randomcruise

I don't see prime rib and I don't know if it's a fluke, but the Celebrity app is showing many of the previous "Signature" selections being restored on the current menus for today's Jan. 29th sailing of the Beyond and for next weeks Feb. 5th sailing of the Beyond.

Don't know if it's a fluke, but the Celebrity app is showing many of the previous "Signature" selections being restored on the current menus for today's Jan. 29th sailing of the Beyond and for next weeks Feb. 5th sailing of the Beyond. If those are menus are accurate/real, it is a very welcome response from Celebrity.

I am not sure what there is not to believe. The requirement to pay for room service for anything other than a continental breakfast can be seen with one's own eyes on the Celebrity App and has been verified by multiple posters here, complete with pictures of the Room Service menu showing the pay items. The reduction in offerings in the MDR can also be seen in the current menus in the Celebrity App compared to the prior menus in the Celebrity App, and have also been verified by several posters here and elsewhere. The reduction in offerings in the evening buffet can't be seen in the app but again have been verified by multiple posts, some including pictures or video, here and elsewhere. I suppose one could still choose not to believe all of those cutbacks are not real despite the overwhelming evidence they exist, but I don't know why one would do so.

I agree, easy to spend your money elsewhere and no point in paying for something you think will disappoint. Not so easy to spend your money elsewhere when you have already prepaid your money for a cruise months before Celebrity implemented all of the current cutbacks.

In case I wasn't clear, I don't want "more", I want what is promoted by Celebrity and what one should expect for the fares Celebrity charges- a very good dinner experience every night of the cruise. No issue or confusion over the very simple concept of paying extra if one wants more. Based on recent reviews, price increases, and confirmed reductions in services and menu offerings, It appears to me that people should now expect to pay "extra" and get less when they cruise Celebrity.

Thanks. I think your "upgrade" analogy is much better than the "expenses" analogy, and I agree completely about choices and priorities. If my post wasn't clear, for the price point Celebrity charged for my cruise, I expect a good breakfast, a good lunch and a very good dinner, everyday of the cruise without having to pay for an "upgrade". If I wanted something better than that, say for example an amazing, memorable dinner experience, I would pay for it. FWIW, I want to enjoy nicer cocktails and not worry about signing a slip every time I get one, so I had no issue with paying extra for the premium drink package. As another example, I understand that excursions aren't included at Celebrity's price point and had no issue paying extra for a couple of excursion. To focus more directly on the topic of this thread, based on the reviews I have read here and elsewhere of the specialty dining on the Edge class ships, the quality of the meal experience is too hit or miss for me to prepay and preschedule a meal at any specialty restaurant except for Eden, which seem to get the most consistently high marks. Having said that, I don't anticipate every paying for the dinner experience at Eden because I expect that I should get what I consider to be a very good experience at any of the MDR's for cost of my cruise fare.

LOL, what I said has no comparison to car expenses, nor did I say anything that indicated in anyway that I was expecting beluga caviar or Dom Perignon for a cruise fare at Celebrity's price point. What I do expect is a good breakfast and lunch and a very good dinner experience. To clarify what I mean by very good dinner experience, I mean the kind of dinner experience I would get at any one of my local restaurants that I go to on regular basis, where I get good quality food with service that is friendly and professional, and not overly slow and inattentive. BTW, I never have had beluga caviar or Dom Perigon. FWIW, in addition to what I said in the post you quoted, I don't expect to pay an additional fee to Celebrity for the fuel used on my seven day cruise or for any oil changes their engines and other equipment may require.

""Are people really paying big bucks for speciallty restaurants on Beyond?" Interesting to read all of the perspectives here. For me, I cannot justify paying for speciality restaurants on any Celebrity cruise ship. I don't go on that may cruises (just not that into them), but when I spend my hard earned dollars on a cruise fare at Celebrity's price point, I expect a good breakfast, a good lunch and a very good dinner experience every day of the cruise for the price of the cruise fare. If the Celebrity cannot provide that without requiring me to pony up even more money, they have failed in my view. I suspect that many of the cruise lines, include Celebrity, are slowly and carefully (at least until this month) habituating their customers to the idea that they should only expect the cruse fare to cover their room and passage and that they should pay extra for all of the things that they would have expected for the price of cruise fare in years past. Perhaps it's what they need to do in order to survive, but I can easily find other ways to spend my money and my limited vacation time if they keep asking for more while providing less.

No need to apologize. You expressed a concern that many others share and many others have expressed. I am sorry some here are attempting to bully you into only posting in the way they prefer.

This^^^^ The executives running Celebrity know full well what they have done and they have no need to go on one of their cruises to find out. Neither should anyone else who is posting here. The cutbacks to the menus in the Main Dining Rooms are well documented and can be easily seen by comparing the current menus on the Celebrity app to the past menus. The cutbacks to the evening Buffet have also been well documented with multiple picture reports here and on other social media. The deletion of free room service for everything other than a continental breakfast is also not speculative. The Celebrity executives know they are not currently providing what they promoted and what people, including myself and the rest of our party of 18, paid-in-full for months ago, and I don't need to go on the cruise to know that those cutbacks are not acceptable to me. The main thing I don't know is if those same cutbacks will still be in place for our cruise in a couple of weeks. Having said that, if the current cutbacks are still in place, I will still enjoy the aspects of the cruise that have not been cutback and the good company of everyone else in our party.

Perhaps because they have a very different view than you on what is important for their cruise experience, and perhaps because those views aren't impacted in the slightest by the fact that you happen to "like Celebrity" and you happen to have "never had a bad cruise". Perhaps because they liked Celebrity and trusted that Celebrity would provide the cruise experience that Celebrity promoted to them when they booked and paid-in-full for the promoted cruise experience, but are now less than happy with Celebrity for pulling a bait and switch game with respect to aspects of the cruise that are important to their cruise experience (even if not to you) and they want to warn other of Celebrity's behavior in taking full payment for that cruise experience and then intentionally providing an experience that is, in some's view, significantly less than what they paid for. Of course, that is just my "thought" or two.

I have seen several posts in various groups on Facebook. I suspect other social media is the same. I would be surprised to see anything on TV/Cable News.

davekathy provided the email as I was typing. I think contacting Celebrity at lLutoff-Perlo@celebritycruises.com to let them know your thoughts is worth the effort. After sending an email to that address with my very blunt assessment of Celebrity's actions, I got a very polite call back within two hours, and was encouraged to continue providing feedback so they could determine how best to proceed.

Anyone who doesn't want to read the complaints here can easily just skip over this thread. Or they can troll it if they wish, as many are currently doing.

That would require more integrity than Celebrity is currently exhibiting.

If I prepaid for the meals, you bet I expect they should not only notify me, but offer a complete refund before I arrive at the "nice restaurant".

Want to add that taking the trains from Venice to Florence and then from Florence to Rome is very easy and super efficient.

Hope the airfare works out to allow you to spend more time in Italy and no more time in Athens than necessary. We spent a day in Athens and wouldn't have wanted to spend more time there. On the other hand, we have visited both Florence and Rome several times and would go back again because there is so much to see in both places. We especially like Florence because the historic district is all together and walkable (mostly no cars allowed), the people are friendly and the food is great.

I think your Athens to Venice cruise is perfect because your ship ports at locations that are efficient to visit from the cruise ship ports. Rome and Florence are not efficient from a cruise ship because they involve too much travel time to and from the cruise ship ports. I suggest that you Spend ALL of your extra time on a land based visit in Italy AFTER you finish the cruise in Venice. If you have time spend at least 3 days in Florence and three more in Rome. If you don't have time, I would skip Rome and focus on Florence and Tuscany. Land in Athens one day before your cruise and then spend as much time doing Italy by land after the cruise.