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I thought room service was still free for breakfast though. So what's the issue?

So is it safe to say your first impressions from a week ago held throughout the cruise? Glad to hear you had an enjoyable and relaxing time and your comments seem to echo everything I experienced on Reflection last year!

You'd complain either way. You've previously said you don't like lobster in the mdr but the one in Murano isn't the worst, so just go to Murano then if you don't mind paying for a lobster.

Compared to HAL who charge for your first lobster in MDR (also charging for steak in MDR) plus extra charges for second main course in specialty restaurants.

The pump bottles of shampoo etc in AQ have been there since at least last Sept and I'm all in favour of them. I can't stand little bottles of toiletries, the amount of plastic waste from them is ridiculous. Same with plastic bottles, they've not been giving those out for a while and again, I'm really glad they aren't. You get metal water containers in AQ every day, no need for plastic. These aren't 'cuts' as I'm certain the metal water containers cost more than plastic. Also look at it from the standpoint of many of the ports/islands ships stop at, why should they have to deal with the waste from millions of plastic water bottles being left behind from cruise ship passengers. A lot of the islands/countries won't have decent recycling systems in place so millions of plastic bottles will end up in landfill.

Agreed. Concierge class to me is the most pointless of all cabin designations. AQ is all about Blu and the Persian Gardens, and Blu is definitely worth it. Also (at the moment, knowing Celebrity this is liable to change at any time!) when booking AQ the fares have WiFi, tips and classic drinks package included by default. Concierge and below the all included option costs extra.

Apparently that's not correct. There's a thread on this already and menus from 2019 have been posted which are identical to menus on current ships. So no, there isn't a shorter menu, its literally the same.

And probably about 80 of those pages are your comments lol Edit: drat, I was beaten to it! Still, it seems I'm not the only one to have noticed you do like a bit of a moan!

Was reading some recent comments on the HAL board: "Why not HAL? Lack of Production Shows, showing BBC documentaries and calling it their main entertainment, an opening night slide show that is supposed to be entertainment, truncated Lido hours, downgraded cuisine with too many add-ons, etc." The grass isn't always greener....

You made a bold and unsubstantiated claim that the Blu menu has been cut to the bone. I asked for you to explain exactly what had been cut but you didn't. And I thought it fairly obvious I meant the choice was sufficient and the taste was delicious. What is wrong with sufficient choice? Blu menu on Solstice for tonight currently shows: Beyond burger; Tuna tataki; Miso-maple glazed baked salmon; leek vegetable tart; grilled octopus salad; sherry glazed pheasant breast; herb crusted rack of lamb and truffle ricotta gnocchi. What exactly is laughable and so appalling about that? It's pretty much identical to a typical menu we had in Blu a few months ago. If the choice of 8 main courses in Blu isn't sufficient for you, then feel free to never cruise Celebrity again, but the constant moaning is getting wearisome.

What has been cut to the bone? I'm looking at the Blu menu for the current solstice cruise and it looks very similar to the Blu menu we had on our Reflection cruise a few months ago. It was more than sufficient and delicious then, and it looks the same now.

So are you suggesting that with a few weeks notice Celebrity should have cancelled the stop in GC because a handful of people might be unhappy they can't have alcohol for a few hours on the ship?! Forget the hundreds or thousands onboard who booked months or years ago and want to visit GC, they're irrelevant? The only important thing is to keep happy the few customers who need to be able to drink alcohol at every bar on the ship for a few hours? Bizarre.

Firstly, thanks Charla for taking the time to post this wonderful series of reviews. I'd say I hope you're having a fabulous time but it seems pretty obvious you are! I just read through all 14 pages and I was going to ask a question which weirdly enough seems to have been answered in the very last comment I got to! I remember I looked at MSC a few years ago and got the impression that unlike most lines, MSC have embarkation and disembarkation options in pretty much every port on their Med sailings. You might book a 9 night round trip from Rome with a first stop in Naples but hundreds of people will have booked a 9 night round trip from Naples on the same ship and will be boarding on what is your 2nd day but for them it's their 1st. If that makes sense lol. To me that just sounded pretty awful in so many respects and when added to other reviews and comments about food, service, constant announcements in multiple languages, entertainment not really catering to English language speakers (I completely understand and appreciate why) plus ships being inundated with kids running around, it was enough to put us off. I think as JeanieC pointed out, the constant embarkations in every port of call isn't probably an issue in the Caribbean and maybe other parts of the world, but if you're looking at an MSC cruise in the Med, definitely bear that in mind! Edit: I'd almost forgotten about another reason we were put off MSC, the gaudiness of most of their ships haha. Just remembered some of the photos Charla posted and others I've seen...they look like stepping back in time a good few decades. Shiny gold/brass trim around doors and handrails all over the ships just makes me wince in horror!

Several years ago lol Also the clue is in the title of the new drinks package 'zero proof' - nobody checked it!

OP asked what we would be prepared to put up with in the way of any cuts that Celebrity (and other lines) definitely have to make. I asked a similar question in another thread and there were no ideas forthcoming. I've just read through all 6 pages of this thread, hoping to see some realistic and well thought out ideas. However, unless I missed something, I don't think I've seen many suggestions! A bunch of people saying just put things back to how they were, some saying put prices up more and one post with a whole long list of additional things for Celebrity to do which would all cost them more money and not help their bottom line at all. Actually I did see a few people say the turn down service could be eliminated, but I'm sure I remember a thread on that from a few weeks ago which resulted in another moan-fest. I wouldn't care if evening turn down service was eliminated, although I'm not sure how much of a saving it would result in? If it takes let's say 100 cabin stewards to service all the cabins every morning, if they aren't doing turn down service in the late afternoon/ evening, what do they do? Its not like you can just have 50 cabin stewards instead and spread the load throughout the day, people won't be happy if their beds are left unmade until 4pm. Anyway, my suggestions would be: Scrap the pillow chocolates. Have towels replaced every 2 days instead of every day (for environmental as well as cost saving reasons). Scrap the afternoon delivery of random, fairly awful nibble sized bites of food to concierge and aqua cabins. Cut portion sizes where appropriate. Improve website so you can do more things online instead of having to call in (I did see someone mentioned that, and it's a very good point). On port intensive sailings maybe cut out a port stop, extra day at sea, take longer to get from A to B and save tens of thousands of dollars on fuel and port fees. Although the spreadsheet people in HQ will know if that would work or not based on money saved in fuel vs extra food for everyone eating lunch onboard vs extra spend of people on board on drinks etc. I love the idea of changing the OVC into a food court type place. I recently saw a video on the NCL Prima (I think thats their latest ship) which has a fantastic looking food court type thing with various different cuisines. However, a change like that will involve weeks in dry dock and a lot of money spending. I'd also suggest they do away with most of the shops they have on the lower decks and turn them into some other revenue generating space. The shops are empty most of the time apart from the extremely bored looking staff members unlucky enough to be stuck manning them. Again tho, that would have to be done in dry dock and would cost a chunk of change. Any other thoughts (apart from do nothing/go back to how it was 'in the old days')?

Actually there's a huge amount of wastage - a complete and utter waste of plastic. I detest tiny food stuffs like butter that come in plastic wrapping, there's no need. Knobs of butter in restaurants should be in small washable pots like Celebrity normally do. Little things like that on grand scales all help reduce the amount of plastic sent to landfills.

Actually, businesses can and frequently do make cuts to return to profitability. In the case of the cruise lines, its absolutely the right course of action. Ignoring bankruptcy which shouldn't be and isn't really an option, they have two options. Increase revenue or decrease expenses. They have little to no choice over many of their expenses (interest payments, fuel costs, staff) so where they can save money they will, and must. They have put prices up but they're now getting to the level where many people will think twice about paying so much. Many economies are verging on recession, consumers are being hit with a barrage of increased costs from heating their homes to paying their mortgages and filling their fridges. Cruising and actually all holidays are luxuries, not necessities. Most people when picking a holiday or if they've already decided on a cruise, will look at options from numerous different cruise lines. Headline price of the cruise will be in the top 3 deciding factors (dates/length of cruise and itinerary probably being the other two) for the majority of people. Like I've said before, I bet less than 0.05% of people will decide to not take a particular cruise because they find out one restaurant on the ship no longer has prime rib. Its just not a deciding factor. Put the price up another 10% and you'll turn away tens of thousands of potential cruisers. Absolutely do not increase the price for everyone by another $300 a week. With that saving I can go to one of the specialty restaurants and have a much better cut of beef and still have $250 in my pocket.

Oh come off it. Of course its not 'stealing' and unethical. Cancel your cruise with zero penalty and a days notice because they're serving tilapia and a different cut of beef?! Oh and your car purchase comparison is way off. If you can find in your cruise contract (or actually any marketing put out by Celebrity) which promises prime rib in the mdr or promises not to serve tilapia then maybe you'd have a point. But obviously the cruise contract does not state that. The vast majority of people won't care about or even notice the minor changes being introduced or won't be affected by them. Any realistic suggestions for Celebrity to try or is your only solution to have an even more generous cancellation policy than they had for covid?! Because of a steak. Finally, I can guarantee you if all the cruise lines do not make cuts then they will be "done" and I also guarantee that the vast majority of passengers (less than 1% of cruisers probably post on here, I take a lot of complaints with a pinch of salt) won't take into account what cuts of beef are served in one of the restaurants (or how one type of fish is farmed) when deciding whether to book a cruise or not. I absolutely guarantee that.

The tricky thing for Celebrity is most of the people currently onboard most likely booked their cruises almost a year ago, some even further back. You can't ask those people to pay extra after booking, nor is it really fair to expect people booking now for next year to pay even more, for both increases in their own food costs and to cover the increases of those sailing now. Also fuel costs have risen a LOT over the last 12-18 months (although falling again now), as have staff costs. Celebrity know much better than any of the people commenting here on what they need to do and what they realistically can do to remain profitable while being hit with a worldwide pandemic, a war in Eastern Europe, massive debt together with interest rate hikes, labour shortages and massive inflationary pressures on food, labour and fuel. I've read on here over the last few weeks constant complaining and moaning about room service charges, what cut of steak is served, increased drink prices, reduced service in the buffet in evenings, how evil tilapia is.... but does anyone have any better suggestions as to what Celebrity (& other cruise lines) can do because they absolutely have to do something. Genuinely curious. None of the changes (either announced or merely speculated over) bother me one bit. We had a fantastic cruise a couple months ago and I'm sure our next one later this year will be just as good.

I was wondering if it was a typo! What can you get for $17.50 eating out these days. No starter, a below average main, no dessert and a glass of water?! Part of me is thinking if you're happy with the type of food you get at an establishment where dinner for 2 is less than $35, don't bother spending money onboard at a specialty restaurant as you probably won't appreciate it. But then I think well maybe actually you should cough up and pay for Murano so you can experience what you've been missing all this time...Real food lol. And maybe instead of thinking how much it's costing you, think how much you're saving by having a meal like that on board versus what you'd have to spend for the equivalent on land!

If the drink you order is covered under the classic package (alcoholic drinks up to $10), you pay nothing extra. If you order an alcoholic drink which is $12 for example, you will be charged the difference plus tip on the difference ($2 + $0.36).

Which ship was that in November? On Reflection in October only crew who had just joined the ship had to wear a mask for the first 5 days I think it was. After day 5 or whatever it was, I don't think I saw any cabin stewards or restaurant staff wearing them (or if so it was only a tiny handful).

Apart from Equinox being revolutionised and Reflection not, main differences can be seen in the attached plans of decks 12 through 16. Reflection has a much better sunset bar - more and more varied seating at different levels and you can sit at the bar and look out to sea rather than at a wall. Reflection also has larger Persian gardens, it has the addition of The Porch and instead of the hot glass there is the Lawn Club Grill which in my mind is a much better use of the space. Deck 15 has a better flow to it on Reflection and the sunset bar/lawn area is only one deck up from the pool whereas it's two up on Equinox. Equinox has the Retreat deck for suite passengers on 16 whereas that area is open to everyone on Reflection. Equinox has a slightly larger Sky Lounge, but you don't really miss it on Reflection as the Sky Lounge was pretty much empty day and night the last cruise I went on. To me, Reflection is the best Solstice class ship but I guess it depends how much value you put on Equinox having been updated/revolutionised. Reflection: Equinox:

If those pictures are representative of other nights in the buffet then I absolutely understand their thinking. Its a ghost town. Nobody in there. Why spend tens of thousands filling the buffet at night if only a couple of people use it and 90% of the food goes to waste? They know how many people use it in the evenings versus eating in the main dining rooms and specialty reataurants, they know exactly how much food they prepare and put out and how much goes to waste. If this is a permanent thing moving forward rather than a one off due to extraneous circumstances, I'm sure they've done a lot of number crunching and had a lot of meetings about it first. Also, Edge class have 4 main dining rooms with different menus and anytime seating. Maybe that is encouraging people to eat in those/try them out each night and fewer people are using the buffets?

That's an Aqua sky suite so is a little more expensive than standard sky suite, but on the UK site the standard sky suite on the Edge on that 13th May cruise comes in as follows, which as I said is the same price (cheaper when you take into account the OBC and free drinks) as the Oceania one: Sky Suite First Guest Total£5,618.00 Second Guest Total£5,618.00 Discounts Special Offer-£4,505.00 RETREATBOGO75 ($800.00 to spend Onboard) The Retreat Premium Wi-Fi Premium drinks Tips Dining Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner included at select venues Exclusive Access to Luminae Taxes & Fees Taxes, Fees, and Port Expenses£138.00 Trip Total£6,869.00 GBP