CalTexCruiser

The quote "non-interest on part of vapers" appears to be the key here. Celebrity hoped that allowing vaping would increase gambling in casinos, but it appears vapers have not shown up in sufficient quantities at the casino. Hopefully our writing campaign to the executive office has convinced them the risk-reward would point towards not allowing vaping in casinos.

This sailing epitomizes our changing world from climate change. Who would have thought that it would be possible for a cruise to sail from out-of-control wildfires in Hawaii to a hurricane in California? What's next...a blizzard in Fort Lauderdale?

May be rough seas even if down to tropical storm...not sure if the ship will chance sailing into LA on Monday...maybe wait until Tues perhaps.

Has any fellow passenger actually given this crass self-entitled person a verbal what-for? These types of people MAY back off on their selfish behavior if confronted. We have a selfish neighbor that used to allow her dogs to roam unleashed on our street but after we got into it with her she has since (1) kept her dogs off the streets, and (2) avoided us.

What "Overall guest feedback"? This response from Celebrity is total horses**t. The correct non-vaping guest population to survey are non-vaping/non-smoking gamblers. I'm sure if you ask a non-vaping gambler who never enters the casino whether vaping in the casino would negatively impact their cruising experience, of course the answer is no. Unfortunately it looks like vaping in casinos is a done deal.

Actually its 200 per passenger TOTAL for 12 days for the mini-suite. So the percentage is much higher.

NCL Bliss and Joy have smoking only in an enclosed space of the casino--the rest of the casino is smoke free.

We paid $ 200 pp + port fees/taxes for a mini-suite on our 12-day upcoming cruise. When we booked, Alfredo's and OceanNow were free. Now we have to pay for these services which in the aggregate will make up a substantial percentage of our cruise fare.

I was comparing the Sky Suite to Seabourn's Veranda Suite (lowest level suite) which we are booked in. Similar square footage. The Celebrity Suite would be comparable to Seabourn's Penthouse Suite. There are no non-suite cabins on Seabourn.

Yeah forgot about those odd-ball Signature Suites 1 butler to 9 suites still pretty good Yikes. If one enjoys being on hold when calling shoreside customer service, that experience will be extended to SS passengers trying to reach their butlers.

Oof. that's a bit steep for a Celebrity Sky Suite. We have an upcoming Seabourn cruise for $ 800 a day (for two people). No such thing as AI because everything is automatically included, including specialty dining.

Thanks all for your replies. 1pm or later sounds great. I tried the strategy of arriving at 1:30pm when embarking in SF on Ruby Princess, but still waited 3 hours in line. But that was a perfect storm of lots of covid patients on board waiting to get off, a crappy terminal (Pier 39 which should never be used as an embarkation/debarkation port), and rainy weather.

On the Reflection, I counted 20 upper suites (Celebrity Suites and above). That means each of the 3 butlers assigned to the 20 upper suites would serve about 7 suites. This is a VAST improvement before the latest changes. Previously, our "dedicated" butler when we stayed in an upper suite may be assigned up to 18 suites total. Hopefully, for the OP, this translates into butler service that should be much, much better than before, notwithstanding no specialty dining room service. The folks getting Royally Screwed(*) are in Sky Suites with the 2 assigned butlers. * "Royally Screwed" is a trademark of Royal Caribbean. All rights reserved.

We have a cruise departing Ft Lauderdale at 4pm. For the experienced Princess cruisers out there, when do the embarkation crowds generally thin out? If we arrive at 1:30pm, would that still be too early? We'd like to time it so we can check in and walk on without any lines.

I must have missed the discussion on buffet utensils. Are there an insufficient number, or are they of the wrong type, or are they in a state of disrepair?

Won't be long now before this thread gets shut down.

I think you are on to something re Luminae. One complaint I have of Luminae is that it gets very crowded and loud during rush hour, especially on the Edge class ships. To enhance the experience of Celebrity's valued customers, Sky suites get X # of visits to Luminae per week, and any excess visits will be charged a nominal fee per person comparable to specialty dining charges.

If I'm in an upper suite and want to try the innovative Retreat Butler and Team, can I request that rather than a dedicated butler?

Yes concierge lounge comes with the upgrade (note that only Royal class ships have a concierge lounge).

More photos of your new Retreat Team

LOL. Welcome the new Retreat Team. Please stay out of the way while they are buzzing down the hallways delivering to our valuable suite customers.

No need to imagine robots rolling around. In many Asian buffet restaurants (both here in the US and in Asia) where customers are able to order specific items from their phones while sitting at the tables, these robots are already delivering food items. It won't be long before robots are able to deliver room service on ships after you've placed orders from your app or called the room service chatbot. The Retreat Team will include both humans and robots to make for a streamlined experience for Celebrity's valued customers.

Actually butlers became Retreat Hosts then became butlers again and now Retreat Team, unless you are staying in an upper suite in which case they are still your butlers/hosts.

If (and that is a big IF) done correctly, I suppose the Retreat Team concept may actually enhance the customer experience. On the Edge series ships there are so many Sky Suites that sometimes any particular butler may be overwhelmed. The Retreat Team would allow the workload to be more evenly distributed, ASSUMING that there are enough members in the team. Hopefully Celebrity did some analysis to optimize the number of members to include in the team, but I fear it will be trial and error leading to many frustrated suite passengers.

I think perhaps people are jumping the gun on this On our cruise 5 months ago, the housekeeping manager told me both the room attendant and butler work under him I was surprised at this since in the past the butlers were under the suite manager. Perhaps Celebrity’s plan is to have one person perform the roles of both attendant and butler for Sky suites, rather than have 2 persons which may be inefficient. This may work if they have Sky suite only room attendants who can focus their attention on suite customers and not have to deal with non-suite cabins.