Semi-live from the Nov 4 Koingsdam California Coastal cruise.

[terrydtx]

In the CO dining room every night they display the non MDR entrees and the nightly special. The strip steak, salmon and seared tuna are available every night. They are displayed in my picture with tonights special Lemon shrimp fettuccine. They are all prepared in the CO kitchen. 

[terrydtx]

Here is the special lemon shrimp fettuccine i had tonight. It was as good as any Italian restaurant. ⁸j

[cruisinsusin]

21 hours ago, terrydtx said:

Here is the prime rib last night in CO that we won't see on  Celebriity ship anymore. It was excellent too and cooked a perfect Medium Rare. 

Not trying to hijack but we had excellent prime rib in the MDR twice on each of our recent B2B Solstice cruises 

[terrydtx]

30 minutes ago, cruisinsusin said:

Not trying to hijack but we had excellent prime rib in the MDR twice on each of our recent B2B Solstice cruises 

On the Eqinox in June and Apex in September we never saw Prime Rib or rack of lamb. Only lamb was roasted leg of lamb. I guess it is hit or miss with Celebrity's MDR.

[terrydtx]

Tonight the CO special was Scallops Romanesco and it was again as good as any land restaurant. The food this week has been outstanding. 

Edited November 11, 2023 by terrydtx

[Ipeeinthepools]

On 11/9/2023 at 11:08 PM, terrydtx said:

We are booked for next August on the Volendam and with Club Orange. I would book the Oosterdam but only with CO as the extra benefits for the small cost is well worth having. We are doing the South America cruise in March 2025, but after looking at HAL and Celebrity we are booked on the 18-day cruise on the Oceania Marina. We booked a Concierge class cabin for less that the 14-day X cruise that was then canceled earlier this year. You may want to check out Oceania as an alternative to HAL. If you like the size of the X Sky Suites you should look at a Signature Suite on the Oosterdam, which is what we had last year, it is about the same size as a Sky Suite and has a huge bathroom with double sinks. After our B2B Edge cruise in January we are done with Celebrity. Going forward we will be looking at either HAL or Oceania.  

 

BTW we had a really good prime rib in the CO dining room last night, something we didn't see on our last two X cruises.

I understand the benefits of CO for the Pinnacle class ships but I didn’t think the CO benefits were worth the costs on the other ships without a separate dining room.  What CO benefits do you find useful on the Oosterdam?

[Ipeeinthepools]

@terrydtx
I’m currently on the Edge and tonight is the final chic night with the lobster tail.  I was planning on sending you a picture of the prime rib at tonights dinner for comparison but prime rib isn’t even offered.  😔

Edited November 11, 2023 by Ipeeinthepools

[Gracie115]

15 hours ago, cruisinsusin said:

Not trying to hijack but we had excellent prime rib in the MDR twice on each of our recent B2B Solstice cruises 

None on our Apex cruise this past May either.

[terrydtx]

9 hours ago, Ipeeinthepools said:

I understand the benefits of CO for the Pinnacle class ships but I didn’t think the CO benefits were worth the costs on the other ships without a separate dining room.  What CO benefits do you find useful on the Oosterdam?

The nice advantages are no to very little time waiting in lines for tenders, guest services and the MDR in other classes of ships. You have a separate entrance for MDR and you get seated with priority over non CO guests and you get the added extra menu items like in CO dining rooms. For example see my special last night above. Biggest advantage is the free cabin class upgrades to highest level available when you book

[BetsyS.]

Thanks for your reports and pictures. Safe travels home.

[Ipeeinthepools]

58 minutes ago, terrydtx said:

The nice advantages are no to very little time waiting in lines for tenders, guest services and the MDR in other classes of ships. You have a separate entrance for MDR and you get seated with priority over non CO guests and you get the added extra menu items like in CO dining rooms. For example see my special last night above. Biggest advantage is the free cabin class upgrades to highest level available when you book

Thanks.  For the couple of HAL cruises I have taken in the last few months, one of the weak points seems to be accounting.  It seemed like I was always at guest services trying to get something fixed and the cut the line ability was very helpful.

[Ipeeinthepools]

@terrydtx

 

Thanks for you pictures at meal time.  I’m still on the fence if I should book the Oosterdam or I should wait until Celebrity announces their 2025 South American cruise schedule early in December.  At this point, I think I like the Celebrity ships a lot better but  your dinner pictures of the prime web may tip the scales to me booking a HAL cruise on the Oosterdam.

[terrydtx]

1 hour ago, Ipeeinthepools said:

@terrydtx

 

Thanks for you pictures at meal time.  I’m still on the fence if I should book the Oosterdam or I should wait until Celebrity announces their 2025 South American cruise schedule early in December.  At this point, I think I like the Celebrity ships a lot better but  your dinner pictures of the prime web may tip the scales to me booking a HAL cruise on the Oosterdam.

From what i heard Celebrity will not be doing any future SA cruises which is why we booked on Oceania after our Feb 2025 Eqinox booked cruise was canceled for the 2025 season

 

[terrydtx]

What a mess disembarking was this morning.  Both Koningsdam and Disney Magic were disembarking and it took over an hour to get off the ship and in our Uber. Good thing our fligh home is at noon. We are at the airport now. The terminal is not set up properly to handle 2 big ships disembarking. 

[Ipeeinthepools]

52 minutes ago, terrydtx said:

From what i heard Celebrity will not be doing any future SA cruises which is why we booked on Oceania after our Feb 2025 Eqinox booked cruise was canceled for the 2025 season

 

We’ll know for sure on December 4

[mafig]

Didn't you have a beverage package with HIA?  (You mentioned that bourbon was $8.00).

[terrydtx]

17 hours ago, mafig said:

Didn't you have a beverage package with HIA?  (You mentioned that bourbon was $8.00).

Yes we had the beverage package but that was the price if you didn't have HIA.

[SDARCH]

21 hours ago, terrydtx said:

The terminal is not set up properly to handle 2 big ships disembarking. 

We boarded a couple of years ago when three ships were in port.  It was total chaos.

[charliebeagledog]

On 11/8/2023 at 9:10 AM, terrydtx said:

I am looking at tonight's menu and see spice crusted prime rib, something we did not get in our two Celebrity Cruises this past summer. Last night we had the thick cut pork chops and they were delicious and as good as any land restaurants. So far the food on this cruise has been far superior to our earlier Celebrity Cruises. 

Terrydtx we are long time Celebrity cruisers doing our first Holland America on a TA on Niew Statendam in a couple of weeks..  Thanks for your posts you have single handedly convinced me of the value of Club Orange for the two week cruise and we added it yesterday exclusively because of your posts and how you demonstrated the value proposition it presents.  (we asked them NOT to upgrade our cabin because they gave us a huge balcony on Deck 4 and we didn't see any value in letting them move us form a VB to a VA)   thank you so much for your descriptions and posts.  Now hoping the starlink upgrade is completed and operational while in drydock before our cruise!!

 

 

[terrydtx]

1 minute ago, charliebeagledog said:

Terrydtx we are long time Celebrity cruisers doing our first Holland America on a TA on Niew Statendam in a couple of weeks..  Thanks for your posts you have single handedly convinced me of the value of Club Orange for the two week cruise and we added it yesterday exclusively because of your posts and how you demonstrated the value proposition it presents.  (we asked them NOT to upgrade our cabin because they gave us a huge balcony on Deck 4 and we didn't see any value in letting them move us form a VB to a VA)   thank you so much for your descriptions and posts.  Now hoping the starlink upgrade is completed and operational while in drydock before our cruise!!

 

 

I think you made a wise decision to add CO, we will never book a HAL cruise without it. We actually enjoyed the CO dining room more than our past Retreat cruises with Luminae on Celebrity.

[kluv2cruz]

Just now, terrydtx said:

I think you made a wise decision to add CO, we will never book a HAL cruise without it. We actually enjoyed the CO dining room more than our past Retreat cruises with Luminae on Celebrity.

If you follow “Life well cruised” her and husband and adult son are on Rotterdam in CO for the first time and seem to be enjoying it. I do however try to keep CO a secret as too many people rushing for it will make it hard for me to book it when I want it!