Celebrity removes loungers from balcony?

[Oceangoer2]

On 8/1/2024 at 12:59 PM, celebrity cruiser said:

Just wanted to post a picture of the deck furniture for relaxing on during my last weeks Eclipse cruise. The chairbacks reclined.

We were in an S2 category.

 

 

 

Great....seems our preferred 'relaxation' seating is back (or maybe never 'went'?).

Edited August 3 by Oceangoer2

[the penguins]

1 hour ago, Gracie115 said:

We bought something like this for a cruise earlier this year.  Worked great.  Sad that we had to bring our own but glad we did.

 

Amazon.com: Koala Kloud 3 Height Travel Foot Rest - Gray Inflatable Foot Rest Pillow, Airplane Footrest for Flights, Car Seat, Airplane Bed for Toddler Airplane Travel Essentials Kids Accessories (Gray) : Home & Kitchen

thanks. As all of our cruises involve at least one long haul international flight and one within the US (usually Florida to Dallas or v.v.) plus we have a folding 4 wheel walker and half of one flight bags is needed for the amount of meds (morphine, nerve blockers etc to last a month) and adapters/cables (all our cameras, razors etc have UK plugs) the last thing we need is have to carry footstools of any type.

Frankly if X is going to continue on its present course our days of cruising with them could well be over. We already stopped booking on them twice: Once for a year when they introduced mandatory AI (we swopped to Princess) and again when they experimented with allowing smoking in the Casino (this was cancelled almost before it started such was the backlash from most passengers.

[vjmatty]

2 hours ago, the penguins said:

thanks. As all of our cruises involve at least one long haul international flight and one within the US (usually Florida to Dallas or v.v.) plus we have a folding 4 wheel walker and half of one flight bags is needed for the amount of meds (morphine, nerve blockers etc to last a month) and adapters/cables (all our cameras, razors etc have UK plugs) the last thing we need is have to carry footstools of any type.

Frankly if X is going to continue on its present course our days of cruising with them could well be over. We already stopped booking on them twice: Once for a year when they introduced mandatory AI (we swopped to Princess) and again when they experimented with allowing smoking in the Casino (this was cancelled almost before it started such was the backlash from most passengers.

Yeah I pretty much draw the line at packing furniture, though I admire those who are willing to do it. 

[Gracie115]

3 hours ago, the penguins said:

thanks. As all of our cruises involve at least one long haul international flight and one within the US (usually Florida to Dallas or v.v.) plus we have a folding 4 wheel walker and half of one flight bags is needed for the amount of meds (morphine, nerve blockers etc to last a month) and adapters/cables (all our cameras, razors etc have UK plugs) the last thing we need is have to carry footstools of any type.

Frankly if X is going to continue on its present course our days of cruising with them could well be over. We already stopped booking on them twice: Once for a year when they introduced mandatory AI (we swopped to Princess) and again when they experimented with allowing smoking in the Casino (this was cancelled almost before it started such was the backlash from most passengers.

Am sure we would feel the same.  The cruise we took them on was a short one out of Port Canaveral, an hour from our home...so easy to take them.  

 

We have one short 4 day cruise on X in December from Pt Canaveral and nothing else with them in the future.  Price hikes, lowered food quality and service(not servers fault) and elimination of things like comfortable seating on the balconies, the butlers(which have returned..sorta kinda), and other perks, just makes other lines more attractive.  We have 2 booked with Princess in 2025.  

 

[Oceangoer2]

3 hours ago, the penguins said:

thanks. As all of our cruises involve at least one long haul international flight and one within the US (usually Florida to Dallas or v.v.) plus we have a folding 4 wheel walker and half of one flight bags is needed for the amount of meds (morphine, nerve blockers etc to last a month) and adapters/cables (all our cameras, razors etc have UK plugs) the last thing we need is have to carry footstools of any type.

Frankly if X is going to continue on its present course our days of cruising with them could well be over. We already stopped booking on them twice: Once for a year when they introduced mandatory AI (we swopped to Princess) and again when they experimented with allowing smoking in the Casino (this was cancelled almost before it started such was the backlash from most passengers.

You are to be congratulated...... you keep cruising despite the paraphernalia you must carry....inflatable footstool would be the X deal breaker for me.  OT but I've been researching other cruise lines for balcony furniture pics and I don't see any with folding chairs and footstools as we've had (in the past?) on X.  Are you aware of any lines which now have these in your travels?

[the penguins]

2 hours ago, Oceangoer2 said:

You are to be congratulated...... you keep cruising despite the paraphernalia you must carry....inflatable footstool would be the X deal breaker for me.  OT but I've been researching other cruise lines for balcony furniture pics and I don't see any with folding chairs and footstools as we've had (in the past?) on X.  Are you aware of any lines which now have these in your travels?

Thanks. You never know what life will throw at you and our motto has always been that " if we end up unable to travel we will do so with memories and not regrets."  Yes we travel differently now and it takes more planning. In ports it's better to do less and do it well rather than to try and pack everything in. We usually book private guides (sharing with one other couple from the Roll Call) so we can explore at our own pace with coffee/cakes stops.

We have another incentive in that our only grandson lives in Dallas which, as he always invites us to stay, explains why we do a lot of Transatlantics.

Princess had high backed chairs on the balcony and, to judge from a previous post, so does Royal. HAL used to but we haven't cruised with them for awhile

[phoenix_dream]

4 hours ago, Gracie115 said:

Am sure we would feel the same.  The cruise we took them on was a short one out of Port Canaveral, an hour from our home...so easy to take them.  

 

We have one short 4 day cruise on X in December from Pt Canaveral and nothing else with them in the future.  Price hikes, lowered food quality and service(not servers fault) and elimination of things like comfortable seating on the balconies, the butlers(which have returned..sorta kinda), and other perks, just makes other lines more attractive.  We have 2 booked with Princess in 2025.  

 

I doubt you will escape lowered food quality, price hikes, and less service by cruising other lines, unless you jump to luxury lines.  If you read the boards for other lines you will see the same complaints as here regarding those things.  As to butlers - they have returned, not sorta kinda.  Some are better than others but it has always been that way.  Comfortable seating on balconies - I'm with you on that one.  A huge issue for me.  I am a Celebrity loyalist, but not a cheerleader.  I'll call out the good as well as the bad.  

[Gracie115]

14 hours ago, phoenix_dream said:

I doubt you will escape lowered food quality, price hikes, and less service by cruising other lines, unless you jump to luxury lines.  If you read the boards for other lines you will see the same complaints as here regarding those things.  As to butlers - they have returned, not sorta kinda.  Some are better than others but it has always been that way.  Comfortable seating on balconies - I'm with you on that one.  A huge issue for me.  I am a Celebrity loyalist, but not a cheerleader.  I'll call out the good as well as the bad.  

 

You may be right about other lines......but if the itinerary is good and the price FAR better than what X offers I see no reason to stay loyal to any line.  We have cruised Princess before and love their Aft corner suites with amazing balconies(including lounges, tables, chairs and footstools), the room itself falls somewhere between a CS and RS on X, but not near the price.  With their Plus and Premier packages you have nearly all the perks of X suites, again at not near the cost.  

 

We've cruised on Celebrity since 1998, about 30 cruises, but the last few have been very disappointing. The last two have been on E class and we really don't like the class. So we are on Equinox in a few months for a short cruise, hopefully we will enjoy it as much as we have always enjoyed the S class ships.  If so there may be other X cruises in our future if the price is not ridiculously inflated.  

[the penguins]

On 8/3/2024 at 12:57 PM, Oceangoer2 said:

Great....seems our preferred 'relaxation' seating is back (or maybe never 'went'?).

not wanting to give X ideas but have just watched a documentary on the Titanic and passengers had to rent steamer chairs to use on the deck. 

[Bobpell54]

look what happened to them!!

[Iamcruzin]

On 6/27/2024 at 2:00 PM, chamima said:

 

We have sailed for years (and I mean 10 - 20 years) in Aqua with the reclining chairs and footstools and have NEVER heard of any problems with the glass doors being broken by the chairs.

There's just something really fishy about this .

The more we cruise, the more time we spend on our balcony and if the reclining high back chairs are gone so will we be. It's just the final straw for me. My husband has had to be convinced to keep sailing with Celebrity for the last several years but he may just win out now.

I know you have been a member here and a Celebrity passenger for a long time and I trust your opinion. What line does your husband prefer?

[chamima]

On 8/4/2024 at 7:10 PM, Iamcruzin said:

I know you have been a member here and a Celebrity passenger for a long time and I trust your opinion. What line does your husband prefer?

 

We're trying Regent in a couple of weeks.

[C-Dragons]

On 8/4/2024 at 5:40 PM, Bobpell54 said:

look what happened to them!!

Yeah, they didn’t get their deposits back!

[rbelshaw]

Maybe this is old news. I have not read this entire thread, as I never use the recliners. But I entered my Beyond SV cabin on August 4 to find two loungers stacked on my balcony. My steward said they had just been returned, and his understanding was that this was a ship-wide process.

OT- he also promptly provided a proper kettle after I requested one.

[the penguins]

1 hour ago, rbelshaw said:

Maybe this is old news. I have not read this entire thread, as I never use the recliners. But I entered my Beyond SV cabin on August 4 to find two loungers stacked on my balcony. My steward said they had just been returned, and his understanding was that this was a ship-wide process.

OT- he also promptly provided a proper kettle after I requested one.

i do hope you are right 

[Sox Fan Cruiser]

We watched the Port Everglades portcam this weekend.  We can confirm that there were loungers on the aft balconies.

 

I interested in the Ascent as we are on her Nov 8th sailing.  Hopefully they will be back by then!

[TGfromTX]

3 hours ago, rbelshaw said:

OT- he also promptly provided a proper kettle after I requested one.

That's good to hear.  On my cruise last month, I saw a few confiscated kettles as we disembarked - and irons and hair utensils and extension cords (I'm assuming they were all surge protectors).

[the penguins]

3 hours ago, TGfromTX said:

That's good to hear.  On my cruise last month, I saw a few confiscated kettles as we disembarked - and irons and hair utensils and extension cords (I'm assuming they were all surge protectors).

kettles are available for all cruises out of the UK and Europe but are banned for cruises out of the US. Nor sure about cruises from other countries.

We always have the kettle removed partly because it takes up too much room and partly because we are on vacation and I have no intention of making our own drinks from the inferior quality ingredients supplied. We choose a cabin with easy access to Al Bacio and I am happy to fetch whatever drink the boss (Anita) requests. Happy wife = happy life.

[DaKahuna]

15 hours ago, the penguins said:

kettles are available for all cruises out of the UK and Europe but are banned for cruises out of the US. Nor sure about cruises from other countries.

 

 

 Where did you get the information that kettles are "banned for cruises out of the US."  We have always been able to ask for and receive a kettle in our room.  

 

 They are banned from the sense that you cannot bring your own onboard but they are not banned as you can certainly get one provided by the ship. 

 

[the penguins]

31 minutes ago, DaKahuna said:

 

 Where did you get the information that kettles are "banned for cruises out of the US."  We have always been able to ask for and receive a kettle in our room.  

 

 They are banned from the sense that you cannot bring your own onboard but they are not banned as you can certainly get one provided by the ship. 

 

they never used to be permitted on sailings from US ports.

When kettles were first introduced for sailings from the UK there was much debate by X as to what to do on the transatlantic from Southampton. They decided to keep all the kettles in the cabins that had brits (ie British Passport holders) until the day before arrival and then to remove them. The kettles were removed from all other cabins before the ship sailed. This led to one of the funniest incidents ever and one which we and our American friend involved still quotes at dinner parties.

Following an exchange at dinner Suzie announced that if we had a kettle she wanted one as well and she was going to GR to sort it out. I got there first and GR said if she wanted one she could have one however they would go along with telling her she couldn't have one. Suzie arrived and the more she asked the more GR said no and the madder Suzie got. Eventually she realised something was odd about the situation turned round to see me collapsed in silent laughter. She turned back to the GR lady only to find that she too was laughing so much that she had collapsed on the floor. At this point the the Director of GR saw one of her colleagues on the floor and rushed to assist and for a couple of minutes the whole thing was just out of control. When everyone had recovered enough to speak the GR lady told Suzie that she could have a kettle to which Suzie replied " I don't want one, I only wanted one because he had one".

If kettles are now generally available from the US that's good even though we don't want one.

[Lastdance]

23 hours ago, Sox Fan Cruiser said:

We watched the Port Everglades portcam this weekend.  We can confirm that there were loungers on the aft balconies.

 

I interested in the Ascent as we are on her Nov 8th sailing.  Hopefully they will be back by then!

We are on her TA, arriving Nov. 8, so fingers crossed!

Edited August 13 by Lastdance

[rbelshaw]

On 8/13/2024 at 6:51 AM, DaKahuna said:

They are banned from the sense that you cannot bring your own onboard but they are not banned as you can certainly get one provided by the ship.

My understanding was that kettles were available on request for upper suites pax. They were deemed too dangerous to be entrusted to steerage. In the wrong hands, a kettle can be just as lethal as a lounger. .

[the penguins]

1 hour ago, rbelshaw said:

My understanding was that kettles were available on request for upper suites pax. They were deemed too dangerous to be entrusted to steerage. In the wrong hands, a kettle can be just as lethal as a lounger. .

out of the UK, every cabin has a kettle no need to do anything unless you want it removed which is what we do. At the same time we have the fridge emptied, we don't drink alcohol and use the space for water, ginger ale, tonic water and milk.

[Texed]

We have never not had a lounge chair.  😊

[C-Dragons]

2 hours ago, Texed said:

We have never not had a lounge chair.  😊

Same here. Plus a Kettle! 😉