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In our experience the best place on S class ships to enjoy music pre and post dinner is the Ensemble lounge. During the evenings there is an ongoing variety of performances ranging from classical, duos, guitar…The atmosphere in the lounge is lovely. If you want to focus on the music sit near to the performers, if you want to chat and make new friends just sit a bit further away… Each evening a ‘Today’ sheet will be in your cabin with all the information for the next day. Look under ‘entertainment’ and you will see the acts moving from venue to venue. If there is an act you have seen and enjoyed or would like to try then head for the appropriate bar. The nice thing about this is that it does encourage you to try a range of venues rather than going to the same bar each night. Obviously there are the big shows too but is sounds like you prefer bar settings. We loved our cruise on Silhouette, can’t wait to be back on board. In addition to the entertainment remember Silhouette has a great range of speciality restaurants, well worth looking at a dining package. Sincere best wishes for a fantastic cruise!

Rather than jumping from one cruise line to another we are thinking more of villa breaks to European islands with a private pool and enough space to take family with us for a month for the cost of just over a week on Apex in a RS (flights and small car hire included for family with the villa option)…. The irony is the E class RS is not as nice as the S class one ( in our opinion). Much as we love cruising our cruises have always been about quality family time…Just over a week vs up to a month enjoying family time, especially when some family members can work from home… I can’t see our cruising coming to an end but I can see us cruising less often and being more selective…

Totally understand your disappointment, we also enjoyed The Porch on port days when we cruised both the Reflection and Silhouette. I can understand the closure, however, as on both cruises the venue was almost empty. Suggest you have a word with the concierge or your butler expressing your disappointment. Perhaps suggesting the food items you would have enjoyed…They may be able to ‘enhance’ your room service offerings….

We generally ask for Courvoisier, never a problem. Generally if it is within the premium package or near to there is not a problem.

You will enjoy Celebrity…. The focus on RC tends to be activities and entertainment whereas on Celebrity it is more on rest and relaxation… We find the food generally on Celebrity better than on RC in all venue types from the buffet to the speciality restaurants. Strongly recommend looking at a dining package. Sincere best wishes for a great cruise.

Yes, used several times now. No issues at all.

It depends on how much you enjoy a drink in your room…Personally we tend to enjoy a long drink late afternoon/early evening in our room before getting ready for dinner and then a late night cognac on the balcony. It is nice late afternoon not to leave the room to get drinks to carry back, especially if you have just woken up from a siesta. Also nice late evening not to have to carry a glass back… I guess it comes down to two things…Do you regularly enjoy the same tipple daily in your room and is it worth the price for convenience? If you like variety in your drinks (late night sometimes a Bailey’s sometimes a cognac, sometimes a….) then not worth it but if you both, for example, enjoy a G+T every afternoon then worth it. £90 is a small % of your cruise cost. Two bottles of spirits come with our usual rooms. If it didn’t we would probably get just the late afternoon tipple and tote back our evening one as we are invariably coming from a bar anyway! If it adds an extra bit of magic go for it! Sometimes it is the little extras you add on to a cruise that make it special! Sincere best wishes for a fantastic cruise!

How we loved that fridge! We at least left some space for food too! We always ask the butler to ‘leave a bit of something’ to enjoy on the balcony late at night…Lots of space in the M PH fridge for plenty of options and it stays much colder than in S class. Hope you have a fantastic cruise, our M PH cruises remain among our most memorable!

Thank you for such a clear pictorial review… I assume from your name you are a regular Cunard traveler? So how would you rate/compare the following on both lines? Luminae vs Queen’s Grill Suite rooms Butler service overall cruise experience price As someone who has been looking at Cunard for the first time, very interested…

You will have no issues choosing from the MDR menu in Luminae on Eclipse. Blu is less easy. Simple geography of where the restaurants are on the ship. However, if you let the M’D in Luminae know you have food allergies they will accommodate you. Each evening they will look at the next day’s menu with you. They will point out meals that are all ready suitable for you, meals they can modify for you and if that doesn’t work they will discuss with you what may enjoy and provide off menu items. If you plan on visiting one of the speciality restaurants if you pop by the day before they will also modify the menu to meet your needs. Hope you have a fantastic cruise!

A pity….we enjoy an occasional cruise from Southampton and as we have got older the appeal of not flying has become more tempting. We are highly unlikely to be booking… Agree…just cannot justify this sort of pricing. Too rich for us…

We are from the UK and would say the Baltic simply because the British Isles itinerary is quite limited, you could see a lot more by land and probably at a cheaper price…

Thank you for a well written and balanced review.

This really can be cruise dependent. We have been on S class cruises where from mid cruise they really were struggling to get upper suite guests into Murano. Equally we have been on cruises where all restaurants were easily available. Personally we had no issues as we had pre booked but we were aware there were problems. So much depends on the number of pax with dining packages, the number of upper suite guests who prefer speciality dining to Luminae, the success of on board marketing…. Safest option is to try to anticipate what your speciality dining options are likely to be…pre booking and then modifying if necessary once on board.

On S class it is a sofa bed, cannot confirm re E class. All four guests in a RS receive the internet, included speciality dining, drinks package and laundry. Still only 2 x bottles of spirits but your butler will provide as many beers and sodas as you request.

Hope you are thoroughly enjoying your cruise! We loved Silhouette. We particularly enjoyed the food and service in Murano, great wine recommendations in there within the premium package.

Totally understand your perspective…you have chosen a room that will suit you. For many higher suite guests, however, the butler service is important. We are older now, less mobile and enjoy having a butler to look after us… In our ‘real life’ we are independent but enjoy on our cruises having a rest from making beds, cooking, cleaning…Having breakfast served in our room is a treat as is the occasional lunch or dinner if we are tired… All of us who book suits may not do so for the same reason….The important thing is that all aspects of the suite experience should be met.

Totally understand where you are coming from…Always the same with short cruises….There is a dilemma between pressing for good service vs wasting the time you have trying to improve the service levels…In similar circumstances we would probably do as you did.

We try to include. as many small requests as possible on our list to the shoreside concierge (fruit bowl, limes, lemons… )as well as the usual drinks list etc. Most of the time they are there on arrival. In our experience if they are not they appear the second day as the butler will have contacted someone (day 1) to prepare. Also requested snacks will kick in day 2. On a short cruise the delay of even one day is a chunk of your cruise so more noticeable. Butlers saying room service will arrive cold etc. is totally unacceptable. One of the joys of the M class PH is dining on the balcony and in suite. It sounds to me as if he was trying to reduce his work load. As is waiting until day three for a fruit bowl. We have never had service this bad in any suite and would have firstly complained to the butler then if there had not been an improvement we would have asked to speak to the suite manager. Re pyjamas and robes….In our experience some ships are better stocked than others. On Equinox, no problems. On Silhouette last September they did not have any pyjamas or robes at all. The fact that your ship had just returned from Europe may mean they simply didn’t have any new robes in stock. If that was the case they should have been open and honest with you are they were with us. Packaging two old robes is simply tacky but may have been a bad idea by your butler/room attendant to appease you. Look forward to your next experience….Bad butlers are rare…

We love the entertainment on Celebrity. It sounds like you like lounge entertainment in bars rather than big shows which is our preference too. The ensemble lounge pre and post dinner is a great venue not only to enjoy the music but to make new friends. Make sure you check the ‘Today’ sheet. It will list where and when the live music takes place. No loud announcements on Celebrity so you do need to check. Another vote for booking a meal in Murano. We loved our cruise on Reflection…Enjoy!

Sincere best wishes for a speedy recovery to all… Just so frustrating when mishaps happen just before a holiday. Re photos we upload the ones accepted for our passport renewal a couple of years ago. Always accepted but staff may think us a bit miserable looking!

Keep the posts coming, I do love live reviews!

How beautiful! What a wonderful display… Today is my birthday…those cakes put my little sponge to shame!

Good luck for a move up! Remember you can always pay for a bar set up in your room…Whilst the cost is prohibitive (especially when you already have a drinks package) but it is very convenient. It is years since we did this now…I seem to remember there was quite a limited menu on line but our butler swapped out the ordered bottle for our preferred brand. Definitely worth doing when you enjoy in suite pre dinner drinks. Thoroughly enjoyed your honest and descriptive review…It has been an enjoyable read with morning coffee. I feel I now have a bit better picture of the Cunard experience…

If you are planning on enjoying in your room ask your room attendant to put it on ice for you.