Suite Susie

Really disappointed with all this as we have an Owners Suite booked for September next year. So if I’m reading this right all we will no longer have exclusive use of the Signature Restaurant and the Sanctuary will now be far busier and hard to get a seat. We book suites at great expense to get a more special experience. Now it seems that the only advantage of booking a full suite now is a bigger room and use of the Concierge Lounge. Will have to see how it pans out, but I think we will be cancelling. 

On 4/15/2024 at 3:32 PM, Hydro pool lover said:

We'll be going to Alaska June 2025. I purchased Princess Plus and have been told it is not necessary. 2 of the 3 do not drink alcohol but will be going to special dinners and  like the coffee package. Also is the Enclave included? Thank you.

You will get 2 litres of liquor of your choice, plus a bottle of Champagne. You will also get Sparkling wine with the included Balcony Breakfast, and drinks with your included Balcony dinner. We still took out the Premier package with our Sky Suite, as we enjoy drinks in the bars and wine with dinner, coffees etc.  Only you can decide on the value of a package - the non drinkers would also benefit from non alcoholic drinks and coffees, internet and gratuities. The Enclave is included for you all. 

I just realised that and edited my earlier post, but you saw it too soon!  You will love the Land of the Midnight Sun cruise. That was the one we were on last June and we were mostly blessed with hot, sunny weather. Suggest you book it as planned, but keep an eye on the weather forecasts and maybe try and shift it if the forecast doesn’t look good. We had 75F in the North Cape!

Agree that there should have been a private hot tub.  Easily enough space if they lost the big round sunbed and put it there. We also used the hot tub just outside the door in the upper retreat area, several times. Useful to be able to get straight back on to the balcony through the special door. It’s still an amazing Suite though. 

We had it after we left Olden in July last year. Unfortunately they had to move us inside as it started to rain. It maybe pretty chilly though, but as long as it’s dry and you something warm to put on, you should be fine. The food and service was fantastic. We are sailing to Norway again on 27th April, but are fortunately are staying on for the 14 night Med cruise that follows. We hope to schedule a Balcony Dinner on this leg, where it should be warmer. 

That’s great that one of your party won a cruise. Did get $250 on our 2022 cruise, but nothing, not even an entry into the draw on our 2023 cruise. Guess we didn’t leave the Sky Suite enough when we were at sea!

Wow that look incredible. With our Sky Suite rapidly approaching in 2 weeks, this makes me very excited, but tinged with anxiety as there is now some doubt that we will be able to travel. You have made some incredible memories that you will treasure for ever. 

We are back in a Sky Suite later this month on Sky Princess. We have been fortunate enough to have one on Enchanted and one on Sky over the last couple of years. We much prefer the layout of Enchanted as the 2nd bathroom is very large and luxurious, whilst on Sky it is tiny, same size as a regular balcony.  Would rather have the two bigger bathrooms, than the walk-in wardrobes. We also missed the little sink in the bar area which we had on Enchanted.
 

We had our call from Thor 4 weeks before our sail date. We are very excited about the whole experience once again. Unfortunately, we have to move to an S3 suite after 8 nights, as we are doing the following 14 night cruise.  
 

You get all the Suite perks, including the free laundry, plus all the extra Sky Suite benefits. 

On 3/12/2024 at 4:10 AM, MacMadame said:

I find it interesting what people consider a high price. A 50-minute deep tissue massage (my favorite) is $189 on the Coral Princess and at my favorite local spa, it's $190. So they are the same. I've paid more at fancy hotels, too.

 

I live in a high COL area so these prices seem reasonable to me. 🤷‍♀️ 

 

To answer the original question, I doubt I will tip giving that 18% is baked in. The massuese would have to be pretty damn good for me to add on to that.

On 3/12/2024 at 4:10 AM, MacMadame said:

I find it interesting what people consider a high price. A 50-minute deep tissue massage (my favorite) is $189 on the Coral Princess and at my favorite local spa, it's $190. So they are the same. I've paid more at fancy hotels, too.

 

I live in a high COL area so these prices seem reasonable to me. 🤷‍♀️ 

 

To answer the original question, I doubt I will tip giving that 18% is baked in. The massuese would have to be pretty damn good for me to add on to that.

Shocked at the price you pay.  At my local, it is £50 ($60) for a one hour massage. And this why we never book spa treatments any more on cruise ships. We find their prices outrageous enough without adding an additional 18%.  Feel quite sorry for the staff in the spa on the UK sailings, they are always standing around not working. 

Would love to know if the Orange Juice is freshly squeezed in the Signature Restaurant at breakfast on Sun. On Sky and Enchanted it was delicious in the Suite breakfast in Sabatini’s. 

On 2/18/2024 at 4:46 PM, Hlitner said:

I think this issue just reinforces two of our big issues that has kept us from even considering another EJ cruise.  #1.  Lack of communication and #2.  EJ seems to think that their future itineraries are just advisory, and they can change whatever they want, when they want, with no explanation or penalty.  

 

Perhaps this all fits with what we kept hearing on EJ1, "we are not a cruise line, but rather a resort"  IMHO, EJ is off to an awful start with little regard for their customers (current or future).  There is a lot of good things on EJ1 (especially the cuisine) but the company management falls short in too many ways.  We are sitting on the sidelines (and booking other cruise lines) until EJ has some time to get their act together.

 

Hank

You are probably right Hank, but our risking it for a B2B cruise in Europe next Spring, where the airfare risk won’t be as high for us living in the UK. 

Does anybody else think it is a bit strange that Princess are charging the same price for the Owners Suites as the Sky Suites on most of their sailings on the new Sun Princess for this year and next. The Owners Suite has only one bedroom, is about half the size and does not come with the same Enhanced perks as the Sky Suites. On very few of their cruises, they are selling the Owners Suites at the price point that they should be at.  

Well you were all right, Explora were only prepared to give us our deposit back which they have had for 6 months. Have cautiously rebooked with them for a back to back Med cruise for April / May 2025.  Wasn't prepared to take the risk of booking a cruise with them where a long haul flight was needed. Needless to say we will be regularly checking that our new cruises are still being listed!

Having A nightmare with the Explora website. I was looking at a cruise for 2025 so did a mock booking on their website and it is now showing as an option and I can’t get rid of it.  I haven’t confirmed it, but can’t seem to remove it. Anybody know how I could delete this cruise. If I do book I want to do it through a travel agent, not direct with Explora. 

We are in the UK and our TA did not know about the change / cancellation. They contacted Explora today who said they had emailed them, which was never received. All very strange. Explora are supposed to be getting back to our Agent with some sort of resolution, but so far they haven’t.  I’m just grateful that we discovered this before we had booked our flights and hotels etc. 

We were just checking the dates of our Caribbean cruise booked on Explora II for March 25th as we would need to book our flights soon from the UK and our trip has totally disappeared from the Explora website. She is now sailing across the Atlantic at the time we were due to be on her. Have not been informed of this and are very disappointed. I’ll be calling my TA first thing in the morning to find out what is going on. Anybody else been affected by this?

1 hour ago, terrydtx said:

If we hadn't booked our 2 January Edge cruises in a SS at more than $2500pp less than today's cost, we would be cancelling them both. Both cruises were booked at less than $4900pp with $800 OBC and prepaid gratuities. Today the 12-night NZ cruise SS is $7390pp and the 10-night Great Barrier Reef SS is $6852 plus both now have no OBC or prepaid gratuities. I hope this ridiculous pricing and new policies will eventually bite the Celebrity bean counters in their butts. Then and only then would we consider cruising with them again.

Totally agree. Just off Edge in a Sky Suite. The Celebrity suite product is now not worth the considerable extra cost over other similar lines. We have booked two Princess cruises for next year and are looking at Regent, Silversea, Seabourn etc for 2025.  

Unfortunately you are unlikely to see a Butler at all. We didn’t. 

On 10/2/2023 at 2:07 PM, LMHSRN said:

This add is correct.  HOWEVER what it means is that you have a machine in the room, not that they will deliver it.

We did not have a coffee machine in the room on Edge last week. 

Just got off the Edge in a Sky Suite. We didn’t see a Butler at all and no explanation given by their absence. Our cabin steward did a great job, but it wasn’t quite the same as having a Butler as well. The Retreat team were very helpful, but I could never get an answer on the phone as they were too busy, so always had to queue up to speak to them. We did have a very enjoyable cruise, but cutbacks were very noticeable. The food in Luminae was disappointing, particularly breakfast and the dinner portions were very small and some odd things on the menu. Staff, service and entertainment were all good and Edge is a beautiful ship. Think this was our 11th Celebrity cruise, but will sadly be our last. Charging more, but giving you less is not what we signed up for. 

Just got off the Edge in a Sky suite. Absolutely no Butler service and no explanation given. Room steward did a great job and the Retreat team did their best, but don’t even try to phone them for anything, as they always had a queue of people waiting to see them and couldn’t pick up the phone. Still had a nice time, but it is time to move on to pastures new. Don’t like paying more and getting less. 

Thank you for sharing. 

We sail on 23rd and will report back, but will be asking for coffee to be delivered every morning from Al Bacio, Ice twice a day, the mini bar emptied etc.  Not overly hopeful!

Thinking of booking a Cabana and would like to know if anyone has a copy of the menu for the included wine  / liquor.

Just phone Princess and go through to their Dine Line and they should be able to book these for you. It worked for us anyway.