CruiseDoc79

Or last night rather

From disembarkation this morning…

We have been back for about a week now and look bad very positively on our cruise in the Sky Suite. We made great use of the Retreat sundeck on this cruise for the first time (this is our third sailing in the Retreat on E-class), enjoyed the lounge periodically and avoided Luminae for the most part preferring Blu. As others have mentioned however, prices are now nearly double what we paid for this cruise, and so when booking our next cruise to Croatia on Ascent we are "downgrading" to Aqua Class. I think the biggest thing we will miss is the balcony but otherwise the Retreat wasn't providing enough extra to warrant the high charges. We also don't drink much so will save on getting the non-alcoholic package. Would look at other lines more but my wife is set on Celebrity and will not go on any other line because she loves the ships so much! That said, we did sail a Carribean cruise with Viking in 2019 just before the pandemic and it wasn't for us. I think the main issue is the age demographic. We are mid-40s and were by FAR the youngest on the ship. I would say average age of around 75. Quite a few walkers around. Maybe it was just our sailing but it very much had retirement home vibes! The ship was clean and nice enough but without much personality. We found the food to be average to bland and the entertainment (as mentioned above) is pretty basic. We do love the production shows in the main theatre and Eden on Celebrity and so we definitely missed this aspect. We may try Viking again but probably not for another 20 years or so!

Not wanting to high jack another great LIVE blog by @mac_tlc but we are on the same sailing as you and thought we would share some of our thoughts. Overall have had a great time with a couple of caveats. For context we are sailing in a Sky Suite and sailed previously in the same stateroom category on Apex and Edge. This is our 14th cruise and 5th on Celebrity. We are in our mid 40s. 1) Ship: Beautiful as her siblings and it’s difficult to imagine any other ship coming close to E-class for art and design. Definitely agree that it’s felt busy and full especially on sea days but it hasn’t really affected our enjoyment. 2) Retreat: We have really been enjoying the expanded Retreat Sun Deck and especially the two hot tubs that look over the ocean. I did witness lots of chair hogging but also did watch an attendant clearing people’s belongings on a couple of occasions. It really clears out around 5pm so we typically watch sunset up there from the hot tubs - lovely! Service has been pretty good in the public spaces but unfortunately much the opposite in Luminae and from our retreat host (aka room steward). Service in Luminae has been slow while dining and we had a 40 min wait for a table on night 1. Pro Tip: if they give you a pager don’t leave the immediate area or it won’t reach you. We popped down to the World Class Bar and apparently it doesn’t reach that far. Also had food items missing from salads etc (no pine nuts for example). Mostly we really just don’t care for the menu most nights, but that is a very personal preference (too meat heavy and not much choice). We have vastly preferred dining in Blu. The most egregious however has been the lack of service from the retreat host. Perhaps they are still short staffed? We called for room service to be cleared and 3 hrs later it was still there. Frequent room service trays in the hallway to avoid and on 2 occasions we left our room at 11am, took down the DND sign only to return at 5pm to a still not made up room! 3) Room: Still LOVE the Sky Suites. We have been especially happy to report no loud crashing and banging at night as we experienced on Apex and have read is an issue still with some rooms on Beyond. 4) Spa: Beautiful space but treatments not as good as on previous ships for some reason. We complained to the spa manager Adi who informed us that the therapist we had had 15 years experience and we must not know what we are talking about, and we don’t know good massages but HE does! We replied that that wasn’t the point, that OUR experience wasn’t good and so he then loudly shouts at us that we have been speaking terribly to ALL the staff at the spa, and this in the main entrance to the spa in front of everyone! I assure you we are not those people (we are polite Canadians who respect everyone and loved the rest of the spa staff). We have never been aggressively spoken to like that and even worse in front of guests waiting for appointments. Needless to say we complained to the retreat host who was appalled and we will see what they can do. Still feeling shaken up by the experience. 5) Entertainment and Food: All have been very good to excellent with highlights being Arte for entertainment and Eden and Rooftop Grill for food. 6) Captain Kate! Met her waiting for the elevators and she chatted with us for quite a while. She is just the best! Overall a great cruise but we are going to wait and see what Celebrity does to address the concerns we have raised.

I think the theory is that the ship bends and twists and flexes especially during rough seas. Ships all do that to some degree and apparently are designed for it but the E-class seems to have particular issues with this causing noise. As the flexing/twising occurs more along the length of the ship I think it might stand to reason that the back of the ship wouldn't be moving much and thus hopefully doesn't suffer the same issues.

Oh no it definitely occurs on Apex also. We were in a Sky suite last February and the banging at night was unbearable. We were eventually moved to a different room where it was much better.

Thanks for the review! We’ve sailed Apex and Edge and have Beyond coming in February. We LOVE e-class and I can’t even get my spouse to consider any other class of cruise ship! One of the things we love the most are all the live plants on board, and Eden is possibly both of our favourite venues on any cruise ship ever! It is so chill and beautiful to our eyes and the night time shows are intimate and make us feel like we are in a special bar in NYC or something. So I really hope there is no major redesign coming anytime soon and it is one of the few spaces that was left untouched when they moved from Apex to Beyond. The great thing about a ship like Ascent with so many beautiful spaces is everyone can find spots that they love. Glad you enjoyed the IV also and I agree if you go in with the right mindset it can be perfectly good (though push come to shove I prefer an actual veranda). Happy cruising!

We sailed Flora in a Sky Suite with Veranda in April and had a fantastic time. Certainly the shore experience would be similar no matter your ship but the Flora definitely felt luxurious, comfortable and exclusive. Decor and design very reminiscent of Edge-class ships and the entire ship is basically like sailing in the Retreat on E-class, from the decor and service, to space per passenger. The additional size also means more amenities such as a plunge pool and top deck hot-tub, plus the choice of the main dining room and the al-fresco grill on the top deck for dining under the stars or for spectacular views of the gorgeous Galapagos scenery during the day. Getting on and off the tenders may also be easier on Flora due to her wonderful aft platform and tenders that have stairs and railings which are especially helpful when the seas are a bit rougher. Regarding dining times, I can confirm (as is listed on the program that was posted earlier in this thread) that dinner always started around 7:30pm right after the port talk which generally was held in the lounge at 7pm. It was open seating, however reservations were required for dining under the stars in the grill restaurant (highly recommended). I doubt you can go wrong with any of Celebrity's Galapagos fleet but Flora definitely felt special.

Unfortunately Apex was definitely also affected. We sailed her Feb 2022 in a SS on deck 10 port side. The noise for the first few nights was very similar to the video. We did our best with blasting sleep music but still woke us up. Maintenance couldn't fix it and we switched rooms partway through the cruise. That was at the time of 50% full ships though and now I imagine such a switch wouldn't be as possible. It seems perhaps Beyond is even worse but definitely also happened on Apex.

We had this issue last October sailing on Apex in a regular (non-Magic Carpet) midship SS on deck 10. It was really bad a few nights and woke us up despite using white noise. We still loved the cruise and the ship but yes it was shockingly loud at night in anything but extremely calm seas.

I think you would have a wonderful time on all of those ships, but as someone who has sailed on both Apex and Bliss (similar to Encore) I would put my vote towards Apex. They do have several kids and teen clubs on board with video games etc. and other activities. Definitely not as many bells and whistles in terms of not having a go-cart track or water slides but the Apex is the most beautiful ship we have ever sailed on and the food and entertainment were fantastic.

I just watched Harr Travel's video of the Haven on Youtube and I am very underwhelmed. The lounge and restaurant look very spartan and minimalist but not in a good way. The restaurant in particular I would go so far as to say it is the least appealing of all the other restaurant spaces onboard. I would much rather spend time in Hundson's main dining room than in this Haven restaurant (except for the food and service of course!). And then the sun deck is beautiful, but there appears to be almost zero shade! This was an issue for us previously having sailed in the Retreat on Celebrity Edge which they fixed with their next version on Apex by adding lots of sun umbrellas. Hopefully Norwegian will too, as lots of their guests will want to enjoy the outdoor spaces but don't want direct sun the whole time. I will say having a sauna and snow room is very cool and welcome. I remain quite excited to sail on Prima as pretty much every other venue looks beautiful and I love Norwegian in general. This Haven though looks like a major miss IMO.

I think its great that there are different options for different tastes, both within the cruise line itself and onboard. My partner and I fell absolutely in love with Apex and also enjoyed Edge but missed the upgrades (mostly added shade on Apex). We adored Eden on Apex but happy not everyone does so that its not always crowded. Main limitation for us is we wouldn't do an IV, but fortunately we have been able to sail in Sky Suites. I wonder if the younger demo (we are early 40s) may be a better fit for E-class, or perhaps it is just very individualized. My wife now refuses to sail any cruise line but Celebrity and only E-class she loved it so much, particularly the gorgeous design and art. I thought a recent review of Equinox by Zach the Travelling Man on Youtube was an interesting comparison from a person who had previously only sailed on E-class. Sounds like staffing is still a real problem. Not sure if Cruise Critic will allow me to link to it but here is a try: