karl_nj

On Celebrity last week room weren't ready until 1pm, but was encouraged to stop by the room to drop off stuff/put passports in the safe/etc. once I boarded at 11:30am. RCL still has the rooms ready at 1:30pm usually, from my recent cruises on that line.

Well, average land hotel check out is 11am...

Ah sure, makes sense. Though that pool is even bigger than just the dining room staff... "Gratuities for stateroom and restaurant services are shared by dining, bar and culinary services staff, stateroom attendants, and other hotel services teams."

Yeah, I'm not talking about opting out of the "Automatic Gratuity Program", I'm talking about cash tips above that, for when a staff member goes above and beyond. RichYak seemed to imply that all tips are pooled, including cash tips above the service charge. Did I misunderstand?

MDR staff on Celebrity pool additional cash tips? I've heard of this happening with bar staff on some lines, but this is the first time I've heard this. I guess it's possible though. Do they do this to share with the "Anytime" dining staff?

Yes, we had a party of 11 in there last week. At first we were going to have 15 people, and they were going to need to do 2 tables next to each other, but a few people decided to skip it, so I adjusted the reservation and they were able to put us all at one huge table. It wasn't even cramped, we had lots of room.

What ship/itinerary? I know that sometimes the app gives conflicting information, but I'm looking at a Frozen Daiquiri on the Summit Pool Bar menu in the app, and I'm seeing $9. Maybe it's a combination of a price increase to $10 and a European itinerary that has the service fee rolled into the drink price?

In general there is no price difference between an adult and a child, especially if you are in the 16/17/18 age range. When you get far enough along in the booking process the system will ask for everyone's birthdate anyway. It's weird that the website even differentiates between adults and children when booking a cruise.

Actually, you can have a royalcarribean.com login once you hit 13. And you can see your past cruises. The weird thing is that on Celebrity you can't get a Captains Club number until you are a 18. Not sure if you can get credit for any Celebrity cruises you took as a kid or not. But you can login to celebritycruises.com, since your username/password works for both sites.

KSF is only 12 and under.

On CC (where you can share a link) or elsewhere?

I haven't tried doing 3/4 passengers in an NCL cabin. Are the rooms arranged like on Carnival, where the extra berths don't block getting to the balcony? Or are they like Royal, where it is just about impossible to access the balcony with the sofabed pulled out? On Carnival they always left the 3rd/4th berths in the "bed" configuration for the entire cruise, even pre pandemic back when they did have turndown service.

I haven't seen anything, which is why I asked. As far as I can tell, this is just a test on Quantum. Now that doesn't mean they won't expand this, like they did with the menu changes on Symphony. But can't find anything online other than mention of this test on Quantum.

It's currently only a test on Quantum, over in Australia. So not sure there will be many people here on Cruise Critic with any experience.

Interesting. Do you have a link?

Has RCL actually made this announcement? If it's true, I wonder how setting up/putting away the sofabed will work. CCL started this before COVID, but their cabins are designed in a way so that leaving the 3rd/4th berths in place during the entire cruise isn't a big problem. This is not the case on the RCL ships.

Princess, Cunard, many HAL ships, Carnival (not on their newest ships), Disney all have self service laundry facilities.

I have been charged the corkage fee a few times in the past. Generally I just assume that I will be charged, and then i'm happy if i'm not charged. If they don't charge me, I end up tipping them even more 'extra' at the end of the cruise, so from my POV it all evens out in the end anyway.

of course... but the kids menu also appears to be slimmed down.

Sounds like more of a YMMV situation... perhaps the bartender was willing to ring up 5 transactions of wine by the glass, and just not open the bottle? A 750ml bottle of wine contains 5 servings...

I guess anything is possible, but I kind of doubt Celebrity would drop sailings from NY to Bermuda. That specific route was the entire reason the Celebrity brand was created—Chandris needed a higher end brand with a newer ship in order to sail to Bermuda. If it wasn't for Bermuda, there would be no Celebrity.

Yes to some degree. 1) prime rib 2) beef tenderloin 3) classic ny strip 4) steak diane (e.g. ny strip with different sauce) 5) flank steak 6) classic ny strip 7) grilled mediterrian steak (maybe ny strip with different sauce?) But keep in mind the everyday steak on royal isn't as good as the everyday steak on celebrity.

It's actually the everyday chicken that seems to be totally gone. There is still usually a salmon and/or a steak on the menu every day. Just not the "everyday" steak or the "everyday" salmon. e.g. on the night they serve Steak Dianne, there is no everyday steak. On the night there is a different salmon (or a different fish), there is not the additional choice of the everyday salmon.

I wouldn't get too worried, at least not yet. First off, this is just a test. There may be changes when this is deployed to the rest of the Royal fleet. Second, Royal Caribbean International does like to have a differentiation between the brands. Royal Carribean made a change where they charge for Room Service, but it's still included on Celebrity. Royal Carribean charges to use the chat feature on the app, which is included on Celebrity. Just because they are making changes on Royal, it doesn't' necessarily mean that it's coming to Celebrity (though it is possible...the app is basically the same on both lines, and they are putting Infinite Verandas on Icon of the Seas.) Finally, I don't think all the changes are necessarily bad. I'd rather have one free maine lobster tail on lobster night, then multiple free warm water tails. This is the same "extra charge" lobster tail you can order at an upcharge on any night.

Well.. NCL is going the opposite way... they are testing a MDR menu that never changes, no matter what the day.