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The Smart Casual dress code for MDR and other restaurants only applies in the evening. Shorts are ok during the day. https://www.celebritycruises.com/faqs/onboard-dress-code

What does that have to do with choosing things that are hard to spell? You see the mangling of the restaurant name on these boards almost every day. Never mind that Silhouette and Millennium are hard to spell because of the double letters, as other examples (and a big reason why you see nicknames instead). Xcel is easy to spell but doesn't make brand sense. Points to an identity crises, which of course we're seeing daily. And of course a good deal of the North American market already associate that spelling with the energy company while a bigger chunk are going to immediately think of Microsoft products instead, regardless of spelling.

As someone already mentioned, a big problem with Celebrity is that they choose things that are hard to spell. Poor Luminaire. Luminay? Lumenaynay? And now they're just making up words like Xcel.

Thankfully she didn't marry a Peter.

"Between the A and the T!" is the standard response. Many of us were taught the rule but many rules go out the door depending on the audience.

I get the point re: the link, but having a specific cruise booked is a bit of specific knowledge that only you know. My dentist and doctor texts come from a third party platform, too, and not their regular website address.

Move-Up is run by a third party company and needs to be closed out so Celebrity knows the final room count available?

There is a forum dedicated to how to use the other forums as well as troubleshooting. https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/859-need-help-using-the-forums-check-here/

If not overtly racially motivated, it's a textbook example of unconscious bias at the very least.

Celebrity experience will be very similar to Princess experience for adults and kids. They are similar product offerings.

But you still have to buy them and then remember to take them with you. Again, they never used to have to tell people on flights to be sure and use headphones. And in the past they could give people a cheap pair with the standard jack, but that is no longer an option if someone is using a proprietary jack. If you forget the headphones or the adapter, you're now SOL until you can get to some place that sells them.

Apple has caused this problem to become more widespread because they took away the standard headphone jack a few years ago and then in 2020 stopped providing a pair of headphones with new phones. I never really use headphones at all until I go on vacation and usually end up doing without on the plane because I inevitably forget the pair I finally bought. So, my theory is that a lot of people simply don't have headphones that will work with their devices. Doesn't excuse the obliviousness, but I think it helps explain why it's more noticeable in the past few years. This is also why you now are hearing that announcement on planes that they didn't have to make before.

Thanks for taking us along. Incredible that they're now making people in the top suites pay for all these extras. And seemingly just another thing they have sprung on guests without warning. They used to try to impress those paying a lot of money. Why would anyone want to shell out that kind of money only to be subject to the whims of what X wants to take away this week?

Here is some recent info in the thread linked below. There is a third party they have to contact to get pricing. Spoiler alert: expensive. Not sure of the timeline needed, either, so may be too close to the sailing to arrange so he should start this process ASAP. https://www.celebritycruises.com/groups-and-events/special-occasion-cruises/wedding-cruises

Guarantee rooms can be assigned right up to when you show up at the pier. Has always been that way, though X has generally assigned them earlier. If they cannot give you a room in the category, then you get an upgrade. Could be that they're still working on move ups and that is affecting what rooms they can assign.

Sky Suites now get assigned a "team" overseen by a "head butler" instead of an individual butler. This was a change made this past summer. Lots of brouhaha about it on Cruise Critic echoing your MIL's experience (not ever seeing the butler or only seeing them once and never again). You should express your displeasure that what you bought was not what was advertised, IMO. That type of feedback is what will hopefully reverse the trend of downgrading the product despite the sky-high pricing. I'd also make a big fuss about the broken elevator to the suite area, personally. She should hopefully get whatever else she needs by contacting the concierge in the lounge.

You can check reviews for any other E-Class ship (Edge, Apex, Beyond) and will find info that will be relevant. First E-Class (Edge) sailed in 2018, so 5 years ago now. Beyond was the most recent put in service (last year).

Many of the NCL ships have Haven rooms scattered across the ship outside of the Haven area, e.g, Joy's corner aft and forward suites and a few of the family suites. I think Celebrity's newer class of ships does the suite within a suite area concept better than Summit in terms of co-locating all the facilities. Summit was built in 2001 and has retrofitted facilities. Some of its sister ships in M-Class and the next class up (S-Class) don't even have the rooftop deck areas so you only have the restaurant and separate lounge as gathering places to run into fellow suite guests. But even on the newer builds, there aren't many rooms inside the suite area itself. Re: your keycard color question: silver is for suites, gold is concierge, and blue is for other categories. They had a dark blue and light blue at one point, but not sure if that's still the case (light blue for Aqua Class). I believe Zenith members (top tier in loyalty club) still get a black card. Everyone else just has the loyalty level printed on whatever card they get.

Check-in time is not the same as boarding time. You can check in at 10:30a (if available) but not be on the ship until they clear it for boarding, which is usually sometime after 11a. The people who check in early often have to wait to board and then are behind those who have priority access. Some who check in later are boarding at the same time as the early arrivals. You're usually talking about half hour increments here, so the obsession on being "first" to extend your day really is a bit silly, especially in Florida ports. We're ultimately talking the difference between being on board at 11:30 vs noon (as an example), hardly worth the extra effort to show up way earlier to stand around.

Celebrity's secret to making sure there are always plenty of seats for their own production shows is to offer things you'd like to see only once.

Book at the price you are comfortable paying. If you book with refundable fare, you can adjust. I would not count on any advertised sales to really offer a gigantic savings. It's all based on algorithms specific to your sailing (and how popular it is) as to what you'll be able to get during a sale. X is also known for playing pricing games when it comes to sales, increasing prices to get the bottom-line the same ballpark of what you see before the "sale" starts.

They'll hold you to whatever terms you booked under unless they cancel your sailing. Not unusual for that schedule to slip one direction or another. Historically they have added preview cruises as part of the marketing hype leading up to the official launch. They announced these "pre-inaugural" sailings back in March, so those who booked early would have had time to react. As with any customer issue, it is up to whoever you complain to as to whether they might give you some OBC to soothe the pain of not being "first" (out of thousands).

This is true on the majority of Celebrity ships too. You have to go to an accessible room if you want a curbless shower at the suite/mini-suite equivalents. I like HAL's solution: both a tub and a separate walk-in shower in their Neptune Suites. That's really not the thrust of OP's question, though, which is a comparison between two different room types.

This is a sensitive subject on this board due to a unique situation in which someone was sanctioned for posting employee schedules on a regular basis. Sometimes people on current sailings will ask the current staff if they'll be on, and they'll share that, or, you can look to see if the staff person has a social media presence in which they share that info publicly themselves.

Concierge class doesn't get you much of anything on Celebrity. A welcome aboard lunch on the first day is about it. And a bottle of sparkling wine. You also earn more points per day in the loyalty program if that matters to you. Reserve on Princess gets you the separate section in the MDR on a daily basis with its expanded menu. You also get the free bottle. The amenities of Princess are a little more elevated, IMO. Most important to me would be a traditional balcony instead of the infinite veranda (window that opens) setup on Celebrity assuming you're really talking about a mini suite on Princess and not something else. Itinerary would also weigh heavily assuming similar price points (I would not pay more for Celebrity in Concierge unless it was a killer itinerary that I had to sail).