JanBerlin

14 minutes ago, reecesavage said:

Are they still using magnetic stripes for drink purchases? Meaning if the stripe gets demagnetized you still need a new card?

 

Thanks.

No, they just hold the card against a pad. I think, they use RFID.

1 hour ago, PaperSniper4 said:

 

Q. How well did the "wireless/easy access/no card" cabin keys work?

Far better than the old ones with the magnetic strip.

1 minute ago, TeeRick said:

The Retreat Lounge chairs do not look too comfortable.  Did they remove the piano?  Do you have another picture of the Retreat L showing the bar area?

No piano anymore. Didn't take a picture of the bar area, but nobody wanted to sit there. Was more or less a service staff area.

On 4/10/2019 at 10:19 AM, garlinn said:

Breaking News!!!

 

As of today our S1 on Millennium has a shower curtain. 

Neither revolutionary nor fancy, but does its job.

11 minutes ago, shirazcruiser said:

JanBerlin:

Does the SS bathroom have any additional shelves to store toiletries besides the open shelf below the sink? There use to be upper wall shelves near the toilet. Just planning for my upcoming sailing. Thanks for any info.

No. There was a space behind the bathroom door, on the left side of the toilet, which was used to place a tissue dispenser and offered enough space for a toiletry bag and other things, but there were definitely no further shelves. Much space left and right from the sink, though.

Haha! Exactly right about "Mein Schiff" and "AIDA" - although especially "Mein Schiff" has probably better offerings for the Germanic taste,  BUT: too many Germans!

Would never go on Costa and MSC (ok, perhaps "MSC Yacht Club"). Done Princess many times, but their product - even on the rather new "Royal Princess" - is far inferior in almost every respect and at the same time more expensive than Celebrity's.

But that discussion is for another forum.

Enjoy your TA!

2 minutes ago, Germancruiser said:

Great post Ian- Berlin- und Hallo nach Berlin ( aus Ulm) ! I am big fan of the Millenium Class- all in all i like what I have seen so far from the " Revolution"! Is that Retreat- Lounge the former Michaels Club?  If just so happens- dear god, what have they done to this once cozy, elegant lounge?

What I saw of the cabins was nicely done- and Milli- in fact all Milli- Class ships are in dire need of a " refresh"! Milli and Summit are done. Unfortunatley their destionations are not really attraktive to me!

Greetings/ Grüße

Michael

Hallo!

Yes, it is former "Michael's Club". Although MC was a bit dated, too, the change in design is just too crass in my opinion.

As for itineraries, we find the ones in Asia quite good, in other parts of the world mostly boring. That's a field Celebrity really should lern form MSC and even Princess (but only in that field, please!)

Having returned from the March 16th sailing, I think, all in all the refurbishment was a badly needed one and pretty nicely executed.

We stayed in a SkySuite S2 and the suite makeover was fine apart from the shower that just featured a tiny little glass panel to keep the water in which meant constant flooding of the bathroom floor. They apparently tried to compensate that by limiting the shower pressure (bath tub water pressure coming from the same faucet was great) which resulted in you standing under a lame drizzle and still flooding the floor. Although I am not a fan of shower curtains, here one is badly needed.

Sound insulation towards the neighbouring cabins was not so great. Not sure if that had something to do with the makeover of the walls or if that was a problem before, too.

The Retreat Lounge had horrible seating and no atmosphere at all. They really have to change the seatbacks of the sofas and the far to uncozy lighting, bring the frosted glass enclosure towards the "Art" Gallery back and kick those ridiculous toddler stools out, not even Kelly Hoppen MBE will be able to get her behind in 😉

Apart from that: no complaints whatsoever.

49 minutes ago, Jim_Iain said:

I'm also happy it is back.   There is so much great information here.

Jim,

Could be so kind and post the link again?

Cheers,

Jan

... I can't.

After having cruised seven times with Princess, took Celebrity in October and honestly can't tell you one aspect where Princess is superior (perhaps the frequent cruiser perks, but as a first timer on Princess you wouldn't be granted those, anyway).

Ship layout/design, cabin interior, food, basic price and additional costs, routings, staff - everything surpassed Princess by far.

Will use my last Future Cruise Credit next spring on Princess in Alaska and that will be it.

Sailed on Golden February/March around Cape Horn.

I am not picky when it comes to the state of the ship. Coincidentally, almost every ship we sailed on was scheduled for drydock, but I never saw the need for it, they all looked ok for me (some rust in places don't bother me), but the Golden really is ready for a drydock.

I have never encountered so much rust on any ship. It even came crawling through the floor mat on our balcony! They tried to cope with it the best they could and on every day of our 14 days staff painters were circeling the Promenade Deck and the lifeboat area above it re-painting the railings, ceilings and so on. As much as I appreciated their effort, that meant, you strolled on the Promenade Deck either in paint smell, cigarette smoke or in the foul smell of kitchen sewage (the A/C outlets lead to the Promenade Deck). Furthermore, you had to watch out not to touch the freshly painted areas (sometimes quite difficult considering the rather narrow deck often crowed by bird watchers and their foto/binocular equipment, especially in rougher seas).

A further annoyance was the fact, that coffee mugs left by (moron) passengers on the outside decks were not cleared for days!

Inside the ship there were a lot of not functioning lighting fixtures and dented table lamps in the lounges.

The food was so-so. A lot of menu card poetry and nothing behind it. Example: the fancy "Avocado Fan" was really two thick chunks of avocado. Food presentation lacked in general: for example, soups were presented badly - not one spring onion ring or some other decorative green to be seen.

All that said: those impressions did not ruin our stay on the Golden (in fact we enjoyed it very much), but Princess could have done much better (and they can as we knew from the very well kept Coral last year).

I would like to have (at least some) food choices that reflect the cruise region and season. Cruising since 2008 on Princess and am bored to tears with food variations, although the meals themselves are fine.

I second the requests for proper hair dryers and for the re-introduction of MDR lunch on port days.