First time aboard celebrity-question

[Tkristop]

Hello all. I'm currently sailing on my first cruise and hope to write a proper review later of my impressions and pros and cons of my experience. But until then...

 

I do have a question for those of you more experienced X cruisers. Is it usual for them to run out of champagne on day 4 of the 14 day cruise and then two days later run out of Cava...? Now they only have prosecco as a sparkling option. I have the premium package and feel kinda slighted...sure there are other alcohol options, so I will manage. But if this is common I think I would reconsider purchasing a premium beverage package. The limited alcohol selections (not just sparkling) and poor bar service have been the most disappointing things about the cruise so far. More to come...

[jelayne]

You didn't mention what ship you are on but we just returned from a B2B on the Eclipse and on the 2 leg they ran out of Chandon about day 10. Still had Cava's.

 

As for slow bar service it was an occasional problem in the Martini bar - particularly between dinner seatings on formal nights. At times people were 3-4 deep at the bar and every seat in the place was full. No way the 3 bartenders could keep up. They added more waiters but people standing wanted to order from the bartenders rather than the waiters who get the drinks from a back bar.

 

No problems getting a drink at the Passport bar or Ensemble lounge. Didn't try the Skye Bar.

[Sloop-JohnB]

You didn't mention what ship you are on but we just returned from a B2B on the Eclipse and on the 2 leg they ran out of Chandon about day 10. Still had Cava's.

 

As for slow bar service it was an occasional problem in the Martini bar - particularly between dinner seatings on formal nights. At times people were 3-4 deep at the bar and every seat in the place was full. No way the 3 bartenders could keep up. They added more waiters but people standing wanted to order from the bartenders rather than the waiters who get the drinks from a back bar.

 

No problems getting a drink at the Passport bar or Ensemble lounge. Didn't try the Skye Bar.

 

Also curious what ship you are on.

 

Our experience has been pretty identical to JELAYNE's

 

We've been on 2 Celebrity Cruises... One S-Class - Solstice in 2012 and one M-Class - Summit in 2013... And neither of them ran out of Sparkling / Champagne

 

I remember we tried a bunch of different one son each cruise, and at different price points (Celebrity House - Chandon - Cavas - & Preseccos). We even had an expensive French Champagne by the glass in Murano's... And as we had the Premium Pkg we only as to pay the difference over the top limit price. Very nice.

 

I can understand your annoyance...

 

But let me share a tip with you for future reference...

 

Celebrity let's each over 21 Pax bring on a standard 750 ml bottle of wine... We now choose to make that Sparkling / Champagne... As it is the most versatile (there is no bad time for champagne... You can drink it morning, noon or night). We open it in our cabin so there is no corkage... Typically enjoyed when getting ready for dinner. We bring along a "bubbly cap" to keep it fresh til we finish off the bottle (and orvSteward knows to keep it on ice 24/7). Lol, it goes great with room service breakfast OJ to make Mimosas without the added cost of Bar Service.

 

And of course the added bonus is a bottle of bubbly bought ashore at a Liquor Store is tons cheaper. Which means we can choose what we like best... Or splurge on the best possible

 

As I said it is now our wine of choice to bring along when we cruise Celebrity... By far the best bang for our buck

 

Hope this helps,

 

Cheers!

Edited August 9, 2014 by Sloop-JohnB

[TLCOhio]

Hello all. I'm currently sailing on my first cruise and hope to write a proper review later of my impressions and pros and cons of my experience. But until then... I do have a question for those of you more experienced X cruisers. Is it usual for them to run out of champagne on day 4 of the 14 day cruise and then two days later run out of Cava...? Now they only have prosecco as a sparkling option. I have the premium package and feel kinda slighted...sure there are other alcohol options, so I will manage. But if this is common I think I would reconsider purchasing a premium beverage package. The limited alcohol selections (not just sparkling) and poor bar service have been the most disappointing things about the cruise so far. More to come...

 

No Solstice running "dry" problems for us from twice on this well-designed Celebrity ship. As noted in the live/blog below, we got off of the Solstice in February after doing a 14-day cruise. No "problems". Nor on our earlier 11-day Solstice cruise in June 2001 in the Med from Barcelona. Sorry to hear!! Have followed lots of Celebrity posts, but not heard of this happening. We joke that, with a 1-2-3-Go drink package, that we would like to try to drink the ship dry. Wasn't going to happen for us!! BUT, fun to try.

 

THANKS! Enjoy! Terry in Ohio

 

Back from doing a 14-day Celebrity Solstice, Jan. 20-Feb. 3, 2014, Sydney to Auckland adventure on this ship and getting a big sampling for the wonders of "down under” before and after this cruise. Go to:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1974139

for much more information and lots of wonderful pictures on these amazing sights in this great part of the world. Now at 71,378 views for this fun posting.

[Lois R]

The question is....is it unusual to run out of champagne on day 4

of a 2 week cruise? YES......I would think it would be unusual.

Looks like the Purchasing Dept didn't buy enough booze:eek::rolleyes::confused:

Edited August 9, 2014 by Lois R

[dkjretired]

The question is....is it unusual to run out of champagne on day 4

of a 2 week cruise? YES......I would think it would be unusual.

Looks like the Purchasing Dept didn't buy enough booze:eek::rolleyes::confused:

 

Hi Lois:

 

Or a supplier problem, remember a couple of months ago they couldn't get limes....

[Lois R]

Hi Lois:

 

Or a supplier problem, remember a couple of months ago they couldn't get limes....

 

Hi Don:)...oh yes, I remember that one. I still think it unusual for them

to run out of bubbly though....I am betting a case of that doesn't

change price nearly as much as produce.

[Tkristop]

I am also on the Eclipse so maybe it is ship-related. The sommelier commented that they ran out because essentially they guessed the number of bottles wrong, but running out of both after a week seemed odd to me. And apparently they don't get new shipments.

 

Luckily the one bottle I brought on board was bubbly to celebrate my birthday...so at least I did that!

[Project_gal]

Has all the champagne run out or just that within the Premium Beverage Package price point?

[WestLakeGirl]

Correction to what Sloop JohnB wrote...

 

The actual allowance is two bottles of wine per stateroom. Not one per person.

 

A solo traveler can bring two bottles.

[jelayne]

Looks like it is an Eclipse problem. Hope they get there ordering problems corrected before we reboard her in Jaan.

[Tkristop]

And tonight they were out of Chopin vodka and the Bordeaux wine...I'm thinking this is now a bigger problem....big time disappointed!

[JonnyCT81]

Never had an issue with the ship running out of Sparkling Wine, however on our last cruise the issue was with running out of Limes...they were no where to be found on the ship; try having a mojito without a Lime, it's not the same!

[bighairtexan]

The limes had a lot of press (not related to just cruising). The prices were sky high and people think I am kidding, but besides weather conditions, it actually had to do w/ lime trucks/crops being hijacked by cartels and farmers being extorted to pay "protection" to get the shipments back. Limes here were over $1/each IF you could find them. Currently they're 5/$1. There just was a huge shortage and hard is hard to find a substitute other than lemons, which sometimes just don't cut it.

 

http://money.cnn.com/2014/05/05/investing/lime-shortage-drug-cartels/

 

Now w/ the wine etc, that seems to be an purchasing issue OR your particular sailing is a bunch of BOOZERS!! :D

 

Running out of one thing is mostly a nuisance, but on day 4?? And now Bordeaux and Chopin? Sounds as if someone dropped the ball.

[Project_gal]

And tonight they were out of Chopin vodka and the Bordeaux wine...I'm thinking this is now a bigger problem....big time disappointed!

 

We were on a transatlantic out of Barcelona a few years back. Celebrity had a container contents stolen at the port and there were huge shortages of all sorts of things on board. I remember there being no plastic carrier bags in the shops, for example.

 

On another cruise, Infinity immediately after a dry dock, loading was so delayed that the captain threatened to depart without loading all the containers. They managed to get all of them on board but had no idea where everything was and it was a lottery what new items were available each evening as they opened a new container or two. For example, no blue cheese until the day one of the SS Untied States waiter tripped over in a container and found it by chance. As it was December and the decorations were included in the delivery, we got to calling it the mystery advent calendar cruise.

 

From the multiple shortages you are reporting, it sounds as though a container may have gone missing, one way or another. If you are lucky, you may find that it has just been unopened before too much more of your cruise has gone.

Edited August 11, 2014 by Project_gal

[HappyTvlr]

On Solstice in Oct 2013 (South Pacific), they ran out of nearly all the beer on day 9 out of 12 and had to stock up on nasty cans of Fiji beer. They pulled beer from the crew parties to cover passengers. The Chandon went dry in the MDR about the same time. Had a laugh with the CD (an Aussie), and his opinion was that they didn't factor in Aussies when they offered the 123 perk. It was my first cruise with the perk program, and I was not happy with the shortages or the overwhelmingly crowded Martini Bar. Can't say for certain if the shortages or crowds were a result of the offer, but did not have these issues on previous cruises. I'm not being critical of the offer, but if things are the same on my cruise this Oct (similar route) it may be my last. I like a good sparkling without paying a champagne price, a good beer, and I like sitting at the Martini bar. I paid for the package before the perk, and I would happily pay for it again if it improves my experience.