Thoughts About Suites

[alwaysonaship]

On 1/17/2020 at 1:43 PM, Mwgw said:

We have sailed 5x on Celebrity. 3 have been a suite Alaska,Caribbean and Mediterranean. We really enjoy the food and service in Luminae and Michaels Club is fantastic. 2 of the 3 suites we felt our butler was fantastic. It was probably our own fault for the first one not being so good. We really didn’t know how to utilize him. Once you start pricing Celebrity suites you are approaching a Crystal cruise pricing. We are taking a 2021 Panama cruise on Crystal and we have a 2022 South America cruise in a suite booked on Celebrity. 
 

We think what you get in a Celebrity suite is a great product. 

 

 

 

We are on the first leg of the Crystal Serenity World Cruise. Miami to LA. I recommend you reconsider. We are hardly teenagers, but this ship is such a disappointment. People are not friendly, the passenger is very elderly. The food is mediocre. Check out the new owner of Crystal. Before you spend this much money, reconsider...we are getting off today in Cabo and not going on. 
 

I would hate for anyone to find out this wasn’t for them. 

[groryjm]

19 hours ago, TommyD3 said:

.....If you only sail once or twice a year and are the type of person that drives an expensive German car, then a suite is for you......

I'm in my 50s and drive a Land Rover, 70 years old or 3 , it matters not. It is not German ( no offence to G Wagon owners) but we allways sail in CSs or RSs - does that make me odd????

Steryotypes are not allways right. Am I too young and too untrendy to sail in suites?

Edited January 18, 2020 by groryjm

[TrulyBlonde]

3 minutes ago, groryjm said:

I drive  Land Rover, 70 years old or 3 , it matters not. It is not German ( no offence to G Wagon owners) but we allways sail in CSs or RSs does that make me odd????

I am a Range Rover gal. Also, only sail in Suites from PH, CS, and S-1 corner Aft.  Celebrity does a wonderful job with their "sweet life".  

[hcat]

22 hours ago, Jim_Iain said:

I have only found one MAJOR PROBLEM with suites.    They are addictive and hard to go back to a non-suite.

 

That's what we are afraid of.... We booked our first ever suite on Constellation at a great price.  Worried that will spoil us  for future cruising!

[ECCruise]

19 minutes ago, hcat said:

That's what we are afraid of.... We booked our first ever suite on Constellation at a great price.  Worried that will spoil us  for future cruising!

Lots of people say that.  We've never found that at all, especially with the frankly insane prices for lots of sailings in suites.  $1200 a day (or more) for a Sky Suite?  $2000 a day for a Royal Suite?  Been in both and wouldn't pay half that.

 

We go back and forth based solely on price.  7 of our last 15 sailings in the last couple years have been in suites but have no problem "downgrading" if the price is silly.  Cruise next week is in a suite.  Cruise following that in February is in a balcony. No problem at all.

[Mwgw]

2 hours ago, alwaysonaship said:

We are on the first leg of the Crystal Serenity World Cruise. Miami to LA. I recommend you reconsider. We are hardly teenagers, but this ship is such a disappointment. People are not friendly, the passenger is very elderly. The food is mediocre. Check out the new owner of Crystal. Before you spend this much money, reconsider...we are getting off today in Cabo and not going on. 
 

I would hate for anyone to find out this wasn’t for them. 
 

 

We will definitely reach out to you. Thank you for your mention. Or feel free to private message us. 🙂

Edited January 19, 2020 by Mwgw

[warmwinds]

We will take price out of our evaluation (although with some fuzzy math our suite was "worth it").

 

Pros:  we did like the extra space

 

Cons:  We think the food is better in Blu than Luminae (this is of course personal preference) - but 6-7 Blu cruises before and one (just recently) after, this is our opinion

 

We did not like the lack of anonymity...to be walking around the ship, and have someone we have NEVER seen before say to us "don't forget about the Officer's reception in the Retreat tonight", was to us creepy and weird.

 

Two actual negative things happened to us on the cruise...one was the HORRIBLE chairs on our veranda, which our kind Butler did switch out, but they should not have been there to begin with (I've spoken about this at length, don't want to beat a dead horse).

 

Our treatment regarding the new Daniel Boulud  dinner which we had signed up for before sailing...such confusion about the date, time, and price.  Date and time were switched a couple of times, which we were fine with, but then to be told our prepaid invoice, which clearly stated wines were included, was dismissed with a wave of the hand by the Retreat hostess..."your invoice is wrong" she stated with a dismissive wave of her hand...even though the invoice CAME from Celebrity.  To be grandfathered in since that was what we were expecting all along would have gone a long way.  Cancelling was probably cutting off our nose to spite our face, but it left such a bad taste in our mouth.

 

The physical product, on the newly revolutionized Summit, left a lot to be desired....while we loved our cabin and bathroom, we thought the newly renovated Michael's Club (the Retreat) was as bright as an airport lounge and less comfortable - ridiculous toadstool chairs (which I hurt my back getting into and out of), the sunny hot and cold windy at the same time area at the front of the ship was a waste - went there once, and the only saving grace was that "our" servers from dinner were working that day, they were SO nice, but simultaneously burning and freezing was not an experience we chose to repeat.

 

Having a butler was wasted on us...it was nice that he delivered coffee to us every morning, but we've always been perfectly fine fetching it ourselves.  We had no parties in our suite, no buttons we needed sewn on, no shoes we needed shined...

 

Yeah, I sound like a complainer, but I'm not - almost at Elite Plus, been sailing X since 2001, we know and love Celebrity...just not in a suite.

 

 

[goofysmom99]

I've taken a lot of cruises over 26+ yrs and these days cruise primarily for the ship as the destination, though not always, which is why I like long transoceanic cruises (don't do Caribbean anymore).  I always compute $/pt value for each cruise.  If a suite comes in at less the $35/pt solo, I'll consider it; higher than that, no. Booked a CS on a TP for $26/pt.  Couldn't beat that for even minimum balconies or many outsides in Europe.  I've found the food in Blu and MDR to be the same quality except for presentation.  Blu is nicer and I prefer it on M-class over S-class.  So far, have only dined in Luminae once as a guest and it was absolutely lovely and looking forward to it.  Nevertheless, I enjoy eating anywhere someone serves dinner that I don't have to make.  One thing I don't like about suites, RS and PH aside, is climbing over the edge of the tub to get in/out of the shower.  DH & I enjoyed suites very much in the days before Luminae and the Retreat and were he still here, that'd still be first choice.  (I obviously don't need the space cause I get all the drawers anyway).  😉

[hcat]

The step over  tub and cabin location in our booked suite is of concern but at the low price we are paying for Connie,,,it was now or never to book a suite. The priority perks are appealing and we  have not been in the old Michael's Club( retreat lounge) since Elites were kicked out!

 

We have a Sunset Veranda ( 4 mdrs) booked on APEX and a  reg balc room coming up  on Summit.  Eventually , I predict we'll be back in AQ class b/c we like the Persian Garden/ thermal suite access, and will be ready to return to BLU.

 

Edited January 19, 2020 by hcat

[Miaminice]

We have sailed in all categories but inside staterooms and found that Aqua class is the best fit for us (except on Edge where we love the new dining room concept).

 

A suite was nice but to us it’s not worth paying much more. We don’t need the extra space, we didn’t find Luminae was much better than Blu (if any), we don’t need a butler, we only went to Michael’s once or twice... but you‘ll have to find out for yourself.

[Moby Jones]

12 hours ago, hcat said:

That's what we are afraid of.... We booked our first ever suite on Constellation at a great price.  Worried that will spoil us  for future cruising!

 

I'd have agreed with this a few years ago wholeheartedly. But since suite pricing has increased so much in recent times I'm unsure if it's true now. I don't think suite pricing is attractive on many sailings when compared to high end land vacations and other more upscale lines.

Luminae and to a lesser extent Blu stopped me returning to the MDR for dinner for sure though. But that s largely down to the fact that I enjoy those menus. I've met plenty of people who don't care for raw seafood and game etc who might not be wowed with the menus in those two dining rooms. 

You'll appreciate the better service from the dedicated concierge and butler though. Not having to visit guest relations and the shore excursion desk is a big bonus. And who doesn't appreciate the extra space in the cabin? 

[hcat]

Friends are on Summit now for  their Anniv. They usually do AQ Class but are  in a Sky Suite and they say it's great.    Sea is a bit rocky rolly

[Jim_Iain]

17 hours ago, hcat said:

That's what we are afraid of.... We booked our first ever suite on Constellation at a great price.  Worried that will spoil us  for future cruising!

I should say that most of our cruises over the past 20 years have been in Suites.   After hitting Zenith we decided to try AQ since we already get most of the perks.    We were very impressed and after the first day got use to not having the separate bedroom.  

 

I have to say that we really enjoyed AQ and Blu and are now booking about 1/2 suites 1/2 AQ.    We have a B2B2B booked in AQ for March and happy with both the price and room. 

[hcat]

11 minutes ago, Jim_Iain said:

I should say that most of our cruises over the past 20 years have been in Suites.   After hitting Zenith we decided to try AQ since we already get most of the perks.    We were very impressed and after the first day got use to not having the separate bedroom.  

 

I have to say that we really enjoyed AQ and Blu and are now booking about 1/2 suites 1/2 AQ.    We have a B2B2B booked in AQ for March and happy with both the price and room. 

AQ class  has worked well for us with the BLU dining and Persian Gardens/ thermal suites.  We will have a  break for  our 3 next cruises,  but  will look for AQ again after that..mostly b/c we like it and the price point works for us

 

. Looking forward to trying Luminae and hope it works with my Type 2 Diabetic meal plan.  The 4 mdrs on EDGE were really something new,  so I did go astray quite a bit, back on track now.

 

We are E + with little hope of reaching Zenith..even if we start booking suites,

Edited January 19, 2020 by hcat

[Jim_Iain]

4 minutes ago, hcat said:

Looking forward to trying Luminae and hope it works with my Type 2 Diabetic meal plan.  The 4 mdrs on EDGE were really something new,  so I did go astray quite a bit, back on track now.

 

You should have no problems.    Let them know and the Restaurant Manager and Wait Staff will work with your special dietary requirements.    They always ask on the first night.     There after the Restaurant manager may go over special menus with you the night before so you are well taken care of.  

[John1111]

20 hours ago, alwaysonaship said:

We are on the first leg of the Crystal Serenity World Cruise. Miami to LA. I recommend you reconsider. We are hardly teenagers, but this ship is such a disappointment. People are not friendly, the passenger is very elderly. The food is mediocre. Check out the new owner of Crystal. Before you spend this much money, reconsider...we are getting off today in Cabo and not going on. 
 

I would hate for anyone to find out this wasn’t for them. 

We took our first and only Crystal cruise this past June on the Serenity from Barcelona to London.  We have been on many cruises over the last 20 years and I wanted to try Crystal because I had heard it was "the best".  The cost of the regular balcony cabin (which we had) I estimate to be about the cost of a suite on Celebrity.  In any event, for many reasons, I didn't find Crystal to be that much better to justify the price differential.  I feel the suite on Celebrity (and we have been on quite a number of Celebrity Cruises) is a much better value and also a better experience especially with all the perks that come with the suite.

[TeeRick]

I drive a Toyota and I sail suites.  Maybe I should put that on a tee shirt.

[alwaysonaship]

HONDA here 

[groryjm]

definite tee shirt opertunities here

[CHEZMARYLOU]

Ford and sail RS or PH.

[cruiser02]

It is an individual choice.    I love the suites for the space and the perks   After 25 yrs of cruising I've been in all classes except for Interior.    Prefer having my own space and a door between sleeping and living space is wonderful   

I'm older - time to spoil me for on one else will 😊  Have a friend who believe me to be a Cabin Snob .

[Water babies]

We started sailing in suites (Royal) to get a separate sleeping space from our son. Our first 2 were on Disney. Great pampered experience but no separate dining, or club or pool. We, too questioned the value of paying so much more for just a bigger room and Butler. The next Suite was on the Summit, while Luminae was under construction. It was a great price compared to Disney and really not much more than our Concierge on the Reflection in the Med (it was Southern Caribbean route). We weren’t expecting a separate dining room so it was a great perk to be able to dine in any specialty restaurant or Blu at no additional fee. We’ve sailed twice more in Royal suites in M class and love Luminae, included specialty dining, in room bar and all 4 perks that have always been included. Micheal’s Club, the concierge, Butler, reserved theater seating and special events are nice, but probably less utilized by us than other suite passengers. Now that our son is 16 and probably only a few years left traveling with us, we are going to try out adjoining rooms to get separate bathrooms as well as sleeping spaces. The higher suite pricing is making us hesitate, but we’re trying an Aft Corner Sky Suite (adjoining concierge sunset veranda) on the Reflection next. Hard to give up the suite life! I think when it’s just my husband and myself traveling in a few years, we’ll likely book Aqua since we liked Blu as much or better than Luminae. Maybe even lower categories on E class since they have the 4 dining rooms I’d love to try (and I’d like to try an IV just to decide for myself) and the suite pricing is even higher than M and S class (at least on itineraries we’re interested in). If it fits your travel budget, I wouldn’t hesitate to try it. But, as others have stated—it might be hard to go back!

 

[warmwinds]

Which M-class suites only have the shower over tub?  We were in a Sky Suite (admittedly the "best" one, 6145) and we had a totally separate tub and shower.  I mean the bathroom was bigger than many hotels we have stayed in.

[goofysmom99]

1 hour ago, warmwinds said:

Which M-class suites only have the shower over tub?  We were in a Sky Suite (admittedly the "best" one, 6145) and we had a totally separate tub and shower.  I mean the bathroom was bigger than many hotels we have stayed in.

All M-class S1, S2, and CS have tub/shower combo, except handicapped and 6145/6.

[dcyonce]

On 1/17/2020 at 9:54 PM, Happy Cruiser 6143 said:

I've sailed in everything from an inside to the penthouse on Celebrity.  The suite experience is very nice, although the price is getting a bit crazy.  Give it a try and make your own decision.

 

Don't understand the comment above about Luminae on Equinox.  I sailed last fall and it was, hands down, the best Luminae experience I've ever had.  Everyone in there was awesome and the food was excellent.

Well stated !

Luminae on Equinox last year was wonderful. However, with the terrible new menus, it seems that Miami has changed the serving process in Luminae. Just finishing up a 10 day cruise in the Penthouse on the Reflection. Luminae was very poor. EXTREMELY slow service. Seems they have cut the staff. The “runner” who used to get orders from the kitchen no longer exists. The waiters now do it. Hostess is now cleaning and resetting tables. maitre’d was serving bread. Makes for a very slow service. Along with the new menus, Luminae is no longer worth visiting. 
 

The rest of our cruise in the Reflection’s Penthouse was very nice. It is expensive and keeps getting more and more expensive each year. 
 

I think the high end suites ( Royal and Penthouse ) are for people who could easily afford any price. They are getting booked !!

 

Try the suites ... you may like them.  It’s very subjective. 

 

— Don