Muushka

I believe there is a bit of misunderstanding regarding free specialty dining. Originally all suites got either 1 - 2 free specialty dining's. That perk was eliminated about a year ago but those that had booked before 1/1/16 were grandfathered in and still got the 1 or 2 free specialty dining's.

 

Currently if you book Penthouse, Royal, Reflection Suite or Signature Suite you get unlimited specialty dining.

Yup, I know how it works. But the problem is that today people are mentioning that they will receive specialty dining when booking a sky suite. I can only assume that they booked prior to that cutoff date. I think that is where the confusion is coming from.

my experience has been the same as yours. mine was very elusive. I have actually now been in a Royal Suite and a celebrity suite on two different cruises. So far hmm fair.. The cruise in the royal suite in the med pretty good butler, but no where near what people here talk about. He did help me pack my stuff the last night, my wife didn't want it. That was nice. Otherwise for reservations for the specialities better to call them directly or call the michael's club concierge to do the reservations. I was able to get some pretty good tours of the ship that seem to be reserved for elite folk but I think that's because I was in a royal suite. Overall I would give the first one a B, so for my second cruise, now I did downgrade to a celebrity suite because I really didn't need all of that room that the royal suite gave us, and we never got in the hot tub, the large bathroom was nice, but the regular celebrity suite was fine. So I pretipped a 100 when we met the guy, maybe I shouldn't have done that, and after the end of the cruise I really wish I hadn't. We asked him to make reservations and he would tell us to call directly it was faster. We asked about excusions and he told us to call the michael's club concierge, who was amazing. Let's see packing and unpacking, i decided against it this time, but he didn't offer, so I don't know if he would have do it. He offered to walk us to the show, but he showed up, we didn't actually know he was coming and he said he was leaving with some others in a couple of minutes and if we weren't ready he couldn't take us. Serving us breakfast in our room, nope that would be room service. Dinner from one of the speciality restaurants, nope he can't do that either. Any tours available, sorry no i can't get you into those..

 

I got tired of calling him, so i mostly stopped after half way through. I do remember like seeing him 3 days later, and exclaiming hey I didn't know you were still on the boat, I thought you might have gotten off on one of the stops because I hadn't seen him..

 

So the point is, have some things you want, but if you don't get them don't be pissed off like me. I'm taking another cruise this summer in europe. I'm getting a butler again, if I get a good one great, hopefully i get one that the others have talked to, but I won't hold my breath.

 

Now having access to the michael's club concierge is amazing. I would take a sky suite if i didn't need to be in the middle of the boat to prevent nausea.

I agree. We've had 3 butlers. I thought the first one (in a RS) was awesome. Then we had a S2 and that guy was even better. We only asked for shrimp (in the RS) for the afternoon snack and a cappuccino in the AM for both suites. But the S2 butler, he was so good, I could not believe all of the kind things that man did for us, and we never asked him to do these things! I hope we get him again this November.

Then we had a RS this past summer. Ugh. I could go through the list, but it is similar to yours. I had no idea that there was such a thing as a butler with absolutely no personality!

Duh! When you put it that way I guess it was really a dumb question 😄I guess I'll do it now. Thanks for the perspective.

 

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Don't feel bad. I had the exact same thoughts as you did!:)

OK, ours expire this August, I'll go ahead and start the process of renewing them.

We booked the S1 with Celebrity and they confirmed we have one free specialty dining.

Here we go again! Anyone else have a sky suite with specialty dining included?

Could it be from your travel agent?

We have an S2 and our friends have an S1 and neither of us has been offered specialty dining for an upcoming cruise.

We've done all 3 classes of ships and prefer the S class.

Of the S class ships we have done all but S (Solstice, go figure).

Eclipse 2 14 night

Equinox 2 10 nights and 1 11 night

Silhouette 1 12 night

Reflection 1 7 night

Silhouette is our favorite. Why? I think because we prefer the specialty dining on her the most. We love Lawn Club. While we enjoy the Glass Show on Equinox and Eclipse, Lawn Club Grill is a great trade-off! We don't care for Reflection because of the losing of the space in the Sky View Lounge for more cabins.

All of the ships are beautiful. We are happy to be on the ocean!

We also loved Justin when he was on Summit. If you're one of those who think trivia is life or death, he is not for you. But if you are there to have a good time, then he's the best. Basically he has if you're not there for fun, there's the door. Loved him!

We go to trivia to have a good time. But watching people cheat is not fun.

It only takes a few seconds to switch papers and as was mentioned, it actually does make it more fun.

I believe that arguing with the person in charge over trivia answers is not fun.

Diet Coke, diet root beer and diet Sgt Peppers I think.

 

Had all three of the sweetness if I recall correctly.

 

I must warn you, if you are sailing outside the US your Diet Coke may taste different than you are used to.

Diet Sgt Pepper, is that what Paul McCartney drinks? :p

Do people say that it is a "deal"? I'm not sure if you were referring to my post above as I used the word "deal" but I did not say it was a "good deal". I said having all those perks "sealed the deal" for us, meaning having all those things included for every suite booking we have made recently just confirmed that we want to stay in suite class.

 

 

I know that often you are paying more for those perks than their individual values, but for us it's a convenience thing. Being able to order any drink whenever you want without having to deal with signing slips and thinking about extra tips, or having the freedom to try a variety of drinks that you may not have before when you had to pay for each drink. And there are some days where I will go through quite a few bottled waters (especially the zero waters) in addition to alcoholic drinks so it will exceed the daily value of the beverage package. And we use a lot of internet during the cruise so the unlimited is a must have.

 

 

The thing that is annoying is with the top level suites. In PH, RS, RefS and SigS (I think) you get the premium beverage and internet included so those two benefits in the Go Best are redundant. The cost of those suites is so much more than the other cabins that they really should come up with two other perks to replace with. Of course as those suites appear to keep selling the cruiseline probably feels like why should they change it.

They do get a perk that the other suites don't get, and a very good one IMHO, unlimited specialty dining!

Didn't notice your name until after you said you were from Rhode Island.

 

People most places call them hamburgers or burgers. Believe me, I was made fun of a lot when I moved and called them hamburgs ("what is that? A hat??")

 

You just made me nostalgic for my childhood, is all. Thanks.

Wow, good catch! I speak Rhode-Island-ese and never noticed the hamburgs!

Now "bubbla" "grinda" and "gaggas (gaggers)" I know!

I miss that tiny little state,

Circa 2008 we got a RS on a 5 night Century cruise for $1000 per person (sans taxes and port fees).

2012 we got a S2 on a 12 night Silhouette for $2200 per person (sans taxes and port fees).

We had a RS last year and a S2 this year, but not at those bargain rates.

The first cruise we ever took was in "steerage" and to this day, it might be our favorite!

 

All you do in your room is sleep and bathe. The rest of your time is spent enjoying the ship......so your room doesn't matter! You can eat in the main dining room or a specialty restaurant (ok, so Blu and Liminae are "off limits", but who cares?). You can still enjoy the activities, music, nightly shows, casino, etc.

 

I heard a reccommendation that (if you have an inside room) you turn on the tv to the front-of-the-ship camera when you go to bed. That way when the sun comes up, it will be like having a window....but minus the cost!

Well...the room does matter to us. I love being able to go to our cabin to relax. Watch a little TV (yes, I know I can do this at home, but it is my vacation, right?), sit out on the balcony. Yup, we enjoy our cabin.

NOT urban legend. Disembarked Silhouette 8 Jan. 2017 guests were 'requested' to vacate cabins by 7am. LONG CC thread attests to this.

I am referring to this thread, the date on this thread's cruise is 1/22/2017.

Several people on this cruise (and on this thread http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?p=52139615#post52139615 )have stated that suites did not have to be out by 7. If you read the responses on this thread, Celebrity itself came on another thread and stated that the vacate time is 8. I am not questioning any other cruise but this one specifically because the OP stated that just suites had to vacate by 7. That didn't sound right, I questioned it. People on the 1/22/17 who were in suites stated that they didn't have to vacate by 7. Are we good?

We were in the penthouse on silhouette in november and nobody asked us to be out by 7am

Thanks. I think we can label this an "urban legend" at this point. Thankfully.;)

I'm just along for the ride. We're thinking about trying MSC Yacht Club and you asked some great questions!

Just came off Silhouette today and stayed in a suite. We had to be out of our cabins by 8AM. Not sure where the 7AM rumor came about. Not true.

See post #1 on this thread.

Posted by Celebrity Cruises It was brought to our attention that guests were asked to leave their staterooms on disembarkation day at 7am earlier this month. The ships have been advised to move this time to 8am as per our standards.

We will be in a suite this November. The thought of having to be out by 7 was not a good thought!:eek:

They were in Michael's Club

But they still had to be out of their cabins by 7?

(Regardless of where they go.)

I just read in another post that suites had to be out by 7. Just wondering if that's what you also heard?

Our first time in Aqua. The ship and crew could not have done more to make the trip enjoyable. Blu was fantastic, both food and service. The ship was spotless, a few changes since our last cruise 1 year ago. Luggage valet is back! 8am out of cabin (not 7am except suites had to be out by 7). Internet was good about 3MBPS down, slow up, long ping. Took about 25 mins to get off ship and through customs. Great trip!

Really? Everyone has to be out of their cabin by 8 but suites have to be out by 7? That doesn't make sense.

I guess I need to pay more attention!

My wife and I rented our own houseboat and did the Trent-Severn, really enjoyable, they are not hard to drive and you can go through as many locks as you like. I just thought I would throw this in as we found it to be fun and we got to be ourselves for the 8 days we had the houseboat, plus you can choose your own course !! The whole route is 240 Miles

 

Here is some info

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trent%E2%80%93Severn_Waterway

 

If you go in the fall

 

Looks like a great cruise. Wish we owned a houseboat!

OP, I have no suggestions for you (we're actually in the same "25 year anniversary boat" for our November cruise) but I hope that you have a very special cruise. What a good husband you are!

I'll be paying attention to this thread and refer my husband to it.:D

We've never had a problem storing luggage under the bed. If it is too deep to go under the frame you can either lift the bed enough to slide it in, or open the suitcase which makes it less deep.

And when the suitcase is open, it makes a great place to put your dirty laundry and store shoes!

Cruise reviews??...cats??....humor? - I'm in! Can't wait to follow along.

 

Bon Voyage!

Me too! As a former Rhode Islander who had a tuxedo cat in RI and a former lover of all things Disney until so many changes....sigh, it is going to be a fun cruise! Looking forward to your reports.

m - Thank you for the post. I Am not aware of any TA OBC which is not refundable, yet there could be. Just never heard of it, only X's.

I've found it on only TA I (almost) booked. When I found out it was OBN, I cancelled and went with C.

Don't assume you can use it towards a future cruise. You can't, I've tried.

For your poll, if you are talking about OBC that is refundable, yes, that would be my first choice.

Non-refundable? Not so much.

I also have my reservation through the same store and they stressed very clearly that the cash card could be take to member services and exchanged for cash. With that, I figure I'd use it to pay for any incidentals I charge on the cruise anyway.

I agree with those who have stated that they do not allow cash exchange for the cash card. I wonder if they (the store) are confusing the rebate money/bonus that the C store credit company gives every year? Now that is a check that they will cash for you.

This change happen last fall. Since I don't live near any of their locations my shopping/visits are maybe 1 or 2 a year. This was our TA of choice but we stopped booking with them.

 

I too was told the cash card could be taken to their Customer Service desk and exchanged for money. For us that would mean a 150 mile r/t.

Actually back in 2013 I booked a big Disney family cruise through C. I received just over $2000 in cash cards. I didn't mind getting them. The way I looked at it, had we booked with Disney, we would have received nothing, so I was appreciative of the deal. But after that it was OBC refundable (on X). Maybe it was just DCL that they gave the cash cards for.

Bottom line, there are plenty of things that irritate me, believe me. :mad:

For some reason, this just isn't one of them!:)