terrydtx

Jim, I can agree with and understand your issues. I sincerely hope some of the Edge issues you recently experienced are fixed before we board her in 2 weeks. The sad thing is that you and Iain have been among the most loyal of Captains club member and got treated so shabby. My recent phone calls with Celebrity Corporate and your experiences just prove my point that Celebrity no longer cares about their loyal customers as they find ways to milk out more profits from the newbies who are booking now. With what few benefits the upper tier of CC have left, they are costing Celebrity more than they want to pay out. We will be Elite+ after our two Edge cruises next month but it means nothing anymore, so we are also going to try out other more premium or luxury lines. I suspect these 2 cruises will be our last with Celebrity.

Not only are gratuities no longer included in Suites, but they no longer get any of the OBC for booking. This went into effect on all cruises booked after Oct 3rd this year, but prices for suites didn't go down to reflect the cost of tips and OBC. For our Edge SS next month that would have been a total of $1352 in lost benefits ($552 tips + $800 OBC), had we not booked before Oct 3rd.

That was our experience on the K'Dam in November with CO, except they were out of the Orange Tote Bags so all we got was a gray one. Loved the food in CO for dinners, so much better and hotter than the MDR.

I hear you, in September after our Apex cruise from Amsterdam to Athens in a SS we flew to Santorini and spent 5 nights is a 4 Star Luxury Suites only Boutique hotel. The hotel was in the middle of Thera perched on the caldera cliffs with a million dollar view. The hotel included a made to order huge breakfast every morning brought to our private outdoor terrace table by a butler. Each Suite had a private outdoor hot tub and our luxury suite had about 1200 sq feet. Our Sky Suite cost us about $1076 per night for both of us not including what we spent for shore excursions, our Santorini hotel room cost us $390 per night. We ate fabulous local Greek cuisine dinners each night with drinks and good wine and did not come close to what we spent per night to be on the ship. This experience is what convinced us to do more land trips and less cruise days for future vacations.

We are giving Oceania a try in 2025, a cruise from Chile to Buenos Ares. Cost per day in a Concierge class Verandah is a lot less than a SS on Celebrity.

After our 2 Retreat cruises next Month on the Edge we have a 10-day driving trip of Australia. We are renting a full-size SUV, staying is 4 star or better hotels and doing several private tours. Even if we do all fine dining our total cost is going to be about 1/3 of the cost of our 10 day cruise in the Retreat plus shore excursions. We are looking in the future to doing less cruising days and more destination land trips. The price of high end cruising per day has just gotten too high for the value received.

I agree they are doing their best to Royalize Celebrity.

If you booked a suite before Oct 3rd your tips are included and can't be removed, since they are part of the Retreat AI. I was in the Retreat Lounge on the Apex in September and heard one suite guest arguing with the Retreat Host because he was told the included tips for booking a suite (at that time) could not be removed and given back to the guest as OBC. He got very irate reiterating that where he lived tipping was not required anywhere. Why would you want to remove them anyway, that just shortchanges everyone on your cruise providing you a great service. I hope you were just being sarcastic with your comment.

MDR will be open but limited hours on Embarkation day. Club Orange DR is never open for any lunch, breakfast and dinner only.

We had CO on the Koningsdam last month and the CO dining room was so much better than the MDR. The daily chef's special were outstanding and cooked to order in front of us. Overall the food in CO seemed better than any previous MDR dining. We will only sail with CO in the future. @Boatdrill,We used CO to book our Volendam cruise next August. We wanted a Vista Suite midship (A) so we booked a VS category B towards the aft of the ship added CO then took the free upgrade to a Category A midship VS. The cost difference between the B and A paid for CO. Also this cruise has 4 tender ports so we will now have priority tender service too.

Do you have a Qantas record locator number? You should be able to use that to see or pick your seats online with Qantas. We have a flight on Qantas from Sydney to Melbourne after our B2B cruise and when we booked we got to choose our seats. I mentioned Flight Aware but I actually use Expert Flyer to see what seats are available on all flights. Did you by chance book with Flights by Celebrity? If so you can call them to get seats and they should have provided you with a record locator number. We booked our PE flights with FBC, using AA to Sydney and Air New Zealand home from Melbourne. We bid on a BC upgrade from Aukland to Houston on ANZ but will not know if it was accepted until 24 hours before our flights. However ANZ has one of the highest rated PE seats in the industry with most leg room, recline pitch of seat back and food and wine.

We also got it in the MDR for breakfast covered by HIA.

No Charge

Your butler experiences are identical to ours on the Apex in September. Nothing like we had in 4 prior SS Retreat cruises with a dedicated butler. We will not be sailing again with Celebrity after our B2B Edge cruises next month and we will be only a few points from Elite+. Loyalty means nothing to Celebrity anymore so we will no longer be loyal to them. This no butler issue after we booked and knowing we would have one was bad enough, but no longer providing suites with pre-paid tips and generous OBC , and then keeping prices 40% higher than a year ago were the final straws for us.

We had CO and the expanded CO room service menu included fresh OJ as an option. We also got it in CO dining room and once in the MDR for breakfast at NC.

These new wine prices are just ridiculous when a glass of Decoy or Cherry Pie costs more than the retail price of a bottle. We board the Edge in two weeks and having paid over $20,000 for our Retreat cabins then to be nickel and dimed for cheap wines by the glass is unconscionable. Last month on the HAL Koningsdam Decoy and Cherry Pie were both $12 a glass, also my Buffalo Trace Bourbon was only $8.50 a shot. In September on the Apex Buffalo Trace was $17 a shot, then double HAL's cost.

Last month on the Kongingsdam we had fresh squeezed OJ with room service every morning with the classic HIA package. We also got it in the CO dining room for breakfast. I know the difference as we have an orange tree in our back yard and make fresh squeezed OJ during the fruit season. I think the OP was misinformed

In September on the Apex many of the Martini bar large martinis had been priced at $18 and $19, just above the PDK cap. I hate to think what they will be next month on our two Edge cruises. We loved Celebrity because they were not as bad as other lines with nickel and diming, now they are no better than those other lines.

Included or pre paid tips have never included drinks not in a drinks package or on other purchases like specialty restaurants and bottles of wine.

in Italy no ice is used.

In Italy it is made with Aperol and Prosecco and very refreshing in hot weather.

We did LPC on the Equinox in 2021 and it was 50% kids and the food was not worth the cover charge. Not again sorry, but there are better places for food than LPC. Food is subjective but this is our opinion. I am sure many like it or it would have been replaced.

Many of the negative Volendam reviews I have seen concerned the MDR food and lack of specialty choices. On the K'Dam last month I thought the food in the MDR and Club Orange ran circles around our recent Celebrity experiences. The specialty choices aren't much different than the Vista ships. The only thing we will miss on the Volendam is Billboard Onboard.

We will be on the Edge in a couple of weeks and see for ourselves. Most of the former premium reds are now in the Elevate level above the PDK cap. My wife likes a glass of decent red wine in the Retreat Lounge while I enjoy a good Bourbon or Scotch before dinner. People who get move up bids without the PDK have in the past been able to enjoy a PDP wine or cocktail without an extra charge. This is an included amenity for the Retreat no matter how you got there. If there are now menus, to me, it signals the change to charge for over the cap drinks. On the Apex in September, in the Retreat Lounge, I was able to get Hennessey Cognac for no upcharge. The Retreat bar tender kept it hidden in a cabinet for those who asked for it.

We are in the Retreat next month as we were on the Apex and we much preferred Luminae over the RTG. The only specialty restaurant we have booked on the two cruises is Raw on 5.