Covepointcruiser

You are on a new ship, the Apex, where there are entirely too many sky suites.   If even 50% ordered room service breakfast, the staff was overwhelmed.    Celebrity has generated this problem by having too many sky suites and not enough staff.    I didn’t realize that Zenith cruises also had access to the special seats in the theater in addition to the Retreat Lounge.   Do they also get fee room service.

I remain disappointed in the removal of TK and the TK Colonnade dinners.    I hope something similar if offered in the Colonnade.   Glad our March cruise won’t be impacted.   It’s nice that some on this thread are happy, the rest of us are disappointed.

Also prefer the large bottles.   The study cited is from 2011 and was about hand soap in public rest rooms in elementary schools.

Why should passengers in SS be escorted to their small suite stateroom?     You paid for the SS experience so if you want more you need to book a RS or above.

Passengers seem to enjoy a butler shared with 15 other suites to a retreat team.    Our experience in a Royal Suite with a shared butler was underwhelming.    Maybe this change has improved service to higher level suites.    We would expect that service in a Junior (Sky) Suite but not in a Royal or Penthouse Suite.

I always thought room service was just that, service to your room.   Having food served in many places on the ship sounds unsanitary.   Assume dirty plates will be left wherever the food is served.

On 10/18/2023 at 5:00 PM, Georgia_Peaches said:

We tried MSC Yacht Club and loved it.  We didn't try YC because Celebrity didn't feel nice enough though, we tried MSC because Celebrity was feeling too expensive for the suite experience and wanted to see what was on offer elsewhere.

 

We have since booked a cruise on Regent because Celebrity's food wasn't feeling nice enough and we wanted a smaller ship experience as we cruise the Med in 2025.

 

We are in the casino camp as well, which is why we didn't look into booking with Azamara.

 

Regardless, I always begin my cruise search with Celebrity...

Oh no, didn’t know Regent did Casino Comps!    Guess Casinos on board are a big thing.    The only positive now is that passengers dress a little better and there are choices of restaurants if you can get reservations.   Many complaints on the Regent Board so it’s probably a one and done..

We have moved to Seabourn and Cunard QM2.    We enjoyed Azamara and are trying Regent this March.   It sounds as if MSC is too class centered and is a very large ship when you leave the Yacht Club.

Quite a few Diamond members, it may be time to rethink loyalty.    The cabins set aside for Diamond member offers may well be sold out.

I thoroughly enjoy the services on the QM2 and they have mostly been held by the Captain.    His sermons usually pertain to some aspect of the Titanic disaster.    We always closed the service with Eternal Father Strong to Save.    A number of the ships officers also attend and do the readings.     The service is something I really miss on other lines.    We were on Seabourn on Good Friday and no service was offered other than an evening service for Jewish passengers.

Capt. Warwick once said he had to raise the speed to sail under the bridge comfortably, there isn’t much clearance at high tide.   

With all the cabins they need to service I am surprised they are taking time to set up towel

animals.   Children may want the, but they don’t need to do this for adults.

I would just order the Oriental or Indian dishes in the Queens Grill.   I am not sure if the Princess Grill is as flexible off menu.

On the Venture, if you take a submarine excursion that will take care of your OBC.

The MSC Butler and the make way for VIPs would embarrass me.   I would not sail under those conditions.   I understand the one and done.   

We are also on the Ovation transatlantic and have the Retreat booked.   I am sure we will meet you and your Mom there.

19 hours ago, HotelSnob1 said:

So sorry for our fellow cruisers’ dilemmas. Truly! We never, ever book our air thru a cruise line, we feel it simply gives up our autonomy with flight times, layovers, seat selection, etc.  Learned our lesson about 12 cruises ago when RSSC booked us through Toronto after AK cruise and it was not pleasant. And barely is there a price difference. Never, never again.

We were fortunate that we re-booked with United thru to IST via MUC fairly quickly after R’s email on Sunday.

See everyone on board.

54 minutes ago, ECCruise said:

Has been going on for many years, long before COVID.

 

As with most things, nothing is 100%.  Although the majority of proteins are container based, there are supplemental supplies often added locally.

 

Not sure why a Captain would be checking the quality of the food.  That would be in the purview of the provisions manager, the Exec Chef and the HD.  How did you know that the initial meat and fish did not come from the US in containers and been rejected?  We've seen that happen several times which forced local provisioning, which is always a shot in the dark.

The Captain apologized for the quality of the beef when he said he sent the first two shipments back he was taking responsibility.   We were even delayed leaving Barcelona so it was probably a joint decision with the Captain and Food and Service Manager.

Is this recent, proteins being provisioned from the U.S.?   On our pre COVID transatlantics from Southampton and from Barcelona, the fish and meat did not come from the U.S.    The beef loaded on Barcelona was bad.   The captain apologized and said he had sent back two shipments of beef and finally had to settle on the third shipment though it was not satisfactory.    

Just leave them in the room.    Many crew members don’t drink alcohol but if they find them they may share with the crew bar.   I don’t think they can actually accept them.

13 hours ago, Dusko said:

If you read the post it says, "On our last cruise before Venture......" 

Sorry I missed that.   Guess there are still limited dining options on the Venture.

They really need to increase the number of low calorie drinks.   They run short of V-8 juice and diet soft drinks.   No calorie Ginger Ale is difficult to find, diet Sprite and Diet Coke are typically the only beverages on offer.   If the new drinks are low calorie that would be a help.   We need to watch carbs.

On 10/8/2023 at 12:45 PM, Dusko said:

I think others are right, you have to try it.  It’s a bit like the TKG. We tried it the first cruise on one of the smaller ships and found it noisy, not great food and felt pushed to upgrade the wine.  We did a later cruise on one of the larger ships and were urged to try it again. It was better but since we were a table of two it felt cramped. Nothing spectacular. On our last cruise before Venture we were again urged to give it a try.  Our impression was “Not bad but nothing special “. Others love it.  We are not champagne drinkers or spa users so the Retreat may well not be for us but we will give it a try if we sail on one of the larger ships again. Then we can judge.

Wow, does the Venture now have a TK Grill?    Last year they only had the Restaurant, the Colonnade, and a few items in the forward lounge.   We are on the Venture next year and will look forward to it.

Be aware that you will need to keep checking on VISA requirements.   The countries you will visit can change their requirement.    

Shipped bags will go straight to your cabin.

On 10/4/2023 at 9:19 PM, Jim_Iain said:

I have to admit that all of the wonderful pictures Roy has posted are very exciting to me.  

 

I know all of our tastes differ but wondering how the fish in Queens Grill is.   Would love to have Dover Sole - one of my favorites. 

 

Celebrity server 3 or 4 different types of Sea Bass (with different names - Black Sea Bass, Baramundi  etc)  I enjoy it but they taste pretty much the same to me.

I just looked at a few of the menus from QG from our Dec 22 crossings.   Dover Sole is available any night just let them know by lunch.   The lunch entrees always included a fish.   The one I am looking at includes Pan fried Barramundi, Confit of Duck leg, Grilled Double Sirloin Steak, Spaghetti Carbonara, and Kung Pao Cauliflower.   There are four appetizers and one soup and one salad and special soup of the day plus four choices of dessert not counting the ice creams.    A normal dinner has four appetizers, two special salads and two soups, four entrees (grilled 28 day aged rib eye, Red Thai King Prawn Curry, Chickpea Dumplings and Pumpkin and Courgette Noodles) plus four desserts and ice cream.    Even with this we always ordered something off menu so If it’s onboard you can have it.   Can’t imagine ordering a grilled cheese sandwich but the bread and rolls onboard are wonderful as is the cheese trolley.