6 years in between cruises - Just off Equinox

[DancerOT]

On S Class ships on deck 5 the sales staff line up outside the shops to hawk their goods. Avoid this area when going to or leaving the Theater.

 

 

Quick tip - carry two martinis and wear heels. They never stop you!!! :'):')

[Mike981]

Quick tip - carry two martinis and wear heels. They never stop you!!! :'):')

 

Two martini's I can do. But I suck at heels.

[dolittle]

I was also on same cruise as OP. In fact, was also on the cruise just before it. I do agree that the upsetting for beverage packages was intense on first few days of cruise. For us, it tapered down after that. One tip if you don't want the waiters coming around asking you if you want 'something from the bar' while dining in the buffet. Take the little plastic sign holder on your table and turn it on its side. That is a signal to the bar staff to not bother you.

Was on the cruise that ended on the 18th Selling does not bother me I am good at looking right through them (saves time I am not buying) We ate in the M.D.R. every night 3 were very good 2 not good and one was o.k. Silent disco is people wearing head phones ,while the room is silent .One night they had in the Sky lounge and one in the lobby. No one came to our table to sell anything, the photo guy twice (no big deal). No Captain Kate it was a man (thank god) just kidding. I don't think it is fair to say there are hard selling drinks, with so many on the package I would call it good service.

[wrk2cruise]

Well if I say IF,I paid so much for my cruise I don't want to hear a word NO from the Celebrity side.

I don't think that is too much to ask for.

If that poster drop Celebrity that will be Celebrity lost.

WRK2cruiser should go to the MC concierge to make the reservation and this thing won't happened.

 

It was the MCC who said they couldn't do it. I was surprised for sure.

[ECCruise]

. I don't think it is fair to say there are hard selling drinks, with so many on the package I would call it good service.

 

They aren't hard selling drinks, they are hard selling packages.

[jcpc]

Remember that PH and RS have specialty dining included which sort of makes specialty their "assigned" dining area. That said I have been in a RS and was not using specialty dining much and when I asked for a 8 pm time I was refused.

 

No, their "assigned" dining area is Luminae. I frequently travel in RS and, on occasion, PH. I eat mainly in Luminae and perhaps go to Specialty one night during the week. I "go with the flow" regarding time of reservation - if they can't accommodate me at 7:30 I don't mind going either 30 minutes earlier or 30 minutes later.....or even on a different night. I don't for one minute think "they save the good times" for suite folks.

 

Regarding upselling of specialty restaurants. I have seen this many, many times on the Summit. In the evening, a waiter from Tuscan Grille walks around the Martini Bar with the Tuscan Grille menu in hand approaching the folks sitting at the bar or at a table to see if they are interested in making a reservation.

Edited August 27, 2018 by jcpc

[flvol77]

To answer some questions, we were in Aqua Class, we ate at Blu, we were with two other couples that were on board that had similar experiences with upselling.

 

I am in sales, I enjoy being sold to, but I didn’t enjoy being harassed.

 

For us it was in Tuscan, Blu, the Oceanview Cafe was terrible, walking around the ship, the first three days were awful with the drink package, then after that it was only the speciality restaurants through out the cruise.

 

We finally started negotiating back, they would offer us silk at $20 dollars a person and I would say how about $10, and they would look at me like no one ever negotiated with them before, and I would get oh we can’t do that and I would say, then stop harassing me.

 

The worst one was sushi on 5, I said no thanks for about the fifth time that day as I was walking into the oceanview cafe, and the waiter from sushi on 5 steps in front of me to block me from walking and said you have never had sushi this good, I replied, I am from Florida, and I catch my own tuna and have it that day, so I am kind of a sushi snob, so no thanks again, and I try to walk past him and he yells, he just said our sushi wasn’t fresh!

 

I get they were having maybe some fun, but, that is the kind of crap I would think I would see on Carnival not Celebrity.

 

Cruising is what you make of it, I don’t want it to be a big deal because we dealt with it, but, it happened and happed way too much. Also, I know about the trick in the oceanview cafe or any where they have drinks, lay down the plastic drink menu on its side.

 

It helped after day 3.

 

I have sent an email to Celebrity corporate, will it stop us from cruising with them again? No, as we booked two more cruises with them, but if stays that aggressive I may try Princess again.

 

Silent disco, ummmm well it’s hard to explain, but it’s fun.

 

Basically every one gets head sets, there is three channels, top 40, Latin and disco, you can change the channels and the volume on your headsets.

 

Everyone is dancing to their own music and singing and there is no music playing through any speakers, just in your headphones or headsets, it’s really funny to see, and it’s a blast.

 

I will post a couple of pics later.

[dutchclogs]

We are just on to day 4 on the current Equinox cruise. We were approached multiple times to buy speciality dining/beverage packages the first day or so but did not feel at all pressured. Just said no thanks or we have already and the 'sales' pitcher ambled away quite amicably. I suspect that the speciality restaurants are well booked already though. Select diners were offered 30% for the first night, thereafter I've not heard of any discounts being offered for any other night.

[flvol77]

Interesting, I posted a bunch of pics to Instagram, added captain Kate and celebrity to my hash tags, I have had two phone calls in the past two days! I had very nice feedback, because the cruise was very good and you make the best of things.

 

I did give a couple of suggestions (about upselling). And the other about the an event they use to do, it was a navigation by the stars on the lawn club at night, The staff captain handled it and it was truly a unique event.

 

I received a follow up phone call asking for more details today about those two items. Nice to see Celebrity listens. Not sure if it was from my instagram or what, but I appreciate it.