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DannyS

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    Robbinsdale, MN
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  1. First. I'll be on the Ascent Maiden in an Aqua Sky Suite, and looking forward to it! As for services in The Retreat and Sky Suites - the "problem" really is naming. Celebrity gives all of their suites fancy sounding names. But, if you look at what Royal does, you'll see something that explains all of this. On Royal, a cabin the size of 1.5 cabins is called a "Junior Suite." On Celebrity, it's a "Sky Suite." It should come as no surprise that a "Junior" suite gets "Junior" amenities. On Royal, Junior Suites only get to use the suite restaurant for dinner. The larger ones get all their meals there. Once you're paying for a suite the size of two "regular" cabins you get twice as much "stuff." (On Celebrity, a Celebrity Suite" is the size of two cabins, a Royal Suite is the size of 3, and a Penthouse is the size of 4.) For longer than other lines, Celebrity gave their "Junior" suites the full suite experience. But they eventually became a victim of their own success. Whenever Celebrity has added a "premium" category, it has been a hit. Remember, the M class ships didn't have Aqua Class. That was such a big success that they carved up the main dining rooms, and added Blue as they "Solsticized" the M-Class. That was such a big success that en Celebrity had unhappy suite guests on their hands. They were eating in the MDR with the Peasants while AQ got their own restaurant. They tried to accommodate suites in Blu, but it was a mess (especially on Reflection, where they added AQ cabins, but didn't expand Blu.) So, they carved up the dining rooms again and created Luminae for suites (largely because Suite guests wanted to eat at Blu!), it was a huge success. So they went a step further, and made Michael's a dedicated space for Suite guests. Also a huge success. People would pay extra for the suite perks. So, when Edge came along, they went a step further - and added a suite pool deck into the mix. And added a LOT more suites. An even bigger success, so when Beyond (and Ascent) were built, they added even more suites. I did 2 Suite cruises in a short period of time, one on Infinity and another on Beyond. The difference in the size of Luminae is astonishing. On Infinity it is an intimate space. On Beyond, it is the size of one of the main dining rooms - but with a lot more windows. They used to be able to offer service to all of the suites, because the same people serving the top suites could serve all the suites. But, now its a different story. Suites aren't exclusive, at all. The top ones are, but Sky Suites... are not. There are a LOT of them, which changes the whole economic model of suites, or at least the "Junior" suites. (Or, in the case of the Aqua Sky Suite I'll be in starting Sunday, the Junior Suites... with Cheese)
  2. It is all about maximizing revenue, both with current inventory and in the future. The best way to understand how the system works is to look at how Plusgrade sells their technology to cruise lines: Cruise | Plusgrade "Our solution analyzes available inventory and your pool of pledged upgrades to recommend the optimal selection of passengers to upgrade." "Incentivize guests to try a higher cabin at a price they are willing to pay, and then get double the benefit when they rebook at full fare."
  3. Carpeting in cabins can be replaced without drydock. Years ago, I was on a Royal ship that was having cabin carpeting replaced. One day we had a note in our cabin advising us that our carpet would be replaced, and to move as much off of the floors as possible. The next day all of the cabins in our corridor had the carpeting replaced. A team would go into the cabin, move all of the furniture to the balcony, pull up the old carpet, glue down a new (pre-cut) carpet, put everything back to where it had been, and then move on to the next cabin. Took less than 30 minutes per cabin. It was amazing to see.done, and I'd imagine replacing soft goods like furniture could be done the same way. The biggest challenge would be storage space for the old and new furniture.
  4. It all depends on how you value time and amenities. On the Edge Class, the Sunset cabins don't have as spacious of balconies and cabins as some of the other classes. They're nice, and larger. But you don't see the much bigger suites and balconies you see on the other classes. It's an incremental improvement, but not a destination like on other ships. This would actually be a tougher question if you were looking to downgrade from an Edge Class Sunset Sky Suite to Edge Class Aqua Class. The Sunset Verandas are far from almost everything. This is offset on the M Class by the aft elevators that drop you in the middle of Oceanview or outside the dining rooms. They're super far from everything if you're in an Edge Class Sunset Sky Suite, because Luminae, the Retreat, and the Retreat Sun Deck are all the way forward. The biggest question actually comes down to how you value the thermal suite. If you're going to use it a lot, it's worth it. They're great spaces on the Edge class, pricier to get into, and all the way forward. If that's an amenity you love, you're not going to love paying for it and hiking to it in your sunset cabin. If you don't care about it, then you're down to the food difference in Blu - but that can be offset with specialty dining, as others have pointed out. More dining packages have been put in cruise planner recently, so you can make an apples to apples comparison there.
  5. They are out. And if you look closely you will see that Equinox is headed to South America and Apex is headed to Port Canaveral.
  6. You do not get any prints, they don't print anything without it being paid for. But downloads of all of your photos will be complimentary. You can download all photos that are taken of you when you get home. If you want prints, you'll need to have the downloads printed.
  7. They cannot do anything on the ship but email shoreside. Points don't get credited for status until after a cruise either. I started a cruise close to going up a level, and asked if I'd get those perks on the cruise when I achieved the level. The host (who was awesome) explained that she can't do anything with status or accounts except email Miami.
  8. I'll be on the maiden voyage! And looking forward to it. Dec 3rd isn't her first revenue cruise but it is the first cruise after her naming ceremony. I went through my emails, and found a Captains Club email from June with the subject "The Countdown to Celebrity Ascent is on." In that email is the headline "BE THE FIRST TO SAIL CELEBRITY ASCENT" promoting the two November short cruises and the December 3rd as the "Maiden Voyage." So the fact that the "maiden voyage" isn't her first cruise with paying passengers isn't a last minute change. It's been out there for about six months, at least. I'm sure if you want to go down a rabbit hole, you'll find a nuanced difference between an "Inaugural Voyage" and a "Maiden Voyage." Me, I just enjoy the fact that others made sure that everything was ready for me on the maiden voyage.
  9. The free digital photo package is fun. You have to go to the photographers to get it, but you simply show your seapass with your level, and they add it to your account. At the end of the cruise, you'll get an email with details on how to download any picture taken of you by the ship photographers.
  10. On the M class ships, the MDR, Blu and Luminae Galleys are all in the same space. On S Class, MDR and Luminae are in the same space with Blu just upstairs. That makes it easy to order off any of the menus in Luminae. On the Edge class, it’s much harder as they’re on opposite ends of the ship and a dozen decks apart. If you insist, they’ll send someone to get you a meal from the other places, but they don’t want to because it’s a long trip - and the quality suffers. The food will be cold by the time it gets to you. Your best bet in Luminae is to get to know the restaurant manager and look at all of the menus in the app in advance. If you tell them what you want from the other restaurant the day before, they will have the ingredients on hand and prepare it for you in the Luminae Galley. But they need 24 hour notice to make it happen. (If you don’t want to use the app, the host stand always has the next day Luminae menu, and they’ll be happy to prepare something for you that you will like… if tell them the night before.
  11. The easiest place to get the answer to this is from the company that provides the service to Celebrity (and pretty much every other cruise line): Cruise | Plusgrade [quote]Our solution analyzes available inventory and your pool of pledged upgrades to recommend the optimal selection of passengers to upgrade.[/quote] There's even a quote from Celebrity: [quote] "We were running a very manual upgrade process. The biggest differentiator, when introducing MoveUp [the upgrade platform], is we realized that guests are willing to pay way more than we would ever have asked for. So, higher bids, huge guest excitement, and strong ability to reach our guests directly and through our trade community. In just 3 months, the revenue is 10x what we would have done in our previous program." -Melissa Beckwith, Director, Revenue Management, Celebrity Cruises[/quote]
  12. Celebrity does have their own Special Needs Department - special_needs@celebrity.com You can also call pre-cruise customer service and have them put a note in your reservation. There's also a form if you want to get very formal: CEL-Special-Needs-Form-Revised-062221 (celebritycruises.com)
  13. About a week and a half ago, I noticed that my MoveUp bids had the "famous" lock - one was pending and could not be changed, the other was marked expired. (I'm currently in an Aft Sky Suite, my bid for a Royal was expired, my bid for a Penthouse was "pending" and unable to be changed. I emailed MoveUp, and was told "your bid is still under review by our Revenue Team. It is possible when seeing this, that your bid is in the process of being approved or denied. Please allow some time to see if the status changes." Yesterday, I noticed that both bids are back to pending - and can be edited! This is for Beyond on Feb 26. So, apparently the "lock" is not a lock. Not upset at all, but thought people would like to know that until you see "accepted" - your bid is not accepted. 🙂
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