Algebralovr

Celebrity and Royal have both allowed you to request sod be provided. Just don't expect it to actually be there..... In 2018, Scooter went with me on Celebrity Solstice to Alaska. I had requested sod. Now, Celebrity Solstice was the first of the S Class ship to get their lawn. They made a big deal about having grass on the top deck, and their Lawn Club. So, I get on board, and I ask where the dog box is. Took a bit of time, they finally found it. I next asked about the sod. My cruise originated in Seattle. Not an issue to have a bit of sod. Couldn't find it, might still be with stores in the lower level, not sure, etc. Well, it never did show up for Scooter's box. However, we DID notice that there were 3 pieces of sod up on the lawn. First we noticed them rolled up and to the side. Then we saw they were cut in to the lawn (which was in horrible condition, after the Trans-Pacific). MY OPINION is that my sod was intercepted by the Lawn Guy and he took it to replace a small amount of his lawn, rather than allowing my dog to use it in the box. Either way, they don't promise you'll get the sod if you request it. You might, or might not.

They probably could not get a spot at the World Cruise Center and have to use a slightly more distant pier. We did that in October. It was a tent instead. Customs agents boarded the ship, and we went through immigration in the MDR. They called us by groups to line up on 4th deck, we walked through starting on one side, then around and behind the wine column, and out th other side, then off the ship. Lots of security to make sure no one exited the line or jumped it. Bags were in a large tent off the ship, and required a shuttle to get to the baggage tent. They offered shuttles back to the main pier (parking garage) and to the airport. Some of the complaints I heard were that Ubers didn’t know where to go. It took a bit of extra time, largely due to the shuttle situation. I don’t recall how early they started. We had a flight out, but not until like 3pm, so we asked for the last shuttle we could get. I think I would wait until I got on board to book the Celebrity Shuttle. Make sure your flight isn’t too early for their shuttle. Be ready to make alternate arrangements from the ship if needed, perhaps by taking the shuttle to the WCC parking and then transfer from there.

We were told it is still on, when we were on Constellation for the Feb 3 cruise. Many of the staff are looking forward to the 2024 updates to IN an CS in 2024. They believe these two ships will receive the full Revolution treatment. THAT part has not been announced, but as of right now, the last two M Class ships are definitely scheduled for 2024

Congrats! We were on the Feb 3 sailing, and had spoken with the IT manager, asking about Starlink. I had commented that the internet on Constellation was worse than any other ship in the fleet I’d been on. He let me know that Starlink was coming the following cruise. Glad you got to see it!

Our menus for Constellation were incorrect in the app until the day we boarded. Just an issue with shoreside IT.

Anthony on the Retreat Sundeck is fabulous. He is current on Constellation. He is in the Reflections Lounge, aka Sky Lounge from about 3pm until very late.

As of our last cruise, Feb 3, on Constellation, we were allowed to bring in a guest to Luminae for dinner for $35/person, on a space available basis. It was up to the retreat Mgr and the M’d at L. The other areas are off limits. In 2019-2020, they did experiment with inviting some suites, specifically those where a reservation had 2-3 rooms tied together in the system, and some in a suite while some not, where they would invite the suite guest to allow their other guests into the retreat areas. On Equinox, it was limited to 10 (I’m not sure if that was 10 guests total or 10 staterooms) and the shoreside retreat concierge was supposed to make the offer ahead of time, starting with the PH and moving down from there, and ONLY with the reservations were linked in the system. We did not receive an offer for that in Nov 2021, on Reflection, when I was in a sky suite and my daughter and SIL were in a veranda, for a cruise where only 850 rooms were booked. I inquired once on board, regarding bringing DD and SIL into dinner with us, and was given the per meal prices. We happened to luck out, there were 2 Hotel Directors aboard to reopen the ship, one of whom we knew well, and he asked his colleagues to simply upgrade my DD. So DD and SIL ended up in the suite adjacent to us. It will never happen again, and only happened because the so was so under-booked. We have taken 2 more cruises in suite class since that had other rooms tied to ours, and never had an offer to bring our friends into the retreat. I’m guessing the program ended, or is limited to RS, PS and above.

We disembarked from Constellation Feb 13. I had a sky suite, our friends had concierge class. Michael’s club and Luminae are the only Retreat areas. We mainly went to Michael’s Club for the officers receptions, to smile and shake hands. Hubby went there a few times to get scones, since they didn’t have them in the Oceanview Cafe as previously. I had a delightful cruise. The fact that the ship had 1900 guests on board (over 80% occupancy) was not super evident. The fact that 40-45% of the crew was on their first contract WAS evident, but instead of complaining to each other, we provided feedback to management as we noticed things. By the end of the cruise, we saw some positive changes in behavior among the crew. We have 5 more cruises booked in the next 2 years on Celebrity. Two in sky suites and 3 in CC or Verandas. We look forward to all of them.

The service in Al Bacio was severely lacking the first few days. We would sit down and it would be quite some time before a bar server made it around the area. Then, they never checked back again, even 45-60 minutes later. Al Bacio is our favorite place to hang out, I will sit there, enjoy pot after pot of tea, embroider and listen to an audio book. I noticed one server would walk past from the bar to the end of the area toward the hall, and purposefully not look toward the seating area near the windows (up the couple of steps). I finally went to guest relations, asked for them to please send up the Asst bar manager responsible for the area, and then provided some feedback. Let him know what I had observed, and how out of the norm it was. I suggested some training was needed, and that he might want to spend some time observing (better, watching the cameras) to know what training to provide. There was a lot of “hanging out” by the bar servers next to the bar, for example. Another time, we noticed how some of the staff in the buffet would walk past tables and not ask to clear plates. They were waiting for the guests to leave the tables, not clear as they went. Again, not the normal behavior we previously experienced. A few words to a M’D and the next day we saw immediate improvement. The OVC staff were MUCH heavier on “snack attendants” than previous cruises. Snack attendants are the very first job, lowest paid, even below Asst waiter. They are the starting place, and their job is mostly to clear tables and wipe down tables, but they can also go get drinks and anything else a waiter can do. However, they need to be trained in the expectations, such as, if you see 2-3 empty plates and cups, ask if you can remove them. Usually, a lot of the training of new snack attendants and Asst waiters is done by “head waiters” who have progressed up the ramp and are training to be a pm Asst M’D. They are a manager without being quite a manager. I only saw one with that title the entire cruise, rather than the 3-5 I usually see.

I just returned home from a delightful 10-night cruise on Celebrity Constellation. This was our first cruise since January 1 and some of the changes made, but our 9th cruise since return to service and 8 of those on Celebrity. We have literally sailed in all classes of service since the return to service in 2021. It was our first cruise on Constellation, our first cruise on a non-Revolutionized M-Class ship. We had previously sailed on Summit (Dec 2021) and Millennium (May 2022). Overall, we found the ship to be in great shape for her age, and had a great cruise. We were in a sky suite, but we had friends who were not. So, yes, we did take advantage of some of the suite perks. The bad: a lot of the crew is still new to the line. There are hundreds of brand new crew in every ship, on every line. This was no exception. Additionally, there are many new managers, and many of them are still learning their own jobs. Instead of quietly getting mad when we saw something that was not quite right, we simply asked for a supervisor and relayed what we had noticed, and what our expectation was. Yes, there are some cutbacks, and this was evident in a few places, such as the lack of prime rib night in the MDR. Honestly, though, how many of us really cruise for the prime rib in the MDR? Seriously? The good: the ship is clean and in great shape! On Constellation, Starlink is being installed this week, and should be active for guests not this cruise, but the following one. Hotel Director Deborah has been with Celebrity for many years, and wants the brand to return to what it was a few years ago. I have found this to be true of all of the HDs we have interacted with, and there have been many over the last 16 months. Did they decide to stop serving donuts and scones in the Oceanview at tea time? Yes, they did, but they still had snacks available there, and they still had the lemon tarts in Cafe Al Bacio in the afternoon and evening. Michael’s Club aka the retreat lounge had scones and tea sandwiches for those in suites. I’m wondering if someone decided that they were rarely eaten in the OVC and decided to make them a perk for the retreat? I’ve read online that scones for tea seem to be on a ship by ship basis. Breakfast and lunch in the buffet were well done and fully open every day. Dinner was scaled back. We still saw plenty of choices for dinner every night in the buffet when we walked through. To be blunt, there was so much food waste in the buffet at night, I’m not against some scaling back. I believe they need to put in a cook to order protein station every evening during dinner rather than a carving station. I believe it will have less waste. Meals in the MDR and Luminae were always good. We took most of ours in Luminae (more choices that way) but frequently ordered from the MDR menu since they share kitchen space. There were a number of new items on the menus, and a number of loved items were gone. Some of that may be due to budget, but some is simply normal menu re-works. Some may be due to inventory issues. We spoke with the inventory manager at a reception one evening, and he mentioned struggling to procure some items he normally has on board. Yet, when I expressed a desire for something, he went out of his way to source it mid-cruise for me. We had dinner two nights in Tuscan Grille, and we had as good a meal as ever. The service was good, the food was good and plentiful. Was it more expensive than in the past? Yes… but so is everything else. We had OBC-N to use, so we used it. One thing I notice, after sailing on Princess in December… Celebrity ships are just more clean than many others. We saw, as usual, people constantly cleaning. We saw the public area restrooms constantly being maintained. The stairwells constantly being cleaned and sanitized. We observed a crew member on his hands and knees wiping down the bases of chairs and the kick plates at the Martini Bar. We observed crew washing the floors in the OVC whenever they could. Tables on Celebrity are sanitized with a squirt bottle and wash rag. This results in a cleaner table, one that seems more sanitary. On the recent Princess cruise, whenever a table was wiped down, a pail of water was used, and that “cleaning solution” never seemed clean to start with. The bases of tables were cleaner, the seats wiped down, and the floors actually vacuumed and moped rather than just swept. I enjoyed my cruise and can’t wait to go on another one!

Roz used to do that. She traveled with a rolled up piece of fake grass (turf) that had holes punched in it for drainage. She used to place it on top of the mulch provided, and a couple of time on top of a puppy pad on her balcony when the ship had delayed providing a box. It encouraged them to get the box ready. 🙂 You can buy pieces of turf that are already punched for draining, or you can get it at a hardware store and then punch holes in it. Then roll it up and stick it in a suitcase to board, and just leave it behind when the cruise is over. For a longer cruise, ask the ship to take it out and hose it off when they clean the decks every couple of days. It should dry quickly, then be replaced. They hose off the decks every day as it is.

I was told by one of the M'd's a few years ago that the room service folks were part of the standard gratuity pool. Just that a lot of people gave extra

It is, they charge $9.95 + 18% gratuity.

Yep - that is the problem. I go in and out of needing accessible features. Generally, I'm a part time WC user. I have a nice manual chair that has been all over the world, and as long as I can put weight on at least one leg, I find I can manage in a regular room, but boy is the accessible room a lot easier. I pretty much ALWAYS need grab bars in the shower and at the toilet. I can bring my own, the suction cup kind, and often they are sufficient if I could not get an actual accessible room. But I know that eventually, I'll need accessible all the time. Just how it is.

Linda Sorry - I wasn't logging in this week much. Been exhausted. I use a CVP sometimes. Her name is Tracy, and she is very good. Tel:1(800)556-8209 is the phone number. I think it goes directly to her, not positive. I usually email her and then she calls me back. Tdigiovanni at celebrity dot com Celebrity has been changing how they assign people, and she is in "in-bound sales" They keep renewing the same special, so I'm betting it hasn't changed much.

We often stroll through the buffet, but we frequently grab very little from there in the evening. I don't see an issue in downsizing the evening buffet.... I do think they need a cook to order protein station in the evening buffet. On a B2B, I'm MUCH more likely to eat in the buffet.

We’ve experienced that the waiters don’t do anything because they don’t want their tips to be effected. The M’d however is less effected and it is actually their job to do something about it. Had an instance a few years ago where we were seated, and a couple at a nearby table was sneaking puffs from their vapes. Waiter did nothing. I left to take a moment, and found the M’d and e planned what happened. He asked where, I explained, and we got to view the M’d and a security person tell them in no uncertain terms that such action was not permitted and grounds for removal from the ship.

Ive never seen water available to be ordered by the case on Celebrity. Royal, yes and they still have that option. Previously, Celebrity had a "water package" and it included regular, Evian, and sparkling water, for $12 - $16 per person per day. I like that option, and I'm very disappointed it is gone. On some ships, the tap water is fine, but on others it has a swampy taste that I don't care for. If the tap water is swampy tasting, then I request bottled water. Agree that $30/day is high. Here's hoping they re-evaluate again before too long. Note that I have seen the price for the zero proof go on sale at times.

Greetings all! We returned a couple of days ago from our first Princess cruise. We sailed on Emerald Princess, which was built in 2006 or so. We did not take Scooter, as mentioned previously. We did observe a “Service Dog” on board, though. The poor dog seemed like he was being dragged along, though. Found out much of the way through, he was 14 years old. Small dog, so I realize he potentially has a longer lifespan than my lab, but that poor dog just looked tired. The day we passed through the Panama Canal, the dog was curled up in a chair on the observation deck above the bridge for quite some time, and the poor dog just looked old. We ended up in an elevator with the dog and person, and the dog didn’t seem to know where to stand. Made me really wonder. And made me appreciate both Scooter’s training as well as that we left him home even if it was forever.

The photographers have been Celebrity employees for about the last 5 years. They used to work for a vendor, but that changed a few years ago, I doubt they will be eliminated. The photo studios are reducing the prints and doing more digital, and the digital are much less expensive than all the prints. They are doing more and more with green screens (on our May 2022 ML cruise it was all green screens). I can see them scaling back, but not eliminating. It just takes a couple of people making significant purchases to cover their costs. I’ll admit… I even bought the studio photos in May. We had the whole family, and they did a great job. I WAY over spent, but when the family lives all over the country, people buy when they have the occasion to get together.

Are you looking at the website or the app? The digital package was available in October and November.

A friend is on Solstice now. In his words, the Oceanview is cut way back. Only pizza, pasta, salad and one line with chicken nuggets,burgers etc is there Evening time only, bfast and lunch same My reponse, and what I'm saying to LLP in email: They want to be a “family friendly” line, but this is NOT a family friendly move. No one wants a crabby small child in the MDR and a family who is choosing to dine elsewhere for the sake of that small child should not be penalized

Double check once you are in board at Guest Services. On Celebrity Reflection a couple of weeks ago, they had a disembark option for passengers seeking a ride to a different ship leaving from Port Everglades. There were a number of people leaving Reflection to jump onto another ship. There was some sort of shuttle.

We did a side by side a year ago… Celebrity Summit in Miami then Celebrity Reflection in Port Everglades. We arranged our own transport, since we could not get an answer from the cruise line ahead of time. We used SAS for the same amount as if we were being taken to the airport in FLL, I believe it was $15/person at the time when paid in cash day of. Super easy. We were of the last to leave the ship in Miami, and arrived back at Port Everglades just as boarding started for Reflection.

If you switch to a different week and that week is less expensive, you should pay the prevailing rate that is less. If the other week is more, they should price protect you. You might also look at Eclipse, since she should do round trip out of Vancouver. You can still fly into Seattle… there are shuttle services that will do the transfer from SEATAC to Vancouver. You would want to look at timing, and allow an extra day coming and going for the transfer.