Veinless

COVID has affected a lot of people’s tastebuds, they just don’t know it. 

15 minutes ago, zitsky said:

Cell service on a ship in the middle of the ocean is quite expensive.

I wasn’t sure if Celebrity sailed that far from the islands or if terrestrial service worked fine like it does in the Inside Passage. 

I’m debating getting wifi for the cruise.

Have folks managed to get decent cellular connectivity to regular Japanese providers while onboard, or does the ship sail far enough from land to make that a risky proposition?

Just the one butler now. It is how it used to be.

Of course, for some of us that had fully paid for that, Celebrity switched it to “a Retreat Team” to “provide better service” for a period, taking away the dedicated butler. 

Celebrity burned me there and lost a good amount of my business. I know they don’t care, so I get my satisfaction from calling our their lies and **** (and sailing elsewhere). 

I miss the retreat team taking care of me. My own fleet of butlers!

46 minutes ago, Elaine5715 said:

"Make them"?  

Yes. I’ve never noticed spontaneous dancing by waitstaff in any other line. You didn’t really think they aren’t instructed to did you? Sorry to burst your bubble!

Does Carnival still make its MDR serving staff dance during supper? That always turns me off from the MDR.

And the daily Indian item is almost always delicious.

They’ve burned us too many times so they aren’t our first choice for cruising any longer. 

I don’t even see any departures from New Orleans. Are you sure?

On 7/17/2024 at 2:26 PM, mahdnc said:

Here is the official Celebrity chart showing the allowable upgrades by ship class (link to the document).

 

 

According to the chart, the answer to your question should be "yes".

Guessing this has no impact on Guaranteed cabins?

Celebrity selling you one thing and giving you another is pretty much their standard practice. I mean they took away butlers from already paid guests without so much as an apology. 

On 7/9/2024 at 10:12 AM, canderson said:

While we're on the ice cream topic ... need a spotter out there aboard:

 

Some years ago, Celebrity made the most positively amazing cinnamon ice cream.  They were making it aboard, and using coarse ground Indonesian cinnamon.  Have never had better anywhere.  It had real intensity of cinnamon without the astringency that you find in recipes that try to beef it up with what I suspect is cinnamon oil.  Very, very smooth, but with lots of flavor.

 

Back in 2021 after the restart, we noted its absence after a week aboard, and asked when it would make 'the rotation'.  Sometimes it would only be offered during lunch in the Oceanview on a port day and we'd miss it.

 

We were told that they no longer had cinnamon, but they'd try to make us up a tray of it.  They tried twice, and in both cases, the result was nowhere near as good as the original recipe - which may have been lost?

 

So for those aboard in more current times ... do you see cinnamon ice cream anywhere?  If so, have you sampled it?

 

 

Had it this year on either Silhouette or Solstice. 

2 hours ago, rcrabb1513 said:

And for those flying check the airlines too.  I have re booked our flight, Chicago to Boston 2 times after price drops.

I’ve never had an airline grant a price reduction. 

And yes for beer!

Were folks onboard able to use regular cellular connectivity, or was it limited to the ship’s tower?

We find on our Alaska cruises through the inside passage we can use Canadian cell towers well enough to not need wifi onboard. 

On 5/23/2024 at 1:27 PM, Cap_D said:

Until they solve for the issue I describe in the below post from earlier today, I call BS on the enhancements.  

 

Celebrity should also apologize to every person who purchased Retreat and sailed during the period where Butlers were fired, the paid minibar explicitly enforced, etc.  And, one sous vide vacuum packed pre prepared chicken dish from a Boulud commissary doesn't make for an enhancement to the Luminae menu.  Also, still waiting for the promised Luminae room service breakfast menu that has consistently been promoted before booking for years and yet is entirely ignored by shipboard staff at all levels.

 

I don’t want an apology, but some gesture like compensatory captain’s club points would make me feel less bitter about the whole thing. They sold me something, changed what I was getting, and kept my money anyway. 
 

We have given up on booking suites on Celebrity. The value isn’t there and they pull the rug out from under you so trust is gone. 

31 minutes ago, jelayne said:

We are just off B2B 200+ so not included in CC lunch .  Also the number of B2B changing cabins was too much for attendants to handle so we had to totally pack up everything, including hanging items.  

We only had 50 or so in March and still no B2B lunch on Silhouette. 

I’m thinking there’s got to be a mistake. Here’s the March 28 excursion choices.

48 minutes ago, tscoffey said:

Jeju is day 8. Nagasaki is day 9.

Must be a mistake.

Nagasaki isn’t even on the list of stops on our March 2026 cruise. 

We’ve booked the Millennium for March 2026 and see a number of excursions in Nagasaki for the Jeju Island stop. How does that work? That’s a long tender…

23 minutes ago, patty1955 said:

Why do you suppose it had to be a male passenger?

Traditionally they wouldn’t have ever been pregnant. 

Any thoughts on sunset veranda vs regular for Japan?

When booking B2B in guarantee cabins, does Celebrity endeavour to keep you in the same cabin for both legs, or do you generally need to move on turnaround day?

No, we never did get any compensation. They gladly accepted our money and then reduced service without so much as a future credit.

We're done booking suites with Celebrity. I know they won't miss us, but we also won't grieve for what they've become. We get better value elsewhere.