kwokpot

Yes I realize that. I'm just responding to your comment about Virgin deck parties. You're the one that brought up how Virgin sets the standard for cruise ship deck parties, not me.

PXL_20230120_040423544.TS.mp4

There is no other cruiseline that has better deck parties than Virgin. None.

The IV cabin has a blackout shade that comes down from the ceiling immediately in front of the window. It can be stopped at any point until it goes all the way to the floor. There are no IV cabins on any E-Class ship with curtains.

There are lots of people that post wrong information and go as far as make up stuff. That particular poster would be one of them if they indeed posted that.

There has never been any talk of Celebrity going to once a day cabin cleaning.

There are no cruise ships that have a microwave oven for passengers to use.

Why are you responding to a 2 year old thread with useless information as your 1st post on Cruise Critic?

It's been that way ever since the Quantum first debuted. This class of ship has ALWAYS been described as not Royal enough, which is why there's some pushback on this thread, especially for people that are users of Cruise Critic. There were even rumors that the ship was originally designed for Celebrity since it doesn't have any of Royal's usual features. The ship is very much similar to MSC's Meraviglia Class ships in layout and configuration.

You realize that when much older ships add balconies it's NEVER EVER been the way you propose. That's not how ships add balcony cabins.

If they do what you propose what happens with water? It has to drain somewhere?

What's different about the spa on the Luminosa is an additional relaxation area upstairs from the Thermal suite and adjacent to the Fitness Center (it can only be accessed from the Thermal suite via stairs or elevator). It's a huge space, always empty and there's loungers facing the windows and other seating areas, water, towels, rest rooms. We spent time there during the 30 day TP and most of the time we were the only 2 people in there.

That will NEVER happen. You can't take an indoor space and make it outdoors. Increasing the mix of Sky Suite type verandahs would have to be done while the ship is being built.I suspect there's a structural issue since the general mix of IV vs Sky Suite type cabins has remained about the same on all versions of E-Class ships. So it seems the issue is more than just swapping out IV cabins for Sky suite type cabins.

Thank you for a very detailed review. I will say I pretty much agree with your overall assessments EXCEPT for your take on the desserts and pastries. I have been on all three E-Class ships and will sail on the Ascent next week and have been on S and M class ships post pandemic and after cruises on the Scarlet and Valiant Ladies for me VV far exceeds any Celebrity ship in terms of their pastries and desserts. The confections that I had were specialty bakery quality and that was the case on two different VV ships. I was more bothered than you by the overall design scheme of the XL Sea Terrace room and for me the only aspect I liked about the room was the bathroom. I'll be doing a 12 night TA on the Scarlett Lady this November so it will be interesting how some of the VV ship's shortcomings you enumerated, which I pretty much agree with, play out on a long sailing. Thank you again for you time and effort!

See this is the issue I have when people CLAIM they don't gamble alot and get totally free cruise offer while only spending $200 in the casino. People misremember or flat out aren't honest about the amount they spend on the casino.

You should do that for your phone and any other electronics.

Thank yo for your review. What do you mean by the bifold doors didn't work? The doors would close? Did you alert the cabin attandent to have it fixed?

Agree.I'm boarding the Ascent on Sunday 1/7 on a B2B casino comped cruise. Frist cabin is Aquaclass with all included including gratuities and second cruise is Concierge Class cabin.

The relaxation room is separate from the Thermal suite where the heated loungers are. It's on the left side of the main hallway from the reception desk.

You can use the spa locker room to shower before and after your treatment but there's no free sauna or steam room in the spa locker rooms on any E-Class Ship.

What no one has mentioned is the points that you see on the slot machine readout has to be multiplied by 5 to get your true tier score. So if the slot machine reads 1,000 points your tier score is actually 5,000 points, NOT 1,000.

One suggestion no one has mentioned, make sure you have shower before AND AFTER your treatment. Before so you're nice and clean for you therapist and after to remove the massage oils. Drink LOTS of water after your massage.

I think you're right. She's from Germany from what I remember.

When was the Solstice revolutionized? We were on her in February and I didn't notice any updates. There were a few things that needed fixing like the Solarium waterfall and the pool deck water feature?

Not that I know of. But it's not automatic, you need to speak to the casino host. TBH you should be doing that on every cruise you plan to gamble; get to know the casino host. You want also want to find out what onboard charges can be wiped out based on your gambling. Only the casino host know that and quite honestly only gamblers who are on top of their play and communicate with the casino host will they have charges wiped out based on casino play. It's the same on both Celebrity and Royal. On Celebrity the host will tell you to charge whatever to your onboard account on the last full day of the cruise make sure you get in touch with the casino host to find out what you can expect to be taken off of your onboard account. For us, we don't do ship excursions or specialty restaurants (unless special occasion) so our onboard charges are usually only gratuities. So many times for us on the last day we will find out how much comps we generated to wipe off onboard charges and then we'll go to the shops and buy stuff. For the way my husband gambles it's varied from $100-$250 comps to wipe off onboard charges. This is not the same as the points accumulated on the slot machine screens which you can convert to slot play. So, for example, on our last Celebrity cruise in July on the Apex my husband earned about 38,000 BCC points (12 nt cruise). We had the casino host wipe out a free wifi package for me, a dinner for 2 at Fine Cut & $100 wine (birthday dinner with a cake!), AND we still had $200 to spend at the shops on the last day of the cruise. On this trip the casino host arranged the dinner since it was a special birthday dinner request. The dinner was charged directly to the casino and it never appeared on our bill.