ships that you mention are due for delayed dry docks.

But Solstice, Eclipse, Infinity have been in dry dock this year for re-certification work and their new paint work. Equinox and Reflection are not required yet and Constellation (as that's not mentioned) goes into dry dock in July. 

On 5/27/2021 at 12:41 AM, Jeremiah1212 said:

I didn't have much faith in this, but look who reposted. She's back on the Edge in a few days.

 

 

So why didn't you have any faith in the post from CruiseCelebrity, until Capt Kate reposted it? , and then its so happens you find the "original" post from the CEO post on Twitter ?? 

20 minutes ago, excitedofharpenden said:

I think I'm right in saying that those with more points than anyone else, either Celebrity or Azamara are a couple that sail exclusively on Azamara in the top suites and have 100+ cruises.  Of course sailing in the bigger suites doesn't necessarily equate to loyalty, but to some it's important. 

 

There are a few serial cruisers on Azamara and Celebrity and if I can be sure of one thing? Those that think they have so many points will always be beaten by someone else. At the end of the day what is important is the journey one is doing, not the status one has. 

 

I think I've sailed with you on Azamara. Are you the guy who spins the camera round on a piece of string to get a 360° photo?  On social media a lot?

 

Phil 

Yes Phil, not quite a piece of string but along those lines 😎

Spent a 17 night crossing onboard with you earlier this year, but for whatever reason(s) didn’t quite get to speak in person.

totally agree with you on the journey and as we both know it’s also quite a journey up the loyalty ladder itself, but I’ve enjoyed every single cruise moment I’ve had and will continue to do so.
 

I also disagree with purchased loyalty, like you say top suites does not mean loyalty and with only 3 Az cruises done so far would never expect to be awarded top cruiser, either for being in a top suite or loyal more to X.

Az have it absolutely right and just love it’s done the way it is.  

11 minutes ago, uktog said:

Who exactly just has to make it happen? - limitations matter a lot to cruisers who want particular itineraries - Azamara is about the destinations so if there is a limitation there is no deal to be had.  I don't cruise just to snag points/cruises there has to be a destination.  Currently against my criteria I struggle to find a great deal on Azamara but I will keep watching.

life’s too short to have limitations, and just because a particular itinerary doesn’t work out perfectly doesn’t mean I cross it off my list.

totally agree Az is about the destination and longer stays, which allows you to “explore further” and all that extra time you have in a port should reduce your limitations. #GoExplore 🤷🏼‍♂️

Just now, uktog said:

But not a universal offer - there were limitations as to what cruises it could be applied to

Great deals still to be had though - who worries about limitations, just make it happen 😋

54 minutes ago, Xport said:

 

Azamara does provide a nice discount--based upon loyalty tier [capping out at 10% at the Discoverer Platinum [Celebrity Zenith] levels--for onboard booking of future Azamara cruises but; as I book when deployments are first announced rather than while aboard ship, I've never used it...

 

 

 

I was onboard a Azamara ship in October and they had a “double discount” offer on, so its was obviously 20% off for Platinum/Zenith. 
AzAmazing offer !!! 

31 minutes ago, hiccups said:

Azamara LCV status is based on points accrued, the same as X.  The point value is higher on Azamara--five points per night for a veranda compared to three for X.  Points accumulate across the two lines; your CC and LCV membership numbers are the same.

i totally understand the point system.

my point is being a Platinum LCV member On an Az Cruise with only 3 cruises doesn’t And shouldn’t make me longest cruiser. Someone with 4 would obviously have more loyalty with Az than I have. 
my loyalty has been with X. 

5 minutes ago, Georgia_Peaches said:

 

A few other questions if you don't mind...

 

• We usually travel in a suite.  As Azamara is semi-inclusive, am I right in assuming that you get a lot of nice perks even if you aren't in a suite?
• Being on a smaller ship, did you ever feel like there wasn't enough to do?
• How was the variety of the included drinks (beer, wine, and some liquors)?  Did you feel the need to upgrade your package?
• I've read that there is a mini-fridge stocked in each stateroom..is this complimentary regardless of stateroom category?
• What elite  benefits from Celebrity did you enjoy with Azamara's loyalty program?

Thank you so much!

Christina

There are very few benefits on Az compared with X as the loyalty program is very different and aimed at giving more benefits when booking future cruises rather than anything onboard. 
 

The Mini bars are all charged ($) even in the suites all the way to the top suites (CW & CO).

I’m a beer drinker and those included in the standard all inclusive package work fine for me. 
 

the size of the ship does make a difference to X and the entertainment etc is very different to X and can’t really be compared as it does work on the Az ships.

Suite guests do get a few little extras but as with most things being included with all cabin grades nobody feels excluded or “them and us”.

the 2 speciality restaurants are great but the menus don’t change and you get unlimited access with a suite, but 14 nights of 2

menus can kinda get a little boring.

The main is GREAT which is open seating and the menus are fabulous.

with loyalty it’s not about the points like X But the amount of cruises you’ve actually taken with Az, which I do think is better approach to it than who can afford to buy points like with X. Surely loyalty that’s proper loyalty.

I’m fortunately toP membership with X but going on Az for my first cruise, the longest cruise ward quite rightly went to the longest “Azamara” cruisers although I had 3x the points they had. 
 

I love Azamara for what it is but will always return to Celebrity.