Club Orange Reviews

[Petronillus]

14 hours ago, Dave JS said:

What do you consider the aft facing cabins?

At the stern, in direct view of the wake.

[terrydtx]

50 minutes ago, Hobby3333 said:

We have been on the Rotterdam twice and had Club Orange.  Great experience both times.  We just got off the Sun Princess two weeks ago and had their suite dining room.  It was nice and the service very good good but we preferred Club Orange dining on the Rotterdam.   We are booked for July 2025 on the Rotterdam and have Club Orange.

We also prefer the CO dining room on the Pinnacle Class ships over the suites only Luminae Restaurant on Celebrity. After 9 post Covid Celebrity Suites cruises the Luminae menus have become stale and unappealing, much better selections of traditional cruise fare in CO dining rooms.

[Dave JS]

On 7/17/2024 at 2:49 AM, crystalspin said:

If you are sailing on the Koningsdam | Feb 14, 2026 | 11-Day Eastern Caribbean (or another Pinnacle ship, Rotterdam or Nieuw Statendam), an aft verandah will put you elevator-close to the Tamarind restaurant and bar. I've practically talked myself into one! But really, I am booked for a mid-ship verandah on the NS, Gershwin Deck 5.

Deck 5 Midship is the decision we made as well.

[Caribbean Chris]

4 hours ago, terrydtx said:

We also prefer the CO dining room on the Pinnacle Class ships over the suites only Luminae Restaurant on Celebrity. After 9 post Covid Celebrity Suites cruises the Luminae menus have become stale and unappealing, much better selections of traditional cruise fare in CO dining rooms.

 

Agree very much with this comparison, and Luminae food was sometimes disappointing compared to the gourmet hype going back to when Celebrity introduced Luminae. Service has been excellent and variety far superior in the Club Orange dining room.

[jhubba]

If you are sailing on the NS, Konigsdam or Rotterdam, you might want to look into the cabin numbers 5048, 5050, 5051, 5053.  These are sideways cabins mid ship with larger size cabins and extended verandahs.  I have one booked for this December and looking at the Youtube videos, it looks like a decent cabin.

[jhubba]

Just a note, I originally booked a VH obstructed, then called HAL and ordered Club Orange and I was able to upgrade to the V sideways cabin.  You got to do it early though as I have had this cruise booked for over a year already.

[Mermen]

On 7/8/2024 at 1:37 PM, POA Cruiser said:

We had CO on the Noordam just last week. I didn't feel CO had much value. There were the special bags in the cabin, better robes, priority boarding and a special line and menus in the dining room. We were on a HAL tour prior to the cruise so we didn't arrive to Whittier until 6PM so the priority boarding wasn't applicable. In the Dining Room there was a special line but both lined merged into one at the host desk. The Hostess at the desk with the CO scarf didn't pay any attention to the CO line. We had to repeatedly ask for the CO menus. I didn't realize there were different menus until the third night when we were told to wait by the host desk for a table and I saw the menu. Giving them your cabin number apparently doesn't identify you as a CO person. The "enhanced" menu only has one more entree which was nothing special. We were repeatedly charged for fresh squeezed OJ at breakfast and had to go to customer service to have the charged removed. The fresh squeezed OJ is only in the Main DR and doesn't apply if ordering in the Lido Buffet.

 

In my opinion on the smaller ships it isn't worth the extra charge.

Thank you, our experience on the Westerdam last October was identical to yours; we had CO because we were in a Neptune Suite. The experience is completely different than on the Rotterdam, with its own venue. We were disappointed in the Westerdam CO experience. We were told that there would be an area “carved out” of the main dining room for CO, but not so. We had 3 dinners in the MDR and decided it was not for us for the remainder of the cruise. 

[ghstudio]

18 minutes ago, Mermen said:

Thank you, our experience on the Westerdam last October was identical to yours; we had CO because we were in a Neptune Suite. The experience is completely different than on the Rotterdam, with its own venue. We were disappointed in the Westerdam CO experience. We were told that there would be an area “carved out” of the main dining room for CO, but not so. We had 3 dinners in the MDR and decided it was not for us for the remainder of the cruise. 

We just booked co on westerdam to save money…don’t care about the rest.

[terrydtx]

37 minutes ago, ghstudio said:

We just booked co on westerdam to save money…don’t care about the rest.

Using CO on non-Pinnacle ships for the included free upgrades is probably the best reason to book CO. We have CO on the Volendam this month and the upgraded VS from B to A category we got, paid for the cost to add CO.

[ChinaShrek]

I had Club Orange on the Nieuw Statendam last month (July 2024) for the 10-night Reykjavik-Amsterdam cruise. I primarily booked it for the upgrade from an obstructed verandah to a cabin mid ship on Deck 8. I liked eating in Club Orange for dinner with the following caveats. I booked specialty dining for three of the nights, so I didn't use Club Orange on those night and one night I was out late in Edinburgh and ate dinner in the city.  The other 6 nights I ate in Club Orange and enjoyed it except for one night. I travel solo and when I arrived early (between 5:30-6:30) I was seated near other people and could chat with someone. One night I arrived later and was seated way in the back without anyone around me. This made me feel a bit lonely but some people might enjoy it. This cruise also had a lot of tender ports (4 ports including an overnight in Edinburgh) and CO gave me priority access to the tender boats. This came in handy when I had private excursions booked.

[SSFrance69]

On 7/6/2024 at 9:10 PM, terrydtx said:

After 7 post covid Celebrity Cruises in Sky Suites we are done with them.  They have priced us out and we can now book Oceania for less per day. We now for the future are cruising with Oceania and HAL. 

We too were always Celebrity loyalists until we took our first Oceania cruise last year. We had another with them this year and love them. We've never sailed HAL before but have a cruise booked with them next July to Alaska. Oceania did not cruise Glacier Bay and HAL did, so HAL won. How does HAL compare with Oceania? I'm assuming the food on Oceania is better. I'd say their food would be pretty hard to beat. All that said, we also sailed with Celebrity last year in Aqua and loved Blu, so have another Aqua sailing booked next spring as well. Hopefully it will be as good as last year's. 

[Hobby3333]

We just got off the Sun Princess.  The suite ( Sanctuary Dining) was very good but my wife and I both agree that CO on Rotterdam is better.  We are going back on the Rotterdam in July 25 but also booked Sun for Oct 26.   Both are good but CO is a notch or 2 better.

[terrydtx]

2 hours ago, SSFrance69 said:

We too were always Celebrity loyalists until we took our first Oceania cruise last year. We had another with them this year and love them. We've never sailed HAL before but have a cruise booked with them next July to Alaska. Oceania did not cruise Glacier Bay and HAL did, so HAL won. How does HAL compare with Oceania? I'm assuming the food on Oceania is better. I'd say their food would be pretty hard to beat. All that said, we also sailed with Celebrity last year in Aqua and loved Blu, so have another Aqua sailing booked next spring as well. Hopefully it will be as good as last year's. 

Good choice with HAL for Alaska, HAL was one of the first cruise lines to do Alaska back in the 1970's and IMO they do it best. Our first Oceania cruise is next March of South America for 18 days on the Marina. We compared Celebrity, HAL and Oceania for South America, Oceania won out for the Itinerary and the best value for what is delivered. We sail next week on the HAL Volendam from Boston to Montreal for 11 days, again HAL beat out Celebrity on the itinerary and value. Today we found a cruise we want to do in 2026 of England, Scotland and Ireland for 14 nights on the Nieuw Statendam. We will book it on the Volendam cruise to get the future cruise booking extras and this cruise will have the Early Booking HIA bonus, plus we will book with Club Orange to be able to dine in the CO dining room. Once Oceania releases their summer British Isles cruises for 2026 we will compare the HAL cruise with Oceania. 

Edited August 13 by terrydtx

[Stateroom_Sailor]

On 8/3/2024 at 7:44 AM, terrydtx said:

We also prefer the CO dining room on the Pinnacle Class ships over the suites only Luminae Restaurant on Celebrity. After 9 post Covid Celebrity Suites cruises the Luminae menus have become stale and unappealing, much better selections of traditional cruise fare in CO dining rooms.

 

Good to know.  I believe it was a supply chain or cost cutting fluke at the time (pre Covid), but on our last Celebrity cruise in Aqua Class, there was an almost complete shortage of vegetables on our 12-night sailing.  Blu and Luminae were not spared.  I ended up paying for Murano during an Easter lunch special for a full serving of green beans.  A few loyalists on CC told me that this was my fault for not correcting X, and that they would hold me accountable if they noticed any downgrades on their upcoming cruises.  After 5 years, I wonder if I am past the statutes of limitations?

 

We just paid for CO for our 2026 cruise yesterday, the cabin upgrade covered almost the entire cost.  I was tempted to do it for our Transpacific in a few weeks, but we would lose our cabin on the hump in exchange for a better floor, which seems like a wash at best.  Moving forward, I'll be incorporating CO into our cabin selections from the start.  

[terrydtx]

4 minutes ago, Stateroom_Sailor said:

 

Good to know.  I believe it was a supply chain or cost cutting fluke at the time (pre Covid), but on our last Celebrity cruise in Aqua Class, there was an almost complete shortage of vegetables on our 12-night sailing.  Blu and Luminae were not spared.  I ended up paying for Murano during an Easter lunch special for a full serving of green beans.  A few loyalists on CC told me that this was my fault for not correcting X, and that they would hold me accountable if they noticed any downgrades on their upcoming cruises.  After 5 years, I wonder if I am past the statutes of limitations?

 

We just paid for CO for our 2026 cruise yesterday, the cabin upgrade covered almost the entire cost.  I was tempted to do it for our Transpacific in a few weeks, but we would lose our cabin on the hump in exchange for a better floor, which seems like a wash at best.  Moving forward, I'll be incorporating CO into our cabin selections from the start.  

If you want CO for your TA cruise, you can add to your current cabin and refuse the upgrade. We did that last year on the Koningsdam to keep our prized aft facing veranda cabin.

[Stateroom_Sailor]

7 minutes ago, terrydtx said:

If you want CO for your TA cruise, you can add to your current cabin and refuse the upgrade. We did that last year on the Koningsdam to keep our prized aft facing veranda cabin.

 

Did you get an alternative gift in exchange for no upgrade?  My understanding is you get OBC or something if there are no more upgrades, but I'm not sure what happens if you opt out.  Still, 13 nights at sea with only a couple ports, upgraded dining sounds tempting.

[terrydtx]

2 minutes ago, Stateroom_Sailor said:

 

Did you get an alternative gift in exchange for no upgrade?  My understanding is you get OBC or something if there are no more upgrades, but I'm not sure what happens if you opt out.  Still, 13 nights at sea with only a couple ports, upgraded dining sounds tempting.

We got $50pp OBC.

[Stateroom_Sailor]

2 hours ago, terrydtx said:

We got $50pp OBC.

 

It is better than nothing, we're going to do it!  Thanks for the tips.

 

I'd be curious to hear how you like Oceania.  I've read that there have been cuts over the years, but with such competitive pricing it seems like a fair trade.  Azamara may be a one and done due to all the booking shenanigans on our first attempt to sail with them.

[ricka47]

7 hours ago, Stateroom_Sailor said:

 

It is better than nothing, we're going to do it!  Thanks for the tips.

 

I'd be curious to hear how you like Oceania.  I've read that there have been cuts over the years, but with such competitive pricing it seems like a fair trade.  Azamara may be a one and done due to all the booking shenanigans on our first attempt to sail with them.

Not to hijack the thread but Oceania has become our favorite cruise line. Reasons: food, service, general casual ambiance onboard.

[Sea42]

1 minute ago, ricka47 said:

Not to hijack the thread but Oceania has become our favorite cruise line. Reasons: food, service, general casual ambiance onboard.

We have enjoyed the advantages of CO both times we've used it and have it booked on both of our future HAL bookings. The cabin upgrade was worth the price. We consider it money well spent.

We also loved our Oceania cruise but they lost us when they went to the required Simply More. We do not want to pay for their shore excursions, we'd rather do our own thing. For us, it would not be money well spent. If Simply More becomes optional, we would definitely consider Oceania again!

[Stateroom_Sailor]

We ended up taking the cabin upgrade on our Transpacific, in our signature suite.  Comparing balconies, it looks like the standard room offers better function with outdoor furniture and space.  The cabin on the hump offers better views, but is more exposed to weather.    

 

Edited August 13 by Stateroom_Sailor

[SSFrance69]

21 hours ago, terrydtx said:

Good choice with HAL for Alaska, HAL was one of the first cruise lines to do Alaska back in the 1970's and IMO they do it best. Our first Oceania cruise is next March of South America for 18 days on the Marina. We compared Celebrity, HAL and Oceania for South America, Oceania won out for the Itinerary and the best value for what is delivered. We sail next week on the HAL Volendam from Boston to Montreal for 11 days, again HAL beat out Celebrity on the itinerary and value. Today we found a cruise we want to do in 2026 of England, Scotland and Ireland for 14 nights on the Nieuw Statendam. We will book it on the Volendam cruise to get the future cruise booking extras and this cruise will have the Early Booking HIA bonus, plus we will book with Club Orange to be able to dine in the CO dining room. Once Oceania releases their summer British Isles cruises for 2026 we will compare the HAL cruise with Oceania. 

Thank you for the reply. You will LOVE Oceania. We sailed on Riviera last year, which was refurbished and beautiful. I could not believe the size of the bathroom and shower, and we were just in a standard verandah. Not sure if Marina has the same level of upgrades to the bathrooms. They may have only updated the suites on that ship. In any case it will be lovely. This year we sailed on Vista and it was just stunning. I think Marina may have also gotten the Aquamar kitchen, which was a great spot for lunch on Vista. We ate there on embarkation day, and we pretty much had the entire place to ourselves. Be sure to try the crispy chicken sandwich and gazpacho. Also be sure to try the pizza at Waves in the evening. Best pizza I've had at sea and rivaled most I've had on land. We had dinner in each of the specialty restaurants on both sailings. Jacques was our favorite and we missed it on Vista... but we had an outstanding experience at Red Ginger. The grand dining room is also fabulous and there was one evening where I rescheduled a specialty reservation since the grand dining room menu looked so good (and I didn't regret it). Oceania really has the food thing nailed. We did book Club Orange for our Alaska cruise on HAL next year, so hopefully that dining experience will be good. 

[mcrcruiser]

On 7/9/2024 at 4:59 AM, CNSJ said:

DW dislikes the big MDR - especially the 90+ minutes it takes to have dinner in MDR.  We usually only eat in the MDR 25% of nights.  When we have Club Orange (on KDAM, NS, and RDAM) we are normally in and out in about 60 min for the same meals and find ourselves eating there 75% of nights.  Service is not only quicker, but a bit more refined, and the food was hot and fresh. 

Perhaps in the future cruise lines will make smaller dining rooms . although we never sailed with them doesn't Norwegian do that exact thing ,smaller but many dining venues ?

[Stpatsirish]

Yes, on the NCL Joy they had 1 large main dining room and 2 smaller dining rooms that had the same menu as the MDR. We had most of our meals at the smaller venues.

[terrydtx]

On 7/9/2024 at 6:59 AM, CNSJ said:

DW dislikes the big MDR - especially the 90+ minutes it takes to have dinner in MDR.  We usually only eat in the MDR 25% of nights.  When we have Club Orange (on KDAM, NS, and RDAM) we are normally in and out in about 60 min for the same meals and find ourselves eating there 75% of nights.  Service is not only quicker, but a bit more refined, and the food was hot and fresh. 

We will not cruise on a Pinnacle class ship if we can't add CO. My DW and I detest the huge crowded MDR's that are more like a banquet hall than a fine dining restaurant.  What we like about Celebrity's suites only Luminae is the intimate fine dining atmosphere. The CO dining room comes closest to our Luminae experiences. Our cruise last year on the Koningsdam with CO is what got us to finally cut the Celebrity cord and come back to HAL. We will book the Nieuw Statendam next week while on the Volendam for August 2026 to cruise 14 nights around the UK, Ireland and Scotland. We also will get the early booking HIA bonus and CO is still available.

Edited August 14 by terrydtx