wangel

Cruise Critic People

I’m currently on the Celebrity Equinox day 10 of a 12 day southern Caribbean cruise. We did Aruba yesterday and will be doing Curacao today and then two days at sea back at Fort Lauderdale. I will now give you the Pro’s and Con’s of this cruise. Just to let you know I’ve done 14 cruises (about 1 a year) of which 10 were with Celebrity. I’m currently on the 11^th floor in AquaClass.

PRO’s

1.    Getting on the ship – Much faster. I had a 2:30 get on and got to the dock at 1pm. I was on the ship before 1:25.

2.   Staff is as exceptionally friendly. Really not much different than before.

3.   The ship is very very clean. Even more so due to covid. You can see them at all hours of the day and night deep cleaning and sanitizing.

4.   You can never get rid of chair hogs at the pool, but due to the population on this ship around half; the pool and pool chairs are much more readily accessible.

5.   Ship is designed for cell phone usage. You will need your cell phone so that you can make appointments for dinner or the spa. Much more convenient and quicker. Yes you can still do it the old way too.

6.   Room TV’s now compatible for USB. Yes, I’m a TV addict and will often bring a jump drive full of movies or TV shows that I want to binge watch. Now you can plug right into the USB port of the TV and get a directory of your movies. It appears only AVI movies work. MKZ does not work. Also, I have been known to bring my own TV remote, but didn’t really need it this time. My TV is a Samsung model HG43NF690GFXZA. I brought a 256 gb jump drive full of movies.

7.   Room steward is fantastic! Aren’t they always! Great room steward.

8.   Evening entertainment has been very good. Notice I didn’t say excellent?! Think of a very cheap casino on the Vegas Strip. That is how the entertainment is.  

9.   Internet speed. You have your choice of slow and fast. I can only comment on the fast. Price was around $399, but if you are Elite you get 30% off which brought the price down to around $240 for one user. Yes, only one user, but can be switched from one device to another at no charge.

OK, now for the bad news.

CON’s

1.    Food quality and selection (even in the buffet) is terrible. Golden Corral or Denny’s quality at best. You will get sick of it quickly. Fruit under-ripe for the first few days. Same menus day after day. No midnight buffets, no big parades of food anymore either. I go on cruises for the food and now, what should be so simple, they ruined. Even at the fancy restaurants, they are just taking their regular food and just making it look fancy. I ordered Salmon Sushi rolls and the salmon inside the rolls was the same smoked salmon from breakfast. Really!

2.   Lack of bar attendants so you can’t order (All Inclusive) drinks. I had the AI and before shows no drink attendants. Up at the buffet no drink attendants, by the pool no drink attendants: most areas – no drink attendants. OK, if you look hard, sometimes you can find one. Often times I just gave up. Stop at one of the bars on the ship to get your drink before dinner or a show.

3.   Very difficult to tell what is covered on the regular drink package and the better one. I have the regular one. Much too often the bar attendant would tell me that there would be an upcharge for what I wanted like a strawberry slushee or something else. It’s not real clear what is included in each drink package. Keep in mind that you glass of wine will likely be part of your AI, but if you want to purchase the entire bottle, you only get 15% off the price of the bottle. So it pays to get drinks by the glass.

4.   Celebrity has set the schedules of all the restaurants, so that around lunch time you are forced to eat at Golden Corral on deck 14. They want everyone to eat there. Deck 14 is called Silhouette (buffet) and it is cheap slop.

5.   Stopping at the various islands and the ship won’t let you off (due to covid) – forcing us to book a Celebrity tour to get off the ship.

6.   Sushi use to be free every night. Now it is pay only. I use to love the sushi before dinner. Nope, not any more. Not only that, but the Sushi on 5 restaurant opens at 3pm. Can’t even have it for lunch anymore. The prices are like a high end sushi restaurant. The restaurant is normally empty.

7.   Qsine specialty restaurant at $55 / person – Quality and Quantity lacking. (I had to go up to the buffet after dinner to get more food. Small quantities do not always mean better!). On the other hand if you are traveling with an 8 year old and they want to see a 3D cartoon on their plate, then by all means go to this restaurant.

8.   Food quality is poor to mediocre. Steaks are tasteless or too tough. Things are overcooked or undercooked. Overall, there is nothing REALLY good at any time.

9.   If you paid extra for AquaClass and Persian Gardens – it is now by appointment only. They only book 8 people at a time. Even with the boat half full, appointments book up quick. My suggestion is to book all your days quickly.

10.               The hot tubs allow a maximum of only 3 people. Yes there are many Karen’s who monitor this and will not let you in if you try and put 4 people in the hot tub. Overall, AquaClass is not worth it any more. You don’t get all the benefits and the food in Blu is pretty much the same as in the main dining room.

11. Activities are minimal and often downright silly waste of time. If you like going to Trivia or playing silly games, then by all means go ahead. Most of their activities are a silly waste of time.

12.               When a show or activity is over, there is no control of allow people to leave without clustering together. In other words, no social distancing.

13.               They use the same rag to clean every table instead of using a new cloth or paper. I remember some restaurants where I live using a new clean paper towel for each table so as not to spread covid. Not here, they use the same rag from table to table.

14.               The Persian Garden sounds good on paper, but keep in mind with only two saunas, what happens when one sauna is down for repairs for two days or a group reserves all the good times? Not good.

15.               Passengers are supposed to wear masks when off the boat. Many did not and nobody said anything.

16.               Many of the tours like Aruba were more trying to sell us Aloa Vera than showing us the island.  

17.               Many of the on-ship activities now cost! Yes, going to the Deal or No Deal game show on the boat or some other activities now costs.

18.               Water – yes water! They are now serving water in aluminum cans instead of plastic water bottles. The water from the aluminum cans tastes “tinny”. I’ve been ordering more Coke and drinking less water due to this tinny taste.

SIDE NOTE 1: There is a router in each room. For those who are computer literate: They are Aruba brand routers, model AP-303H-US. If you slide the front up, you then have access to four RJ45 ports on the bottom and 1 more inside the router. I have not played with them yet, but might. They appear functional.

SIDE NOTE 2: You can use a Travelmate Titan (Google it if you don’t know what it is) to divide your internet among up to four users. A very handy device: Ex:  if you brought two laptops and two cell phones as I did and you want to connect them all at the same time? It works fine. Just keep in mind that if your speed is 400 mbps, when you connect four devices all using the Internet it divides it by 4, which means 100 mbps for each user. The speed of the Internet varies. In the middle of the night is the fastest speeds. Morning, Late afternoon or early evening is the busiest and consequently the slowest. Expect to see speeds change from 400 mbps to as slow as 0.50 mbps.

Hope some of the above helps you.

One thing I did not see mentioned to bring: Old clean underwear.

Why? This way you can wear them on the cruise and then just throw them away when done. This leaves more room in your suitcase and gets rid of your old underwear at the same time.

Just got off the Celebrity Solstice. We had our gratuity prepaid.

But guess what? We were charged gratuity on soft drinks and had gratuity envelopes on our pillow and had all our Celebrity excursion people asking for tips too. We thought that prepaid gratuity meant prepaid. It does not.

We called customer relations when on the boat and they told us that perhaps you would like to leave more gratuity. I explained that the whole point of prepaying the gratuity is to avoid the difficult situation of tipping.

Prepaying your gratuity does not eliminate it.

7 Night Alaska Cruise - Tracy Arm Fjord May 27, 2015 to June 3, 2015

The wife and I just returned from our Celebrity Solstice Cruise to Alaska and wanted future cruisers to know the pros and cons of how everything went. Let me preface, that this was our 10th cruise with Celebrity and the below is just our opinion or an opinion we heard on ship that we agree with. We rate our experiences on a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being very poor and 10 being highly excellent.

Solstice Ship – (9) – The ship is beautiful. It was clean, well maintained, and handled the ocean very good even in rough seas. It was good to see nice clean bathrooms throughout the ship. Unfortunately the chairs in the main theater and smaller theater were subpar (seat leaning too far forward) and were just plain uncomfortable. These chairs need to be replaced with better theater quality seating that are in most local theaters.

Stateroom Cabin – (9) – Our forward cabin on deck 8 was very good. It had extra electrical outlets (not the normal just one), appeared larger than normal, and the shower curtain was gone replaced with sliding shower doors that did not leak water. Standard drawers, mirrors, safe, and perhaps a 36” Samsung TV that pivoted very well and had 20 channels that included 4 news, 2 sports, TNT a cartoon channel, etc. etc. Took off a little just because a stateroom is never big enough.

Room Steward – (7) – Our male room steward on the first day was happy and cheerful to see us, introduced himself to see if we had any special needs (we asked him to clear out the refrigerator of drinks, which he did). After the first day, we rarely saw our steward, but he entered our room probably 3 times a day to give us fresh towels, shampoo, make up the bed, etc. That is just the way we liked it, we never really saw him during the cruise, but he did his job. Took off a bit because on the first day I ate a Saltine cracker and left a few obvious large pieces on the carpet toward the back of our cabin. The crumbs were on the floor for 4 days before being vacuumed up. I also did not feel it was the job of our room steward to be touching our clothing. We would come back to our room to find our clothing folded and moved. The wife felt a little funny with that being that the steward was male. We didn’t want to say anything due to the otherwise excellent job that he did.

Cruise Director (Ben) – (10) – Our Australian cruise director was fun where ever he went. Always a smile and something funny to say. He was a highlight of the cruise.

Captain Tosslo (SP) – (7) – Our Greek Captain Tosslo was very popular. He came to most all of the events and was a participant at many. Actually he was seen so often at the events that people were wondering who was driving the ship. Yes, we know that these ships are pretty automatic, but when you see the captain at so many events, it tends to make some people worry about ship functions.

Entertainment – (4) – There was a show every night. The wife and I felt obligated to go to every show. Overall, I would say that there was too much opera in the shows. The shows were all quite fair, but the comedian/impressions and the magician were exceptional (10). The house dancers/singers were fair (4), but often sang off-key. We were expecting one night to have a lavish Las Vegas type costume performance, but nope, didn’t happen.

Crew in General – (6) – In general the crew was very pleasant the first 2/3’s of the cruise, with ‘happy you are here’, and ‘hope you have a pleasant day’, ‘anything we can do to make your cruise better’; to toward the end of the cruise with nothing to say and blank faces. It was almost like they were out of pleasantries with this set of passengers and let’s just get on with the next set of passengers.

Casino – (3) – I spent quite some time in the Casino, as you must walk through it when you walk through that level of the ship. I spent lots of time watching and even gambled a small amount of money. In my observations, way too many people lost their money. Obviously casinos are there to make money, and I would never say the games/machines are rigged without proof, but virtually all of people I saw were walking out upset due to the money lost so quickly. Having spent time in non-cruise boat casinos, I did not see this same type of loss. If you want to gamble, I would suggest you stick to games where you have some control like Blackjack or Craps and stay away from slots and other machines that do not require skill. Either way, you likely will lose.

Prepaid Gratuities (2) – Like I’m sure many of you, we purchased our cruise because one of the perks was “Prepaid Gratuities”. We thought, wow, how great, no more envelopes on the bed, no more worrying about tipping, etc. etc. Well, let me tell you that this program is not all it is cracked up to be. Even though we had the prepaid gratuities, we were still charged 18% gratuity on many things, still had people with their hand out looking for a tip and still had numerous envelopes on our bed the last night of the cruise looking for tips. When I enquired about this, I was told that perhaps your service was so exceptional and I might want to tip more. Really?! The whole reason we prepaid our gratuity was we didn’t like the confrontation with the stewards and others about tipping. We just wanted to enjoy the cruise without the worry about tipping, but this didn’t happen. Many of the guests including myself saw the crew looking at us like we were just dollar signs and not people. Next cruise, I will not prepay the gratuity and tip as I normally do. Truly a shame as I thought the concept of a prepaid gratuity was a great idea, but seems Celebrity got greedy and wants to try and squeeze passengers even more. The other $20 or $30 of gratuity that was automatically charged on my bill was so insignificant in comparison to the whole bill that we did not want to wait in the long line at customer relations to argue about it. When Celebrity said that gratuity was prepaid, we sort of took them at their word. That was a mistake.

Food (3) – Who doesn’t go on a cruise for the good food? Well, good food will cost you, as it is only available in the finer pay restaurants on the ship. But as for food, you can get that anywhere on the ship.

Fine Dining Specialty Restaurant – Yes, for $50 or $60 you can eat at a 5 star restaurant on board and have a phenomenal meal. The best and most scrumptious parts of a cow, fish or fowl will be cooked, prepared and presented to you fantastically. The other parts of the cow, fish and fowl is then sent over to the Standard Fine Dining Restaurant.

Standard Fine Dining Restaurant – I ate most my meals in this FREE restaurant. Service was good and food was good to fair. The selection was so bad on certain days that it required many guests to go upstairs to the buffet or to better restaurants. Overall I would compare the quality of this restaurant to Applebee’s/Perkins or pretty much any 2 star restaurant. Putting 2 star food on fancy plates and being served by people dressed up nice does not make the food taste better. I would prefer to have better quality food as that is why people cruise! We always ate at shared tables to get the opinion of others. Often there was one or two things served that tasted not right or was not edible. The desserts that Celebrity has long been known for has been minimized and cheapened. We did not see a midnight buffet, we did not see a grand presentation of desserts, we did not see the dance of the waiters; all things we saw at prior sailings. Is celebrity getting cheap on food?

Buffet – Deck 14 - As for the buffet upstairs on deck 14, I can only say that it is a step just slightly above Ryan’s or Golden Coral Buffets. Just mass produced food laid out to feed the mass as quick as possible. I will say that tables were always available and cleaned fast. On port days this is where they tried to get people to go eat. Seems the Standard Fine Dining Restaurant hours have been shortened and they were constantly sending people to the buffet to eat.

Outside hamburger restaurants. Do I really need to comment about the Burger King, McDonalds and Pizza Hut type food on deck that served hamburgers, French fries, and pizza? If you came for and ate this food, you will not care about this review.

Again, I wish Celebrity spent some extra time on quality and not so much time on quantity. Obviously the bottom line of Celebrity is money. The more people who eat at the buffet or hamburger spots the more profit for them.

Fruit – We did notice something about the fruit. We had fruit at most every restaurant including the buffet. At the Fine Dining Specialty Restaurant, ALL the fruit was sweet as sugar and the core or peel totally gone. At the Free Fine Dining Restaurant, the fruit was mostly sweet with a hint of core and peel. At the buffet you got what was left over from all the other ship restaurants. The fruit was rarely sweet and had not been peeled or cored properly. Yes, even with the fruit there is a difference between all the restaurants.

Overall – the continual comment I heard from passengers were: The food is crappy in the FREE restaurants and that is Celebrity’s ways to force people to the pay restaurants for the good food.

Tours / Excursions – (2) - Like many of you, we used our (OBC) On Board Credit, for our tours and excursions. I could not believe how much of a rip off these tours were. Let me be more specific. The wife and I signed up for 4 tours. Each tour had a specific time, perhaps 2 hours. Well, we got a 40 minute tour and then were left off at their designated gift shop to spend money, then back to the boat, but not before the bus driver or guide will tell you some sad story about their kids or such to try and convince you to give a larger gratuity. Seems the guides/drivers all had the same story. First how they have been separated from their wife/family trying to make a living in Alaska to support their family, and then we hear about all their kids and medical expenses. We compared it to all the ASPCA dogs and cat commercials we see on TV asking for money. Next time, we will arrange our own tours. We found all the same tours that Celebrity had for cheaper on the dock. If you wait until the day of the tour, you can change your mind at the last minute if the weather is bad. Who wants to go on a canoe trip or open boat trip in the rain?

To summarize, the tours/excursions were overpriced, cut short, and just an excuse to go to their gift shops and of course, the gratuity.

Activities – (7) – There were your standard activities that tended to lessen as the cruise progressed. It appeared that art auctions and other money generating events were scheduled when nothing else was or nothing else reasonable, so that you were pretty much forced to these money generating sales.

Chair Hogs – Because this was an Alaskan cruise with lots of old people, chair hogs were nonexistent. The pools and outdoor hot tubs were always available.

Passengers do understand that a billion dollar cruise ship must be paid for by the passengers, but there has to be a balance between money paid by passengers and benefits offered by the cruise line. When cruisers only feel like dollar signs, and hands are always out for a gratuity or passengers are herded like cattle to your gift shops, spas, and casino, they will either stop cruising, change cruise lines, or just refuse to purchase/tip next time on board – none of which is good for Celebrity. Many people work all year for their one or two week vacation. A cruise use to be relaxing, enjoyable, entertaining, and pleasurable. Celebrity needs to understand that cruisers are not dollar signs or cattle to be herded into the buffet to line up at the horse trough.

I’m posting this review to help others plan their cruise better. The above was just my opinion and the opinion of other passengers.

If you have a comment, you can email me directly at raizinman@gmail.com as I will not be checking this part of the forum for comments or replies.

Having done more than a dozen cruises, we have stayed in most of the various cabins on the ship. We have found that inside has its advantages as does a balcony. The biggest advantage to balcony is the location of the cruise. When we did the Panama Canal we debated about inside, but decided to do balcony as there is a lot to see from our cabin. We were right. Even finding a place on the deck for viewing was near impossible. Having a balcony was much more enjoyable. On the other hand, when we did a transatlantic, we got an inside cabin and were very happy with it. Who wants to look at ocean all the time. Climate also has to do with it. When we cruised south, the weather was hot. The upper ship cabins were hot and the air conditioner was having difficulty keeping up. The lower cabins (hot air rises) were always cooler and much more comfortable.

We are on the Celebrity Summit in about 3 weeks going to Bermuda. Our daughter is a big TV addict and would rather just stay in the cabin watching TV. We want to fill up a jump drive of movies for her to watch. So here are my questions:

Do the in room TV's on the Summit allow for a jump drive? We will be on Deck 7 in an inside cabin.

Any idea on what format? Probably AVI would be most common?

Wife and I booked a 7 nighter. On our first night we start to head to the dining room. The wife told me to get our table and she was going to head back to the room to change her shoes. I sat down at a table for 8. In a minute or two a woman in her thirties along with another woman in her fifties sat down on both sides of me. Before I could say that they are sitting in my wives chair, they start asking me questions. What floor is your cabin on? What is my profession? What city do I live in? I was starting to take offense to this type of third degree, but my wife just showed up with a surprised look on her face with both these women rubbing elbows with me. One woman said; "you're married?" I said YES! They apologized and said that they were only on the cruise to find the daughter or mother a husband and since I was not available they were moving to another table.

I’m leaving on a trans-Atlantic (TA) cruise in 32 days to England on Celebrity. Due to work and other reasons, I need to be phone accessible pretty much all the time. What is the best way to do this? Phone cards? Ship phone? Cell phone? Internet Phone? I’m told that there are some phones such as Tracphone that can be used on some ships at a much better rate? Are there any better phones or phone carriers? Is Verizon better than Sprint? If I contact my phone carrier, can they do anything while I’m on the boat? Would adding international calling while I’m on the cruise make any difference? Someone tell me the scoop on phones and phoning.