FIRST WORLD CONUNDRUM(S)

[Beachin2]

 

Set to board the Silhouette for an 11 night in the Caribbean in about a month.  Have been to all of the islands numerous times, so cancelled/changed ports are no big deal at all.  Our destination will simply be the ship - we have done a "stay aboard" cruise before and enjoy sea days.  Our conundrums:

 

1) The easy one.  Pretty pricy cruise to do a complete stay aboard (in Aqua) but loving the recent reports of ships being less than half full.  Leaning heavily towards going anyway.  A few hours' drive to the port.

 

2) The harder one.  Reading that the Retreat area is running very full, probably due to the move up offers I'd guess.  Reading that some travelers are dining in Blu since Lumine is crowded.  Have a bid in for a Sky Suite - thinking about pulling it.  Already have premium drinks and the other perks.  Why pay more to "upgrade" to a more crowded area of the ship when all of us are looking for less crowds????  Done the butler thing - no mystery to us there.  Pretty low maintenance.

 

Can recent Retreat cruisers chime in and share their experience?  Looking for firsthand recent factual information/observations.

[Jim_Iain]

We have sailed in Suites since resumption of cruising.    Luminae can be a little crowded at times but really depends on when you dine.   On our most recent cruises in the Caribbean most people chose to dine early and later in the evening was very quiet.  

 

While the suites were sailing full. Retreat was virtually empty most of the time and was a perfect place to have a pre-dinner drink at places like the Martini bar.    The Reteat Sundeck was also a very good place to relax in the sun with lots of distancing if you chose.  

 

While Luminae is closed on port day s you can still get sandwiches at the Retreat Sundeck at lunch times or drinks if you choose.  

 

I found it was easy to social distance and we were probably more concerned than many as we were on a B2B and avoiding contact tracing.

[Beachin2]

1 minute ago, Jim_Iain said:

We have sailed in Suites since resumption of cruising.    Luminae can be a little crowded at times but really depends on when you dine.   On our most recent cruises in the Caribbean most people chose to dine early and later in the evening was very quiet.  

 

While the suites were sailing full. Retreat was virtually empty most of the time and was a perfect place to have a pre-dinner drink at places like the Martini bar.    The Reteat Sundeck was also a very good place to relax in the sun with lots of distancing if you chose.  

 

While Luminae is closed on port day s you can still get sandwiches at the Retreat Sundeck at lunch times or drinks if you choose.  

 

I found it was easy to social distance and we were probably more concerned than many as we were on a B2B and avoiding contact tracing.

Thanks.  Exactly the type of input we were looking for.  Late evening dining usually doesn't work well for us, so that's a consideration for the list.

[jelayne]

Suites were full on our October Edge sailing.  Breakfast at Luminae was full unless you arrived as they opened and then it filled up quickly.  We didn’t go for lunch.  Dinner for us is 8:15-8:30.  Had to wait 3 nights to be seated.  Luminae was full at that time every evening and cleared out about 9.  
The Retreat SunDeck  always had loungers available particularly the side away from the pool and bar.  Retreat Lounge was busy in the morning and again from 4:30 - 6:30. 
 

We will be on the Reflection very soon in a Suite and have decided to avoid the normally crowded areas, Martini Bar, Luminae, Silent Disco,etc.  We plan to have dinner on our balcony, the Lawn Grill and Porch.  Spend more time at the Sunset Bar,  Cellar Masters and other less crowded venues.  
 

We loved the Retreat experience on the Edge have and have a few other E Class cruises booked. 

[countess5]

26 minutes ago, Beachin2 said:

 

Set to board the Silhouette for an 11 night in the Caribbean in about a month.  Have been to all of the islands numerous times, so cancelled/changed ports are no big deal at all.  Our destination will simply be the ship - we have done a "stay aboard" cruise before and enjoy sea days.  Our conundrums:

 

1) The easy one.  Pretty pricy cruise to do a complete stay aboard (in Aqua) but loving the recent reports of ships being less than half full.  Leaning heavily towards going anyway.  A few hours' drive to the port.

 

2) The harder one.  Reading that the Retreat area is running very full, probably due to the move up offers I'd guess.  Reading that some travelers are dining in Blu since Lumine is crowded.  Have a bid in for a Sky Suite - thinking about pulling it.  Already have premium drinks and the other perks.  Why pay more to "upgrade" to a more crowded area of the ship when all of us are looking for less crowds????  Done the butler thing - no mystery to us there.  Pretty low maintenance.

 

Can recent Retreat cruisers chime in and share their experience?  Looking for firsthand recent factual information/observations.

We cruised on Edge in a Sky Suite in September. There were 1,032 passengers and the suites were sold out. 

The non-suite areas were pretty empty, pool loungers were open with distancing available, we eat in Specialty restaurants only but did eat one dinner and one lunch in Luminae. Was pretty crowded both times. The retreat up front was very crowded so went to the back. Didn’t feel that safe. Not sure what silhouette offers as a retreat, we sail her in March for a B2B, non-suite. 

 

My take was why pay more for a suite (even though the Sky Suite was nice) when we always have premium beverage package, internet,  not needy people for a butler and can with the amount of passengers on board social distance ourselves in the common areas. 

 

Maybe when we get back to 100% occupancy again we will go back to a suite, but buy ups right now are $1,000+ PP for what? 

 

Anyway you go enjoy the cruise!

 

Cheers! 

 

[Beachin2]

9 minutes ago, countess5 said:

We cruised on Edge in a Sky Suite in September. There were 1,032 passengers and the suites were sold out. 

The non-suite areas were pretty empty, pool loungers were open with distancing available, we eat in Specialty restaurants only but did eat one dinner and one lunch in Luminae. Was pretty crowded both times. The retreat up front was very crowded so went to the back. Didn’t feel that safe. Not sure what silhouette offers as a retreat, we sail her in March for a B2B, non-suite. 

 

My take was why pay more for a suite (even though the Sky Suite was nice) when we always have premium beverage package, internet,  not needy people for a butler and can with the amount of passengers on board social distance ourselves in the common areas. 

 

Maybe when we get back to 100% occupancy again we will go back to a suite, but buy ups right now are $1,000+ PP for what? 

 

Anyway you go enjoy the cruise!

 

Cheers! 

 

Thank you for sharing your experience.  This is exactly what we are wrestling with.  At this point, it's 90/10 in favor that we go at all and 85/15 that we cancel the move up bid since the suite areas are going to be more congested than the non-suite areas.  Why pay for an area you won't use because of crowding issues???

 

Appreciate the responses.

[kathynorth]

Here’s a question I wondered about since you are struggling with whether to cancel the cruise or cancel your move up bid. Maybe someone here knows. If you win a move up bid your credit card is automatically charged. If you subsequently cancel you cruise is the $ you paid for the move up returned to you either as a charge back to your credit card or added to you FCC? Has this happened to anyone following this thread?

[Momma Rene]

Has anyone done the Reflection in a suite recently?  I thought since we are in a suite, Luminae would be less crowded than the main dining room.  The Reflection does not have a suite deck area.  I beginning to wonder if I am paying for something that will not occur.  It does look like there are a LOT of sky suites now available on our sailing in April.

[owensjro]

We were on the 11N Silhouette Nov 22 and there were 1050ish on board. We did the move-up to a suite since the pricing worked out so well. The Retreat lounge was almost always empty. They were practically begging people to come in for their afternoon tea. The sundeck...never had an issue getting a lounger and the non-lounger seating was basically always empty. We ate as soon as Luminae opened and were sat in the far side of the space. Most nights there were maybe 3-4 other tables filled on our side with more slowly coming in around the time we were finished eating.

[Arizona Wildcat]

38 minutes ago, kathynorth said:

Here’s a question I wondered about since you are struggling with whether to cancel the cruise or cancel your move up bid. Maybe someone here knows. If you win a move up bid your credit card is automatically charged. If you subsequently cancel you cruise is the $ you paid for the move up returned to you either as a charge back to your credit card or added to you FCC? Has this happened to anyone following this thread?

The $$ on a move up bid is returned to the same credit card used for payment.  I think you meant a credit to your card.

[Beachin2]

31 minutes ago, Momma Rene said:

Has anyone done the Reflection in a suite recently?  I thought since we are in a suite, Luminae would be less crowded than the main dining room.  The Reflection does not have a suite deck area.  I beginning to wonder if I am paying for something that will not occur.  It does look like there are a LOT of sky suites now available on our sailing in April.

This is sort of what we are/were struggling with.  There are a fair amount of Sky suites available for our sailing too, but I'll wager all (or just about all) will fill up on move up offers as others have stated, putting the Retreat near full capacity.  That just moves a crowd to a much smaller venue that all will (rightfully so) want to use since they paid extra for it.

 

Made our decision - just cancelled the move up bid.  Will keep our powder dry for another occasion.

[4774Papa]

2 hours ago, Beachin2 said:

 

Set to board the Silhouette for an 11 night in the Caribbean in about a month.  Have been to all of the islands numerous times, so cancelled/changed ports are no big deal at all.  Our destination will simply be the ship - we have done a "stay aboard" cruise before and enjoy sea days.  Our conundrums:

 

1) The easy one.  Pretty pricy cruise to do a complete stay aboard (in Aqua) but loving the recent reports of ships being less than half full.  Leaning heavily towards going anyway.  A few hours' drive to the port.

 

2) The harder one.  Reading that the Retreat area is running very full, probably due to the move up offers I'd guess.  Reading that some travelers are dining in Blu since Lumine is crowded.  Have a bid in for a Sky Suite - thinking about pulling it.  Already have premium drinks and the other perks.  Why pay more to "upgrade" to a more crowded area of the ship when all of us are looking for less crowds????  Done the butler thing - no mystery to us there.  Pretty low maintenance.

 

Can recent Retreat cruisers chime in and share their experience?  Looking for firsthand recent factual information/observations.

I have always believed that there are basically two types of people that cruise.  One is for touring the ports and the other is for being on the ship.  

 

We are clearly in the second group and while we enjoy being on the ship and making new cruise friends, we use a cruise to visit ports.   We don't repeat many cruises.  However, I would say we are 90% cruisers for the ports and 10% for the ship.

We buy the cheaper balcony we can find and don't spend a lot on the ship.  We are moderate drinkers and don't imbibe until happy hour.

 

I can't imagine going on a cruise just to stay on the ship.   Still, that is us and I understand the other side of the coin.  

[jelayne]

44 minutes ago, Momma Rene said:

Has anyone done the Reflection in a suite recently?  I thought since we are in a suite, Luminae would be less crowded than the main dining room.  The Reflection does not have a suite deck area.  I beginning to wonder if I am paying for something that will not occur.  It does look like there are a LOT of sky suites now available on our sailing in April.

We are on the Reflection B2B in February and the number of available suites were dropping, even before the Move Up bids went out. We decided on 1/9 to add the 2/12 sailing.   We emailed our TA giving 3 Sky Suites we preferred, from the available ones.  Traded calls and messages on Monday all 3 had been booked.  We then gave her 4 more suites we would like, Tuesday we got our 3rd choice of the 4.  I expect that if not 100% full suites will be very  near full when we sail. 

[ohiojohn]

We are currently in the retreat for Apex sailing now 1-15-2022.  The ship only has 1090 guests.  I can not say if the suites are fully booked, but I believe they are not.  We are very risk adverse during this pandemic. I posted this yesterday in our rollcall.

 

Day 2. As an example from our experience with social distancing today. We had dinner early in Luminae, no problem with social distancing, then went to the 7:30 Theatre again no problem but we sat all the way over to the left where no one sits.   But with only 1090 people social distancing is easy.  When the theatre ended we went to the Club for more entertainment.  However, social distance would not work for us so we left and sat near the martini bar, but away from people.  Knocked down 2 martinis each while listening to a wonderful couple singing, one with a guitar.  This is only our experience, and there is so much to do.

 

BTW. Luminae for all three meals yesterday I thought was empty to half full.

[ohiojohn]

6 minutes ago, jelayne said:

We are on the Reflection B2B in February and the number of available suites were dropping, even before the Move Up bids went out. We decided on 1/9 to add the 2/12 sailing.   We emailed our TA giving 3 Sky Suites we preferred, from the available ones.  Traded calls and messages on Monday all 3 had been booked.  We then gave her 4 more suites we would like, Tuesday we got our 3rd choice of the 4.  I expect that if not 100% full suites will be very  near full when we sail. 

I also saw our available suite rooms drop to about 5 open suites two to one week before our 1-15-23 Apex sailing.  Then the last 4 days open suites grew to over 40.  Not sure the move up helped fill rooms. 

[Beachin2]

5 minutes ago, ohiojohn said:

I also saw our available suite rooms drop to about 5 open suites two to one week before our 1-15-23 Apex sailing.  Then the last 4 days open suites grew to over 40.  Not sure the move up helped fill rooms. 

Well, should the numbers drop like that close to our sailing date nothing says I can't submit another bid.  Would wager a shiny dime that they don't open by that much though.  Appreciate your experience.

[Dolebludger]

If I understand correctly, use of suite-only facilities is an option, not a mandate. So on our two suite-class cruises on X (pre-pandemic), if we found suite facilities more crowded than other facilities, we could and did use the other facilities. But usually, we enjoyed walking by the lines to enter the MDR and walking directly into the Luminae or one of the specialty restaurants. And there is the matter of  size of the rooms. We begin to feel cramped in ship rooms or suites under 300 sq. ft. Interior size. So accommodations of the size we want are usually (not always) found in the suite area.

[Beachin2]

2 minutes ago, Dolebludger said:

If I understand correctly, use of suite-only facilities is an option, not a mandate. So on our two suite-class cruises on X (pre-pandemic), if we found suite facilities more crowded than other facilities, we could and did use the other facilities. But usually, we enjoyed walking by the lines to enter the MDR and walking directly into the Luminae or one of the specialty restaurants. And there is the matter of  size of the rooms. We begin to feel cramped in ship rooms or suites under 300 sq. ft. Interior size. So accommodations of the size we want are usually (not always) found in the suite area.

Nope - use is certainly not mandatory.  Have not been in a MDR in eons and have no desire to.  When we cruise X we book AQ for access to Blu.  Just making less and less sense for us to "upgrade" into a situation where we will probably wind up not using the "upgrade" facilities due to crowding.  Your mileage may vary.

[PTCruizer]

1 hour ago, Momma Rene said:

Has anyone done the Reflection in a suite recently?  I thought since we are in a suite, Luminae would be less crowded than the main dining room.  The Reflection does not have a suite deck area.  I beginning to wonder if I am paying for something that will not occur.  It does look like there are a LOT of sky suites now available on our sailing in April.

We were in a sky suite on the Reflection over New Years Eve. Ate around 6:00 each night in Luminae and it was never full. Breakfast always had tables open as well. Spent a good bit of time in Michael’s Club and it was never busy in there. We enjoy the retreat deck on the Edge class but really like the intimate atmosphere of Michael’s better than the Retreat Lounge. 

[Momma Rene]

6 minutes ago, PTCruizer said:

We were in a sky suite on the Reflection over New Years Eve. Ate around 6:00 each night in Luminae and it was never full. Breakfast always had tables open as well. Spent a good bit of time in Michael’s Club and it was never busy in there. We enjoy the retreat deck on the Edge class but really like the intimate atmosphere of Michael’s better than the Retreat Lounge. 

Thanks for your response!  Glad to hear Luminae was not full.  I also loved Michael's Club on other ships.  Somehow the Retreat Lounge that I saw online seemed less cozy, comfy.  That is why I chose the Reflection.