AnnaNicole

If only we could get the flourless chocolate cake like they used to serve.  Yum!

You can get creme brulee in the MDR.  It is a part of their every day menu.

46 minutes ago, Moochi said:

The canned water is the perfect size for a pack of liquid IV. And you won’t taste the funny part once mixed. The small glass bottle is too small and large is too large. The glasses in the room and bathroom hold 16oz but then you will have to find something to stir the liquid IV mix.

 

We carry liquid IV packets around the ship. Ask for canned water, dump the powder in it, close the cap, shake it up, and sip it along the cocktails. It works perfectly. 

No can do.  I drink my water straight up 😄

12 minutes ago, Pinboy said:

" Surprised " ??? About what ?? Why would I be surprised at what a poster on CC's job is? I don't know anyone personally.

I respect everyone, no matter what their job is.

LOL--- When I'm hungry, being "friends" with the man making my hot smoked meat sandwich ( etc ) is more important to me than the CEO of XYZ  Company sitting at the table beside me.

But , I don't believe for one minute that a CEO, CFO or any other top 500 Fortune Company or any high level Executive in any Company has time for posting on CC during working hours about Gratuities, Buffets, Lounge Hogs, or Who the hell the Captain is on our cruise in 2025.

 

 

 

You would be wrong.   

The issue wasn't about respect of a position.   The issue is that it was stated a lowly CC poster's opinions would be of no value to Celebrity because they are merely "Joe-from-Schenectady."  I beg to differ.  

My post was never about respect for a person due to their position.   Funny, you tried to make yours about it.

18 minutes ago, bonagrad said:

Not a CFO, but I myself make global buying decisions a for the biggest player in my industry, so I'm well aware of the pressures to cut cost.  However I also have to balance the needs of our teams and make a case for why we may need to spend more in certain cases.

Exactly.   

Roger Smith and GM is a good read for anyone interested in the perils of drastic cost cutting.  

1 hour ago, terrydtx said:

At the time the PDP showed Evian as a premium bottled water for anyone on that package. If they were out, I hope they offered you something other than that terrible can water.

It wasn't available any where on the ship.  At least, that is what I was told.   Premium water was my motivation for purchasing the premium package.  I am not a big drinker.   Maybe 2 or 3 glasses of wine. 

They substituted Vellamo for Evian.

4 minutes ago, jelayne said:

We had both Decoy and Conundrum in October and December.  

Good to know.  Available in all venues?  I could only get it in the MDR.

1 hour ago, terrydtx said:

At the time the PDP showed Evian as a premium bottled water for anyone on that package. If they were out, I hope they offered you something other than that terrible can water.

Vellamo.    It was good.   Not great.   Much better than the canned water.   I can't/won't drink the canned water. 

5 minutes ago, butterfly4108 said:

I have thoroughly enjoyed this thread!!  Thank you!!  My hubby and I thought it was "just us" as our last two cruises (one with Celebrity and next with NCL) were the worst we've ever experienced.  No shows (unless you consider comedians and magicians) and the worst food we've ever had!  I swear I lived on bread and fruit because nothing seemed edible or even recognizable when it arrived to your table!  Service was also lacking sadly....I guess this is the new "norm" but I sure hope not or road trips may be in our future instead....we miss the old cruising!  Thank you again for your posts all!!!!

The bread is very good.   🙂

6 minutes ago, RichYak said:

I can't believe that a full 15 hours has passed since this post, and no one has created a burner CC login called @Joe_from_Schenectady to thank you. Come on people, this is the internet!

I would argue there are some very astute cruisers who are quite likely decision-makers in their professional job.    So, who is to say Joe-from-Schenectady is not Joe-CFO-Fortune500?   

Not all management teams are good and/or effective.  There are corporate turn around specialists for a reason.

13 minutes ago, terrydtx said:

We were in a Sky Suite and the premium Evian bottled water was included in the PDP and our butler left 3 to 4 bottles a day in our cabin no charge.

I guess they saved the Evian for the suites.   

4 minutes ago, Meekos7 said:

We were in Aqua on the Solstice last week with the premium package and were able to get Decoy in that dining room..However you had to ask for it .They did not mention it while telling us the wines available.After that it flowed freely for us without asking.

I was able to get it in the MDR on my September Solstice cruise.   Dino, the awesome sommelier had it ready for me.  🙂

Probably 2-3 days depending on menu, port, etc.   Sometimes, we just want a quick, small, and simple meal.  

Just now, Islander500 said:

Maybe others have said this and I’ve missed it. I only eat at OVC for dinner when we are late returning from an excursion or on long cruises when we want a more casual, quick dinner some nights. It seems that X could reduce waste by closing stations, reassigning staff to MDR, and still provide much better options than shown in the OPs video for those who do eat dinner at OVC.  Add a station to fresh grill chicken, fish (not tilapia), steaks & fresh veggies to order, rather than large trays of pre-cooked food. Nothing like a nice Ceasar salad with fresh grilled protein on top.  To me it’s not about having 100’s of different choices at the OVC to serve just a few people, mostly going to waste, it’s about the quality of the choices. That video displaying the dinner options available should be embarrassing to X.  I don’t blame cruisers who frequent the OVC for dinner for being upset. 

Agree.  Quality over quantity of choices.   

39 minutes ago, terrydtx said:

Last August on the Reflection we did not see any significant shortages. In fact I was able to order Mccallan 12-year-old Scotch in my PDP even though it did not show up on any lists of premium drinks. There were a few different PDP wines in Luminae and my favorite Cherry Pie Pinot Noir was not available but a good substitution was provided. We also were able to get all the Evian bottled water we wanted in our cabin. I refuse to drink canned water as it has a terrible metalic taste.

I bought a couple of large Vellamo water bottles to my stateroom (SV cabin on December Reflection cruise).  I discarded the empty bottles in the trash can.    My stateroom attendant told me he was going to charge me for the water.   I told him I brought the bottles back to the room.   He again said he has to charge me.   I lightened it up and joked with him not to charge me since I brought them to the room.   Thankfully, he did not charge me. 

I got the Tart Cherry Pinot a couple of times then there was no availability for the rest of the cruise. 

7 hours ago, Goldenknight said:

I posted (#533 in this thread, I think) about our five day sailing on the Solistice on Jan. 2.

 

Based on recent posts, here's a few more facts (not opinions), so judge for yourself:

 

(1) After going to the buffet on the first night, and finding it 80% shut down, except for the pizza and pasta, we went to Guest Services on day two.  Asked to speak to the Food and Beverage Director for the Solistice.   Ten minutes later, I sat down with Ivan, the F & B director and his head chef, Manesh.  They were polite.  I told them I was disappointed about the lack of selection at the dinner buffet, and also the cold food.  Their response:  Celebrity did in fact want to push everyone to eat in the MDR or in the speciality restaurants for dinner.  This was a cost saving measure because so much food is wasted at the buffet.  No response about why Celebrity didn't disclose this before our cruise.  Ivan also suggested that Celebrity thinks people "want to be served dinner".  (His words, not mine, and I disagree).  I told them we live in Las Vegas, buffets at our doorstep, we could have stayed home and enjoyed frozen EGGO's out of my freezer before eating pizza every single night.   Manesh said that the dinner buffet would have "two proteins" every night; we didn't see that.

(2)  We had never sailed Celebrity before, so I don't know the configuration of the MDR previous to our Jan. 2 sailing.  Because Celebrity's aim was to force everyone to eat anywhere except the buffet, that means they may have needed to add more seating.  This may explain my factual statement that two-top tables were shoved together just mere inches apart.  It was neither relaxing, luxurious, nor comfortable.  It was awkward . . . especially when people were coughing and sneezing A LOT on this cruise. 

(3) I can factually confirm that Solistice employees made note if you did not show up at your assigned table at your assigned seating at dinner.  We went once, didn't return. That night, sitting and relaxing at a nice window table in the buffet, along comes our head waiter for our table.  He asks us why we are not in the MDR.  It was awkward.  Then, unbelievably, he begged us to give only top ratings on the Celebrity survey post -cruise "because our salaries depend on those ratings."   Having sailed six cruises, exclusively on NCL, never once have we been (a)  hunted down, to find out where we were at dinner, and (b)  implored to give high ratings for anything on a NCL survey.  It was awkward .  . 

(4)  I only have six cruises on NCL with which to compare our single Celebrity foray.  We cruise because we want to totally relax, nap when we want, eat when we want, and have a few dining choices.  On every one of our NCL cruises, we eat the dinner buffet at least four out of seven nights., sometimes more.  It's convenient, it's relaxing, and no we do not go on a cruise because "we want to be served" as Ivan suggested.  Moreover, there is plenty of food wasted at the buffet at breakfast and lunch, so what makes dinner so unique . . . Nothing.  Other than cost saving nonsense.

 

For those folks who have upcoming Celebrity cruises and are upset that they didn't know of these changes, well, consider this:  we were totally blindsided because our Solstice cruise was the first ship to implement these changes, said Ivan.  Had we known, yes, we would have stayed home in Las Vegas.  We wasted money on airfare to L.A., a night in a hotel prior to sailing, and came home regretting it all.  

 

After reading this review, I am seriously considering cancelling my Feb Solstice cruise (BCC).   I will have to cancel my airfare and hotel before it is too late.   

My husband and I were on the Reflection in December.   The food in the MDR was not very good.  We usually order an app or salad and an entree.    The shrimp cocktail was four tiny shrimp on lettuce.  The Branzino was so overcooked we couldn't eat it.   I HATE to waste food, but the fish was inedible.   We left and got a hamburger at the buffet.  I rarely eat hamburgers, but it was good.   We ended up eating in the buffet or sushi restaurant most of the week. 

Sushi on Five was excellent (as usual).   Cafe al Baccio was excellent.   I hope they don't cost cut there.

4 minutes ago, AnnaNicole said:

 

 

 

Shortages on premium wines (esp Decoy and Conundrum).   They pushed the Celebrity branded Elegance wine, if available.  If not, often it was a classic package wine.   

No evian water.   No acqua panna water.    They substituted Vellamo.  Mostly they try to give you canned water when you ask for water.   Be specific if it matters to you.   I don't like drinking out of a can.  I drink a lot of water and I am a little picky about water taste.  Vellamo is ok.   I prefer evian or acqua panna.

15 hours ago, Baron Barracuda said:

Trying to understand the business logic.  For 1 1/2 years since re-start despite the cruise lines hemorrhaging cash, ships sailing 1/2 full and supply chain difficulties X strove to offer the same level of service they provided pre-covid.  Now, with ships sailing full and parent RCG cash flow positive and actually turning a small profit X has elected to take an axe to food which is very important to customers but only represents 7% of expenses.   Meanwhile they give away hundreds if not thousands of free verandahs through Blue Chip Club offers.  The latest email I received was good on 70 sailings, 20 of them for 10 nights or longer.   If the issue (alibi?) is reducing food waste wasn't OVC much more wasteful back when ships were at reduced capacity?  For the past year X arguably didn't have to work very hard for bookings thanks to a large pool of outstanding FCC's.  Now, with the FCC's exhausted X will have to compete hard for the public's cruising $.  Why then devalue the X product?  

I received several more BCC offers and I did not book them.    Airfare, hotel, drink packages, taxis, etc add up to quite a bit and I no longer see the value with all of the cuts.   I hope Celebrity puts the brakes on the new changes since January.

A shared table is still offered.  Ask the hostess when you arrive at the MDR.  

10 hours ago, RNRcruisers said:

 I've never heard of this site but their prices do look good. Have you used them and had a good experience?

I have!   I have had no issues.   Great service via email, text, and chat.   I haven't used their phone customer service option.   They used to be snap travel.

3 hours ago, dreamer321 said:

From the FAQ's:

My travel partner is pregnant/recovering alcoholic/medical issue that does not allow them to drink, do I have to purchase for them?

Our policy requires that any guest wishing to purchase the Drink Package must do so for all other guests of legal drinking age in the same stateroom. However, we will make an exception for the following:

Exceptions: 

Children 12 years old and under: will NOT be required to purchase a Zero drink package.
Teens – A Zero Proof drink package will be added
13 -17 years old (Europe, Asia, Australia)
13 - 20 years old (USA)
Pregnant guests – A Zero Proof drink package will be added.
Recovering alcoholic or medical issue that does not allow guests to consume alcohol. – A Zero Proof drink package will be added.

 

I don't think you have to provide documented proof for the final exemption, just self-attest that you have a condition that you cannot consume alcohol.  To do otherwise would be a huge invasion of the guest's privacy.

I'm going to skip the alcohol package all together.   I don't drink enough to justify the current rates.    I liked the convenience but not enough at these rates.

Just now, Lena11033 said:

I'm the same as you, normally one is enough for me. I think some people just gorge themselves (my father in law is like that he loves buffets for that reason). But if they never intended for all you can eat with the lobster I get it.

 

Funny enough I went to a steak house last night and had lobster with my steak, I couldn't even finish the entire plate and it wasn't even large.

 

One is enough for me.    On our September cruise, the waiter brought out a second lobster tail for my husband because the tails were so small.   My husband did not ask for it.   He is 6'3" and 172 lbs.   He would have been a little hungry with just one tiny tail.   

10 hours ago, sfaaa said:

An appetizer, then one lobster tail, followed by another entrée + dessert. Works for me 

Can I get OBC if I don't order the appetizer and the dessert?

12 hours ago, NMTraveller said:

Or a Dilliards replacing their clothing lines with Walmart clothes.

And being pist about it because you have a $500 store credit.  Hahaha

2 hours ago, terrydtx said:

They do make exceptions in a case like yours but the official policy is that all adults in a cabin must have a drinks package.

 

Here is the quote from the Celebrity website:

 

Highlights

• Each adult of legal drinking age assigned to the same stateroom must purchase this package

ugh