kwokpot

I'm actually glad Celebrity doesn't do this. NCL also does this and it further limits the amount of public spaces for everyone. The way the newest E-Class ships are configured there's no space for a paid private sunning area that wouldn't seriously impinge on the overall public space for all passengers.

Why people don't put name and cabin number information on their electronics is beyond me. Such a simple thing and it would have avoided all this.

Muranos is a S-Class specialty restaurant, so no M-Class ships has this restaurant. https://www.celebritycruises.com/things-to-do-onboard/eat-and-drink/restaurants-and-cafes/murano

That reenforces what my original supposition was regarding the different Elite drink lists. On my way Ascent cruise I never went to the special Elite drinks lounge so I never observed the reduced drinks menu.

That's debatable depending on the sailing and itinerary. On My Jan.14th Ascent sailing, a 7 day Caribbean, the majority or the passengers were between 50-75. On my Dec.6th sailing of the NCL Viva, also a 7 day Caribbean cruise, the average age probably was 35-60.

Some of your statements are incorrect. The Celebrity Elite happy hour is available at all bars except for a handful and the restaurants.

That Class of ship, which is more or less 90,000 tons, has about the same amount of specialty restaurants no matter what cruiseline you choose.

That's how I remember things being done, which is why this particular incident was so disconcerting. Whatsmore, on this Christmas cruise we would go to the Royal Loyalty lounge after sitdown breakfast for the fancy coffee from the espresso machine so it was always about the time they would be taking away the continental breakfast spread. Our group remarked that they were consistently putting out too much food which obviously was going to be thrown away. All the cut fruit, pastries, Lox,etc.

You forgot about Sushi on Five and Qusine, where Le Petit Chef is done.

At least with this particular loyalty lounge when food was taken away it was put on a cart and taken to the back kitchen presumably to be thrown away. It was this particular instance where we noticed an employee dump the food right in the buffet area. Taking this back to Celebrity, how does the Oceanview Cafe do this at turnover? TBH I never took notice except to see them roping off the areas. Do they bring out huge garbage cans right up to the food stations and dump the uneaten food? I can honestly say I've never witnessed that in any ship's buffet. From what I can remember the food is put on carts and/or carried away by hand to the back.

I guess then the question is why was that particular limited drink menu printed and given out to someone?

That may have been something you had done in the past, but now, at least by the book, it's not allowed.

Agree with what was said. We had the embarkation lunch on the Ascent and it was nothing special. Luckily we lined up early for the lunch because by the time we were finished and were leaving the line was huge trying to get into the CC lunch. I would have never waited in a line with 30 people. The champagne cannot be switched out for something else so I declined to open it. The little bites are not very interesting so they are not eaten by the majority of passengers. You actually see the room attendants dumping out all the uneaten stuff into buckets right in the hallways. If they actually had tasty treats people would enjoy them better. But a piece of pita bread and a dab of some sort of hummus isn't cutting it, thus all the uneaten food.

ANY food that has been put out and not consumed must be thrown out since there's a potential for contamination. Food in the kitchen that hasn't been put out can be reused. We were recently on Royal for a Christmas cruise and we were in the Diamond Loyalty lounge where late morning we saw an employee literally dump all the food into a large trash can. Seems like he didn't want to take the extra step to take the food away into the back and then dump it, so he did it right out in the lounge.

There was other types of seafood such as salmon prepared several different ways and other shellfish such as mussels. But the predominant seafood was crayfish and boiled & peeled shrimp. The shrimp was in multiple places and TBH a bit over the top. More than any Vegas buffet in its heyday. My reaction as I walked around the buffet on that last afternoon was the amount of food waste that's going on here. EVERYTHING that wasn't eaten will be thrown out in the garbage;EVERYTHING.

That perk isn't available on any E-Class Ship. On M & S Class ships it's a one time visit on any port day of your sailing. No in/out privileges. There's no need to reserve in advance nor can you reserve in advance for this benefit.

If you read the title of the OTHER drink card posted it reads 'Elite Cocktail Lounge' which is the name of the newly created twice-a-cruise event. This is DIFFERENT from the Elite Cocktail Hour Menu pictured above which is STILL the name of the two hour event. My sense is for this new subset of the Elite Happy Hour they created a DIFFERENT and more limited drink menu. The above drink menu is still available in all the other bars, just not the new sectioned off lounge. Does it make sense, no but lots of things that Celebrity implements doesn't make sense either.

Probably for discussion's sake they didn't get into the details and just said everything about their trip is comped. That doesn't necessarily mean all from the same place. Hard Rock could be comping their room and flight reimbursement, and the cruise though Celebrity or a third party hosting company. We had a similar offer from Seminole Hard Rock in Hollywood where we would have gotten a free room, $500 resort credit, flight reimbursement, a 50" TV, and concert tkts. And of course a free cruise from Celebrity. So if we had done that deal, when I would discuss our plans, I would say our whole trip, flight, hotel, and cruise, was comped.

The Ascent has reservations for Early and Late dining times. Any other dining times were first come, first served. Early is 5:30 & 5:45, late is 8:30 & 58:45. Any other dining times cannot be reserved either precruise or onboard. The first few days you may be handed a buzzer with a wait time of 10-15 minutes. As the cruise goes on and passengers are more attuned to the system there were no wait times and we were assigned a table in every dining room we walked into immediately.

What does that mean? Celebrity's Blue Chip Club casino program doesn't Comp air and hotel. I don't know any cruise casino program that comps air and hotel. I'm curious what type of comp they were actually on.

No, not worth it. Even if it's for a 14 day cruise there really no value. I would much rather put the $500 towards multiple specialty restaurant dinners. We are just off the brand new Ascent in conceige class and it was no different than a regular IV cabin.

That is a traditional balcony albeit small and narrow. But it's a true outdoor space where you can sit OUTSIDE even if it's raining. Also it will have traditional curtains so one can be OUTSIDE and someone else can be inside with the AC on and curtains drawn if desired.

We have a similar dilemma on sister cruise line Royal. When Maui was eliminated I had high hope of Kauai being substituted but now it's just an overnight in Kona with a sailing only by the Napali Coast at Kauai. So for our 9 day cruise from Honolulu to Vancouver it's literally only one overnight Port stop in Kona. In our situation, though we booked a casino comped cruise and cancelling it would mean losing a large amount of casino free play, and considering we have a fully comped cabin in a junior suite we decided to keep the cruise. We have three nights precruise in Honolulu, and having been to Hawaii both on land tours and cruises too many times to count we don't feel like we are missing out on anything. Besides, the Big Island is wonderful to rent a car and drive to Volcanos National Park where doing the Chain of Craters Drive to the very Southern end of the Island is a must see/do. And also you must drive to one of the Black Sand beaches where the giant sea turtles are! Edit: Punalu'u Black Sand Beach for the sea turtles https://bigislandguide.com/visit-punaluu-black-sand-beach Chain of Craters road in Volcanos National Park https://www.nps.gov/havo/planyourvisit/ccr_tour.htm

Additional thoughts on entertainment and activities Some of the criticisms leveled at a Celebrity cruise is they can be boring and there's a lack of activities as compared to other mainstream cruiselines.The charge is not without merit. In the years past at 10:30pm on a M or S Class ship there would be only two areas with anything going on; the upper deck forward lounge and the casino. Even the popular Martini Bar would be quiet by 11pm. Celebrity has taken these criticisms to heart on the Ascent and I was quite impressed with the amount of activities going on not only during the day but later at night. Many nights after 10 there was music and entertainment going on in multiple venues simultaneously; Grand Plaza, Eden, Rooftop Garden As I hopped from venue to venue it was nice to see people enjoying themselves later into the night at all the venues. The same can be said about daytime activities. For better or worse the Resort Deck/main pool area is much more animated with activities and events than in years past. At times the music by the pool can be a bit too loud, as when the Cruise Director was leading the dance lessons on the pool deck. There seems to be more programming at the Rooftop Garden than when the first E-Class ship debuted back in 2018. I suspect the addition of multiple large shade umbrellas has allowed more people to enjoy the Rooftop Garden. The morning yoga classes were very popular, as was pickleball throughout the day. And it was nice to see people attending the music performances throughout the evening at the Garden. It seemed everyone appreciated the plentiful activities and entertainment since scheduled events seemed well attended.

I agree with the OP. I get cold easily and that was never the case on the Ascent, at least on this sailing.