Any new changes on X a returning passenger should be aware of?

[Mynki]

We're sailing on Silhouette next month. This will be our first cruise on X since december 2017 on Summit. 

Are there any changes we should be aware of in those seventeen months at all? I've not really read these boards too much as we chose to try two other lines since. Changes to restaurants and beverage packages are of particular interest. :) 

Any info would be greatly appreciated.  

[Luvcrusn]

There is now the option of just paying the difference between a drink cost +18% and the Classic or Premium allowance where previously with Classic you had to pay the whole cost. I'm not sure whether your December 2017 sailing was before or after that change. Several changes were made to the Classic package at the same time with a few things being added/removed, but quite honestly the changes weren't noticeable at all. I did note that on our December 2017 cruise we couldn't get a can of soda, but rather the soda was delivered in a glass and this past December on Silhouette they gave us the can without us asking. 

 

Qsine has undergone a change on many of the ships and is now Le Petite Chef on some nights. That is an animation projected onto your plate of the dish being prepared by a cartoon chef in a humorous way, and then the dish is served. You can see it on YouTube. There's a set menu that matches the animation course for course. I haven't looked yet at the "Revolution" schedule for Silhouette, but you can check out when it's set for its overhaul.

[villauk]

48 minutes ago, Mynki said:

We're sailing on Silhouette next month. This will be our first cruise on X since december 2017 on Summit. 

Are there any changes we should be aware of in those seventeen months at all? I've not really read these boards too much as we chose to try two other lines since. Changes to restaurants and beverage packages are of particular interest. 🙂

Any info would be greatly appreciated.  

 

 

Off topic slightly, but which two lines and what did you think?

[Tourist1292]

1 hour ago, Luvcrusn said:

There is now the option of just paying the difference between a drink cost +18% and the Classic or Premium allowance where previously with Classic you had to pay the whole cost. I'm not sure whether your December 2017 sailing was before or after that change. Several changes were made to the Classic package at the same time with a few things being added/removed, but quite honestly the changes weren't noticeable at all. I did note that on our December 2017 cruise we couldn't get a can of soda, but rather the soda was delivered in a glass and this past December on Silhouette they gave us the can without us asking. 

 

Along that line, the premium beverage package is now covering drinks up to $15 in stead of $13 after increasing the cost to $69/day. In addition, the gratuity has been increased from 18% to 20% as of a couple weeks ago.

Edited April 7, 2019 by Tourist1292

[Fogfog]

Somewhere on the boards here--was a post from the Celebrity website that  paying the difference between drink prices over the package  price -- was only available to those with a Premium Package and not the Classic package. That those with the Classic had to pay the full drink price. This was the page. Does anyone know if this is correct or no longer accurate? 

[Tourist1292]

3 minutes ago, Fogfog said:

Somewhere on the boards here--was a post from the Celebrity website that  paying the difference between drink prices over the package  price -- was only available to those with a Premium Package and not the Classic package. That those with the Classic had to pay the full drink price. This was the page. Does anyone know if this is correct or no longer accurate? 

There were individual reports that one my pay the difference above $9 for premium drinks with Classic package.

[kfkolonel]

I had a classic package on the 2/24 cruise. When I asked for a drink that was not covered the bartender had me sign a ticket for an extra dollar.

[Bo1953]

Welcome back M, good to see you.

 

Bon voyage

[keesar]

There is one change if you have the Classic Package.  The brand of bottled water available has a strange taste.  It is drinkable but no one near the past brands on board or I have had at home.

 

Also, we feed that there has been a decline in the quality and menu in Tuscan Grill.  Murano is still the place to dine.

 

As for service in the rooms, there has been a big turnover in staff.  Our last two cruises have had new employees.  We were fortunate to know what perks were available in Aqua Class.  We helped him out.  

 

[Marelaine]

You can use your OBC to purchase excursions, internet, specialty dining, bev packages prior to your cruise. 
 

[Tourist1292]

I found a note about Classic Beverage Package. Not all drinks under $9 are covered.

Enjoy your favorite fountain sodas, fresh-squeezed and bottled juices, premium coffees and teas, and non-premium bottled water as well as beers up to USD 6 per serving, spirits and cocktails up to USD 8 per serving, and wine up to USD 9 per serving

[Luvcrusn]

9 hours ago, Tourist1292 said:

There were individual reports that one my pay the difference above $9 for premium drinks with Classic package.

For about the last year (2?) the change has been made that Classic now pays only the difference +18%. It used to be only Premium could do that.  Packages are for only the person whose name is on the card indicating the package. If you're caught "buying" drinks for someone else you risk forfeiting the package. The packages are good all over the ship, but not for room service or for your in room mini bar.

[villauk]

7 hours ago, Tourist1292 said:

I found a note about Classic Beverage Package. Not all drinks under $9 are covered.

 

 

 

And it hasn’t been freshly squeezed orange juice for a few years either.

[TeeRick]

21 hours ago, Mynki said:

We're sailing on Silhouette next month. This will be our first cruise on X since december 2017 on Summit. 

Are there any changes we should be aware of in those seventeen months at all? I've not really read these boards too much as we chose to try two other lines since. Changes to restaurants and beverage packages are of particular interest. 🙂

Any info would be greatly appreciated.  

There have been changes to the Elite cocktail policy.  Now unlimited drinks at any bar from 5-7pm.  Initially they went to 3 drink vouchers but recently changed it again to this policy.  Likely it has to do with a large number of Elite/Elite+ and also elimination or reduction of the sky lounge due to the Revolution changes.

[Mynki]

On 4/7/2019 at 4:57 PM, villauk said:

 

 

Off topic slightly, but which two lines and what did you think?

 

 

RCL, Independence of the seas to Norway last yea and NCL Breakaway, Central American cruise in decmber 2018. What did I think? 

RCL

I sailed as a large number of extended family members invited us along. I think I had a fairly good idea of what to expect after reading literally hundreds of threads. But stand out thoughts are :-

Our balcony cabin was nice enough and fresh. Nicer than balcony rooms on M class ships with some siilarities with S class verandah rooms. 

Customer service (MDR, bar and stateroom attendant) was better than what we experienced on Summit. Bar service being considerably better as there were no noticeable staff cut backs on RCL. 

MDR - Very similar to Celebrity. Acceptable but we were not blown away with either. Celebrity just wins due to them using sommeliers on board. Alcohol wise X had the better selection across the board. 

Biuffet - Initially I was concerned by the size of the ship and the number of passengers onboard. Food wise I thought it was of similar quality with X perhaps just, and I really do mean just edging it. RCL had lobster and langoustines in the buffet which was nice though. The waiters in the RCL buffet were more attentive and better than those we've found on previous X cruises though. 

Specialty dining - Much better value on RCL with food quality and service comparable. My favourite specialty restaurant on both lines would still be Murano though. 

Entertainment - RCL blows X away on pretty much every level but that won't be a surprise to anyone.

Leaving and reboarding the ship during port visits - Despite the much larger ship RCL seemed more efficient and leaving and embarking the ship was a more pleasant experience than X. During our last cruises on Summit the kids wearing security uniforms seemed completely disinterested in getting people back onboard efficiently. I suspect if someone conducted a time and motion survey then demographics would be highlighted as a factor. 

The diamond lounge was a bit of a joke. It filled up almost immediately with yanks chugging free booze. I visited to take a look and was disappointed. Other pax had nothing good to say about it at all which is a shame. 

I'd sail with RCL again. I liked the change of scenery after sailing with X in our previous six or seven cruises. X is a more up scale product but not by much at all. I'm not sure if RCL have upped their game or the austerity measures imposes by LLP are a factor here but I suspect it could well be both. There's an obvious difference when travelling suite class on X, but when travelling non suite class there's just very little in it. I hope that makes sense?

NCL - I'd actually booked an S1 in january 2019 on Edge. Booked within 24 hours of opening after getting sucked in with all the hype. However the itinerary kept bugging me. We had no real interest in it at all so cancelled and went to South Florida for four weeks instead. I booked a week on Breakaway as it visited Central America including three ports we'd not visited so this cruise was really itinerary driven with a date that fitted our wider vacation plans. 

NCL food - Poor. Edible but not inspiring at all. I've sailed five lines so far and all I can say is that NCL is clearly the worst. 

Room, we had a mini suite which was fine but nothing special. 

A great line for kids. Easily giving RCL a run for its money too., 

Entertainment - average. Too much upselling for my liking. 

Service - Very average. 

It was good value for money. A week on Allure sailing on the same day would have cost 110% more than the NCL ship! I'd probably not sail on NCL again unless we were to try the Haven though. 

I'm looking forward to trying AZ for the first time later in the year. :)

[Mynki]

Thanks all for the feedback. 

We have the classic drinks package and will upgrade to Premium once onbard. Is that still $10 = gratuity?

We'll also try LPS. I have seen a video on youtube so will give it a go. :)

Thanks Bo. :) 

[villauk]

Thanks for the feedback on Royal and NCL. Interesting to hear that you think there isn’t much difference between X and Royal now. We moved across to X because, at the time, we felt Royal were losing their way for us. Then after an average cruise on Reflection the summer before last, we decided to branch out to investigate other lines. We still have a couple of X placeholders so will keep our eye out for a decent itinerary. Edge IVs don’t appeal to us, neither do the extortionate rates.

[Tourist1292]

1 hour ago, Mynki said:

Thanks all for the feedback. 

We have the classic drinks package and will upgrade to Premium once onbard. Is that still $10 = gratuity?

We'll also try LPS. I have seen a video on youtube so will give it a go. 🙂

Thanks Bo. 🙂

$10 plus 20% gratuity per day.

[Mynki]

2 hours ago, villauk said:

Thanks for the feedback on Royal and NCL. Interesting to hear that you think there isn’t much difference between X and Royal now. We moved across to X because, at the time, we felt Royal were losing their way for us. Then after an average cruise on Reflection the summer before last, we decided to branch out to investigate other lines. We still have a couple of X placeholders so will keep our eye out for a decent itinerary. Edge IVs don’t appeal to us, neither do the extortionate rates.

Our back to back Summit sailing in aqua and concierge class were pleasant enough but as I've posted a couple of times before I was completely underwhelmed with the bar service (severe lack of staff) and Blu (again lack of staff). I also thought the whole ship was in dire need of an overhaul which I believe happened recently. It's tired looks showed badly. 

To be fair to X, Cafe El Bachio is a considerably nicer coffee shop than what we found on RCL. I didn't like how they had two lines for coffee and another for cake. The former is a lot nicer place to be.

E class ships are a little frustrating. I just don't want an IV and suite prices are currently crazy. We have interest in other land based holidays and when you compare an E class suite price to other hotels / travel options it's very hard to justify them for us. Some of the Med itineraries I looked at were around £600 per person per night for a sky suite! But we'll continue to consider X. I just wish they'd use S class ships for their better Alaska and Asian itineraries. 

[Luvcrusn]

3 hours ago, villauk said:

Thanks for the feedback on Royal and NCL. Interesting to hear that you think there isn’t much difference between X and Royal now. We moved across to X because, at the time, we felt Royal were losing their way for us. Then after an average cruise on Reflection the summer before last, we decided to branch out to investigate other lines. We still have a couple of X placeholders so will keep our eye out for a decent itinerary. Edge IVs don’t appeal to us, neither do the extortionate rates.

Interestingly enough, we last sailed on RC 5 years ago and chose it because of a unique itinerary. We sailed Legend of the Seas, which at the time was one of their older ships and is no longer in the fleet. The food, and service was far below what we were used to on X. We could not even once in 2 weeks seem to get a bar server for a drink at the theater, despite arriving early. Our reservations at Chops despite having many visible empty tables, and the time being 9:00 PM kept us waiting for 45 minutes before we were seated. Our waiter kept us waiting at our table before he made his first introductory appearance was another 15 minutes. Our first course arrive a half hour after that, and the entrees arrived another 40 minutes after the first course was removed. Our balcony room had the balcony dividers come open and bang into the balcony furniture several times during the middle of the night and they came to repair it (which they didn't ever really repair) at least 4 different times. The safe didn't work and the battery had to be replaced 3 times during a 14 day cruise. The shower drain didn't work and each time either of us showered the overflow created a waterfall from the bathroom down the one step to the main cabin soaking the rug. Despite multiple calls to get it fixed and a visit to the hotel director it was still not working when we left the ship. There were no sommeliers in the MDR. We couldn't get a pool server to get us a drink and went to the bar ourselves to get what we wanted. This seemed counter-intuitive since on X with most having BPs it's easy, but on RC where BPs aren't nearly so common and are major revenue streams, the servers were nowhere to be found. The amount of smoking on board made it impossible to utilize the casino, and on most nights we couldn't even walk through it. The smoke often was so thick it spilled into the theater.I won't even get into the fiasco of a Royal shore excursion which misrepresented information, buses filling with smoke fumes necessitating waiting for an hour and half for a new bus, skipping the last part of the tour, and then being refused any refund. We were called by the Shore Excursion desk to meet with the Manager, who then didn't have the courtesy to come out of his office to talk to us. (Royal did refund the cost when we wrote to them post cruise and apologized for his lack of courtesty and acknowledged that the whole thing was mishandled). Despite all of the above DH and I managed to have a great vacation, but we'll be very hesitant to return.

[Von & John]

Thanks for this thread & the noting of the changes!  We too are back to Celebrity for our next cruise.  Our last X-Cruise was March 2017 on the Connie - Far East Asia...  It was amazing!

[Bo1953]

@Mynki I still need your online courses/education, when you get a chance to pull together the syllabus!

 

🍹

 

bon voyage

[ak1004]

We sailed twice on RCI and twice on X.

 

I would probably agree that there is no huge difference between the lines, based on our experience.

 

The service is probably slightly better on X. Food is as described by @mynki: "Acceptable but we were not blown away with either". Entertainment - better on RCI. The only really bad thing on RCI is that their few newest ships are huge. We sailed on the Allure, and it was terrible in terms crowds and lines. X ships are much more manageable.

 

We don't drink, so cannot really comment about the drinks and bar service. I would probably still prefer X due to better service and smaller ships.