turbobob

I am not a big fan of Celebrity Cruises but exceptional performance, good or bad, needs to be recognized.  During the week we were in the Galapagos on Flora (9/29-10/6) there was political unrest in Quito, the transfer point between Galapagos and the rest of the world. The demonstrations during the week we were at sea had led to a quiet weekend and we arrived at the J.W. Marriott Quito on Sunday, October 6.

There were about 25 of us at the Marriott on Monday October 7, a mix of Flora and Xpedition passengers who had completed their cruises and were awaiting flights home. Our Delta flight was scheduled for 11:30 pm and the airport transfer was scheduled for 8 pm; it takes about 1 hour to get to the airport from Quito.   Normally Celebrity has tours available during the day, prior to departure but because of the political unrest those tours were cancelled.  The Celebrity people on the ground in Quito at the hotel stayed on top of the demonstrations and as the situation worsened they decided that remaining in the Marriott was not safe and we should leave Quito immediately at around 2 pm.

The normal transfer buses were not available so Celebrity staff drove us, 6 people at a time, using minivans on a circuitous route using roads that were still open out of Quito to the San Jose de Puembo Quito Airport Hotel where we were provided rooms at no charge, dinner (also at no charge) and transfer to the airport only a few miles away.

When it was time for the transfer to the airport one Celebrity staff person and one of the hotel van drivers, who knew the local roads, loaded us and our luggage into two ten-passenger vans and headed to the airport using back roads because the main routes were blocked.  It was an exciting ride down dirt roads, used a creative left turn, and resourceful avoidance of roadblocks to get us to the airport in plenty of time for the earliest flight.

Kudos to the Celebrity staff in Quito; they did what was the best thing for their passengers, sometimes putting themselves at risk to get us out of harm’s way and to the airport for our flights home.

Two questions:

1) I see Chef's Table offered as a dining option but can find no location on the deck plan. Does it actually exist?

2) We have tried a number of Chef's Tables, some wonderful and some definitely not worth the time or money and it seems to vary ship to ship within a cruise line. How does the Chef's Table (if it exists) on HOTS stack up? How is the food? The wines? The pairings?

Two questions:

Where is the Chef's Table on HOTS? I can't find a venue on the deck plan.

How is it? We have experienced everything from a truly silly gourmet dining experience with great wine pairings (with great wines) to MDR food quality with pretentious service and bottom of the barrel wines; is HOTS Chef's table worth the $95?

What's wrong with the return flight? As I recall all the Air Tahiti Nui flights leave PPT around midnight so if that's the problem, the only alternative is the mid-day Air France flight to LAX. I heard that is an expensive deviation, if you can even get it.

 

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Instead of departing late on the day the cruise ended it was late on the next day.......not that another day in Paradise would be horrible but my wife has to get back to work.

My exploration didn't turn up that Air France flight which would be preferable to waiting all day in Paradise

I always gave them the exact flights I wanted and let them come back yes no or for what charge for yes.

 

I don't understand why you had so many gyrations?? I will admit that when doing Air arrangements , or working out Air issues, having a TA is a PITA.

 

I normally book it myself and take the credit.

Normally I book it myself but with the limited flights to/from PPT the cost, even with the deviation fee was much less than booking it myself. I like your approach of "these are the flights I want"

Round 4 was a success and contrary to the prediction we only got a single charge for the deviation. Al's well that ends well.

We are planning a South Pacific cruise on Marina in February......what better time to go to the South Pacific? Long flights ATL-LAX and LAX-PPT and living in ATL there are advantages to flying Delta so with the ship boarding on Sunday the 25th we thought it would be worth it to go ATL-LAX on Friday and then LAX-PPT on Saturday and overnight on Tahiti before boarding. With limited flights LAX-PPT I figured why not give Oceania a shot at "custom air" figuring they probably have most of the seat booked to and from PPT on the days around the cruise..

Round 1 missed the target........ATL-LAX (on Delta) Friday then an 11pm flight Friday night to PPT arriving 0530, not exactly what we had asked for but no increase in fares and tentatively booked on Delta and it only takes a simple change from the Friday LAX-PPT to Saturday. Return home day of disembarkation.

Round 2, Keep the ATL-LAX on Friday but LAX-PPT on Saturday with arrival at 11 pm was the request. We got Saturday morning ATL-LAX and Saturday afternoon LAX-PPT. Still Delta ATL-LAX and no fare increase.What I missed is they also changed out date of return.....now the day after the ship docks.

Round 3; what could be difficult about changing the ATL-LAX flight back to Friday night like Round 1? Nothing! They got it right......Delta to and from LAX, overnight in LA before LAX-PPT and arrival at PPT at a "reasonable" hour (at least not 5 am).

But........what did I miss? The return trip. I paid attention to getting there and the first itinerary had the right return so once the out-going flights were right I didn't bother to check the return flights.....and I accepted the custom air itinerary. We are now awaiting Round 4 which will incur another custom air charge and which I hope, and pray, won't have some new deviation or excessive fare increase.

It is my fault, I acknowledge that. I don't know if the problem lies with Oceania custom air or the travel agent intermediary but this has taken over a month and far too many iterations for such a simple request. I', hoping the fourth time is the charm.

Yes, there is and yes it is the second night. There were about as many people in formal dress as there were in ripped jeans, I guess they were formal ripped jeans.

Anthem has real grass? I thought that was limited to Solstice class ships at Celebrity?

Sorry for the confusion, you are correct Celebrity has the grass I was including the arm and iFly in the same "silly" category as the grass; something that has no relevance to getting from port to port. Unlike the grass I found some fun in some of the "silly" attractions of Anthem.

I have found that I prefer smaller, more "intimate" ships in part because they are smaller and more "intimate" and also because they can go where larger ships cannot. When my wife suggested Anthem to Bermuda for the 4th of July I was not thrilled but not having been to Bermuda.....what the heck? It was not fantastic, but it was so much better than I imagined that I am reconsidering big ships for some itineraries.

The first and last downside is dealing with EWR; our flight in was hours late the night before boarding and getting a cab at that time took a while and was expensive (but what cab ride isn't?). Hotel was great, cab to the Bayonne terminal was fine (and expensive). The Bayonne terminal.......I've seen better, much better, and I've seen worse... aside from being on the fringe of Nowhere it was OK as was the boarding process, expedited by having booked a mini-suite. I had two bottles of wine in my carry-on and we walked straight on. Using the ship's transfer back to the airport had us sit for over an hour at the terminal, then with traffic and stupid airport design we barely made our flight on time (Yay for Delta and their counter service and priority security screening).

I think a ship should take you in comfort from port to port and provide "entertainment" while at sea; having a real grass lawn or row after row of shops selling stuff you can buy on shore isn't my cup of tea. Therefore the upper deck activities on Anthem were not draws......but the bumper cars were great (reliving my youth?) and the Ripcord by iFly was a blast. Ripcord was great fun and seemed pretty safe even for someone my age (>65) and weight (<100 kg).

We did "luck of the draw" mini-suite and got a spa suite. Good space, good storage; this could work for an extended cruise. Having two separate sinks keep my junk near my sink and my wife's junk near her sink but having the commode "room" across an aisle from the bathroom was a little strange. We were right under the teen center and worried about noise but only had one time when we heard anything.

For me food is part of the comfort of cruising. We did Coastal Kitchen, the Chef's Table, Chops and tried to do Jamie's Italian but walked out after an hour only having gotten our appetizers. Coastal Kitchen was excellent, if the cruise had been longer (only 5 nights and we ate ashore one night) we would have gone again. Food was good, service was fine; everything I could ask for. Chef's Table was a big step up from our last RCI Chef's Table in the Adriatic (which was terrible); the food was OK, the wine pairings were OK, the wines were decent quality, the service was fine. Chops is what it was, which is a compliment considering where some similar venues have gone, with good food and service; it was worth taking a good bottle of wine to drink with the food. Jamie's was simply mismanaged; we left because service was so slow and uneven; people who arrived after us were done before we got our entrees. One secret we discovered was the Solarium Bistro - a great place for breakfast away from the confusion of the buffet.

We tried a number of activities and weren't "wow"ed. We tried one ballroom dance experience and were the only ones on the floor which is both good and could have been intimidating if anyone had been at the bar. Most of the live music venues had dance floors that were too small for the crowd and too limited a music selection for our taste and venues where the music was more interesting didn't have dance floors and were packer with people listening.

I was pleasantly surprised. We are thinking about booking longer cruises on the bigger ships as well as smaller ships for more interesting itineraries.

If you don't pay for pressing, you don't get pressing. It's very simple. They were providing laundry services not dry cleaning services. Land side laundry services don't press either. You are comparing apples and oranges.

 

Also, did you consider that the ship needs to account for tides, depth, other traffic? distance from any other ships? These things are not in the ship's control. Celebrity is also not in control of the weather.

 

I think you should abandon Celebrity and be happier on another cruise line. Then you can accuse them of being unfocused on customer service over things they can't control.

I waited to get my shirts back from the laundry to post this photo of my shirts , washed, pressed and on hangers (for $1.75). In my limited experience this is not unique to Alpharetta GA, I have received similar if not identical service in: Rancho Bernardo, CA; Corvallis, OR; Marietta, GA (kinda cheating because it's just down the road from Alpharetta); Destrehan, LA; Somerset NJ; Buffalo, NY; Newark, DE; Philadelphia, PA; and Ithaca, NY. I have also received my laundry washed and pressed on Princess, RCL, Oceania, Celebrity Constellation, Azamara, and Seabourn. The slip for service, photo attached, lists,: laundry, dry cleaning, and press only. Are you suggesting that if someone wants a shirt washed they need to send it in as laundry and pay $7.00 and then send it in to be pressed at another $5.00.?

I don't care if you choose to disagree; you opinion is just as personally valid to you as mine is to me. If the laundry service in your neighborhood only does wash-and-fold that is very different from my experience in multiple locations around the USA and on multiple cruise lines, including Celebrity. Please do not try to invalidate my experience with either your opinion or your experience.

I have to thank everyone who has participated on this thread and made my evening. I laughed for an hour reading everyone's comments. You're a sport, turbobob, for not going ballistic in response to some of these rude (but really funny) comments. If I knew how to take this thread viral I would. As for me, give me a lounge chair and a cocktail on any cruise ship and I could not be happier.

Thanks for you comment, my wife and I enjoyed them too. It's like most social media today, anyone who disagrees with "my" opinion is, at best, misguided and often times far more seriously impaired. There is lots of room in my world for people with different opinions, alternate "facts" bother bother me more but people who rely on those will never be swayed.

If you get the cabin next to ours, I'll pass you a glass of good wine around the veranda railing

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2536837

I covered that in a separate post, yes, the MDR was a disappointment. We did enjoy QSine, both the menu and especially the service so we ate there twice. It almost seems as if they are trying to encourage people to the additional cost venues with the quality of the MDR offerings.

turbobob, I must say your thread starter" Lost at sea" IMHO was just childish to say the least. Yes it caught my attention but seriously, the nonsense you wrote about troubled you for days. wow... I have read some of your past posts on CC and I was not surprised at what I read. It seems you are a very tough sell turbobob . You were not happy with Viking, even in the penthouse suite really??, and you were not happy on the Rhapsody. Can you honestly say the design of the Celebrity ships you find to be are note worthy being "silly" and the laundry service awful. Perhaps you should have asked for all your clothes to be pressed on hung on hangers, they will gladly do that for a fee. So I guess what I have to say to you before you decide to cruise on any line again is, having 27 Celebrity cruises under my belt and several other cruise lines also, I have had a few things that have bugged me but,who cares in the end? Just go on a cruise to enjoy and be thankful you can, don't look for the petty crap !!! I do hope you have many happy voyages in you future.

 

luvstosail

Boston Ma

That was Penthouse Veranda not Penthouse Suite it is comparable to RCL and other lines "mini-suite" (about 11 sq ft larger than a Concierge/Aqua cabin, and my major complaint was that we did not receive what was supposed to be part of that package...... again a customer service issue. I do admit that I am more motivated to write about the negative experiences, our voyage on the Anthem in July was just fine but I haven't made the time to comment on that, perhaps I should.

Why you compare your local cleaners with ship board ;aundry is beyond me. Laundry on board is wash, dry, fold. Period. If nyou want pressing, then you need to indicate that and pay for it.

 

The ship's theater is often used for rehearsals during times when there is nothing planned for passengers. It is NOT empty and unused. You can't just change the venues after the daily is printed.

 

As for how close the ship is moored and how many tenders are used, there are numerous logistics (not in control of the ship) that go into that. Do you honestly think they moored further out just to make it a longer ride?

 

Tours? The ship doesn't run the tours. Local company's do. The ship waits for you if you return late. hat more can you possibly expect from the ship?

 

Your complaints are way off base.

Why compare local on-shore laundry with on-board laundry? Because on-shore laundry has to meet customer's expectations or the business quickly goes elsewhere. That's my point, this ship appears to have lost customer focus. I have sent out laundry on Princess, RCL, Azamara, Oceania, Seabourn, and Celebrity Constellation and this is the first time that things that should be washed and pressed did not come back washed and pressed.

As I mentioned on Day 2 the ship re-positioned and was moored 5 minutes closer to the dock. Five minutes closer and more tenders would have made the return to the ship better for most of the 700 people who went ashore. Most of the 700 customers stood in the rain for more than a hour.

Clearly the ship could not reschedule rehearsals, if they were being held, one hour earlier or later to accommodate the passengers, that would be too much of a burden.....

It is called "customer focus"

For what it's worth the "Lost at sea" title was intended to convey that from my perspective Silhouette management had lost, or perhaps has never had, customer focus that I provided my customers and expect from my suppliers. The "at sea" part should be obvious.

Is this your first sailing on Celebrity?

Nope, third. First two were on the Constellation, that's how I could eliminate cabin size as the source of the problem.

I have been struggling with why our 12 day British Isles cruise was not more enjoyable than it was. It can't be the small stateroom because the cabins were just as small on the Constellation and we enjoyed those voyages. It can't be the service because from stateroom attendant through dining staff the service was great. Embarkation and disembarkation were flawless. I think the ship design is silly but that's not enough to be the problem, we enjoyed our voyage on the even sillier Anthem of the Seas just a month ago. Yet Silhouette was not enjoyable even with Elite and Concierge perks.

First thing that tweaked me was our Concierge. We stopped at his desk as soon as we had access to our cabin to make specialty dinner reservations for that evening and the next night - an "at sea" day - and were told it would be difficult but since we were flexible with timing he would see what he could do. He didn't. We had dinner at The Porch the first night, there was one other couple there, as walk-ins. The next morning I made dinner reservations at Murano for that evening and Q-Sine the next night at a table near the Guest Services desk. Not very difficult. We never heard from the Concierge.

Then there was laundry service. When I take shirts and pants to our local cleaners they are washed and pressed and returned on hangers. My first load of shirts and pants came back washed and folded (no ironing) at 5X the cost of my local laundry (yes, I expect to pay more but I also expect the same service). The second load came back washed and ironed (incorrectly ironed but ironed) and on hangers. The third load was washed and folded. They were all the same style shirt and pant....but the service was inconsistent and well below expectations. I call this a management failure.

Ships tours. We had only one tour where the tour service was unacceptable but multiple times when the ship's tour organization was flawed. Almost everyone on the Tattoo excursion understands the difficult logistics of moving that many people to and from shore on tenders and almost everyone on the excursion knows it could have been done much better by having the ship moored closer to the dock (as it was on Day 2 in Edinburgh) and using more tenders. The "ship" could have taken better care of those customers. We went on a number of long tours, tours that should have been the first ones off the ship to compensate for the length of the tour but two out of three times we barely made it back by "on board" time - and two busses on the same tour delayed the ship departing - because the start of the tour was late in the morning. I call this a management failure.

Venues for activities. Morning lectures on sea days were SRO, after the first time why weren't they moved to the empty theater? Afternoon trivia was SRO but we were told no other venue was available ...... maybe Tuscan Grill? On a ship this size there should be space for ship's activities that are appropriate for the size of the audience. I call this a management failure.

It's too early to write off Celebrity, based on one cruise and the hype for Edge, but I do think I am going to write off Silhouette because the current management does not seem to be interested in my business.

What was the Tattoo fiasco?

To answer the question and "correct" some of the responses.......

It was not raining all day as some have said, as others have noted the rain started toward the end of the Tattoo, about 9:45 and continued until we were back on the ship at 0100 and probably beyond. I heard from others that they were not back on board until 0300. It had been windy all day, making the tender ride bit of a roller coaster with the tender burying its nose in the white caps - I have some great photos from Day 2.

Many of us were sold "front" seats at a premium price and found we were in a corner maybe two meters from the "side" seats with the same view. Not a good start. These seats fit the Tattoo's definition for front and to Celebrity's credit when we complained they reduced the charge to that same as "side" seats.

Consider that there were "700" people from the ship attending the Tattoo on ship's tours (and more doing it privately) that means moving 700 people onto tenders, through the dock, onto buses and to the event. At 45 people per bus that means a lot of buses and it takes 30 minutes to get from Edinburgh to the dock and then 30 minutes back so the answer is a lot of buses. At 85 people per tender that means you need to run a lot of tenders. The trip from the dock to the ship was 20 minutes with loading and unloading from bouncing tenders onto bouncing docks each tender took an hour round trip. The solution is run a lot of tenders, Celebrity's definition of "a lot" was three.

The buses brought more people to the docks than could be transferred to the ship by the tenders, so the line on the quay kept getting longer. There was a tent that could hold about 2 tender loads which did offer some "comfort"; you were out of the wind and rain and the body heat from the other 150 people made it quite a bit warmer. If there were enough buses the buses could have sheltered people until there was room in a tender but that was not the case.

We had the "e ticket" transfer. Our tender was being driven by a bridge officer (if he was telling the truth) who might not have been the best choice for the assignment. The staff on the dock counted off 85 people an allowed them to begin boarding the tender. The deckhand assisted getting them onto the boat. While there were still people on the dock our officer told the deckhand to stop loading people because of safety - never a good thing to hear that the officer in charge is worried about the safety of his passengers. The deckhand was caught between the order and the people on the dock and let them continue to board for which he received a tongue lashing. Then it came time to leave the dock, through the breakwater and to the ship. Since the tender had to back up and visibility was terrible due to the rain, dark and fogged windows the deckhand leaned out the door and provided directions to the officer right up to the point where the tender accelerated backwards into the breakwater. A number of us were seriously looking for life jackets but no serious damage was done and we made it safely back to the ship.

If the ship had been docked this would have been easy. If there had been twice as many tenders this would have been much better, fewer people waiting quayside. This would have cost nothing extra. If people waiting could have waited on the buses and then off-loaded to the tenders, roughly two buses per tender, things would have been very much better. What we had was a fiasco and I found little comfort in my wife's assertion that this was so much better than last year.

It's hard to please everyone that's for sure. It's called mass market cruising for a reason. For those who have cruised for years (and I don't fall into that category),they all say that things aren't the way they used to be. But cruising was more expensive back then even taking into account inflation etc. The cruise biz is extremely competitive so the pricing is key. Perhaps "kicking it up a notch" to a cruise on Oceania or similar may be to your liking. You may find that in the end,the cruise food experience might be more your style. And in the end,Oceania might not cost all that much more. JMO

Our next cruise already booked is Oceania, and the last time we sailed with them the food was fantastic. My response might not have been as strong if we hadn't just returned from a 4th of July cruise on RCL where the main dining room food was, IMHO, better than on the Silhouette. I see two aspects; menu and execution and Celebrity failed on both in the main dining room.

We have just returned from a 12 day British Isles cruise - the experience to be described elsewhere - and were positively impressed with only one dining experience, Q-Sine. Murano, The Porch and the buffet rated an OK, Lawn Grill was over-priced and under performing (the story of this cruise), and the main dining room left a lot to be desired.

First, the good thing; Q-sine. It's a different approach to dining with a large number of "small plates" covering a wide range of foods. You can order as many as you want and each is served in serial fashion in its' own unique presentation for sharing. Service is attentive and excellent. Well worth the added cost.

It seems as if the menu in Murano has slipped (based upon our Murano experience on the Constellation), the food was well prepared and service was very good but not worth the up-charge. On Silhouette there is only a view of the bottom of the lifeboats, so - sadly - an inside table is just fine.

We ate breakfast at the buffet and aside from there rarely being enough seating - and what can you do exciting with breakfast? - this was just fine. Pizza was the best I've had a sea and the pasta service, while time consuming, offered a good product. After the Tattoo fiasco the buffet was open and a welcome place to get some hot food.

The Porch is an interesting concept with cold seafood served under cover on the top deck. The food was well prepared, there was more than enough shrimp, lobster, and scallops to satisfy our needs. Small venue with very good service. The view is excellent and all you need is decent weather.

Lawn Grill; let's start recognizing that I think having a lawn on a cruise ship is just plain stupid but that's not completely relevant to the dining experience. You are seated on Deck 15 under cover (like the Porch) on one side of The Lawn. You get a four course meal; "flatbread", salad, entrée, and dessert. "Flatbread" translated into English is "pizza"; yes, you can customize with items from the salad bar but the bottom line is you pay an up-charge for pizza. Then there is the salad bar - yep, a salad bar; if I wanted a salad bar I would go to Ruby Tuesday not an upscale restaurant. Yes, your waiter will prepare a salad for you should you wish. The entrée; you select your meat and side dishes. The meat we were served was top shelf - the waiter messed up the order - and well prepared. Side dishes were not memorable. Dessert was fine but again, not memorable.

Last, and definitely least, the main dining room. The menu selections were not interesting and when they approached interesting they were poorly prepared. Some standouts; my wife's "Hungarian Goulash" starter was more soup than substance, her country pate was primarily fat with little meat or flavor; I found no ham on my veal cordon bleu (and the veal had not been pounded), Chicken Kiev was a fried chicken breast with an herbed - very lightly herbed - butter sauce, and there was meatloaf .... meatloaf, really? Enough griping, service was fine and we had dinner with some interesting people.

It seems that if you want a decent dinner you have to go to a specialty restaurant - we checked the menus at Blu and the Luminae the last night (a small sample to be sure) and were not impressed so upgrading your cabin doesn't seem to upgrade dinner - and pay the price which seems to be the message Celebrity is sending.

Sorry Sonoandrea, I mentioned it only because my wife drinks Jack Daniels with Coke not because either of us know anything about bourbon. She did get her Jack and Coke from bars on the ship, just not in the cabin.

My wife and I were enjoying our Viking beach getaway - Pigeon Island - on St. Lucia until a Costa tour arrived. The Costa ship tour guide - I think his name was Maurizio Imperiale but it was hard to read his name tag as he thrashed about the park - was totally unprofessional in his dealings with everyone who were not part of his tour and made most of us from the Viking tour very uncomfortable. He was amember of the Costa crew and not an island contractor

He began by demanding that the refreshments that were brought for our tour be distributed to his tour. Our tour guide did a fine job of standing firm and not letting him bully her. His next demand was that she call her office to remedy his problem despite the fact that his tour was through her organization. She was supposed to call because he had no telephone. Once again, she stood firm and let him rant to no avail. I truly hope that what we saw is not typical of Costa land excursions and staff professionalism

If I remember correctly the package includes a 15% discount on bottles.

Viking does listen, I had a long talk with them expressing both our frustrations and the wonderful aspects of our experience. We will probably try one of their "unique" itineraries having adjusted our expectations and our approach to the details of the voyage/