RICCruisers

We also used RW at 44148. Excellent CVP. Very responsive.

One of the benefits of Blu on E Class ships is that you will likely have the same waitstaff for each dinner and likely the same for breakfast. If you change dining rooms to sample all 4 you won’t have that.

We did a B2B on Beyond last October in the Mediterranean. Ship was full and we never felt it was crowded other than the Martini Bar. We were Aqua and ate both breakfast and dinner in Blu other than a couple of specialty restaurants. We had the same table every night in Blu early (about 6:15) and never had a wait. When we left at 7:30-7:45 there was a short line a few nights.

Wi-Fi upgrade on our 8/16 Eclipse cruise is currently $5.99 pp/p/d and Premium is $15.99. We watched it almost on a daily basis and caught the Premium upgrade at $10.99. Drink package is always +20% gratuity. For us the $10.99 makes sense because DW always has a pre-dinner drink at the Martini Bar and we like the upgraded water at dinner. I’ll keep an eye out for a lower Premium upgrade. We got $6.99 on our B2B last October.

Eden is a unique restaurant. They have their own menu of drinks and all are priced over the Classic and almost all are priced over the Premium package. And in my opinion, all are not worth drinking. In addition to the ones listed, you can receive any type of drink you prefer. Most regular cocktails like martinis, cosmos, gin or vodka and tonic, rum and coke etc can all be ordered from the Classic package as long as you request it to be made with brands available in the Classic package. If you choose “top shelf” liquors then they will be over the Classic. You should always tell the bartender which liquor you want and ask if it’s included in whichever palate you have.

We were on Beyond for a B2B in October. No reservations were needed. If you arrive at a similar time each night you will likely have the same table and waitstaff each evening. It’s not exactly a reservation, but kind of works the same way. Let them know if you plan to eat elsewhere so they don’t hold your table that evening. We found Blu had great service and didn’t notice any loud noises other than one evening an older gentleman was watching something on his phone with the sound turned up. I looked at his wife and signaled to her to turn it down or use headphones. She got the message and took care of the issue. We actually sat near the most nights and he was apologetic.

I’ll be home in a couple of days and try on my desktop. Been trying on my phone.

For the past 3 days I have been trying to search on the X website for cabins on a couple of cruises. I can get to the actual cruises without any issues. My problem arises when I click on a different deck to search. It freezes on the deck that is loaded when the category comes up as a suggested cabin. I know cabins are available on other decks because when I ask for a List View they show up. Anyone else having this issue or a suggestion on how to correct it? I figured when it happened it was due to some site maintenance going on over the weekend, but it’s still happening today (Monday). And no, I don’t want to flip between sites to check cabin location.

There are 2 chairs on the veranda in IV, Aqua and Concierge cabins of E class ships. My reply was addressing the comment that was requesting foot stools to be added.

I was referencing the Infinite Veranda cabins. Sunset Veranda and all Suites have actual balconies and are much larger than the small verandas. The majority of the cabins on E Class ships are IV’s including Aqua, Concierge and IV.

There is no space for footstools on E Class verandas. You would need to move the chair into the cabin in order to use them.

Finding a “Good” Aqua Class cabin on M and S Class ships takes time to check out the location. Most cruisers agree that a good cabin is one that has staterooms above and below. It is actually easier to select a “good” veranda cabin with that type of criteria. @zitsky may have overstated their case by saying Aqua cabins are the worst cabins, but they are correct that there are a lot of poor locations especially since X is getting more money for these locations. I seem to recall when Aqua was created that there were many comments that those locations were selected because they were less desirable and adding Blu and the Persian Gardens as perks allowed X to sell them at a higher price. Not many cruisers would choose a cabin under the pool or buffet if other cabins are available.

Maybe yes or maybe no. Most everything is for sale if the right price is offered.

We just did a B2B in the Med on Beyond in October. We were very fortunate with weather. No rain from October 9-20 and visited Crete, Santorini, Istanbul, Kusadasi, Athens, Naples. Temperature was great. 78-82F each day and mid 60’s at night. If you have the flexibility to cruise then I recommend it. The second cruise was Italy, Adriatic October 20-30 and was a couple of cooler days but mostly high 70’s. Crowds were still there, but not what mid summer brings.

Hi Charla, We are currently on Beyond sailing toward Kusadasi and staying onboard for the next cruise. Weather has been perfect so far and hoping some of the long range forecasts are not correct for the October 20th cruise. I’ve always enjoyed your trip reports and look forward to reading one from a cruise we are also sailing on. We’ll wish Jeremy a happy birthday if we happen to see you folks onboard. Ed and Betty

They do lists some basic martins. Here’s a photo of the menu on Beyond from 10 minutes ago.

There is no acceptable reason to serve cold food unless it’s supposed to be cold.

One of the biggest changes we observed in the Eden Cafe on our last cruise on Edge was the significant degradation of the brownies and chocolate chip cookies. They went from luscious desserts to more like store bought variety not worth the calories. It’s very sad to see the lower quality of many food items that we have enjoyed over the years of cruising on Celebrity while prices of cabins keep going up. New cruisers don’t see this since they never experienced the higher quality products that were served in the past. If this is working for Celebrity’s bottom line it will continue. My hope is that it doesn’t work and their race to the bottom ends soon. A business can only cut expenses so much before it finally catches up with them.

Speaking of Food, The Points Guys ranked his Top 6 Cruiseline Food. Celebrity was not mentioned. Here’s a link to the report https://frankchiaro.wordpress.com/2023/06/27/best-cruise-food-these-are-the-6-cruise-lines-with-the-best-food-at-sea/

Your estimate of the capacity % once cruising resumed is fairly accurate for the whole ship. It’s way off on the % in suites. Suites ran at.close to 100% in the months following resumption of cruising. There were a lot of cruise credits and unused travel budgets to spend. That may be part of the reason suite pricing has escalated significantly during the past year.

Spot on Bo. Glad I read thru to your post before posting mine. I will add that if you are pre-purchasing something on the website be careful to make sure you enter the amount that should be deducted from your OBC prior to clicking the make this purchase button.

I’m not sure Evian is still available on the Premium Package. They were serving Acqua Panna and Pelligrino on our cruise in January. Others may have the current offerings.

Download the Celebrity App. You need to bring up one of the cruises on any of the E Class ships. There you go into the Main Restaurants and choose the menus from each of the 4 restaurants. You’ll see the menus that list the items for each.

Yes, there is a discount for a B2B that varies based on the number of days. It works the same with a TA or booking direct with X

Are all three age 21+? The new policy about everyone needed to upgrade is new this year. The exceptions are underage or documented reasons i.e. pregnancy, recovering alcoholic etc.