prmssk

Maybe not, but their major competitors (other mass market lines) are making the same or even deeper cuts. They will likely lose some people to higher end lines, some others to land vacations. But I think they are going to gain some who are sick of the even deeper cuts happening on other lines.

Yes, you can share one package. As long as only one device is logged in at a time, you can log in and out of as many devices as you want. We had decent internet in November with the stream package. I can't speak to the surf package.

Ignoring the reality of the situation doesn't make it go away. It will be an issue for passengers, if cruise lines start folding. I still have a lot of cruising years left. I want these cruise lines to still be around years down the road. And no cruise line is making cuts that will upset their loyalty customers just because they want to. They are doing it because the consequences of not are worse. They may not be making decisions you or I agree with and they may not be transparent about those decisions but they are not making them just because.

I agree there is strength in advocating we all get what we bargained for. And we all want different things in our vacation so we should respect that everyone is going to prioritize different parts of the experience. I just think that advocacy goes a lot further when we make sure we also recognize the tough and unprecedented spot cruise lines are in. I fully agree that transparency is a huge issue here and that doesn't cost the cruise line anything. And balancing the negative changes with positive ones would go a long ways.

Non-refundable deposits have a $100 fee per person with the remaining returning to you in future cruise credit if you cancel. So yes, you could move it to a different cruise but you would likely lose $100 per person. I haven't seen the difference between the two fares that small lately but generally, we don't pay extra for a refundable deposit. I feel like that is betting against us going. And we personally so rarely have to cancel or move a cruise so I feel enough certainty to go with a non-refundable deposit. So the question is, do you want to pay $180 more for your cruise or risk losing $100 per person if something comes up?

The amount of debt, the year and a half of no revenue, another year plus of restrictions and lower demand where they weren't even breaking even.... none of this is something typical companies face.

That is assuming there are enough people like you willing to pay even more for that experience to make up for the loss of customers who choose not to book with Celebrity as the price goes up even more. I don't think it is as easy as just charging a bit more to avoid cuts. They need to also know that is what their market of customers collectively want. I'm not sure how much Celebrity can go and still retain enough customers. Just on this forum you have tons of complaints about how high Celebrity's prices are already with people talking about looking elsewhere. I've watched the cruise lines over the last year and a half knowing things couldn't be the same as they always were. Most companies don't recover from a year and a half of no revenue and then another year plus of low enough occupancy as to not break even. Just look at how many businesses in the US (and probably world wide) folded during the pandemic and none of them had that length of a shutdown. Carnival Corp brands (I sailed both Princess and Carnival in the last year) from the re-start made cuts. Their goal seemed to be to fill ships at whatever low price it took which meant cuts to the product. Some were noticeable and well advertised. Others were not. For example, Princess went to a lot of already pre-made sauces that couldn't be modified. The average cruiser probably didn't notice but those of us with dietary restrictions found chefs were very limited in how meals could be modified to meet our needs. In my obvious terms, Princess hobbled around a ship (the Crown) with engine problems for almost the entire Alaska season before bringing it into dry dock and I really have wonder if anyone has been maintaining the Caribbean Princess or what they even did in the scheduled dock. I have never seen a ship with so many obvious maintenance issues especially only about 6 weeks after its supposed dry dock. And I couldn't believe how little variety was on even the lunch buffets on both Princess ships I sailed, not to mention the quality. NCL has kept prices high ever since the re-start even when that meant cruising at lower capacity. They haven't even had many, if any last minute deals since the restart. And even with maintaining those higher prices, they have still had to raise other prices and make cuts. Royal Caribbean Group really seemed to try harder to maintain higher standards. Sure all ships struggled with enough staff so service was down and all cruise lines struggled with supply so there were many things not in stock. But I just didn't see obvious cutbacks beyond that. Unfortunately, that doesn't appear to be sustainable. I agree that Celebrity needs to be a lot more transparent. These cuts shouldn't be a surprise for passengers walking onto their cruise. And we can argue about whether a cut here would be better than a cut there. But I'm not sure the cuts themselves are avoidable.

The only thing that changes on NCL's new menu (which I'm not sure is rolled out fleet wide yet) is a daily uncharge dish from a specialty restaurant. And I don't think it works well at all on a longer itinerary. It was fine on our five day itinerary as there were quite a few items but I can't imagine it lasting more than a week cruise. NCL for years though has pushed people to pay for specialty dining so most people don't eat nightly in the MDR. It also helps that they have The Local (I think it is is called something different on older ships) which is a 24 hour complimentary dining venue to give another option. The ship I was on also had both a buffet that was pretty good at dinner and a food hall that was complimentary. Since Celebrity does more longer itineraries (although less than they used to) and doesn't have many other complimentary options nor all that many specialty restaurants on their smaller ships, I may be wrong but I don't see them going to a fixed menu.

They are larger on M Class ships. Concierge class is about 191 sq ft plus 41 sq ft of balcony. Verandahs are about 170 sq ft plus 38 sq ft of balcony. It is S class and E class where they are the same size (with a few exceptions).

And then each dining room would have their exclusive starters and entrees, right? Or have those been eliminated?

So is that 3 every day, 3 rotating ones on all four dining room menus, plus 3 unique to each dining room? Assuming you can order off the menus for the different MDRs, isn't that still 18 different appetizers and 18 different entree choices every day? If so, that still sounds like a lot of options. Or am I not understanding the Edge menus correctly - we haven't yet sailed on an Edge class ship?

There is no self-service laundry on any Celebrity ships. Only upper suites (Royal suite and above) get laundry included in their fare. An Elite (or higher loyalty level) will get you one (or more) bags free.

IF they are still doing fixed dining, you will be assigned to one dining room, same table for the entire cruise. The part I don't know is if they truly have eliminated fixed dining on all Edge class ships.

See also post #467 in that same thread where a poster talked to someone at the corporate office who said no final decision had been made. Because of the contradictions between the two, I don't think we have confirmed anything with regard to the dinner buffet.

Part of the longer waits is lack of staff so moving staff from the OV to the MDR will help that. It's also an issue when everyone wants to eat at the same time. Remember, not that many years ago, anytime dining didn't exist and every passenger was assigned a table at one of two fixed seatings. The M and S class ship are old enough to have experienced this. Anytime dining allows for more than two seatings at tables. So there physically is space for every guest to eat in the MDR. On any cruise, we pay attention to the flow of the ship that first day or two to find the times to go left when everyone is going right (we like to find the quieter areas and times) and the same is true when it comes to anytime dining. If the passengers on that cruise tend to eat late, we eat early or vice versa. You can avoid the long lines if you want to and are willing to be flexible.

I am only aware of this being a possible change on Edge class ships and do not know if it has been confirmed for all Edge class ships. When we booked the Ascent a week or so ago we still had the option of early or late dining (in addition to anytime).

There was also a report of someone who spoke to someone from the corporate office that contradicted that e-mail.

The actual square footage divided by passenger is not but how they use that space can make a huge difference.

Cruisedeckplans has a list here (see the last column): https://www.cruisedeckplans.com/DP/deckplans/allships.php Celebrity is pretty in line with others, maybe slightly better than Princess.

The room service charge has showed up on Celebrity's FAQ so I think we can confidently say that will be in place on all ships very shortly (by mid-January according to an article I read).

It's not showing for my May Eclipse cruise either. And someone currently on the Edge reported this week that it wasn't showing for them (and they hadn't been charged for room service). I don't think this has fully rolled out.

No, it will not be on your sea pass card and you won't automatically get the same table every night but you can talk to the Maitre'D on the first night to make that request.

It's still on the day 6 menu of the Apex 1/7 sailing (with no mention of uncharge) which would have more accurate menus than later sailings. I have never found menus to be very accurate until about the day or two before embarkation day (and have even seen changes after that point). I understand on embarkation night they do a final push of updates to the app.

The buffet was horrible on our Carnival cruise this past year (even less options than I'm seeing suggested in threads today and very poor quality) and dishes in the MDR were very hit or miss but we had some good desserts. Quality and variety had significantly gone down from our 2019 and 2017 Carnival Cruises. But Carnival still has Guy's Burgers, Blue Iguana, and the melting lava cake..... And yes, Carnival still does the dances and singing every night in the MDR. We got good on our last cruise of timing our dining to sneak out just as "show time" was starting. I felt sorry for the waiters expected to step away from their serving duties to participate in something many clearly didn't enjoy. Even assuming all the rumors about cuts on threads this week are completely true, in my opinion Celebrity will still be noticeably a few steps above Carnival.

To be honest - not much. We sailed a Sky Suite in 2021 and a penthouse in 2022 and neither butlers we had were top performers. Don't be afraid to talk to your butler and ask for things that would make your cruise better. This thread as a lot of great ideas. But not all butlers are created equal so don't go in with too high of expectations or you may be disappointed. The concierges in Michael's Club or the Retreat Lounge (depending on the ship) can also be a great help when it comes to dealing with anything Guest Services would handle or reservations for dining, shore excursions, etc. They also have a lot of knowledge and know a lot of people in different departments on the ship. Even the bartender in Michael's Club was helpful in finding me an iLounge employee when I forgot the password I used to set up my internet.