JEDIKNIGHT

Being in the Royal - can you describe embarkation? I know there's a suite line but did someone escort you to the suite and make the whole process quicker?

Also, did you notice any difference in service offered - by virtue of being in the Royal Suite, vs the Sky Lofts you stayed in before?

I'm right now deciding on SkyLoft vs a Royal Loft hence I ask....

I don't mind the charge for room service - AS LONG as the food is good, and it's served hot.

I maybe doing my first RCCL cruise in February.

Cost aside - how is room service food on RCCL - quality and temperature?

I was hoping that the steak in Chops Grille is good?

Any feedback?

Karen I must admit - that "bug" crawling around in your signature had me going.

I must've tried to "get it" on my laptop screen for awhile and then I was worried that it had crawled inside my computer - lol

Has anyone gotten their temperature in their rooms lower than 71 degrees or unlocked? Another site that people are posting on has stated that the thermostats says "locked" and won't go lower than 71 degrees. I hope they unlocked the thermostats!

Ok I know i'll get flamed.

But I need the room cool.

If this is true, I'm canceling my February cruise on Quantum today.

Wonderful review.

Room Service - other than accuracy of order, how was quality of food, and temperature of food? Thanks

Hi Jenna, I suspect we have some similar preferences vis a vis cruising so I wanted to ask you.

My potential Feb Quantum Cruise is strictly to get 6yo DD to Florida and Bahamas without flying. We have 2yo son too - I just don't want to fly. I know after reading your and other ppl's posts that the 'suite perks' will not be as seamless as we're used to on X or even NCL and that's cool, I know it upfront.

Question....

I'm in a Sky Loft for now - but a Royal Loft with Balcony just opened up - it's over twice the size. Part of me thinks the extra size will be good, especially for 2yo DS to run around but goodness, the per diem is MORE than booking a Penthouse on X.

Concierge-wise, do you think RCL gives a better degree of service because one is in the Royal Loft vs Sky Loft? Because if not, as tempted as I am to upgrade - I'm thinking that upgrade won't produce the 'seamless' of X suites - so maybe it's not worth it.

Appreciate any input from anyone. Thanks

I've done 2 NCL Cruises - 1 owner's suite, 1 Garden Villa. YES, the Concierge and Butler service also made things "seamless", and eating at Cagney's is a nice perk.

So NCL suite perks are great. I prefer the other elements of Celeb over NCL: Ambience, clientele, demographics, MDR, shows - hence I give my vote to Celebrity.

I saw the dinner menu online.

How is Coastal Kitchens for breakfast and lunch? What kind of food?

Is Coastal Kitchens noticeable better than other venues by way of food or service or ambience? Thanks

Hello...

On Quantum, would "SkyLoft" qualify for Coastal Kitchen?

How about Jr Spa suite?

Thanks

There's a BUFFET at Izumi? Anyone here that give details?

HI Jenna - never heard about this new dining room on RCL. If it's on Oasis, I'd hope it's on Quantum too.

I"m reviewing Suite Perks I've already experienced after 4 Celebrity Cruises. Where did I review something that hasn't happened yet? I listed said perks that are not new and have been around for years.

I'm looking at Royal Caribbean. As someone crowd-averse, heck, for me even a Celebrity ship is "big" at 2100 pax. So I'm looking at behemoth Quantum with 6200 pax and the ONLY reason I'm thinking of it is in Feb, my DD has some days off school, and it's a 1 hour drive to port for me - meaning a convenient way to take my kid to Orlando for a Day and Atlantis for a day.

The suites are very impressive but when I ask about Suite Perks, I get the impression that there's a lounge, but not even a fraction of the personalized treatment you get on Celeb suites. Heck, even NCL suite perks seem better than RCCL. But then you factor in ambience and quality - Celeb becomes the hands-down best value because if you wanted better than Celeb Suite Treatment, you'd have to cruise a premium line at double the cost.

Yes, I'm looking forward to new Celebrity changes. For me, the Big One is the new dining room. If the quality and service is very good, then Celeb might become my sole mode of cruising.

I consider myself a rather even-handed reviewer. To each his own - but I privately chuckle on those who will defend their favorite cruise-line like it was their mother, and get crazy when *gasp* someone cites real negatives about a cruise. Likewise, there's pax who live to complain about everything and again - not my speed. When reviewing a cruise I'll write about the good, and like on my recent Summit cruise - I will write about what I felt was an atrocious buffet.

Anyhow, *solely* because of date and convenient departure ports I am looking at another line and I gotta say, Celebrity's Suite Perks are AWESOME, and an excellent value. Quality pre-boarding, personalized concierge service, usually a great Butler - it's just great. When you shop some other lines and ask questions about Suite Perks - you realize how nice Celebrity is in this regard. Overall when you look at the per-day cost of a cruise, I think Celebrity delivers a stunningly good value.

It's more than just a big room - Celebrity truly makes the 'suite' experience a very seamless vacation.

I wish they had more cruises leaving from NJ or Baltimore.

I'm NOT taking sides but just asking a question.....

Why would the steward open a can of soda to "earn a little extra"? Does he get paid every time we open a can of soda? Let's say he got 15% of a $3.00 soda. That's 45 cents.

Let's say he went full gangster and did it to 10 rooms.

He'd make $4.50 - and risk his job.

Not sure if he'd do that?

Our Butler Requests that were *flawless* with 2 out of 4 Butlers in Celebrity Penthouses:

*Shrimp Cocktails, and 2 covered fruit plates in fridge every night.

*Bottled water and club soda stocked as needed.

*Salt, Mayo, and Ketchup stocked up

*Yogurts and milks in fridge. (For baby)

*Room Service breakfasts most days.

Also, Ram and Rikki were *awesome* with Room Service Dinner that we'd utilize 2 out of 7 nights. They'd deliver the food course by course and food would be hot and perfect.

Ancillary things would be help with dinner reservation, help with shore excursions which Ram and Rikki eagerly did.

Without exaggerating: Having Ram or Rikki as a Butler on Mercury and Summit - will be the closest I'll ever come to knowing what it feels like being President, and living in the White House. Honestly - that's how I felt each time.

If I could request either as a Butler - I'd pay a premium for it and honestly, I'd go on cruise "x" instead of "y" just because one of them would be the Butler. Roger and Jose were good - but frankly, not qualified to hold Ram and Rikki's coat.

I've always thought your posts were great, but this one doesn't add up :D

 

Seriously, why I responded was to say "thank you"! This is great advice. We have had 4 good butlers, one of which we've had twice and one of which we can't even remember his name and 1 AMAZING Butler, who will probably spoil all other butler experiences, and one that was pretty much a dud (thankfully, it was a short sailing). We have a long sailing coming up, that we really hope will be almost as good as our amazing butler on our last long sailing. If not, we now have a good strategy to help him (or her) step up her game.

 

Thanks and happy sailing,

Jenna

Hi Jenna - thank you for pointing out my writing incompetence :) The HR department has written me up. Let me do a count to get it right this time:

Mercury - Ram - Awesome

Mercury - Roger - better than ok.

Summit - Riccki - Awesome

Summit - jose (I think) - better than ok.

Hope your upcoming cruise has a nice Butler. Totally makes it a stellar vacation doesn't it? Before we had kids, we used to solely do premium lines like Regent.

When you have a 'great' butler on X like Ram or Rikki - I must say, the overall experience is better than Regent.

I never sit by the pool (crowd-averse, lol) so to be honest with you I don't know if they reserve pool seats.

The perks I described where on multiple Celebrity Cruises. HOWEVER, on 2 NCL Suite-Cruises, those perks were almost identical with Celeb being slightly better.

From what i read - Suites on RCl are that - bigger rooms. I think the perks won't be close to Celeb and NCL which is fine, I'm not criticizing. Just making an observation based on what I've read.

Still leaning towards doing Quantum in Feb. NJ is convenient, the Orlando is a nice stop for kids. Sort of dreading being 1 of 6200 pax on the ship after all the seamless perks on other lines, but who knows maybe it'll work out.

Many CruiseLines are 'cutting back' on staff, amenities, whatever. Why?

Because they can.

Because they know that the mainstream mass-market consumer is not too demanding.

Because they know that pax will defend a cruise-line more than they'll defend their own mother.

"A cruise is what you make of it!"

"Don't be a complainer!"

You'll find those retorts all over the place. This is why now, I sort of laugh at the whole thing. Sure, cut back on MDR and charge the Sheeple for alternative dining. Cut back on staff - let the Sheeple stand in line at the buffet. They'll say "oh heck, i'm on vacation, no rush". Eventually, cruise lines should charge for baggage per piece of luggage.

Sound familiar? Airlines. Air travel has devolved in the last 2 decades for the same reason: Consumers are not demanding. Mass-market customers will just "take it" and make the best out of it which is oh so nice and sweet.

I do believe mass-market cruises provide an excellent value. But there's no question that quality is in decline, and will decline in the future - because these business are smart. Why NOT cutback if pax are still willing to sail? I congratulate the companies, and their shareholders on the nice profits.

If you go, have a safe and relaxing time. Don't know what else to say but please accept sincere thoughts from a total stranger.

What do you like better about the Celebrity suite program?

Ok, I am NOT comparing this to RCL - I've never been on RCL but I've done very large suites on NCL, and Celebrity. What I like about Celebrity Suite Perks: "Seamless" is the word

1.)A TINY line to check in and the desk person radios the ship and minutes later I'm told "Josie will escort you onto the ship" and it's a casual stroll, right up to the ship where the Butler is waiting and waving. Butler takes hand bags, asks if we want to go to room or lunch. Butler knows 'secret' passages and elevators so we get to suite quick.

2.)Butler does custom room service. At dinner - it's served course-by-course and everything nice and hot. Butler knows what we like and magically ' extra butter, extra mayo, extra ketchup" just happens to arrive in the suite for a week.

3.)Concierge KNOWS us. Calls in to make sure we're ok and personally handles shore excursions, dinner bookings, etc. On the final morning I was told by Concierge "just call me when you are ready to leave" - which i did. 10 minutes later I'm at port and my bags are there.

4.)Waiters/Maitre'D in MDR seem to look after us more. Sadly they should do that for everyone - but with a large suite - it's obvious they pay closer attention.

BTW - NCL while not my favorite line - does MOST of this very well also.

I'm considering RCCL because I can drive to the NJ port which is handy with 2 young kids. If these "suite perks" were on RCL i'd be doing much more RCL for sure but of course, I respect their business model and they obviously know what they are doing.

Different strokes for different folks. For me, "seamless" is a big reason why I'd pay for a suite.

One more question.... in the Sky Loft, do you recall there being a fridge, or microwave?

THANKS, and thank you for your excellent pictures - very easy to navigate site you have there.

When you were in Sky Loft, did you feel the embarkation, disembarkation, and leaving the ship for shore excursions was efficient? Was your wait shorter due to suite perk?

Also, was the Concierge effective in handling requests like dinner reservations, shore excursions?