Millennium – Panama Oct 09 - Good, Bad and the Dress Code!!!

[Lyn Mc]

Now the jetlag is wearing off, here is a small review of our Panama Cruise on the Millennium 10th Oct 09. These are purely our personal comments, being Brits we do have different takes on certain aspects of life, and in the main are rule followers through & through, therefore our experiences may well be different from others that took this cruise.

 

Overall a 7 out of 10 some aspects were not good, for some passengers who we spoke to it was going to be their last X cruise!! Ship was good after the refurbishment, looking her age but still good and there was little to fault with the Cabin. Bedding, carpet and curtains all new, as was the TV but wow is everything red on it, could not alter the colour, although didn’t bother us as did not use it that much. We had an aft balcony which was, of course, wonderful.

 

The dinner menus were definitely changed from last year’s cruise, they are still tweaking them but we always found something we liked, although we made a few bad choices, with 16 nights it was bound to happen!! Their Pizza and waffles are still as good as I remember but the coffee has still not improved. The ice cream and their caramel cookies – exceptional.

 

The crew were fantastic, remembering your name, always smiling and gave you the time of day, stopping for a quick chat even though they were rushed off their feet. Had the best waiter on any cruise, Larsen, Celebrity have a shining star in him, will take someone really special to live up to his standard.

 

Had a great turnout for the Cruise Critic event, Lots of ship’s staff attended. Big thanks to Les for the badges – great job.

 

Evening drinks were in the Cosmos (too many for Michaels) for Elite and Suite passengers was nice, had a couple of drinks on nights we were there. Lots of talk about the time for this event, we used to arrive around 5.15 p.m. Had early seating first 5 days then changed to late seating but kept the same time in Cosmos.

 

Used the internet and free laundry/pressing/dry clean coupons – great perks.

 

Worst thing - communication between departments was appalling, one person telling you one thing, another person something else, never knew the right answers, “will get back to you” – never happened. We know from posts on CC that Miami customer service were bad enough at this but it seems to be spreading to the ships. However, a big thank you to Donna the Concierge and Allen, the Guest Relations Manager for all their help on this cruise.

 

Late luggage arrival, this has now happened on our last two cruises, both times we were in Concierge Class and should have had “express luggage delivery”. Onboard at 12.15 p.m. first case arrived at 5.50 p.m. my mother got her case at 2.30 p.m. she was in an oceanview on 3rd deck, we were aft on 7 maybe it was the long walk that did it!!! Also should have had personalised stationery – nothing ever came.

 

We now realise how lucky we have been on previous cruises – this was our first cruise with a crowd of “pushers, shovers & we have paid so we are “gonna have”. We never realised before just how much your fellow passengers can influence your enjoyment of a cruise if you get the wrong demographic profiles. There were a number of nationalities on board for whom queuing was a game and completely unheard of by others, as Brits and used to joining queues this ‘game’ was not one we were used to and we never joined in – spoilsports aren’t we!!

 

Celebrity had put 1200 passengers onto first seating and only ~750 on second seating meaning that when on 1st seating you had to dash straight to the Theatre in order to be able to get a seat and then you had to put up with conversations going on all around you throughout the show. Why do these ignorant people turn up to watch an act if all they want to do is chat all night, taking up a seat that someone else would much better appreciate. We actually moved dining to late and this improved our cruise experience somewhat, not so much shoving and pushing and not so many conversations next to you in the Theatre during the acts, in fact there were loads of spare seats to move to should the unfortunate happen.

 

We also have never witnessed such poor dress codes as on this cruise – think this is where the ‘Brit’ in us comes to the fore as we are not as casual a nation when it comes to fine dining and cruising and we tend to ‘tow the line’ rather then ‘buck the trend’ and this was very disappointing for us. There were instances of shorts, T-shirts and sneakers for the evening meal. Jeans were also worn in the MDR in the evenings along with collarless shirts, football shirts and T-shirts. No one was ever challenged and it appeared that the restaurant staff took a very liberal view of the ‘smart casual’ dress code, ensuring a very CASUAL approach. Now I don’t entirely blame passengers here because, it would seem that there will always be some who cannot be bothered to wash and change for dinner and if they can get away with that and still eat in the MDR they will. However, if someone at the restaurant door (staff were there spraying hands with cleanser anyway) would ask them to please adhere to the dresscode as outlined by Celebrity and point out the alternative dining venues this would help to maintain the dresscode standards at least for the MDR. On formal nights it was slightly better with no shorts, some jeans, but no shorts. At the Captains Club special event around 60% had turned up in the correct ‘smart casual’ attire for the rest there were lots of shorts and T-shirts, one guy in a vest and shorts. In the Oceanview Café numerous times people came in wearing their bathrobes some with bare feet, they were mainly there to collect food on a tray but on a couple of occasions they sat down to eat.

 

A lot of bad dressing has been excused with the “not enough luggage allowances”, but everyone who flies in for a cruise has to deal with small luggage allowances these days but we still managed to look smart and even manage to take an evening suit within the 20kg limit. I think that the standards fall with the prices and maybe this was just a very attractively priced cruise with some not very attractively dressed passengers.

 

If ‘casual’ is the future for Celebrity then so be it, we have no problem with that, we will have a clear cut choice and we can change cruise line, but we personally do not think that X should state in the brochures, smart casual and formal (3 nights) and then not enforce the dresscode in the MDR.

 

There was also a problem in the Oceanview café with getting a table, not because of the numbers eating but because some passengers used the tables at lunchtimes to play cards on!! There you stood with a tray of food with no table to put it on and there were 4/5 tables (always next to the windows) with passengers playing cards. There is a perfectly wonderful card room on board, with full length windows but they had no thought for others and stayed and played cards throughout lunch.

 

We had an appalling ship’s excursion – Gatun Locks and Portobelo - nothing as described in the brochure – we got the standard refund of 15% onboard when we complained but a letter is winging its way across the Atlantic to ‘pursue this even further’. In fact the Ports were not the best (understatement) but I will put a report on the ‘ports of call’ and won’t bore you here with this. Suffice to say that the transit of the Panama Canal was the reason for this cruise and boy did it come up to our expectation.

 

We heard from the folks on the Infinity, both ships were side by side in Puntarenas, Costa Rica (great photo opportunity!!) that their Captain had opened up the helipad, for the transit, no such luck on the Millennium but we did get to see it from a great vantage point with our aft cabin, and also from the Penthouse Suite. These folks also had big problems on this cruise with this suite and encountered the same problems we had with communication between departments so we didn’t feel nearly so bad, as we had not paid anywhere near their price for the trip. I did tell them about the CC boards which they had no idea about, but don’t know if they will post their experiences here which would make fascinating reading for those who have always dreamt of staying in the Penthouse on the Millennium – you may well think twice!!!

 

We have been loyal to X up till now with 9 cruises and are Elite status and have never felt the need to write to Miami but this time we have written a letter expressing our disappointment in the communication problems and falling standards that we witnessed on this cruise.

 

We do have 3 more X cruises booked for next year (all booked before our recent experiences) and depending on the reply from Miami we may or may not be taking the 3rd one. First 2 are the “pre”-inaugural and inaugural of the Eclipse from Southampton. This is our 40th Wedding Anniversary cruise and we are taking family with us and we have never done an inaugural so we will not be cancelling these 2 very short B2B cruises, also cost vs losing the deposit is just not worth it. Once again, though, X starred with this – we thought “inaugural” meant ‘first’ so naïve things that we are, we go book this 4 day little sojourn and then X assign a 3 day to Le/Havre Paris in front of this and call it a ‘pre-inaugural’ cruise. The taxes/port fees on this 3 day are extortionate at £63 for 1 port – the taxes/port fees for the 3rd cruise in the Adriatic are only £88 for 7 ports – go figure!! – perhaps we are all chipping in for her delivery to Southampton!! Anyway it will be interesting to see if there are any differences in the standards of dresscode etc when X cruises from the UK. One good thing though at least we should be on a level playing field when it comes to queuing – we will wait and see………………

 

Lyn Mc

UK

[dkjretired]

Now the jetlag is wearing off, here is a small review of our Panama Cruise on the Millennium 10th Oct 09. These are purely our personal comments, being Brits we do have different takes on certain aspects of life, and in the main are rule followers through & through, therefore our experiences may well be different from others that took this cruise.

 

Overall a 7 out of 10 some aspects were not good, for some passengers who we spoke to it was going to be their last X cruise!! Ship was good after the refurbishment, looking her age but still good and there was little to fault with the Cabin. Bedding, carpet and curtains all new, as was the TV but wow is everything red on it, could not alter the colour, although didn’t bother us as did not use it that much. We had an aft balcony which was, of course, wonderful.

 

The dinner menus were definitely changed from last year’s cruise, they are still tweaking them but we always found something we liked, although we made a few bad choices, with 16 nights it was bound to happen!! Their Pizza and waffles are still as good as I remember but the coffee has still not improved. The ice cream and their caramel cookies – exceptional.

 

The crew were fantastic, remembering your name, always smiling and gave you the time of day, stopping for a quick chat even though they were rushed off their feet. Had the best waiter on any cruise, Larsen, Celebrity have a shining star in him, will take someone really special to live up to his standard.

 

Had a great turnout for the Cruise Critic event, Lots of ship’s staff attended. Big thanks to Les for the badges – great job.

 

Evening drinks were in the Cosmos (too many for Michaels) for Elite and Suite passengers was nice, had a couple of drinks on nights we were there. Lots of talk about the time for this event, we used to arrive around 5.15 p.m. Had early seating first 5 days then changed to late seating but kept the same time in Cosmos.

 

Used the internet and free laundry/pressing/dry clean coupons – great perks.

 

Worst thing - communication between departments was appalling, one person telling you one thing, another person something else, never knew the right answers, “will get back to you” – never happened. We know from posts on CC that Miami customer service were bad enough at this but it seems to be spreading to the ships. However, a big thank you to Donna the Concierge and Allen, the Guest Relations Manager for all their help on this cruise.

 

Late luggage arrival, this has now happened on our last two cruises, both times we were in Concierge Class and should have had “express luggage delivery”. Onboard at 12.15 p.m. first case arrived at 5.50 p.m. my mother got her case at 2.30 p.m. she was in an oceanview on 3rd deck, we were aft on 7 maybe it was the long walk that did it!!! Also should have had personalised stationery – nothing ever came.

 

We now realise how lucky we have been on previous cruises – this was our first cruise with a crowd of “pushers, shovers & we have paid so we are “gonna have”. We never realised before just how much your fellow passengers can influence your enjoyment of a cruise if you get the wrong demographic profiles. There were a number of nationalities on board for whom queuing was a game and completely unheard of by others, as Brits and used to joining queues this ‘game’ was not one we were used to and we never joined in – spoilsports aren’t we!!

 

Celebrity had put 1200 passengers onto first seating and only ~750 on second seating meaning that when on 1st seating you had to dash straight to the Theatre in order to be able to get a seat and then you had to put up with conversations going on all around you throughout the show. Why do these ignorant people turn up to watch an act if all they want to do is chat all night, taking up a seat that someone else would much better appreciate. We actually moved dining to late and this improved our cruise experience somewhat, not so much shoving and pushing and not so many conversations next to you in the Theatre during the acts, in fact there were loads of spare seats to move to should the unfortunate happen.

 

We also have never witnessed such poor dress codes as on this cruise – think this is where the ‘Brit’ in us comes to the fore as we are not as casual a nation when it comes to fine dining and cruising and we tend to ‘tow the line’ rather then ‘buck the trend’ and this was very disappointing for us. There were instances of shorts, T-shirts and sneakers for the evening meal. Jeans were also worn in the MDR in the evenings along with collarless shirts, football shirts and T-shirts. No one was ever challenged and it appeared that the restaurant staff took a very liberal view of the ‘smart casual’ dress code, ensuring a very CASUAL approach. Now I don’t entirely blame passengers here because, it would seem that there will always be some who cannot be bothered to wash and change for dinner and if they can get away with that and still eat in the MDR they will. However, if someone at the restaurant door (staff were there spraying hands with cleanser anyway) would ask them to please adhere to the dresscode as outlined by Celebrity and point out the alternative dining venues this would help to maintain the dresscode standards at least for the MDR. On formal nights it was slightly better with no shorts, some jeans, but no shorts. At the Captains Club special event around 60% had turned up in the correct ‘smart casual’ attire for the rest there were lots of shorts and T-shirts, one guy in a vest and shorts. In the Oceanview Café numerous times people came in wearing their bathrobes some with bare feet, they were mainly there to collect food on a tray but on a couple of occasions they sat down to eat.

 

A lot of bad dressing has been excused with the “not enough luggage allowances”, but everyone who flies in for a cruise has to deal with small luggage allowances these days but we still managed to look smart and even manage to take an evening suit within the 20kg limit. I think that the standards fall with the prices and maybe this was just a very attractively priced cruise with some not very attractively dressed passengers.

 

If ‘casual’ is the future for Celebrity then so be it, we have no problem with that, we will have a clear cut choice and we can change cruise line, but we personally do not think that X should state in the brochures, smart casual and formal (3 nights) and then not enforce the dresscode in the MDR.

 

There was also a problem in the Oceanview café with getting a table, not because of the numbers eating but because some passengers used the tables at lunchtimes to play cards on!! There you stood with a tray of food with no table to put it on and there were 4/5 tables (always next to the windows) with passengers playing cards. There is a perfectly wonderful card room on board, with full length windows but they had no thought for others and stayed and played cards throughout lunch.

 

We had an appalling ship’s excursion – Gatun Locks and Portobelo - nothing as described in the brochure – we got the standard refund of 15% onboard when we complained but a letter is winging its way across the Atlantic to ‘pursue this even further’. In fact the Ports were not the best (understatement) but I will put a report on the ‘ports of call’ and won’t bore you here with this. Suffice to say that the transit of the Panama Canal was the reason for this cruise and boy did it come up to our expectation.

 

We heard from the folks on the Infinity, both ships were side by side in Puntarenas, Costa Rica (great photo opportunity!!) that their Captain had opened up the helipad, for the transit, no such luck on the Millennium but we did get to see it from a great vantage point with our aft cabin, and also from the Penthouse Suite. These folks also had big problems on this cruise with this suite and encountered the same problems we had with communication between departments so we didn’t feel nearly so bad, as we had not paid anywhere near their price for the trip. I did tell them about the CC boards which they had no idea about, but don’t know if they will post their experiences here which would make fascinating reading for those who have always dreamt of staying in the Penthouse on the Millennium – you may well think twice!!!

 

We have been loyal to X up till now with 9 cruises and are Elite status and have never felt the need to write to Miami but this time we have written a letter expressing our disappointment in the communication problems and falling standards that we witnessed on this cruise.

 

We do have 3 more X cruises booked for next year (all booked before our recent experiences) and depending on the reply from Miami we may or may not be taking the 3rd one. First 2 are the “pre”-inaugural and inaugural of the Eclipse from Southampton. This is our 40th Wedding Anniversary cruise and we are taking family with us and we have never done an inaugural so we will not be cancelling these 2 very short B2B cruises, also cost vs losing the deposit is just not worth it. Once again, though, X starred with this – we thought “inaugural” meant ‘first’ so naïve things that we are, we go book this 4 day little sojourn and then X assign a 3 day to Le/Havre Paris in front of this and call it a ‘pre-inaugural’ cruise. The taxes/port fees on this 3 day are extortionate at £63 for 1 port – the taxes/port fees for the 3rd cruise in the Adriatic are only £88 for 7 ports – go figure!! – perhaps we are all chipping in for her delivery to Southampton!! Anyway it will be interesting to see if there are any differences in the standards of dresscode etc when X cruises from the UK. One good thing though at least we should be on a level playing field when it comes to queuing – we will wait and see………………

 

Lyn Mc

UK

 

I agree with you about the dress codes, Celebrity should either lose them or enforce them, makes no sense any other way. Were these things you observed every night or just on the first night in the MDR since they have always given a little slack as some don't receive their luggage. The standards certainly have changed but they should at least enforce them or get rid of them.

 

I would diagree with you about dress in the Oceanview cafe. This area is next to the pool and I think it is very unreasonable to expect people to go to their cabins, get dressed only to have to do the same thing again at the end of their meal. I've been going on Celebrity cruises since 1992 and this hasn't changed and I wouldn't expect it to change.

[Cruisenouvelle]

Thanks for taking time to share your thoughts and experiences. Re: personalized stationery- it's just a few sheets of paper, with your name ("Mr.and Mrs. So-and-so") computer-printed on it, placed into the directory of services binder in your cabin- you didn't miss anything there!

[2Canucks]

Lyn Mc...

 

Thank you for your informative Millennium review!

 

I'll second your motion that "Larsen" is the best waiter on the Millennium! We were lucky enough to have him too...for our April 26/09 Hawaii cruise on the Millie. My DH loves fresh berries "especially raspberries" for his dessert and each night the berry bowl got bigger and bigger!! Larsen was having some fun seeing "how many" berries DH could eat! ;) DH always finished the berry bowl ... this got to be a joke between them that they both enjoyed! We really enjoyed our time with Larsen...he is a real sweetheart!

 

Pat :)

[CruisingChick]

Lynn thanks for your review. I haven't been on Millennium since 2003 but have been sailing Constellation and the same thing with the dress code is happening over there also.

 

I also agree about other cruisers ruining your cruise. We've had a few on our last 2 Constellation cruises. It only takes a handful we've found that can ruin things at the Martini Bar, in the theater, etc.

 

Thanks for your review.

[ellbon]

Anna Marie

 

In FL I can drive and take all the dressy clothes I want to but with flying i am taking less. i need room for all the other clothes, shoes and what I buy.

 

To be honest i love to dress up- i wear hats to church. But with flying I like to see more of an Azamara dress code if people would follow it.

 

i do not like seeing shorts on formal nights or jeans either. But i am not taking to Alaska the dressy clothes i took last time. just not worth dragging a dress and shoes for one night. too many planes and hotels to have dressy clothes for dinner. i can wear black pants and a top and look great.

 

as far as people talking in a show i would move. if i could not move i would say something to them.

[mek]

We were in Alaska on the Millie this September and noticed the same thing with dress, even on formal nights. I personally don't have a problem with more relaxed dress codes, but if the if that is they way things are going then X should adjust their codes accordingly.

[neilrr]

Oh My God - I totally agree with you. The dress code needs some enforcement on many levels. I do agree that the Oceanview needs to enforce shirts and some form of shoes at the buffet.. But don't even get me started on the food and dress code for Norwegian :( our one and only time on them -- I was ready to jump off the ship. Beside the food being an absolute disgrace - we wore our tuxes the first fomal night and we looked like we fell into Coney Island; the 2nd formal night we wore Tommy Bahama Shirts and pants and we were still overdressed... Talk about the beer and potato chip crowd. Never again.

 

Celebrity does have some issues, as we do enjoy dressing for formal nights and it is nice to see everyone dressed and bejeweled... but they are about the best you will get for the mid-priced cruise lines and it also depends on the crowd you get. We NY'rs and former Ny'rs always dress; we might be a little pushy at the buffet :eek:-- but we always dress.:)

 

Neil

[british betty]

We were on Holland America last year and went to the doorway of the dining room in our "day wear" just to see what was on the menu. The guy standing at the door asked us if we wanted to be seated ( we were on anytime dining). We were really surprised and declined as we wanted to shower and change for the evening. We also saw people going into the dining room in jeans.

 

On Galaxy 2 years ago, the dress code seemed to be adhered to and hopefully it will be the same when we are on Equinox in december. We are certainly not snobs and each to their own and all that, but its the dressing for dinner that makes one of the things about cruising "special"

 

This of course is just my opinion :o

[fateknows]

 

We had an appalling ship’s excursion – Gatun Locks and Portobelo - nothing as described in the brochure – we got the standard refund of 15% onboard when we complained but a letter is winging its way across the Atlantic to ‘pursue this even further’. In fact the Ports were not the best (understatement) but I will put a report on the ‘ports of call’ and won’t bore you here with this. Suffice to say that the transit of the Panama Canal was the reason for this cruise and boy did it come up to our expectation.

 

 

Lyn Mc

 

Thank-you for the review. It was very informative. Let us know when you post the a review of the above mentioned excursion. I would be very interested in all of your port reviews.

[Luckybee]

Ok now you've scared the heck out of me. Dh and I are considering(only if we quit smoking...lol) the penthouse on an 11 day Caribbean cruise for 2011. We've been going back and forth between Millenium out of San Juan and the Constellation out of Fort Lauderdale for 14 days. We specifically wanted the M class because of the huge penthouse sun deck so the newer ships wouldnt do it for us. So why should we think twice ? Can you tell me what kind of problems they had? Dh and I are pretty fussy so if there is something we should know...pretty pls tell me before we book :)

[Lyn Mc]

Hi Don, Hope you are OK, nice to hear from you, yes, I supppose you are right, never thought about the pool/bathrobe thing, would just never dream of wearing mine at the oceanview, always bring my own cover-up for pool/balcony days only time I wear the robe is in my room, never thought others would use these as cover-ups for the pool area and buffet and their rooms as well, might be a bit grubby after 16 days of pool/eating/bathing!!

 

Cruisenouvelle, your right we didn't miss the stationery but it's just another 'standard' thing that was missing from the amenities of the cabin along with the delayed luggage when it is supposed to be express delivery.

 

Hi Pat, Larsen was so good, but have to say even he couldn't get us raspberries on this cruise, we saw crates being loaded at one port but I have no idea what happened to them because we never got them even though we asked.

 

Thanks everyone for your comments, we will carry on 'dressing for dinner' and will see what happens next year. By the way, the shorts, jeans etc were not just the first night. We ourselves know what it is like not to have your luggage until way past dinner so I never take any notice of the dresscode first couple of nights. I think that 'casual' may well be the future in which case we may have to totally rethink our cruiseline - maybe to Cunard or some P&O ships. Betty, I totally agree that on a cruise I want to feel special now and again and dressing up gives me a bit more confidence than usual and I love the feel of a special dress especially when my husband has a dinnersuit on. Please let me know how the Equinox cruise goes.

 

Fateknows, I have posted the ports review, let me know on that posting if you want any particular questions answering.

 

Luckybee, I don't have their permission to post and it would all be secondhand so I don't think that it would be a valid post. However, I will let them know that you are thinking of booking and if you want to send me an email, I can ask them to get back to you.

 

Thanks again for the replies.

 

Lyn

[Can'tstopcruising]

Lyn, do they still provide each cabin with a Celebrity beach bag? Thanks

[spearmint]

We were on the prior cruise as well, from Vancouver, so had a total of 28 nights aboard.

Overall a 7 out of 10 some aspects were not good, for some passengers who we spoke to it was going to be their last X cruise!! Ship was good after the refurbishment, looking her age but still good and there was little to fault with the Cabin. Bedding, carpet and curtains all new, as was the TV but wow is everything red on it, could not alter the colour, although didn’t bother us as did not use it that much. We had an aft balcony which was, of course, wonderful.

 

The ship looks good, but the make-over had me wondering if the company is heading down the "casual" road, given some of the furniture coverings. EX. the original theatre was a sort of salmon color, all over, including the velvet-like coverings on the seats and seat-backs. Now, the walls are grey, the two upper tiers of seats are purple crushed velvet seat-backs with vinyl/leather(?) seats, and the main seats are reddish-not-quite-magenta crushed velvet seat-backs with vinyl seats. It has a much more casual appearance than formerly, I think. Also....either the company is expecting a lot more of the beer and chips crowd in the theatre, or they are expecting lots of incontinent accidents from some of the oldest crowd; hence the vinyl seats. It was most uncomfortable (hot, damp and warm..enough said!) to sit through a performance. I think that was, and is still, the norm up in the cafe on deck 10, but I don't think it was the norm for the seats in Cova Milano; it is now, though.

 

The dinner menus were definitely changed from last year’s cruise, they are still tweaking them but we always found something we liked, although we made a few bad choices, with 16 nights it was bound to happen!! Their Pizza and waffles are still as good as I remember but the coffee has still not improved. The ice cream and their caramel cookies – exceptional.

 

I definitely found a difference from last November's cruise on Constellation, and those menus were new, then! This was the worst menu for us on all our previous seven cruises with Celebrity. And I couldn't always find something that I liked; I ate lots of salmon on our back-to-back cruise, also trying the chicken and steak. But I can have all of these at home, so even though I like them, they aren't anything special as expected on a cruise.

From the previous menus, I have tried polenta and rissotto and found that I don't like them. They showed up with greater regularity than anything with potatoes. Different nights, that was all there was for the main entrees, very, very often accompanying meat dishes with sun-dried tomatoes, peppers and sage none of which I liked, but which was very obviously a favorite grouping of Jaques van S. Meats were cheaper cuts than previously, and the chef I presume, didn't believe in salt, so often the meats..even the filet.... were bland and tasteless.

 

The crew were fantastic, remembering your name, always smiling and gave you the time of day, stopping for a quick chat even though they were rushed off their feet. Had the best waiter on any cruise, Larsen, Celebrity have a shining star in him, will take someone really special to live up to his standard.

 

I agree, totally. The crew overall were great, from the people keeping the whole ship spotless, to the diningroom and stateroom guys. But, then, that's normal for Celebrity in my experience. We had some wait staff that I classed as "good" rather than "excellent", but an excellent waiter won't "forget" to ask your wife if she would like dessert two nights running, or almost knock her down without so much as an "excuse me" in an attempt to get to the tables to finish setting them up, even though the main doors to the dining room had been open for 10 minutes, or forget to see that there is no salt, pepper or butter on the table a couple of nights.

Had a great turnout for the Cruise Critic event, Lots of ship’s staff attended. Big thanks to Les for the badges – great job.

 

Absolutely agree with you!

 

Evening drinks were in the Cosmos (too many for Michaels) for Elite and Suite passengers was nice, had a couple of drinks on nights we were there. Lots of talk about the time for this event, we used to arrive around 5.15 p.m. Had early seating first 5 days then changed to late seating but kept the same time in Cosmos.

 

I did not worry about the time and we were on second sitting. I assume that it was expected that Michael's Club would be the venue for this...someone in planning perhaps did not expect such large turn-outs of Elite passengers (both cruises had this)...and Michael's Club needs to be available for the evening entertainment of passengers from first seating after dinner,;hence the 6:00 p.m. closing time.

 

Used the internet and free laundry/pressing/dry clean coupons – great perks.

 

I thought so, as well.

 

 

We now realise how lucky we have been on previous cruises – this was our first cruise with a crowd of “pushers, shovers & we have paid so we are “gonna have”. We never realised before just how much your fellow passengers can influence your enjoyment of a cruise if you get the wrong demographic profiles. There were a number of nationalities on board for whom queuing was a game and completely unheard of by others, as Brits and used to joining queues this ‘game’ was not one we were used to and we never joined in – spoilsports aren’t we!!

 

I agree; this was our first cruise with the over-abundance of pushy people in lines. We Canadians are like you Brits as far as queues are concerned.

 

Although not unique to this cruise, I wonder if they were the same 'me-me-me' bunch who would stop wherever they liked to have a chat, but especially in the middle of the crowded, busy aisles in the cafe while you stand there with a tray of food waiting to get by and they ignore you; or in the doorways and hallways anywhere but especially after the shows in the theatre, and in the entrance to the Casino through which everyone must go in order to get from the theatre to the dining room.

 

 

We also have never witnessed such poor dress codes as on this cruise – think this is where the ‘Brit’ in us comes to the fore as we are not as casual a nation when it comes to fine dining and cruising and we tend to ‘tow the line’ rather then ‘buck the trend’ and this was very disappointing for us. There were instances of shorts, T-shirts and sneakers for the evening meal. Jeans were also worn in the MDR in the evenings along with collarless shirts, football shirts and T-shirts. No one was ever challenged and it appeared that the restaurant staff took a very liberal view of the ‘smart casual’ dress code, ensuring a very CASUAL approach. Now I don’t entirely blame passengers here because, it would seem that there will always be some who cannot be bothered to wash and change for dinner and if they can get away with that and still eat in the MDR they will. However, if someone at the restaurant door (staff were there spraying hands with cleanser anyway) would ask them to please adhere to the dresscode as outlined by Celebrity and point out the alternative dining venues this would help to maintain the dresscode standards at least for the MDR. On formal nights it was slightly better with no shorts, some jeans, but no shorts. At the Captains Club special event around 60% had turned up in the correct ‘smart casual’ attire for the rest there were lots of shorts and T-shirts, one guy in a vest and shorts. In the Oceanview Café numerous times people came in wearing their bathrobes some with bare feet, they were mainly there to collect food on a tray but on a couple of occasions they sat down to eat.

 

A lot of bad dressing has been excused with the “not enough luggage allowances”, but everyone who flies in for a cruise has to deal with small luggage allowances these days but we still managed to look smart and even manage to take an evening suit within the 20kg limit. I think that the standards fall with the prices and maybe this was just a very attractively priced cruise with some not very attractively dressed passengers.

 

I have noticed some of this in the past, but these two cruises were the worst I have ever seen. When my wife (who never normally, says anything about such things) commented vigorously and often on it, then I started really looking around. Since when is a jacket and slacks without tie considered formal wear? And jeans in the main dining room as "smart"? Then there were the bowling or soccer shirts with names across the back; how "smart" is that, I ask you?

 

We manage to bring two gowns, dressy pantsuits, cocktail dresses, shoes as well as two jackets, three slacks shirts and ties (which all mix together well) as well as a tux and casual clothes like shorts and shirts in a four-piece luggage set, two of which are carry-ons. So, I don't buy the airline luggage problem.

If ‘casual’ is the future for Celebrity then so be it, we have no problem with that, we will have a clear cut choice and we can change cruise line, but we personally do not think that X should state in the brochures, smart casual and formal (3 nights) and then not enforce the dresscode in the MDR.

I will have a problem with it. We chose Celebrity for the reason that they were touted as the line with the most dress-up style of the bunch in the price range. As you can see from our packing above, we dressed up every night of the cruise. But by the time it was coming to a close, we were so tired of being overdressed (with a vengeance!) that we even commented that maybe we should join the hoardes:eek:....a good shake of the head cleared up that idea pretty quickly.:)

 

There was also a problem in the Oceanview café with getting a table, not because of the numbers eating but because some passengers used the tables at lunchtimes to play cards on!! There you stood with a tray of food with no table to put it on and there were 4/5 tables (always next to the windows) with passengers playing cards. There is a perfectly wonderful card room on board, with full length windows but they had no thought for others and stayed and played cards throughout lunch.

I saw these people, often. But never equated this to being unable to find a table some days. Glad that you pointed it out, as you are quite correct in your observation.

 

Lyn Mc

UK

 

I am glad that my wife and I are not the only ones to make some of these observations. Thanks for your write-up.

Bill

[Luckybee]

Hi Lyn

 

Thanks for responding. How do I send you an email ? Ive attempted to add you to my friends list but that didnt give me an email address. So how do we connect ? Excuse my computer illiteracy...lol !

[Lyn Mc]

Cantstopcruising - yes beachbags are in each stateroom, depending on category of said stateroom depends whether you get the blue "leaks colour" one or a tote as we got in Concierge.

 

Hi Bill, thanks for the post, sounds like your waiter was not too good, we must have been really lucky, to be honest we have really only had one bad waiter during all our cruises. We usually move round the table sitting next to different folks on different nights but when we had that awful waiter that time we dare not move, it was bad enough when we sat in the same seats and kept getting the wrong plates. In the end we just let him put the plates in front of whoever he thought they were for and then moved them around to where they should have been!!

 

We feel the same really re the future and "casual", we wouldn't really want Celebrity to go down the casual route as we love the product, well we used to love the product as it was (someone has just posted "where or where has my Celebrity gone" and I can see their point!!) and we don't want to change so we will give them another chance next year when we check out a Solstice Class ship. We will make our decision then.

 

 

Luckybee, if you look through my previous posts you will find what you are looking for.

 

Lyn

[Luckybee]

Lyn

 

I think I have it figured out....let me know if you didnt get my email :)

[Can'tstopcruising]

Cantstopcruising - yes beachbags are in each stateroom, depending on category of said stateroom depends whether you get the blue "leaks colour" one or a tote as we got in Concierge.

 

Hi Bill, thanks for the post, sounds like your waiter was not too good, we must have been really lucky, to be honest we have really only had one bad waiter during all our cruises. We usually move round the table sitting next to different folks on different nights but when we had that awful waiter that time we dare not move, it was bad enough when we sat in the same seats and kept getting the wrong plates. In the end we just let him put the plates in front of whoever he thought they were for and then moved them around to where they should have been!!

 

We feel the same really re the future and "casual", we wouldn't really want Celebrity to go down the casual route as we love the product, well we used to love the product as it was (someone has just posted "where or where has my Celebrity gone" and I can see their point!!) and we don't want to change so we will give them another chance next year when we check out a Solstice Class ship. We will make our decision then.

 

 

Luckybee, if you look through my previous posts you will find what you are looking for.

 

Lyn

 

 

Thanks for the answer!