aggiejd2000

I have mixed feelings about buffets. I get that some like the ability to have a casual meal and be able to pick and choose what they want. We occasionally eat at OVC for late breakfast. My qualm really to do with food waste and I wince whenever I see the incredible amount wasted. I'm sure X is concerned about the costs. I don't know how to strike a balance between those competing factors. Maybe a more limited buffet, like a salad, pasta, and pizza bar, and sides, along with a carving station and some cooked to order stuff?

We cruised with X three times this year, once in Concierge Class and two times in Aqua Class. We found the entrees in MDR to be unacceptable. The steaks were not cooked correctly. Almost all the proteins were constantly accompanied by carrots, broccoli, and potatoes. Don't ever get any dessert called a crumble because it's never baked correctly. It's always pale. Blu is better than the MDR. If you like fish, you'll be pleased with Blu. I was always happy with any seared tuna dish I ordered rare. The other fish dishes came out with crispy skin, most of the time. The veggie sides were more varied. The steaks were cooked correctly. Blu has its own kitchen so I'm not surprised that the quality control is better than the MDR. That, plus the variety, makes Blu a step up from the MDR. We haven't specialty dined for quite a while since X bumped up the prices significantly. But on the Reflection, we tried The Porch one evening. It was $30/pp and we paid an extra $15 for the "seafood tower." Anyone who's actually ordered a seafood tower at a seafood restaurant would not call what we received a seafood tower. We got a platter with one small lobster tail that was split in two, some shrimp cocktail that's normally served elsewhere, some quarter--sized scallops, some mussels, and some chopped up seafood mix. We ordered the lobster roll and no one who's ever had an actual lobster roll would call that a lobster roll. There were tiny bits of lobster mixed with lots of mayo and celery and onions. We also ordered steamed mussels but they were not fresh but mussels that were in a half shell. The tuna tartare was passable but the wanton chips were stale. The hamachi crudo was the best of the dishes we ordered. The desserts were not good. After the mandatory tip, we paid about $85 for a dinner that was not much better than what we could have eaten at Blu. The ambiance was nice but that was about it. If our experience at The Porch is representative, I don't think we'll be spending any money at the specialty dining restaurants. Fellow passengers have also told us that the specialty restaurants aren't worth it. TLDR: No, I don't think that X is decreasing food quality to push people into specialty dining because specialty dining doesn't seem much better. Rather, it seems to be more an issue of cost savings and staffing shortages.

And they don't care about the people who play at the poker cash game. We played there every night on the last two cruises and the table was always full. X took a 10% rake per hand up to $25 and we probably averaged 20-25 hands an hour. The casino host on Solstice was super friendly and apologetic about the fact that X didn't care about us but the host on Reflection never even acknowledged our existence.

We've been on RCL and NCL. Too many people and too many children. We don't have kids so those lines weren't for us. And we also thought the food was sub par. We started cruising with X (which was about 10 years ago). In the beginning, we thought X was excellent. After a several year hiatus, we sailed with X post-pandemic and found the food in the MDR to be unacceptable. However, we tried X twice more but in Aqua and enjoyed the food in Blu more. It's still not quite to the level we'd like but it's better. I've looked into other lines for more refined food and enrichment experiences, like Oceania and Viking Ocean, but as I mentioned, we want more than just that.

We have our frustrations with X and are O-curious for the better food, enrichment, and smaller ports. However, we like having a broader age demographic, a bustling casino, and livelier evenings. We feel like Goldilocks because we can't seem to find a line that checks off all the boxes for us.

Booking a cruise on their website is pretty easy and so is buying excursions and add-on's but that's about it. If you need to change something as simple as your email address, it's pathetic. I've been trying to do that online and it's impossible. Their main site purports to allow you to change your email but apparently that only changes some emails they send you. I kept getting some emails to my old email address so I clicked on the "change preferences" link at the bottom of the email. But the space where I can change my email is grayed out and won't allow me to input a different email. So I'm on hold forever to try to get a rep to sort things out. What a waste of time.

Thanks. I have tried searching here, as well as googling but didn't find anything that was particularly clear.

How much does a person need to play on table games in order to get rated from Pearl to Onyx, i.e., 1-2500 tier points? The BCC flyer says 8 tier points for every $1 theo on table games but I'm not sure how that works.

Can you explain how it works? So if I buy $200, I get an extra $20 in promotional credits. But how does that work? Is it all added to your seapass and you go to the machine? Or do you go to the cashier and they give you $200 in cash and $20 in some sort of promotional credit? If it's all on the seapass card, can the cash be segregated from the promotional credit so that if I just wanted to play the promotional credit, I could do that and not play the cash, if that's possible? Or do I have to play the entirety of the $200+$20? Sorry for all the questions. Thanks so much!

This past July, we wanted to see if stepping up to suites was worth it on E-Class and I booked the least expensive one I could find for 2023 that fit our schedule. It was for July 2023, 7NT in a Magic Carpet Sky Suite out of Rome. I got it for $6740 with an extra $250 OBC on top of the usual $600 OBC from booking in the Retreat. Now, that same cabin is $9660. For next summer, that same itinerary, with $200 OBC is a whopping $10,476! We are already debating about whether we're going to go on the July 2023 one. $1000/nt is pretty steep already. I can't imagine paying even more than that.

No western bound Panama Canal cruise in 2025 😔 Maybe there will be one released later...

We scored a 10nt Edge sailing in a SV. Super excited, as we couldn't get an Edge sailing on the last email.

I'd take the 10 day too and wait to try AQ another time.

I called right away and got an Edge sailing on March 6th. The 3/17 was sold out and the rep told me that the Edge sailings were going fast.

I'm late to this thread and I tried to search for the answer to my question. If you purchase casino chips with your seapass card, it is charged to your cruise account and later coded to your credit card as travel expense and not as a cash advance? Thanks!

This was available last week on the Solstice.

We just got off the Solstice in Aqua Class and our attendant came by at least 2, and mostly 3, times a day.

We just sailed Solstice twice in five months. First time in Concierge Class, second time in Aqua Class, so we have a head-to-head comparison. The dining experience is an important part of the cruising experience for us. We ate every night in the MDR and in Blu for each sailing. We often tried to eat different dishes and tasted each other's to see what we thought. MDR Service: 7/10. Fixed seating. Our server was a super friendly guy. But often times, he just couldn't remember our preferences, nor did our plates come out as we ordered. For example, I didn't want the potatoes and didn't want them to go to waste so I'd say no potatoes. But they still came. Ambience: 7/10. It's a large, lovely dining room, befitting of a cruise ship. Food: 3/10. This is subjective, but for us, the food was a major letdown. The food in the MDR on our first cruise with Celebrity over a decade ago was amazeballs. To this day, we still talk about it. But the food in the MDR was poorly prepared and lacked imagination. Almost every protein entree came with steamed or sauteed carrots and broccoli, and a scoop of mashed potatoes. There was no interesting veggie in sight. The steak was thin and overcooked. It was sadness all around. Blu Service: 7/10. Open seating. Service depended on the section we were seated in. We called it the A-Team and the B-Team. The A-Team were top notch, remembered our names, were Johnny on the Spot. The B-Team tried but were inexperienced or distracted and didn't remember our names. Ambience: 8/10. Much smaller, like a restaurant. Tables are closer together. More intimate. Food: 7/10. Again, subjective. Not everything we ate at Blu was great but it definitely is a step up from the MDR. Larger selection of creative dishes and more veggies! Lighter options, like sauteed fish dishes and entree salads, and the sides are not just carbs. On the last night, I had an amazing ahi tuna, seared rare over a watercress salad with slivered red onions and caper berries tossed with a dijon vinaigrette. It was the best dish I ate all week and I'd happily eat it again and again. As you can tell, we much prefer Blu. We like the open seating and think we can make up for the service by requesting the station we like better. For us, we would not go back to the MDR on S-Class. If you're between regular veranda and AQ, go AQ if the cost difference is not big. If the cost difference is big, just go regular veranda and specialty dine if food matters to you. I'd avoid concierge class because we don't think the minor perks for CC is worth price difference.

We did the BCC upgrade for the Mexican Riviera cruise we just got off of. It was $20/pp per day. We were on the Solstice in June in Alaska in Concierge Class. We found the food in the MDR to be really disappointing. We were ready to jump to another cruise line when we were offered the complimentary veranda. We upgraded to AQ to see if we'd have a better experience, and we did! The cabin size is the same but you get the better shower and toiletries, which we enjoyed. You get free access to the Persian garden and all fitness classes, if that's your thing. I tried the Persian garden. I wouldn't pay for it but it's a nice free perk. Blu was a step up from the MDR. The food was better prepared and had more variety. The desserts are the same as the MDR (which are middling, except for the baked Alaska!) but we're not huge dessert fans so there was no loss there. It's open dining. That can be good or bad depending on who you get. We liked the flexibility of going whenever we wanted but there was some loss of personalized service. Blu is smaller and more intimate, which we liked. One section definitely had the A-team while the other section was the B-team (other diners noticed the same thing). The somm on the A-team was a total pro while the somm on the B-team was MIA. The server on the A-team remembered our names while the server on the B-team didn't. The manager of Blu was a total grump. For us, we felt the $20/pp per day was very reasonable and totally worth it.

Our offer came with veranda and we upgraded to Aqua. It didn't come with any perks.

Would you have to pay the corkage again?

We will be on Solstice over Thanksgiving week in Aqua class on a cruise only fare because we got the cabin through BCC. If we bring two bottles of wine on board, can we take them to Blu and have them serve some of it each night to us? If so, what would the corkage be and would it be charged per night?

We were underwhelmed when we were on the Solstice in June to Alaska. Our overall requirements for cruising are pretty simple. We just like a relaxing atmosphere. We don't need shows, live music, bars, pools, spas, etc. but when it comes to the food, our standards are high and we found the food in the MDR to be very disappointing. We felt the food in the MDR has declined since we first started cruising with Celebrity over a decade ago. We were thinking we needed to step up to suite class or try other lines known for food, like Oceania. However, we were lured back by offers from the BCC. We booked because we were able to upgrade to Aqua class and thought we'd give Blu a chance to see if the food experience is better.

@WheresWalter Thanks so much for review of your experience on the Scarlet Lady! We've been thinking about trying something different and are intrigued by VV. I just wish they had longer and more interesting itineraries, that would lure us right away. We'll continue to keep an eye on their offerings.

We did a NYE one in South America in 2017-2018. It was fun... until the ship got Norovirus. There were a number of children on board and let's just say that hygiene was not on the top of their list, esp. in the buffet. So we weren't that surprised when the ship announced the outbreak. The crew did their best, constantly wiping everything down. But they took away everything, all the books in the library, every salt and pepper shaker. We have cruises upcoming over Thanksgiving in the Mexican Riviera and Christmas in the Caribbean. We're crossing our fingers and hoping for the best. Two of our friends got Covid from their last two sailings.