Jimmym1981

18 hours ago, Giraffes said:

I am booked for February 2025. It does not show any DBE perks under add-ons on the app.

Same for our Feb cruise in 2025. 

LOOOVE this review of all the food and drink options. Keep it coming! ❤️

35 minutes ago, George C said:

We were also diamond plus on rccl which would give us 5 percent discount, veterans get ten percent. Diamond status also gives you free specialty dinner.

We are Elite on Celebrity so that transferred to Gold now days. I think my discount for the cruise seemed to be 10% from what I could tell. Not sure how it worked out, but it averaged about that difference from our friends who do not have status. Maybe I did get a military discount? I'll check with my TA to see how he did all the deals. He is always working the system the best he can. Lol

35 minutes ago, George C said:

I just gave my travel agent my dd214 and they made me diamond this was a few years ago, and they again gave me ten percent off for our December cruise, I was only in army two years.

Thanks for the heads up. I’ll see what can be done about it. A few weeks ago, my agent tried and was denied. I still got a good discount on my Celebrity status match so can't complain too much.  

23 hours ago, George C said:

Not new news but can’t wait to sail from Galveston, love yacht club, we are sailing week after thanksgiving from Miami this year , will most likely book week after thanksgiving in 2025 from Galveston in a yacht club of course. I posted something about this a month ago on cruise critic gulf coast .

 

Msc also offers veterans 10 percent discount, just show them your DD214

Will they stack this on top of the Gold Discounts? We tried the DD214 and they said only active or retired. 

37 minutes ago, SunriseCoffee said:

We booked the first sailing in 2025 as well. I created a roll call.

 

Hopefully the new port will be ready as planned with everything working smoothly. 

Fingers crossed! I didn’t even think about that aspect. I’ll also join the roll call!

1 hour ago, Bgwest said:

We are booked on an April 2026 sailing out of Galveston so I hope your Nov 2026 isn’t the first one!!

Oh shoot. 2025! lol. 

On 2/7/2024 at 7:43 PM, deliver42 said:

We're booked on the Seascape out of Galveston for Nov, 2026

Same! Nov 9th first sailing there!

Just got off the Reflection 2 weeks ago and after speaking with the Casino staff, you can setup an account on a slot machine and if you want, cash out after playing a spin. However, you will be locked out from depositing any more OBC after since you did not play 50% of the OBC on the machine. I did not know this and was locked out, so I went and got the "Celebrity" chips from the Cashier which you have to play or lose...you cannot cash them out, only the winnings. I played $100 on red and got $100 cash back to cash out. Hope this helps!

4 minutes ago, Cinders411 said:

Us too! We have never really considered MSC until now.  We are taking a cruise in May and trying out the Yacht Club as we got a good price. The prices for Royal & Celebrity seem to be climbing. I was concerned about MSC after watching some YouTube videos but am feeling more confident now. Happy sailing! 

If you are Yacht Club, I hear it's absolutely amazing. Unfortunately, the price just isn't justified on our end and we really wouldn't use all of the amenities. From what I read about the YC, it's an absolute amazing experience. 

I just want to swing by here and THANK you for this thread. We do a lot of Celebrity cruises (non retreat) and have no interest in Yacht Club on MSC. We enjoy cruising and always book an interior cabin because we are hardly in it and simply like being on the water.

We were looking to try other cruise lines as Celebrity has really ramped up their prices for what you get whether Retreat or non Retreat cruiser. We ended up deciding to give MSC a try and booked the SeaScape for November. Of course, all we have read is the "horrible" experiences online that started to make us re-think MSC - mixed in with people who enjoy it. However, after reading this thread, we feel like we have to give MSC at least a shot...especially for the price of 1/2 of what Celebrity is charging for the same thing. 

Glad to see you enjoyed your cruise and thank you for giving a play by play of everything. 

All in all, these wine prices are astronomical whether, Zenith, Suite, aqua, etc. We set sail next month on the Reflection as Elite Plus (only stating because we have cruised a lot on Celebrity), but these changes are already insane over the past 6 months. The new wine menu blows my mind that most of the wines I used to drink aren’t even covered on the Premium package anymore.  It’s like they are pushing everyone to have to buy an AI or stay in a Aqua+ cabin. 

I encourage everyone to write of their displeasure if you feel the same. 

24 minutes ago, -The-True-North- said:

VV has now lost it's luster for me now.

The price is what got my attention.

 

Their service is the same I've had on any ship. (cabin attendant making the beds, servers serving and are polite and bartenders making drinks). Happenings cast is the only real difference, and I am indifferent to them. I do enjoy trivia tho.

 

Definitely glad I was able to do a few on the cheap, but think we are doing Celebrity from here on out. To repetitive, been there done that.

 

Egar to hear what you have to say when you come back, so I hope you'll let us know.

 

Hope you enjoy your trip.

We have a Celebrity cruise next month on the 28th - I'll make sure to respond back on how it was. We've never really had a "bad" cruise on Celebrity...actually all quite amazing. The only one that I have a small gripe about was our Med one on the Edge last September. The ship was only half full (1600 ppl) and it definitely felt a bit light all around with staff, service, and food. Nothing to truly complain about though as we had a wonderful time.

Our VV that we booked for next year was around $2200 for a Terrace (6 night) with the MNVV certificate $600 sailor loot, so the price was hard to pass up. To put it in perspective our AI Celebrity Reflection cruise we booked this past May for next month was $2150 for an inside room Guarantee. Both of these same cruises are well past the $3000 mark now with all the perks included. It is really hard to justify these prices when we were sailing on Celebrity pre-pandamic for all under $2000 for 9 night ABC cruises. 
 

On 12/19/2023 at 11:48 PM, Fogcityca13 said:

I’ve been pricing out a few Celebrity itineraries now that the cost is close to VV’s new prices. It’s hard to beat the number of itinerary options Celebrity has, especially for me on the US west coast. It’s not worth the hassle of flying to Miami for the short 4-5 day trips VV is offering. Hopefully when Brilliant launches we have more options in the US market. 

We have been avid Celebrity sailors for over 7 years. Recently over the past year, the prices also went through the roof. To me, it just seems that Virgin is the last person to catch up to these changes. Thankfully we booked our first 6 night Dec 13th before the "new sale" that kicked in on the 14th. Prices of our Terrace went up $800 overnight. 

16 hours ago, phoenix_dream said:

Gibson's in downtown Chicago - Decoy Cab is $15 a glass.  Celebrity now $19 a glass.  26% higher on Celebrity.  And the big thing, to me, is that the premium package is very expensive and many people (me included) would purchase it primarily to have a bit higher quality wine with dinner.  And we are not even talking really high quality wines - we are talking wines we can buy retail for less than $20 a bottle.  To offer wines on the premium package which sell for around $10 a bottle at home is insulting to say the least.

Heck, a Grey Goose dirty martini at Gibsons in Chicago is cheaper than a glass of Decoy on Celebrity. 

We have a sailing on the Reflection next month and I too am worried about all these changes. We sailed on the Edge last September 2022 and we could already see the lack of this and that...and the ship was only half full. We booked 4 deposits for future cruises and have now transferred 2 of them to friends. We liked the Edge, but prefer the Soltice class ships better. I took notes and will compare to our experience. More than 12 cruises on Celebrity that were incredible, but the last one was already showing signs of downgrade. Fingers crossed it's just temporary, but I do not feel like that.

We were looking at the Sun Pricess this coming Fall and might try that one out to see the difference. We also have a Virgin Voyages scheduled for Feb 2025 to give them a shot. If Celebrity doesn't step back up to becoming "a step above" they are going to lose a lot of loyal customers - especially with a lot of lines doing status match. 

Thanks for the great and detailed review. 

32 minutes ago, cantgetin said:

I'd love to, but there is no PM function on CC and we are absolutely forbidden from sharing info about agents.  The underlying issue is that Cruise Critic IS a travel agency.  You can go to various threads on other social media sites and share information that way (you don't have to be booked on a particular cruise date to join a thread for that date and ask questions.....

Ok that makes perfect sense. No worries at all and I appreciate your response. 

On 12/14/2023 at 9:52 PM, cantgetin said:

They are idiots.  That's why I use a Gold Tier travel agent.  And my agent sends me a screen shot of her accounting and any perks I am supposed to have "just in case."

Could you PM me your agents information?

Agreed. Prices are substantially higher now than before on all cruise lines…even pre-pandemic. We used to sail Royal (10x) then we switched to Celebrity (8+ cruises) because we wanted a difference experience. However, with the recent insane Celebrity price hikes, removal of gratuities, drink price hikes, and slow decline of food and service on our last cruise, we decided to book a VV to give it a shot. 
 

Thankfully the agent we have passed along a MNVV cert and told us to book before the 13th because they expected that prices were going to rise. I'm glad we did. Our regular Terrace went up $800 alone over night and dropped higher bar credits. Looking back, I wish I would've locked in a few cruises, but hindsight...

Either way, looking forward to our first VV cruise and hopefully the market will settle so we all can continue to sail! 

27 minutes ago, micruiser2002 said:

Yes but I have read that they all share the same kitchen and it is possible to order from any of the other restaurants their "special" dishes.

Oh, that’s great to know and makes sense. I didn’t even think about that aspect. 

On 10/9/2023 at 7:14 PM, micruiser2002 said:

I thought it did not really matter because you are able to order from any of the other restaurants?

Each of the 4 restaurants have a stagnant mini menu (approx 4 items) that is tailored to it's theme. Then, the remainder of the menu is the same in all 4 venues that rotates each night. 

We tried all 4, but we kept going back to the Cosmopolitan. There was something about the embiance that we loved...plus the waiter was one of our favorites as well. 

1 hour ago, hankandteri said:

By way of contrast, John Heald just posted last night’s menu from the Carnival Luminosa MDR. Compare this to any of the X menus posted on this thread and it will become immediately apparent why so many here are unhappy with the present state of Celebrity’s  MDRs.. 

Wow. Yeah, our Edge cruise last September had an amazing menu in the MDR. Each night a different kind of carpaccio, meats, fishes...etc. The new menu I am seeing is very lacking of variety each night. Now, this CCL menu is definitely eye-opening indeed. I'm curious to see/hear about what feedback Celebrity has had in regards to their new MDR menu. 

2 hours ago, cruisemom42 said:

 

If I recall correctly, you actually have to call them. Like a real, live phone call. 😉

Good to know. I'll give them a buzz tomorrow to make the reservation. I have no problem giving them a call! The online says it opens 30 days ahead so maybe come Sept 1st a new block with open. Either way, appreciate all the assistance. 

On 8/14/2022 at 6:48 PM, CRUIS4ME said:

Just made a reservation for Armando By the Pantheon.   Thanks for recommending…hope it is delicious!   

How did you go about making the reservation? It seems online doesn't work at all since there are no days free on the calendar at all. We are going to be there in October and would love to visit as well.