? About Luminae Construction on Equinox

[ghstudio]

I don't know, if a well done restaurant opens, it will do a soft opening before the grand official opening. Sure, there will still be kinks at real opening, but most should be worked out.

 

 

 

It looks like there are three ships which could be ready a bit earlier than the others, hopefully they use these as test ships. We'll see.

 

 

 

Happy sailing,

 

Jenna

 

 

 

Not sure What a soft opening would be... They are losing specialty restaurant revenue so you can bet that as soon as that restaurant is useable, they will open it to all suite guests...no soft opening. And of course there will be kinks but the ship will be expected to work them out on the fly....the same way the ship is expected to work through any select dining issues during construction.

 

However for what it's worth, IMHO, they should have converted one m and one s class ship...run for a month or two and then converted the rest. Obviously, they didn't ask me for advice :)

 

 

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[wallie5446]

I thought it was only affecting select dining

 

Other than a few more people selecting select, :D, the construction has nothing to do with that area of the MDR.

[need2bespoiled]

Not sure What a soft opening would be... They are losing specialty restaurant revenue so you can bet that as soon as that restaurant is useable, they will open it to all suite guests...no soft opening. And of course there will be kinks but the ship will be expected to work them out on the fly....the same way the ship is expected to work through any select dining issues during construction.

 

However for what it's worth, IMHO, they should have converted one m and one s class ship...run for a month or two and then converted the rest. Obviously, they didn't ask me for advice :)

 

 

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The official starting dates of the new benefits, and the restaurants are and have been published for a while here:

 

http://www.creative.rccl.com/Sales/Celebrity/General_Info/Flyers/14037410_CEL_Suites_FAQs.pdf

 

These are the dates:

CS- 4/4/15, EC- 4/12/15, EQ- 4/6/15, IN- 4/13/15, ML- 4/9/15, RF- 4/4/15, SI- 4/5/15, SL- 4/3/15, SM - 4/4/14

 

Opening before these dates, would be considered, by me, a soft opening.

 

It looks like this could happen, on the ships with construction starting this week or next, given that they are starting construction on other ships next month. It would lead me to believe that some ships will be done before the dates above, if they can start other ships a month later, and be done before the official dates.

 

Happy sailing,

Jenna

[wallie5446]

.

Does anyone know what time of day or night these people will be renovating?

 

I highly doubt it will be durning dinner service:D

Or do I think in the slightest anyone would skip time at the pool or going to a beach to try and watch.

[lethbridgeguy]

Hi there,

 

Yes, we will begin construction of Luminae this week. When you board, guests that are affected will have a letter waiting for them in their stateroom.

 

Guests who are confirmed for main or late seating will not be impacted. Guests dining in Blu will also not be affected.

 

Guests will be able to ask any additional questions regarding dining arrangements at Guest Relations onboard.

I must be missing something, if main or late seating will not be impacted doesnt that only leave select dining. Sorry Im new to this.

[wallie5446]

I must be missing something, if main or late seating will not be impacted doesnt that only leave select dining. Sorry Im new to this.

 

Never feel sorry about asking any question here on CC. Now pack those new suits and enjoy a wonderful time on ship.

[c-legs]

Hi there,

 

This is simply not true.

Then, why not explain in realistic terms what exactly IS true ???

The issue raised by previous posters are quite logically simple: xxx ## of

select dining guests==unchanged // XXX of seats in the appropriate venue are removed== reduction in space !!!!!. Guest/posters wanting to know how this will be resolved sounds pretty fundamental to me.

Just give them a relevent answer;please.

[c-legs]

I guess you have been instructed not to address the select dining issue.....

Thanks for that !! Spot on !!

Now...let's see how Mr/Ms ''Celebrity Cruise'' reacts....

[Gordoncruickshank]

Does anyone know if the suite restaurant is being built on the Eclipse now or is it happening during the dry dock in April?

 

Would make sense to do it in April but who knows

[Project_gal]

Does anyone know if the suite restaurant is being built on the Eclipse now or is it happening during the dry dock in April?

 

Would make sense to do it in April but who knows

 

I read earlier in this thread that it is starting during the dry dock but will overrun and continue after the dry dock. [i lost the will to live reading the whole thread otherwise I would have posted the link which was from [i]Celebrity Cruises[/i].]

[Adammara]

I can't believe that construction of the restaurant is going to spread over 2 or 3 cruises. I have personally built a 24 metre long and 6 metre high partition wall, consisting of the steel framing, and insert of 18mm fireproof plasterboard and two layers of 12mm plasterboard on the face. This took myself and a helper 2 weeks. And I was 70 at the time! I realise fitting out will take some time, but once the wall is up, any work should not impact on the surrounding area.

[terrierjohn]

I wonder if this change could be the start of Celebrity moving towards the Quantum style dining of RCI, with the rest of the MDR carved into smaller different cuisine style restaurants?

[Pushka]

I reckon that celebrity will try minimise noise and disruption to those onboard during the cruise. Which means they simply can't get stuck into the work in the same manner where people can create as much noise, dust and activity as they like. Realistically there are probably just a few hours each day where they will be able to work. Hence the length of time it will take.

[Gracie115]

For the Celebrity representative:

 

We are on the TA that follows the Eclipse dry dock. You stated that construction "would continue" on that sailing..... Is there anticipation that it will be complete BEFORE the end of that cruise (16 nights) and in use? Wondering why it would seem to take longer on that ship when there is a 10 day dry dock which gives crews complete freedom to work whenever and for however long they would like.

 

Can you clarify this schedule at all?

 

Thanks for your help!:)

[Gracie115]

Construction will start during its dry dock, but will not be complete at that time. We expect construction to continue during the sailing immediately after the dry dock.

 

But this is contradictory to what you just published.....drydock doesn't happen til 4/9 and you state 4/1 as beginning of Eclipse construction.....I'm confused...

[ghstudio]

I am sure that the first construction item is the erection of the wall between the MDR and the new restaurant. Once that is complete, they can do whatever they need to do behind that wall without creating dust or noise during MDR opening hours. Much of the construction is finishing the interior of the restaurant and the alterations to the kitchen. So the physical construction impact will be at the start of the construction....

 

The real impact, if any, will be once the space is walled off, all of those tables are gone....and all of the folks who are supposed to dine in the new restaurant are now essentially part of select dining. Celebrity is offering those suite passengers free access to the specialty restaurants and some if not many will take that option, making it more difficult for anyone else to book a specialty restaurant at convenient times.

 

We don't know if celebrity planned this well enough in advance to reduce the number of select dining spaces available on the cruise...or if they are now stuck with too many select dining bookings for less seats...which would mean longer lines and waits to get into select dining....we just don't know.

 

Finally, the letter select dining passengers receive will likely remind them of the buffet for dinner and they might even provide waiter service and menu's in that area....it's been done before.....we attended one dinner event there on an s class ship with over 200 folks being served dinner from a menu.

 

That's my current summary of where we are on this topic. The biggest, and really only issue is potential wait times for select....and maybe there is a second issue....perhaps they will follow the airline's lead and try to push tables even closer together....that's another unknown.

[Project_gal]

Finally, the letter select dining passengers receive will likely remind them of the buffet for dinner and they might even provide waiter service and menu's in that area....it's been done before.....we attended one dinner event there on an s class ship with over 200 folks being served dinner from a menu.

 

That is such a sensible idea!

[Gordoncruickshank]

I am going to be very selfish but I am very glad that this isn't happening on the Eclipse while we are on it. It will be happening on the Reflection when we are on it but we will be in Blu for most meals. I will have to make sure that I get the butler to make the reservation I want early in the cruise if the suites are getting free speciality visits on that cruise.

 

I can only see a lot of unhappy people with these changes happening while they are on the ship. We are fortunate that these are not our only cruises this year but some of those who are most put out may be on their only cruise or even worse their first cruise.

 

Gordon

[cle-guy]

 

The real impact, if any, will be once the space is walled off, all of those tables are gone....and all of the folks who are supposed to dine in the new restaurant are now essentially part of select dining. Celebrity is offering those suite passengers free access to the specialty restaurants and some if not many will take that option, making it more difficult for anyone else to book a specialty restaurant at convenient times.

 

We don't know if celebrity planned this well enough in advance to reduce the number of select dining spaces available on the cruise...or if they are now stuck with too many select dining bookings for less seats...which would mean longer lines and waits to get into select dining....we just don't know..

 

Somewhere I've read in a thread that Celebritry had contacted suite guests and offered unlimited specialty dining during the construction presumably to open seats in the MDR to help with the crush. I bet once on board, they begin to offer similar or highly discounted offers to standard cabins.

 

On Equinox, this is 66 cabins, 132 potential diners. Arno indicacated 300 seats were being removed.

 

From the Equinox Fact Sheet:

 

MDR seats 1420 per seeating, so now seats 1120 per seating, ship has capacity of 2850, requiring then 1425 seats if all dine in MDR.

 

BLU seats 130 , so that leaves 1295 for 1120 open seats, remove 66 suite diners dining elsewhere per seating, leaves 1229 potential diners for 1120 seats, leaves 109 diners potentially displaced, far greater than this figure will choose specialty, buffet or room service.

 

So there will be SOME stress on MDR, but it shouldn't be insurmountable.

[maggie.1008]

How long does this refit take ?

[richsea]

A sit down dinner with wait service in the Oceanview is an excellent idea for a temporary solution to possible over crowding in the MDR. Years ago Celebrity offered this as an alternative to the MDR, & we found it to be a very pleasant experience.

[blueboro]

"Somewhere I've read in a thread that Celebritry had contacted suite guests and offered unlimited specialty dining during the construction presumably to open seats in the MDR to help with the crush. I bet once on board, they begin to offer similar or highly discounted offers to standard cabins."

 

I hope you are right but it seems after numerous calls to X there is no availability in the specialty restaurants...or availability only after 9:30 on very few evenings. I don't see how they could discount the specialties for standard cabins when there is very little if any space available. I am not concerned about the construction...only the trickle down affect on dining and the seemingly short-sided decision to offer free specialty dining to all suite pax for EACH night.

[Gracie115]

Somewhere I've read in a thread that Celebritry had contacted suite guests and offered unlimited specialty dining during the construction presumably to open seats in the MDR to help with the crush. I bet once on board, they begin to offer similar or highly discounted offers to standard cabins. .

 

We did not receive this email .... but perhaps it's too early for sailing on Eclipse....

[rclibertygirl5]

Has anyone heard from someone currently on the Equinox to see if there has been any impact on Traditional or Select dining? The construction is going on now so I would think they would be able to enlighten us on whether it is causing any issues in the MDR.

 

I am not sure why it would cause a problem with Select since the construction is taking away from the Traditional seating?? Unless they are making people switch to Select? Anyone heard of this happening?

[RealDeal]

Has anyone heard from someone currently on the Equinox to see if there has been any impact on Traditional or Select dining? The construction is going on now so I would think they would be able to enlighten us on whether it is causing any issues in the MDR.

 

I am not sure why it would cause a problem with Select since the construction is taking away from the Traditional seating?? Unless they are making people switch to Select? Anyone heard of this happening?

 

I think that b/c they took fewer set dining reservations (due to fewer tables available b/c of construction), that put MORE people into Select, hence causing an "overflow."