Dave85

Celebrity doesn't always make the best decisions. Case in point: they decide to try and appeal to a younger demographic, but they simultaneously remove the dance club from the plans for Celebrity Reflection. Result: loud DJ music (which I love) playing elsewhere in odd locations around the ship, (1) aggravating guests who doesn't want to hear it, and (2) tying up an additional venue that could be used to entertain other guests.

I hope that new conference room on the Reflection has been a real hit for them!

Not sure at all where the Florida AG comes into this particular picture, either.

I wonder if OP meant the Florida State's Attorney's Office, which is the local prosecuting authority, not the State Attorney General's Office. They sound similar.

Good luck to you OP. If Celebrity refuses to do anything this may be worth at least contacting a South Florida attorney over. I could see this case piquing an attorney's interest given the number of parties involved.

I sailed the Oasis class three times before they added new cabins and once after (on Oasis), and she did seem a little more crowded at key spots (such as around the buffet and on the Royal Promenade) after. I was sure that we wouldn't notice a thing, but am not so sure about that anymore. I was just on Anthem last month and felt less crowded.

I have never used Uber, we are in the UK but coming to Miami next month. How do you go about tipping the driver? Does it have to be in cash?

Yes, Uber does not offer a way to tip the driver through the app. Although Uber says tipping is not required, we always tip our Uber drivers with cash, which they greatly appreciate.

Was on the Anthem sailing that ended 12/12.

 

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All of this was mentioned to people onboard and also in the survey. Most of it is fixable and hopefully it's fixed by the March, when I'll be onboard again.

Seeing as you seemingly did not like a single thing about this ship (unless you simply neglected to mention a single thing that you did like), I would suggest switching your March cruise to a different ship. It certainly seems that you will be happier that way.

Nice start, looking forward to the rest of the review!

So sorry that this was the last CTN... listening to all of is really making me want to do one on Breakaway! :o

Abe Hughes is the new CD on Anthem per the Cruise Compasses posted on this live review thread over on the Quantum Class sub-forum:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2288327

The current Anthem sailing started yesterday, 12/12/15.

Loving your review! Bringing back some great memories from our Anthem cruise last month. :)

Thanks for the review! Looking forward to reading the rest.

Just off Anthem off an enjoyable 12 nights:)

 

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We left this morning happy and feeling like we had gotten a good vacation at a reasonable price. Coincidentally we were off the ship and through customs by 6:35 am. We came down at 6:10 and there were already about 100 people in line to walk off. They started at 6:25 and it was painless and fast.

Thanks for sharing your review! Our experience on the previous12-night was a lot closer to yours than to what people are describing in the negative reviews.

I read the forums for several cruse lines pretty regularly, and I have felt for some time that the Celebrity board is the most negative. Yes, NCL has gone postal lately but the continuing string of cutbacks and upcharges is very bad there lately so they have much to complain about. As to Celebrity, I think there may be two factors at play. First, Celebrity used to have a clear place in the market that was easy to grasp -- a mass-market line with a little more luxury and class. The recent changes (unless you book a suite) have diminished the luxury touches and the generational shift in desired customer has led to changes (e.g. MiamiDJ) that strike some of us more seasoned folks as less classy. But on the positive side, I wonder if the level of outrage is the product of Celebrity's generous loyalty program? It seems to me that you get a lot more benefits as you rise up the Captain's Club tiers than you would on, say, Princess. I think the Elite+ posters really are loyal to Celebrity, and they aren't seeing that loyalty returned -- that leads to hurt feelings that can't be answered with "it's just business."

Excellent post. I think Celebrity is very much a line in transition right now, and as Host Andy astutely described in another post, there's a bit of a "golden handcuffs" situation in play for high level loyalty folks for whom Celebrity may no longer be the best option. I think it's a natural who have for those who have sailed Celebrity for many years to bristle as the line shifts to marketing towards a younger demographic (which, full disclosure, includes me despite the fact that I am "Elite" on Celebrty). While I may disagree with many of these folks on the merits of some of the changes Celebrity is making, I certainly appreciate why they're upset. Other posters have also noted a bit of dissonance right now as passenger demographic changes lag the changes to the on board product, but I think that's probably to be expected.

As for the two other boards I read, certainly some negativity but of a different flavor.

-NCL has definitely "gone postal" but with very good reason. Most recently, people were promised Margaritaville as an included dining venue when they booked the new Escape only to have NCL suddenly turn it into a pay venue without any compensation. I think that's a fair thing to be upset about. Otherwise, so many material changes (costing more $) in such a short time will always lead to some unhappy campers.

-The RCI board is always very paranoid about changes to their (excellent) loyalty program, and there is a lot of fighting about whether change is good or bad -- in their case, change embodied by the Quantum Class / dynamic dining / building larger and larger ships, etc. The big difference though is that RCI isn't looking to change it's position in the market, as Celebrity apparently is.

Thanks for another great review Grady. I missed it when first posted because I was on Anthem... glad I caught up!

I have to say, we were on Oasis in May and I agree with all of your comments about the nightlife on Oasis. Our cruise before that (last November) was on Norwegian Breakaway and the nightlife was much better in every respect. Our Anthem cruise of a few weeks ago had great DJs, but it was a longer sailing with an older crowd, so some nights it was totally dead. What can you do, we still had a great time.

Odd that they close down the night life so soon - This ship does seem aimed at the next gen cruiser. Most next gen like to stay up late. It is the slightly older folks that like to go to bed sooner then later.

 

 

 

Other cruises I have been on always seemed to have at least one venue that stayed open to at least 2am.

 

 

 

I would imagine the music hall would fill that bill - 270 sounds amazing but also very large :D

They did have a night club open late on every night of my Anthem cruise -- some nights Music Hall (most common) and some nights 270. Both good venues, but I LOVED 270!

Two70 should be a kickass night club every night of the cruise.

This I agree with 100%.

Dave ~ why would you say "dreaded" millennial?

 

Tongue-in-cheek, since we don't seem to be too popular these days on the X boards... ;)

What I think Celebrity needs to do is figure out to stop alienating the large group of passengers that have supported them for many years for the belief that they have to turn all their ships into South Beach. I don't think they are going to be able to do that. And they'll never fill their ships in the long run if they continue to alienate folks. They need a cross section of people to continue filling ships with multi-generational groups like you'll be sailing with. Hope you have a memorable and enjoyable time!

 

Thanks! I agree with you somewhat. RCI does a much better job of striking that balance, but also has much larger ships with more expansive entertaniment facilities, larger entertainment staffs, and a richer history of providing excellent entertainment. Of course, their food and service isn't at the same level, but these are the tradeoffs among the mass market lines...

I wholeheartedly disagree though with all of the umbrage taken (in general on this board -- not picking on you) over the new entertainment concepts X is trying out to attract new customers. IMHO: (1) It's necessary. X's entertainment on my last X cruise (Silhouette) was dreadful. (2) They're a business that needs to survive long term, and appealing to new customers (while minimzing the loss of existing customers) is a necessary part of doing that. (3) The new concepts are excellent and will work IMHO, provided they can figure out how to execute them properly. (4) There are, apparently, still entertainment options that appeal to existing long-term customers, which happen to include my parents, who LOVED their B2B on Reflection earlier this year and thought the entertainment was outstanding...

This is all just my $.02. The reality is that some folks would probably be better served on other (more upscale) lines at this point that emphasize fine dining and excellent service. Personally, I applaud X for not backing down from the new entertainment concepts in the face of complaints, and I really hope we like our cruise on the Reflection because we simply loved BLU, and the food/service generally, on the Silhouette. We left the ship thinking man, if only the entertainment could match up!

In any event, thanks for your very informative review! I enjoyed reading it.

It really wasn't THAT loud and although they try and sell it as a Miami vibe, or Miami DJs to enhance the alleged Miami vibe, it just isn't. They were playing Biggie in the cage dancer dueling dj area. Biggie? Really? They sell it as A but when you get there, it's B and that was a common theme throughout the cruise when it came to entertainment. If they REALLY wanted to create a Miami vibe with house or edm or if they really wanted to blast the top off volume wise, how about some David Guetta? Or Aoki? Or Calvin Harris? No. We got Biggie and Aretha. If you want to hear the difference between what they sell and what the real thing is, just go to youtube and enter any of those names and get a load of what it COULD be. I think Celebrity knows that true Miami DJ music would be outright rejected by its passengers so they say it's that to appear "modern."

 

 

 

I agree with you 100%, thanks for sharing your thoughts. As a dreaded millennial :o whose already been on many cruise, I applaud Celebrity's new direction in entertainment. With that said, it sounds like the execution could still use some work as you described. If Celebrity can deliver more of a true "Miami vibe" and better nightlife in general they will be more competitive for our business going forward. We will be on Reflection this time next year with a multigenerational family group, so I'm hoping they refine the offerings as little bit (and find some darn glassware...) by next December.

Anthem offered cool towels and water on her first Caribbean sailing. It was a nice touch, as I don't remember that on prior RCI cruises.

I like the more inclusive package marketing that Celebrity (and NCL for that matter) have moved to. While there's no such thing as a free lunch as the cliche goes, I've been booking cruises long enough to know / calculate that the included beverage packages (in particular) are usually an excellent deal for us. I hope RCI starts offering more inclusions in the U.S.

Thanks for the quick reply.

 

Harmony just got more interesting :D

...maybe for some.

I would have loved to see them try DD from scratch with the space allocated for the Oasis Class MDR. Just speculating, but I have my suspicions that it may have worked quite well in that footprint.

I thought NCL had a better, more fun "vibe".

We have the same feelings, although I think some of it comes down to the crowd that BA attracts. We often just felt like we were out in NYC. Very active nightlife with a lively and fun crowd. Lots of drinking but people could handle their alcohol. Definitely a different "vibe" on the ship, although it isn't an apples to apples comparison to my Anthem cruise because we had a very old crowd on a longer sailing. I've seen more active crowds in the past on Explorer, but still nothing quite like BA.

I thought about about it that but didn't suggest it. I could only imagine the tipping threads that would create. "I never get the human, I only got the robot and they had no personality". Following that would come the discussions about more fuel consumed to generate the power to charge the robots, which in turn would increase the fares to pay for the extra bunker.

 

The robots and servers might have no emotion, but the boards here would have animation.:D

IMHO it would be worth it just to see those threads on CC :D

I don't know where all this negativity comes from, but I've cruised almost 50 times and have NEVER had a bad cruise. Anthem is my favorite ship and anyone thinking about booking her should definitely do it.

Agreed! (And nearly 82 cruises between us lol)

 

Maybe they should forget the Bionic Bars and look at a way of helping wait staff and not turn them into "robots".

Or create some new "Bionic Kitchen Runners" that keep food warm and have big smiles on their robot faces. ;) Wouldn't need any additional crew cabins!

Our cruise is 3 months away. I keep checking every day but I am encountering the same things you are.

NS reservations didn't open until about two weeks out for my Anthem sailing if memory serves me, FYI. Not sure if it opened any later for subsequent sailings.