CruiseRQA

Interesting. Says you can reserve a table for Luminae. Can you really do that? We have always just walked up to be seated.

If you're going to be on board for 22 nights you should give them another try. I can think of several restaurants that I was underwhelmed with the first time but having given them another chance are now on our regular rotation. Almost universally people think the RTG is underrated. We ate there last cruise (Jan 2023) only because we couldn't get in at Eden or Fine Cuts (one of the negatives of giving everyone a bunch of OBC) and loved it. Quiet, low key, great service and good food.

I had a bottle of Decoy cab at our local Hyde Park Steakhouse for $55 recently.

I will point out again that our cruise in a sky suite last year was $2000 more than my upcoming sky suite cruise in Jan 2024. Last year tips and OBC of $900 was included. Which cruise was the better deal?

Always enjoyed the dinning setup on HAL with the two level MDR. We could always get a table for 2 along the railing with plenty of space between. Assured of the same table with late seating. Same dining staff every night. Was a great MDR experience. Celebrity dining rooms including Blu and Luminae have tables way too close together.

From the latest Value Line report on the RCL corporation(parent of RCL and Celebrity) : "Demand for sailings should continue to increase over the next few years. Indeed, booking volume for 2024 is up significantly compared to all previous years and at record high prices." Despite the doom and gloom that seems to be the majority opinion on this board, people must like the product or wouldn't be scheduling cruises in record numbers and at record prices.

I get the point you are trying to make, but there are many Samsung phones that are better than iPhones.

Funny how people view the elimination of included gratuities a CUTBACK! My Beyond cruise last year was $1000 more per person but included gratuities and $900 OBC. So this year my wife and I will be paying $2000 less in cruise fare but will have to cover gratuities and any onboard expenses. Not exactly a BIG cutback.

Anybody here ever pay for a restaurant meal 90 days in advance?

I thought the same thing before cruising on E class. The track will be 95% walkers. It is open and provides wonderful views of the ocean. Your husband will love the walking track.

The buffet serves a purpose that 90% of passengers use at some point during a cruise. A butler? Purpose still baffles me and used by maybe 10% of the passengers. If X figured out that resources directed at having a butler could be more efficiently used elsewhere, well, they made the right choice.

Haven't read through the whole thread so forgive me if my comments are repetitive. I think those of you who cruise many times a year are a bit spoiled. We cruise once a year. We live in the north and so have to fly to FL or CA, stay in a hotel for a night, get to the port and at the end fly back home. I will admit to being a bit envious of those who simply pack up the night before and drive an hour to the port. Anyway, we have been in suites our last two cruises in 2022 and 2023 and will be in one again next month. We had a butler. For the life of me, we couldn't think of anything for the poor guy to do. If you told me last year that the butler would be gone next year, I almost would have been glad. I will report back in a month to opine whether the elimination of the butler (CUTBACKS!) negatively affected our cruise.

Why no Uber? It is very easy and probably the most economical. Practice using Uber at home. Download the app and order and Uber to take you somewhere close by like a grocery store. Do a little shopping and then order an Uber to take you back home. It is very easy!! I am almost 70ish and find Uber easy to use.

A collard green shirt can be very stylish, and tasty.

So if your husband can wear jeans to the dining room you will try Celebrity but if he has to "dress up" and wear Dockers you won't??

Generally the non steak meats served are pretty good. Actual steak? Not so good. Even in Fine Cuts the steaks are not what you would get at a good steakhouse like Flemings or Ruth's Chris. They certainly are not prime.

Many cruisers don't want to be wowed. They want good service, good food, a relaxing walk around the promenade deck, maybe a spin or two at the roulette table before watching a show in the theatre. Followed by a trip to the midnight buffet. Rinse and repeat.

Another reason to use a trusted travel agent

The consumer always has the upper hand. As you state, ships are sailing full and so despite the cries of CUTBACKS! that are ubiquitous on this board, the actual cruising population must enjoy the product or the ships would not be full. If the cruising experience were truly as awful as you might think from reading this board, the ships would be half full of first time cruisers who would never take another cruise once they found out about all the CUTBACKS!

Have been off these forums since our cruise on Beyond last year. After booking another cruise for January I have returned. Last year every other post was about CUTBACKS!. This year it is about every 3rd post. Last year the complaints about CUTBACKS! were mainly about the buffet. This year the main CUTBACK complaint seems to be about the lack of a butler in the lower level suites. We were in a sky suite last year and could never really find anything for the butler to do. Perhaps Celebrity is doing a wise thing by diverting butler $$ elsewhere

We sailed Edge a few years ago without even knowing about an "IV" at the time of our booking. Read these forums and was very concerned only to find that we enjoyed the IV. More room and opens the whole cabin to the outside

My January cruise in a sky suite on Apex will be about $1000 (each) less than a similar cruise on Beyond last year. Last year we were "given" ~$900/cabin in OBC and tips. So just about a wash.

Thanks for posting a nice review. We have been on Edge, Apex and Beyond. I'm with you (and in the minority, I think) on the infinite veranda. Don't know why people don't appreciate the extra space. Actual verandas on ships these days are very small, it's great to open your whole cabin to the outside. Disagree on Eden. One of our favorite spaces on the ship. Such great views, a nice bar, entertainment. And occasionally a light, healthy breakfast. The restaurant is fabulous by the way but at $85/person extra I probably won't be dining there again.

Decoy cab has been often mentioned in this thread. At my local Trader Joe's tonight, they were selling it for $19/bottle

In the thread you quoted Celebrity wasn't even mentioned! 😂