beltsbear

Dinner with a sub!  Seen from the Concerto dining room at 8:30pm

6 hours ago, k9Rulez said:

Please let us know how the Swannery is.  We are on the June 8th cruise and have planned to go on that excursion too.  Thanks.

It was wonderful!

We are on this ship with you. Going to the Swanary in Portland in a few minutes. 

2 hours ago, MudderBear said:

Just got off the Princess Sun.  OMG what a ship.  We had the plus program and looking back, we wish we had upgraded to premiere.

 

That being said, we are supposed to be on Sapphire next year in Alaska.  As far as dining, is it worth it to get Premiere Vs. Plus?  It seems as though there are only two specialty restaurants, Sabatinos and the Brazilian One.  Am I missing any?  Also, I can't figure out what, besides Alfredo's, would be considered Casual on Sapphire.

 

By the way, we also had reserve dining on The Sun. We have a regular balcony room on Sapphire.

 

Your thoughts would be appreciated.

Premier gives you more internet devices and higher end drinks.  For us, that helps make it worth it. Plus we go to Alfredo’s or sushi for lunch about four times on a 12-14 day cruise. 

6 hours ago, Titan_Cruiser said:

My wife and I have been on several cruises but we have our first Celebrity cruise booked for Sept. We have done lots of excursions in a lot of different ports. In all of those situations I have seen 2-3 total that have a weight restriction. Usually bicycles or segways. We have been trying to find excursions through Celebrity for our next cruise and I am blown away at how many have a 250lb weight limit. Things I have done several places like a sunset cruise on a sailboat. Why would this have a weight limit???  If you over 6 feet and have any size at all you a going to be over 250. 

Do they really enforce these weight limits? I understand for something that involves a piece of equipment (i.e. the bicycle or segway, although I have done both with other cruise lines) that may have a weight limit but a sailboat or catamaran, I just don't understand. 

Been on many celebrity excursions and one of us is above the limit substantially. Never has there been any weighing or denying but there have been surprises. One was on a sailboat in the Canary Islands. We got on dockside… but had to get off via a tiny zodiac. It took up to 3 pax at a time, until it came us. It could have been considered dangerous over 300 lbs. 

helicopter?  You will be weighed. 

one other, royal Caribbean, the crane you can ride on the quantum class ships has a weight limit, and they enforce it. Sad, because it holds like 10, so bigger could go if it was less crowded. 
 

On 5/19/2024 at 8:17 AM, Samkitty1 said:

On the Royal only vanilla was allowed for the premiere desserts...It was ok, nothing special. 

If you wanted a scoop of chocolate or pistachio, you had to pay for it.  This policy may have changed since I last sailed.   People have reported being able to order other items instead but that has not been my experience

On the royal in December they would use different flavors of gelato to make the premium desserts when I asked. But they said no to a single scoop of gelato for free.  So I ordered the big premium dessert with my flavor of gelato and asked them to delete the chocolate dip and they did. The next time I asked to delete more of it, and they didn’t. 

33 minutes ago, doghog said:

Princess has the Plus and Premier Beverage Packages. Better than Celebrity's current Classic and Premium Beverage Packages. Princess has more evening entertainment than Celebrity. Princess uses the medallions instead of SeaPass cards. Celebrity's loyalty program is a lot better than Princess. You can't go to your cain when you first get on a Princess ship. Cabins open up at ~1:PM. Smoking is allowed in the Princess casinos at all times. Our experience with service is the same. Food, subjective. Princess ships have shower curtains and not glass doors on their cabin showers. 

Yes, loyalty on celebrity got us a free bag of laundry each 7 days after just five cruises.  That’s not gonna happen till maybe our 12 cruise on princess. 

Been on both many times.  Celebrity feels less crowded. Main dining are similar in quality unless you are used to aqua class, which has better dining then princess. Service seems similar on both lines.  We love celebrity aqua but it simply is just too expensive and now we have done three princess in a row, with princess premier to get the top drink package.  Still there are big variations in both lines, where newer ships are better on both lines. So I would rather be on a celebrity edge class vs a 15 year old princess ship, or a newer princess ship vs an older milenium class celebrity. 

The royal princess had Voss sparkling water in glass for the top tier drink package. 

Just do the stock perks app, they did my credit in 48 hours, it shows up online now. It took five minutes. 

The desserts are a bit much.  This varies ship by ship but on the royal princess they would not just give me the gelato I wanted which was cheaper and easier.  So first time I ordered the big Sundae which is free for me with the gelato flavor I wanted.  The second time I ordered the big sundae without two of its features, no brownies and no coating the glass in chocolate.  They made it as asked. The third time i deleted everything but the gelato but they still put brownies and whipped cream in.  I was on princess premier.  The next time (in two months) , I will further experiment with the Jack Nickelson method of just getting gelato. 

On 3/26/2024 at 12:12 PM, Lady Arwen said:

Reserve Class is nothing like Blu on Celebrity ships.  Reserve Class dining is a roped off portion of the MDR using the same kitchen and menu.  Each night you will be offered a “special” dish which could be an entree, appetizer, salad, etc.  You do not need reservations and the service will be most likely be elevated from the rest of the MDR.  Blu on Celebrity is a separate restaurant with their own kitchen and menus.  No reservations and service is highly elevated.  This restaurant is only available to those sailing in Aqua class or suites.  Big difference.
 

 On Princess, we prefer to forgo the MDR as much as possible and eat in all of the specialty restaurants.  It’s actually much less expensive than Reserve Class and you get much better food and service.  I would only book Reserve Class if it were offered at a sale price.  However, some people enjoy it, so it’s strictly a matter of your expectations and tastes,

Agreed.  In fact Blu is better than MSC Yacht club dining in our opinion.  Probably one of the best non specialty dining on any line.  We miss it as it is now extremely expensive, and we just booked another princess cruise at about half the price per night. 

I have lived in the are for years.  The bridge is important and will be missed, but the marine traffic is essential.  They need to clear the debris like it is wartime.  They can't drag this out over months.  It needs to be done in weeks.  While most people do not get their food from the port, tens of thousands of jobs rely on it, along with fuel and essential industrial/farming equipment.  Two weeks won't ruin things, but two months will cause serious issues.  

A new bridge will of course take years.  But most trucking did not require the key bridge.  It was only required for oversize or hazmat loads, which can go the longer way around the other side of the beltway.  And yes, this will make traffic worse of course.

I am on the Royal with princess premiere.  I can order the fixed menu but nothing else as others have suggested. 

We are on the Royal now, and had $100 casino and $100 shareholders both considered in AUD so we took a haircut on those.  But our travel agent provided credit was given a good exchange rate, and in fact it was larger than we expected   A 13 day cruise is Australia is probably the worst deal for the shareholders credit!  

We have been on five princess cruises. We loved our time on the island but there were some major differences.  The buffet breakfast was unusually bad. No salmon on 2/3 of days, unlike all of our other princess cruises. Poor other choices, little room to eat.  Breakfast in main dining was normal. 

We are finding that ocean terrace is not open for much on port days , cutting the possible uses down greatly.  An opening time of 5pm is frustrating. Despite being premier they only allow us the fixed menu which seams wrong. 
 

alfredos works out much better but we vastly prefer sushi. 

19 hours ago, ALANG said:

Just got off the Celebrity Beyond almost two weeks ago.  Wife and I were in the Retreat  and were disappointed in the experience.  The pricing of the Retreat is insane for the value received.  Luminae was nothing to write home about but the service was very good. We have been sailing Celebrity for 15 years but now they have kicked their loyal customers to the curb with their cutbacks and ridiculous pricing.  So today we booked a 12 day trip in the Virtuosa's YC.  I am expecting a great experience.  Sometimes change is good and this past loyal Celebrity customer is looking forward to this trip.

 

 

We have done six celebrity aqua class cruises and loved them too. But it seems now we are priced out. So we did cruise on the virtuoso in YC in 2021 and loved it.  Service was a little spotty in the YC restaurant but the food was good. But overall YC was wonderful, and the non YC parts of the ship were nice with some issues.  The gym was unusable due to being half the size it should be. The buffet was rather low quality so we stayed in for YC meals for lunch. 

On 12/22/2023 at 9:50 AM, cruise_critical said:

Technically yes, but not to the extent that I was expecting unfortunately.

 

e.g., I'm currently on the Royal and with premier. Ocean Terrace has a fixed menu which is a small bowl of salad, beans, pickes, 2 salmon nigiri, 1 prawn nigiri, 1 tuna nigiri, and spicy tuna aburi roll (8 pcs). There is no other choice or selection that you can or are allowed to have as part of the plus / premier package. (anything differen is charged at ala carte rate) So you can have unlimited of what I've listed (even can order them individually, and not as a set) but nothing else on their menu can be ordered for free. (e.g. can't have any other type of nigiri such as hamachi, octopus etc, nor any of their other rolls or sashimi etc)

 

Alfredos is better, as you can pretty much order anything and everything on the menu, as a 3 course set or in an individual manner as many as you want. (e.g. can just sit in, and order the tiramisu and nothing else, or order 3 pizzas and nothing else etc.) Same for Vines with their limited food menu.

 

 

And ocean terrace is closed on most port days for lunch. We love sushi but have had very limited availability as it’s opening at 5pm most days.

2 hours ago, mike&elena said:

Has anyone cruising this month had any luck getting eggnog (with or without booze) while onboard?  It really wouldn't be Christmas without a good 'nog.'

🎅🤶

They gave egg nog away on the royal princess in the main atrium while Santa was out.  No charge or medallion check. 

We got one on carnival without asking.  It was almost 50% bigger and wonderful.  Yes, the shower was more problematic. 

I have been on both lines many times.  Rooms are available when they are.  There seems to be no difference between lines.  Sometimes I have gotten into our room early on both lines, and sometimes I have not been able to get to our room or it has not been made ready on both lines.   It is a matter of luck more than a difference between lines.  

As others have said, I prefer celebrity if money was not an object, specifically Aqua class.  But our last three cruises now have been Princess, both for itinerary and cost reasons.  And we have thoroughly enjoyed them though me miss Celebrity Blu dining.   Aqua class is so expensive now I can often get MSC Yacht club for the same price per day.  My Elite on Celebrity gets me more, than my status on Princess, but now with us always including drink packages, it means less than it used to.  

Our next cruise after our soon coming Princess cruise is another MSC Yacht club, so price is clearly driving us away from Celebrity after doing six Aqua class cruises.

We have broken our run of seven celebrity cruises in a row. We are elite and usually do Aqua. But we have now done two princess cruises and book mini suite.  It us not as good as celebrity….. but it is around half the cost.  Then we also did yacht club on msc and it was pretty much the same price as aqua and it was a pretty good experience. 
 

I would like to go back to celebrity but pricing for aqua is near absurd levels most of the time. 

Nice ships. Bad food in main dining.  But worse than anything I have ever experienced are the announcements.   Whatever you are expecting….. it’s worse.  Super loud.  Longer than an 80’s remix of the song “rock me Amadeus ”. Interrupting dinner.  Sleep.  A nice conversation.  At some locations I had to cover my ears for five minutes, while paying to eat in a specially restaurant.  

Had 1200 princess casino points and was offered just $150 free play on a cruise.  Which is ironic because we had $500 in free play in this cruise we just finished and don’t know why.