terrydtx

It was the same for us on the Equinox in June, but if the bartenders were working, they would bring beer from the back room for us. As long as we can get as much as we need of better bottled water from the coolers, we are fine. Paying $5,50 plus tip for a bottle of Evian which previously was free in our cabin is just ridiculous and not happening. Those nice Retreat tote bags will come in handy. It will be more like shopping at the 7-11.

For us access to Luminae is the number one reason for booking a SS, the Retreat lounge is #2.

Buy the Doubletree chocolate chip cookie recipe or pay a royalty. I would pay $2 for them; it makes the decision between booking a Doubletree and non-Doubletree hotel a very easy one. Doubletree bakes them every 30 minutes in the afternoons when people are checking in.

From 2007 to 2019 we sailed primarily with HAL with one mistake NCL disappointment in there. From 2019 to now after we discovered the Retreat we fell in love with Celebrity. Did the one HAL Oosterdam 14 day Greek cruise last year purely for the itinerary that X didn't have. Our first SS was on the Equinox in 2019 for 9 days was less than $600pp more than an Aqua Class cabin. It was this true bargain that sold us on Celebrity and the Retreat product. We had booked and sailed on 3 more Retreat cruises after that first one and we have 3 more booked next month and a B2B in January. The culmination of SS cuts and the 30-40% increases in SS cost have us gravitating away from Celebrity back to HAL and trying Oceania. For Example when we booked our 12 night January SS on the Edge cruise of New Zealand back in January 2022 we booked for $4869pp, the last price I saw for our SS was $6889pp or a 40% increase over what we booked. Looking at other future cruises in Sky Suites the current pricing and NRD have priced us out of the product and we can no longer justify the product. You can say I have taken my Celebrity blinders off.

Oue first HAL cruise was the partial Panama Canal cruise in 2007 on the Volendam. I agree the main reason we booked it was for the partial canal transit. It is not HAL's fault that they have canceled since it looks like passenger vessel Canal transits may be on hold for some time by the canal operators. I could see the ship stopping at Colon and doing some private excursions to see the canal in operation and to see more of the history of the canal.

Celebrity cruises that depart from South Hampton the last few years includes a hot water kettle in cabins for the British citizens who want to make tea for breakfast. Celebrity even provides the tea bags so if they were to charge for them it would not be a pretty site.

We leave in two weeks on the Celebrity Apex and we have booked 6 of our 8 shore excursions with SDT. They were all organized by one person on our Roll Call and we filled all the minimum required seat in less than a month. In Lisbon Portugal we booked a totally private tour for the 4 in our group with SDT and it was $69 less pp than the same big bus tour on Celebrity.

That is a possible scenario too.

We are done with, after 20 years, doing any more Caribbean cruises and in the Med we haven't found an MSC cruise with YC we would do.

That has also kept us from even looking at Azamara, even on Oceania we will only book on their larger newer ships. The tiny cabins on the ex-Renaissance ships are a no go for us.

The fact that an online cruise industry news blog, Cruise Hive, carried this story as a headline news on Friday did nothing to enhance Celebrity's public image. The cookie story was then followed the next day with one about Aqua Class cuts with the afternoon Canapes and pillow chocolates.

Imagin the uproar if the cruises from the UK started charging for a cup of tea, while offering coffee for free,

My first class flight from DFW to FLL on American in June looked like the picture above, we got one drink in a plastic cup with a biscotti cookie for our premium snack.

I have seen more amateurs doing fantastic performances on Americas Got Talent than some professional ones put on. But I can also see some complaints that their cabin attendant is performing instead of leaving their pillow chocolate that night. 😁

Since 2019 we have only sailed on Celebrity in the Retreat. The ship entertainment on both X and HAL have little interest for us other than HAL will not have a comedian or magicians which are the only shows on Celebrity we consider attending. We have booked 3 cruises on HAL post Covid, one last year for 14 night Greek cruise, one California coastal cruise in November and the third next August of NE and Canada. On HAL we can book a verandah cabin and add Club Orange to get many of the amenities we prefer by booking a Suite on Celebrity for a lot less money. On the 3 newest HAL ships the Club Orange add will get us access to the CO private dining room for breakfast and diners. BTW room service for all cabin classes is still free, for now at least. The highest level of cabin we have booked is a Signature Suite which is about the same size as a Sky Suite, The real suites on HAL are the Neptune and Pinnacle suites. The Neptune suites on a per day cost are 20-30% less than a SS on Celebrity.

Good thought, I never realized that about MSC.

I can't remember the last time I ate a cookie on a cruise, so the $2 wouldn't affect me, but it is the principle like you said why would a cruise line who sees itself a premium line charge for a cookie. For me it's more of today it's the $2 cookie and next it will be something else that might affect my cruise more. The more its customers speak up today in protest about a miner thing like a cookie the less likely they will do something as lame in the future.

A talent show put on by the talented crew would be another way for Celebrity to save money by not paying performers for a show that night. I would go to a show like that.

Also many cargo ships from the Far east and Australia are rerouting to the Suez Canal to get to western Europe and the US east coast. This will add 40% more in transportation costs and the increased Suez traffic could end up causing more delays there too.

We have been adding more and more land days to our cruises and are finding the land days to be more enjoyable than the cruising in the last couple of years. We are doing a 10 day driving trip of Australia after our Edge cruise in January and after pre booking hotels and a rental car our cost per day with tours and meals is significantly less than the Edge cruise will be. We are also doing 5 days in Santorini after our Apex cruise next month and our luxury suite on the Caldera cliffs with a private splash pool and butler is also less than our per day Sky Suite cost.

I read this morning that currently the commercial traffic in backed up 21 days in the Canal which will even make more supply chain issues for the world. The article said they see no improvements for the next 6 to 8 months to maybe a year unless the watershed area gets significant rain. I would think pleasure craft like cruise ships will be the lowest priority for canal access. In fact it wouldn't surprise me if they are temporarily banned.

The cruising industry has been for years following the airline models for providing less for more.

That was true on the Equinox in June. The retreat concierge said it was changed to keep underage minors from getting beer when no one was in the Retreat lounge to supervise. I was also told that if I wanted a beer, they would get them for me from the cooler stock in the Lounge that is not available to the public.

The cruise lines are following the airline industry models of luxury!

Of course because you had the premium service in a suite.