Chefwoody

So does the average (non-signature suite) person still have to run up to sign up?

Does anyone know it you still have to run up to the sanctuary to reserve?  Also is there still smoking allowed in the casino?

Hi D,  The entire Sanctuary was booked up about 2 hours after boarding started.  The cabanas - and many of the lounge chairs - often went unused at various times during the cruise.  We saw a cabana that never had anyone using it.  That's another problem with the system in my opinion.  Ideally if you're not going to use it (on a whim) than it should be made available to someone else for that time period. Take it off their bill for that day and sublet it to someone who REALLY would appreciate it.   Sadly it seems there are people with money to burn and little self awareness.  But honestly it's just a spendier version of what goes at every pool, the other half just clip towels to lounge chairs around the pool area at 6am, then arrive at noon to claim there claimed spot.  I've often wondered if I could rent myself as a lounge chair "holder" for a person or two - could pay for my cruise :).

We used the Sanctuary all but one day (afternoons 1pm - 6pm).  Usually left around 4:30.  Super super nice for privacy and peacefulness.  During World Cup (soccer) we were able to watch some of the games on one of the empty cabanas (they have flat screen tv's among other amenities).  Food was pretty "spa-ish" but really limited in selection.  Every afternoon around 3pm they bring a full "tea" service around - tea sized sandwiches & sweets - coffee or tea.  Really nice and at just the right time of day.  Service - as everywhere on board - was really slow.  The Retreat pool is very close (one floor down) and offers a bar and smaller pool.  Not too crowded and no kids.  All in all worth the effort to sprint up and get a spot on day one.

We were on last week too.  Mini suite (A215).  No noise issues on our end.  However on another note, we recently adopted a white noise machine for travel and at home.  Our son turned us onto it.  Wasn't sure I'd like it - in fact I was sure I wouldn't - but now I'm a fan.   But like I said, up where we were it wouldn't have mattered, we were undisturbed.  But don't get me going about the smoking in the casino... Grrrrrr.

Just wrapped up our first post Covid cruise on Sky Princess.  Management and I needed a sunny brain brake so picked a rather last minute Eastern Caribbean route on Sky.  Grabbed a mini suite near the front. We've never just "relaxed" on the ship before, so we opted for one dive excursion in St. Thomas and nothing in St. Maarten.  Here's our brief observations:

Crew: TIRED.  Nobody works harder than a cruise ship employee, but post Covid it - as it is everywhere in the entertainment industry - is much much worse.  Our room steward was amazing (as usual) and we saw no issues there.  But the restaurants and bars were extremely slow and the staff looked beat.  

   Again - no bitching here, just honest observations.  

Food: This sadly was another disappointment.  And, I suppose could also be due to crew/employee shortages.  But in all of my Princess cruise experiences this was the saddest.  Main dining was about the same - but SO SLOW!.  Food about average.  The real let downs were where you paid for the food.  Crown Grill: tough meat, poor menu selection - slow service.  Sabatini's: over cooked meat - slow service.  Ocean Terrace (sushi): I've seen better cafeteria sushi menus and effort - but- good service, small lines.  Bistro: best food of the lot, but slow service and small portions.  Sanctuary: Needs a new menu!.

Entertainment: We're not big show folks, but the comedian was fun, the musical not so much.  The rest was pretty much Princess standard fare.

Casino: OMG Princess.... STOP THE SMOKING!!!  I mean honestly.. THIS IS A NO BRAINER!.  Give those wishing to die a specially vented room to do so in.  Save us who'd otherwise spend more money in your casino from all the stink and cancer of second hand smoke. Smokers reading this - Save it!.

Fitness Center:  Still very nice.  But they really need a water bottle filling option.  All they have is one drinking fountain that you can't fill from.  Really what they (and all cruise lines) need is filtered water bottle stations around the ship and perhaps some well logo'd water bottles as part of your welcome aboard package.  Add it to the cost - I don't care if I know I'm saving the world from that many more disposable plastic water bottles - and there were a TON on this cruise.

Room - We had a forward mini suite (A215) and it was fine.  Room steward (Boris) was top notch!.  Had aft suites in the past and honestly they never did figure out the soot problems on ALL the back suites on this class of ship... so this round we didn't feel super guilty watching our poor room steward scrubbing the black soot marks out of the carpets and furniture.  Bed was amazing as usual - read some mixed reviews on this, but this was our opinion on this cruise/suite.

Extras: Because our goal was "down time" I made it my goal to sprint to the Sanctuary (as it's only first come first serve for reservations - and - cruisers turning around from the prior cruise often take up a good number of the spots there).  Here is another area needing some attention.  I'm fortunate enough to have early boarding status and overall good health.  The "sprint" up to deck 18 to stand in line to secure a couple spots in the Sanctuary was not impossible - but no less irritating.  I'd love to be able to pay for a class of suite that automatically gives me that comfort & privacy option.  We like the smaller lines for this option, but Celebrity does a great job here on their Edge class ships.  We did the Enclave package and loved that as well.  Never very crowded and always refreshing.

Overall a fine cruise.  Who knows what will happen in the next year.  Cruise lines are back in swing and the world wants a vacation.  More ships, more people.  More pollution.   Ports are full and people are... well people are people.  I'll stop there as that tact is another post all together.

Many thanks!!

Forgot… speaking of Sky Princess

Greetings all!

  Planning my boarding cardio adventure - Me: up to the sanctuary to get my wife and I a spot.  Wife: off to the spa to get enclave reservations.  

  Question: what deck do we board on?.  

Thanks to all.

Greetings all!

  What time in the morning does the fitness room open on Sky Princess?  Thanks in advance for responses.

In many ways smoking is just another form of gambling… roll those dice you smokers you.  Though I am really tired of Princess not dealing with this yet.  Set up smoking areas that isolate those wishing to die - sorry I mean smoke in peace.  Let all wishing to live life a bit further fill your coffers with (our) money!.  We’ll be around longer and you’ll make more in the long run.  Go ahead smokers… vent if you must, but in the end clean(er) air will prevail. 

I’m aware that my wife & I can bring one bottle of wine each onboard with us (with no corking fee if we savor them in our cabin).  But if I want to purchase one (or more) for consumption in our cabin - is it overly expensive?.  Easy?.  What can you share with us?.  Many thanks in advance for your thoughts.

We have a stop in St. Maarten coming up in December.  We’ve been there a couple times (both on cruises) but have always been part of an excursion of some kind.  This trip we’re just “hanging out”.  Not fond of the cheesy port stores/shopping,  but a nice beach would be nice.  Or an interesting hike perhaps?.  Great food?.  What have you done while in port at St. Maarten that you’d recommend we try?.  

I'm trying to work through the Medallion app process.  We are "green lane" ready and 29 days out.  One help rep (after the usual 45 minutes on hold) emailed me a pdf showing how to work through the Arrival and Departure Groups in the "Easy SailAway" segment of the app.  But... it does not exist on my app - anywhere.  My next help call (another 50 minute wait) told me she did not know what the other help agent was talking about, but suggested I call the loyalty department - now closed of course - tomorrow.  Does it just pop up at a certain time (on the app) prior to sailing?.  Any help hear appreciated.  We are Platinum members and all paid up.  

Still no posts (one way or the other) on whether or not Princess solved the black soot issues on the Royal class ships aft suites.  Royal & Regal both still suffer from the greasy soot that sticks to your feet and follows you into the suite daily.  I'd sure appreciate hearing from any and all who have or are sailing Sky reporting in on this.  

Sky seems to have very few posts regarding her aft suites.  Sister ships Royal and Regal both suffer from soot accumulating on the decks (and subsequently being tracked into the room).  Anyone sailing her recently have intel on that?.  I'm thrilled they brought back the aft adult pool.  So nice to watch the fan tail while looking out over the edge of the pool.  But the soot on the glorious aft corner suites is a game killer.  Kind of surprised there's be no mention of it yet.  Anyway... any and all feed back welcome - But please, keep it related to Sky Princess.  Thanks.  

My final review will be posted later... I usually post daily and have fun with it.  BUT... Celebrity has a VERY long way to go as a customer friendly company.  Our Edge crew and ship experience was overall.. pretty good... but  inevitably hampered by Celebrities disconnected (land) reservations service and the information they fed me and my long time travel agent (no rookie there!).  She often called me back in total frustration after an hour or more phone call with Celebrity's folks.  We never felt confident of our reservations or excursions.  What you'd like to happen on your vacation is a "baton hand off" where you sprint to the finish line (after a year long run of setting stuff up)  and in the end you board the ship and it all coasts to the finish.  You actually relax ALL week.  No, I joined the line to our suite concierge - who later knew me by name on arrival as did I her.  At one point we got a reservation card on our door for Chefs Table that was for 7:45pm 12/22 - TODAY on the day we leave the ship!!.  Really?!.  To our concierge managers credit (MOR) she set things right while shaking her head at the TOTAL disconnect within the system.  Again.. nice trip.. WAY too much effort once onboard.. but I LOVE the folks onboard.  Film at 11.
 

Bo1953... were you on this last cruise (12/15)??  I am a HUGE fan of your posts and truly appreciate your "level" posts.  I'd love to share a beverage with you some day.  As you know, my recent cruise was challenging.. but the ship and her crew were fantastic.  Film at 11. 🙂

Celebrity is SO disconnected at this point.  Their call in reps say one thing and the ship (Edge) says another.  Just (literally today) off Edge had aft Sky suite.  Very nice suite.  Certainly not an infinite veranda - set our adult kids up in those.  Small but nice.  Actually our aft suite was small compared to say Princess, but nice.  We shared a deck with one of our kids (and Grandchild) and the total space felt very nice.  My follow up post on Celebrity/Edge will follow in the next couple days.  This was our first experience with Celebrity and I followed Edge from her keel laying on.  I have much to say.

I think the thing for Celebrity (the company) to understand here is that next time I'm thinking about finding a relaxing vacation for myself & management or the whole family, my memories of the stress trying to make this cruise work will forever point me to other companies.  The ship herself is nice!.  Amazing, no.  As a new concept (on many levels) I'm ok with that.  But how fast they address things is key.  They've spent an inordinate amount of time trying to get us to upgrade "stuff".  Cabin upgrade "auctions" were emailed to all of us prior to sailing.  For $59 a day per person I could upgrade the rest of my family to "some" suite class privileges... like use of the over crowded Retreat Sun deck.  Hanging chairs (badly in need of repair) hang over a tiny pool that so far has had most every lounge chair claimed (mostly by books, flip flops or hat - but no actual people) before 10am.  Winds on this trip so far have been enormous!.  The main pool area has been too windy to sit at much less swim in. The Retreat pool (suite guests only) while up top and in front of the ship had modest wind protection.  Worked for awhile anyway.

  Having no Chefs table last night we were far too late to find any dining times within reason at any of the ship restaurants.  The room service menu is quite slim - so off to the food court to eat with the crew we went.   It was fine... I'm just brooding.  Sorry.

  The gym on the ship is nicely appointed and surprisingly popular.  Not something we've seen on our other cruises ... film at 11

Puska: We tried to link the bookings in the beginning (online) but failed.  Originally I wanted to simply put down my credit card and let the family book their excursions, specialty meals etc.. as time went on.  But no, it couldn't be that easy.  Then there was the rush to get 8 people seated together.  Because "management" and I are in a suite, we had options they didn't.

  Whenever things got messy I'd call in - wait about 45 minutes - and speak to a Celebrity rep who seemed to fumble through it about as poorly as I had and would usually end up apologizing and saying I'd need to take care of it on the ship.

Earlier I started what usually is my "happy" topic thread related to our cruise(s).  We're (I have 8 family members in 4 cabins - ours being a suite) on day two of our family cruise and the events of the day have forced me to change tones and vent my TOTAL frustration with Celebrity as a brand/company.  We started planning this trip when they were laying Edge's keel.  I've followed every part of the build and her first full year of sailing (much via CC) and have been chatting up the family for a full year.  We literally could not wait to plan our first full family trip together.  Our experience with Princess and Regent has been easy and flawless.  But Edge was a "must try".  This is when the story changed.  Celebrity as a "set things up" company SUCKS!!.  Sounds so bad, but sadly so true.  At no time have we had ANY CONFIDENCE with the uncertain answers to questions posed to their help desk (via land or online).  I also had the assistance of my long time travel agent who openly stated Celebrity had the worst customer service she'd ever experienced.  On one call she was told YES on the next call she was told NO to the same question.  Many times we were told we'd have to address issues on the ship as they could not answer (basic) questions on their behalf.  

  So in advance I will tell all that the crew & staff onboard have been exceptional!.  Faced with questions they cannot answer they do their best.  

  I teach at a culinary school.. so to me the food thing counts.  I'm not a food snob but I count consistency and service as a rule.  When I cook or am in charge of a meal (as on this cruise with the Chefs Table) I'm accountable and it matters.  To set this issue with Celebrity up further.. I wanted to treat my whole (extended) family to a cruise.  Could I do it on one reservation and on credit card?!!! NO!!!!.  That meant that all excursions and "pay for meals" had to be dealt with through Celebrities worthless and HUGELY time consuming system by each of my family members.  Which of course so far has failed!.  So way back in June we as a family got on our individual computers and tried to grab the coveted Chef's Table dinner reservation.  Stated to be a ONE TIME event with limited reservations.  Four out of seven of us received confirmations.  All remaining efforts received stalled responses until timed out - meaning no affirmation that the "Table" was full.  Calls to customer service gave multiple conflicting answers.  YES or NO Celebrity!!!.  We have our two year old grand daughter for the first vacation (which of course we wanted to be the best ever) and we asked if a crib was available - answer YES.  Well guess what, YES means they have an infant crib available which can handle up to a 3 month old!,.  THEY WERE TOLD A TWO YEAR OLD!.  ARE YOU GUYS ON ROBO CALL CUSTOMER SERVICE??!.  We met one other couple with the same problem.  We BUILT a mock bed/crib out of spare mattress's and some pillows.  SO GHETTO!.  BUT.. Lucy our room gal and our butler (Arsim) made it happen and she's sleeping.. well .. like a baby :). 

  My wife & I had confirmation.  My oldest son (traveling single) and my youngest son's girl friend (but not him) as well.  My wife and I decided to pass ours to our middle son & wife while we baby sat our grand baby (looked forward to it actually).  Months in the making we had it all planned out.  BUT NOoooo!.  Today we all received confirmation cards that had totally different dates and times for the Chefs Table.  Supposedly a one time cruise event.  One even had 12/22 that is the day we pull back into Fort Lauderdale.  And none had tonight which was our originally scheduled night and was stated so on ALL of our Celebrity phone reservation apps.  Off to the main office I went.  They took a look at all of our different date confirmation cards (the type they send to your room to confirm all your events) and shook their heads.  Thank God they aren't all crazy I thought.  They see what I see. BUT WHY ONLY HERE AND WHY ONLY NOW!!!.  

  A gal named Mars and the suite consierge (sp?) folks took my case to "court" and as of now (10pm) we've moved all of our reservations around and found one day that works to get my most important family into my most impressive culinary event (I hope).  Thanks to all the SHIP representatives ON Celebrity.  OMG..!! Celebrity corporate... PULL YOUR HEADS OUT OF YOUR A@@"S!!.  Fix this thing you think works.  Get your ship & office/customer service people on the SAME page.  Perhaps contact Princess Cruise line or Regent on how to do that... because I will be sailing with them again.  And the $25K I spent here will happily go there.  However... as to the ship itself. Edge is wonderful and its crew great as well...if it were managed by an actually professional company I might reconsider.  

  When one considers a vacation for the family, one does not want to stress after paying the bill.  DO YOU HEAR ME CELEBRITY!!??. FIX IT!!!

Early start to our first sea day.  So to finish day one's first impressions I'll bullet point:

- boarding - AMAZING.  Suite class gave us expedited boarding via a cushy lounge area.

                     Once on board it was easy to find our cabin.  Some luggage had already arrived!

-aft Sky suite (corner) - Very nicely appointed.  Just enough interior room to feel comfy.

                     Great deck space which became greater as we opened the door between our Boston 

                     clans adjoining Sunset veranda cabin.  Super nice is we also have a common entry

                     alcove with a common main door leading to the hallway.  Overall it feels like a two room

                     apartment.

-food - I'll be all over this one, but the food court was standard fare (compared to Princess) and that's

            not bad at all.  Dinner at the Roof Top Grill was very windy.  We have a two year old in clan so

           dinners are early.  But blankets were provided and happily received by all (but me and my youngest 

           sons girl friend).  Food was perfect.  For our group of eight a bit of everything was sampled. All left

           satisfied. 

Entertainment: Night time on this ship is incredible!.  SO colorful!.  Not loud lighting (if you've been

          to a disco (no, you don't have to admit it) then you know what I mean.  As advertised Edge

          blends technology with art in a very eye teasing way.  Very fun!.  Casino was better than most - 

          no smoking!.  I could actually breathe in a casino.. go figure.  Didn't seem to up the odds though...

Sum of day one: We are all so thrilled to be here on this ship.  It's been over a year of build up and so far

          it has lived up to our expectations. Yes yes, there may be warm sunny weather clouding our

          judgement.  Perhaps even a foofy drink (or two), but when setting up a vacation for eight people

         (four cabins) so many things can go wrong.  I will elaborate near the end, but Celebrity is horribly

         discombobulated in the reservations and customer service department (land not sea).  If you

         need a question answered be prepared to wait on the phone for a long time and receive at least

         two answers - conflicting answers to be sure.  Yes, they're happy you called, and your call is very

         important to them... guess we'll just give you as many answers as we can and say good day.  Brother!

Next ...The aft corner Sky suite itself.  Nice.  Small by comparison to Princess, but nice.  Dollar for Dollar... guess I need to finish the cruise first, but for the $ ??? not ready to weigh in.  

  Today has been overly long and I am exhausted.  I believe I'll fill this in better tomorrow.  Will add the crew has been amazing!.  Always makes the whole experience great. 

... sorry.. to finish... if you need a crib..NOT AN INFANT CRIB (ie under 3 months) BRING YOUR OWN!  OR .. at least see if they've address this yet.  Today.. nope.  My son built a sudo bed/crib out of pillows and stuff to make it work - film at 11.  To be open.. we asked for a crib for our 2 YEAR OLD about 3 months in advance.  Not one option exists on the ship today.  Parents be warned