LXA350

X is going crazy not only with the Spa prices, also with speciality dining. Looking at the poor spa experience the price value is not justified anymore since years.

Slippers usually are provided as of Aqua, quite bad quality now a days and in Suites quite good from Frette same as bathrobes.

The Menu selection on Dinner on the Edge is usually nothing special and somewhow a combination of MDR and Chef'sTable quality. It's more about the atmosphere, but then again it could be windy or even cancelled last minute due to weather. I would rather go for Le Voyage and Magic Carpet you can enjoy on most days for drinks anyhow.

In summary, a error happened in the whole process. Either the upgrade confirmation was confirmed by the system almost simultaniously when someone else bought the cabin at full fare / someone else already received the upgrade.

That you end up with your orignal cabin is ok but the whole process seemed quite unprofessional. You should have received a simple excuse that the upgrade was processed by error and as a token of appreciation they should have offered you USD 200 OBC, issue closed.

37 minutes ago, the penguins said:

yes and no - depends how you look at it.

What the big cruise lines all offer is basically a South America cruise with a few days of "scenic" cruising looking at ice bergs. Nearly all the photos used of penguins are in South America or the Falklands none of which are the Antarctic.

If the purpose of your cruise is the Antarctic then really that the price you are paying is for the days of scenic cruising.

Expedition cruising: we had an inside cabin ( used only for sleeping the rest of the time we were fully engaged with landings, briefing and looking out from the deck/lounges)

The price includes all landings loan of boots and a wind proof water proof jacket that you keep.

Weather is the luck of the draw - we had the worst weather on our X cruise culminating in 90mph winds, 60 foot waves and the sea coming in through the doors outside the Sky Lounge - yes we know that's high. The Falklands was dropped.

On Hurtigruten we had 1 bad day in the open sea and a couple when the ship simply moved to another bay to hide from the wind - something the big ships can't do.

We have done the cruise on X and Hurtigruten - there is really no comparison.

I posted pics on another Thread entitled The Antarctic and will be happy to post them again here.

If you book early a lot of the expedition lines have good offers - for example Hurtigruten is currently including free flights London/Buenos Aires/London.

as always it's about choice - not right or wrong - but it's important to understand the options and differences before making a booking.

Great summary. That kin of cruise X, HAL etc are offering has nothing to do with a Antarctica expedition. It just gives you you a little preview of that part of the world, but to properly explorin it you need to spend there a longer time and be able to get off the ship. It's a bit like bein the first time in a City and getti on a bus and taking a panoramic city tour without getting of and walking around and exporing. Nevertheless it still gives you a small impression of that place 😉

19 minutes ago, S18278C said:

Sailing on Ascent 2/18 in Aqua, anyone ever have luck with MDR menus in blu on E class or is it not even worth asking?

Never had an issue on E Class to receive dishes from MDR so far.

Is your cruise full, there must be a reason X has cancelled the entire next season to South America + Antarctica?

Given the many sea days + a very high likelyhood of a additional sea day given the stop at Falkland Islands is often cancelled they should rather spend at least 1 more day in Antarcitca which is the main reason most people choose this cruise. Yet again, given the size of the ship it at least gives the opportunity to get a small glimpse of this remote part of the world. Given the beautiy most people owuld probably want to return but then it would only make sense through a expedition to get the full experience.

Best is to stay in Mayfair area, you can cover many of the tourist attractions such as Buckingham Palace, Picadilly Circus and various museums etc from there. Depending of course how much time you will spend, visting Tower of london is in the financial district and a bit out of the way from the majority of attractions. Unless you want to stay in the highest hotel of London the Shangri-La at the Chard 😄

Have fun, this must be a once in a lifetime experience. Hope you will have great weather in Antarctica and not to rough seas, also for the stop at Port Stanley which was missed by the previous cruise due to high winds.

How did you manage in Buenos Aires with transportation, you took a regular taxi or Uber?

Already at the previous embarkation port, Valparaiso the checkin process did not go smoothly. I hope that X is doing the maximum they can to improve the process going forward.

RCL will need to continue to offer cruises such as the Vancouver-Seward and vise versa itinararies. Same will apply for cruises that are port focused and not where the ship is the destination. Many people can't afford Silversea or any other upscale cruiseline to go on such itinararies. Also, not everyone wants to go on those cruiselines and prefers to go for RCL which is known for it's entertainment and and revolutionary ship features. Hence RCL likely is working on a solution to build the biggest ship possible to meet these missions. It will not feature a central park but on the maximum size such ship can be built they will surely come up with the most revolutonary features possible.

As X will need to replace it's Millenium Class eventually as well I wouldn't be suprised if we will see that the basic structure to be developed will be used both for a future RCL and X ship class to serve this purpose, which is also economically more efficient than developing two seperate concepts to meet the same purpose.

If RCL wants to gain back marketshare in europe lost to MSC and co they have to increase their media presence there. Not to mention they will need to bring back more ships and more creative itinararies on top of that to compete.

The ones making the biggest fuss about this are probably the ones staying in Sky Suites which are Junior Suites and should be excluded from the Retreat and also with limited access to Luminae. A full dedicated personal buttler only makes sense from Edge Villa and above and even for Celebrity suites there should be a buttler service team and not a individual peron in charge. This would also require X to market the different suite products differently and not give people the feeling as soon as you are in the "Retreat" you are surrounded by buttlers that to everything for you, which we all know is not the case.

The quality served in CK is mostly much better than in MDR. Depending on the liking MDR has much more basic options which is probably why some are not so keen on CK.

On 12/15/2023 at 4:21 PM, asnaleah said:

So, we are now experiencing the dreaded “supply chain” problems. One week to go, and no blueberries or bananas. Also, the made for Celebrity Elegance Pinot Noir is no longer available. Raspberries have been gone since day 4. Maybe we will get more provisions in Equador. 

It's a problem generally on X that they do not load any supplies especially fresh supplies on longer cruises. This doesn't matter if cruising through the Caribean Islands or Europe or a one off cruise. Obviously it requires logistics and for smaller ships this is much easier but X just doesn't bother to do so and then you end up without any choice of fruite / very pool quality at some point into the cruise for instance

Sky Suites are at the end of the day "junior Suites", hence not full suites. Therefore i am suprised with the staff shortages / savings approach that X only started with this now. Further, it would be helpfull when Luminae would start to take reservations for dinner and here also simmilar as on RCL the privilege to have dinner should be granted to Celebrity suites and above and if there is availability then for Sky Suites as well but it should not be anymore a guaranteed benefit. I would also remove the privilege of access to Retreat lounge and sundeck to ensure these areas are not overcrowded. I know it doesn't sound fair to some of you but the upper suites cost significantly more and therefore additional exclusivity needs to be offered to them as in my oppinion for what is offered at the end of the day anything above CC is fully overpriced not to mention that Luminae is also a failure.

You need to be ready that not always everything goes smoothly and if you arrive at a unlucky time when a large group are already in line it can take a longer time.

X is going to offer cruises from Bali for the first time next season and from a recent stop on Edge i heard it was quite chaotic. Hence, you need to be ready that things will not go that smoothly, but deciding because of that not to go on a cruise is not the right approach in my view.

On 12/11/2023 at 10:23 PM, Jim_Iain said:

 

I think the CD is incredible.   I think the problem is the HD and possibly his management style.   May just be where I visit on the ship but have not seen hide nor hair of him so far, but don't attend the Senior officer parties.   

 

In regarding to reply to my complaints sent directly to him,  Nothing ...Nada.   Not even a form letter.    I did however get an acknowledgement from the Retreat staff,  Cellar Master and Captain Club Manager of the concerns later pointed out.

 

I was for the most part impressed with Apex and it's staff.  

A few months ago everything on EDGE was great, it had to do that the HD was Danuta who probably is the best in the fleet. Her leadership skills and attention to detail are just amazing and when you have such a leader the whole vibe of the crew is also completely different.

Yes, that's correct with very few exceptions such as Bionic bar for instance. Depending on your drinking habits you can consier if it's worth to use all vouchers for a beer as some drinks are more expensive than a beer. Keep in mind you don't have to use the vouchers before buying a drink, you just need to tell the person serving you not to apply the voucher.

Both the bagels and the salmon are of poor quality, hence not a highlight to look forward to at all.

Ordering frm MDR Menu is never a issue in Blu, no matter what class of ship as the kitchens are somehow always connected. Things look completely different when in the Retreat and Luminae on E Class ships given the location.

Disembarkation day is the absoulte worst experience of the cruise and a way has to be found to make this much more relaxed and not such a hectic experience.

At the end the whole cruise experience would be better if the debaraktion process would be extended until 11:00, with rooms to be cleared by 10:00. Breakfast to be served  at WJ until 10:30 and dinning room at usual port day times. This on the other hand would mean that embarkation would start not before 13:00  and rooms would be ready by 15:00, but over all this would be a much better solution.

On 11/7/2023 at 3:34 PM, CulverCityCruisers said:

Off the Eclipse and had numerous issues of concern and emailed the Executive Office with details of our experience and issues we experienced on the ship.  Send an email directly to the Executive Office and the New President.  Well the results after over a week is deafening silence.  Not even an acknowledgement that my email has been received!  In the past, responses have alwasy been within days of communication with them.  Guess Laura's new command is a lot different than Lisa's

 

Either they are overwhelmed with calls and letters, or just are not concerned about past guests issues and concerns.  Anyone else experience this type of lack of communication?

Do you want to give us some insights on the negative experience you had on Eclipse?

Venice (Italy) used to be a great port in the city with one of the most amazing sail aways.

Most scenic now a days would be Sydney (Australia), Hong Kong and New York (Not the RCL port of Bayonne though).

Captain Costas replaced him last week