terrydtx

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

The 3 newer ships are 1200 pax capacity. they Marina, Riveira and Vista, the Vista is being launched this spring.

On the Reflection last year in Luminae we had the Rib Eye steak, and it was so tough our steak knife couldn't cut it. When we did cut a bite, we couldn't chew it. It was a running joke with suites passengers the rest of the cruise. Comments from being served old milk cows to vulcanized beef were heard many times.

Oceania doesn't which is why we are trying them in 2025. Oceania FP is 90 days out.

We have some friends who had booked a Crystal cruise prior to them becoming insolvent in 2020 and they lost thousands of dollars.

We had a cruise with VO booked for September this year, we canceled it last year when they would not budge from the 12-month full payment last August. We booked the Apex to replace the VO cruise. I got the same response from the VO board as you. When we booked originally VO said they may allow us to pay 6 months out as we got closer, but when we got to last August they demanded full payment. VO uses the prepayments to finance their new ship building with zero interest. I do not want to be their bank!!

Looked at VO but their policy of full payment 12+ months out is a deal breaker for me. No way I give them $15K or more up front to hold for 12 or more months. We are trying Oceania in 2025 and do not have to pay until 90days out.

Looked at VO but their policy of full payment 12+ months out is a deal breaker for me. No way I give them $15K or more up front to hold for 12 or more months.

We have 2 cruises on Celebrity this year and 2 more in January 2024, on the Equinox, Apex and Edge. These 4 cruises will determine how much longer we will be loyal to the line. We found that the Retreat product fulfilled our wanting of something more premium, but if the product fails to deliver how they did in the past, we are gone. The outrageous pricing of suites in the future may be all we need to justify leaving. We are trying our first Oceania cruise in January 2025 and are looking at another O itinerary for summer 2024. We are also looking at Viking Ocean and Virgin Cruise Lines but so far have not found an itinerary that we would want to sail on with them.

That creates another new problem with the sanitary sewer system on the ship!!

Was your experience anything like the video posted by @Arubamoosewho started this thread?

We will jump ship before that happens to us.

Now that is funny, LOL

My crew contact is working on that, but he said they keep SPAM under lock and key behind closed doors.

This picture of a Celebrity's ships pantry was smuggled out by a crew member.

I just received this picture of a Celebrity ship's pantry it was smuggled out by a crew member.

I believe it changed from 1 to 2 bottles per person at embarkation, if you have a drinks package there is no corkage fee.

Actually for the newbies who have nothing else to compare with are the ones who will not complain about the changes and will not notice any decline in quality. I remember our very first cruise back in the 1990's on Carnival and thought the MDR dinning was spectacular. Now I have so many more to compare and would not cruise with Carnival today.

I have come to the same conclusion and to drive their Aqua Class and Retreat bookings for the better dining venues.

On one CC thread there was a post with a picture of the dish from their cruise, but I can't find it now, too many pages of unhappy CC members to go through. It looked OK but something I would never order.

They do make exceptions in a case like yours but the official policy is that all adults in a cabin must have a drinks package. Here is the quote from the Celebrity website: Highlights Each adult of legal drinking age assigned to the same stateroom must purchase this package

We have done the same and booked our first O cruise, a March 2025 South America 18-night cruise on the Oceania Marina. Much more port intensive than the 14-night Equinox cruise we had considered with 4 more ports. The 18 nights on O costs a little less than the 14-night Sky Suite on the Equinox. We are looking at another O cruise of New England/Canada cruise in the summer 2024 or 25. We cruise to explore new places we have never been to and prefer more ports and less sea days, for us a sea day is a waste of time. Oceania has great looking itineraries with far fewer sea days. Night life and shipboard activities for us are not that important so we think O is going to be a great fit.

That same entree shows up on the night of day 6 on our June Equinox cruise in the MDR. The description in the app sounds a little better than canned beans, but just calling it pork and beans started a firestorm of criticism and whoever came up with that name should be fired. Here is how it is described in my app: Pork and Beans Braised pork cheeks, roasted pork tenderloin, White bean puree with roasted carrots.

My comments about BLU "tweaking" are based off posts about the subject on FB. The Luminae comments are from my menu experience last year compared to what the app shows for my June Equinox cruise.

Surf and turf with lobster has been tweaked to scallops and pork belly and Sirloin steak replacing fillets are two examples that stand out.