MSR74

Hello all. I thought I posted this question but I don't think I did since it isn't in my history.

I am cruising on Celebrity Summit out of Cape Liberty on July 24th to Bermuda. From experience, does anyone know a roundabout time of when we can expect to board and what time the terminal (Cape Liberty) opens for check-in? The cruise line couldn't really give me a specific answer. I know that the terminals generally open early in FLL and MIA and in my experience, boarding has begun at roughly 11am, but I haven't sailed out of Cape Liberty.

Thank you for any info.

Thank you for the info. I live in Long Island, so I can get them anytime. It is a treat to get them on a cruise though. I don't really care much for them, but my spouse goes nuts over them.

On 5/15/2022 at 9:54 AM, baggal said:

If you're planning to be in New Jersey the night before the cruise, I recommend you go to one of the Portuguese or Spanish restaurants in the Ironbound section of Newark and have a real lobster dinner instead of waiting for the tiny lobster tails on the ship.  It won't be cheap but it will be significantly better than what's offered on the ship.

Thank you. This is a good thought. I haven’t used the app to check menu on the app so I was sure that existed.

Hello all,

I haven't been on the forum for a while. My last cruise pre-covid was on Equinox and if I am correct in my cloudy memory, "Lobster" night in the MDR was on the evening of the 2nd full at sea day. I am curious to find out if anyone knows if Celebrity Summit still has a "Lobster" night post-Covid in the MDR on Summit? If so, is it possible to update with current day of sailing?  It would be nice to now for planning purposes since we have a small group going on the sailing and it's always something of a past time to look forward to. Thank you for any help or info provided.

M

5 minutes ago, mari10 said:

No complaints here, we are enjoying every minute on The Equinox .

I think the pig is too!

27 minutes ago, CDSparks said:

Mainly the lack of updating to the stateroom. I was looking forward to the updated bathroom in the stateroom. The new veranda furniture is terrible and the new veranda table is laughable. Main dining room and buffet were supposed to be updated but weren’t. Solarium unchanged They still have the old cruddy bedside tables in the rooms. Just very poorly done and not worthy of the term “Revolution”. Refreshed would’ve been the better word to use. I’m still wondering what they did over 29 days other than the retreat Sundeck, new bedding, and a coat of blue paint. 

Agreed.

I feel it could have gone further to be truly "revolutionized" and taken more in the direction of the Edge.

33 minutes ago, blueboro said:

I don't think the S-Class ships NEED revolutionized!  They are great as is.  Refreshed it good...new carpeting, soft goods, refreshed cabins, and general all-around refresh.  But when the revolution included cutting off half of the Sky Lounge I was not a fan.  Just wish they had not included Le Petit Chef in the changes.

I understand and felt that the ship was class leading at the time. For me, it's beginning to look a little dated. Personal preference solely.

I'll withhold judgement for certain until I sail in October.

Anyone feeling a little disappointed so far by this "Revolution?" So much was done to Millennium Class. This seems more  refreshed rather than "revolutionized." 

Seems that Celebrity is doing the same thing to the Solstice Class that they did to Millennium Class when the Solstice Class was introduced.  Somewhat of a half-hearted attempt to make those ships seem "new" at the time.

Comparing this to Edge is disappointing and to Millennium and Summit even more so. I feel a little under excited to sail in October.

Maybe I was expecting too much with all of the advanced marketing hype...

Honestly though, as someone mentioned earlier, how far can you stretch $500 million across an entire fleet?

With this being said, I really did enjoy the Silhouette when I sailed several years ago. I guess I was just expecting something a little more drastic. 

Thank you all for posting photos. Looking forward to seeing a walkthrough on YouTube. 

It will all blow over. Memories are short when it comes to this stuff...it will be a sound bite soon enough. Those of us who cruise and continue to cruise know better and I personally am looking forward to taking Anthem next January to the Southern Caribbean.

M

Going next year...Capt Claus or other. I can't wait. I'm not the least bit concerned?!

Thank you all for the great replies. We are leaning more toward staying where we are.

M

The issue is that we will lose an onboard credit of $100 ($300 total, dropping to $200 with the change), will need to pay about $40 more and lose free WIFI on one device. So, I don't know if it is worth it.

I am perplexed as to why I didn't choose a deck 10 stateroom when I booked. i know I looked into deck 9 and 10 but maybe it was more than I wanted to spend and was happy at the time of booking with my location.

I'm also surprised that you felt vibrations on the Regal. I actually found our stateroom location to be fairly vibration free, although we were more mid-aft. I felt very little vibration, although I am not that sensitive to it and actually like the little rumble from the engines when I am sleeping :). I was actually surprised at how quiet the engine's seemed since the Regal doesn't have Azipod's, but rather traditional fixed prop's that tend to transmit more low vibrations than Azipod's.

Thanks again for your input. I really appreciate you taking the time to respond!

M

Here are some photos from my last cruise on Regal Princess and my point of reference for considering moving higher to deck 10. We would be on same floor location as Regal Princess, comparatively speaking (two decks up from lifeboat storage area three decks below but looking over an actual lifeboat, so slightly back from where we were in this spot). We were on Caribe deck (C521) in photos but Emerald Deck below us three decks down has obstructed cabins similar to deck 6 on Anthem.

And it didn't have any obstruction outward as is viewed in the photos, just downward.

Or am I over analyzing this whole thing? I probably am...:eek::eek:

This is edited, I cannot post photos for some reason...

Sorry everyone.

I will see if I can resolve the issue.

Thanks,

M

Biker 9,

Thank you for following up. I appreciate your feedback.

M

I posted a Question about a cabin on a specific ship under this forum. I'm not sure how to move it or post in the Ship specific forum.

Thank you.

M

I am booked on the Anthem of the Seas...Stateroom 8700, 12 Night Southern Caribbean out of Cape Liberty. I am wondering if an upgrade to deck 10 in the same vicinity is worth the extra $140 cost. I am concerned about the proximity to lifeboats below in reference to view downward being blocked and possible tendering noise.

Last year I went on the Regal Princess and although we were two decks above lifeboats (C521), there was still some noise lowering lifeboats on Starboard for tendering in Princess Cays, although the view downward was fairly decent.

Please feel free to leave any feedback if you have experienced Deck 8 locations that looked over lifeboats on either Quantum of the Seas or Anthem of the Seas.

Also, we want to stay in the aft of the ship.

Side note: I do not use this forum often and am confused as to how to post directly in the Quantum Class forum. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

M

I guess, I should explain my position a little more thoroughly to put into context. I selected anytime dining which on Golden (several years ago) was efficient. Very short wait times, not more than 10-15 minutes in my recollection. The first night I waited about 30 minutes. Not too bad and still reasonable for me. The second (first formal) I waited an hour and 45 minutes. The line from the dining room was backed up into the atrium. Probably about 50 people waiting in line. Thinnest night was an hour and 1/2. When I commented to the head waiter, he posted a reservation following that and we were seated relatively quickly on remaining nights. I did hear other peoples comments about waits be excessive and unacceptable and that was a theme for those standing on long lines, likely hundreds of guests each night.

The rear of the ship walking from the buffet to the aft bar smelled heavily like urine. Like a public toilet wherever USA, or wherever that wasn't cleaned properly. It continued and worsened as the week progressed. Other toilets smelled similar in various areas of the ship. They appeared clean but a Princess rep said it was an ongoing maintenance issue that was scheduled to have warranty service to repair. Ok.

I have never seen so many public bathroom toilets and sinks not working in various public area bathrooms in my cruise history (this was my 8th). Every public men's room had one or more sinks or toilets out of service and many continued for the duration of the cruise. At one point, I visited the toilet outside of the Forward show lounge and all one toilet was working and then became inoperative before I had the opportunity to use it. I searched for another toilet two flights up.

The toilets were in strange locations and not accessible to all restaurants. I never found on near my dining room and when I asked about one, I was told by Princess crew to go to the next deck up. Strange.

The layout was poorly designed, and stairs to nowhere without any indication that passengers were proceeding to nowhere. Elevators were small and inefficient.

Decks were never power washed once on my cruise. On other lines I have seen multiple power washes in one week. With that said, debris (Princess Patter from days prior and other debris) collected in side returns by the main pool on the sun deck. Cups and glasses sat under our chairs empty for the entire day and were not removed. Finally, I took them back and placed them stacked on the bar so the wind wouldn't carry them off.

Stateroom bathrooms were way too small. I am an average 5'8," 155 lb male and I had a difficult time turning in the shower. The door of the bathroom met my knees when I sat on the toilet (I know TMI), but you get the idea.

The balconies were small but were adequate for us.

The room was well kept and stateroom steward great, no complaints.

Crown Grill was boring, service and food just ok. I expected more from their premium steakhouse. In comparison, Fahrenheit 555 on Carnival Breeze was outstanding. A real unique experience.

Sushi Bar was awful. Lack of variety and poor quality at best. Not even supermarket quality.

I left survey after cruise. No response from Princess. Wrote a letter, took two months for a response and it was a phone call. I called rep back and there was 0 empathy and a lot of excuses. I don't even recall an apology. Take it or leave it attitude.

Entertainment except for a couple of acts (husband/wife team from Philippines and A young African American lady who reminded me of Tina Turner) was cheesy and boring. I almost fell asleep during one of the main stage performances and we always left early when we weren't held back from attending a show because of dinner disaster.

Only one type of beer, Stella or nothing on tap, especially with craft beer popularity was surprising, otherwise it was necessary to purchase bottled beer. I prefer tap.

Overall cruise was very low key and quiet which was a plus for us. Very few children and I wouldn't recommend a family trip with children on this ship.

With all combined I have had much better experiences on many other cruises, including Carnival, Royal Caribbean and Celebrity. And there were probably other issues that I can't recall but I just remember coming off of the ship feeling underwhelmed, not looking to book another Princess cruise until I hear service and product improves and dealing with the customer service rep at Princess Corporate put icing on my cake.

In any event, I thought it worthy to post this response, although it may not be the correct page to do so and I will move it if others/admin feels it better suited for another location. But I just wanted to leave some feedback on my experience.

M.

Overall, I was disappointed and expected more overall because our first Princess cruise was on Golden several years ago. With that said, I don't think I'd sail on Regal Princess again unless it were free.

Is the Silhouette on of X's fleet that has the Lawn Grill?

Hi Bill,

Yes, the lawn club grill is onboard the Silhouette and Reflection only. The Equinox, Eclipse and Solstice all have a glass blowing show instead. The Lawn Club Grill looks fantastic and we spoke to a guest that tried it and said they really enjoyed it. You can select and grill your own meat with the assistance of chef onboard. Plus it has a really cool vibe with the lawn club just aft. When I go back, I think I would like to try it as well!

M

Btw you can't PM on this site

Noted. Thanks Bill.

M

Oh, and sorry for the edits. I haven't posted on this forum in a while and I am getting readjusted to using it.

M

It speaks well of Carnival that OP would return after the Premium experience of Celebrity

I definitely would return to Carnival! I didn't really have any major complaints and we had a fantastic time. I hoped to make clear that they are different products for different expectations, but are both good in their own way. I'm actually looking forward to the new Vista. I really like the way CCL has taken the Breeze and amped it up a bit! I would also definitely like to take another Solstice Class cruise! They are both on my bucket list.

To be honest, I've never really had an experience in which I've said, I'm never going back to "that" cruise line. I try to research my cruise based upon my personal preferences and learn what each can offer and I select based upon certain factors and go with it and have fun! In the end I think that is the most important thing to remember.

Happy cruising!

M

Wow ok, cool!

Where to begin…there are definitely a lot of differences. I think you will likely notice in the ship's aesthetics. The ship decor on Celebrity is more upscale, current and modern feeling, kind of like a nice W Hotel. Very chic and luxurious while warm and inviting. I did like Carnival "wrap" Promenade which you will not find on the Silhouette, it was also missing from the Regal Princess which I sailed earlier this year. I think this is a space maximizing trend.

I would say service is on par with the Breeze but that's a matter of opinion, while there are more varied food options aboard the Silhouette. The buffet had many more options and was presented in smaller sub-stations. Overall food presentation is a stepped up too.

The ship feels less crowded, perhaps because there are less people and the pace is less hectic and hurried than the Breeze. If you are in a balcony stateroom, you will notice the larger and more comfortable balcony. Stateroom bathrooms are spa-like and the best I've ever experienced. I liked that I could order room service on my stateroom TV. That was a nice feature.

There are very few children, however, you will be going likely be sailing during spring break so you may experience more. Therefore, I would say the Breeze has the edge in amenities and activities for kids! I would steer families with small children away from the Silhouette and more toward the Breeze.

We initially had an issue with the glass partition between our balcony and the room adjacent to ours. It was blown out on the prior cruise (this is what our neighbor said who had done a back to back cruise before us) because of high wind. It was replaced the first evening of the cruise with a new panel. Initially, I was told the part wasn't onboard and then it appeared. Maybe magic ;) or more likely they swiped it from someone else's room when they requested an adjoining balcony with their neighbor.

I prefer the aesthetic of the ship, along with the stateroom. I also liked the upscale feel of the Silhouette but it didn't feel stuffy at any time. It felt like I was cruising on a large luxury Yacht where Carnival felt more basic and "industrial" as my friend would put it. The Silhouette was definitely designed with aesthetics and guest perception in mind. I also found it easier to navigate and more "user friendly," but that too is a matter of personal taste. The pool and decks were less congested on sea days and the ship was spotless, I think more so than on the Breeze although the Breeze was definitely well kept.

We had the best stateroom attendant on the Breeze however, Celebrity SA was good but a bit more laid back. It's a matter of personal opinion.

Overall, I liked them both and can't find much fault with the Breeze other than some minor things comparably. Carnival has hospitable staff and offers a great vacation at an exceptional value! I appreciate that. I tend to prefer the silhouette to the Breeze because I like the overall layout, the comfort level. I would venture to say the food is on par or better than the Breeze, at least the dishes seemed a little more creative and presented with a little bit more flair and attention to detail. It was good enough on the Silhouette that I didn't feel the need to try the "additional cost" restaurants. I was also "fooded out" at the last couple of days when we had our reservation and so we canceled.

All entertainment on the Silhouette was with a live band. Carnival has click track (pre-recorded music) and less elaborate productions, but adequate. There was also a "Cirque" style show that was pretty good and a quartet of young talented acapella singers (like on the TV show Sing Off). All singers, dancers and musicians were very talented and the shows were of relatively high quality and varied in style and genre.

As a side note: I am not partial to any one line, have been on 9 cruises, Several on Carnival one on RCCL Independence of the Seas, two on Princess and one on the Silhouette. I think I would choose Celebrity, especially the Solstice Class because I like the product and the value. I also liked the ship layout and decor and found that it seemed less crowded with fewer children (I could count on one hand). The service however matched or exceeded the Breeze in some areas and was on par in others. I liked the stateroom and larger and better appointed stateroom bathroom.

Overall, I thought the ship felt more refined and high-end than any of the others I mentioned although I haven't been on anything else in categories above it to compare. I did like Carnival and I would return as I have never had any other major issues. I was a little disappointed in the Regal Princess in comparison to Celebrity if that's a consolation. I would probably return to Princess with an open mind in the future if itinerary and price were a deciding factor.

I liked both ships for different reasons but my preference was for the Silhouette. In all, I think you will have a great time!

Enjoy yourself and if you have any other questions please feel free to PM me.

M

I just got back from the Regal and had a great time overall. I am more partial to the Celebrity Silhouette for aesthetic reasons mostly (decor, larger stateroom and bigger balcony and bathroom) which I took a cruise on 2 years ago. I prefer their Solstice Class product to Princess although others may disagree. I have sailed on Royal Caribbean (Independence of the Seas) and found them to be comparable to Princess as far as service. Food is definitely better on Princess, but it has been several years since I took an RCL cruise. I would rate Princess on par with RCL in terms of service with RCL offering more amenities (wave pool, rock wall and cool promenade area). However, Princess offers a classy cruise, great entertainment and food. I found Princess lacking in stateroom size, tiny bathroom and smaller balcony than the RCL and Celebrity ships I have traveled on. I cannot comment on NCL because I haven't sailed on them. We were supposed to be on the Breakaway this year but because of logistics had to change to the Regal. Overall, I enjoyed the cruise and service. It was attentive and met my expectations without being too overly fussy.

M