rclibertygirl5

Is this true on the smaller ships such as Radiance as well?  We are Diamond Plus and will be in a 2BR Grand Suite this summer.  Do we get evening drinks in the concierge in addition to the 5 vouchers?

30 minutes ago, zitsky said:

OP, when you had to wait for one of the bars near the pool, what were the wait times?  10-15 minutes?  

 

This makes me glad I booked a cabana on our next cruise.  

At least 15 mins because you have to factor in the people that just barge up and say they are next even though others have been waiting..... 

4 minutes ago, Baron Barracuda said:

With most passengers now sailing AI what's their incentive to push drinks?  Maybe some tips for servers but little additional revenue for X

The are pushing the cheap watered down drink of the day instead of letting people order what they want which would cost X more.

2 minutes ago, jelayne said:

In 38 Celebrity cruises I have never seen a crew member walking around with the drink of they day trying to sell.  I have seen it on Carnival but not Celebrity.  This must be something new .

I agree and there would be 3-4 servers at a time walking around with trays by the pool trying to "sell" the drink of the day and they would not take a regular bar order.

Just now, jobinhume said:

We just got off a cruise on brilliance of the seas that had a similar lack of staff around the pool. Obviously, I have no idea if this is factual, but I did hear from a number of people that cruise lines are having the same labor issues. Many businesses in the US are having, and it wasn’t a question of the cruise line hiring few were just fewer people willing to work the cruise. 

This is probably a valid issue but then the cruise lines should limit their capacity to the number of passengers that they can provide acceptable service for.

Yes I did and more.....  There were also obvious staffing issues in the main dining room.  We loved our waitstaff and they were working so hard but they just couldn't keep up.  

We just got off of a 10 day cruise on the Equinox on 2/9.  We were a group of 8, 4 of which had never cruised Celebrity before.  The lack of waitstaff servicing the pool area was an issue throughout the entire cruise.  We would occasionally see 1 person coming around taking orders but it was rare.  You would however see 3-4 people walking around pushing the cheap watered down drink of the day but they would not take a regular bar order.  Because of the lack of waitstaff, the pool bar had very long wait times.  We got to the point where we would just walk up to the oceanview bar to get drinks.  We have been on 34 cruises with Celebrity and Royal Caribbean and never have seen it this bad.  It left a very bad impression with the 4 first time cruisers in our group.  This issue in addition to all of the other cuts that have been discussed repeatedly on this board have us looking to other cruise lines.  We will be trying Virgin next year and the rest of our cruises this year are with Royal Caribbean.  Celebrity brands itself as "modern luxury" but with all of the cutbacks, they are eliminating the things that used to differentiate them.  We don't have any additional Celebrity cruises booked at this point.

Thank you so much!!  We will shop in the port area and then taxi to Plywood. 🙂

We are going to Grenada for the first time in Feb 2023 and we are wanting to visit a spice market and go to the beach.  We are thinking of exploring Carenage Harbor for shopping and then taking a taxi to La Plywood.  Does La Plywood rent chairs/umbrellas?  Is it still much less busy than Grand Anse?  Would you recommend somewhere else to shop for spice necklaces etc?  Thanks for your help!!

We will be going to St. Lucia on Celebrity in January and we were interested in this excursion.  Can you please provide details on what you did?  Did you wear a swimsuit?  Were there drinks on the bus or at the stops?  Thanks!

On 8/9/2022 at 5:13 PM, outdoors27 said:

We have a limo service we've used twice. Company is reliable and rates are good. 

What company did you use?

We are going on the Equinox in January to the ABC islands.  I could not find current information on the Celebrity website regarding the restrictions for going ashore/testing/private excursions.  Am I missing this information on their website?  If anyone knows where I can find this information or if you have been there recently and can help out that would be great.  Thanks!

We were on the Edge a few weeks ago and guest services punched holes in our cards.

How many passengers are on the Edge this week?

Ordered a 6 pack of tests directly from eMed on Wednesday morning and received them Thursday evening.

If we bring a bottle of wine on the ship (Grandeur), can we bring it to dinner in the main dining room?  Is there a corkage fee even if the bottle is already opened?

We would like to take a private tour to Brimstone Fort, Timothy Hill and then get dropped off at Shipwreck Bar.  How long does it take to get from the port to Brimstone and then from Brimstone to Timothy Hill/Shipwreck Bar.  I am just trying to figure how how long we will spend in the car.  Thanks!!

Harmony March 31, 2019 has been chartered. We were booked and had to move so my guess is the week of March 24 may be chartered as well.

WOW. I would have been MORE than just disappointed. There must be a reason (not that it matters to you at this point. A bad experience is a bad experience) for this poor service. Reyno was very, very attentive to us both times that we've had him as a Genie. He went way beyond what we ever expected. As a matter of fact, my husband said, after our last SC suite, that he was rather tied of constantly being interrupted with the doorbell. It seems like someone was coming or going or delivering something 10 times a day ! Reyno came to meet us every single evening wherever we were dining to see if we wanted to see a show or if there was anything we wanted that he could help with. Sometimes it was a little too much !

 

I'm glad to see that your first poor experience did not stop you from trying again. I have never met Smitha but I have heard nothing but good things about her. I hope your experience this time will blow you away !

It is so interesting the different experiences with the same genie! We were so looking forward to the cruise and when we found out that we had Reyno (the guy in the ads) we thought we were so lucky. It was disappointing but we did not let it ruin our cruise. It was my dads 60th birthday so we were hoping for something a little special. Maybe it was because we were way down the hall in 8330 or maybe he had other guests that took up all of his time? Not sure but we love this room and genie or not we will try to book it if the price is right. Looking forward to another genie experience and I will report back!

That’s great to hear! I heard Reyno is excellent? What happened last year?

Glad you are off to a good start and long may it continue!, Well you are up next so I will be hanging on for your review. Please detail the service, and your experiences, that would be super! lol also very excited of course....

Regarding our experience with Reyno, other than embarkation and debarkation, we had approximately 10 minutes of face time with him the entire cruise. We never saw him. There was one email the day before we embarked and that was the only email we received pre-cruise and he didn't appear to have read my response to the one email or the survey. There were no alcoholic beverages in the room as requested and I had to resend him the list again after I mentioned it. I really don't want to reiterate all of the issues we had (including he did not show up at Grease and had not reserved us seats even though we had confirmed it with him the night before) but I will sum it up to say that the service was upon request (via email or phone call) and nothing was done proactively. He never checked in with us to see if we needed anything and nothing special was done without us asking. I had sent our requested restaurants and dining times via email pre-cruise and he made all reservations at 6pm every night instead of the times requested. Don't get me wrong, we had a fabulous cruise however, the genie experience was definitely disappointing. I don't know if he was overwhelmed with other guests or what but I definitely expected more. This was not the experience that RC is advertising. We are already off to a much better start with Smitha so we will see how it goes! I will try to remember to report back but if you have any specific questions let me know!

We are on Oasis in ATS 8330 on Feb 17. We heard from our genie Smitha a few days ago already!! We have a schedule from her for all dining and shows. Really happy with the service and response so far!! We had Reyno as a genie on Harmony in the same room last year and it was not the experience we were hoping for. This time things are starting out much better so we are super excited!!

Thanks so much for your review!! I am really enjoying it!! We get on the Oasis on Feb 17 so this is a great preview to get me through the pre-cruise days!!

We are flying Spirit out of MCO after we disembark from Oasis next month. Can we use luggage valet? If not, we were hoping to go to Disney Springs for lunch. Does anyone have any ideas what we could do with our luggage? Our flight is at 3:45pm. Thanks!

I am looking forward to the rest of your review!! We are in the 2br aqua theater suite on the Oasis in February so any tips you can provide are appreciated!! Thanks!!

I'm on the cruise currently, 12 days Brilliance out of Barcelona. The port was changed to La Spezia. They did it so people could go to Pisa/Piza. Livorno made it 3 hour drive to Pisa, La Spezia is 1 1/2 hour drive while Florence is a 2 hour drive from the port.

 

We did Florence only since Pisa is the Leaning Tower and not much else.

When were you notified of the port change? Are you on the Greek Mediterranean cruise? Thank you!