59impala

Hi, newbie here. We are looking at an Azamara cruise next May and have a Premium Beverage package. Does this package include upgraded wines? I can't find the answer to this after my searches. Thanks for the input.

Thanks to everyone for their recommendations. We have bit the bullet and have just booked Best of Japan for July this year on the Millennium. We hope we love it as much as Miaminice seems to! We loved their recent review. We have not long returned home from a back to back on the Apex - Mediterranean and Israel / Egypt (and just got out before the region became a war zone 😢. We were not keen on undertaking those long flights again anytime soon. We tend to make trips to Europe worthwhile by incorporating a land tour and staying away for 5 - 6 weeks. We are not ready to do this at the moment. We will look at Scandinavia and or Alaska in the future, all going well. The cruise and flights are now booked for Japan. Next is sorting out a hotel near the cruise port and figuring out how to get from Narita Airport to the chosen hotel. It looks a rather daunting place on Google Earth!

Hello. We are a married couple (64 & 71) from New Zealand and are looking to choose a new destination for our next adventure. We have exclusively sailed the Mediterranean for all of our six previous cruises and feel we have probably seen it all! We love the Mediterranean and we always find it hard to go past for a cruise holiday. In saying that, we think we really should look at other itineraries which we are doing, but we are having a hard time deciding where to go. Can any of you people let us know if there is somewhere that you really feel is a must see or was a destination that has been a total surprise to you? We have been toying with the idea of a Scandinavian cruise or the Caribbean, or Japan.....We have to choose carefully as we live such a long way down under and the flight times is very long to most places. Thanks in anticipation.

This is getting to be unbelievable! We pay many thousands of dollars for a cruise and then they want to sting you for a measly cookie. This is just plain silly.

Yes, the whole free market relies on willing buyer, willing seller. Looking like Celebrity are running out of "willing buyers" with these cuts and downgrades to the cruise experience. Such a shame as they won't have a business soon.

Thanks Terry. As always you are a wealth of information. I think I can blame you on getting hooked on Meditteranean cruises on Celebrity. It looks like you have moved on from Celebrity cruises?

Peasants like moi also. Dang, and here I was thinking I was a Celebrity! Looks like they sold me a lemon. Still, a dumb move to peeve off the masses.

It is unbelievable that Celebrity can be happy about losing customers for the sake of good food. This should be a time of investing in their brand, making it shine, be the brand customers rave about, sail with full ships and make your money that way. Not cut the heart out of it so everyone talks about how lousy it was. Soon they will be sailing with empty ships and NO income at all.

I don't think Celebrity is going to "save" it's way back to profitability by reducing the cruise experience. Reducing the cruise experience opens them up to a catastrophic failure in my opinion. Like most businesses post covid, they need to come up with ways to increase offerings to drive more income. Cruising is a discrecency expense for all of us and in times of high inflation, discretionary expenses are the first to go. For those that can afford to cruise, let it be Celebrity they choose. Celebrity cannot afford to make the cruise experience anything other than awesome for its customers, they want to still be there after others have failed, surely? Im afraid, the shareholders may have to put their "investment certificates" away in the bottom drawer and forget about them for quite a few years. We all have those types of shares? Especially post covid. There is no quick fix unfortunately.

The shareholders may not care about their customers vacation, but they may care when they have NO customers at all. No customers mean bankruptcy. The customer decides where their hard earned dollars are spent and there are many vacation choices out there. It is very hard to win back a loyal customer once they have left. Yes, inflation is high and food prices are "up there," but surely Celebrities pricing has reflected these increased costs? I actually think the OVC should be revamped, maybe with cooked to order proteins to avoid wastage but leave plenty of salads. The main thing I learned in business is never piss off your customers. You will suffer. it seems even those in Suites are noticing cut backs! Talk about Celebrity biting the hand that feeds them!

Thank you for your detailed review. I was especially interested in your comments on Palma de Majorca as we have never been and it is a stop on a cruise we have booked next year. It sounds like the best thing to do is just wander around and absorb the colours, sights, and sounds. And the food of course!

Looking at cafe and snack dining on the Apex and I note that the app states "venue closed" for the Eden Cafe on the Apex. Can someone confirm this? I remember looking in the past and I remember seeing a menu. I have looked for various sailings and it says the same thing. Is this for real, or a glitch on the app?