AstoriaPreppy

Karen seems to nice to stop the show to scream at people recording on their phones in the audience 😆 I can only speak for the last cruise, but I'm almost positive they did not have a laundry deal listed in the dailies. We were looking for it to see if it was a better deal than our $20 Select bag. With the number of Elites on board, I can only assume they didn't need it. That said, it took 3 days plus a trip to guest services to get our laundry returned, so they weren't really firing on all cylinders.

I love that Karen hasn't worked on board for 2+ years, and is just wowing everyone on the Greenland/Iceland sailings this year. It's like she bottled up every ounce of talent while furloughed, and is just pouring it out on stage during each performance. She was a total delight on the last sailing!

To be honest, you'll be 100% fine without a verandah (or window)... don't let that discourage you from booking! It may take a little more initiative, but there's plenty of options that aren't a verandah for seeing stuff. The Summit has a substantial promenade on deck 4. We'd hop out here sporadically when sailing, when in port, and especially post-dinner for a stroll to the show or our next bar. Other than smokers on the port side, most people seemed to forget this was an option. Our fave spots were the Sunset Bar on scenic cruising days, or the Solarium on a sea day. Lots of passengers also liked the Sky Observation Lounge, but we ended up spending more time there on days in port after returning to the ship. The Sunset Bar starboard side also has a stairway directly up to the Rooftop Terrace, which is excellent for going back and forth to get unobstructed views off the ship. It's a little windy, and you may have to deal with watching the latest Spiderman movie 10x, but we did see passengers camped out all day in the cabanas up there. The terrace has the benefit of offering beds and outlets for charging electronic devices as needed. To get prime spots, you may have to wake up early... I staked out spots at the Sunset Bar around 7 am on our Prins Christian Sund scenic cruising day, and have zero regrets. There's only a few spot in the Sunset Bar that are under the overhang on Summit, and those tend to be a hot commodity. Although they're set back a smidge, they've protected from the wind, and you're in a much better situation should it start raining than anyone at the railing. The Sunset Bar also offers easy access to the rear of the buffet and warm beverages... we ended up bringing our Brümate insulated mugs and refilling with coffee/tea as needed.

One of the best things Celebrity did when "revolutionizing" the Summit and Millennium was a total redo of the Rendezvous lounge. It went from a truly weird, cave-like space into a light and airy venue. Cellar Masters also got new lighter carpet and furniture upholstery on the Summit, which makes a huge difference. Infinity and Constellation haven't been so lucky from what I can tell. We're sailing the Infinity next year, and already trying to prepare for the old-school decor and staterooms.

That said, revolutionizing the Millennium and Summit has allowed Celebrity to charge markedly higher rates than the Constellation and Infinity. Gutting staterooms makes a huge difference for passengers, and they're willing to pay for it.

We live in NY, and just got back from Iceland after doing the NJ-Reykjavik trip this year. From experience, this sailing is extremely popular. We expected that the voyage would be mostly NY/NJ (like a lot of the Royal/NCL cruises out of NY are), but it was full of people that had flown in from around the country, and world. We hoped to see this happen this year, but almost no one dropped out at final payment. Occasionally a random room would pop up, but with the exception of some accessible Sky Suites, those rooms were almost always gone in a few moments. We ended up sailing in an inside cabin, as the balconies that were available priced out at $4k and up per person, and even outsides were around $3k. The Summit was revolutionized a few years back, so even the insides were fantastic and we didn't miss the balcony (or window) much at all. I'd echo what other posters have mentioned; if you do want to take this cruise, check check and check multiple times a day then book whatever comes up ASAP. If you need two staterooms in the same category, or booked simultaneously, that may be unlikely, so plan accordingly

This whole conversation is hilarious to me. We were on the last sailing, and JJ repeatedly had ear-splitting FaceTime chats in public spaces with their friends and family (no headphones), then dismissed other passengers who asked them to turn it down. The sense of entitlement was over the top. There's nothing like transiting spectacular fjords in Greenland while another passenger decides he's going to chat to his mom over FaceTime on speakerphone from the Sunset Bar with the volume turned up to 11 and then roll their eyes at other guests... when do we get that video? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Forgot to add, but you'll 100% be able to disembark the ship after checking if you have an overnight at the start of your cruise. You're free to come and go during the time frame before sailaway, scanning your card in and out with security like any other port of call. Regarding muster, most cruise lines are doing a virtual muster now, which you'll complete on your phone and then go to your muster station for a check in, so that won't be a holdup. If it's still a traditional, in-person muster process, that would usually be completed the second day just before sailaway. You also don't need to wait for luggage delivery... once you have your card, you can come and go as your please. The first day, the terminal will also have a separate entrance for passengers who have already boarded, so you don't have to go in the queue with passengers who are waiting to check in and embark.

To add on to this, if you do get Argentine pesos, make sure you spend every single one of them before you leave the country. They’re one of the only currencies that are entirely worthless once you leave a country. No bank or money exchange in NYC would even consider exchanging for USD when I got back home.

Totally agree on Cheaza! We had the chance to see her perform on Princess in Alaska earlier this year, and went in with trepidation. A Whitney tribute... on Princess?? (lots of red flags). To our surprise, she was great; hands-down one of the best fly on performers working cruise ships these days. Her show was expertly crafted in a way you don't normally see in guest entertainers, from musical arrangements to lighting cues and audience engagement. It was also refreshing to have a tribute act that didn't devolve into some sort of weird impersonation.

I think pre-booking your anytime MDR times is a great idea, and anytime dining might be able to better allocate to staff that have less tables, etc. To be fair, there were other tables in our half of the MDR who would be done and out in 1 hr 20 min most nights, including chats with their serving staff, so it may just be luck of the draw. We made friends with a couple at the martini bar who also sat near us in the MDR (different servers); they found it hilarious that they'd be wrapped up and walking out of dinner, and we hadn't even gotten our mains yet.

As a passenger on the 7 August NJ-Reykjavik Summit sailing, I can tell you the same chaotic energy was happening in assigned time dining. While we enjoyed the sailing, the MDR was a total mess. We had the 8 pm late seating, and would often still be at our table just getting desserts around 10:30 pm. One night they served desserts at 10:15 and then turned on the lights at full brightness at 10:19 and started flipping up chairs onto the tables in our section. We had to complain to guest services about that one since the maitre'd was MIA that night. Apparently the carpets were being cleaned that night, and they just wanted to get a head start on things. The following day, we got service at a normal speed, and were out in under two hours, but that never happened again. This is the first cruise (out of 20+) on any line where the servers didn't attempt to learn our names or speak to us. There were no recommendations on dishes, or explanation of what the bread/spreads were each night, "how was your day?" etc. It was strictly menu drop-off, taking orders, delivery of food and removal of plates. The poor wine steward appeared to be having a nervous breakdown. She had our entire half of the MDR to service "herself,* and it wasn't uncommon to wait almost 1/2 hour after sitting down to see her. We tried to make it easy on her by ordering the same thing every night (Chandon), but even this was inconsistent: we'd get served the celebrity vintage sparkling, or Prosecco, or whatever she could find. We'd be lucky if we got a glass refilled during our 2.5 hour dinners. Notably, this is the first cruise we've been on where we didn't tip our assigned time dining staff extra at the end of the voyage... it was that bad.

Just got home from Iceland after taking the NJ- Reykjavik leg of your journey. I've enjoyed reading someone else's perspective on the cruise, and thought I'd chime in. Re: the shows, I could not agree more... the production shows on this Summit sailing were borderline unwatchable. The singers especially seemed to have pitch problems throughout, and the one time a singer did not, it was clear she was lip syncing. The DJ was listed in the dailies as DJ Eli, but doesn't sound remotely like the DJ you had. This guy didn't engage with passengers, would hold up his hands and dismiss people, refused to take *any* requests (even in the Sky Lounge club at night), and was generally horrendous to the guests. Seriously, one of the weirdest and worst cruise ship DJ encounters I've ever had. Per the Captains Club rep, the number of elites was around 900. I now take "an officer told me onboard" rumors posted on cruise critic with a grain of salt after multiple people reported officers had told them Labadee was overrun by squatters and the beaches were full of pirates several weeks before we stopped there earlier this February. 🤣 How did you get seats to the matinee?? We showed up 20 minutes early and the theater was packed to capacity, including standing room. Quarantined passengers were kept in their cabins. We know of two people who tested positive on day three, and the numbers increased throughout the 12 days. Our hallway on deck three became littered with room service trays and dining room menus in the doors, and the maitre'd from our 8 pm MDR seating vanished one night because he also oversaw room service and it wasn't going well. We did notice that one night the evening's menu was Tuscan Grill, so at least that was a nice surprise for the quarantined guests. The taxi line was *INSANE*. When we disembarked, I found friends near-ish the front, who said they'd already been in line for well over an hour. We were hundreds of people behind them, so I checked with the taxi dispatch woman and she told me the 40 minute uphill walk with our bags to our car rental was a much better idea than waiting in the line, which would take several hours.

From what I can tell, basically many cruise lines with casinos are currently casting a wider net with their algorithm parameters to look for high-value gamblers. As a bit of context, both my husband and I are decidedly low-level gamblers. We might hit the casino once on a 7 day cruise, and lose about $50 playing slots between us. I also travel for work, and if I'm in Vegas I'll go to a casino if I have downtime, but again this is less than an hour, betting $1.25 a spin max. We recently received free stateroom casino offers from both Carnival AND Celebrity, and we've taken advantage of both. Carnival's offer was an Oceanview, but Celebrity offered us the same as the OP, a verandah on a Mexican Riviera cruise. We thought the Carnival offer was a mistake, but booked and sailed with no issue. We've booked the Celebrity offer for next January. Oddly, we didn't get the offer via email, but rather a card in our stateroom cabin on the NJ-Reykjavik cruise last week. It specifically stated the offer was redeemable only on-board at the future cruise desk. We again thought it was an error, but the future cruise desk told us it was legitimate, and the casino was just expanding their offers to more cruisers. I'd love to know what larger algorithm tracks play across casinos and cruise lines and says I have the potential to be a problem gambler, but as for now, I'm happy to take the free cruise offers as they come!

I couldn't disagree more. The revolutionized M class ships are spectacular, especially the staterooms. I'm willing to go to the mat and say gutting those cabins down to the wall studs was the best money any cruise line has ever spent on a refurb. We're sailing on the Infinity next year and are already trying to prep ourselves mentally for the major downgrade.

We had a great time at Culture Night, but I'd imagine a lot of cruisers would not be happy with the state of things on an overnight. The streets were packed body to body, restaurants were overwhelmed and the noise was crazy until about 1 am. Re: culture night busses, since all the streets are closed to traffic, those are shuttles that run from the burbs to the edge of the central district at Hlemmur, about 3/4 of a mile walking from the main concert venue. We still had an amazing day, cheering for the marathon runners in the morning and partying until late, but it's not really conducive to normal operations.

As a passenger on the NJ - Reykjavik sailing (who disembarked in Reykjavik), I have a very easy answer: 20 August 2022 was Culture Night (Menningarnott) in Reykjavik. Essentially, this is the single largest event in Reykjavik each year, with approximately 100,000 people coming from the entire country into the city for one day. Keep in mind, the aprox population of Iceland as a whole is around 350,000 people, so it's a huge surge into the city. The entire downtown core is blocked off from around 8 am - midnight, with the Reykjavik marathon in the morning, most museums open and free, and Culture Night events starting around noon and running into the evening. There is logistically no way a cruise line could provide hotels/transport for anyone arriving early for a cruise to the port, and any sort of city tour would be out of the question. When we disembarked on Friday, there were three ships in port. On Culture Night (Saturday), there were zero. Also, having done the Golden Circle, we found it pretty lame (in comparison to the other sites we saw when sailing to other ports in Iceland). Thingvellir was amazing, but Geysir and Gullfoss were awful compared to the natural sights accessible from Akureyri and Ísafjörður... and much more packed with tourists.

We’re also on this cruise, in an inside cabin on deck 3. Unlike the OP, we have not been moved.

Once your bid is accepted, that's it... you're moved in the system automatically. It's also a one-and-done deal. You don't get a chance to bid, win the upgrade, and then subsequently bid on a higher room category to upgrade a second time. Re: suites. Many times lines that use the bidding system (Royal and NCL included) will set limits as to how many levels "up" you can go from what you originally booked. In your case, the max upgrade the system appears to be allowing for your booking and trip is from inside to Aqua. A few months ago on Royal Caribbean, prices kept dropping for a cruise, so we were able to move from an inside stateroom to an Oceanview, and subsequently to an obstructed hull balcony by calling the reservations line and having them move us (not bidding on upgrades). In that case, it's SUPER important to go back into the upgrade system and cancel your old bids on lower cat. staterooms, because they remain active and live in the Plusgrade system. I've seen comments by passengers on Cruise Critic who got themselves upgraded by the line when prices dropped, and then downgraded (and charged!) to a lower category when their bids were accepted later on, and there's little to no recourse.

Hey, only NCL is the line that actually *hit an iceberg* in Alaska.

Princess pizza is stellar, whether from the sit down pizza restaurants or the lido poolside pizzaria. Celebrity pizza doesn't come close... although I still think Royal Caribbean's Sorento's Pizza is by far the worst pizza at sea. Princess attracts a lot of cruisers who have sailed with the line for decades, while Celebrity has been better about bringing in newer/younger/more diverse demographics. Princess feels much more like a "traditional" cruise experience in many ways than Celebrity does... which is why some of their efforts to shake things up (no assigned dining times for anyone, etc) have caused so many issues with loyalists. Princess entertainment is less creative than Celebrity, and aimed at a much older, more traditional clientele. Celebrity's newer ships feature acrobats, aerialists, rain in the theater, etc. New Princess ships have song and dance revues that are often cringe-worthy. Princess has TINY standard staterooms, that are oddly designed. Instead of a closet, they have a wall/railing that provides privacy space for dressing (it's 2022 not 1822, so I've never understood the modesty feature). Princess bathrooms are also *tiny* and poorly designed compared to other new build ships. Celebrity's new ships have substantially larger standard staterooms, with an infinite balcony. You'll read lots of mixed opinions of the infinite balcony, but we found it to be the best standard stateroom we've *ever* had. Princess technology is miles ahead of Celebrity. They've spent billions on outfitting their ships with transponders that can track your location down to a 1-2 ft radius. This means you can order snacks or drinks to be delivered anywhere at any time. Princess tends to do much better with local enrichment and programs. i.e. bringing entertainment or activities on in a port, or offering local food/beverage options onboard. On Celebrity, it's a lot more formulaic... menus don't really change, and any lecturers may be completely not relevant to the voyage you're on.

You'll also discover on Celebrity that there's no check to sign at the end of a specialty meal.... and no pressure for an extra tip as a server hovers near your table. It's a lot more chill.

These "fake sales" as some would call them made the hour plus hold time very worth it. We're in the US and ended up repricing our March 2023 sailing and ended up with a $300 price drop, plus $800 OBC.

TBH, one of the things we loved most about the Edge class in the Med. was the use of Destination Gateway, Magic Carpet and Edge tenders in certain ports. We actually kinda enjoyed it, compared to the annoyance that tendering can often be on other lines/older ships. It sounds like the ship may have used local tenders in one of your ports? Possibly a local regulation? The Edge tenders we used were... revelatory. Fully air conditioned, cushioned theater-like seating, and flatscreen monitors, while departing/returning to a lovely onboard space with a wall of windows and light.

That's surprising. During my experience on the Millennium, the video quality would vary, but I never got a the spinning buffer icon in any of my classes.