Upgrade to Sky Suite worth it?

[Hlitner]

1 hour ago, George C said:

We are trying msc yacht in 6 weeks, what I still love about rccl is entertainment, doubt upscale lines can come close. My celebrity cruises on limited to music charters with great live music from 2pm to 2am. Although would like to try Viking or Seabourn, we do like caviar.

RCI and NCL can afford to put excellent entertainment on their Mega Ships that primarily are used for shorter cruises (generally 7 days).  If somebody built a 20,000 passenger ship I suspect the entertainment would be even better.  But if you look at the ultra luxury lines they all have one thing in common...the ships are NOT mega ships.  In fact, on many of the lines there are fewer then 600 on their ships.  I would love to experience the shows that RCI has on the Oasis Class...but no longer willing to go on a ship that does not even feel like a ship.  We recently took a 21 day cruise on a ship with 400 passengers.  Within 2 days we knew many passengers, the hostess at the Lido greeted us (and most others) by name, the bar tenders and bar waiters remembered our drink preferences, etc.  And no, on a ship with 400 you are not going to get a Broadway show.   On Viking, Oceania, Azamara and the other medium ship lines you are not going to get the type of entertainment you find on the Oasis Class.  

 

I do agree that the entertainment on Celebrity is not great.  In fact, since LLP took over the line it has gone steadily downhill...partially because RCI/Celebrity took their productions in-house.  Think of production shows on Celebrity.  Most are pre-recorded (as in Karaoke) and I could hear the same music in my Living room although most of their music is not to my taste.  And Celebrity is not alone as you see much of the same on Princess.  HAL has now eliminated their Production Shows and nobody seems to know where they are heading.  MSC uses a fixed cast of singers/dancers/acrobats who work every night to pre-recorded tracks.  MSC's entertainment is all International which is to say there are no comedians (language barriers).  That line is all about music.

 

Some of us long time cruisers (we have been at it since the mid-70s) do not cruise for Broadway Shows or want to be on ships with 6000 souls.  If I want Broadway I can drive to NYC.  If I want Vegas I can fly there.  When I cruise I want a ship, the sea. good service, and the atmosphere of a ship....not a mega resort.  I also prefer to be on that ship for at least a month!  But some of us cruise because we love to be on a ship, gaze at the sea, go to exciting places, etc.  There is certainly a market for the mega ships, but you will not find DW and I on those vessels.  You are not going to visit Greenland on the Oasis of the Seas.  Those ships cannot even begin to cruise up the Garonne River into Bordeaux.  You will not island hop across the South Pacific on that kind of ship....but yes, you will get a decent show ;).  I just had a thought.  Imagine trying to tender 6000 passenger ashore to a small island that can only handle 1 tender at a time.  Princess just tried that in Nanortaiik, Greenland with 3000 passengers and it was a near disaster with many passengers giving up trying to get ashore (after waiting hours for a tender).  And to make matters even worse, they are going to repeat that same folly next year!

 

Hank

[George C]

You do not need a mega ship for great entertainment, I also been cruising since mid 70’s ,but in 1980’s ships like the Norway and Sovereign of the seas both had great entertainment and they were smaller than M class ships, a decent pub with a guitarist and a real piano bar might be a good start. 

[varoo]

9 hours ago, BigRoger said:

ps based on this feedback we went for the upgrade!!!!! Money involved - NOT DISCLOSED!

 

Trying it for yourself really is the best way to discover how much the suite extras are  worth to you; which features you enjoy most and which you can do without very easily.

 

Then for future cruises you will have a much better idea of how much extra you are willing to spend for a suite. 

It is hard to make such decisions based on the opinions of strangers as we all have different preferences and value different things. 

 

We found that some of the suite "benefits" other people were raving about were things that didn't matter to us at all.

Conversely, on some cruises we are willing to pay even more to upgrade to a higher level suite to get features that are not available in the sky suites.

 

 

[Mark_T]

We've just been through a similar thought process and by the time we added in the cost of the things included in the current UK promotions for the suite, that were not included for our C1 and that we would have added, and allowing for the recent drop in suite prices on our cruise, it became virtually a no cost upgrade, so it would have been rude not to 🙂

 

We've ended up in an S1 with even more to look forward to onboard now...

 

 

[reposado]

We book S1 simply because the higher end lines don't allow 2 adults + 2 kids in one room. 

 

But if we had no kids(or 1 child) we would book Oceania or Crystal instead in a heartbeat(they simply are on a different level). The dinner buffet on Oceania will beat Luminae every night of the week in terms of food quality.

 

 

Edited October 18, 2019 by reposado