Nemanoxer

1 hour ago, hcat said:

OP glad you are feeling  less neg but it was not exactly a glowing review

 

"Yes, the prices are too high. Booked other cruise lines for 2024 + 2025 due to that.
Yes, MDR food was mediocre most of the days.

Yes, ambient music was way too loud about everywhere.

Yes, the personal touch is gone in many ways.

Yes, a bit of class is gone and replaced by action and activity.

Yes, cruise director David Clark talks way, way, way too much."

 

Were the positives you mentioned enough for you to .book again on X?

Had some unexpected income early this year, otherwise X would not have seen me last week.

Booking other lines for 2024 and 2025 results out of interest in their new ship classes and tempting new cabins (Sun Princess cabana cabin), more fascinating itineraries and excursions (TUI Cruises 14 days Asia) as well as personal preferences like real all inclusive (again TUI Cruises) and lower pricing (again TUI Cruises). TUI Cruises is Celebrity's sister brand for native German speakers. About the same thing but without anything like Edge Class and with real all inclusive.

Also booked short trips within Europe on Cunard, they offer that cheap and often over here. Not a fancy cruise line at 52 years of age but a very relaxing one.

Just back from Edge.

Yes, the prices are too high. Booked other cruise lines for 2024 + 2025 due to that.
Yes, MDR food was mediocre most of the days.

Yes, ambient music was way too loud about everywhere.

Yes, the personal touch is gone in many ways.

Yes, a bit of class is gone and replaced by action and activity.

Yes, cruise director David Clark talks way, way, way too much.

But apart from that...

Everybody on that ship is working their asses off.

Everybody is still greeting, may it no longer be with your personal name, but still greeting politely.

As mentioned, MDRs have lost their charm and appeal in my opinion, but the food everywhere else on the ship was over average and kept me munching in any minute of boredom.

Speaking of boredom, that hardly happened. There are loads of entertainment around the clock, everywhere on the ship.

The ship is being cleaned and maintained like crazy. It looks like it was christened yesterday.

You still get to find staff for a personal talk. They are more stressed out and busier as some years ago, but the guy at the gelato bar, for example, is more than happy to chat outside the Oceanview rush hours.

Bartenders are fast and attentive as lightning. Even in the theater.

Shore excursions can be somewhat weak sometimes, but Celebrity are only choosing the companies, not the guide of the day. If the guide sucks, that is your day´s bad luck. However, you are free to go and complain about guides.

Refunds were granted proactively and without discussion.

Most of guests still are well educated and understand how to behave themselves.

The ship´s overall design elements are positively overwhelming.

They still manage to make guests feel like they are part of their family while on board.

The captain is always happy to chat a few words and not scared to have lunch alone between passengers in Oceanview.

And the list goes on.

So, yes - I was a complainer before this trip. My last cruise on Equinox was quite bad, especially food and service. And I hate that partial refurbishment, that ship deserves a full makeover. But after this trip, it´s only the pricing left to leave X alone for a few years.

Apart from that - thanks Celebrity, this trip was about 80 % of what I had expected. And sadly, I always expect the very best.

Just disembarking Edge. Ambient music just about right and normal.

For 2024 and 2025, we are taking a break from Celebrity and will try the new Princess ship class, HAL, Windstar and a German cruise line. 

Wanna find out after all if really no other cruise line in the price class can keep up with X.

I am on Edge right now. Having a good time mostly. However, I always did S-Class til now and have a feeling that Edge is much more of a loud party boat than let's say Equinox.

Usually, this kind of overall musical enivironment is wired to Caribbean sea days in my memory. Not necessarily to the Mediterranean.

What are your experiences about how Celebrity lets the music play?

Don´t know what kind of pollution LNG brings, it is not really a clean alternative as well. But it might not affect the ports as much when sitting there.

But I do not know too much about that. Was just very, very disappointed when Edge was released. A ship sold to all of us as revolutionary and beginning of a new era. For Lutoff-Perlo´s account, yeah maybe...

Glad I can switch to Sun Princess soon. She´s also not all emission free yet, but seemingly Princess are trying their best to take that issue a bit more serious.

I feel like there will be a lot of preparing to do before I go in February.

Let alone all the vaccinations my physician wants to shoot into me before I go.

And then there was that older guy on Equinox in shorts and t-shirt one day who turned to me and said "I want to see one of those guys tryna keep me from entering that MDR, we´ll be in the news".

Well, one possible perspective.

How about Edge these days?

Are the using straws that survive frozen Coladas longer than three minutes? Otherwise, I might bring my armored glass ones.

Are they still using paper straws on Edge? Or was some alternative found that satisfies all perspectives?

I wanna see all of those plans.

Now.

I need to make a reservation for MDRs on E Class when I selected Anytime Dining? Really?

Saying goodbye to Celebrity after the cruise next week. Will try a German cruise line and Princess instead.

So, I guess I will just switch to anytime dining.

I will be back from shorex too late for 6 pm seating now and then, anyway. And the later seating conflicts with the theatre shows.

Thanks for your help y´all.

Hi fellow cruisers.

I have only cruised on S-Class ships before. Usually booked a fixed seating time as there was only one MDR and I was happy to hang out with the same new people every night.

On Edge, there are four MDRs, right? Same food everywhere with the exception of a few signature dishes per each MDR theme. I guess that reduces the probability of meeting the same people every night because many people try different MDRs during one cruise. 

So, in this context, does a fixed seating time make any sense at all? What are your experiences?

Cannot wait to see interior videos of the Cabana cabins, and might it only be virtual 3Ds.

I´d rather have them an inch smaller but delicate instead.

Will find out on the 26th.

How is everybody doing on board?

Only some 12 days to go for us, starting to ge excited. Hopefully food and service are somewhat premium worthy.

Crossing fingers.

I will have two full days in port @Justpackingmybags

Also will have two more days in SIN before I board the ship.

I am just trying to figure out which sights I can do while ship serves as hotel in port without having to book an excursion.

Looks like Gardens By The Bay is very close to MBCC. But Street View does not show any footpath? Is anything near the MBCC walkable?

Seems a lot of the main sights are near MBCC, that´s nice.Glad it´s another six months time for planning 😄

Celebrity got me addicted to cruising in 2012. I got me a 10 night cruise thru the Caribbean on Equinox for 1500 $ in stateroom 9182, that was a balcony including solo surcharge. Unimagineable today. I got food and service like I had hardly ever experienced that on land before.

That Celebrity is no more. That is why I will try the Sun Princess in October 2024. If I was 15-20 years older, I might switch to Cunard. Had a QM2 cruise this year that was cheaper than anything I could find on Celebrity and closest to the former Celebrity experience out of all other cruise lines I have tried since then.

So, about the topic: We are all free to leave Celebrity because the beloved product does no longer exist. That is what I will try in 2024, hoping that overall Carnival brands are on the hunt for RCCL guests, bringing on what they can.

I made some extra money last year, and that is the only reason why I have booked Celebrity again for this September. I would no longer book them with my standard income. If my September cruise should turn out magnificent, I might go again. If not - again, we are all free to choose other cruise lines or other ways of travel.

Marina Bay Cruise Centre as far as I am informed @hallasm

Hi fellow cruisers.

Can anyone comment on how easy or not easy it is to get from a cruise ship in Singapore cruise port to downtown?

Thank you for any constructive input.

That's my balcony there in the Sphere.

I'm friggin excited.

Hi there, hope y´all have a relaxing Sunday.

One of the sad service issues about X is that one cannot clearly see how the time schedules of shore excursions are planned to be like. Sorry if this is bad English, the older I get, the worse my English seems to be.

For example, we will be on the Edge in 14 days. Only a few excursions on the website have estimates about how much time we will spend doing something during an excursion. Is there any source, and may it be set up by cruising enthusiasts, to get that kind of information?

Wow, that swimming pool has it  @dides. That thing will have a lot of people competing for a swim.