Moonarino

I'll definitely keep this in mind, thanks for expanding. Too much is changing way too fast.....

90 minutes is NOT exaggerated at all. We started out with about a 50-minute wait (according to the app), which changed to 30-40 minutes and then stayed there for more than 30-40 minutes, and we ended up being seated an hour and a half later. We talked to a guy using a walker for most of that time. He'd gotten on the waitlist a little earlier. (This was for Cucino del Capitano.) And a 120-minute wait for the Palm dining room (our assigned DR) is no exaggeration either. You weren't there. I guess I should've taken a couple of screenshots. Again part of the problem is no human interaction at all until we're notified of a table. Then if we didn't lilke that table, we had to cancel and go back to the bottom of the waitlist. Literally. NO options, no consideration at all on that level. I do not mind using my phone when it's worth something. I'm forced to use it all the time in daily life. The first time we used an app for dining was on Conquest several years ago and that worked fine, maybe 15 minutes waiting, cute little pop-up and we could speak to a hostess before being led into the DR. There was no hostess or maitre'd on Mardi Gras, for all practical purposes, no welcome desk/podium, zero. There was a cluster of 3-4 people in the entrance doing essentially nothing except helping people with the app, early in the cruise. I don't know about days later because we gave up after the second night.

Comparing the New Orleans parking garage (10 year ago) to Port Canaveral (very recently), New Orleans was a breeze to get into, and then to get an elevator down to the terminal entrance - which was RIGHT THERE when we stepped out of the garage. The convenience costs more of course, and I've used plenty of off-port parking lots. But I would do PONO again in a heartbeat.

You can do it. But (see my above warning) your bags might not be in the terminal when you get there. They unload bags by zone, earliest zones (time slots) first, etc. (This was on Mardi Gras just last week.)

I'm sure if you don't "enroll" in digital debark you'll be assumed as Express. If you select digital you'll be sent the tags and you'll have to pick a time window. You can't do it in advance of your cruise, if that's what you're asking. I don't remember how far into the cruise before the prompt for digital debark started showing, but there was plenty of time to get it done. After you click to sign up and select all in your party, you'll be offered a list of time windows. WARNING: If you wait too long, ALL the earlier slots will likely be gone. Also a warning, experienced on Mardi Gras last week: They were very slow getting bags into the terminal. We got off ahead of our window (for health reasons) but still had to wait 40-45 minutes for our "Zone" of luggage to be unloaded and stacked in all those long aisles. They wouldn't let us into that area till all bags were set out. But also note, Mardi Gras holds 5200 passengers. Other ships probably won't have that problem.

Thanks hcat, and that's exactly why I asked. As mentioned, we sailed Silhouette 18 months ago and there was barely a mention of the app (relatively speaking). Two years later, who knows what might have changed.

Thanks for that. I should've added, my #1 reason for posting this is to avoid the same problems on our next cruise. I figured some detail would help.

Yep. I had also booked Enchanted back in 2022, but decided against it partly because the medallion seemed to be a bit much (from what I'd read in these boards). Good to know it's avoidable.

"Come at certain times" would've been workable for us, if not the fact that the longer one waited, the longer the wait time got. 100% truth, we saw wait times up to 120+ minutes on the app for our assigned dining room. And then get a bad table.....

My 10-day on Celebrity November 2022 didn't cost a lot more. It seems the trick is to book far ahead, a year or better if possible. I saw how much higher the prices got over the months after my booking. Yeah Guy's Burgers was one of our more enjoyable meals. Good shrimp at the Seafood Shack too. We ended up eating there 3-4 times after giving up on the sit-down restaurants.

Thanks, love that last. I'm an old IT pro and appreciate tech, but definitely NOT when it gets in the way of relaxation.

Thanks. I generally like to connect with others - at times - but not have it forced on me, and my lady is even more that way. (Edit to clarify because I initially misread that part of your comment.) I do remember on Silhouette in November 2022 that many tables were closer together. But when it was too squeezed in, we were able to ask for a different table and got it. When the app assigns tables, there's no help at all beyond "canceling" the table and going back to the end of the line.

Too much for you I guess. "Drama" after laying out $3k in total for our worst cruise ever, where dining should've been our most enjoyable aspect. I don't feel the tinest bit guilty.

Several days after returning from a cruise on the "fabulous" Mardi Gras, I'm still cringing at how much of a let-down it was. Too much too explain (too many things wrong), but after defending Carnival for many years I just might be done with them. One Big Reason was having to depend 100% on CCL's Hub App for dining. We could not get seated without using the app. So whatever personal touches Carnival might've had left was banished to the dungeons because of that. Specifically, getting an actual Table For 2 was pretty much impossible. Both nights, after a long-to-very-long wait (about 90 minutes the second night, after the app had told us 40-50 minutes), we were led to a "table-for-2" that was lined up so closely (inches apart) with other 2-seaters that it was really a table for TWELVE - and after waiting so long for uncharacteristally lousy food (and very limited choices) - the two of us are still reeling. So... what problem does an app actually solve, beyond reducing staff by a handful of people? If we'd had the luxury of talking to a real person when we checked in for dining, we could've specified that we wanted an actual table for 2. Instead it was far more like herding a few hundred mindless sheep. And there were a lot of people complaining about it. We talked to quite a few, while we were waiting... waiting... waiting....... TMI maybe. Just needed to clarify the major point of my concerns. So, in recent experience, have others experienced this kind of meltdown on Celebrity because of an App?

The basic answer to your question is no, it's (still) not likely that X will be a prime target for spring breakers. They might be trying to court younger cruisers as phoenix said, but it could take a good while for them to catch up (if they ever will). Reputation is what it is, and Celebrity is not that. Possibly over-optimistic, but I'd be willing to bet money on it. Two Novembers ago we thoroughly enjoyed the quiet, relaxing atmosphere on our 10-day Silhouette cruise. Of course as others have mentioned, the longer the cruise, the better the odds for avoiding spring break insanity. After 16 years of cruising, Celebrity is our first choice for an almost-guaranteed pleasant and relaxing cruise. I'm here in the X forums today because after our most recent cruise on Carnival, I'm seriously thinking of changing our next Carnival booking to Celebrity, even it if costs me. Edit to add: Thinking back on all the ways we enjoyed Silhouette a year and a half ago, I'm even more adament about recommending Celebrity over the others you mentioned. Just getting a cup of (very good) coffee was entirely effortless and thoroughly stress-free.