Dutch Explorers

Please bear in mind that most negative reviews were due to the cancelled ports in Egypt and had nothing to do with the ship itself.

Other negatives were poor entertainment and the shore excursions but both are known facts and should not surprise any passenger.

I would go on Sirena in a heartbeat!

This has been tried before, but it won't fly.

It all depends on where your PASSPORT is from.

 

-if an Agent tries to fake it, their future abilities to sell Oceania product will be yanked, and if the passenger pushes the issue, they deny boarding at the gangway

 

This is the one issue I've seen where there are zero exceptions, no matter who you are or how often you sail.

 

 

This is not correct. It is tied to where you reside.

So with a UK address and a US passport you can book UK rates.

I just want to point out that the facts are indeed in the CDC report but the context is missing.

In every report on a ship that occurred an infection there are the same type of violations.

This is not specific for this report only.

We will, and we will always remember our great times on Century 2 years ago with you guys. That was a winner, especially the Michael's Club.

Unfortunately Michael's Club is a private lounge now reserved for Suite guests and Zentih members. Most of the time it was sitting empty.

I forgot to mention that the ofiicers were VERY visible on this cruise. I cannot remember a cruise where we had so many chit chats with officers.

Very positive :)

We just returned from a great Panama Canal cruise on the Century.

I want to share some of our observations and comments both good and bad. Overall it was a very positive experience!

Chair hogging :

This is a serious issue and needs to be addressed by Celebrity. This is what we experienced:

Somebody used a deck chair just for drying laundry! This continued for a full day.

After a couple of days we saw the same books on deck chairs and we decided to keep an eye on who was the culprit. We arrived at 7.45am and the 4 beds were blocked already with nodoby in sight. Many people wondered past in the next couple of hours complaining that no chairs beds were available. Many noticed these 4 beds and asked the pool butler to remove the books but to no avail. He was not authorized to remove stuff from beds. Finally 3 hours later the culprit arrived and started using 2 beds. We decided to address the issue and remove the books of the other 2 beds so other people could use the beds. He freaked out and called us thieves and ass*****!

The fact that his behaviour was very rude and inconsiderate did not resonate with him and the next day the same 4 books occupied the beds again.

Service:

The service in the MDR started out inconsistent (no water refills and second juice at breakfast etc) but improved later on.

Ricardo (waiter)and Toto (wine steward) were excellent.

A special compliment to Tanesha. She managed the seating for select dining and did an outstanding job with a big smile. Select dining was sold out but still we managed to get a table without reservations within 5 to 10 minutes (around 7.30pm)

Food:

The food was ok to good in the MDR. The soup was always luke warm due to the fact that they bring out the soup the same time as the appetizers.

Positive: If you order your meat medium rare it was at least medium.

Murano:

Arif, Marko, Nedad, Anes and Herny delivered outsanding service.

We booked the 5 dinner package so this gave us the opportunity to taste several different dishes. Hereby our impressions.

Appetizers:

Goats cheese soufflé: Delicious but very rich.

Salmon and Crab parfait: Great flavors and light

Scallops Wellington: you can taste the scallops well en it is a reasonable light dish

The morels and mushroom risotto: Great mushroom flavour but a very rich appetizer

The lobster Bisque: Great presentation and a full bodied flavour with a hint of Cognac. Much better than the MDR bisque.

Main course:

Lobster: rich creasm sauce . Prepared table side

Patato laced Turbot: Delicate and light dish. Excellent fish

Lamb rack: Cooked to order (perfect medium).

Muscovy Duck breast: Wow, my favourite. It is a plate full with duck breast and duck confit. Be aware that this is a very rich dish.

Veal Tenderloin with tyme sauce and morels: Again a great dish and a big piece of meat.

Dover Sole: Delicate fish and very delicious. My wife’s favourite.

Venison: Again perfectly prepared (medium rare).

Cheese:

Great selection of French cheeses that are less known than Camabert and Brie. For example the Comte was delicious.

Desserts:

Chocolate soufflé: Yummie. Ask for the vanilla sauce

Grand marnier Souffle: again Yummie!

Valhrona Chocolate dessert: Surpisingly light with the best chocolate available.

Crepe with Strawberries: Prepared table side and the strawberries were delicious.

Overall this is well worth the extra money and especially the package is a good deal.

Martini bar:

Our favourite pre dinner spot. Great choice of martinis: favourites candied apple and pomegranate.

Music is loud and in my opinion too upbeat. Good modern chilled house or mellow lounge will fit better. Still very appealing to the younger crowd but more relaxing.

It is nice to have a spot where Neil diamond with Sweet Caroline is not the hit of the hour:)

Fitness center:

Well equipped and if you avoid the busy mornings it was no waiting for any equipment.

The Zumba classes at poolside were very popular!

Entertainment:

We really enjoyed the the ix of entertainment. We never been to so many shows as on this cruise. We only skipped the production shows (no our thing).

Pool Music:

Way too loud. It was impossible to order lunch at the grill or sandwich bar during their performance.

Hot tubs:

2 out of 4 are way too hot and hardly used. All of them have a nauseating amount of chlorine in it.

This got better during the cruise.

State room:

Clean and more than enough closet space. The room stewards were excellent. We did not have to ask for anything.

Disembarkation:

What a mess it was delayed by more the 1 hour and customs too forever. We arranged transfer to the airport via Celebrity but this was a slow and painful process also. Not enough buses waiting so we finally arrived at the airport LAX at 1.00pm so I can imagine that people missed their flights.

Overall a nice and relaxed cruise. Was everything ok, as you can see above no. But the positives outweigh the negatives by far and we would cruise Celebrity again. It is a shame that the Century will leave the fleet as this is for us the preferred size within the Celebrity fleet.

I think the fact that they did NOT give extra points to their "loyal" customers who are just missing Elite Plus...or in my case with my paid in full cruise on Nov. 23rd which would have made me Elite Plus, speaks volumes. Clearly they don't care about their more loyal customers over their new customers.

 

Do I need, or even want the free stuff. Nope. But a little thank you for all of the $$$$$$ you have spent with us since 1990 would have been a nice. Instead, someone who has spent considerably less gets 25 bonus points.

 

Will I take this into consideration going forward? Probably. I'd rather spend my $15,000 - $20,000 a year on a line that appreciates my business. Thus taking one nice cruise versus two cruises each year.

 

Why haven't we done this once a year cruise in the past? Because, we both know once we taste something better...there's no going backwards.

 

We are now in the process of looking at an all inclusive European cruise this September. Any suggestions (or whom to avoid) would be greatly appreciated.

I don not understand this reasoning. It is either the old system where Elite Plus was non existent or the new system with the new points and Elite Plus. You are cherry picking.

I leave the auto tip intact and have met my obligation. Room service is included in the tipping pool and bar service adds 15% to all beverages bought through them. Only if something is over the top do I tip extra. Excellent service is expected on a cruise, it's not over the top. People are afraid to state what I just did because you need a flame retardant suit. The minority who post on these boards would have you believe tipping more and constantly to everyone who so much as says hello is normal is anything but normal. Most people don't carry purses or wallets while on board, they are tucked in the room safe.

I totally agree.

Elite envy:

Make everyone who has chosen to make Celebrity (or Princess) their cruise line of choice feel guilty of their elite status by belittling them.

 

I'm proud to have sailed with Celebrity over the last 20 years and I've had it with thread after thread from people who don't like it that Celebrity (or any cruise line) rewards people with perks on board for becoming loyal repeat cruisers. If you don't like Celebrity's choice for rewarding frequent cruisers, you have a choice… we're happy with ours.

 

How did we get from a simple name change discussion to what you describe here?

I have not seen any postings that suggest what you describe.

Do I look like I'm joking to you?

 

For me it brings back some memories. My father was really a comic addict and he had also one Mad Magazine. I can still remember some great jokes on Nixon :D

The only negative connotation comes from those that don't quite measure up to our level of cruising expertise and they're just jealous! :rolleyes:

I hope you were joking here.

Otherwise this really illustrates a very narrow minded view. Basing cruising expertise purely on loyalty status is ridiculous.

I would favor the expertise of a person with some broader travel experience that 1 cruise line any day.

One does not have to develop an inferiority complex around a word that is here to stay.

That is really putting it backwards.

It is more "One does not have to develop a superiority complex......"

For me it would be no value at all to know what status a person has on the roll call. Maybe from you perspective it could be useful but from a perspective of a newbe cruiser this could be interpreted differently. Not to feel inferior but more off-putting.

I think you (and others who are offended by the word "Elite") should lighten up. It's only a name of a category' date=' for goodness' sake!

 

The only entitlement is to the offered perks.

 

Now I am Elite Plus! How does that sound? It really makes me smile. Where else in my life could I profess to being Elite Plus!!!!

 

Have fun with it![/quote']

 

I was waiting for such a reply. You are a clear example of why I started this thread especially with that last sentence.

[

 

I would like to hear how other people think about this.

What is your take on Elite Plus?

To answer this there are 2 points:

1. I am in favor of the extra levels. In my opinion to reach Elite was ridiculously easy. 10 short cruises in an inside cabin and you reached the top tier.

2. The name is a little strange in the sense of meaning. You can add plus but that does not make it more important than the word Elite already defines.

On a marketing perspective they could have done much better.

To be clear, I am not Elite or have a high loyalty level on any cruise line. My priority is the right itinerary and the right opportunity at the right moment. We have cruised around 15 times (mostly longer cruises) with a mixed bag of cruise lines.

Next one is on Celebrity though :)

IMO If they had changed the name, they could just as easily changed ( downgraded) the benefits.

 

It took me 10 years to become Elite, as we don't live near ports, so the majority of our cruises are 2 week ones. We cannot take 3/4 nighters.

I really enjoy the benefits that I have earned and an grateful to Celebrity and my loyalty is with them, now and in the future.

I applaud Celebrity that they did not downgraded the benefits and as you state you earned the benefits plain and simple.

For me it is just the tone of "I am Elite" that can create a negative view on Celebrity by new cruisers reading the forums. And on the Celebrity board there is much more discussion on reaching a loyalty level than any other board.

After reading through all the threads about the changes in the loyalty program I noticed that in my opinion Celebrity missed a great opportunity to make a change that would not cost anything in benefits but could solve a lot of discussions on feeling superior compared to other passengers.

How? Get rid of the name Elite!

The definition according to the Oxford Dictionary of the word Elite is:

- a select group that is superior in terms of ability or qualities to the rest of a group or society:

- a group or class of people seen as having the most power and influence in a society, especially on account of their wealth or privilege

Why? Because this name can give people an unwanted sense of entitlement that can have a negative influence on other people.

The reason I bring this up is that I never saw so many people mentioning "I am Elite" if you compare it to other cruise line loyalty programs.

Also somebody stating I am 4 star on HAL or I am Gold status on Oceania does not sound as "superior" as I am Elite.

To be clear, I have nothing against loyalty programs and if you reached a certain level you earned the benefits associated with it BUT it does not entitle people to feel and even worse act superior and the word Elite is causing just that.

For me this is a missed opportunity for Celebrity in the recent changes of the loyalty program.

I would like to hear how other people think about this.

Those cruises (or most of them) were purchased on one booking that included all cruises (B2B); thus I would call it 1 cruise, not two. But, for those that disagree with me, I guess they are thankful that I don't make the rules, I just voice my opinion on what I feel is fair and what I feel is not. I would also would guess that Celebrity would not agree with me either and will stick by their no exception rules for anyone because they probably feel that the rules are black and white, which would be fine by me.

You cannot have it both ways. If you want to consider it 1 cruise should you not only be entitled to one time the points under the old system also rather than twice the points?

This really sounds as cherry picking.

I want to book a 5 Dinners specialty package on our upcoming cruise on the Century.

The only option for the 1st dinner reservation online (mandatory, otherwise I cannot purchase the package) are the first 2 days of the cruise.

My question is, would it be possible to change this 1st dinner reservation to the 3rd day of the cruise?

The main reason for this is that the 3rd day is our wedding anniversary and I do not want to make 2 reservations in the first three days of the 15 day cruise.

Thanks in advance

Marco.

Are you aware that olive oil is a major ingredient for Hummus?

Interesting observation, but you are looking at the issue from only one side of the coin...

 

 

Let's say that we have two passengers (Guest A and Guest B) each with a wine budget of $2,300 which they will spend in full (to keep it equal).

 

Guest A orders the Petrus and his bill is $2,000 plus 15% tip of $300 which blows his budget. The cruise worker must open 1 bottle and serve it to receive the $300 gratuity on the $2,000 in sales.

 

Guest B...on the other hand...orders house wine that runs $20 per bottle. So each bottle costs Guest B $20 plus the 15% tip of $3 for a total of $23. Guest B can order 100 bottles of house wine to consume his wine budget. The cruise worker must open 100 bottles and serve them to receive the $300 gratuity on the $2,000 in sales.

 

 

As you can see...the sales are the same, the gratuity received is the same, yet the Guest who orders the lower cost items is causing the cruise worker to have to perform a much greater quantity of work in order to receive the exact same gratuity amount.

That is exactly my point. Should the cruise worker serving Guest B not get more as he is providing much more service? In this case is serving a bottle of Petrus easy money for the cruise worker.

I am Dutch and back here in the Netherlands we are not used to tip like in the US but in my opinion the prepaid gratuities is a very good and fair system. This is equal for everybody no matter what you paid for your cruise.

And now to start the discussion....:)

However on drinks it is slightly different as it is based on the price of the drink. What is the difference in service between ordering a bottle of Petrus for $2,000 or a bottle of house wine for $20? You get the same service but the 15% gratuity is 100 times more on the expensive bottle....just food for thought....