bnurick

We walked off at 800am once #2 bags were ready. You could walk off before if you had all bags with you.

We checked 3/4 bags and walked one off. The Retreat was assigned luggage tag #2 and was there when we walked off with the first wave. No trouble at all. Cheers.

Same all over the ship. Second Chic night. Usually the second to last night. BN

This is our goto hotel too. We try and do Takado before 700PM for the reasons you mentioned. With the kitchens in the hotel rooms we also get a fried rice to go for breakfast. Our new favorite room is the residence inter coastal as the sun shines on the right side facing the ocean in the mornings. There are a couple nice wine stores if you want to bring onboard a bottle. Ocean Wine & Spirits. Enjoy your cruise, our last Reflection sailing was around 8 years ago.

We are to the point we just book specialty restaurants and cancel them as needed and get a credit on our account. This way, we have the reservation times we want if Luminae gets all menu weird.

@Cap_D @abbydancer2003 I followed the current cruise on the App to see the current Luminae menus. They did change over time. An example is filet mignon night moved to the last night. Lobster/Rack of Lamb night is the second Chic night which is usually the second to last night. Once I didn’t see roasted turbot, things got easier because we just planned to go elsewhere. After this last cruise, we would still dine at Eden first/last night (assuming E-Class, Murano on S-Class) and once we spoke to the Maitre’d I would request our filet night simply be something we could agree on. Lastly, I will say the Filet Mignon and Rack of Lamb were excellent at Luminae, very high quality. Hope this helps and here is our plan for an upcoming July Eclipse Cruise. 1. Murano 2. Sushi or Luminae (would ask for a filet or MDR menu) 3. Tuscan 4. Sushi or Luminae (would ask for a filet or MDR menu) 5. Tuscan 6. Luminae Lobster/Rack of Lamb 7. Murano

It’s frustrating on both items. Luminae, just have popular proteins and almost simplify. On the Retreat Sundeck, enforce the rules X has. I almost felt you needed a chair reservation system.

I paid for them on my Silhouette cruise without a package. Have to drink a lot to be at the cost of a package per day.

Much appreciated. I sailed Concierge Class on the Silhouette TA and had a blast. No beverage package and saved a nice sum going a la carte. Even did sliders and wings in Craft Social a couple nights. Cheers.

Celebrity Beyond Final Thoughts Here are my final thoughts on The Retreat on The Beyond and a few nits. Listed as bulletin points to make it easier to read. 🔹The Retreat 🔸Too large, making a personalized experience difficult to execute. 🔸Luminae is around 3-4x S-Class size and much less intimate. 🔸When on E-Class The Retreat Lounge Patio is must for us. We had on The Edge. 🔹Luminae 🔸As said, too large to be an intimate experience. 🔸Menu proteins have moved on the cheap side. 🔸Cod is an example for fish. Goto your frozen food section and look at fish sticks. Let me know if you find any Chilean sea bass ones. 🔸Ribeye medallions is an example for meat. Only portions were edible. 🔸The Classics menu shouldn’t be a mystery. 🔸A filet mignon should be available every night. 🔸A simple solution would be a poll to rank proteins. X would see quickly what would appease guests. 🔸We ate at Luminae only 3/10 nights. The menus are that unappealing to me. 🔸On the plus side, our experience improved drastically after talking with the Maitre’d. 🔹The Retreat Sundeck 🔸Most want a spot in the shade. 🔸People would take multiple chairs for their party. 🔸Although you are to lose your chair after leaving for a period of time, it’s not enforced. 🔸While this issue is controversial all over the ship and creates drama, X really needs a global solution and to enforce it so everyone would actually be forced to abide by the rules. 🔹The Retreat Pricing 🔸At $1,000 a day for an E-Class Sky Suite is about right. 🔸Finally seeing some cruises at this level again on CruisePlum. 🔸Many are paying more than $1,000 a day and the cost/benefit analysis is broken at that level. 🔹Butler Service 🔸Our Butler was awesome. By chance, it was our second time with. We were very fortunate. 🔸X needs to return to the original dedicated butler. 🔸While they are in the process of restoring, this invalidates the reasoning behind the Team concept and deems it intellectually dishonest. They did it to simply save money at the expense of the consumer. 🔹Cafe al Bacio 🔸We had a great experience. 🔹Martini Bar 🔸Was awesome as usual. 🔹Specialty Restaurants 🔸All were very good we tried. Luminae should be more comparable to. 🔹OVC Buffet 🔸Ate pizza almost every at sea day. Thought it was very good, overall. 🔹Gratuities 🔸Cash tipping staff is better for everyone involved. 🔸I will not prepay on future bookings. 🔸Sad to say, but I do wonder if X actually gives 100% of prepaid amounts, specifically on reservations made say 18 months ago. Again, forgive me for actually thinking this. 🔹Premium Beverage Package 🔸Like gratuities, I would prefer this being optional for The Retreat. 🔸I would never purchase a package. $17 a drink credit hasn’t adjusted for inflation, but drink prices have adjusted. Looking at our final invoice, we lost money having the package included. 🔸I recommend going a la carte if you can. I did on one cruise and saved a lot of money. Add cash tipping and service became exceptional. My usual drink simply brought over. 🔹Premium WiFi 🔸Worked well and would always purchase. 🔹Future Bookings 🔸Made 4 onboard, all refundable for obvious reasons. I could go on, but the above are the highlights I can recall. I hope I did a decent job of posting so everyone found something actionable for a future sailing. Thank you for following along. Our next X cruise is in July on the Summit. Cheers! 🥂

Thank you. We did and I am working on a Final Thoughts post this week.

Night #10 Eden Our last night and back to where this trip started, Eden. This is our favorite restaurant to dine at. The open kitchen and professional staff always make for an excellent experience. 🔸Amuse Bouche A+ (unreal) Sesame Crusted Tuna w/Wasabi Sauce 🔸Crab Cake A+ 🔸Mushroom Risotto A+ 🔸Carabinero Shrimp A- 🔸Lobster Casserole A+ 🔸Lamb Lion A- 🔸Chocolate Pie A 🔸Lemon Tart A+ 🔹Overall A Will post some Final Thoughts once I get home and rebalanced. X stepped up, but have some observations too. Cheers. 🥂

None with a premium beverage package.

Night #9 Luminae 🦞 Night We were in line at 5:15PM to be seated quickly. The 9:00PM show on the first Chic Night was overflow with people having to sit on stairs. So we wanted to make the 7:00PM first show again. Here is what we ordered: 🔸Lobster for Appetizer A- 🔸Shrimp Cocktail A 🔸Rack of Lamb A+ (The Show Stopper) 🔸NY Strip Luminae Style A 🔸Lobster for Entree A 🔸Chocolate Bar A+ 🔸Extra Peanut Gelato A++ 🔸Service A+ (Ali is great) 🔹Overall A We received excellent service from sommelier, bread and food servers. We explained how long we wanted to dine and everyone made sure it all worked out. Outstanding dining experience. Cheers! 🥂

Night #8 Le Voyage 2.0 We were so impressed with our first meal we kept our second reservation. I decanted our second bottle of the 2016 Peter Michael Les Pavots for 4 hours and re-corked. A+ We requested the same server Ash as he was top notch professional. We tried to mix in some new items and were offered a sampling size portion of any dish. 🔸Amuse Bouche Butter Shrimp A 🔸Vidalia Onion Tart A 🔸Tamarind and Peanut-Crusted Prawns A 🔸Loupe de Mer au Ras El Hanout A 🔸Small Portion Lamb Chop a la Grecque A+ 🔸5-Spice Duck Pithivier A 🔸Coupe Cafe-Cardamon A+ 🔸Lime & Berry Pavlova A+ 🔸Service A+ 🔹Overall A+ After two meals, the Filet and Lamb are slightly a cut above for our tastes. This is the best restaurant on the ship. These folks train at the flagship New York restaurant to learn the craft. They really know what they are doing. Cheers! 🍻