terrydtx

Me too!!

Antony was our Luminae waiter in June and he was excellent.

For 3 years I was doing the SF to Beijing flight 2 times a month all on business and luckily in BC which back then was not lay flat seats more like today's PE. I racked up a lot of United miles that I just finished using on our Flights to San Diego in November for a cruise.

In the late 90's I was on a flight from Bejing to San Francisco, a 14 hour flight. There was one person who kept going to the BC restroom to smoke and set off the smoke alarm twice and was warned about doing so, when we landed, we had to wait to deplane while an airport policeman arrested the guy and took him off in handcuffs.

Good luck on your journey, when you are done I imagine you will have a much easier time flying long hours to get on a cruise. I have often wondered how smokers can fly for 10 or more hours without a smoke.🤞

I agree and did not consider it a cut My point was about the understaffed room attendants and how long it took to get our room made up each day usually after lunch. On one day we came back from an excursion at 2pm and the room still hadn't been made up. Our butler explained that they were understaffed by room attendants by 30% and each one had 30% more cabins than normal.

I agree the towel animals have never been a big deal but on the Equinox we had our 12 year old granddaughter with us and thought she would enjoy having seem them. That was the only reason I even asked about it.

I did have a picture but you couldn't see his face and the security guy told me they had to catch him in the act, which happened on the second and final third visit.

The June Equinox cruise was also the first cruise that we did not get the nightly towel animals, I was told by our butler this had been discontinued because it took much time away from the over worked and understaffed room attendants. The ship was 100% full and some days we didn't get our cabin made up until after lunch.

And I had zero empathy for him.

This year that has the case for sure. Maybe they could hire the fired marketing manager from Bud Light. LOL

Last year on the Oosterdam the guy in the cabin directly below us chain smoked on his balcony. We even saw him flick his butts over the side of the ship. We complained to guest services and they immediately sent as officer to investigate and after two such trips to our cabin they also saw the guy. He was told if he continued to smoke on his balcony he would be taken off the ship at the next port. He still smoked and we called guest services a third time and when we stopped in Croatia the next day we saw him and his wife being escorted off the ship with their luggage. No more smoke from below us after that. The problem is the ship's crew cannot do anything until they actually catch a smoker on the balcony.

This would be the same type of cabin as a Signature Suite on HAL, larger cabin and balcony but no suite amenities. However, on HAL you can add their Club Orange which gets you the private dining room, on the newest ships, with added entree items, priority embarkation and debarkation and a CO concierge. We add this on every HAL cruise or $25pp per day and it is well worth the cost. We also get their HIA which is similar to Celebrity AI but HIA includes shore excursions credit and specialty dining credits. Maybe this could be the model for Celebrity for their SS, drop the prices significantly and let passengers who want "more" pay for more and people who do not drink or use Wi-Fi would not have pay for the AI, Call the more Club X and include Luminae, the Retreat deck and priority embarkation, tendering and debarkation.

Since apparently Celebrity after their Vaping test decide not to move forward with this, I am surprised they haven't sent out a press release, " Our valued customers have spoken, we will not allow vaping in our casinos"

The Celebrity Cheerleaders sometimes wear blinders and will be the last to complain until it is too late, and the ship totally sinks. I know, I was once, one of those Cheerleaders until my blinders were removed.

We had them every night in June, but we were in a Sky Suite if that made a difference. The room attendants may be too busy now to leave them after picking up the slack from the butler team.😁

My experience about picking seats through the airlines we have flown through FBC: American Airlines---Have FBC select when you book, cannot change on AA website until tickets are paid can be changed by calling FBS before payment Delta--pick or change anytime on Delta website United--same as Delta Air Alaska same rules as American British Airways--FBC cannot select seats, you can select online at BA website after tickets are paid for. BA charges a fee to select seats prior to 24 hours from departure in Economy. In BC and FC there is not a fee to preselect seats. Air New Zealand FBC cannot select seats, you can select online at ANZ website after tickets are paid for.

Pillow chocolates? Are they gone now too? We still had them on the Equinox in June.

I wonder who lowers prices first Cruise lines or automobile manufacturers?

I have one of those that I bought back when HAL had no limits on wine brought onboard and you only paid a corkage if you brought the wine to the dining rooms. When cruising out of FLL I would order online a case of wine from Total wine on 17th Street and pick up the case on my way to the cruise port. It now is our portable bar when we travel on land by car. BTW if you ever need to buy a replacement, Amazon has a nice selection.

Actually I was thinking double creme variety,

The same person on the Equinox did say there were still free cookies at the OVC but only during the dining hours they are open, On most ships the OVC is 5 or more decks away from Cafe Al Bacio.

We actually prefer Oreos, I just hope I do not end up in the naughty room when I smuggle them in my checked bags.

I think part of the uproar is during the test on Equinox, there were not any "free" cookies in the Cafe Al Bacio and Gelato area like before the test. This has been confirmed by a very well known and respected forum moderator on another social media site who is currently on the Equinox with his sister. If this continues the perception by passengers will be that the free cookies were taken away in favor of pay for cookies.

I am sorry this is the typical Celebrity Kool-Aide spin on changes. We give you more by taking away. This was the same spin they used for the Butler changes for Sky Suites, you will have better service with fewer butlers.