Dilemma re booking on Connie

[TraderSam]

Some back ground info.

We have only taken couple of cruises with Celebrity, both in mid ship balcony cabins on S class ships, we are now considering an itinerary on Constellation.

We did not really enjoy dining in the MDR on the past two cruises but absolutely LOVED the specialty restaurants. We are aware that Connie does not have Murano or Lawn Club .

We were therefore considering booking an Aquaclass cabin on Deck 11, thinking that Blu might be better for us.

There are no Sunset Balcony cabins available but plenty of the other A1 cabins are available, These come in at 1700 GBP pp for our 9 night cruise.

Also available are the INSIDE cabins across from the Sunset Balconies....Insides are 1107 GBP pp

 

I appreciate that we may be comparing apples with pears but FOR US, it almost comes down to paying £600 extra pp to dine in Blu.

Yes I know we’d have a balcony and that we can have access to Persian Gardens BUT would you say Blu is worth paying that extra?

Which would you choose? 

Thank you in advance for you opinions.

 

Edited January 26, 2020 by TraderSam

[Jim_Iain]

To us it is worth the extra money to book either AQ or in a Suite.   In addition to have a balcony the AQ rooms are larger and do have some additional amenities.   You also get more points per night if that is of interest.  

 

As you indicated the specialty dining on an M-Class ship is limited to Tuscan Grill, Sushi on 5 (al a carte) and The Petite Chef.   The may be good choices for once on a cruise I think you would be disappointed dining in them nightly.  

[wallysdtr]

Our introduction to the Celebrity family was the Connie and we loved being in Aqua!  After being on that beautiful ship, we never looked back and booked others on other ships.  We love the A1 cabins and the locations.  As I said, the Connie was our first "love".  one of these days we will sail on this ship again. 

To answer your Blue question as to whether it is worth it, you have to ask if you want healthy "clean" dining.  We found Blu to be wonderful from the wait staff to the food itself.  so for me alone YES blu is worth it but the added persian gardens are an added benefit. 

Enjoy your cruise regardless of what you choose. 

[wallysdtr]

1 minute ago, Jim_Iain said:

To us it is worth the extra money to book either AQ or in a Suite.   In addition to have a balcony the AQ rooms are larger and do have some additional amenities.   You also get more points per night if that is of interest.  

 

As you indicated the specialty dining on an M-Class ship is limited to Tuscan Grill, Sushi on 5 (al a carte) and The Petite Chef.   The may be good choices for once on a cruise I think you would be disappointed dining in them nightly.  

Jim,  great post!  and as a celebrity follower and poster, I enjoy your comments.  

[jelayne]

We love Blu and unless we find a good deal on a Suite we book Aqua class. We don’t enjoy the specialty restaurants on the M Class. If you want a sunset cabin like on the S Class then look at the  Concierge 1s,  they are aft cabins with large balconies.  

[TraderSam]

3 minutes ago, Jim_Iain said:

 The may be good choices for once on a cruise I think you would be disappointed dining in them nightly.  

 

I think you have made a valid point here. I am not a fan of sushi either so we would be down to two choices and having done LPC, I agree that I could only do it once on a future cruise.

Thank you so much for reply. I’m really struggling with myself  to justify the extra 1200GBP. I feel it would be different if we were considering the offerings on an S class ship i.e, restaurants and Spa.

 

[TraderSam]

9 minutes ago, wallysdtr said:

 

To answer your Blue question as to whether it is worth it, you have to ask if you want healthy "clean" dining.  We found Blu to be wonderful from the wait staff to the food itself.  so for me alone YES blu is worth it but the added persian gardens are an added benefit. 

 

Thank you for your reply wallysdtr.

The idea of a smaller restaurant is appealing and I would hope that perhaps the food is better. We found it to be rather hit and miss in the MDRs we have experienced, we had fantastic wait staff on our first cruise and built a good rapport with them and the wine waiter but alas our second cruise MDR experience was not good due to several factors,

 

[TraderSam]

17 minutes ago, jelayne said:

 If you want a sunset cabin like on the S Class then look at the  Concierge 1s,  they are aft cabins with large balconies.  

 

Thank you for your advice. I shall look into that.👍🏻

 

[Pentlands]

Blu is not worth a light more from the time I ate in it. Mercifully on Connie we could eat off the MDR menu and every night I did. Don't waste your money.

 

[hcat]

I think the upcharge is not worth it..  The Thermal Suite on M Class is not as nice as S Class so the main perk is just BLU...that's alot of money for that ...

 

I'd go with a nice balcony and hope for a chance to move up later or make the best of mdr, buffet and Tuscan.. 

[cachouonacruise]

Hi OP, 

 

We were on the Connie this spring (in a Concierge Class cabin)  and on the Infinity the year before in Aqua Class.

 

Blu service was really nice on Infinity and we enjoyed our food. Service was excellent and we enjoyed the experience. This said, Blu is any time dining and you had to show up early to have a table for two near the window. The next table was only inches away from ours. Privacy, was really not possible.

 

On the Connie, our table for two was located in a nook against the back window of the ship.  We were set up on the second seating and enjoyed our food and our MDR experience. We really enjoyed this very private table location. This said, the price to pay, to be that far back, was a bit of a slower service... which DW and I really enjoyed.

 

As mentioned above, Persian Gardens on M Class ship do not offer exactly the same experience as on S Class ship. This said my wife and I are not fans of ceramic hot seats etc...

 

Our experience with the  Qsine specialty restaurant was way below our expectations. We really preferred the experience in the MDR. However, I can’t comment on Le Petit Chef. Tuscan Grill on Solstice did not blew me away. Murano did, however, it’s not available on M Class ship.

 

I am hoping this feedback will help your decision process. Enjoy your cruise! 

[GastroGnome]

Food choice is always subjective but for me Blu is not worth the additional price.  Luminae is however.  If you have the option go for a suite.

[chemmo]

As speciality dining is our preferred option we tend to now avoid M class...

 

OP, are there no S class itineraries available for your dates? As you seem to indicate you could be happy in an inside cabin on an S class you could spend the money you save on a decent dining package.

[TraderSam]

7 hours ago, Pentlands said:

Don't waste your money.

@Pentlands......you and my husband think alike!👍🏻

 

 

 

[TraderSam]

7 hours ago, hcat said:

The Thermal Suite on M Class is not as nice as S Class so the main perk is just BLU...that's alot of money for that ...

 

This is how we are feeling.

 

Thanks for the reply @hcat

 

[TraderSam]

6 hours ago, cachouonacruise said:

 

On the Connie, our table for two was located in a nook against the back window of the ship.  

On the Reflection, our table for two was behind the wall of the entranceway and near no one else. We were in the naughty corner! 🤣We could not engage with other tables easily and our wait staff had several large tables to attend to so we did not get the chance to form any relationship with them. It was just unfortunate I guess but the next time we dined in MDR, we asked to move to a row 4 of two tops. There we found that the other diners had already become very well acquainted and only spoke amongst themselves. 

The whole experience was very different from our previous cruise, where we had been at the row of two tops from the outset.

I’ve learned from this that upon embarkation, I will enquire as to where we are seated and politely request a move to a row of twos.👍🏻

6 hours ago, cachouonacruise said:

 

I am hoping this feedback will help your decision process. Enjoy your cruise! 

Many thanks for replying @cachouonacruise

[TraderSam]

1 hour ago, GastroGnome said:

  If you have the option go for a suite.

 

@GastroGnome      ...not this time I’m afraid!😂

[TraderSam]

57 minutes ago, chemmo said:

As speciality dining is our preferred option we tend to now avoid M class...

 

OP, are there no S class itineraries available for your dates? As you seem to indicate you could be happy in an inside cabin on an S class you could spend the money you save on a decent dining package.

@chemmo

The notion that we might be happier on an S class ship has definitely been on my mind however for the time of year we are looking at, this itinerary fits the bill.

 

As to whether I will be “happy” in an inside, remains to be seen!😉 like you, I thought about the price difference and how far it would go on speciality dining....if only the variety was there to spend the money on.

 

I feel like my mind is going back and forth...

 

 

[WrittenOnYourHeart]

11 hours ago, TraderSam said:

appreciate that we may be comparing apples with pears but FOR US, it almost comes down to paying £600 extra pp to dine in Blu.

Yes I know we’d have a balcony and that we can have access to Persian Gardens BUT would you say Blu is worth paying that extra?

Which would you choose? 

I’m debating a similar thing. I currently have an SV on the Reflection for a 7-night sailing Norway in July 2021 but could upgrade to Aqua for $600 more (the lower category - unless I can get the loyalty bump up on a change on a booked cruise). My pros and cons columns are just about equal.

[4774Papa]

13 hours ago, TraderSam said:

Some back ground info.

We have only taken couple of cruises with Celebrity, both in mid ship balcony cabins on S class ships, we are now considering an itinerary on Constellation.

We did not really enjoy dining in the MDR on the past two cruises but absolutely LOVED the specialty restaurants. We are aware that Connie does not have Murano or Lawn Club .

We were therefore considering booking an Aquaclass cabin on Deck 11, thinking that Blu might be better for us.

There are no Sunset Balcony cabins available but plenty of the other A1 cabins are available, These come in at 1700 GBP pp for our 9 night cruise.

Also available are the INSIDE cabins across from the Sunset Balconies....Insides are 1107 GBP pp

 

I appreciate that we may be comparing apples with pears but FOR US, it almost comes down to paying £600 extra pp to dine in Blu.

Yes I know we’d have a balcony and that we can have access to Persian Gardens BUT would you say Blu is worth paying that extra?

Which would you choose? 

Thank you in advance for you opinions.

 

We have upgraded to AQ once and a Skysuite once and enjoyed BLU and Lumanie,  but we would never pay to upgrade.  To us it would not be worth it.  However, we are  happy to dine in the MDR.  We have done very little in the Celebrity specialty restaurants, because they are so expensive and we like the MDR.

I probably didn't  help you, sorry.

[VikingRob]

To us it is worth it. We love Blu. 

[hcat]

5 hours ago, TraderSam said:

 

@GastroGnome      ...not this time I’m afraid!😂

 

On this screen, diff between  Veranda and AQ class does not seem that great.

But I am used to comparing in dollars..