terrydtx

We have some very close friends and they have been on over 10 Oceania cruises, and this is exactly what they tell us. Imagin having those choices every night with no upcharges?

Club Orange is a total joke and nothing like Luminae or even Blu. It is HAL's futile attempt to compete with the NCL's Haven Restaurant and Luminae. It has the regular MDR menu plus only one or two added entrees not available in MDR. On the older ships like the Oosterdam Club Orange is a roped off designated space in the MDR. We tried it once and it was not worth what we paid for it, BTW in 2019 it only cost us $20pp per day for non suites guests.

Last august we did a cruise on the Reflection followed a few days later by on the HAL Oosterdam. We were in a Sky Suite on the Reflection and a couple of nights we did dinner in the OVC after long shore tours that came back late and all we wanted was a quick bite, I noticed the same thing about how few were there at 7pm with all the nice food options. On the Oosterdam we did the same thing dining in the Lido a couple of nights and the crowds were much larger than on the Reflection to verify your observations. The difference could be the fewer dining options on the older HAL ships than on most Celebrity ships. Celebrity has the MDR, Blu, Luminae, and 4 to 6 specialty restaurants depending on ship. HAL on older ships has MDR, Pinnacle Grill and Canaletto and no real suite dining options. We started sailing on Celebrity because we liked being able to book suites and get a better feeling of Luxury without having to pay "Luxury" prices. Our first suite experience was a 9 day cruise on the Equinox and our Sky Suite cost was less than $600pp than an Aqua Class cabin and found this to be a better deal and cost than more premium lines. After considering the value of the Retreat amenities that first SS cost was actually less than the Aqua cabin. Now SS pricing for beyond our 2024 bookings have gotten so high that we are looking at other premium lines for our cruising dollars. Last week we booked our first Oceania cruise for Jan 2025 and if it meets our expectations, we may not be cruising with Celebrity beyond what we already have booked.

Thank you, that list posted by RobJames has some good wine by the glass selections and would be all we need for our lunch and dinners. Viking has IMO a very limited selection in their included wines and beers

Yes, I did, and I just make the typo change, hard to keep all the cruise line beverage package names straight. 😄

Where you come from a Mississippi Mud Pie is not the same as what we made in the backyard as kids. LOL😁 BTW I love your answer to this.

We just booked our first O cruise for 2025 and took the beverage package O-Life option. Wondering how extensive the beer and wine by the glass list is? Is it the same list you would get if we upgraded to the Prestige BP? On Viking Ocean the included beer and wine with meals are very low end, poorer quality selections and to get better wines you have to upgrade to their Silver spirts package.

There has always been a charge for the tower, last year it was only $15 on the Edge, so it has gone up to $17.70

One more cut back by Celebrity Corporate, next will the wi-fi only work on phones and not laptops and tablets?

We are looking at a Boston to Montreal cruise in September 2024. Celebrity is only doing round trip 11-day cruises from Boston and a Sky Suite cost is about the same as Oceania cruise from Boston for 11 days that ends in Montreal in a A2 concierge level cabin. The Celebrity cruise only has 5 port stops in 11 days while the Oceania has 11 ports in 11 days. We will most likely be booking the Oceania cruise in a month or so. In this case Oceania will be going to 6 more ports that Celebrity doesn't do. We are waiting for Viking to release their 2024 New England cruises to compare them too. We will not change or cancel our Apex cruise this year or our Edge cruises in 2024 since we got great pricing in Sky Suites on both. If we were booking either of them today, the current pricing, would definitely be driving us to Viking Ocean or Oceania. I will be looking for your comments on your May Oceania cruise, as it seems like we both have the same luxury tastes in cruising.

The reason there are so many cruise lines and ships are that there is not one line that meets 100% of the of the travel needs, expectations and requirements of 100% of the potential customers. For us Celebrity may still meet our expectations but only on E Class ships and for some itineraries in Sky suites. We will and are looking beyond Celebrity to more premium lines for cruises as Celebrity seems content on raising Sky Suite prices higher and higher on E Class ships. It almost looks like people in Celebrity's marketing department think raising suites prices to "premium" pricing will make them a premium line. I know some will argue, but Celebrity is NOT a premium cruise line, just a more expensive mass marketed one.

That would be one big gripe fest for sure!!

We booked the Oceania Marina cruise on Tuesday to make sure we get a good cabin while we wait for Viking's 2025 schedule. Nice thing with Oceania we can cancel anytime up to 6 months out and get back 100% of our deposit.

Both Viking Ocean and Oceania are known for superior food and service and many friends I know who have cruise with either line will agree with me too. We sail in Celebrity suites primarily for the amenity of a smaller and better dinning venue in Luminae. After our cruise last August on the Reflection and the huge disappointments in Luminae, I can no longer say I book Celebrity suites for better food and service. I consider comparing an Oceania concierge level veranda cabin with a Celebrity Sky Suite to be apples to apples. Both Celebrity SS and the A1 veranda cabins on the newer O ships are about the same size. But where O wins out is the huge difference in food quality, plus all 5 specialty restaurants are included with no cover charges. I can if I want, have a whole cold-water lobster every night on Oceania at no extra charge. O has a concierge lounge on the new ships with drinks, snacks and concierge services are included. O now has shipboard Wi-Fi included at no charge. We booked our Oceania cruise with the bonus of wine and beer included with meals, and for $20pp per day we can upgrade to their unlimited Elite drinks package. I booked this week an 18-day South America cruise for 2025 on the O Marina in an A1 Concierge Verandah for $600pp less than 14 day Celebrity Sky Suite on the Equinox. Oceania cost per day $386pp, for a SS on Celebrity is $544pp per day that difference sealed the deal for us.

I fixed the issue by remembering to go into the app settings on my phone and delete the cache under data storage. It works perfect now.

We cruised on the Equinox on a 9-day ABC island cruise in August 2022 in a Sunset Sky Suite our cost was $3849pp. I just looked and the same itinerary, except for only 8 days in 2024 on the Reflection in a Sunset Sky Suite is $4486pp, that is up $637pp with one less day, this is why we are looking at other lines now. The Equinox in 2022 for 9 days was $427pp per day the 2024 cruise for 8 days is $560pp per day which makes it look even worse.

While to app still works on my older Tab S7 Android tablet, I noticed on my new S22+ Samsung phone the dining and drink menus no longer show up is this something new? The menus still show on the tablet app.

It is on my S7 Samsung tablet, and I have version 12 Android. I have not had to download as it is already on my tablet.

stop suggesting ideas Celebrity may like. LOL

We only book suites with Celebrity and have 4 cruises booked this year and next year in Sky Suites. What is going to drive us to look elsewhere is the pricing of suites like Sky Suites. Our 2024 New Zealand cruise on the Edge, if booked today is $2000pp more than what we booked for in early 2022. If we were booking today, we would be seriously looking at Oceania or Viking Ocean. Last week we looked at January 2025 cruises of South America. Celebrity has a 14-day cruise and Sky Suites are about the same price as a top-level Veranda cabin on the Oceania Marina for 18 nights. We booked the Oceania cruise on Monday and are waiting to see what Viking Ocean will have when they release their 2025 schedules. So, I guess we can say Celebrity already has driven us to look elsewhere now.

The escalation of nickel and diming is the new normal for most cruise lines. Look at the new room service charge that Celebrity has now instigated to see this. I remember when the airline industry started charging for checked luggage, there was outrage, but people still fly, and this is now a major profit center on airline's bottom line and has became the new normal. We were on the HAL Oosterdam last August and so much is now extra charge. The jumbo shrimp cocktail was $8.50, still free on X, the surf and turf on dressy night was $30 upcharge, and a lobster tail alone was $15. I am not a fan of cruise ship lobster, so it was not a big deal for us. HAL has really escalated the new normal of nickel and diming.

If you can't get a handicapped accessible cabin, on HAL they book quickly, then maybe look at a Signature Suite, they have a tub plus a separate walk-in shower.

When did this change? On the Oosterdam last August I was charged full price plus 18% for my Mccallen scotch.

Thank you, we will be using tours by locals for our Celebrity Apex cruise in September along with several other private tour companies recommended by some in our roll call. For example, we booked an 8 hour private Lisbon tour for just the 4 of us in our group with Spain Day Tours for $133pp, Celebrity has the identical tour in a bus of up to 16 for $250pp. We also get to set where and what we want to see on our tour, we asked to go to a port tasting or vineyard as part of our tour. We booked a couple of long tours last August on the Reflection that included lunch in the tours, but in every case the set lunches were so late in the afternoons (2-3pm) that we were not hungry for dinner when we got back to the ship. By doing private tours we set the time and places we want lunch. We have also used Shore Excursions Group in 2022 and had great results with lower cost small group tours. We are to the point of not booking cruise company sponsored shore excursions.

We did a 14 night cruise of Greece and Croatia on the Oosterdam last August and were very disappointed in the main theater entertainment. The shows were mostly dancers and too many BBC Earth films, not one comedian or magician in 14 nights. I think they design the shows to put passengers to sleep early. I think your teens would be bored to death. We did find the MDR food to be very good but on a 14 night cruise they repeated the same 7 day menu for the second 7 nights which was also boring. We were is a Signature Suite and for the cost it was extremely nice and had been refurbished in 2019. Keep in mind that on HAL a Signature Suite is a suite in name only, other than a nice larger cabin and balcony there are no suite amenities like Celebrity, MSC suites or even upper RCL suites.