sptrout

I had beef nearly every evening. Beef, and lamb, are usually safe items. One thing missing though (maybe always missing) the size is seldom not mentioned. This could be just my bad memory. 

Just now, WonderMan3 said:

Sounds like a shrimp...

Very small shrimp.

45 minutes ago, RichYak said:

OP specifically referred to changes to lunch and dinner menus. Did you notice any changes to the menus?

Sorry, but I missed the OPs intent of this thread. In any case I cannot remember previous Luminae menus. However, as I danced around this subject earlier the menus can be "word-smithed" to say about anything. Items sounded good but delivery was lacking all our previous Luminae experiences. IMO no wow factor as in previous years.

Lobster is a good example. My wife had lobster in three restaurants and even if they were cold water lobsters they were so small that they did not spend much time in the water. None were bigger than my thumb. 

Anyway, in my opinion the menus have not changed that much.

We were on the Beyond last week staying in a S1 cabin (corner aft, deck 12). Both of us noticed considerable food cutbacks. The portion sizes in Luminae were reduced, with just very small servings of sides (veggies, etc.), the sides that were included were more for looks than complete sides. The biggest cutback was in the size of the desserts, nothing all that special and many times could be found the next day in the buffet. I need not need big desserts, but the reductions were obvious. Note that the menus may look the same as previous Cruises, but that can be deceiving. 

As usual the service was great and very friendly. The food cuts, even though deep, were not bad enough to cancel our 11 day Beyond cruise January 2024.

We also went to Eden and Le Voyage. Eden was so so, but with nice view. Le Voyage was outstanding and was the special meal of the week.

22 hours ago, dreamer321 said:

I'm sailing on Beyond starting next Sunday.

 

 

I checked the latest room inventory:

2 Iconic Suites

1 Aqua Sky Suite

1 Sky Suites

4 Aqua Class staterooms

6 Concierge staterooms

1 Sunset Veranda staterooms

5 Edge Staterooms with Infinite Veranda

1 Porthole Veranda staterooms

38 Oceanview staterooms

95 Deluxe Inside staterooms

 

154 rooms available => implies we are sailing 3260 (advertised capacity) - 308(based on double occupancy) = ~2952 passengers, about 90%, slightly more than the cruise that just finished where Capt. Kate said they were sailing at 84% capacity.

Just curious, but how were you able to get these detailed numbers?

16 minutes ago, Redtravel said:

Don’t count on reduced capacity.  If it happens, that’s good. If somebody wants to book a cabin, Celebrity will sell it.  In June, we were told that our cruise was reduced capacity.  It wasn’t reduced. It was crowded.  Spouse got Covid.  Not sure if we will ever book on Celebrity again.  

Agree with the others. You cannot avoid COVID unless you live in a bunker 30 miles from no where. I rather have the flu than COVID, flu is the real danger now.

5 minutes ago, asnaleah said:

Other than doing a mock booking, is there a way to see available cabins?

No. Mock bookings will give you an idea, but TAs hold blocks of rooms until?? Try different TAs websites and you will likely see different cabins available. 

The above comment subject to immediate changes the closer to sail date.

Off Beyond today, Captain Kate yesterday said that the passenger count was 84%.

Great picture! Rough seas LOL.

Let me add that there are two lounge chairs, two chairs and one small table. A lot of room.

I would guess at about 50/50 covered vs uncovered. For various unrelated reasons we have not been on the balcony that much.

Beautiful cabin and view of the wake. Just be prepared to walk to about anything. It is a distance to the first set of elevators and a long walk to the second set of elevators. IMO this ship needs three sets of elevators, although crowds have not been a problem and per Captain Kate there are over 4,000 passengers on board.

We need to look into this!

We are on the Beyond this week in cabin 12284, which is an aft corner S1 suite, deck 12. Love the cabin but agree that it is a long walk to the Retreat areas. We need the walk, but are averaging 7500 steps a day and not leaving the ship.

One issue that the cabin Attendant said was common is the smell of sewer fumes in the bathroom and even reduced levels in the main part of the cabin. We also noticed the same smell on deck 3 in the hall.

As soon as they become available in your Cruise Planner. We are on the Beyond in couple weeks and I booked two SRs months ago. At least one is sold out now. 

A good article published this morning by PC Magazine (Internet version) that explains how much money Musk has spent to support Ukraine. $80M is being reported mainly for ground dishes so the folks on the ground can have some Internet connectivity. A large, unplanned for, number of dishes could seriously degrade throughput which is usually the real problem with digital communication systems. You can have all the signal strength in the world but if the backend cannot handle the data then the system can really slow down.

 https://www.pcmag.com/news/elon-musk-spacex-has-spent-80m-to-support-ukraine-with-starlink

As has been reported the past couple weeks, Starlink is having capacity problems even for land customers. They need a lot more satellites to correct capacity problems. Until they increase the number of satellites they will continue to have problems. I am surprised that RCG did not check these kinds of possible problems out before jumping in to a company wide change. It could be a long time before Starlink can correct capacity problems. I hope that RCG waits before converting anymore ships.

I just booked the Thermal Suite for our January Beyond cruise and it is still $119/p. Confusing booking requirements; must book each person separately and choose time for day 1. Could not book the same time for both of us and even though I booked two times 15 minutes apart (1 & 1:15 PM) the final conformation shows 1 & 7:30 PM. I understand that the IT booking system may be up to its usual standards, at least I hope it is. I also agree that $119 is a great price, which makes things a little more questionable. I guess we will find out in January.

Just an FYI - - If you have a Samsung Galaxy phone Samsung makes the "SmartTag & SmartTag+" devices that have capabilities similar to the Apple Tags. I do not have either at this time so "no dog in the hunt", but since we both have Samsung S21 Ultra Phones I will likely be buying the Samsung Tags. Both are available on Amazon or Samsung's website. 

We had this cabin for a 10 day cruise this past January. It was without question the best cabin that we have ever had. The poles were never a problem at all. As for noise from above, nearly zero; probably fewer than 5 times the entire 10 nights. I am a very light sleeper, and even an earlier riser, and the noise was so seldom and brief, it was a non-issue. My DW can sleep through anything so no problem for her either. She also has CIDP (a cousin to MS) and has similar problems making night time runes. She never mentioned the poles at all. The cabin is wider IMO than most SS cabins so that makes avoiding the poles even easier and makes the cabin very spacious. 

Remember that even though there are a few tables/chairs directly above you, they are at the very aft porting of the outdoor buffet sitting area and few people ever make it that far.

We had a corner aft cabin, deck 12, on the Reflection for ten days in mid-January. I could count one hand the number of times that we heard any noise from anywhere. Would rebook this cabin without any reservation. No problems with washing equipment either.

Although all the way aft, the aft elevators are not that far which take you straight down to the suite restaurant. It was a walk to the front of the ship for the main theater and the Persian Gardens, which we bought for the entire cruise. Great cabin!

A quick price check of our 1/23 Beyond cruise in a SS1 corner aft Sky Suite showed a $2200 increase for a SS1 midship. No moves/repricing for us. 

If you usually booked Princess' mini-suites, either standard or Club Class, you will see a big difference with Celebrity's similar sized suites called "Sky Suites".  As noted the sizes are very close to the same, but the amenities and other perks blow Princess away. If comparing these two classes just be careful that even though they are near size, much better overall experience on Celebrity.

Princess' Spas, at least in the Royal Class blows Celebrity (pre-"E"-Class) and other lines away. MSC is the only line that we have found that is even close.

45 minutes ago, Jeremiah1212 said:

 

I see his channel pop up on YouTube and that sound effect pops into my head....whompppp whompppp whomppppp. Not sure the guy has had an enjoyable trip or one that met his expectations yet 😳 Alas, while I don't depend on ship WiFi to vlog my trips, I've yet to have 'unusable' WiFi. 

 

I also don't see any reference at all to the packages changing names...

I am not sure if you hit one of Don's video or not, but his opening music is very low key. There are several cruise VBloggers and only one that I have found that has an upbeat opening; "The Shiplife" and he rarely uses it anymore (no opening at all). I guess I could add "La Lido Loca" with Tony as the host with some light music. But, his opening theme music is nothing like you describe.

Anyway, back to Don for a moment. He cruises a lot at least by my standards, well over 100 on many cruise lines so his experiences count. Don has a second YouTube Channel called "Just Don" that is more personal and not about cruising. Don is, and has been, fighting Stage IV cancer for several years. He has mentioned the number of operations that he has had and it is amazing that he can even still move at all not to mention traveling non-stop (now, sort of post COVID). So, give Don a break he works hard and does provide a lot of good and fun content, but with a big hammer hanging over him. 

I am on a Keto diet (blown all to h*** on my recent cruise), so for lunch I ask for the burger without the bun. I received just two plain patties no bacon, cheese or other Keto friendly items. When you eat just the meat then you find out how it really tastes, I would take a Smashburger.

The "Vlogger Don" mentioned earlier, is on the Apex in a Sky Suite so he has the premium wifi package. He has a special video where he blasted the wifi as nearly useless for him, which requires uploading videos for is website, and for communications with his clients. He said it was taking hours to upload his videos and while that was in process he was not able to do anything else. What made his problems even worse for Celebrity than what it normally would have been was that he made a switch from the Sky Princess to the Apex the day same day (14 days total). He noted that the Sky Princess' wifi was blazing fast. He did not understand how the most expensive ship built to date (according to him) would have such poor wifi/Internet.

We were on the Reflection in January for two weeks in a Sky Suite (corner aft) and the wifi worked very good for us. But, we did not stream any videos just standard Internet surfing stuff.