chiguypaul

I’m thinking this will be the situation…

I’m a Diamond member. My family has a cruise on Celebrity. We will likely need to change the sailing date and contemplating switching the booking to Royal. Has anyone been successful with switching between lines without fees?

1 minute ago, jean87510 said:

i am full with appetizers! My husband is the eater.  He is the one who will get our money's worth. 😁  He's just sad no Hooked. 

That's exactly what we said! 🙂

1 minute ago, jean87510 said:

thx so much.  We have udp for upcoming Allure in October as well as the Radiance in May.  Obviously more excited about Allure varieties.  My husband was just saying today to go to Izumi at 530 then to Samba or 150 for dinner.

I would definitely space out time between the restaurants and watch how much you eat at your first location. At 150, we had the bread, two appetizers, the entree and dessert. It was so much food. No need for sushi if combining with 150. But if combing Samba with Izumi Sushi that would work. Between those two you will be beyond full.

5 minutes ago, EntropyGuardian said:

I've done the three premium dinners thing on Liberty and had Chops, Sabor, and Giovanni's. It was interesting but nothing to make me want to do it again. 

 

I'm very interested the first time I get a chance to be on an oasis class to get the premium dining pass though. Many more options. 

 

How many times did you go to Johnny Rockets though??

Zero. No interest in what they serve there or the JR experience.

On a recent six night sailing on the Allure I had the Unlimited Dining Plan. This was the first time I have had it and wanted to share some thoughts on the plan and some of the restaurants with other CC folks.

Overall, I was very happy with the plan. I paid $168 for the plan for the six night cruise. Let me dispel a few rumors. The plan is unlimited. I could go anywhere I wanted, at any time I wanted, and could order whatever I wanted. There were no restrictions on how many places I went to within any period of time. For example, I could have a sushi roll at 5 PM in Izumi, dinner at 6 PM at 150 and then dessert at Giovanni's at 8 PM. Each time, at each restaurant, I was presented with a $0 check. I had no issues getting the reservations I wanted. I booked when getting onboard and made a few changes as the week went on.

• Izumi Sushi: Loved it! Went multiple times and had the same waiter. I thought the food was fantastic. Went multiple times. I was worried that the $35 at Izumi Sushi would not be enough for me. Turned out to be nonsense. For $35 you can get a miso soup, appetizer, two in the "entree" section and dessert. It was plenty and more than enough. And my waiter basically hooked me up with anything I wanted regardless of the $35. When I talked to him about the concept of closing out the bill and opening it again he told me to just let him know what I wanted.
• 150 Central Park: Thought it was excellent. Went three nights of the six night cruise. Service, food, atmosphere all fantastic. 
• Sabor: Staff at this restaurant was always having so much fun. Enjoyed the food. Nice being outside. Went multiple times - mostly around lunch for an extra dessert. Duck burritos, ceviche and the desserts were very good. 
• Samba: Average food. Staff was excellent. Two of the seven or so selections were excellent and everything else just so so. Salad bar was nothing to get excited about. 
• Chops: Lamb was excellent. Atmosphere just OK - didn't feel as upscale as another Chops I went to on different ships. Thoughts on the sides were average. Crab cake was average. I know people love to talk about Chops, but I would direct people to 150 over Chops.
• Giovannis: I was soooo disappointed overall. On the positive side, the octopus was fantastic. However, all of the other dishes were very salty or way to heavy with butter or cream. And while we were eating there was a High C's show outside and it made it very noisy in the restaurant every time the door opened. There was already music playing inside. It's nice that you can get half orders of the pasta so you can try a few different things. I'm sure if we had gone through more of the menu we might have found something else that we liked, but after our one night we had mentally moved on to other restaurants. I also didn't like the room.

My waiters at 150, Izumi Sushi and Sabor were all excellent and they really made going to each of those locations a great experience. We spent at least three meals/snacks/desserts at each of those so we got to know the waiter well. Also wanted to mention that while tip is included, we ended up leaving something extra each time. Not going to get in to how much - do what you think makes sense even if that means not adding additional tip. The UDP is very clear that gratuity is included and the waiters do receive something from you dining. This was my first Royal cruise (I'm Diamond) where I never stepped in to the Main Dining Room. Didn't miss it one bit. However, part of that, is because I've had the MDR menu so many times now. It hasn't changed that much in years and it was nice to have additional options. The prices at Chops and 150 without the dining plan were $65 PLUS 18% gratuity. I don't think that's worth it, but for $168 for 6 dinners and 3 lunches I was really happy. 

Hope this helps people.

Just now, Biker19 said:

My WAG would say lower than that - but, it doesn’t really matter, you get the performance you get. 

Not looking at this from a performance perspective. Strictly how many people purchase it. 

I’ve seen a couple people here say that they can get sushi to go from Izumi on the unlimited dining plan. Is that the exception to the rule or is it something that they do without issue regularly if requested?

On a typical sailing, what would you guess the percent of people with at least a minimum Internet package would be?  I’m thinking in the 60 to 70% range. I’m sure it is higher when there are more families or younger people. 

18 hours ago, bhsolo said:

I did as well for my upcoming Explorer April 2022. It's not intuitive but once I saw people on here mention how to do it, it was great. But I also like for MTD you don't need to make reservations and can just show up. 

This is true. Yes, you can just show up, however, if you are on a ship with high passenger load and come for dinner at a popular time, be prepared to wait. 

Someone just posted  entertainment schedule from this week or last week just do a quick search. 

On 3/25/2022 at 8:06 PM, snoopycr said:

Is it OK to ask for extra appetizers or entrees during mdr on a royal Caribbean cruise? 

 

Will they charge you more? 

Ask and they will provide. Have never once had a problem with getting additional appetizers or entrées. The staff have  always been more than accommodating. 

I stopped using TAs a long time ago. I’m always making rate changes as prices go down and they hated helping me with those. I find it easier going it on my own. My interior rooms are always very low margin for them so not worth their time to service me. 

There is a Royal Carribean Blog site that posts cruise compasses. There’s an 8 day compass there of the 8 night Allure with the schedule. Google - you will find it. I don’t believe I can post links to other sites.

Easy. Coco Cay any day. I’ve been to both multiple times. 

I’m pretty sure I know what the answer will be but asking anyway given the knowledge of this group. My son and I are traveling on the Allure next month. There’s a chance my wife will be able to join us (currently can’t because of work). If she can go, we’ll want to add an additional room. So my wife and I would have one room and my son would have his own room. 

Should I expect to pay whatever the current rates are? Possible that RCL would discount the second room because we’re adding an additional room?

Wanted to ask her before calling RCL.

Thanks

7 hours ago, lovesthebeach2 said:

 

What perks did you get booking the Celebrity cruise while on a Royal ship?

$100 stateroom credit. Reduced deposit.

17 hours ago, lovesthebeach2 said:

We want to book a Celebrity cruise and will be on Mariner in a couple of weeks and wondered if we could just book it at the Next Cruise desk while we’re onboard? Has anyone done that?

Yes. Just booked the Reflection while on the Odyssey. 

On 1/20/2022 at 1:57 PM, CherylCT said:

Hello,

Looking at cruises out of NYC to Bermuda this summer.  Where do I find information on costs of things like drinks, optional dining, excursions, etc.  I feel like I'm missing a big chunk of info somewhere.  

You found the right place. Search and you will find. Ask away with specific questions.

Somewhat new to Celebrity, but has been years. Sailing with my wife, and two older teens. We are Elite (through RCL Diamond). We booked our Interior room with the Always Included package. Could you please help me with how to approach the following:

I would like:

• All the members of my family to have the Stream capability (doesn't come with AI or the Elevate package). I am fine with a single person having a four device account and us sharing that.
• To have the ability for any of us to get smoothies. Classic package does not include and X support could not confirm if included with Premium.

What is the best and more economical way get these items? 

Thanks,

Paul

On 1/9/2022 at 11:26 AM, cruiselover1484 said:

Hello, just got onboard odyssey! I can’t find where to reserve the VR game? Anyone know how I access those reservations on the app?

Wasn’t up and running two weeks ago. 

3 minutes ago, mk907 said:

Thank you for your balanced and knowledgeable review chiguypaul! I really liked that you bullet pointed everything here and while it maybe didn’t rank as a top experience, sounds like you made the best of the situation!

Thanks @mk907. Just under a week before sailing, we assessed at least a dozen other vacation options as alternatives, and the cruise, even with the expected limitations, was still the best option for my family.

47 minutes ago, keesar said:

What class of room did you book?  That would make a difference for me.  For instance, if you were going to splurge for a suite, I would go for a ship that has been renovated or one of the newer ships.  If Aqua class, I would go for the Edge.  

Not us. Inside cabins.

18 minutes ago, Sam.Seattle said:

This is the first I have heard of passengers being transferred while at sea.  Seems extreme? Do you have any additional insight on this topic?

Only that the captain told us we were transferring over crew members to the other ship that had Covid. Likely helped RCL bring down the percent infected numbers on the cruise. RCL probably couldn't wait to get them off for that reason alone.

Just now, Starry Eyes said:

That happened to me while on a b2b cruise.  I did not do the first survey while on second cruise and found it was too late.  I can understand that they want to gather, analyze and use the the data promptly, but it would be nice if that third email said “last chance. “

Exactly. Or make it clear that you need to respond by a specific date.