Live Review from Connie - Christmas Cruise December 22nd-28th

[abbydancer2003]

29 minutes ago, DaKahuna said:

 

We will be in 6146 in May.  We are hoping that water and soda's get stocked. 

 I will miss having our butler deliver afternoon snacks or the occasional lunch. 

 

 

 

I haven't had the afternoon snacks delivered since sometime last year.  In March I was told they don't do that anymore.  In February, on day 4 or 5 of 7 our butler brought a bowl of potato chips, because he thought we might like them, we ate them, so he kept bringing them.

 

Our coffee was delivered every morning by one of two room service people.  I imagine you can talk to either the head butler about snacks and either they'll arrange it or tell you to call room service.  

 

 

[DaKahuna]

1 minute ago, abbydancer said:

I haven't had the afternoon snacks delivered since sometime last year.  In March I was told they don't do that anymore.  In February, on day 4 or 5 of 7 our butler brought a bowl of potato chips, because he thought we might like them, we ate them, so he kept bringing them.

 

 Yes, we were told on our last cruise, Sky Suite on Millie Apr - May 2023, that we could have afternoon snacks delivered upon request.  We actually prefer having them this way as we normally ask for something other than the usual four pieces of snacks they use to deliver. 

 

1 minute ago, abbydancer said:

 

Our coffee was delivered every morning by one of two room service people.  I imagine you can talk to either the head butler about snacks and either they'll arrange it or tell you to call room service.  

 

 We normally had our Butler deliver coffee with Bailey's every morning and we would enjoy that before going to breakfast or with our room service breakfast.  From what I have read, most reviewers have been reporting that the head butler is telling them to contact room service.   Eating in the room has gone from enjoyable to barley tolerable, in my opinion, on Revolutionized ships.  Kelly obviously did not take into account that might be something people on a cruise would want to do and provide a table of adequate size and height to make it comfortable. 

 

[go.without.you]

10 hours ago, abbydancer said:

How much did you put in, was it cash or OBC, and are you planning to go back?

 

I put in $40 cash

[go.without.you]

Luminae maitre d is Arif from turkey 

[stones902]

We board next week.  I think this will be our fourth on the Connie.  Anxiously awaiting more of your review.

[go.without.you]

We had lunch in Tuscan today. It did not disappoint. 

 

I had the calamari and the Branzino. Gwen had the crab cake and chicken parm. We shared a half portion of the carbonara pasta. We both had the pistachio creme brulee with the chocolate center. Everything was fabulous. 

[DaKahuna]

The crab cake and calamari to start and the grilled branzino are my 'default' order in Tuscan. 

 The carbonara has been hit or miss.  

 

[cricketts]

Thanks for doing the "live" review! We board on Thursday (the 28th)!

[go.without.you]

After lunch we were full. The pool was crowded since it was a sea day and too warm in the solarium so we went to Michael's. We got tired so we went to the deck right there and laid in the chairs. We both took a nap but awoke in time for tea.

 

Went to dinner late because we were still stuffed from lunch. We both had the escargot and lobster and shared the beef wellington. 2 thumbs up. Gwen had the baked Alaska and I had the chocolate pill again. No photos, sorry off my game. 

 

Went to the holiday show, I am not a fan of the shows, ever. We enjoyed the 1st 30 minutes then left. 

 

2mro is my "luxury catamaran" in Cancun.

[LaCal]

8 hours ago, DaKahuna said:

The crab cake and calamari to start and the grilled branzino are my 'default' order in Tuscan. 

 The carbonara has been hit or miss.  

 

Is the lunch in Tuscan free or a cost? 

 

I know we just got off the Eclipse and they had a special lunch in Tuscan for $45 per person 

[Cruise a holic]

Glad you had a great cruise!  When will the ship go to dry dock?  The summit was redone and is now bright, especially the sky suites- any idea about when she will be refurbished?  

Thanks

[go.without.you]

5 hours ago, LaCal said:

Is the lunch in Tuscan free or a cost? 

 

I know we just got off the Eclipse and they had a special lunch in Tuscan for $45 per person 

There is a charge. It hasn't shown up on my account yet so cannot confirm the price. 

[go.without.you]

1 hour ago, Cruise a holic said:

Glad you had a great cruise!  When will the ship go to dry dock?  The summit was redone and is now bright, especially the sky suites- any idea about when she will be refurbished?  

Thanks

I think it was just done about 5 years ago

[wrk2cruise]

1 hour ago, Cruise a holic said:

Glad you had a great cruise!  When will the ship go to dry dock?  The summit was redone and is now bright, especially the sky suites- any idea about when she will be refurbished?  

Thanks

 

Connie goes to dry dock in April of 2024.  It's only 2 1/2 weeks long so it will probably only be mechanical inspections/maintenance and maybe some soft goods.   I think the full Revolution program is permanently on hold fleet wide.

[Cruise a holic]

22 minutes ago, wrk2cruise said:

 

Connie goes to dry dock in April of 2024.  It's only 2 1/2 weeks long so it will probably only be mechanical inspections/maintenance and maybe some soft goods.   I think the full Revolution program is permanently on hold fleet wide.

Txs

[go.without.you]

Cozumel today and normally I stay on board cause "been there done that" but celebrity had an excursion I had never seen before. The "Small Group Luxury Catamaran". One of the best excursions I have done. 

 

Small Catamaran (gorgeous) and about 30 people total. The boat was wonderful, the staff was exceptional. They took us to a reef to snorkel then to a small beach. About 4.5 hours total. 

 

When we boarded they had a huge fruit and veggie tray and they also made us lunch after snorkeling. 

 

The lunch was local caught fish ceviche, guacamole, salsa and cheese quesadias plus an open bar.

 

I met a new friend and she got a little sick and the crew could not do enough for her. The rest of the passengers were also so helpful and kind. We were all basically thinking,  "Glad that is not me, what would I want in this situation?". Humanity is not dead!

 

Came back to the ship and we received invites for 2mro to tour the bridge plus a magic show in Michael's. We wanted to see him the 1st night but were too tired.

 

We finally made it to a show last night! It was holiday themed and Nate the CD sang and has a lovely voice. The rest was the cast singing and dancing. We lasted about 30 minutes and left. Again, the shows are not my bag but I have that one a 7 out of 10.

[go.without.you]

So breakfast in Luminae....I am not a breakfast eater, just not hungry until 4 hours after I wake up but today I finally perfected the Luminae breakfast.

 

I ordered the potato waffle with only 2 waffles (not 3), and it comes with cheese and a fried egg. They add syrup on the side and I order bacon or sausage. It's a fancy McGriddle!!!

[go.without.you]

I didn't take pics of food tonight because this was the 1st time in 5 days that I was actually hungry. 

 

The chocolate lava cake from MDR is amazing. Plus sunset pics.

[go.without.you]

We made it to the show last night which was a Whitney Houston tribute singer. Her mother was an Ikette!!! (If you don't know what that is, don't ask and also we can't be friends). She was amazing and her personality was pure gold. She was supposed to do a 2nd show tonight but it was canceled for some reason. 

 

Today we were invited to tour the bridge, which is always impressive. 

 

Food continues to be amazing and we've decided to book this ship for NYE next year! I highly recommend the brownie sundae from the MDR.

[go.without.you]

One thing about the staff on this ship. They $@#& rock!!! Every single one of them. No matter who we encounter, the captain, the head chef, the maintenance personnel, every single one of them acknowledge us and say hello. This ship is why I love to cruise. The elegance, the fabulous service and great food. 

[39august]

Love what you said about "Ikettes"!

[Jim_Iain]

On 12/21/2023 at 5:39 PM, go.without.you said:

I will do my best to answer the above. I'm curious myself about the wine list. I've never asked for one on past cruises, I've always just told the sommelier what I ordered and trusted whatever they gave me (never steered me wrong). But after the lack of a wine list on the last cruise I'm curious as to what they offer and the price increases. 

 

So hoping they didn't eliminate the sommelier because MSC didn't have one in YC and no one knew what a non oak chardonnay was, probably because they didn't have one. 

My experience in the past 1 1/2 year is they did not eliminate the "Sommelier" but instead have a person pretending to be a Sommelier but rarely know anything about wine.    We had one who recommended a certain Chardonnay as a "Premium" wine.   Being from California and close to wine country we explained it was something we would buy in a 5 Liter Box and definitely not premium.  

 

In Fine Cut the wine server that looked like a cat in the headlights when Iain order a bottle of Pouilly-Fuisse and asked if we new the number.   At least he had the seance to say he would get a sommelier that could help.  

[Jim_Iain]

On 12/24/2023 at 7:35 PM, DaKahuna said:

 

We will be in 6146 in May.  We are hoping that water and soda's get stocked. 

 I will miss having our butler deliver afternoon snacks or the occasional lunch. 

 

 

 

 

John,

You don't have to miss the snacks.   Just tell the head butler you want them delivered every afternoon and it will be arranged.    Water and Soda I'm not sure about -  I do know our friends traveling with us just told them he expected his water replenished daily at no charge and it was done.   It wasn't the large bottles but the small ones.

[Jim_Iain]

Thanks for the wonderful live post.    I had to read your last live first as a starting point.   Sounds like you enjoy Retreat much better.   Nice to hear as we had some difficulties on Edge and was hoping was confined to that ship.

 

[DaKahuna]

10 minutes ago, Jim_Iain said:

 

John,

You don't have to miss the snacks.   Just tell the head butler you want them delivered every afternoon and it will be arranged.    Water and Soda I'm not sure about -  I do know our friends traveling with us just told them he expected his water replenished daily at no charge and it was done.   It wasn't the large bottles but the small ones.

 

 Thanks Jim.  I'll give that a try but have read some reviewers comment that the head butler told them to contact room service.  We'll see.  Fortunately our cruise is going to be very port intensive and we have booked a number of excursions and where we do not have any excursion booked we will be doing something off ship anyway so we'll be off the ship most of the day ever day. 

 

  Will inform  our head butler as well as our "retreat host/room attendant" that we will want water replenished as necessary.