Peggy Sue

Last March towards the middle/end of the cruise we received flyers offering reduced rates for the remainder of the cruise. I don't recall how much, but it was at least 20% off the remaining days.

We've ordered 2 apps several times .. I also know folks who ordered the lobster dinner for the app ...and then ordered their individual dinners. no problem.

Generally, the first night on board you are allowed to wear shorts in the dining room, given that people are still dealing with luggage, etc. But..you need to ask. Other than that, the dress code has always been enforced on the celebrity cruises we've taken.

Murano on Eclipse last March .. tables for 2 in some areas are fairly close together. We had dinner there 4 nights, and 2 of those nights we enjoyed conversation with the couple seated beside us.

March 14 night cruise we purchased the plan for 6 dinners. 4 nights murano, 2 Tuscan. We had the same wait staff every meal...they were terrific! We always left an additional 20 in cash. Go with what you’re comfortable with. We would have lowered our extra tip if service had been lacking, but part of the reason we choose to dine in these venues is the attentive service, their ability to usually have conversations about their home, etc, better food quality, quieter environment and tables are not so tightly packed.

We always contact celebrity in advance and the water and extension cord are in the cabin when we arrive. The cord will be taped down to the rug by your cabin attendant once you advise which side of the bed you need it on. Prior to our 3/2018 cruise, we always brought our own power strip, this time they did take it out of our luggage and we picked it up at the end of the cruise. it does become a juggling act to keep iPads, pcs, watches, etc. charged with limited plugs..but we put the plug in the bathroom to good use too! we will no longer pack our power strip.

That is totally wrong! I live on the north shore of Boston .. Old Iron sides does not take tourists out, except in very, very controlled conditions. (like the upcoming lottery sailings) She will go out sometimes on the 4th for a turn around, and I think she went out with one of the tall ship festivals .. not sure. She is available for tours. And previous posters are 100% correct .. cannot dock at faneuil Hall!

Have you contacted celebrity about the errors in this shore excursion description?

I upgraded our 2019 cruises last night .. then we decided we were silly not to go ahead and upgrade our 2020 cruises as well ---so called again this evening and completed our upgrades. I asked if this was the last night at the current prices, and the representative confirmed that they have now been made aware of the price change, and the changes will be effective tomorrow. So glad we made the changes now. Thanks again to the original poster for bringing this change to our attention!

Just a point, the attendants don’t always agree to swap to cheese and biscuits as we’ve asked previously and we’re told no, it wasn’t possible.

Have successfully changed the past 4 cruises. When we board and the attendant checks in to say hello, we take a few minutes to go over our requests ... We request ice service morning and afternoon (the ice bucket is never in the room when we arrive) and the change to cheese and crackers. Our requests have always been met.

Interesting to read all of these comments .. so many inconsistencies between ships and sailings! Thankfully, we've been very happy with our cabin and the delivery of CC "perks".

Recent March Eclipse cruise Concierge .. Lunch on embarkation was very nice .. menu was limited, but just nice to have a place to drop our luggage and sit and be served and avoid the buffet chaos. Champagne was not in the cabin, but we asked cabin attendant and he said he waits until the passengers are on board to ask when they would like it .. he said when they had it waiting on ice, many passengers never drank it and asked for the bucket to be removed, etc. He brought our bottle within the hour .. we put it in the fridge and ended up carrying it off the ship. The bag ... it was canvas, not a good quality, but it was lined, it did not zip. We have a ton of these bags, and really don't care if we get another. Afternoon..we asked immediately to have our afternoon treats changed to cheese and crackers ...every afternoon we found a selection of cheese slices, crackers and dried fruit. There is a dedicated concierge (at least on our cruise) in the library .. didn't use, but saw a lot of people talking to this person when we were taking the elevators. we book early and re-check fares often. We paid less for our cabin that most did for verandah cabins...Yes, the verandah cabins were less expensive than concierge when we booked, but only by a hundred dollars ..so all in all we were happy with our decision, and the extra points resulted in our move up to the Elite level. I do agree that if the price difference becomes too wide.. we will opt out of concierge, as the "perks" are not great and the differences between elite and elite plus are also not worth paying significantly higher dollars for the extra points for concierge class.

Thanks for posting this information. Called Celebrity tonight and upgraded from classic to premium. Took all of 5 minutes to complete. We booked through a TA, but no problem calling celebrity customer service direct and requesting the upgrade.

Customer Service advised they have been receiving quite a few call requesting upgrade due to pending price increase, but she also stated as others have mentioned above that they have no knowledge of a price increase.

We had planning to upgrade on board, so no issue doing so now...and I'm inclined to believe what is shared on these boards for what is coming our way from Celebrity.

I asked if the 20% sale applied to the dining packages. Only offer is the 2 dinner and 1 lunch at $90. We declined, and will determine what we need once we are on board, as we didn't think this was a very good offer. We really aren't interested in lunch, and when we were on board this past March they were really trying to sell lunch ..not sure how popular lunch is.

Thanks again!

Ordering "in the package" wine at dinner can be a challenge...you never seem to know what wine is in what package. I have sat with folks on the classic package when I had the premium package and asked the sommelier what wines are on my "premium" package....and then he brought the same wine for the person on the classic package. If the person on the classic package asked first, then I asked what "better" wine they have for premium package folks, he said it's the same. I finally just gave up and asked for a nice "red" on the premium package.

We too ran into this issue on the Eclipse in the dining room in March. We had the premium package and the sommelier wasn't very good at responding to my husbands request for a better wine...we went to murano and he loved the wine, after that any time we went to the dining room my husband requested that wine. The sommelier wasn't happy, but he did find the wine and served it. we too noticed they do not have enough sommeliers in the dining room .. with so many people having drink packages, most people around us were ordering wine. The sommelier was out straight and appeared to be handling in excess of 20 tables ... He wasn't a very pleasant person, but once poured, he did continue to come around to top off our glasses. I gave him a pass on his attitude as it was plain to see he was being asked to take care of too many people, and he was certainly trying his best to take care of everyone .. I would be cranky too!

posted earlier with our vote for Murano as #1.

We to also support Sushi on 5 .. we love this place. Sadly, the place is never very busy, but the food is wonderful. We do not eat raw fish, but they have so many delicious things on their menu, including sushi rolls, that do not have raw fish. We have always been given a discount when dining there, and on the Solstice we received $30 per person all you can eat too. On the Eclipse, we always received 20% off our bill. The Manager and wait staff were excellent, and when seeing them around the ship always stopped to say hello. Perhaps a previous posters suggestion that they need to add a few "meat and potato" dishes for those who don't care for their menu would help to bring in more business.

Tuscan .. Agree with a previous poster .. their Italian food is not great and their steaks don't really shine either. We have tried several of their pasta dishes and found the pasta to be way over cooked and gummy. I upgraded my steak (paying an additional price) and even that steak wasn't very good. Their dining room and view is beautiful.

We will be on the Silhouette next year and Reflection in 2020 .. happy to see they have a couple of other dining options that we will be able to try, as we will not return to the Tuscan Grill.

We were on last year (just off the Eclipse) We found our experience on Equinox to be ... Murano .. Best, worth the price of admission. Tuscan Grill .. so so, didn't think the meal was anything special. We did not try silk harvest last year, we had the prior year and found it to be OK, but nothing we wanted to try again We went to Murano twice last year and 4 times on our 14 night cruise in March. Service and food were outstanding.

Thanks for all the fantastic information!!

Hi, We just booked our first back to back for a 21 day cruise. For those of you who have taken back to back would appreciate some insight ..

our cabin number is the same for both cruises.

What happens on turn around day? Do we also have to vacate our cabin early with the rest of the passengers who are leaving that day to get out of the way of the turn around cleaning efforts?

If so, is there a ship location you're asked to proceed to?

I know we have to get off the ship .. and reboard.. how is this handled? Do we have to check in pier side again?

Account -- with the same cabin number, do they leave your account open and close at the end of the second cruise? Wondering, as TA provides OBC, and if any remaining amount would be carried over to next cruise.

For things like drink packages ..we have classic and will probably upgrade to premium on board .. do we have to do the upgrade on each cruise segment? We alway purchase dining packages .. same question .. do we only purchase the number of nights we would use on each cruise segment?

Your back to back experiences .. do you enjoy, too repetitive (we are going to different ports) with dining and entertainment?

Any helpful tips sincerely appreciated.

Thanks,

Peggy Sue

Recently back from 14 nights on the Eclipse. The food was very good. We also like to try the specialty restaurants, and thought the food was very well prepared and presented. Murano was our favorite out of all the dining venues on board. Although we don't have as much cruise experience as some on this board we do remember when dining was a totally different experience than we find today. Food was of a better quality and service was not so hurried. However, ships were smaller and dining times were fixed .. the time you spent in the dining room was part of your cruise experience. Today, we personally find the main dining room a place to have a meal, meet people, etc., but service always seems to be rushed. When dining in Murano, Tuscan, Quisne, Sushi on 5, we had totally different experiences ... plenty of space between tables, service was not rushed, food was a better quality, etc. the buffet on Celebrity is very good, and most everyone, even picky eaters should be able to find something to eat. If I had one complaint about dining in the main dining room today, it wouldn't be the food or even the rushed service .. it would be the amount of tables they have crammed in ... it's very tightly packed!

Like Daviekathy, our first Celebrity cruise was on the Mercury in 2005 12 night mexican rivera from San Diego. It was indeed a great cruise. We were in one of those fantastic sky suites on deck 12 with a HUGE deck .. I remember there was an overhang that you could sit under for shade and out of view of others, and then a huge space uncovered .. great for catching sun, however people on the deck above could look down. At that time there was one dining room and only fixed seating. The crew was fantastic. It was a beautiful ship and converted us from Princess and Holland America to Celebrity being our favorite cruise line.

We love the new "evening chic" in place of formal nights. Anything goes. We just returned for a 14 night Caribbean cruise and most people were dressed as they normally dress every evening for dinner, very few men with suit coats and ties. There were a few people dressed in tux and gowns. It's really what ever you feel like doing, if you wish to dress up, go for it!

We experienced the joy of using packing cubes on our cruise last April. FANTASTIC .. can pack more and items are not wrinkled!

As previously posted, I use tissue paper when packing dresses or anything else you might be bringing that tends to wrinkle. I lay the dress on the bed, cover it in a couple of sheets of tissue and then fold to fit into the large packing cube. Also agree with the suggestion to bring wrinkle release. Bed, Bath and Beyond .. Their travel section sells the travel size. I've also heard, (haven't tried) that if you have a spray bottle, place a dryer sheet in the bottle, fill with water it is suppose to work the same as Downy wrinkle release. Bring half of what you think you'll need .. mix and match, OK to wear the same outfit more than once .. everyone else does!

Enjoy your cruise!!

Try the lemon tarts .. yum!!

Yes, deceptive! So annoying .. just trying to figure out what is actually a promotion is mind boggling! I just keep checking my reservation and grabbing any price reduction prior to final payment I can find .. at least that does feel like I scored some sort of actual discount!!

Anyone who has been cruising for the past 20 years will agree food and service is just not the same as it was even 5 years ago, and certainly not like it was 20 years ago ... But ... We find Celebrity still serves decent food. We tend to skip the dining room, there we have found that quality has declined and options offered rather basic. We agree Murano offers excellent food and service. Tuscan is "OK" .. but nothing like a land based steak house, but good for a cruise ship. Never been on a luxury cruise line, and I suspect food is much better, but for the price we pay to sail Celebrity and other mid-range cruise lines (Princess, HAL etc) we find Celebrity consistently offers better food. I also agree with a previous poster that we get our "foodie" experience on-land ..where restaurants have more options for local sourcing, ingredients, etc. But..over all, Celebrity delivers a good food experience. Just mix up where you eat and experience all the different options offered .. you are sure to find something that is a cut above for a foodie experience! And...agree Cafe al Baccio has great pastry ....we stop by for our version of afternoon tea and love their lemon tarts!!!

On Equinox last April .. In Murano one night using a dining package, at the end of the night we asked for a slip to add a tip, We were advised no tipping necessary. Later, we were in Tuscan Grill and they brought us a 0 balance slip ..where we did add a tip. In Murano, we left cash on the table, just didn't feel right not leaving a tip for excellent service. Just interesting between Tuscan and Murano. When thinking about the uncharge at $50 or $45 per person, it should cover the tip .. but like others, we normally get these packages significantly discounted so we always tip at the end of the meal.

Sometimes I wish Celebrity would adopt the policies of the luxury cruse lines, where there was no need to think about tipping, drinks etc .. given that there are so many "add ons" these days, I would rather have the cruise price reflect the correct amount so we could just go and enjoy without all the up charges .. but I guess there are enough guests who don't participate and depend on the lower prices without add ons.. Some day I'm going to figure out what we actually spend in uncharges, plus cruise fare and see how far off the total price is when compared to a luxury line like Seaborn. Anyone ever compare the two?

Equinox last April .. premium package, no problem getting Chandon in dining rooms/bars.