terrydtx

It looks like Branzino is no longer on the embarkation lunch and has been replaced by Halibut. Not a fan of Halibut but last year the Branzino was excellent on the Reflection Luminae.

I agree, we do the same. We used FBC for our September Apex cruise, we fly to Amsterdam from San Antonio to Amsterdam on United with one stop in Houston and back home from Athens on American one stop in Dallas. These flights are all business/first class and almost impossible to book directly with using two airlines. Our cost is high but when looking at booking direct RT on United or American FBC is a lot less.

We have at times taken a plate from the buffet to our cabin to enjoy on our balcony. This is usually when we have returned late from a long exhausting shore excursion and just do not want to clean up for the MDR. With the new room service charge there could be more of this now.

I haven't seen it yet in the app for our future cruises, but who knows down the road.

I have seen the same when I compare a Sky Suite with a Concierge Class Verandah on O. We book the Retreat to have access to the more premium amenities, like the Luminae and the Retreat Lounge and a bigger cabin, the Butler is very nice but not a big deal. On Oceania in a Concierge level verandah, we get a cabin a few sq feet smaller than a Sky Suite. However, the whole O ship is Premium, and we get access to the Concierge lounge and full access to all specialty restaurants known for superior cuisine. The concierge lounge on the 3 larger O ships provides everything we get in the Retreat lounge except for alcohol. We booked the O Marina in 2025 for South America 18-day cruise in a Concierge Veranda. The similar Equinox 14-day cruise in a Sky Suite is about same price as the 18 days on the Marina, for us this was a no brainer.

But you won't starve!! Like you won't starve at Golden Corral.

I just checked and our Equinox cruise in June leaves GC at 4:00 as well, so we will be good.

Never had any problems with FBC and we are booked with them for our Apex cruise in September on business class flights. The few times I have called FBC my questions and or issues have been taken care of in less than 10 minutes.

As long as your invoice from Celebrity shows the AI included items, and when you check in you should see CALL on your sea pass. We always take a copy of the Celebrity invoice with us on the cruise just in case something doesn't show up.

So if we have dinner at 5:30 no wine or drinks are available?

The only thing Tilapia is good for is throwing it overboard for chum. My favorite local Mexican restaurant is known for fantastic fish tacos made with fresh grouper. Last fall they started using Tilapia and got destroyed on social media for the change. After a few weeks of poor publicity, they switched back to fresh grouper and added $2 to the cost and they are as good as before and selling as good as before.

I only looked because of this thread,🤣 not too worried as we will be well fed in Luminae.

In 2021 we had the rack of lamb on the Equinox in the Luminae and it was much better than the same rack of lamb we had in Murano. The service in Luminae was also much better in Luminae than Murano.

At the time the PDP showed Evian as a premium bottled water for anyone on that package. If they were out, I hope they offered you something other than that terrible can water.

yes we got the Decoy on the Reflection as well and it was good.

Our app for the Equinox shows the lamb loin on both day 3 and day 4.

We were in a Sky Suite and the premium Evian bottled water was included in the PDP and our butler left 3 to 4 bottles a day in our cabin no charge.

We will be on the Equinox in June and when looking at the app I found a few notable changes in the Luminae menu vs the Reflection menu last year. Embarkation lunch has a Crab Cake sandwich replacing the old traditional lobster roll. The embarkation dinner has a sirloin instead of a Fillet (the fillet does show up later in the week). One big change is the Surf and Turf is now Scallops and Turf which is described as seared scallops and Pork Belly. I could not find any rack of lamb which we had last year and I think sliced lamb loin is now the only lamb on our menu for June. At least none of the Luminae menus had any tilapia or pork and beans which show up in the MDR on our cruise.

Ken, see my post above #709, my app showed that last week but now it has gone back to the old no cost room service. Very strange and inconsistent.

Last August on the Reflection we did not see any significant shortages. In fact I was able to order Mccallan 12-year-old Scotch in my PDP even though it did not show up on any lists of premium drinks. There were a few different PDP wines in Luminae and my favorite Cherry Pie Pinot Noir was not available but a good substitution was provided. We also were able to get all the Evian bottled water we wanted in our cabin. I refuse to drink canned water as it has a terrible metalic taste.

This is very strange, just now the app for our June Equinox cruise shows the same as above. However last week when all these changes hit the fan, the same app showed the new change to $9.95 plus gratuities. I wonder if Celebrity is already back peddling on this? I wish I had screen shot the app last week. Just more of Celebrity being consistent about being inconsistent.

We canceled a VO cruise last year when Russia invaded the Ukraine, it was a 10-day cruise and the Silver Spirits drink package we purchased was $175pp total for the 10 days or $17.50pp per day, a far cry from Celebrity's $109pp per day. I heard VO raised it this year to $25pp per day, still a huge bargain. The drinks package had a huge selection of wines by the glass beyond the house wines offered in the included beer and wine with meals.

My sister was on Viking ocean last year and they had live cold water lobsters they keep alive onboard.

Including the "Fresh Fish"

The somewhat negotiable is 60 days less or 10 months out, still a no go.