First Time Celebrity Elite

I have checked on the Celebrity website but would still appreciate cruiser insights.

I have sailed 21 cruises, most with RCI. I have booked our first Celebrity cruise on the Summit for this June. My status with Royal has transferred to Celebrity as Elite. I found this on the website:

Access to the Captain's Club Lounge for daily coffee house style breakfast

• • Evening Cocktail hour (excludes embarkation and evening of Senior Officers' Party)
  

But I don't see any Captain's Club Lounge on the Summit deck plans. I know there is a suite/Zenith lounge now in Michael's. How is this perk handled on Summit?

Additionally, I see that priority tendering is another benefit. We have two tender ports on this cruise. Any insights into how this works would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance for your help.

The lounge is a public room or restaurant, normally. Breakfast is often in Tuscan Grille, and evening cocktail hour is in Sky lounge. Tendering is usually in the Rendezvous, but you will be told where and when to meet. They get ship tours off, then the host/hostess will lead you from Rendezvous down to the tenders. It is an INCREDIBLY handy perk and has saved us hours of time.

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The Elite cocktail hour may be held in the Sky Observation Lounge; but depending on other activities or groups that may need to use the Sky and on the number of Elite on board, many time there is NO one location for the Elite cocktail hour and coupons are given to the Elites for use in regular bars instead.

Very helpful; thank you both.

The Elite Evening Cocktail Hour is always held in the Sky Lounge, from 5-7. Coupons may be issued, but that is fairly rare, which can be used in other bars (except Martini Bar, dining rooms, etc.) but the Sky Lounge will still be available where they generally will serve some basic canapes. This is where the majority of those eligible will gather. We had coupons on both our Constellation cruises this month, and the Sky Lounge was still packed.

Sorry to spoil someone's party but the Elite functions are NOT always held in the sky lounge or equivalent. The location is dependant upon what activities there are going on around the ship at the designated time. On our last COnstellation cruise at least one Elite function was moved to the Oceanview bar on the stern

The chances are it will be. We've been on 14 cruises as Elite/Elite Plus, and the event was always held in the Skye Lounge. The Elite Breakfast has been held in different specialty restaurants though. We've done it on the Connie, Milly, Reflection, Equinox, and Silhouette.

There is no "Sky Lounge" on the Summit.

Sky lounge is the generic term for the bar at the top of the ship all the way forward

Regarding priority tendering, we have also sometimes been given "Priority Tender Tickets" by our cabin steward. We were able to get on whatever tender we wished, although we found it a bit embarrassing being herded to the front of the queue!

Sky lounge is the generic term for the bar at the top of the ship all the way forward

And the menus for the lounge, released this month on Constellation, all say "Sky Lounge"

You will receive a letter in your cabin telling you where the morning and evening events are held. To answer your question, Celebrity does not have a dedicated Captains Club lounge on any of their ships.

Becoming elite on Celebrity really made a difference for us. We did so with five cruises and our last four cruises have been as elites. I always keep tabs on our alcohol expenditures and prior to elite, we would spend about $500 total for two persons for a 14 day cruise. I would usually purchase a seven bottle wine package. We drink a lot of wine on cruises.

After becoming elite, we only spend about $250 total for a 14 day cruise. Also, we always use the free laundry for each of us, which saves $$$. The elite happy hour is a great place to meet your new cruise friends from the Meet and Greet.

I have come to dislike the price bundling of the drink packages that we don't want. It seems that X prices are now inflated and the bartenders are not a quick to serve as before.

Last Nov on Eclipse we were given a sheet of daily coupons for 3 drinks per person per evening as Elite.

We never ventured up to the Sky Lounge as it wasn't a dedicated lounge like the ones on RCI. And we preferred one of the other bars.

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If you have mostly cruised RCL, the biggest difference is that Celebrity does not have the equivalent of the Diamond Lounge on their ships. The Elite cocktail event nightly is similar but is more limited in drinks offered and appetizers offered. Most people on Celebrity have drink packages as part of their fare (unlike RCL) so the Elite free cocktails are not much of an incentive anymore but still a nice touch.

And just like the diamond lounge, get ready to be hounded and refused entry if you turn up in shorts, flip flops or open toed shoes that are sandals but could be taken as flip flops. Best read the dress code.

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If you have mostly cruised RCL, the biggest difference is that Celebrity does not have the equivalent of the Diamond Lounge on their ships. The Elite cocktail event nightly is similar but is more limited in drinks offered and appetizers offered. Most people on Celebrity have drink packages as part of their fare (unlike RCL) so the Elite free cocktails are not much of an incentive anymore but still a nice touch.

That's very true. However, we made full use of our coupons as drinks packages are rarely included in TA cruises.

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The choices for drinks using the coupons is limited... below even the classic drink package.

I guess the biggest impact is on trans Atlantic cruises for passengers without drink passages on Celebrity.

I'm Diamond on Royal and we will be sailing as Elite on Celebrity for the first time this summer. I was never really impressed with the Diamond lounge...kind of a snore on most cruises, so we are very pleased with the premium beverage package that was a perk at the time we booked. I showed up by chance one evening prior to getting ready for dinner to ask a question and the Concierge insisted i come in and have a drink...and I was in shorts and flip flops. The staff is great in the Diamond lounge. Just not my cup of tea and for breakfast, I want more than what they offer in the limited menu for the Elite breakfast. I'm absolutely thrilled to get the free bag of laundry, one item dry-cleaned and one item steam pressed, while I know a lot of people don't like sending their things to be washed and folded, so I guess each of us have our list of likes and dislikes about any of the perks. I still don't quite understand the priority tendering, since Diamonds don't have that perk on Royal. Do we get a notice in our stateroom explaining where to go if we want to take advantage of it? i'm not sure how I feel about cutting past everyone in a que and going to the front of the line. Don't you get yelled at or have people insulting you if you do this?

For priority tendering go to the Captain's Club desk and see the CC host/hostess a day or two before your tender port. They will explain the procedure for that ship. In my experience it is a bit different across different ships. Sometimes you get tickets. Sometimes you meet in a small group in advance and are walked down together. On our Reflection cruise they did not even offer Elites priority tendering on that cruise. BTW- if you are on a Celebrity excursion - you automatically get priority.

I've been traveling rccl last several years. Is there any internet benefit for elite. Thank you

Yes 90 minutes free internet. If two of you are in a cabin and are both Elite you get 90 minutes each

I've been traveling rccl last several years. Is there any internet benefit for elite. Thank you

As mentioned in the previous post, each Elite passenger gets 90 minutes. For me, the important distinction on Celebrity is that the 90 minutes is available over the length of the cruise. So, a quick download of emails every day or so could be accomplished with fewer than 90 minutes on a 14-day cruise (download online, read offline). On RCL they gave us 24 consecutive hours, which I found to be almost worthless (I do want the internet at 3:00 AM).

If only one person is elite, can the spouse still go with and enjoy the happy hours