markeb

Try looking at the current sailing. There appears to be a glitch in the matrix. Again. Our next cruise is Summit. I can see breakfast menus for most sailings in Blu and Luminae. I can only see breakfast menus for Deck 4 Cosmopolitan (MDR) for this week. Not even next week. Keep in mind that the menu you're seeing for your cruise a month from now, or even next week, is usually just a reflection of the current cruise. If you're on an 11 day cruise and the current cruise is 5 days, you're going to get "Venue Closed" for anything Day 6 and beyond...

How long are you actually in New York? By day early do you mean one overnight? What time will you arrive at La Guardia? The notion of staying Downtown is good IF you're only going to be in the city briefly and your plans are to do things in the Downtown/Financial District area (Battery Park, 9/11 Memorial, Trinity Church, etc.). Maybe not so great if you've always wanted to see Rockefeller Center, Times Square, and Midtown attractions. And some of that depends on when you're getting to La Guardia, therefore when you're getting into Manhattan. If you've got a half day, you're going to want to pick an area that you want to see as you'll have limited time to visit more than one area, even in Manhattan. It's all a trade off, other than Uber will be per vehicle, not per person, as Nitemare said. Almost always going to be better, and way more flexible, than a Princess transfer

So someone randomly hacked your phone and the only thing they did was turn off your airplane mode? Are the charges from Cellular at Sea? Are they for the day you were in port? That should be available from ATT and maybe even in your online account.

Their question was how to stay connected not how to disconnect. Many of us don’t.

It’s turned off in port. The WiFi is on, but not the cellular. I’ve had my iPhone come out of airplane mode on a restart. I noticed it immediately and didn’t get any charges. Not sure if that’s how it’s supposed to work (probably).

There's an earlier thread on this here... https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2995503-email-from-x-re-legionella/#comment-67029564 The cases were passengers on the Ascent in January. They've not put out any additional information, but they've also not increased the numbers or reported any additional cases since the first reports (it went from 2 to 3, but no reports of more). I've also not seen any reports of an epidemiological investigation to determine where the passengers were exposed; it's as likely as not that it wasn't on the ship. If the ship were the ONLY thing they had in common, that would increase the odds of a problem on the ship, but the absence of further reported cases would suggest the risk is pretty low. The previous thread goes through a lot of the reality of legionella, and one poster included the link to the CDC's information page on the bacteria. I'm going to guess they've upped the sanitation and disinfection out of an abundance of caution, but probably in ways we'd never see.

There are web pages that track status of various internet domains, mostly by user reports. It looks like folks have been reporting problems with Celebrity off and on since last night, but pretty significantly since this afternoon. BUT, before you blame everything on Celebrity IT, Google, MS Teams, Capital One, Costco, etc., all have outage reports. Could be something broader than just the Celebrity domain going on.

Can't speak specifically to Beyond, but... Generally, if you're in a hurry, they'll pace the meal for you. Just ask. In my experience, other's may differ, figure an hour. You can go to 1 1/2 if you want. Can't answer on show times; we've pretty much quit qoing. What's your definition of "foodie"? The menu is mildly to moderately adventurous, and generally well executed. It's not really adventurous, though. I think the "up to par with specialty dining" depends on why you're doing specialty dining. If you're looking for a great steak, probably specialty. The food will be a less boring than most MDR fare, and we like it, but, for instance, there's a seared tuna steak on the menu and I wouldn't expect it to be red. If that's what you'd like (I would) then go to Raw on 5. Never had an issue getting a window seat in a Sky Suite. They're mostly two tops and it's a matter of timing. Ask and you may receive...

I've always tried to understand this as well. Admittedly, I didn't grow up eating lobster and spent most of my life well away the coasts. Even during the brief time that I lived in New England I didn't get into lobster. All of which probably makes me a poor candidate to appreciate what is clearly the vast significance of lobster as a food, and as a cruise ship food in particular. And my wife and I have had waiters on cruise ships look at us flabbergasted when we say "no thank you" to the obligatory lobster offering. One of my favorite NYC restaurants has a lobster dish as an appetizer, but it's currently served with a curry-lemongrass sauce that makes it delicious. It's also very small. I don't begrudge people who love it, I just don't get it and never will. Kind of like prime rib...

Thats’s got to be it. The Daniel Boulud dinner is $169 without any discounts. No idea why it’s showing as Fine Cut either.

Is that for some sort of special meal? I'd have to have an Edge class sailing to book Fine Cut, but it's listed at $65/person for dinner in the app. But yes, that would be a crazy stupid price. I can have three courses prix fix for lunch at a Michelin 3-star restaurant in Manhattan for $127 plus tax and tip (wouldn't include drinks, but neither do most of the shipboard bookings). Unless that's for a special tasting menu with wine pairing, that's got to be a glitch. Even then it would be high; they're not opening a Chateau Lafite Rothschild for lunch...

750 ml. The size is buried. https://www.celebritycruises.com/company/customer-support/conduct-policy#alcohol-policy It’s actually one per person now. There was a time when it was 2.

FYI from the Baltimore District of the Corps of Engineers. This is from their FB post, and the comments are off the chart, again, so just the graphic...

Who cares? And Captain Rick is an amazing person. Give him Zenith.

Not confirmed. Here's what's actually in the online newsletter: There’s never been a better time to book The Retreat for your next sailing. With a pair of new and exclusive offerings, guests of our top suites will enjoy further elevated services within our all-suite enclave, which features a private restaurant, unlimited specialty dining for lunch and dinner, resort-style lounge, and sundeck*, and a dedicated team of Butlers, concierges, and attendants. Ensure that you look flawless throughout your cruise with new Unlimited Complimentary Pressing of your wardrobe to accompany daily Complimentary Laundry Service for guests sailing in Royal Suites and above. Also, Guests of The Retreat staying in a Royal, Penthouse, Reflection, Iconic Suite or Edge Villa can indulge in more hours onboard with the addition of complimentary Extend Your Stay access.* The program offers you the option of remaining onboard and relaxing on disembarkation day in specific ports, allowing access to luggage storage, public areas, continued use of your Premium Drink and Wi-Fi packages, and lunch before you depart. So, treat yourself to our finest accommodations and service, and we’ll treat you to a vacation you’ll never forget. With a link to the Retreat page on Celebrity. Those pages still have the Retreat team language for Sky Suites. Note that even the newsletter uses "dedicated team of Butlers, concierges, and attendants" when largely talking about the higher level suites. The Retreat link goes to what appears to be the same language that's been there for months. Which makes some sense as they've been in the process of bringing back Butlers. There are multiple posts in this thread of Butlers returning to SS on current cruises. Give it a couple of weeks and see what happens. It would hardly be the first time that Celebrity marketing didn't match reality, or that someone on the phone gave an inaccurate answer...

Which links to a web page with no as of date. Please…

So that links to what was there a month ago, the last time I looked. Celebrity doesn't put as of dates on their web pages and I'm not seeing a date in their code. But this looks old. Did anyone see a version of the retreat that included butlers for sky suites a week ago? Or is this just last month's (last several month's actually) information. I'm not saying Celebrity couldn't do something blatantly stupid, but this link looks like old information. And the newsletter just takes you to the link for the Retreat you could get to all along.

Exactly. There are multiple posts in this thread of butlers returning. The language linked is the language that's been there for months, and is technically true today. But, as reflected in this thread changing ship by ship.

Can you post what you actually received? What you're saying directly contradicts what people are currently seeing onboard and what everyone up to the Celebrity President has publicly stated. The minifridge has NEVER been included as a matter of policy. It's frequently been restocked by butlers as a form of customer service. But that is NOT a change. Retreat Butler and team has been on the web page for months. Did it change to reflect the return of butlers and change back? Celebrity is far from perfect and doing a great job of shooting themselves in the foot, but I'm sorry, your post makes no sense. The info on the web page that you're showing is the "official" current state as they bring back butler servie. There is no there here!

That's bizarre. It's not what it says for the Retreat Lounge on Summit (or Equinox). Can't remember what other ships still have Michael's to look. I don't know that anything in the description is current!

The flyer actually says "re-price" even though it answers a bullet of adjustment... Re-price at prevailing rates? I can see those posts already: They'll re-price my cruise at cruise only without those things I don't want to pay for. It'll only cost me $1000 a person more than my current booking. Different going forward on new bookings, obviously.

That would be the business explanation, if the math works. The person cruising once per year is paying full fare, including the AI for the Retreat. In the age of internet marketing and niche marketing, the question is how much does it cost to recruit that once a year cruiser versus provide a free benefit to the repeat cruiser. And since status is for life, you're providing the same benefit to someone who now only cruises once a year, same as your new cruiser. Most folks with that status on CC still cruise a lot, obviously. As you say, softening demand would change the calculus. Glad I can analyze as an outsider, not have my job on the line doing it for them...

I guess a signature could theoretically cut down on freebies that are being recorded as lost and wastage today. Sounds like they put an accountant in as the F&B manager... I'd probably just scratch through it and hand it back. Kind of like most of your point of sale terminals that will accept anything as a signature. Seems pretty silly.

As a fellow Lifetime Titanium with Marriott (one of the rarest loyalty statuses out there, as you know!), I agree. I don't begrudge Zenith members here, but I'm a bit surprised. Someone at Celebrity did an analysis that keeping Zenith's cruising was a net positive on Customer Lifetime Value. Marriott doesn't "owe" me anything for all the money I spent with them. United doesn't "owe" me anything for all the miles I flew. The programs are designed to encourage "presently profitable" (I'm going to steal that...) customers (a good reason that airline and hotel programs are annual and lifetime status is a very high hurdle) to continue spending. I'm actually more interested that Celebrity felt they needed to do this. Jason Liberty keeps saying that demand has been increasing for RCG as prices have increased. That's in their public filings, so there has to be a basis in fact. That would suggest there's no financial reason to make this change. I don't know how many Zenith members there are. I know I've watched United Global Services members turn right through the cabin door to economy, and I did the same many times while I had 1K status. I guess their concern is that the highest tiered members of their retention program would rather cruise someone else than "fly coach with perks". Or pay the flat rate pricing. And frankly the "always included" concept was the direct opposite of the "nickel and diming" everyone complains about. And competitive (before some of the recent price increases) with luxury lines for the Retreat. Glad for the Zeniths. It's a great thing for them. Scratching my head on why it makes business sense if the ships are full. They're not doing this because it's "the right thing to do"...

It's not just the immediate port activities either. BMW and Mercedes, at a minimum, have vehicle processing facilities associated with the port. Military Sealift Command has a major vehicle processing center for overseas shipments of personal vehicles. Those are just a couple of quick examples. It's going to be messy, as you say.