Stem to Stern

Is the noise happening in any aft-facing Sunset Verandahs?

A milestone birthday month for me. Looks like there will be plenty of room for a couple of stowaways. DH and I could sleep on the verandah. Just sayin'.

Bon voyage Cathy!

If by "middle" you mean aft-facing, non-corner sky suites, then I also find it a bit perplexing that these would have sold before the corner ones. It could any number of reasons. There are still two, maybe three corner aft sky suites (Sunset Sky Suites) available on our upcoming Silhouette cruise. I think the remaining availability has more to do with insane pricing than inferiority. We have a weak MoveUp bid pending on the category, but not optimistic about winning. There are a couple of other non-corner aft sky suites remaining as well. We would be just as content with one of those. For us it is all about Luminae and the aft view, not the corner. Although it is fun to sit in the round window in the corner ones. We had and loved 1665 on Silhouette in the past.

I have been looking into HAL as an alternative to Celebrity. A pleasant discovery was the wider variety of longer, port-intensive itineraries. Have you been on any of HAL's smaller, older ships? Looking forward to your comparison. Bon voyage!

Awesome pics with the sloths!!

Thalassotherapy.

How did you both like the pizza, John? Really enjoying your report.

Bon voyage! I will be following along with you vicariously while I wait it out until my first Edge-class sailing on Beyond later this year.

I have no idea. Our sailing did not seem to have too many solo cruisers in YC. But it sounds like it will be easy for you to get acquainted with others in the Top Sail Lounge and find dining companions. Maybe you can ask the YC Director on the first day about how many solo cruisers are in YC. Have you joined the Cruise Critic roll call for your sailing? This might be a good starting point for connecting with others.

The veal chop was good. It was tender, juicy and tasted better than the presentation. That was our first night in the Yacht Club Restaurant. We dined with friends we had just met in the reserved YC seating in the theater. When the dinner company is good, I tend to overlook culinary misses. But I would not call the breaded veal chop a miss. The gym did not look too busy the few times I passed by it on my way into the spa.

Ha ha! Ussie is a term I learned from my new cruise buddy. It is like a selfie, but with all of us. Get it? @Ellesor826's DH takes really good ones!

80 minutes and counting until check-in begins. That is when the excitement really starts to kick in for me. But come embarkation day I am totally overcome with GLEEEEEE!!!

Would that be my response? I am a bit surprised by most of the responses as well, but maybe not all that surprised. Celebrity has really taken the wind out of the sails of a lot of their loyal customer base. Some of Celebrity's remaining loyalists on Cruise Critic may see "Yacht Club" in the title and just scroll on by. These threads tend to bring out those of us willing to call out Celebrity for what they are doing and willing to explore our options. Although we still like the overall experience Celebrity still provides, we aren't idiots who bend over and say, "Okay, I will play by Celebrity's new rule book and pay their crazy prices for fewer perks." We are definitely keeping our options open. If the overall value guides our future bookings toward MSC or another line, so be it. If the new Celebrity rule book means booking a non-suite category on Celebrity and playing their MoveUp game in hopes of getting into The Retreat at a more palatable price, so be it. We will be giving stronger consideration to land-based travel going forward. My basic point in my original comment was that we found the food and wait service better in Luminae on Equinox and Summit compared to the YC Restaurant. I am not cheering on anything else that Celebrity has done to The Retreat experience on board its ships. Prices have soared into the stratosphere compared to our previous bookings. We used to get gratuities and on board credit included with The Retreat. Then just prior to our last sailing, they increased the per-glass price of all of my go-to drinkable grocery store wines above the premium beverage package limit to $19.00. The sommelier was put in the awkward position of having to warn me of the additional $2.00 plus gratuity up charge I would be seeing on my account. There goes my "Modern Luxury." But I try not to sweat my first world problems. I think you have asked a valid question in your original post that hopefully sets you up for lowered expectations rather than disappointment. I will make a couple of side notes related to your original post and your and others' comments. I personally do not miss the MSC spa on Celebrity ships. I visited the spa on Seascape a few times and tried all of the different elements, but I guess the spa is just not my thing. Gen Pop on Celebrity is more of a "minimum-security" situation. It is all pretty civilized. Although the areas around the pools can get pretty crowded, the interiors are quite spacious. We did not mind Gen Pop on Seascape. It is just a matter of knowing when and how to best navigate it. Remember, you will be in Europe!! Enjoy!! Celebrity and MSC are two entirely different animals. My best advice is to try not to compare the two. Life is richer when it includes a wide variety of all kinds of experiences.

I am only really going to comment here on the food and service in Luminae. We all already know YC pool deck and Top Sail Lounge blow The Retreat non-equivalents out of the water. We have not sailed in The Retreat on board Equinox since our return to cruising cruise in October 2021, but Luminae blew us away. Food and service lived up to and exceeded our pre-pandemic suite experiences on S-class ships. Luminae on board Summit just this past December was also a mindblower. The food in the YC on Seascape was just okay for us. There wasn’t much on the menu that excited and delighted us. Since the cruise you are doing is Europe, personally I could not imagine myself spending much time on The Retreat Sundeck or partying late into the night at whichever evening venue would appeal most. Our port days in Europe tend to start early and we return to the ship exhausted. I would not be too concerned with theater seating on board Equinox. There are two seatings for the show nightly. I think many passengers are too tired or too busy maximizing their drink packages to bother attending the shows. I do not typically find the theaters on board the S-class ships to be packed like the theater was on my recent Seascape cruise.

Thank you! I forwarded the link to my husband since he did not receive the email with the survey. Hopefully, it works because I don’t know if our Captain’s Club loyalty accounts are linked. I don’t even know how to go about doing that. Never had to worry about it in the past because he always received the surveys and webinar invites. Celebrity IT strikes again?!?

I am curious if you know why a TA would not participate in Move Up? I would be disappointed to discover "ineligible" after anticipating a positive outcome from my bids. Should I email my TA and ask?

We are booked in a verandah on our April cruise. I just checked (51 days out) and all of my bids (SS, Sunset SS, Aqua SS, and CS) show "pending" and I can still "modify" all of them. If you click on one of the "additional offers" below the first category showing at the top that you bid on, you should be able to modify any of them. I can still modify any of them on mine anyway. At first glance I thought the only one I could modify was the first one. But if they say expired maybe you can't. Such a confusing system. Watching intently for a credit card alert.

So very sorry for your loss. Please accept my deepest condolences as you navigate this difficult time. Our Ziggy is getting to the age that we worry more and more each time we leave him that our poor friend and cat sitter will put in a position to have to deal with something out of the ordinary. Hopefully you are able to use this time on board to grieve and possibly find activities to take your mind off the situation if only temporarily. I do hope you continue with your live report. From the pics you posted on Instagram it looks like pretty lady Connie's Celebrity Suite is still in fine shape. Off topic I have great late-80s college memories of crossing the border into Windsor after turning 19 and reaching the legal drinking age in Canada. Changez By Nite ended up being the go-to place. Not sure if this building on Wyandotte would have been the location we visited? We were always fortunate enough to have a designated driver and a little luck on our side to get back to the USA without incident in the wee hours of the morning. Try to enjoy your voyage as best you can. Sending positive vibes.

Bon voyage, Megan!

Just call me a pier runner. I am way late to the party. Dang! Ten pages to catch up on and you are still two days out. Then, I will try to keep up. Have a wonderful vacation!

Va va voom!! If you were in the YC there would be plenty of white gloves to borrow from the butlers, but sadly they would not necessarily be your preferred length. 😂😂😂

I saw this FB post and was impressed. Looking a bit less airport lounge and a bit more hotel lobby or, dare I say it, residential. Has the design team been reading customer feedback?

This has been a very interesting read so far. Thank you for sharing your experiences.

Oh Lordie Lordie. I got a feelin' it was a good, good night for you. Good thing you stockpiled all that morning after H2O in your minifridge. It is not a great weather Sunday back on land, so show us some sunshine over the next couple sea days if you can. Are Conundrum and Whispering Angel back down below the Premium Package ceiling?