Is beverage package worth it don't think so

[cruise53]

stay tuned 2 more port days two sea day then the finial ships evaluation

[Bruton Branch]

Have you had any time to save more money? Have you been involved in recycling for profit - such as glass bottles (beer,wine,etc) of course the aluminum cans.. guess you have been using the garbage bin bags at each elevator to place items in to haul off the ship...Is X paying you by the pound of recycle material or are you getting a better deal from the port cities ???

 

Did you take just one roll of quarters on this trip? No reason to over do it!!!!!!!!! Guess the valuable square nickel has lost out....

 

Continue to have a great cruise and keep us posted with those free internet cafe minutes...

 

Bruton Branch:)

[cruise53]

will do

[kitkat9438]

This is hilarious!!! I almost passed it up as well, thinking it was just someone else complaining about the drink packages. Keep it coming, I'm laughing so hard at work, I'm afraid they might cart me off. :eek:

[boxkite]

This is great! Keep them coming, we all need a laugh after everyone being so serious about the drink packages and all.

[Retty2Go]

Actually I was thinking of doing that but I really am more of a save money guy.

 

Me, too! I totally see no sense in purchasing a beverage package, now that I see how much fun you are having while saving money! What, exactly, is the value of paying hundreds of dollars for recreation and sustenance when you do not have to pay for either? Here you are, sore from being unable to sit down from being a liquor mule and running back and forth for your luggage, stooped from carrying a carry-on full of rolls of tip quarters, risking uncharted noro and hepatitis virus strains from scrounging for leftover drinks and cigarettes, and enjoying exotic ports of call from the front bench of the internet cafe, but nevertheless having a marvelous time!

 

Although, what ever happened to the middle days of travel, back when Southwest first started flying and people could travel the south and southwest with all the boxes and hefty bags they wanted for free, and the overheads were full of styrofoam coolers and live chickens? Who would have thought that not only would cruise lines resort to prohibiting life's inseparable necessities such as charcoal grills, bolo knives, and guns on a vacation, but stooping to take away a once in lifetime opportunity to fish from the back of an ocean liner is unconscionable. I mean, how will they know that people will complain about the smell of the bait if they won't let you stow it in your room for a few days? Duh? What silliness.

 

In all my time of trolling here, I have never learned as much as I have from your brief trip. If we don't get anything out of your final report (if it works, I plan to use it as ammunition for a discount before I sail, and past cruisers should seek reparations) and if your stowaway liquor does not inoculate you from second-hand disease, please know that we love you for your martyrdom!

 

Also, please x-post to the first time cruiser section because many, like me, would be lost without it.

[Bruton Branch]

Cruise53 where are you?

 

Did the rum runners finally get in a wave action synch and crush you or what....?

 

Did the heavy load of one roll of quarters for tips finally wear you out...from carrying them around so long..?? Heaven forbid that you used them all up before the end of the cruise...

 

Did you try to use the radio mast for free INTERNET signals ...? Not during the electrical storm...

 

Hope you are not in the medical area from eating all the suite room service food placed out in the hallways as the rooms are being serviced or ill from all the free drinks left on the tables after people leave the bar area...

 

CC are concerned we will send flowers down from the Captain Club Desk, yes the ones on the counter at the reception area..

 

Hope you will be better tomorrow.....

 

Bruton Branch:)

[Retty2Go]

Oh, no. You don't suppose anything happened, do you? Someone should probably check with the infirmary to see if he picked up something in a second-hand cocktail.

[cruise53]

Port Day:

Just a word about Celebrity and the exorbitant prices they charge for shore excursions.:eek: I was planning to take a trip today, you know one where you sign up on the boat, and the first three that I wanted to do were sold out.:confused: You would think at the price they charge for those things there would have been plenty of room, but not so. If you sign up for one of them before you get on the boat you have to pay head of time which means that Celebrity AGAIN gets to use your money.:rolleyes: This company must be one of the most well to do in the Nation maybe the world. Anyway I got a deal from someone that was going on a tour and backed out. Got it for half price although did encounter some difficultly from the cruise ship personal about using some one else’s reservations. They finally agreed to it. The tour was great everything that the brochure said it would be. Could have gotten some great pictures but the camera that came from Hudson's Dirt Cheap Salvage broke. Believe me if it had worked you would have loved the pictures. I again impressed the locals with my big tips or it may have been the new quarters not sure which.

Back on the ship I went to the INTERNET café and purchased a 30 minute package as I have not been able to locate a café in the port today. Then went to the room and mix a drink from one of my rum runners and was going back up by the pool. Everybody was coming back from there shore excursions and by the time I got up to the pool I had had drunk my drink and had go back to the room to mix another. It is a lot of trouble but it is so much cheaper that the ships drinks (you see when people are coming back there aren’t many half drunk drinks around). Dinner was mostly uneventful. Only had to go back to the room twice for drinks and dinning room is only two decks up unlike the swimming pool, which is eight decks up. We did pass by the shops on the way back to the room and I still can’t believe what they charge for things on these ships. When we got to the room we ordered room service(its something about being free).

Tomorrow is a port day then we have one sea day and then home. I am working on my list of things that are wrong on the ship and will have a lengthy report on the last sea day.:cool:

[bug_dan]

I hope you're able to borrow a camera to take pictures of all the rust stains. Someone on another thread posted 17 pictures of rust, torn upholstery and the like, so I'm expecting you will certainly have 3-4 times that many:D

[IslandThyme]

I haven't even BEEN on a cruise yet and I totally love this thread.

[boxkite]

Port Day:

Just a word about Celebrity and the exorbitant prices they charge for shore excursions.:eek: I was planning to take a trip today, you know one where you sign up on the boat, and the first three that I wanted to do were sold out.:confused: You would think at the price they charge for those things there would have been plenty of room, but not so. If you sign up for one of them before you get on the boat you have to pay head of time which means that Celebrity AGAIN gets to use your money.:rolleyes: This company must be one of the most well to do in the Nation maybe the world. Anyway I got a deal from someone that was going on a tour and backed out. Got it for half price although did encounter some difficultly from the cruise ship personal about using some one else’s reservations. They finally agreed to it. The tour was great everything that the brochure said it would be. Could have gotten some great pictures but the camera that came from Hudson's Dirt Cheap Salvage broke. Believe me if it had worked you would have loved the pictures. I again impressed the locals with my big tips or it may have been the new quarters not sure which.

Back on the ship I went to the INTERNET café and purchased a 30 minute package as I have not been able to locate a café in the port today. Then went to the room and mix a drink from one of my rum runners and was going back up by the pool. Everybody was coming back from there shore excursions and by the time I got up to the pool I had had drunk my drink and had go back to the room to mix another. It is a lot of trouble but it is so much cheaper that the ships drinks (you see when people are coming back there aren’t many half drunk drinks around). Dinner was mostly uneventful. Only had to go back to the room twice for drinks and dinning room is only two decks up unlike the swimming pool, which is eight decks up. We did pass by the shops on the way back to the room and I still can’t believe what they charge for things on these ships. When we got to the room we ordered room service(its something about being free).

Tomorrow is a port day then we have one sea day and then home. I am working on my list of things that are wrong on the ship and will have a lengthy report on the last sea day.:cool:

 

Cruise53, thankfully you are back! Keep the valuable flow of information coming as we all are learning how to economize while on vacation.

 

Steven

[swigso]

This is very fu nny,

but at the same time very serious and informative

[bug_dan]

I've been watching the news all morning to see if "The Report" has been released. Maybe they are afraid it might cause another bad day for the Dow:(

[FloatSomeMore]

I cannot believe how funny you are!!!!

[bug_dan]

Cruise53, where are you?? Hey! maybe we could make that into a TV series:) I'm beginning to fear the worst and maybe they did make you walk the plank:( Hope it wasn't too oily:D

[cruise53]

I found this on another thread. I knew there were others like me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:)

We’ve recently gotten back from our last Celebrity cruise and I need to express my complaints about the worsening service level we experienced. We are committed Celebrity customers, having been on a grand total of 1 cruise so far, so I have had ample opportunity to make a few observations about the deteriorating level of service Celebrity is now providing. Here are my main complaints:

 

When booking our last Celebrity cruise (which was also our first) we had to contact Celebrity ourselves to make the reservation. If they were serious about customer service they would have contacted us instead. Why should I take my valuable time contacting them in order for them to make money off of me?

 

Celebrity has far too many choices in itinerary, dates, and ships. The only cruise they needed to provide was the one we wanted. All the other selections only complicated the process by making booking the cruise much too confusing, forcing us to sort through a useless list of alternate cruises. They were totally unnecessary. Obviously, Celebrity management is only concerned about their own egos by providing such a large selection of cruise opportunities, cruises that we had no intention of taking.

 

My strong belief is that the primary purpose of a stateroom is for sleeping. It shouldn’t cost more than a room at our local Motel 6. Because of the overly cumbersome search through the bloated list of stateroom categories, we had to waste much of our limited time searching for the lowest cost inside stateroom available. Celebrity arrogantly created more than that one category just to suck more money out of our wallets, a blatant marketing ploy to benefit only their self serving profit margins. We refuse to pay extortionist prices for the supposedly “better” stateroom. Balconies and windows need to be cleaned, thereby raising the price of the cruise to cover the cost of the extra cleaning required. That translates into more money stolen out of our wallets.

 

When we arrived at the port we were not allowed to bring our own alcohol on board. We had to abandon all that we brought with us except for a measly two bottles of wine. We only had 10 cases of scotch, 15 cases of gin, 20 cases of beer, and one bottle of home made ouzo. How was I to know that I couldn’t set up my own bar outside my stateroom? I set up a similar bar at every festival in my home town, and I should be able to do the same on my vacation. I paid good money to cruise on that ship and I should have been able to make a little of it back in personal alcohol sales.

 

Also confiscated were our blender, our gas bar-b-que, and our massage recliner chair (we refuse to be ripped off in the spa area!). I wanted to do some skeet shooting off the aft end, but they adamantly refused to let me bring my shotgun and box of skeet targets on board. The NRA will be hearing from me about that!

 

During our week on board, we suffered the indignity of having to unlock our own stateroom door each and every time we wanted to enter. No one was stationed next to our door to lessening the burden of fishing out our card key. Obviously, they could care less that we had to endure the stressful experience of searching through our belongings for the card and aiming the card into the slot in the door locking mechanism, all the while trying to keep people passing by in the corridor from sneaking a peak into our private rest area.

 

Our cabin attendant (his name must have been “Notmyjob” based on his attitude towards the service level we demanded from him), refused to rub our feet after our long day walking the lengthy distances on the ship to the dining rooms, public areas, and pool area. We had to go to bed every night with sore feet because of Celebrity’s inconsiderate policy of placing many of the facilities we wanted to use at the other end of the ship from our stateroom.

 

The cabin attendant’s assistant was even worse. Not once did he tuck us in and sing us lullabies to help us fall asleep. Did you ever try to tuck yourselves in? It’s awkward, and it’s almost impossible to get the sheets tight like we like it. I’m disgusted that Celebrity let’s the staff get away with not providing that simple end of day service. We lost a lot of sleep over this insolent service level.

 

Breakfast in the main dining areas was almost unbearable. We couldn’t wear our PJs to the table like we do at home, and my wife had to remove her curlers before we were allowed to be seated. Can you imagine that? To make matters even worse, we had to choose our own food, and even cut it ourselves. I have no idea where Celebrity came up with such restrictive policies for a passenger’s first experience of the morning. Have they no consideration to how badly we feel with the hangovers from the previous evening's bing drinking?

 

Day time experiences were no better than that experienced at breakfast. The pool staff refused to clear out the pool area of those other people, who we did not know, or cared to be around, so that we could have quiet leisure time at the pool by ourselves like we have at home. I am quite offended that they wouldn’t treat us as passengers of highest importance. It’s a dismal failure on Celebrity’s part that their claim of “Starring You” is subsequently ignored after they get our hard earned money into their greedy bank account.

 

Dinner time was the most disappointing. On our first formal night I had to wear pants! At home I prefer to let my “manly parts” air out during dinner, and I was refused the opportunity to continue this ritual while on the ship. Everyone knows that a man isn’t as fertile if these nether parts are kept tightly confined. In all my 70 years on this planet, I have never been so rudely treated as by the maître d’, who looked at me in feigned shock, rolled his eyes, and then forced me to return to my stateroom to put on my pants. And this happened EVERY NIGHT! If I can no longer father a child, I will sue Celebrity for condemning my continued family lineage to an abrupt end.

 

I could go on, but it’s past my nap time and the nurse tells me I need to take my medication. In closing, I must reiterate that I cannot believe how poor Celebrity’s service is. It is obvious that the only reason they build these ships, organize these cruises, and allow people to book them, is to make a profit. This is totally absurd. I will never take another cruise on Celebrity, other than the next five we booked just before I started this review.

 

I. M. Clooliss

[Retty2Go]

Poor Mr. Clooliss. What a voyage of horror he endured, suffering indignities and being rendered infertile. Cruise53, can you incorporate his misfortunes in your final report?

[cruise53]

I will do my best:)

[cruise53]

Well the last port day turned out to a disaster. The first thing that happed was the cab we were going to take when I gave the driver one of those brand new twenty five cent peaces and told him was going to get something just like this, he ask us to get out.:mad: He spoke good English. His direct quote was “next time take a mule cart”.:rolleyes: At first I though he was joking but when he drove away I was sure he wasn’t.

When we got to the tour that I wanted to take it was full. I knew that it was full when we left the ship but you know how they always over book those kinds of things. I couldn’t even get us on by offering two brand new fifty cent peaces. We mite could of made it but I do have a limit on what even I will tip. We just decided to walk and that didn’t work out so well. The road turned to dirt real quick and the dust was awful. I had packed lunch in the plastic garbage can liner from our state room but I guess it had a hole in it and all the food ruined from the rain. The rain was really bad too. The dust on the road turned to mud so quick it wasn’t funny. When the cars came by they splashed mud all over us and I think one of them was the taxi from this morning (not sure). The guy in the taxi came by several times. One good thing that happened was a farmer came by with a mule and cart and gave us a ride. He did seem thankful for his tip.:D

We did get to see some of the Country and even got to bring it back on board with us. The Steward standing out side with the cold towels wasn’t too happy with us wiping of with about 50 of the towels. That fruit punch they give you when you get back on the ship was really good. The rum runner I had around my waist had made the fluid inside very warm. Well so much for that Port.

Once we were back on board I made my usual run looking for unfinished drinks. None were to be found. I went up to the cafeteria and got a glass of water. I then returned to the room and mixed a drink from one of my rum runners. It was quite good. Asked DH if she wanted to go to the pool and lay out for awhile. She said that was a good idea and we left for the pool with a bottle of sun tan oil I had found on the beach, ¾ full I mite add. When we got to the pool we found a couple of chairs and the free towels and lay down to take in some sun. I put some sun tan location on and lay back for a relaxing afternoon in the sun. After about twenty minutes or so, every where I had put the suntan oil on started burning. It turned out that there was some thing else in that bottle but once I got a shower it was ok.:o:eek::rolleyes:

Well now it is time to get dressed for dinner, so I will report more latter.

[cruise53]

What no commits?

[STXCruisers]

Hmmmm wondering why that taxi driver turned down your very generous tip? Maybe taxi driving is not his only source of income? Ah well, the farmer was happy to help out. And I am sure no one else on your cruise had a port experience to equal yours!

Enjoy the rest of your cruise! Do you have room in your luggage to take home all your freebies?

[Retty2Go]

Well, what an amazing adventure! What a way to see the countryside! To think, if that taxi driver had not been honest about the value of silver and had not suggested you take the mule cart instead. Most people never have such up close and personal experiences with nature on a cruise, especially where they get to go down and dirty and become one with the earth. I wonder, though, if the natural thing would be more intense had you booked Aqua class? Definitely food for thought.

 

You should probably keep an eye on that burning skin. Be sure you don't leave patches of it lying around the chaises. You would think they would provide you with complimentary suntan lotion and you wouldn't have to take such unnecessary risks with unlabeled tubes. Capitalists will stop at nothing.

 

Can't wait to hear more!

[bug_dan]

We are patiently waiting for your report. Since RCCL stock will probably drop like P & G did, I'm hoping to buy a lot of shares when it goes down to $6 a share:)

[cruise53]

Well this will be the finial report:

This cruise line is out to do nothing but make money, this is evidenced by there actions such as charging for drinks, specially coffee, spa treatments, shore excursions, items in the gift shoppe, photos, items in the mini fredg, flowers sent to a room, transfers to and from the airport, and airfare to and from the ship.

Many places I saw small portions of paint flaking away.

The ship its self is in horrible shape, I noticed rust in various places on the ship, torn carpet(especially at door entrances) dirty windows, towels scattered around the pool, glasses with drinks half drunk sitting everywhere, dirty plates on tables left there as long as 30 seconds after the user had left.

The bar staff work several different bars on the ship.

Only saw the Captain 7 times.

Internet café no attendant in it after 12 AM

Most of the food was put up after 2 AM

Embarkation was a was a disaster, we had to stand in line with the common people(we are elite)

Disembarkation was wost than embarkation, had to sit in a room and weight to be called.

Luggage was picked up the night before, we were forced to jam everything into a small bag.

The staff were rude, unresponsive to our needs, and not enough of them.

Many of the staff don't speak good English.

The food was awful, each night had a different meal was never the same.

Drinks are too high priced.

Same sheets on the the bed two days in a row.

Cabin steward cleaned the the room 4 times a day, I expected him to be there 24/7.

Since we are Elite I would have expected the ship to have free drinks for use an any bar any time rather than just 2 hours each evening.( you know how many cruises you have to do on this junk line to get this type of status)

Entertainers were rotated between different locations. When you found one you could put up with he/she was at a different location each night.

 

 

Well, now I am off the offer my thoughts to B P about the oil spill. See y'all on the next cruise. (I may have one more post on this thread)