canuckinindia

Seems you can do either. Call it Traditional Boarding or Select Boarding and as always Suite guests can skip the line [emoji6]

Could be linked to optimizing cleaning of floors and rooms on a deck wise basis. Reduces the time people might be waiting onboard for their rooms to be ready.

Perfect thanks everyone and jeveers will definitely try the turkey

Is the Mast Grill open on Embarkation day for lunch when you board?

paulajj

especially for things that are part of their rotation and they have (meaning they have the supplies to make it) can't see any harm in chatting up the attendant and mentioning it, who knows as long as your friend keeps buying it, it may stay in heavy rotation during the cruise.

at worst you'll have a nice chat.

Thanks ian, I had confused Michaels Club with Cellar masters it seems. Looks like a nice variety.

Am i correct to understand that since Michaels Club has now become a Suite Lounge on Silhouette that there is no longer a craft beer bar?

If I was interested in sampling a nice range of beers, is there a venue on board where that is still possible?

When you book onboard I believe Celebrity offers the Evergreen 123Go is that available on TAs if so it would give a drinks package option.

People are talking around the real issue which is MDR users invading speciality restaurants.

An included offering for PH and RS suite guests, they are being forced to deal with these venues being frequented by high spending MDR users who have a sense of entitlement. They have a dining room (the MDR), what makes them think that just because they can splash their cash around they have the right to displace us.

What's worse non-suite users can leave their MDR seats vacant and pay on a per use basis for the speciality restaurant they want when they want, while Celebrity charges suite users a significant upfront premium to allow them access to all the restaurants at virtually all times which includes a complimentary flogging by Cruise Critic users as an amuse bouche. Sorry ignore the last point, that one actually makes sense.

Gracie115 in the end pricing of how much it costs to bring a guest maybe used to correct the inbalance since as long as invited guests don't rise to a level the creates delays in seating having a lower price to bring your guests is actually an added benefit to suite guests

Seems the solution is to remove the divisions which has the effect of expanding the pot.

MDR

In theory if the entire dining room was a single class, similar to Select today but with the following option.

You can reserve a table (for one or all days) and have your meals consistently in the same zone OR same table if your seating time is the first seating. Any guest who does not arrive within 15 (or 20 or 30 not sure exact number) minutes of their seating time will have their table released.

Effect is allowing those who want a fixed early seating (which always seems in demand) to be accommodated in the dining room, those wanting later fixed timings may not get the exact same table but if they wish they could stay attached to the same wait staff team in their zone.

The select diners have added flexibility since the pool of seats has been expanded and the dead zones that currently occur in fixed when people are dining elsewhere can be filled in.

To me the only real compromise is with people who want non-early reservations and want to sit in the identical table every night.

Luminae

Essentially a speciality restaurant caliber facility which is included for Suite guests. Suite passengers can invite at a charge (comparable to other speciality restaurants) guests to dine with them.

I would think the only thing that needs to happen is on the very first meal a proper introduction of the fact that they are permitted to additionally order dishes from the MDR if they wish.

Blu

Dining in Aqua should be treated similar to Luminae. Complimentry for Aqua class who should also be able to invite guests at a charge (comparable to bottom end of the speciality restaurants).

Dining in Aqua should count against the two complimentary meals that are provided to Suite guests with any additional meals being chargeable at the same rate as guests of Aqua.

Digital

All these reservations should be doable on the TV or even onboard with terminals, iPads etc and all you should have to do is when you reach the restaurant if there is a line be able to tap your shipboard card on a reader so it knows you have arrived for your reservation.

While suite guests shouldn't bump others a digital system like this could keep an allowance of spots (in blu, MDR and speciality restaurants) until relatively late (say midday day) which would then be released back into the general pool. This gives preference for being able to make a booking but not last minute standing at the restaurant reception.

Conclusion

This was what I could come up with in 30 minutes so surely there will be some flaws but I assume Celebrity can do much better.

Also if they continue to struggle to get a decent take up in Luminae which creates an unappealing 1/2 empty environment they should maybe look at solutions including maybe reciprocating with limited Aqua class access to Luminae on a chargeable basis comparable to invited guests. Makes it a unique speciality experience that only Suite guests (complimentary) and Aqua guests (chargable). This should not be part of any dining package etc, but a pure separate add-on.

The hope is to create some built-in incentives and disincentives against people not using their primary dining rooms, while still giving Suite passengers added benefits and creating a framework that should allow Aqua class to enjoy the privilege of Blu more consistently, since Suite passengers will have a small resistance point beyond a few initial meals in Blu. All of this around a MDR that can better handle it's volumes by creating multiple experiences within the same space.

Currently booked in A1 with a block of adjoining rooms on Silhouette. If one or more of our rooms were to get upgraded to Suites we would be perfectly happy but getting moved to alternate A1s we would rather not.

Wanted to make sure that from A1 the only upgrade is suites, there is no other non-suite category that is considered to be superior.

Users who received calls for purchasing an upgrade by Celebrity were any of you booked with a TA or all directly with Celebrity?

Want to know if going with a TA may preclude getting that phone call

Evangaline assume Celebrity didn't have overnights in Istanbul, but upon review they have decided that the experience (and yes their own profits also from higher demand for these cruises) will be higher by introducing them.

So they announce that in 2018 they will commence. You or someone else in your situation would be howling that why couldn't they make the change now so you could also get the experience on your booked cruise, since in your view it is so clearly a great idea and really what does it cost them. Shouldn't they reward their long time customers who sometimes book years in advance with this little bonus. Why don't they care about their long time customers, clearly they just care about new customers booking future cruises.

Clearly the issue isn't that they made a change its that people have decided they don't like the change and some how Celebrities judgment on what they term an improvement is flawed because it doesn't match your own.

Ghstudio definitely believe that the move is a + in terms of profitability for Celebrity but I suspect as listed that it's more than straight cost of fuel.

The differentiation of having overnights is a marketing plus and will help Celebrity fill rooms at a time where everyone is competing hard for them.

Olive1950, waiting till 2018 is an eternity for something that you are physically able to do within a few months and that you believe will create long term value and be viewed by many as a positive.

Consider the following, once Celebrity has released schedules for 2018 with Overnights in the schedule they have indicated to the market that they believe that to be a superior offering but simply aren't offering it yet. Existing cruisers still feel slightly short changed and worst still others find the idea compelling and seek out alternate cruiselines that are offering this immediately (or jump in and modify their schedules to integrate them) thus stealing Celebrity's thunder and customers.

If you believe its an upgrade you do it at as quickly as possible and you don't wait.

AtleeH your point is perfectly valid and they should have found a way to accomodate the naysayers in some fashion although I doubt that would involve cruises to Bonair since they don't seem to be cruising their anymore after this change. I suspect that they avoided it by simply saying its within the framework of them being permitted to change ports, destinations, etc... rather then open themselves up to demands by saying they have done anything wrong. To be clear for those who this issue is now a big deal, will likely find no level of compensation and accommodation to be sufficient, other than Celebrity running the boat on the exact same days, with the exact same itinerary which is no longer going to happen.

chemmo

I don't think i've missed the point at all, the point I was making was that there is no perfect option of when to shift if once they decided to make the change.

If you are improving the experience and in the end they are the judge of that for whole, while you are the judge of it for your own experience then waiting only until new cruises in 2017 is simply depriving the experience they can offer to everyone until then so there is no 'change' to those who already booked.

If after lots of studying their market and what was being generally preferred Celebrity changed one of the restaurants on the boat into a new format with lower costs (or free) and food that came from a Michelin starred or celebrity chef, you would still find no shortage of people complaining that this restaurant and some specific dish they want to eat at it is the key of why they booked the cruise and why could Celebrity not wait and make the change until after the cruise they were on. While the other x% of people would have been just happy to have this new improved experience.

I know all the reasons that someone can say its not the same, but in theend nothing is clear cut and i'm not sure if a single port changing is really over the line but in the end it requires judgement and i'm not so sure Celebrity’s judgement is as off as people are making it out to be.

Chemmo I do hope you enjoy your India trip, having likely visited many of the ports your going to I hope you enjoyed them as much as I have. If circumstances result in you missing one of the ports for any reason anticipated or otherwise don't let it take away from the great experiences you can have at the others.

Having reviewed a number of threads related to the issue of Caribbean overnight stays wanted to share my own analysis. They say sometime its best to see things from the other side.

Handling of the Announcement

On the Cruise Critic board, Celebrity is perceived to have botched the roll-out of the Caribbean overnights especially in the eyes of avid cruisers who tend to book cruises well in advance and likely are more port sensitive given the repeated visits to some of them. Specifically it Bonaire which has less than two dozen cruise visits a year is the biggest point of contention since repeat cruisers wanted to experience it but the overall lack on infrastructure of big cruise ship centric destinations (shops, high capacity tour companies they can work with, scale to allow for some staff in the port) was also what likely made it the obvious cut.

Still I think that once Celebrity decided to make the change there was no perfect solution since to short a fuse for shift over meant disrupting a large number of existing bookings, while on the converse a long lead in time would have resulted in many people deferring bookings if they see a real differentiation and value in Celebrity’s overnight program and some people feeling they missed the experience. Don’t forget that just because you don’t like the idea of overnights doesn’t mean to many people the idea of being more embedded in the culture of the Caribbean by spending an evening on one of the islands but having the benefits of the cruise ship which might be perceived as a huge positive especially for a first time cruiser. In the end if your marketing this as an upgraded experience then the safer approach is do it sooner and stand behind it proudly stating that you’ve improved the experience for all.

Why do overnights?

Some of the items below have varying degrees of benefit, not saying any one item alone justifies but collectively it could

• Marketing value from being an innovator by offering more overnights in the Caribbean than other cruise lines. In a market where all offers are starting to muddle together, any differentiation you can offer needs to be looked at.
  
• Ability to upsell more experiential excursions not possible in single days or without the evenings.
  
• A new experience to offer long time cruisers who may feel that the same old itineraries are getting stale
  
• Lower load factors on the restaurants with passengers eating on shore for the evening but this is offset by likely weaker sell through in the specialty restaurants
  
• Reduction in costs related to docking, my understanding is that many (not all) ports don’t actually charge the boats on a daily basis but essentially for docking and undocking. So port charges are same for a single day or an overnight
  
• Don't need to support added relationships with vendors in a low frequency port which may provide some added streamlining in operations
  
• Depending if they dock overnight in a port where they are permitted to keep operating the casino and shops (possible in some jurisdictions I suspect) they may not see a loss on this front either.
  
• Some time off the boat for the staff. Talking to staff it was clear they really appreciated the overnight in Venice and Barcelona (and it wasn’t about the cities) on our med cruise because generally the boat does slow down and they can have a relaxed evening out themselves. Happy staff can have numerous spillover benefits in terms of the general mood of everyone on board.
  

I realize all of the above may only further annoy those who feel they have been wronged by Celebrity because they lost out on a port they feel they were committed to receiving from them. I can just say that in my view Celebrity is trying (or at least marketing) a unique experience with the overnights and one of the best aspects of cruising for me is that they take care of things and I can just go with the flow. Look past the annoyance and try to find your own positive from the new possibilities this experience brings.

Ages is a bit in the air, most likely a group in their 30s but it could extend to include a few of the parent couples interested in new years in Florida.

I am conscious of price but appreciate you get what you pay for and it sounds like the fireworks experience is something worth seeing.

BlueHerons you mentioned watching from a boat? Was that one of the event boats or something private? Looked at two event boats but wonder if they will be overcrowded or enjoyable?

speaking of juices is it possible to get mimosas in Aqua with breakfast?

the egg dishes sound the same as the MDR but the parfaits seem like a nice touch which i don't recall from the MDR

Breakfast in Blu is relaxing. After being seated, there will be servers coming around with coffee, juices, and a nice selection of Danish and croissants.

 

My favorite breakfast would be an omelet or egg white omelet with your choice of add-ins (I choose lots of vegetables). Egg dishes are served with a side of grilled asparagus, mushrooms and potatoes. Just a few, but I look forward to them. I like the parfaits that are on the menu, too, layered with fruit, yogurt and granola.

Previous cruise with Celebrity primarily had the buffet breakfast due to port heavy med cruise but did try the MDR twice over two weeks for breakfast.

This time doing a caribbean in Aqua, and wanted to know the differences between what breakfast you get in Aqua vs MDR?

Also if anyone has any pictures of the Aqua Breakfast menu or meals would be appreciated.

Have a January 3 cruise from FLL (Celebrity Silhouette) with an extended friends and family group (dozen rooms).

Some people are thinking of coming down early maybe (6-10) and doing a short stay over new years eve till the cruise.

Wanted to get feedback on how new years eve is in either Miami or FLL. Degrees of crazy so I can prepare people for what they might expect.

While budget is a bit or an issue we are okay spending in the 200s for a room night maybe more for something special. Alternatively looking at airbnbing a villa but was uncertain especially given new years eve.

Any feedback appreciated.

Taking a cruise in January 2016 stopping in St. Maarten wanted to know if anyone else has had experience using the T-Mobile Simple Choice Plan there?

Online I can see St. Martin but not St. Maarteen, anyone know if they work on a common or separate cell system?

Also you get 2g access free within the plan but in some countries you end up getting better speeds (3g/4g) anyone with experience using their service your feedback appreciated.

Taking a cruise in January 2016 stopping in St. Kitts wanted to know if anyone else has had experience using the T-Mobile Simple Choice Plan there?

I know the country is covered which means I will get atleast 2g access free within my plan but in some countries you end up getting better speeds (3g/4g) anyone with experience using their service your feedback appreciated.

DYKWIA if anyone is worthy of Elite it is you, I think you should contact the head office. If after hearing your experience they don't instantly upgrade you to Elite Zenith Alpha Plus, I think its clear then they aren't worthy of the title Mödêrn Lùxúry