TFLG

1 hour ago, Langley Cruisers said:

 

This is actually not the steward's duty. The mini-bar/cooler is the responsibility of the Bar Services personnel, who check your consumption of the items and charge them to your account. We have never asked our steward to remove the items. If we feel the need to clear the items out, we always take a couple of pictures of the inside before we move anything. Then, it takes us about 30 seconds to move the items ourselves.

 

I think the steward would remove them if asked, but it's simply not his/her job. 🙂

Might not be, but they are happy to empty it.  We ask them to empty it every cruise.  I got tired of the phantom mini bar charges showing up on my bill after the cruise.  It happened so frequently I almost beleive it's company policy.

The best thing is you can pretty much get any cocktail on the ship.  Nearly everything at the Martini Bar, World Class Bar (if the ship has one) and in the speciality restaraunts are covered.  Plus slightly better wine.  If you like whiskey many of the better ones are included (Macallan select oak etc).  And you can ask for top shelf liquor in your cocktails (patron tequilla, grey goose vodka etc). And you DO have to ask, they will pour you the well booze unless you specify.

Just don't expect the cooler to keep anything cold. It will keep it a little cooler than room temp. You can ask your room steward to fill your ice bucket every day that way if you want a cold drink you can pop a few ice cubes in a glass.

I've "grown" past looking at the small detail of what this and that costs.  Now I just look at the total price and decide if I feel its reasonable.  As long as I am happy with the total cost of the cruise I don't worry about the details.  Of course I still keep an eye out for price drops 😉.  It's a far more stress free method for me. 

1 hour ago, Cruise Junky said:

We've done that twice  Love it!!!  it's a great one to spend extra time in Hawaii.

That's one of our favorite itineraries too.  We've done it 3 times. Once from Ensenada, once from Vancouver and once from Honolulu to Vancouver. I think I prefer the Hawaii to Vancouver route in the Spring because the see days are at the end and it gives me time to recover from the adventures in Hawaii. 

What Cab are they serving now in the classic package.  It used to be Wente from Norcal which was decent.

My wife likes her wine and we drink a fair bit of the stuff. She's fine with the classic package.  I usually have the Premium and honestly it's not much of an improvement over the classic and I actually prefer some of the classic package wines over the premium. Pinot Noir for instance, I like the classic pino better than the cherry pie or what ever it's called that you get in the premium. I did like the Conundrum in the premium package.

1 hour ago, Jim_Iain said:

We were not as lucky.   We had a cruise about 3 years ago from San Diego to Hawaii but when we arrived at the port they advised that the ship was sailing empty from San Diego to Ensenada and they bussed us down.   Took us over 9 hours on one of the worst planned transport I have experienced.   We sat on the bus at the boarder for over 4 hours.

I think I was on that cruise or a similar one  (2013 is when we did it on the Solstice).  Yea, that was a cluster $%@k. We were on an early bus and got over the border fairly quickly but we sat on the bus in the parking lot at the pier for nearly an hour and the bathroom on the bus wasnt working!    Normally the Hawaii RT cruises stop in Ensenada. Princess usually runs a few every year.

I'm not sure I would have bothered if trying to save the increase was the reason for the call.  What are they going up 50 cents maybe a dollar a day. Hardly worth the aggravation of calling.

After the first time we've been asking for a cheese and cracker plate instead.  It's not that great either but better than most of those silly canapes.

2 hours ago, Luvcrusn said:

Has anyone who has asked their steward to empty the contents of the mini-bar ever asked for any type of receipt? I never thought to do it but DH just asked the question. It seems, on the one hand to be a good idea, but on the other hand the stewards are so busy on embarkation day I hate bothering them.

I've never had an issue after getting the fridge emptied. My guess is they don't even do an inventory in these cases.  Of course the stuff is in a box under your bed so maybe they should lol.

Can't speak about the Edge, but on the older M and S ships most of the bars will have a few different Scotches.  nearly all of them will have Dewars as the well scotch, Red Label,🤮,  Black Label and Glen Fiddich 12 or Glenlivet.  Some will have a bottle of Macallan select oak and maybe Highland Park. the World Class Bar has a few higher end bottles (JW Platinum, Haig).  The Ensemble lounge you might also find Laphroig and possibly Macallan Quest and some other JW varieties..  The selection isn't stellar as far as scotch goes but you're not going to go thirsty looking for a reasonable scotch either.  The Equinox has the Whiskey house up on the Lawn Club where they sometimes run tastings. It's not a bar though and last time I was on the ship is was closed most of the time.  It does have pretty good selection.

This is what the premium bevy package says they carry.  I've never seen some of these on any ship.

• Aberfeldy 12
• Bulleit Rye
• Chivas Regal 12
• Crown Royal
• Dewar’s 12
• Gentleman Jack
• Glen Scotia Single Malt
• Glenfiddich Reserva Cask
• Glenfiddich Select
• The Glenlivet
• Haig Scotch
• Highland Park Scotches
• Highland Park Elnar
• Jack Daniel's Black
• Jack Daniel's Honey
• Jack Daniel's Rye
• Jack Daniel's Single Barrel
• Johnnie Walker Black
• The Macallan
• The Macallan Lumina
• The Macallan Quest
• Maker’s Mark
• Rittenhouse Rye
• Wild Turkey
• Woodford Double Oaked
• Woodford Reserve
• Woodford Rye

1 hour ago, upwarduk said:

It’s about  time Celebrity provided an empty fridge as Royal do. 

They cannot charge then for nothing.

I got tired of the phantom mini-bar charges showing up post cruise, so the first thing I do when I see my room steward is tell my him to empty the fridge.  I've not gotten a charge since I started doing this.

What is Concierge class?

Its a way for Celebrity to make some extra cash.....

I've been on 4 of the 5 (haven't done Sillouette) and the differences are so minor that I don't have a favorite.  The Reflection (and silly I think) have the lawn club grill and porch restaraunts which the others don't, the equnox has the gastro pub instead of the wine cellar, I prefer the pub, the wine cellar is usually dead.  And the Sunset bar is slightly different on the reflection/silly and I do like that layout a bit better.  Overall the differences are very minor and don't really make any one ship standout.

39 minutes ago, Highpeaklad said:

 

I cant believe Dasani is considered premium lol. It had to be withdrawn from the U.K. when it was discovered it was tap water with chemicals added. 

Hmm, I've never seen Dasani on any of the Celebrity cruises I've done.  It's always been Evian for the non fizzy premium water (my wife hates Evian so she drinks the generic water offered in the classic package).

74 Days and 81 days, not that I'm counting   B2B on the Equinox.

I've never book at GTY that far out either.  I have booked a veranda and a couple of times and 3-4 months out the GTY price tanked so I switched to gty and saved a ton.  Both times I was assinged decent cabins but in terrible locations.  Both times I went online found better cabins were availible in the category I was assigned so I called and asked to be switched to the better cabins, which they did. That far out I would keep checking the available cabins and if a better one opens up call and asked to be switched to that one.

The classic package covers pretty much all the normal drinks except a few high end ones (like Martinis at the Martini bar). As noted you can still get a martini just not at the martini bar because they use bigger glasses so the drinks are priced higher.  If you must have one you can walk 50 yards to the Casino Bar or pay the approx $5 difference.  The fancy cocktails at the World Class bar are also all over the Classic limit.  Standard beers, house wines, cocktails like margaritas, G&Ts, pina colada and nearly every other mixed drinks are included. Unless you are a brand snob that must have grey goose in our cocktail I think you'll find the classic package is just fine.   I do upgrade since I like single malt scotch and the better whiskys are over the classic limit but my wife is perfectly happy with the classic.

1 hour ago, WrittenOnYourHeart said:

The issue with that is new cruisers don’t know which bar they are going to want to hang out at. Especially if we find martinis gross (olives are NASTY), so that will not be the bar of choice!

The Martini Bar is the hoppin spot on the ship most evenings because it's in the grand foyer.  Probably 5% of the drinks served at the Martini Bar are the traditional ones with olives (not a big fan of olives myself).  The other 95% are sweet cocktails that are martini's only in name because they serve them in a martini glass.  Appletinis, chocolate raspberry, sunset etc. They have about 20 to choose from plus all the regular cocktails, wine, beer etc.  You also don't have to upgrade right away. So you can spend the first night exploring the bar scene and find "your" favorite spot. It's certainly handy to do it thru the TA ahead of time but there could be advantages to doing it onboard.

3 hours ago, kayehall said:

OK.  I am totally confused with this option.  On my sailing, they are offering Drinks & More for $76.50pp/per day.  We booked last February and already have the Classic package as a perk.  And we are exempt from the new charge of $14.00pp/per day.  Can I upgrade the package I already have?  What would be the price?  I don't seem to be able to do it online.  Can I call them or does my TA have to do it for me?  Is the upgrade worth it? Thanks, Kaye

I've upgraded thru my TA in the past but the last few times I upgrade on board at the bar I intend to hang out at. Usually the World Class or Martini bars.  That way the bartender get the gratuity and I have noticed slightly better service from them.  Just spend a few minutes yapping with them so they get to know you.  Lets face it, it doesn't hurt to have even a small advantage at the Martini Bar when ordering a drink.   I've never done the drinks and more thing and probably wont since I don't see it being of much value to me.  I always have them empty our fridge and then put a few drinks in to it that I get from the Bar. On our next cruise we changed our booking when they were running the 4 perk sail which got us the premium package (and saved us a few bucks too 😁).

Some of it changes and some of it is the same every day.

I thought it was night 2 and night 6, but I've been wrong before (once 😉 ). We did the western carib on the Equinox and I remember the first chic night was day 2 (key west), don't actually recall if the second night was day 5 or day 6 (probably a result of the beverage package clouding my memories 😂) .  I'll find out in about 80 days tho.

Forgot to mention, your son may hate you for changing from the Bliss to Celebrity.  There's not much for a 12 year old to do on any Celebrity ship. 

Concierge ins't anything special. Other than a bottle of cheap bubbly, foot stools on your balcony there's really nothing worth the extra cost.  If the cost is similar to a regular veranda cabin we may book concierge otherwise we don't.  Aqua class is a much better way to go, but again only if the cost justifies it. With aqua you get to eat in Blu which is better than the MDR.  You get a better shower in the bathroom and access to the Persian garderns in the spa.  The cabon locations tho often have a deck hanging over them making them more shaded.  We prefer Aqua if we can get a decent deal on it.