Luminae vs. Blu

[KiRiMi]

We are trying to decide between booking a Sky Suite or an Aqua Class cabin.  We have booked Aqua Class on previous cruises and enjoyed the food and atmosphere in Blu.  How does Luminae compare to Blu.  If it isn’t much different, not sure it is worth the cost of a suite.  What would be some other benefits to a SS?

 

 

 

 

[LGW59]

5 minutes ago, KiRiMi said:

We are trying to decide between booking a Sky Suite or an Aqua Class cabin.  We have booked Aqua Class on previous cruises and enjoyed the food and atmosphere in Blu.  How does Luminae compare to Blu.  If it isn’t much different, not sure it is worth the cost of a suite.  What would be some other benefits to a SS?

 

 

 

 

access to the Retreat lounge, sundeck and a butler.  I useed the lounge and sundeck frequently, but not the butler, no real reason for not doing so, he was delightful, but I was out and about a lot and enjoyed Luminae so much I really did not feel the need to eat in my room, other than breakfast one morning.

[Alsmez]

IMO the food and service in Luminae are head and shoulders above that in Blu, but so is the price. Which ship are you sailing? If S or E class, a regular room with a dining package allowing you to eat all of your meals in specialty restaurants might be a better value. We sailed Summit in an S2 a few years ago and even though the suite experience was nice, the room itself was terrible - not all rooms in all classes on all ships are created equal. Just something to weigh before choosing a suite!

[jelayne]

We find Luminae to be the weak link in the Retreat.  While the service is excellent so is the service in Blu.  The Luminae menu is very limited, which if you are looking at a S or M Class ship then you can order from the MDR menu.  But then why pay for Luminae and order from the MDR menu.  On E class ordering from the MDR other the the everyday items isn’t a option.  
 

If you are looking at a E Class ship the Sun Deck is great and the Retreat Lounge is nicer, in IMHO, than on the S & M class.  

If you are looking for the “advertised and pictured” Retreat experience then go for it on a E Class ship.

[KiRiMi]

We will be on the Solstice, February 4, Mexican Riviera.   Thank you for your responses.  We were leaning toward Aqua Class but wanted to be convinced to upgrade to a suite.  So far, it seems like Aqua Class is a better choice.

[Sox Fan Cruiser]

There is so much more to Aqua vs Retreat than just the restaurant.  But on an un-revolutionized ship like the Soltice, it does play a bigger role. I personally don’t like the decor of the pre-revolutioned ships nor the retreat spaces. So I stick with Aqua. My husband loves Blu over Luminae so he wins. But on Revolutioized ships, I must have at least a Sky Suite. And it has nothing to do with the designated restaurant. 
 

 

[ggo85]

I’ve never been to Blu but I would be a bit disappointed if we could only order off the Luminae menu for dinner.  (We are on an older ship so we can order MDR as well). There are only 4 main course options per evening.  While I can always find something I like, the MDR offers about a dozen choices each night.  The first night I had MDR prime rib (hungry for steak and Luminae didn’t have that as an option) and it was quite good.  I do like breakfast in Luminae.  
 

I personally wouldn’t choose a cabin category based solely on restaurant.  I’d look at the totality of Retreat vs. Aqua on your ship and decide whether the added suite benefits warrant the additional cost based on what’s important to you. 

[LGW59]

10 minutes ago, ggo85 said:

I’ve never been to Blu but I would be a bit disappointed if we could only order off the Luminae menu for dinner.  (We are on an older ship so we can order MDR as well). There are only 4 main course options per evening.  While I can always find something I like, the MDR offers about a dozen choices each night.  The first night I had MDR prime rib (hungry for steak and Luminae didn’t have that as an option) and it was quite good.  I do like breakfast in Luminae.  
 

I personally wouldn’t choose a cabin category based solely on restaurant.  I’d look at the totality of Retreat vs. Aqua on your ship and decide whether the added suite benefits warrant the additional cost based on what’s important to you. 

Also keep in mind if you are in RS or above, all specialty dining is included and Le Grand Bistro for lunch is wonderful.  Now is the extra $$$$ for that experience worth it 🤔

[George C]

Love suite perks on celebrity, there suite lounge is open all day with free drinks and snacks at different times . The outdoor area on edge class is fantastic with a swimming pool and a small bar . Also priority getting on the ship , concierge walks you off the ship at end of the cruise. 

[Cruise a holic]

12 hours ago, KiRiMi said:

We are trying to decide between booking a Sky Suite or an Aqua Class cabin.  We have booked Aqua Class on previous cruises and enjoyed the food and atmosphere in Blu.  How does Luminae compare to Blu.  If it isn’t much different, not sure it is worth the cost of a suite.  What would be some other benefits to a SS?

 

 

 

 

Absolutely no comparison.  With SS, first you get a much larger room.  AQ is a balcony stateroom.  The SS offers you dining at luminae, which IMO so much better then AQ, we were never impressed with Blu food and close seating.  The suite lounge or retreat a wonderful spot on the ship to hang out.  You also get butler service.  IMO we didn't appreciated the spa freebee's with AQ.  In fact used for an hour one sea day- think you can purchase if you like.  If you want a Balcony cabin, dine evenings in speciality restaurants with the savings and you will have better food and service.

 

 

Edited December 14, 2022 by Cruise a holic

[Alsmez]

7 hours ago, KiRiMi said:

We will be on the Solstice

I haven't sailed a suite on Solstice so I can't comment on the rooms themselves - I would take a look at the room information spreadsheet linked at the top of this forum to find out more about the specific room you are considering. This goes for AQ as well - many AQ rooms are in undesirable locations (though the rooms themselves are nice). 

 

As other posters have noted, there are more perks to the suite life than just Luminae, but Luminae is the biggest one (IMO). Since you will be on an S-class ship, there are plenty of specialty restaurants to choose from and you can upgrade your dining experience with a specialty package for much less money than you would spend on a suite, so you should definitely weigh the cost of that and the value of the other suite perks against the overall price differential between AQ and a suite.

[bigbenboys]

This year we sailed twice on Solstice. Sept we were in a sky suite then in Nov we did Aqua with friends. Personally I like the food in Luminae over Blu. Luminae is open for lunch on sea days, Blu is not. I dont see the issue being the food. Depending on your sky suite location on deck 12 you can have noise from the Oceanview Café. Aqua cabin I book center to aft on deck 11. If under the pool area you might get some noise from above.

As to Edge class ships. I was very disappointed with the Edge and the limited menu in Luminae. I just booked a CS for Alaska 2024. Solstice out of Vancouver was $4000 less then Edge out of Seattle. Seems like a no brainer. Edge limited food options in Luminae or Solstice with the option of ordering off the MDR menu.

[Jim_Iain]

I would agree the food and service are better in Luminae but the menu has far fewer options and we often order from the MDR menu if nothing interest us.  

 

Access to Retreat and Retreat Sun Deck are really the game changer.

 

[Purplsmurf]

We had the same question. Wanted to book our first suite, but couldn’t justify $14k for a SS on a ship that hasn’t been revolutionized. Got an Aqua cabin for half the price so going with that.

[Ken the cruiser]

If your budget can afford it, I would suggest booking a sky suite to experience for yourself the various perks they offer. For us we used to mostly book sky suites, as we really enjoyed the anytime dining aspect of Luminae. They also have really good chocolate desserts!!

 

However, since cruising started back up and/or because we’re getting older, the well seasoned and large portions of food served in the Luminae seemed to give us heartburn later on in the evening more often than not. Then we booked a B2B on the Constellation last December, with the first leg being in a S1 sky suite and the second leg in an aft-facing Aqua cabin. With the Aqua cabin, we had a walk-in shower and the less seasoned and smaller portions of food in Blu never gave us heartburn the entire cruise, where Luminae on the first leg did. In both restaurants, we could order off the MDR menu if we did not like the options offered in either Luminae or Blu. For example, my DW would quite often order a chocolate dessert when we were in Blu off the MDR menu because there weren’t any on the Blu dessert menu. 
 

Our sky suite also had a tub/shower combination where you had to step over a 24” tub wall to get into. Not fun.

 

Since then we have always booked either an aqua cabin, especially now since the price for a sky suite on most cruises is usually running close to $500 pp/day or more, or a SV if we’re booked on an E-class ship. But again this is just our opinion. You should try a sky suite if your budget can afford it just to experience the “suite life” for yourself.

Edited December 14, 2022 by Ken the cruiser

[Ben100014]

My two cents...

 

As someone who has been in AQ and the Retreat , Blu is my favorite.

 

The suite experience is amazing, and definitely the best at sea, but Luminae is for sure the weak link, as someone said above. The food and service, while great, is on par with Blu. In fact, we generally found more food we liked in Blu than Luminae. The food in Luminae was almost a little too gaudy for us; think quail eggs, unfamiliar types of fish, etc. Of course, you can always eat at Blu in a suite, but if you're paying for the suite experience...I'm not sure if that is worth it. 

[Shiba_Lover]

We may be in the minority.  We used to go in Aqua, then a few cruises ago, went in the suites and have not been back to Aqua.  We actually like Luminae, and even on the Apex, have been able to get anything off the MDR.  We just look at the menus earlier in the day, and if there was an appetizer or something we wanted - we just let them know at breakfast that we would like it when we came for dinner later.  They did say that they could not guarantee the "freshness".  But, it was never an issue - we just told them we were OK with that.  The reason for this is unlike the other ships, the Luminae kitchen is not shared with the MDR, so they need to get the food earlier or else run it up there.    They also brought me something from Blu one evening.