beltsbear

1 hour ago, NMTraveller said:

Can you sign up for the specialty dining package for the length of the cruise for these Christmas cruises?  If so how much is that?

No packages are available. Just $70 pp. and for those saying the menu is special, no it is not. There is a special menu Christmas Eve. That is $109 per person not $79. 

It’s worse because of the lack of packages as well.   We often get the 4 pack.  Doubling the price without warning sucks. 

I vastly prefer the old Qsine. The animation for LPC was good but the food was not as good as the old Qsine.  I would not go back unless part of a cheap package or deal. 

Pretty disappointed.  Normally we go to the lawn club grill or Tucson during the cruise. Instead of paying $33 a person a night in a package or $45 not in a package, the only choice is $70 each.  I would have gone on a different cruise line for this week if I would have known this in advance.   We have been on other Christmas cruises and not experienced that. 
 

also, this is not for special days like Christmas, that’s even higher, which I understand.  

I'm not confident that the speed tests are that accurate anyway. I don't know what effect the CDN and caching they are using does to the results, so I wouldn't be surprised to see the second person accessing speedtest.net to get a much better result.

 

I'll have to experience fast Internet at sea on a promo to ever purchase it again. I'm so glad I can just use a wifi connection in port and forget about being connected when at sea.

The CDN is not really an issue at these speeds. The test is designed to defeat caching so that also should not come into play.

Celebrity does have a system where if you are in port they can get local bandwidth. There are so many factors that come into play, ships position, weather, time of day that speeds will run all over the place. Compared to five years ago the average speed is way up. In the past I have seen speeds LOWER then a 56k modem with huge packet loss. I wish the prices were lower, but until the next generation of internet is launched we will need to rely on cruise ship internet.

OK, then feel free to call be a bitcher and a complainer. :p

 

I just get tired of people constantly complaining about the deterioration in service and food compared to yesteryear, all the while never - EVER - complaining about how affordable their cruise is compared to then. I generally don't complain much about what I am getting for my money on a cruise. Maybe that is because I am a realist. If I wanted better, I am smart enough to know I need to up the ante by booking with more expensive cruise lines.

 

Just like I know darn well that my Subaru can't compare to a Mercedes S Class, so I am not going to complain about it. I don't expect a Subaru to have all the luxuries and amenities as the S Class. But then again, I can buy three Subarus for the price of one S Class! Subarus are perfectly good cars, and they get me to the same places as an S-class would. It's my choice how upscale a car I want. And I have only myself to blame if I complain about the Subaru not being good enough for my liking. I certainly can't blame Subaru! :D

 

I also find it telling that some people seem to always have disappointing food, while the majority of us have a good experience. Seems as if it's the same people who always end up with sub-par food. Celebrity must single them out for some reason. Could it be that they are on a secret blacklist that Celebrity maintains???? :rolleyes:

You would have a point if prices had gone down, but they have done just the opposite. Most Celebrity cruises are 40% higher then they were just four years ago yet there have been cut backs all over the place. Now MDR is almost identical in food quality to the sister line Royal. I like good food, and if things get too bad I will have to switch lines.

My partner and I are also going. Do you have your India visa yet? We are applying soon.

I've seen it

Me too. Not often, but seems like at least once on pretty much each each cruise I have been on.

Just another step down the slope to mediocrity. They didn't enforce Formal so don't expect then to enforce what I will call Classless Chic. A sundress? So we expect not to see torn jeans? LOL You give people an inch and they will take a mile. I like Carnival although we don't cruise them any longer but I predict that soon the dining room on Celebrity will closely resemble those on Carnival. What a shame.

Agreed. It appears the majority of the viewers of this board welcome the change but I will miss a night of dressing up. Maybe the best 'compromise' would be to actually ENFORCE the dress code they make, no t-shirts in main dining room on 'chic' nights.