lovescarborough

Love it but please don't give them any ideas !!!

There is no such thing as the Aqua Lounge. You can have breakfast in Blu and there us quite a good choice of healthier items including smoothies and different fruits. It's really nice to have breakfast there. I believe there was a slightly enhanced room service menu but we didn't use it .

Is that a new UK requirement?

 

In the past, when we cruised from the UK, we didn't have to print luggage tags.

They tagged our bags at the port when we checked them in.

It took only a few seconds, much quicker than it would have been to print and attach luggage tags ourselves.

It's not a requirement, but most people do just print them off . You can still get your luggage tagged at the ports

Could you please expand on how that worked - and also what times regular disembarkation started/ended. We'll be doing a similar (the same?) cruise next year docking at 5am in Abu Dhabi and are trying to figure our flight options back to the UK.

We flew back with BA and the flight left around 2am so we booked a nights stay at the Premier inn at the airport ( you can do this via their website ) . We arrived from the ship around 9.30 am and had breakfast there. They found us an available room and we spent a relaxing day by the rooftop pool. We had dinner at the hotel which was far superior to the food at Premier Inn in the UK and they even offer the same 'meal deal ' ! We left around 11pm and it's only a few minutes walk to the terminal.

I would say definitely not allowed in carry on on the plane ! Nothing sharp is allowed these days.

There is an emphasis on Smoothies, at an extra charge of course. The bowls of salad items have now gone and there are a couple of different salad plates, couscous etc and the same chicken, tuna or salmon in mayo every day. On our recent trip on Eclipse there were two bowls of apples and oranges for the first few days then they decided to move them into a line at the back of all the plates where it was impossible to reach them without asking someone to pass them ( if you could get someone's attention) . The poached fruits have gone too. I think the whole area needs a revamp.

Here is what I got back from Celebrity

 

"thanks for reaching out! Here is the way we are handling this! If you want early or late and same table and same waiter you submit early or late. We're will preassign your table and restaurant. The guest will get their assignment when they arrive just like today they get their table assignment when they arrive. If the guest doesn't like the restaurant we preassigned they can go change it at dining coor. That will be their place and table and waiter for the cruise. If they want to do all four then they choose Celebrity Select plus and they pick the place and the time. Today for Celebrity select they just pick the time. So the guest gets the choice. All four restaurants will serve 75 percent the same things and the menu changes every night. 25 percent is just for that restaurant and stays the same!

Sounds like a recipe for chaos !

It all looks really interesting and I hope it works but somehow it looks a bit ambitious for a company that can't even get its website to work properly after goodness knows how many years. Don't get me wrong I love Celebrity but I do sometimes wonder whether management think things through. Looking forward to the first reviews !

We gave just booked an 8 day package. Are you saying then that we can go back into our booking and book a time for Murano on the last night onboard? I thought you couldn’t book actual venues and tines until you were on board ?

 

 

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I was referring to the original post which looked like they only wanted the last night in Murano. I think that a single booking can be booked online for a specific time and date but not a booking under the package. When you board find the person selling specialty dining , usually close by, and book all your restaurants. If later on you decide you want to change some of your bookings you can do this with the Maitre D at any of the restaurants.

It looks like the same concept that they have on some RCCL ships. We were on the Anthem and there were 4 dining rooms each with a different theme.

 

Those in traditional dining were divided into 4 groups for each dining time. The groups would rotate thru the dining rooms keeping the same table number and I think servers. Problem was that you didn’t have a choice on what dining venues you wanted. On a 7 day cruise you would be in 3 twice and one only once.

 

One dining room required a formal dress at all times and men had to wear a coat.

 

We chose select dining so we could choose when and where we wanted. That is where the problem started. Reservations were open 6 months ahead of time. On that ship for many shows you also had to make a reservation. Problem was that the schedule wasn’t released until 90 days out. I made my reservations on line and some choice times were already taken or certain restaurants. A few days later I looked up the reservations to look at them again. To my surprise they were all gone. I called RCCL and it was confirmed that none of my reservations were saved. Now there weren’t many good times left so we had to settle for some times we didn’t want.

 

It gets better. On the first night we had 5:30 dining. We are in line at 5:20 and the couple in front of us didn’t have reservations. The host looked up their cabin number and told them that they had reservations at 8:30 in a different dining room. They got very hostile and said that they wanted to eat now and at this dining room. There was quite a turmoil and they ended up getting a table. We were now attended to . The Hostess told us to wait along the wall. We stood there for 10 minutes and nothing. I went to her and asked when we would be seated and she said that all are taken. I mentioned the couple ahead of us and she said that she had to accommodate them to keep the passengers appt and not upset. I looked at her and asked “what about us”.

 

She said that she would try to accomdate us ASAP. It was 30 minutes later.

 

Now the next night was a different restuarant different time. We were seated at a table and this couple came up to us and said that we were at their table and wanted it. This couple was causing a stir and Management came over. That couple said that they had that table the night before and we were in it and wanted it. Management tried to explain to them that there were now scheduled in a different restaurant. They kept demanding the table and management asked us to move to a different one.

 

Now we are really upset and the manager said that things are messed up and that it will be changing for the next cruise. I told him that I didn’t care because we are cruising now and not on the next one. We never received any kind of apology or compensation for our situations.

 

The other nights were a little better with no problems.

 

With that experience on the Anthem I can’t image the cluster muster that Celebrity will have considering their Tech section.

 

Happy cruising 🌊🚢🇺🇸🌅

That is a disgrace ! I would have refused to move to another table and would have taken it up with the Hotel Director. At the very least you should have been offered a complimentary meal in a speciality restaurant.

I would strongly advise you to pre book Murano especially for the last night of the cruise. Since the start of the discounted packages there have been fewer discounts offered onboard especially in Murano. This is our favourite and we always book for the last night as part of whatever package we have chosen. On our last cruise on Eclipse last month we bought a 10 night package online and as soon as we boarded went to book our preferred times in the different restaurants and the only time left in Murano on the last night was 8.45 pm. On other cruises Murano was full on the last night too.

Tuscan had some empty tables and Qsine was almost empty on the night we went and their waiters were always outside MDR offering deals but Murano was fully booked on the six nights we dined there.

I just spoke with someone at X who:

 

- said he hadn’t heard about the problem, and

 

- wanted my password so he could log in as me to investigate the issue.

 

I said no, thanked him for his time, and ended the call.

 

The last time I went through this sort of discussion with X, I spent a large part of an hour on hold, received no resolution to my issue, and had to create a new password for my account. Sorry, lovescarborough. I’m going to wait a day or two in the hope the packages will reappear. If they don’t, I’ll be spending less money on specialty dining for my next cruise!

 

BTW I don’t see dining packages for either my June or December cruise, regardless of whether I’m logged in or not. I’ve also checked using three browsers, Chrome, Firefox and IE.

Thanks for trying ! It really is unbelievable that the customer facing staff don't know what is going on. Personally it would make me reconsider future cruises with Celebrity if the speciality restaurants were only available at the high individual prices. We find the food in the MDR has deteriorated to either poor or just acceptable over the last few years. We used the dining package for most of our dinners on our last three trips. We have used Aqua Class in the past but higher prices and a little boredom with the same menus brought us back to using balcony cabins combined with speciality restaurants. Even though we are now Elite Plus on Celebrity and do like the perks associated there comes a time when we have to look at other cruise lines or land based trips.

Tried again today in case , as suggested, they mess with the website at the weekend, and still no speciality dining packages listed. The individual restaurants are listed with the usual price but no packages. Wondering if someone in the US might call Celebrity to find out if the packages are still available as it's a bit too expensive to call from the UK and the office here never seems to be sure what Miami are doing !

The dining packages are not showing on the UK website either. Maybe they are increasing the prices !

LastDecember our family booked two staterooms for a Caribbean sailing with Summitin March 23., 2019. When checking the X-website last month the itinerary forSummit’s sailings between January 29. and March 29., 2019 is no longerlisted!

 

RCCL/Celebrity’sbranch office for the Nordic countries explained that our sailing is closed formaintenance. It was not possible to receive further comments, stating that theinformation was classified, and if we wanted to change our sailing date, we hadto pay a cancellation fee.

 

Accordingto the Celebrity Summit Fact Sheet it is stated that the next renovation willstart January 29., 2019.

 

Whenwill the passengers who have booked a sailing during Summit’s dry dock nextyear be notified so we can book another sailing without a cancellation fee?

 

Inaddition we think we should receive a compensation for the problems Celebritycreates for us.

 

Weare not pleased with the way the Nordic Branch Office has handled the inquiriesregarding our sailing March 23., 2019!

 

(FactSheets for Millennium and Equinox shows that Equinox next refurbishment willstart April 23., 2019 and Millennium’s refurbishment will start May 1., 2019.On the X-website you can still book sailings around the refurbishment dates forthese ships! You can also see the refurbishment dates on the Fact Sheet forother X-ships for the years to come after 2019).

http://www.celebritycorporatekit.com/content/uploads/2017/08/Summit_Fact_Sheet.pdf

If Celebrity cancel your sailing you will be offered alternative dates on which they will honour your existing price and any extras. If you don't like any of these you can get your deposit back. The only compensation offered is $200 OBC if you take an alternative cruise.

It is such a shame they don't do chocolate fondue any more . The only dessert that I like is the fig gelato. I really feel the dessert menu lets it down especially when they are so much nicer in Murano !

Hi Everyone

 

Just curious if there was anywhere on board for somebody to check email etc for free?

 

Thanks

Sorry the answer is 'no' unless you are Elite and above and then you get some free minutes.

Slush wasn't open on Eclipse in January either. It didn't look as though it had been used in quite a while.

This has been our experience.

Same for us too. We took the next available cruise which was by the time of the cancellation more expensive but we just paid the same price as before and took the $200 OBC. It is still annoying when this happens!

I would definitely take Reflection. Firstly for the itinerary. Israel is a volatile country. Who knows what the situation will be there in 2019 ? Secondly, as it looks like you're looking at Aqua Class, check out opinions on here. Personally I don't like Aqua Class on M class ships. We did this on Infinty and in our opinion Aqua doesn't compare favourably to the S class ships. It was an added feature on M class ships and we found Blu too small and Persian gardens pretty poor.

When you buy a package you have to pick either night 1 or 2 & a time for the “ first dinner” of your package. This is needed for the computer to process the transaction & pick your restaurant for that first dinner. That is the only dinner booked on-line. Once on the ship you can change that and make all the other reservations.

On our last two cruises we booked the first night online but when we went to book the rest on boarding we were told they didn't have any bookings !

We loved Ocean Liners and can't believe they replaced it with Qsine. We also disliked the position of the Tuscan Grille on deck 11. It is small and cramped and people were always walking past the window and staring in at the diners.

Just booked onboard for 2020 cruise. Before leaving home I checked prices and the prices onboard were only slightly cheaper but included perks . We got a drinks package, gratuities and 200$ OBC, none of which was available at home. This is the third time we have booked onboard and we always benefit. Big plus for us in the U.K. Is that we can change the booking without losing the deposit if prices drop.

We are buying a 8 day package before we sail . Never have before so i apologize if this sounds silly but you all talk about reservations for 1 night but do you have use one of the speciality restaurants on night

 

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I would recommend you make your reservations as soon as you board. On our recent Eclipse cruise we couldn't get our preferred times on two nights in Murano which was full almost every night. Tuscan and Qsine were never full and waiters from Qsine were always around the ship looking for customers.

On our cruise a couple of weeks back we were amazed that there were no queues at all for select dining and there were entrances open on both sides on deck 4 . We dined around 8.30.