Is it time to exit the "X"?

[RichYak]

2 minutes ago, Dr. Cocktail said:

I most certainly will but it's not until the end of the year!

 

I'm hoping that they will have ironed out some of the likely kinks but I'm sure that there will be hiccups along the way. I confident enough to be an early adopter!

Good luck, Dr. BetaTester. I also look forward to your comments. It sounds like a great product.

[Dr. Cocktail]

4 minutes ago, RichYak said:

Good luck, Dr. BetaTester. I also look forward to your comments. It sounds like a great product.

I was on the third sailing of the Horizon - it was GREAT!

[mahdnc]

This HAL itinerary is tempting: 42 night round trip from Ft Lauderdale which includes two transatlantics, Morocco, Tunisia, Portugal, Italy (incl overnights at Livorno and Civitavecchia), Greece, Gibraltar, Israel (2 ports), and Egypt (2 ports)

 

(link)

[dlh015]

17 minutes ago, mahdnc said:

This HAL itinerary is tempting: 42 night round trip from Ft Lauderdale which includes two transatlantics, Morocco, Tunisia, Portugal, Italy (incl overnights at Livorno and Civitavecchia), Greece, Gibraltar, Israel (2 ports), and Egypt (2 ports)

 

(link)

That is, indeed, tempting!!

[MamaFej]

19 minutes ago, mahdnc said:

This HAL itinerary is tempting: 42 night round trip from Ft Lauderdale which includes two transatlantics, Morocco, Tunisia, Portugal, Italy (incl overnights at Livorno and Civitavecchia), Greece, Gibraltar, Israel (2 ports), and Egypt (2 ports)

 

(link)

What an interesting itinerary, and a great opportunity to visit two continents for those folks in the southeast who say they don't want to or no longer fly. 

 

Thanks for sharing!

[NMTraveller]

Things have changed further since you posted.

 

Have you tried one of Celebrity's new booze cruises with the waterslide island 😁😁😁😁

[buzz031]

43 minutes ago, mahdnc said:

42 night round trip from Ft Lauderdale

Wow, that really is a tempting itinerary.

[Ken the cruiser]

40 minutes ago, mahdnc said:

This HAL itinerary is tempting: 42 night round trip from Ft Lauderdale which includes two transatlantics, Morocco, Tunisia, Portugal, Italy (incl overnights at Livorno and Civitavecchia), Greece, Gibraltar, Israel (2 ports), and Egypt (2 ports)

 

(link)

Sure looks like a great cruise! Only one thing, minus the Music Walk venues with a max capacity of 100 people, what is there to do on sea days and in the evenings for those 42 nights? Do they have once again production shows and guest entertainers appearing every night in the theater? Do they have professional lecturers once again on these longer cruises rather than the cruise director giving power point slide presentations?

 

We’re 4 star mariners and would very much enjoy cruising with HAL again. But not if the only fun thing to do in the evenings is sitting around in some lounge with a drink in our hand listening to music. Sorry.

[RickT]

My last two cruises on Celebrity were OK.  Felt the ships and staff were top notch.  Food was OK but not stellar (also thought the entrees offered were the same old same old). Biggest disappointment was the wine selection.  Paid to upgrade to premium and on both cruises they were pretty much out of everything.  
 

What pushed me over the edge (no pun intended) was the pricing of cruises I was looking at.  After many years away from Princess I recently booked a Princess cruise on the Royal Princess.  It’s a New Zealand cruise and is priced at $1,800 CDN less than a similar X cruise.  In addition the price includes two specialty dinners and unlimited gym classes. 
 

Given the savings and my prior experience with Princess I figured I may as well give it a try.  Stay tuned for my comparison.  

[RichYak]

2 hours ago, Cruzinforpeace*** said:

Awww Bermuda!

I think your last couple posts were intended for your "Live from" thread.

[NMTraveller]

12 hours ago, mahdnc said:

This HAL itinerary is tempting: 42 night round trip from Ft Lauderdale which includes two transatlantics, Morocco, Tunisia, Portugal, Italy (incl overnights at Livorno and Civitavecchia), Greece, Gibraltar, Israel (2 ports), and Egypt (2 ports)

 

(link)

They also have a 21 day Carribean itinerary that is difficult to beat.

[mahdnc]

11 minutes ago, NMTraveller said:

They also have a 21 day Carribean itinerary that is difficult to beat.

 

I will have to look it up.  

 

Why the avatar change?  Your other one was nicer and easier for me to recognize you.

[swigso]

On 6/20/2023 at 7:12 PM, D. B. said:

I tried them because of the deals but I'm  not a big fan of the Luxury cruise lines as they lack the activities I enjoy and during sea days they are boring. I guess if you like lectures on Law or Investing but I'm more into bean bag toss and paper airplane contests and in the Caribbean a Good Jamaican steel drum Band by the Pool.

 

The maiden voyage was to be in July but this happened:

Explora Journeys has pushed its first ship's maiden cruise to Aug. 1, departing from Copenhagen, Denmark, saying a delivery delay has occurred because certain building materials did not meet safety requirements. The Explora I had previously been scheduled to depart England on July 17.

so when did you sail 😂😂😂😂

[neverlaysup]

On 6/18/2023 at 2:20 PM, Gracie115 said:

Agree................

La Petit Chef was ruined by the blasting music from the Martini lounge...

Getting rid of QSine and putting in La Petit Chef has ruined my specialty dining options. If they get rid of Murano on S class ships, I may have to move on!!

[Gracie115]

9 minutes ago, neverlaysup said:

Getting rid of QSine and putting in La Petit Chef has ruined my specialty dining options. If they get rid of Murano on S class ships, I may have to move on!!

 

We loved Qsine, especially with at least a few other people.  La Petit was good once on Silhouette, not good on Apex and we won't bother again if we ever sail X again.  Qsine was always a fun evening.

[lyndarra]

10 hours ago, RickT said:

My last two cruises on Celebrity were OK.  Felt the ships and staff were top notch.  Food was OK but not stellar (also thought the entrees offered were the same old same old). Biggest disappointment was the wine selection.  Paid to upgrade to premium and on both cruises they were pretty much out of everything.  
 

What pushed me over the edge (no pun intended) was the pricing of cruises I was looking at.  After many years away from Princess I recently booked a Princess cruise on the Royal Princess.  It’s a New Zealand cruise and is priced at $1,800 CDN less than a similar X cruise.  In addition the price includes two specialty dinners and unlimited gym classes. 
 

Given the savings and my prior experience with Princess I figured I may as well give it a try.  Stay tuned for my comparison.  

I have done four New Zealand cruises - Celebrity, Royal, Princes and HAL. My favorite cruiseline ATM is HAL (same numbers of cruises as X) due to a better itinerary, followed by X.

IRC Princess and RCI cruises were return ex Sydney. HAL and X are one way with a return flight to Sydney/Aukland which saves 2 sea days which, IMO, allows more time to be spent doing some land touring which may be more attractive for those coming from northern climes.

[MISTER 67]

On 6/10/2023 at 9:53 PM, artvlay said:

I agree, as well as many as cruiser's we have met the same as you with the exception of the not enforced dress code. Yes they should enforce the rules, but they don't want to be bothered.

They are making cuts to increase their bottom line and know that a certain amount of customers will walk. I'm close to that point.

They don’t want to offend anyone who doesn’t follow the dress code but for people who do follow the dress code there is no problem offending them.

[cgolf1]

For us, after sailing HAL, things didn't look so bad on Celebrity. The small free lobster is better than no free lobster on HAL. 

 

For me the deal breaker will be if they give even more space to the retreat guests taking away from the majority of the people on the ship. On the Connie this wasn't an issue, but come on Celebrity only giving a forward facing view to the the retreat guests on the E class is just a horrible move. There are a lot of things I like about the Edge, but that is close to a deal breaker for me for that class, along with how windy the open decks are making it difficult to play cards out on deck. 

 

For me it will take a lot with how well Celebrity handles gluten free especially in the buffets. Seeing HAL for the first time this year, Celebrity is still well above them, GF food options and shows. Also we never saw Celebrity run out of booze. That said I would not hesitate to sail HAL again if the price and itinerary were right, especially on their small ships.

[Spif Barwunkel]

2 hours ago, MISTER 67 said:

They don’t want to offend anyone who doesn’t follow the dress code but for people who do follow the dress code there is no problem offending them.

Can't say it any better than that!

[NMTraveller]

2 hours ago, MISTER 67 said:

They don’t want to offend anyone who doesn’t follow the dress code but for people who do follow the dress code there is no problem offending them.

I am not quite sure what rules they enforce anymore?

[MISTER 67]

21 minutes ago, NMTraveller said:

I am not quite sure what rules they enforce anymore?

 

21 minutes ago, NMTraveller said:

I am not quite sure what rules they enforce anymore?

I have seen people turned away at dinner time from the MDR wearing shorts.

Edited July 27, 2023 by MISTER 67

[Guest ldtr]

23 hours ago, Ken the cruiser said:

Sure looks like a great cruise! Only one thing, minus the Music Walk venues with a max capacity of 100 people, what is there to do on sea days and in the evenings for those 42 nights? Do they have once again production shows and guest entertainers appearing every night in the theater? Do they have professional lecturers once again on these longer cruises rather than the cruise director giving power point slide presentations?

 

We’re 4 star mariners and would very much enjoy cruising with HAL again. But not if the only fun thing to do in the evenings is sitting around in some lounge with a drink in our hand listening to music. Sorry.

Just pretend it is a long Viking cruise, except with more entertainment.😁

[QuestionEverything]

12 hours ago, cgolf1 said:

For us, after sailing HAL, things didn't look so bad on Celebrity. The small free lobster is better than no free lobster on HAL. 

 

For me the deal breaker will be if they give even more space to the retreat guests taking away from the majority of the people on the ship. On the Connie this wasn't an issue, but come on Celebrity only giving a forward facing view to the the retreat guests on the E class is just a horrible move. There are a lot of things I like about the Edge, but that is close to a deal breaker for me for that class, along with how windy the open decks are making it difficult to play cards out on deck. 

 

For me it will take a lot with how well Celebrity handles gluten free especially in the buffets. Seeing HAL for the first time this year, Celebrity is still well above them, GF food options and shows. Also we never saw Celebrity run out of booze. That said I would not hesitate to sail HAL again if the price and itinerary were right, especially on their small ships.

We were guests of Celebrity from 1989 to 2018. The class apartheid on Celebrity is the reason we do not patronize this line any further PLUS your excellent point about no forward view on the E class.       

We will not tolerate the elimination of key ship features like a forward view.

Now cruising on the premium and luxury lines who have minimal class apartheid and all of whom have outstanding forward views for EVERYONE.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     

[OysterD]

1 hour ago, QuestionEverything said:

We were guests of Celebrity from 1989 to 2018. The class apartheid on Celebrity is the reason we do not patronize this line any further PLUS your excellent point about no forward view on the E class.       

We will not tolerate the elimination of key ship features like a forward view.

Now cruising on the premium and luxury lines who have minimal class apartheid and all of whom have outstanding forward views for EVERYONE.                                                            

Ignoring your use of the completely inappropriate and inaccurate word 'apartheid', to describe Celebrity (and most other cruise lines) having areas on their ships designated for suite passengers, I'm curious, what exactly do you expect? No cruise line should have any areas designated for suite passengers? All cabins should be identical and everyone on board should pay the same and receive exactly the same amenities? 

 

Oh, and I'm assuming you also refuse to travel on any airline that offers first class seats/lounges, or stay in hotel chains which have lounges for certain room categories, or use train companies that have a first class carriages.

 

PS I much prefer a view out the back of a ship, and I'm not the only one. I found the forward lounge was empty most of the time on my last few cruises. Celebrity know exactly how many people use each area of the ship. If the Sky Observation Lounge was such a bustling popular area of the ship I'm pretty sure they would have kept it with their new ship designs. I'm glad they didn't. 

[mahdnc]

5 minutes ago, OysterD said:

Ignoring your use of the completely inappropriate and inaccurate word 'apartheid', to describe Celebrity (and most other cruise lines) having areas on their ships designated for suite passengers, I'm curious, what exactly do you expect? No cruise line should have any areas designated for suite passengers? All cabins should be identical and everyone on board should pay the same and receive exactly the same amenities? 

 

Oh, and I'm assuming you also refuse to travel on any airline that offers first class seats/lounges, or stay in hotel chains which have lounges for certain room categories, or use train companies that have a first class carriages.

 

PS I much prefer a view out the back of a ship, and I'm not the only one. I found the forward lounge was empty most of the time on my last few cruises. Celebrity know exactly how many people use each area of the ship. If the Sky Observation Lounge was such a bustling popular area of the ship I'm pretty sure they would have kept it with their new ship designs. I'm glad they didn't. 

 

As a non-suite passenger, I am also among those that are not thrilled with the changes.  However you make very good points.

Edited July 27, 2023 by mahdnc