cgolf1

So you complain about Celebrity, but not DCL's prices and their cuts over the years and recently? We still look and their prices are way over Celebrity, at least for the inside rooms we now book. Around 2015 DCL basically doubled the concierge room prices. We were in them at the lower prices in 2013 and 2014, but we were going back to insides even if they lowered those rates for 2015. I guess it is possible that with the retreat price increases that X has surpassed DCLs prices.

Nope, but my luck they would hit a monster wave while I was getting my tattoo🤣

My point was it is just a plate filler, and I would rather have more main than plate fillers. The only exception might be asparagus lol. It is easy to drop more veggies or mashed on the plate to allow for a smaller cut of meat or fish, but still make the plate look properly full. I am just glad that it sounds like they added stuff like prime rib back now. Not sure if our February trip was rock bottom, or if the definition changes monthly.

I guess I am missing something here about mashed potatoes, and yes I grew up in the Midwest eating mashed potatoes my whole life. Shouldn't we complain about baked potatoes too? They are even easier to make and look terrible on a plate. Isn't throwing some extra broccoli, green beans, asparagus, carrots, etc the same thing? All of the above are super easy, even I can make them. Or is it a how it looks on the plate thing that asparagus, etc, looks better than mashed potatoes? Basically they are filling the plate to cover for smaller portions, or the lack of prime rib and other stuff that was missing from our menus back in February.

We were briefly tempted to do a 3rd cruise this year and found VV to be above the price point we want to pay for a cruise, but we are pretty thrifty so I know that doesn't apply to all. Like others have said their itineraries really didn't jump out at us either. That said X didn't fair well either in that search and we would have ended up on HAL or most likely Princess. I have a coworker going on VV soon, so I will be interested to hear what he thought of it. VV sounds like an experience heavy cruise with an active nightlife. We go on a cruise to relax and not do much other than puzzle books and a few of the ships activities and shows, so VV may not be a fit for us, but we will try it some day.

We are now looking into a Princess cruise, to try them out as well. If the price is right we will book it as we like the itinerary. This is not a reflection on X, just that we want to see how many good options are out there for us. We looked at Oceania and Viking and those prices are more than what we want to pay for a cruise. The key for us trying lines like HAL and Princess, is to see how they handle my food allergy and if they do well, they will be added to our search list. Currently the list is X, RCCL, and HAL. We do look at Disney, but saw that a 2 night cruise in an inside room was 1700$ which is insane, so they have pretty much fallen off our list for price and other reasons.

We aren't, especially since I have heard that the food options have bounced back a little since our trip in February on the Edge (think we were around the rock bottom point before many complaints altered it some). Also, our trip on HAL showed us that it was an option for us, but not a primary option, Celebrity beat it in many ways. That said since we sail insides or oceanviews and don't do AI or eat in specialty dining, so far the changes have been minimal for us. I also am not going to stop giving X my money because of changes to other classes of rooms that have no impact on us or that we will never book again. We tried suite class twice and it was not a style of cruising that we enjoyed. Once the changes really impact the class of rooms we sail we will jump like we did on Disney, but to what I don't know since all lines seem to be transitioning.

I can't speak to suites, which it seems most are interested in, but for insides in 2023, X was the superior line for us. I did enjoy our HAL cruise a lot, but now that I am further away from it, HAL wasn't even close. I would sail HAL again for the itinerary. One plus for HAL, was the Vaandam was an amazing small ship that we really liked including the full circuit promenade deck.

I was impressed with HAL's MDR food on the Vaandam this year. The dishes were well cooked, presented, and seasoned. I would say it was pretty even overall to Celebrity MDR dishes this year. One big miss though was never got escargot on HAL, don't believe they had it. For us the HAL buffet lacked compared to Celebrity with very little change day to day, especially for me being gluten free. I ended up getting a burger or hot dog each day with sides from the buffet. Also HAL ran out of gluten free hamburger buns with I think 2 days left lol. Hal seemed to be running their provisions pretty close, as the also ran out of amaretto with a few days to go to.

No I don't think it should be split, but I do find that there is a lot more impact now with the changes to the retreat guests vs folks like us that sail insides. With the price increases, butler changes, etc the retreat guests are seeing major changes, and that shows in the topics. There is one though that does drive me crazy, is the what are other option threads, that pretty much just list other luxury lines or talk about the retreat areas of the various lines. I just scroll past for the most part now. I just understand that as someone that has sailed insides for years, that not many of us post on this board. Many may read, but very few seem to post.

You aren't wrong on that point. I apologize for mixing up a few points. So if X raises the price, the Ops original point, the people looking to book at a price at or equal or higher to the true luxury lines will expect that level of service. The retreat threads seem to be a mix of some looking to book, but mostly already booked. We learned with Disney that they easily take perks away once you are booked, and we eventually left. Unfortunately they are free to take away as they choose, rarely do they ever add anything. The really crappy part is that if it is after final payment we have zero recourse.

First off, like everyone else is saying, price won't fix the people issue, and could potentially make it worse, or have people that would now sail that have a much higher expectation of the service they will receive and they will be upset that they are not getting it. Heck, we are seeing that now, especially at the retreat level. For us, who are quiet people, we are very price conscious because of where we started from, and always will be. Yes we can afford to go to the Galapagos, but then on our yearly cruises we still book inside rooms. It is mostly to save money for the future, but also because when we did splurge on a couple of retreat level rooms, we found we didn't like that level of service, so we backed down to the insides and were content again. We love what Celebrity offers, especially on the gluten free end, but there will be a point for us when it becomes to much to pay for too little. I will say seeing HAL this year, yes on their smallest ship, Celebrity had them beat in so many ways that it isn't that close, though I would gladly sail HAL again. Disney however we will likely never go back to due to the same issue that is starting to happen with X and other lines, I just hope they don't go as far as Disney did.

I am really trying to decide at what point the cuts will be too much. In the past when we sailed Disney we used to want to keep our costs below 130-150 a night per person, and at the end we generally sailed insides. For Disney that per person number didn't include taxes and port fees. Now that we have done RCCL and Celebrity we have had no issue doing that, even out into 2025. Since we don't drink much and don't use the web onboard, the all included option doesn't add anything for us, so we try to book cruise only. This February onboard the Edge, the cruises we looked at on the Beyond and Eclipse were under 120 a night per person after taxes and port fees were applied for inside rooms, we really overpaid for the mouse. We ended up on the Eclipse. While we have cruised cheaper from time to time, we are very comfortable with these numbers because they are less than what we used to pay on Disney. I guess this is why I am not getting worked up yet. Yes they menu options were less on this last cruise, but it was still good food. Celebrity was still much better than HAL in 2023, so we will be sticking with Celebrity as first choice. We don't have a mainline celebrity cruise booked in 2024, because we are doing the Galapagos on the Expedition. We make look later in 2024 for a last minute deal on X, RCCL or HAL to get a second cruise in.

On the edge in February, the live music choices around the ship were a lot less than in the past. Also the quality was much lower. Missed the rooftop garden singers.

Yes, because up until now it was basically the suite level that was seeing the changes. The cookie thing is the first to impact us with an inside view. The mdr wasn't what it used to be in February, but the food was good. I tried to be honest in my review for both my X and HAL cruises this year.

So as someone who is not gluten free by choice, eating gluten causes a lot of issues for me, this is disappointing to see only one GF option. On the Edge in February there were multiple along with the coconut macaroons. Perhaps like I was told on a social site that can't be mentioned maybe food allergy people shouldn't sail anymore.

Those are amazing, especially for those of us on a gluten free diet. We usually would grab 2 or 3 at a time and they would put them in a bag for us and we had a nice snack when we needed it.

The gluten free cakes that I had on the Edge this year were not bad at all, but will admit some were better than others. My issue is that I just really like buttercream frosting, and if a little heavy on the sugar all the better. So most cakes for me that use the other odd tasting frostings are a challenge for me.

I was 17 in 91 and it’s the pistols (full name may get me sent to the naughty room) for me or even social distortion. Nirvana and Green Day had a few good songs but not my favorites. Though I like zitsky’s idea of Billy Idol. Maybe we can do the alternate lyrics to mony mony that used to get the teachers running to shut the song down at high school dances lmao!

Yes, but there is a big but lol. We bid for and got an upgrade to an oceanview and got it on the same deck as our original inside room, deck 2. When we checked in, they had bumped us to a veranda room, because the deck were were on was the covid isolation rooms. Oh and there were around 600 passengers onboard the Connie/Giant Private Yacht:) One of the best trips we have been on!

Now that we learned to cut the cord when Disney got too expensive and the cuts diminished the value we will leave X for another line when that time comes. I will admit that first jump after our first 12 cruises with Disney was really tough. When we booked our 2025 trip, X was cheaper than the other lines we were interested in, so we stuck with X. There are a couple of things that X does on the food allergy side, that would see us pay a little more for, but not much. Perhaps we booked early enough to not see the increases, or inside rooms are just cheaper on X. Having sailed HAL this year as well, we got to see the other side so to speak and from the inside view X was still better.

I don't agree with the free range changing now, if anything its gone the other way. I remember being a young lad and leaving the house in the morning and not really coming back till supper time. Other than maybe for a snack or bathroom break. We basically did what we wanted and got a few bumps and bruises along the way that we learned not to do something again from. I think in many ways that taught me/us to be more self sufficient and responsible. We also didn't have those screens back then that we are all addicted to now. The well dressed bugs me too. I dress properly for dinner, but the rest of the time in a warm climate, I have on what many would consider gym shorts and a t-shirt and potentially crocs, even in my 40's, so I wouldn't pass the well dressed part of the equation either.

Take out the vast and majority could be right, but it really depended on the cruise. We also became numb to kids running down the hallways, etc and still are. It depends on what there definition of behaving poorly is. I am guessing it is a lot different than mine, I see kids running down the hallways as kids being kids, others that is the end of the world. Another example, on our HAL cruise, 2 of the handful of kids onboard were doing cannonballs and jumping in the indoor pool having a blast with their grandparents, some would see that as behaving very poorly. So to them a kid cutting in front of them or talking when they shouldn't, or just not dressing nice enough could bother them. Honestly though kids now days aren't as bad as people make them out to be. Hold a door for kids and people that are older and see what reaction you get. So far I have gotten friendlier responses from the kids. I think we all forget how wild and crazy we all were back when we were kids, I wish I could recapture that:)

To the what is Celebrity really targeting? I am not sure it really is an age, but instead a style of cruising. We are fairly boring cruiser, not taking part in white night on X or orange night on HAL, but instead prefer to chill out most of the day doing puzzle books and playing cards and watching the ocean pass. We do enjoy listening to live music around the ship and would love if X would schedule Michael Reddon for our 2025 cruise, but guessing we can't request that;) We also really enjoy going to the shows at night especially if they are really good, and we finally experienced the behind the podium lectures and they were great. With my music tastes ranging from big band, jazz, music from the 50s and 60s, death metal, hair bands, to the latest pop music on the radio, I like good music onboard, but I will say I do like that Celebrity is trending towards more recent music, but I realize that isn't for everyone. So a long winded way of saying we are low key somewhat boring folks that don't drink a lot even when we have the beverage package. For the way we cruise X hits it out of the park. Now if they would just add a tasteful mini golf course to their ships we would be crazy happy. To be fair HAL had a lot of this, but their shows were not a highlight, and they didn't do great in the buffet, especially for folks like me with food allergies. If it matters we are mid to late 40s. As a side note typing this out helped me remember why I love to cruise, vs boring land vacas:)

Having sailed Disney a lot in our early years, it is and it isn't. It depends on the age of the kids, we saw lots of teens running around, but not 6-7 year olds. What we did notice is I think a lot of the parents use the kids club as a babysitter so they can have some time away from the kids to either drink or just have a relaxing moment for themselves, which if your kids really enjoy the clubs that can be a win win. We didn't go that route and did lots of things as a family, why we did the trip in the first place, and our daughter spent some time in the clubs, but not a majority of the day.