bigbenboys

1 hour ago, benkon said:

Since everyone has indicated there's little or no wait for Blu, it shouldn't be an issue.  That's why I asked the initial question.

If you show up at Blu about the same time each night the maitre d will try and put you at the same table or section. 

On 8/3/2023 at 9:49 AM, Sunwanabe said:

I am not impressed with PC with their latest change. Does give pause that what you might book and pay for is not necessarily the final product when it's time to cruise. Is it enough to take note and entertain the switch to other cruise lines?  Yes!

Well, I did something I have not done in 12 years. I talked to our TA about booking Princess. I'm Booking a Penthouse 3 with Premier package is $7200. Canceling Celebrity Suite $12,400. Both are 7 nights. I know there have been changes over at Princess. I'm sure a lot has changed in 12 years.

With over 30 cruises with Celebrity from Balcony to Celebrity Suite. We mostly book sky suites. The butler change for us is not a big deal. But, many other changes by Celebrity has made us look elsewhere.

1 hour ago, benkon said:

We are booked in a Prime Aqua Class on an upcoming Infinity sailing.  Can someone please explain why I can use the online Cruise Planner to reserve an actual dining time (we have Anytime Dining) in Trellis but not in Blu?

 

Thanks, in advance.

All Prime Aqua Class means is prime location of your cabin. Blu is you assigned dining. Celebrity calls it Select Dining. For years now you can order off the MDR menu on Celebrity M-Class and S-Class ships in Blu. Infinity is a M Class ship. The only reason to dine in Trellis is if you are traveling with family or friends that are assigned to the MDR.

In Blu we just ask to see the MDR menu and we order off of both menus. Blu seats about 86 guest on the M-Class ships.

7 minutes ago, hcat said:

closing Luminae would lead to total rebellion!

I book suites mostly for Luminae. You might be right.  If X removes sky suites from Luminae. SC dont have specialty dining included. That would leave SC and any high end suite guest that did not want to dine in a specialty dining restaurant to dine in Luminae. The other option I see would be to remove specialty dining from high end suites. That will free up more room in the specialty dining and more high end guest to Luminae. This would bring in more revenue to X's bottom line.

6 minutes ago, zitsky said:

Are you saying two Aqua class passengers can go into Blu and bring along 2 or 5 or 12 non Aqua passengers?  How does that impact other guests?  Or do you mean large parties can make reservations in Blu?  Same thing.

What I'm saying is that X has changed some sky suites to Aqua Sky Suites. AquaClass you are limited to 2 people in a cabin. You can now book Aqua sky suites with more than 2 people. 

On 8/2/2023 at 10:54 AM, Oceangoer2 said:

I expect the next change will be no dining privileges in Luminae for SS passengers.

While I see anything is possible. M Class has 50 suites of those 22 are sky suites. 10 of them are Aqua Sky Suites. Meaning X will have to move about 44 guest to the MDR or Blu. S Class has 111 suites of those 72 are sky suites. 10 of them are Aqua Sky Suites. Meaning X will have to move about 144 guest to the MDR or Blu. Sky suites can have 4 guests and aqua sky suite can have 2+. So the guests being moved to Blu or MDR at times will be even more.

I now see an advantage to book a aqua sky suite beside the location on the S Class ships. Those that want Blu, but have more than 2 in their party can now book and dine in Blu. 

Another thought is to close down Luminae. Bring it back into the MDR on M and S Class ships. Add specialty dining to CS's. CS suites and above will have breakfast, lunch and dinner in a specialty dining restaurant.

We are not in a sky suite until June 2024. CS next month. I normally give our butler our an extra $100 for 7 to 10 nights. If I dont have the same butler, I might just keep my $100.

1 hour ago, deliver42 said:

I can go to any cruise forum and hear the same thing about cost cutting and rising pricing. Not to mention, "I'll never go on this line again". Love all the complaining.

I'm not done with X. We are in a CS next month. June 2024 we will be in a mid sky suite on Apex to Iceland. I do wish X would be more forward with their changes. I'm just cutting back on X, until things settle down. Who know what changes X will do next. There are 2 things that X did that made me look at Princess. When X stopped serving Prime Rib (yes it is back) and when X cut back on food at dinner time in the Oceanview café.

2 hours ago, Gracie115 said:

 

The PH3 is a wonderful suite, especially the corner aft ones, the balconies are enormous!  It is very roomy, the bathroom is very large with separate large tub and standing shower.  As a comparison we think it falls somewhere between a CS & an RS on Celebrity.  No butler, of course, but they have never had them.  We are booked on the Sky in a PH3 with the Premier package in 2024.🙂

Yes we got a aft corner PH 3 on deck 12 Feb 2024 . I saw a video online looks great. The suite does seem to be between CS & RS. Premier package gives us 2 nights specialty restaurants and a Invitation to 360 dining. 

1 hour ago, deliver42 said:

Wait till you check Princess with their new changes. What used to be free, is no more.

I'm sure things have changed in 12 years since we were on Princess.

Booking Princess PS 3 with Premier package is $7200. Canceling Celebrity CS $12,400. Both are 7 nights.

Well, I did something I have not done in 12 years. I talked to our TA about booking Princess. I'm booking a PH3 with Princess Premier on the Discovery (2022). I know there have been changes over at Princess. I'm sure a lot has changed in 12 years.

With over 30 cruises with X from Balcony to CS. We mostly book sky suites. The butler change for us is not a big deal. But, many other changes by X has made me look elsewhere. We do have 3 cruise booked with X. I'm going to cancel one more. 

1 hour ago, Piaa said:

Being Elite on Celebrity (for many years) I never knew about this (shows how much I pay attention LOL) so can anyone tell me what drinks are included in this "happy 2 hours" - sailing on Equinox on Saturday so wondering if it is just wine/beer or can I order a martini and hubby get his Manhattan - and do you just go to any bar and show them your card?

 

Thanks everyone 

 

 

See post #7

10 hours ago, tigervixxxen said:

 I’ve never seen anyone mention the bizarre no butter in Blu but instead some veggie purée to go with your bread. 

I remember having butter. The butter was pressed into a rose mold. Like the rose on the wall in Blu.

18 hours ago, NMTraveller said:

This is the typical food thread.  Diners in MDR note the decline.  Diners in suites say it isn't so because they ordered an MDR item while in Luminae.

 

I would suppose that those sailing in suites, if they had to order exclusively off of the MDR menu and dine exclusively in the MDR might have been more in line with the MDR diners' reviews.

 

Diners in Luminae get to cherry pick the menu.

 

 

Our last cruise I ordered Prime Rib from the MDR menu in Luminae. The PR was great, med rare 1" to 1-1/2 thick. Luminae food was ok.

We book mostly sky suites. But will book Aqua and just started booking celebrity suites. Our cruise in Sept is in a CS. 

March 2019 we sailed on Edge in a sky suite. I did like that we could not order off the MDR menu in Luminae. Retreat Lounge and Luminae had lost its intimate feeling. The Retreat sundeck lacked shade. So I dont like booking E Class. Back in Jan after the news of the changes to the OV and prime rib. I canceled 3 sailings in sky suites. 

For us the lost of a dedicated Butler is not a big deal. Our Butler brings us breakfast at 7am. We get the same thing each morning so it is nice to only have to fill out the form once. 

I have now decided to cancel an Alaska sailing in a CS for fall 2024. I have been looking at Royal's GS. This morning I looked at Oceania and Regent. Oceania doesnt seem to visit an glacier. So I'm leaning towards Regent. Still have to do more research on dining. I'll just have to put up with the dresscode.

Celebrity, I will now only book close to sailings for suites only.

Celebrity has lost my trust. 

21 minutes ago, kirtihk said:

My point is as I mentioned the entire ship is yours (especially, Regent like that is not that small) versus just Retreat area (class separator), and on Regent the entertainment is really good (on our cruise with Regent the orchestra had its own for an hour at 11 pm every night besides its regular duty in the theater).

I also dont like smaller ships or their dresscode. I just want to be able to wear gray jeans (no rips or tears) and a polo on the smaller ships. We tried Azamara, the ship was boring. I'm looking for music closer to Billie Eilish not Lawrence Welk.

We have not sailed on Royal since 2016. I'm looking at sailing with my aunt and her family. I'm thinking of booking a GS. As my assigned dining would be Coastal Kitchen. I see the 1st night of the cruise has prime rib in the MDR. Can I order off the MDR menu in coastal kitchen? Can we join our family of 7 in the MDR for the 1st night only? I looked at Chops Grille, but did not see prime rib on the menu. Or will I have to order room service to get prime rib the 1st evening?

9 minutes ago, CruisinBanka said:

Oh thanks! Wasn’t aware of that restriction in Blu, as all my sailings on E Class have been in Luminae 

On the E Class ships while dining in Luminae you cant order off the MDR menu. This is the main reason we try not to book E Class ships. 

This is the tote bag we get in an sky suite.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/166197007862?chn=ps&norover=1&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-117182-37290-0&mkcid=2&mkscid=101&itemid=166197007862&targetid=1531876739198&device=c&mktype=pla&googleloc=9033255&poi=&campaignid=19851828444&mkgroupid=145880009174&rlsatarget=aud-1297930287298:pla-1531876739198&abcId=9307249&merchantid=6296724&gclid=Cj0KCQjw5f2lBhCkARIsAHeTvlgxSaTePmJDZxndDRC8_A0lv_vuKpAVU92EgG4y9Worf_kQq6jRhvYaAqygEALw_wcB

We booked through Celebrity. Our tour was just the train ride. We booked tickets for Accademia Museum ourselves. 

If I remember correctly. Celebrity pulled out of the LA/Mexico market years ago. X said they were not making any money back then. X added sailings out of LA because of the cancellation of the Asia sailings last year. Times have changed. Hoping X will get back in the Pacific Mexico run. We have Eclipse booked for Sept 24 Vancouver to LA.

no

Make the reservations for the specialty restaurants all around the same time. Once onboard got to the specialty restaurants and give the maitre d everyone's cabin number. Tell the maitre d about the 80th BDAY celebrations. They might do something extra for your group. I want to say 8 years ago our TA was able to reserve a table for 10 for us 11 in the select section of the MDR.

We sailed on Revolutionized Millie last year.  Personally I like Equinox. Eastern Med is my favorite area to cruise. Plus you can do glassblowing. Silhouette is a little bigger version of Equinox. Silhouette has a specialty restaurant instead of glassblowing.

1 hour ago, cusematt4 said:

Thanks.  Is there any reason why anyone may prefer Alaska to Vancouver instead of Vancouver to Alaska?

 

We were originally leaning to start in Alaska with a pre-cruise land tour, but the one-way sailings from Vancouver and ending in Alaska seem substantially cheaper.  Is there any reason the Alaska to Vancouver sailings are more expensive?  They pretty much have the same itinerary.

Check in is so much easier in Seward. Seward only Celebrity check in at the pier. We were on the ship in about 15 mins. At the pier in Vancouver you must go through Canadian customs then US customs and then Celebrity check in.

Also Vancouver pier has easy access to the airport. Seward your flying into Anchorage. Anchorage is 120 miles from Seward. 

I think you get a better feel of Alaska by starting in Alaska.

AquaClass has Blu as their assigned dining room. Normally on Silhouette while dining in Blu you can order off the Main Dining Room menu. If you want to dine in the MDR. I tell the maitre d in Blu when I'm going to dine in the MDR or one of the specialty restaurant. You will dine in the Select section of the MDR. I believe Select dining room is on deck 4.

Most AquaClass cabins are on deck 11. Aqua Sky Suites are on the 12.

It is best to talk to the sommelier about your wine likes and what drink package you have.