So What has changed over the last 4 years?

[Orator]

Hi Lois:

Add me to the list of those who are happy to see you back. Hope that. The last 4 years have treated you well.

You'll notice lots of new staff on Celebrity. New Captains, HDs, CDs and Captain's Club hosts. Some positions, like Suite Manager have been added, but some positions, such as Activities personnel, have been reduced. As with other lines. The Ship within a Ship concept has arrived with separate dining venues based on cabin class. Still great people and service.

[kelmac]

I haven't sailed with X in a fairly long time......used to be my only choice but I had some life changes and have been on a River Cruise and a couple of Silversea cruises (with one Royal in between)…….so other than Edge coming into the fleet, any other things change? I had the Edge booked for January but cancelled it...…...just

wondering about anything else new?...….I would be able to book a suite and just wondering from suite folks any insights...This would be for the beginning of the year if I do book...…..

 

Thanks.:)

 

HI Lois,

 

Nice to have you back! The one thing I notice the most is the inability to upgrade* your booking after final payment. I used to start with a CAT 10 or 9 inside cabin, and then start upgrading as the deals became available. For years I would move my way up until I was in a balcony, or even Aqua class (on two occasions). Other than that, we still love everything about Celebrity.

 

(*seems all cabins the last 90 days are for "new bookings only.")

 

A couple of years ago, we achieved what we call the "Celebrity Grand Slam", which means we finally sailed every Celebrity ship built for the line. Horizon, Zenith, Century, Galaxy, Mercury, Millennium, Summit, Constellation, Infinity, Solstice, Equinox, Eclipse, Silhouette, and the Reflexion. Prices on the up-coming Edge are a little out of control, but I'm sure we will add her to our list. Since the Xperience and the Xploration are kind of niche ships we will exclude them.

 

Hope everything is going well for you, as it seems your adventures are a nice collection of super experiences?

 

Enjoy!

Kel:D

[Lois R]

Hi Kel:), hope you and Lauren are doing well.

 

Yes, I know I am very lucky and have recently had some really awesome experiences...….I just returned from a 10 night cruise from Venice to Nice. Stops were Dubrovnik and all over Italy. I have come to the conclusion I am in love with Italy:D

 

Thank you all for the kind replies.

[Lois R]

Hi Lois:

Add me to the list of those who are happy to see you back. Hope that. The last 4 years have treated you well.

You'll notice lots of new staff on Celebrity. New Captains, HDs, CDs and Captain's Club hosts. Some positions, like Suite Manager have been added, but some positions, such as Activities personnel, have been reduced. As with other lines. The Ship within a Ship concept has arrived with separate dining venues based on cabin class. Still great people and service.

 

Hi Charles, hope you and Cindy are well:)

 

I will take some time and think about things. Everyone's replies have been kind......nice to see.

[tompeter]

I feel like a long lost relative has come home....LOL... Welcome back!

 

Tom

[George C]

We totally loved the suite perks not sure what year michaels and luminae started but they are both excellent.

[jcpc]

Lois,

 

One other thing. I am on the Edge sailing that you cancelled. When I checked the roll call I was happy to see that I was finally going to be sailing on the same ship as Lois R. Some years back, you were so very kind in answering a few questions I had regarding Florida for my elderly aunt and uncle and I really appreciated your kindness in answering. So maybe one of these days I'll get to meet you - if not on a Celebrity ship then on some other cruise line's ship! I'm sure the crew on Celebrity ships are wondering "what ever happened to that nice woman, Lois?? We don't see her anymore."

 

Janice

[Lois R]

Hi Janice, your words are very kind, thank you:)…..but (and I mean this sincerely) I seriously doubt anyone has wondered that.....but I appreciate the thought.

[phoenix_dream]

Welcome back, Lois. IMHO the main changes in the last four years that I have noticed are much higher prices and much less live music onboard. I usually cannot afford suites, but we found a decent price on one last year on Reflection and it was wonderful. I will admit that I prefer the food in Blu (we usually do Aqua) over Luminae, but the latter has superior service and better wine choices. If I could afford suites, I would sail in them all the time for the extra cabin and balcony space and the access to Michael's club.

 

 

As to the live music comment, I think I am not alone in noticing this. It seems there are fewer performers, and the time spent performing in lounges seems to have shortened, especially pre-dinner times. I think that the production shows overall have improved somewhat, and I have been very impressed with the majority of the live performers in the theater in recent years. What has changed for us is that we have retired and are now sailing much more, with Celebrity continuing to be our line of choice (although the recent price increases may be changing that - hope it stabilizes!). We have 7 on the books for the coming year and can't wait. Hope to meet up with you on one of them - I know we have sailed together before but for one reason or another never met. Hope we can change that soon!

[SkystheLimit]

Hi Janice, your words are very kind, thank you:)…..but (and I mean this sincerely) I seriously doubt anyone has wondered that.....but I appreciate the thought.

 

We have missed your posts. Can't believe it has been 6 years since we did the RT Greek Isles from Rome. Happy to see you are still enjoying your travels. We have strayed a couple of times with Seabourn, Crystal, and Oceania which we enjoyed very much. We were on the Solstice in February from Sydney to Auckland. Probably one of our favorite cruises ever. We found the service to be fantastic. Food and entertainment very good. So, I don't know that we have seen tremendous changes in the last four years. The S class ships are just so pretty. We are booked on the Reflection in December with what we feel is a very good price and a wonderful 14 day itinerary. Nice to see your posts here again and I agree about Italy! MJ

Edited August 12, 2018 by SkystheLimit
spelling

[Lois R]

I feel like a long lost relative has come home....LOL... Welcome back!

 

Tom

 

Thank you:)....some folks wish those relatives would stay lost:eek:,,,,,,,not sure I am coming back though.;)

 

I see a short cruise on Infinity in November and will take a peek at it.

[Lois R]

Welcome back, Lois. IMHO the main changes in the last four years that I have noticed are much higher prices and much less live music onboard. I usually cannot afford suites, but we found a decent price on one last year on Reflection and it was wonderful. I will admit that I prefer the food in Blu (we usually do Aqua) over Luminae, but the latter has superior service and better wine choices. If I could afford suites, I would sail in them all the time for the extra cabin and balcony space and the access to Michael's club.

 

 

As to the live music comment, I think I am not alone in noticing this. It seems there are fewer performers, and the time spent performing in lounges seems to have shortened, especially pre-dinner times. I think that the production shows overall have improved somewhat, and I have been very impressed with the majority of the live performers in the theater in recent years. What has changed for us is that we have retired and are now sailing much more, with Celebrity continuing to be our line of choice (although the recent price increases may be changing that - hope it stabilizes!). We have 7 on the books for the coming year and can't wait. Hope to meet up with you on one of them - I know we have sailed together before but for one reason or another never met. Hope we can change that soon!

 

Good morning...…..7 deposits? :eek:...wow....I never had that many at one time even when I was cruising regularly with them. Yes, we sailed on that infamous Connie cruise back over that spring break (I think) a few years ago.

[Lois R]

We have missed your posts. Can't believe it has been 6 years since we did the RT Greek Isles from Rome. Happy to see you are still enjoying your travels. We have strayed a couple of times with Seabourn, Crystal, and Oceania which we enjoyed very much. We were on the Solstice in February from Sydney to Auckland. Probably one of our favorite cruises ever. We found the service to be fantastic. Food and entertainment very good. So, I don't know that we have seen tremendous changes in the last four years. The S class ships are just so pretty. We are booked on the Reflection in December with what we feel is a very good price and a wonderful 14 day itinerary. Nice to see your posts here again and I agree about Italy! MJ

 

Hi MJ:D…...yes, that was my first cruise to the Med and I remember it very fondly. My Dad had passed away the year before and I found him "with me" every where we went...…..I have now been to Rome 2 more times but have yet to go back to Greece.

 

Going Downunder is on my bucket list for sure but it is just too long of trip do go on while I am still working.

 

So you have sailed Crystal and Seabourn? Did you enjoy the intimate size of those ships? It is one of the things I love about Silversea.

[vulcan1971]

I haven't sailed with X in a fairly long time......used to be my only choice but I had some life changes and have been on a River Cruise and a couple of Silversea cruises (with one Royal in between)…….so other than Edge coming into the fleet, any other things change? I had the Edge booked for January but cancelled it...…...just

wondering about anything else new?...….I would be able to book a suite and just wondering from suite folks any insights...This would be for the beginning of the year if I do book...…..

 

Thanks.:)

 

Hi Lois - I know I am late to the party to welcome you back, but know that your voice and interesting posts have been missed. Sure, there has been plenty of change while you were gone, but many of the good elements that you would remember are still intact. I don't recall if you tend to cruise solo, but if you do, they now allow you to collect all the points for single supplement. I think that is new since you left.

[Lois R]

Hi Walter, thank you. And yes, I sail solo. The credits were changed before my last cruise with X so I did receive double amount on my previous sailings.

[Redtravel]

Ships need to be remodeled. Cabins are showing their age. I used to sail most.y on Celebrity. With prices up, I looked other lines. Surprised to say, there are several lines that offer better value than Celebrity. A variety of experiences is good. celebrity needs to update all of their ships. With the Edge being the focus, I hope that Celebrity pays attention to their older ships. I also like the Summit. Summit has a special atmosphere that is lost on other ships. Just did my 7th Summit cruise. It was very nice.

[elena7seas]

Hi Lois:

 

So nice to see you posting here on Celebrity! I haven't been here much myself over the past few years, but my husband and I are still cruising whenever we can. We still enjoy our cruises with Celebrity, but have also cruised with Princess, Royal Caribbean, and I have cruised with Holland America, although Gerry has not. (I don't think he would be happy there). We are currently addicted to sailing Transpacifics to, and back-to-backs around Japan. We love, love, love Japan (and we also loved, loved, loved India and the Arab Emirates on our cruise this past February and March, 2018).

 

Whenever we can, we sail Aquaclass on S-class ships, and lately we have been enjoying Aquaclass on M-class ships. We especially enjoy Blu, but we also have had very good experiences in the MDR when we were in Ocean View cabins. I would really like to book a Suite, but as long as they cost two or three times Aquaclass, I probably won't see my way clear to doing that.

 

The big change for me with Celebrity is the pricing structure. We pretty much always sailed AquaClass, Concierge, and quite a few Sky Suites before Celebrity started bundling the prices. I am not a big drinker, so the current prices usually mean that there is not sufficient value for me, and more than that, we would be giving up the chance, financially-speaking, to take another cruise. In order to take back-to-backs we have sometimes opted for well-located Ocean View cabins, especially when the itinerary means that we are off the ship quite a bit. Because the initial booking prices for Aquaclass can be really high, I will sometimes book the lowest category of cabin that I think we would be happy in, and then watch for opportunities to upgrade. My goal is to keep us sailing as much as possible. We are so very happy when we are at sea, so I am always looking for ways to make that happen!

 

As far as the experiences on board are concerned, I don't really see much difference, over the last few years, on Solstice class ships. I would say that M-class ships are actually better than they were a few years ago. We were on the Millennium for 28 nights in September/0ctober 2017 and on the Constellation for 15 nights in February/March 2018. Both cruises were excellent, and a great part of that was due to the quality of service everywhere on board. We were in AquaClass for the transpacific to Tokyo in 2017 and it was a really great experience, with awesome staff. We were in our first inside cabin on the B2B around Japan (well, first for Gerry), and I don't think we would do the inside experience again in an average-sized cabin. I sailed in inside cabins when I was sailing solo, but with two of us in the cabin, and no window, we both felt the walls closing in on us. I had to keep the TV turned on, and the sound off.

 

The food in the MDR was really good on both M-class ships, and the food, and service, in the specialty restaurants was first rate. In the MDR on the Constellation, for the first time we had a table at the railing on deck 5, and we really enjoyed that, surprisingly. I always thought that I appreciated the open space of deck 4 more, but that was not the case. We were about 5 tables away from the entrance to the dining room from the kitchen, and all our food arrived hot to the table, which is a big issue for me. All our staff in the MDR, and the Maitre d', went above and beyond for us, and we had a really sweet and attentive sommelier, although I admit that she was a little challenged because of the number of tables she had to serve. I would say that the food and the service in the MDR on all Celebrity ships was a bit better than we experienced on either the Ruby Princess or the Royal Explorer of the Seas.

 

On the Constellation, we were travelling with friends who are also "foodies", and the Maitre d' in Tuscan Grille, and the staff in both Tuscan Grille and Qsine, went above and beyond for us. We went to both specialty restaurants twice and had some of the best restaurant experiences we have had. I am quite sad that we will be losing Qsine. We were given samples of the new Little Chef entrees in Qsine when we were on the Constellation, and they were very nice, but quite "typical" and to me particularly, not too exciting.

 

One of the things that I really love on Celebrity is Cafe Al Bacio. The beverages are great (and complimentary from Captain's Club), the service is excellent, the seating is the most comfortable on the ship for a shortie like me, and there is often really good live music there. Cafe Al Bacio (CAB) is probably the thing I miss most on Princess and Royal Caribbean. I don't know if CAB had removed the savoury items at lunch when you were last on Celebrity, but they are gone now. I just skip lunch most days, so it's not as if I needed them. They still do have the pastries in the morning hours, and the almond croissants have a bit more almond paste in them now, than they did a few years ago. Always a good thing! Black and white cookies are gone, though. A week after Gerry retired, we took Royal Caribbean Explorer of the Seas to Sydney, Australia from Seattle, and I would have preferred the experience with Celebrity, and CAB is no small part of the difference, but there was just no justifying the price that Celebrity was charging for what was essentially the same cruise.

 

I have never been a big fan of Celebrity shore excursions, but we booked our B2B last September 2017 at the last minute, so hadn't arranged any excursions. We used quite a few Celebrity excursions and found them to be similar in price to what I could find offered privately in Japan, and they were actually, all really good. I think this was a function of how qualified and committed the Japanese tour hosts were, but in the past two years, the Celebrity prices for shore excursions have seemed a bit more reasonable than they had been in the past.

 

On the Constellation we used Muziris Heritage Tours (Lijo Jose) in Delhi, Agra and the Golden Triangle before the cruise, and also for all our Indian stops on the cruise. Lijo and his team were beyond incredible!! I highly, highly recommend them to anyone touring in India, which was an awesome experience, and one I shall never forget. For other non-Indian ports, we either took Celebrity tours or planned our own tours. The Celebrity tours that we did take from the Constellation were very good, and I would say I have an improved attitude to looking at tours provided by Celebrity. The pricing seemed more realistic and the quality was fairly good.

 

The last thing that I would mention may have changed before your last Celebrity cruise, but now there is only one attendant for each non-suite cabin. I do think the attendants are working even harder than before, but our service was still excellent, and very personable.

 

Lois, I wish you well as you make your decisions for your next cruise, and I certainly hope we are able to cruise together again!!! and Gerry says hello!!!

Edited August 12, 2018 by elena7seas

[vulcan1971]

Ships need to be remodeled. Cabins are showing their age. I used to sail most.y on Celebrity. With prices up, I looked other lines. Surprised to say, there are several lines that offer better value than Celebrity. A variety of experiences is good. celebrity needs to update all of their ships. With the Edge being the focus, I hope that Celebrity pays attention to their older ships. I also like the Summit. Summit has a special atmosphere that is lost on other ships. Just did my 7th Summit cruise. It was very nice.

 

RedTravel - I suspect you are aware that there is a major overhaul planned for all Celebrity ships. There have been many threads on this topic and I have included a link here for you and for Lois to check out.

 

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2632355

 

Upgrade schedule. Happy reading.

[nancyshaw]

We were very loyal Celeb cruisers. The last 3 cruises have taught us that Celebrity has become very class divisive. What we enjoyed when there were no suites is no more. Now to get the same quality we used to get, you have to book a suite. If you are not willing to do that you have to settle for less.

 

Instead of paying for suites, we have decided to do more upscale lines that include so much more such as tours and flights and paying comparable rates. Yes we also cancelled our Edge cruise for February and opted for a Viking O experience.

[cheeseheads4ever]

Im actually the last one to the party. Just started reading this thread and was excited to see so many nice welcome back greetings to Lois. Ive never contributed to any of the topics she has been a part of but truly feel I missed out.

Anyway welcome back Lois!!