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I thought the same when I read that, I can't understand the rationale. Although I'm also not someone who uses San Pelligrino to brush my teeth, I thought that was what the taps are for in the bathroom! Also, in case anyone is wondering, AQ does get 2 bottles (they're in metal containers, not bottles) of water every day, at least that was the case a few months ago. There we go, I've rounded it up to 5 cents 🙂

Quite enjoyed this one and unlike others I've seen I wished you could pause it. I get they don't want people being able to fast forward etc but I got a phone call so had to mute the video and missed a few minutes. It was good, but I wasn't going to start the thing from scratch again to watch the bit I missed!

I agree with a lot of what you said, apart from this. I'm in the camp that thinks they shouldn't increase fares for everyone to cover the costs of providing a service to a handful of people. I've not used room service before and probably never will. I don't know what percentage of passengers do use room service but based off a very unscientific method of observing how many trays you see sat outside cabins while walking corridors I'd guess it was way less than half of passengers. Friends recently booked a cruise for themselves and extended family on a Celebrity ship. I had actually encouraged them to think about other cruise lines instead, ones which would have more activities for all their kids. However, in this case it came down to comparing prices on different lines for the week long period when everyone could get off work and school. The headline price of the Celebrity cruise was the most reasonable so they've booked 5 or 6 cabins and saved a good few hundred pounds versus the alternatives they saw. The headline price of a cruise still matters to a lot of people, especially when there are so many comparison websites where you can easily just plug a date and destination in and sort by price. You don't want your cruiseline to appear at the bottom of that list all the time. I told my friends there is now a charge for room service and the response was "that doesnt matter, we'll never use it".

Another thing to keep in mind, the single cabins aren't necessarily always cheaper! I was looking at joining some friends on the Edge over the summer and for some bizarre reason it's only £7 more for 1 person in aqua class than it is for 1 person in a single cabin and the aqua class includes drinks, tips and WiFi! Admittedly this is the exception rather than the rule but always worth checking.

Yes. Because new ships make them a lot more money than old ones. From the earnings call last week: "Michael Bayley: Vince, it’s Michael. I just have to add one little comment here talking about new ships coming online. Obviously, we opened up to sail Icon of the Seas a few months ago, and that ship literally has been the best-selling product in the history of our business and has been absolutely outstanding in terms of the demand and the pricing that we’re generating for the product. And in fact, it’s really driving a great ’24. I mean we don’t — we never talk about ’24 at the beginning of ’23, obviously, but ’24 is looking very healthy. And a big driver of that is Icon. We’ve had some remarkable stats coming out of Icon." Elsewhere in the call they mention how newer ships have a lot more onboard spend opportunities and so are a lot more profitable. And don't forget newer ships are a lot more economical to run.

But you wouldn't have seen that until after you booked. So you booked it seeing what everywhere else said about the classic package vs the premium package (ie nowhere else before you booked did it say that classic included zero proof) and knowing full well that the classic package you were getting didnt include evian, vitamin water and red bull etc. So I don't understand the issue?

Curious, do people tip similar amounts no matter which part of the world they're sailing? Also curious if Europeans tip as much/at all for this kind of thing as Americans do. As a Brit it's pretty much tip someone if they go above and beyond otherwise if they're just doing their job, no tip. I would never leave a tender boat crew a tip, they literally just did their job, for which they're already paid. Now if they gave some wonderful commentary about the port/area we were in during the journey then I would consider it. But to give a speech about how they care about your safety and what a great job they did of not sinking the boat, then nope. I'm not giving you extra money for the fact you did your job sufficiently such that we didn't drown!

I was going to say the same thing. Maybe it's a personality thing, but if it comes down to me standing there with a plate of food from the buffet moaning that there is nowhere to sit because a bunch of tables still have empty plates on them versus taking 10 seconds to move said plates to another table, I'd be moving those plates, sitting down and eating! Moving a plate is not beneath me.

The complaint was about not having a free table to eat breakfast or find a seat by the pool. That's nothing to do with staffing.

They pull out/swivel on Reflection (non-revolutionised). Perhaps they changed them on revolutionised ships to being fixed in place on the walls? Not sure why they'd change that though, surely the old wall mounts could be reused with new tvs.

Can I ask what exactly was worse 'in literally every way'? You mentioned food and not enough staff but that was all. Ships being crowded isn't a bad thing, you can't expect them to sail half full forever more or else they'll go bankrupt. What was so terrible about the food and what was so terrible about service? And was there anything else or was your statement about everything being worse just hyperbole? I'll ignore the covid comment because that's nothing to do with Celebrity and was just speculation on your behalf. In December half the people I know, including myself, had a cough, but none us had covid. We all just had a variety of colds, flus and chest infections. Such is life.

Burgers from the mast grill on Reflection a few months ago were great, no complaints from us. Hot, tasty and definitely worth the calories. The hot dogs on the other hand, eek.

Did you ask why they weren't serving alcohol and why it wasn't mentioned in the daily newsletter as has been the case on all other cruises?

That review, about which the other thread was regarding, didn't actually mention GC. It (presumably incorrectly) had stated all bars were closed on sea days. This particular thread is the first time anyone has mentioned all bars being closed in GC.

Yeah, it's basically a free 'upgrade' from a cabin at the back of the ship to one in the same 'class' normally on the same deck closer to the middle of the ship. The price difference between A1 and A2 for example is normally only $30-50 anyway. Sharing a suite might be an idea as pointed out but you have to all decide if you're happy sharing a room and someone sleeping on the sofa bed. Otherwise it's a case of checking prices regularly and hoping they come back down or trying a move up bid, but then you won't know until a few days before whether you've been successful. I guess another other option is for you to downgrade to a normal veranda cabin (not sure how that works refund wise) and then with the money saved dine in specialty restaurants so you're all eating together. If eating together in the evenings is a priority, which it likely is, then if you're in an AQ cabin while he is a standard veranda cabin and he can't join you in Blu, would you be sacrificing Blu to eat elsewhere with him, in which case there isn't too much point in you staying/paying for AQ? Good luck 🙂

I've seen other reviews when I've often thought in addition to a 'helpful' button you can click, there should also be an 'unhelpful' and 'I call BS' button.

I find it fascinating that after 12 pages of speculation and gossip the thread is no closer to a definitive answer than when it was started! It's like a feature length episode of Columbo. We all knew who was responsible from the start, the govt of GC, but thus far nobody has found any absolute proof to pin it on them! If I could be bothered (as in, will I ever go to GC and if so could I manage without an alcoholic drink for a couple hours..yeah, I'll survive) then I'd just shoot the port authority in GC an email and ask what the scoop is. But where's the fun in that!

I'm not so sure. Based off a price of £3000pp in aquaclass on a 10 night cruise on Beyond, with flights and 1night stay in Rome, I just did a few quick comparisons. At the same time in September a 10 night Greek island cruise on NCL Viva is £3000 for a standard balcony cabin or £3900 for one with access to thermal suite (to make it a fairer comparison to AQ class). Or an all inclusive resort stay in Corfu with a sea view room is £2500pp. I know for an extra £500 I'd much rather be on the Beyond and stopping in a new place every day than stuck in the same resort for 10 days. Not to mention more choices for food on Beyond, more bars plus multiple entertainment options on board all day and night.

Morning, we're currently looking at booking same itinerary on Beyond in September. Is the price you've listed through a travel agent or direct with celebrity? We're currently pricing up with an online UK cruise travel agency and bundled together with return flights to Rome, hotel for a night and Aqua cabin with drinks/tips/wifi and its coming in around £3000 pp. No onboard credit though. Cruise only directly through Celebrity was about £3300 but with I think $400 OBC. I was surprised actually as the 11 night we did on Reflection last year cost about the same, we had expected prices to have jumped considerably.

I'd actually thought that the thread from the prolific poster to whom you refer was one titled 'Which cruise line has the worst food?'. The prolific poster resurrected that thread after 3yrs of no activity on it to ask "With the cuts Celebrity have made I wonder if Celebrity is at the bottom?" I don't think the responses were as hoped though - the only mention of Celebrity in follow up posts was someone saying the specialty dining on Celebrity rivals Silver & Viking. Many posts saying the worst food is found on HAL, NCL, Carnival, MSC. After constant statements from the prolific poster on this board about how the Princess MDR menu looks so much better than the Celebrity one, I don't know how that jives with someone then ranking the Princess MDR food in last place behind RCI and Carnival.

Either those cabins are gone already or they corrected the mistake. Search page shows Retreat available from $3099pp but when you click through the cheapest retreat cabin is $5099pp.

Rent a car and go and see where you want in your own time. Obviously this works better in some places than others but one excursion we did last year we just rented a car and got to all the places the official Celebrity excursion was going, got to spend longer in each location and the car rental cost us less than one ticket for the official excursion.

Not found the X in Barcelona yet...but is that Superman?!

Currently looking at the same Beyond cruise but in September. Curious if you've found better prices through a travel agent versus booking directly through Celebrity? We're also looking at Aqua class and found adding the all included option to a normal balcony cabin brought the price very close to AQ which has it included by default. We did find a couple of online TA's who appear to be selling a flight, stay and cruise package for about £1000 less than the cruise only price but we need to call them to confirm whether the drinks/wifi/tips are included because it doesn't explicitly state. Regarding room choice, we'll try and pick ones a bit more central and closer to the lifts as it can get a bit tedious having to trek from the centre of the ship all the way to the back down the monotonous corridors!

Ahhh ok, thanks for clarifying. I'm not much of a breakfast person, a pastry/fruit and a cup of tea is normally fine for me but understand this could frustrate a number of people. Although in the overall scheme of things, after paying several thousand for the cruise a $12 room service fee isn't exactly deal breaking.