2NHcruisers

On 8/16/2023 at 9:09 PM, Mark_K said:

There’s a current thread about how Blu will allow you two (or more) lobster tails, that being the case, I’d be surprised if Luminae didn’t, even for people in lowly Sky Suites, which are, after all, supposed to be a step above Aqua.

tail only, no meat..

3 hours ago, phoenix_dream said:

...if they start cutting perks that's completely unacceptable. 

For a few cruises we had a lavazza espresso machines in our RS. It was nice, since they had changed from serving el baco morning capuccino in a glass mug to delivering watery, cold and in paper cups...

Then they said it no more lavazza in the RS, penthouse only.. I was not amused.. and am still annoyed with them..

On 6/22/2023 at 7:23 PM, bjahil47 said:

I talked to Executive Office today.  She said the menu change is a test on the Equinox only.  Based on feedback they receive they will either go back to the previous menu or implement the new menu.  She said that they are trying to compete with other cruise lines in their category.  I told her offering hamburgers and talipia and upcharging steaks/lobster they are not competing they are lowering their class!  She told me lobster will still be offered free (one) on chic night. 
 

I also asked her that since I am in a RS in September, and if I wanted any of the “premium” entrees would I be charged?  She said, yes I would be charged!

 

We also discussed gluten free offerings as I have a gluten sensitivity.  She said she is in contact with Retreat and Luminae and will get back to me in a few days with answers to those questions I asked.

 

she was very nice, kept reiterating that it was a test.  And the more people voice their concerns the less likely it will become permanent.  

Sounds like BS... competing would be you keep the high standards and dont nickle and dime folks; Whats next? Constant announcements in the rooms? RS used to get free dining in all the specialty restaurants;  but they will upcharge in MDR? X has lost its way...

10 hours ago, Jeremiah1212 said:

Upgraded afternoon canapés

 

 

No canapes except in the retreat lounge.

No lavazza machines in the RS anymore "PH only"... sigh

31 minutes ago, canderson said:

We most recently had one aboard Constellation, and really enjoyed it.  With X going to Lavazza elsewhere in the ship as well, figured that that's what they'd gone with exclusively in upper suites as well.  I bring a few of my own pods, so unless @2NHcruisers can confirm, not sure which ones to bring.

 

You are correct is a lavazza pod machine we had. Our butler is currently bringing the coffee in ceramic mugs as I told him I didnt want any paper cups (which we had on the prev cruise til we got the lavazza machine)..  I wish Celeb would think about the little things that make the cruises more enjoyable...

We requested and got a nespresso machine on our Mar 2022 Equinox cruise; However back on her now in Sept and no nespresso in spite of requesting one and pointing out we had one a few months ago....  Getting cappuccino delivered in paper cups is really tacky in a high end suite.. 

On 10/31/2021 at 2:56 PM, Crown Vic said:

Murano has replaced Ocean Liners. Having sailed on the SS United States, our favourite was the SS United States Ocean Liners restaurant on the Infinity.

Gotta say that Murano is extremely good as well. 

Enjoy...

We loved the Ocean Liners, and have a special fondness for the SSUS and the SSUS restaurant. We dine almost exclusively in Murano and love it.. We've run into many of the Ocean Liners personnel in Murano(s).

murano - we used to do every other night in tuscan, but after several bad experiences we went every night in murano and have never looked back!!

Celebrity IT at its best.....

When we ate in Murano we would ask them to send a cheese plate to the room the next day (since we never had the cheese after dinner).  It was a wonderful treat. I'd imagine you could do the same with Tuscan.

13 minutes ago, George C said:

Makes sense that you should get reservations, if there not full you will be fine.

I am thinking of getting reservations for Tuscan for antipasto then moving to luminae for at least one dinner. Would love to get antipasto delivered to suite will check with butler. 

I was referring to the special themed lunches, the murano lobster lunch or the tuscan king crabs leg lunch.

One item we noted that we liked better is the RS had a lavazza blue machine which made decent coffee, and we could get morning cappuccino in a lavazza mug rather than a Cafe al Baco paper cup.

-jim

2 hours ago, Georgia_Peaches said:

Jim,

To clarify, are you saying that no specialty venues are complimentary during lunch for RS and PS or are your referring to the "special themed lunches" that happen to occur in a specialty restaurant.  We were on Equinox in Nov. 2017 in a RS and ate at Sushi on 5 several times and it was complimentary.  So you are saying it's different now?  Thank you!

Mary Lou, 

In the past (as of this spring) we were told it didnt include specialty lunches; 

We were also told it didnt allow ordering from anything but MDR.. 

I think it depends on how ambitious the butler is 🙂

Good luck! We just had a great cruise with exceptional service and food in Murano on Eclipse.

-jim

8 minutes ago, CHEZMARYLOU said:

Yes it includes lunches in specialty restaurants.

We are in our 1st PH and hope we can order dinner from Tuscan to be served in our suite.

I expect Celebrity will get the app updated for eclipse sometime around 2025 or 2030 A.D.  just after they make the web site useful..

We usually go deck 11 for an RS. We do at times hear the rearranging to the deck chairs  above, and I think we had to call twice when they we moving chairs at around 2am. Usually its pretty quiet; never any hallway noise. 

murano, murano murano; We used to like tuscan but it was awful last 2 cruises on equinox, whereas in murano Marko (m'd) and his crew went above and beyond. It was truly exceptional..

We usually are RS and give shoreside the times we want, and once onboard we ask our butler for a printout to verify. He then adjusts them to what they should have been 🙂

We've never had issues getting into Murano, but then thats our fav spot and we eat there most nights. We've had hit/miss success at Tuscan.

3 hours ago, CHEZMARYLOU said:

On the Equinox Group FB page.  The suite looks exactly the same except for the sofa, it looked like it was armless on one end. It was hard to tell about the other sofa since it was made up for the bed. The bed had not been made yet so don't know if any thing changed there.  Still had the recliner with foot stool and larger table on the balcony but the chairs were the uncomfortable ones and no additional foot stools.

Looks like inside there is a new green chair (without a footstool), and the low coffee table is mia..  agree on the deck chairs... Butler! we want the old chairs and foot stools!

make friends with m'd and waiter, also being in a royal suite helps 🙂

2 hours ago, Jim_Iain said:

Have you actually be restricted to laundry once a week?   We have never had a problem sending out laundry about every 3 days.  

While the butler on this cruise didnt say it, We've always been told we can do laundry as often as we want;  We usually do it 2-3 times in a 2 week cruise. It comes back 2 days later.

5 minutes ago, jagoffee said:

2NH, sorry, I was not clear in my question.  I was not implying that you were at the wrong terminal.

I do not know all the terminal numbers.  For our cruise, the Edge was in port.  Therefore we were in a different terminal.  (Where I could not find the special area for the luggage).

Were you using Terminal 25?  I was hoping that the area was more obvious in Terminal 25.

jagoffee no problem; we also had edge in port for embarkation, so we were at terminal 29; I think when we came back we disembarked at 25.. 

I'm not familiar with the Fort Lauderdale cruise terminal since most of our cruises have been out of Miami.. 

We did look around for an area and finding none I did the unthinkable and asked a guy with a walkie talkie where the luggage drop off was; he didnt know, but he called a guy who said he didnt know either  (thus I gave the luggage to a porter) and then he escorted us in...

jagoffee - we were at the right terminal I double checked the map and pictures;

at least one PH and another RS had same issue of no drop off area.

I agree Carrie was great and thorough. Our butler said the issue wasnt shoreside it was onboard the ship..

I'm hoping it was just a set of hiccups that hit at once. We really love Celebrity and are looking forward to our next cruise in the fall.

We just got off Silhouette, RS;   There were was a noticeable number of hiccups, which I wrote off, but seeing this thread perhaps they are more systemic...  

- No RS/PH luggage drop off, though we were given specific instructions and pictures

- shoreside requests were confirmed before we left for the cruise, but on board we found the butler requests were incomplete, and in fact different.  eg, "You only requested one bottle of liquor so thats what I brought".. uh no...

- we then requested the champagne to be swapped out, for a bottle of moscato, which we were told the moscato now counted as our second liquor..  we have never had swapping out the champagne counted as the 2nd liquor bottle... Told butler to take the moscato, and the champagne(which he had put in the fridge) and get some macallan scotch...  

- dinner reservations - they got the first night correct, as to restaurant and time. But celebrity got creative and decided we needed to eat in the other restaurants that we hadnt requested....  Fortunately the butler asked if we liked qsine since he saw we were dining there (we werent), and that alerted us to the fact our dinner reservations were botched.. We got it corrected...

- getting cappuccino delivered by the butler in paper cups is definitely a step backwards (Last Nov we noted the change, before it used to come in real coffee cups); but this time it just seemed watery; I switched to a pot of coffee which actually tasted better, was hot and strong.

While I always have the list of items we requested on my phone, I can see I'll now be bringing three copies printed out so there is no doubt about what we requested... The ironic part is we are really low maintenance, and dont ask for a lot of stuff.. 

Our last  3 cruises on equinox out of Miami they had the special luggage drop off; The last cruise in Nov 2018 they werent yet ready for us to drop luggage (at 10:30) but at least there was someone there to take it and then arrange to escort us in;

We sailed on Silhouette Mar 23, 2019 out of Fort Lauderdale and they had no idea what to do with RS/PS luggage; However they called over someone who knew to escort us in and it was a breeze... Downside is luggage didnt show up til well after muster, and we werent the only RS lacking luggage.. 

On Equinox last Sept we really enjoyed Tuscan and Murano. We dont care for Luminae... The waiter in Tuscan (along with the consistently very good food) kept us alternating between the Tuscan and Murano...

Last month (May) we sailed Equinox again. To our displeasure Tuscan seemed disorganized and the hostess kept wanting to give us a different waitperson each time.. It wasnt an enjoyable dining experience. However Murano was exceptional, from our walking in the first night and the m'd greeting us by name to having the same waiter and wait staff each night (was a 12 night cruise) after I think 3-4 days of alternating it was clear we would just do Murano. Marko (m'd) and Michael (waiter) made it exceptional each night, offering off the menu items and just making us feel at home there.. So much so we are looking to go back in Nov and hopefully they will be back from their vacations...

We agree about the edge; hard sells, expensive, and we like having a large balcony.. So we wont be sailing on the edge..

We can't have enough seadays, that's why we'll be on the Tahitian Treasures Cruise in October ( 11 seadays...)

We agree about the sea days!! never too many!!