Sky suite vs Aqua class

[Cdresser]

DH and I have sailed in Aqua class, twice in an RS, and once in an Edge Villa. We have never sailed in a Sky Suite. For our next cruise, we are debating between a Sky or Aqua class. For those who have done both, did you think the price difference was worth it for the Sky Suite? We enjoy Blu more than luminae and don't really use the sundeck so the main difference for us would be the butler and the room size. DH really loves the persian garden but I have assured him we could get passes for that with our OBC. We had a bad experience with our room attendent when we sailed Aqua but I don't think it was typical- he disappeared after 2 days and we had a series of fill ins for the rest of the cruise who did not even want to have us order room service. I don't expect butler level attention but I don't want to argue with someone just to get basic housekeeping service.

 

Regardless of what we book, I will probably try for a move up bid to a higher level suite but I want to feel  good about whatever we book in case our bid is not successful (or the minimum bid is out of our price range).

[Laurab23]

I will be interested in hearing the answers. We sail on Summit and always try to book one of the aft Aqua's with the large balcony. Would love to try a suite but the price is so high.

 

Laura

[cruzzzinma]

We have done both and prefer the retreat class due to Luminae and larger cabin. We use the butler but not a lot.

 

if you prefer Blu, then I’d weigh the smaller cabin and the Persian Garden against a larger cabin with some different benefits. If we preferred Blu, we’d choose Aqua Class.

[cangelmd]

I think you’ve answered your own question because Blu/Luminae is the biggest single difference. We also enjoy the lounge, although we miss the live music when it is not available in the Retreat.

We prefer suites because of Luminae and the lounge. The exception is on Edge class - the 4 dining rooms provide diversity that makes the financial question harder - you can take the Luminae money and eat in specialty restaurants, then Blu has a poor location.

We now have 2 Apex cruises booked for 2022 - we chose IV for the first because it is port intensive and the per diet for a suite was ridiculous. For the second, a TA, the per dime was less and we felt we would have time to truly enjoy Luminae

[George C]

You also get the retreat lounge or micheals which I love free drinks all day and night , normally very quite with great service and concierge who can walk you off the ship at end of cruise. Have always done suites tried Blu just once a long time ago and didn’t care for it , although definitely better than mdr.

[Miaminice]

We also sail in both… Sky Suite only if we can get a good price.

we also prefer BLU over Luminae, don’t care for Michael’s, don’t need a butler and we can do with a regular sized stateroom. 
 

On Edge class we book a regular stateroom because we really enjoyed the 4 dining rooms. So no reason to pay more for Blu or Luminae.

[glmacruise]

Not if you don’t enjoy Luminae or the sky deck. Of course our Butler was fantastic on our Alaskan cruise . Nice having hot drinks brought your rom while watching the glacier.

[jelayne]

We have been in Aqua and never had a cabin attendant who wasn’t up to par.  If so we would have notified the Housekeeping Supervisor.  Most were excellent.

I had a couple of Butlers who I would have traded for a cabin attendant😂

We enjoy Blu over Luminae, and most times fine Michaels/ Retreat Lounge dead.  We normally book Aqua for shorter cruises.  We like the space in a Suite and book suites for long 12+ nights, B2Bs or cruises where we don’t intend to get 

 

On the M class ships the majority of Sky Suites have tiny balconies, so we try and get one of the aft facing Aqua cabins with large verandas.

[marieps]

1 hour ago, Miaminice said:

We also sail in both… Sky Suite only if we can get a good price.

we also prefer BLU over Luminae, don’t care for Michael’s, don’t need a butler and we can do with a regular sized stateroom. 
 

On Edge class we book a regular stateroom because we really enjoyed the 4 dining rooms. So no reason to pay more for Blu or Luminae.

We have been in AQ multiple times and love Blu.  We are in suites for our next three =X= voyages.  I'm very interested in why you prefer Blu over Luminae.  We've never dined there so opinions from those who've done each are welcomed.  Thanks for your input.

[marieps]

52 minutes ago, jelayne said:

On the M class ships the majority of Sky Suites have tiny balconies, so we try and get one of the aft facing Aqua cabins with large verandas.

 We have aft corner sky suites on two of our next three cruises, and one on Summit with an angled balcony (6131).  Does your comment extend to the aft corner Sky Suites?  Thanks. 

Edited June 16, 2021 by marieps

[Happy Cruiser 6143]

4 minutes ago, marieps said:

We have been in AQ multiple times and love Blu.  We are in suites for our next three =X= voyages.  I'm very interested in why you prefer Blu over Luminae.  We've never dined there so opinions from those who've done each are welcomed.  Thanks for your input.

 

Personally, I'll take Luminae over Blu any day!

 

[Mike45LC]

25 minutes ago, Happy Cruiser 6143 said:

 

Personally, I'll take Luminae over Blu any day!

 

On the Edge, I will take the four Main Dining Rooms over Blu any day!  Blu seems to serve asparagus with every selection as part of the more healthful menu.  I keep expecting the desserts in Blu to be veggie centric as well.

 

[phoenix_dream]

Unlike many, I prefer the Blu menu to Luminae.  In fact, when we sail in Sky Suites (which is not often due to pricing) we often end up ordering several dinners off the MDR menu.  That said, Luminae has some other pluses, such as more spacing between tables, slightly better service, and according to DH who is a bread fanatic, better bread choices with dinner.

 

As to other features, I couldn't care less about the butler, but definitely like the larger cabin size of suites.  On revolutionized ships, the Retreat Deck is very nice.  We also enjoy Michaels Club or the Retreat, but that is not a deal breaker for us.  In fact, I really dislike the new décor of the Retreat in revolutionized ships as it is so bright and "cold" looking to me, but the service is nice.

 

We have sailed AQ many, many times (our preference if suite pricing is too high) and we have never had issues with our room stewards.  Same with Blu, with the exception of the Reflection where it was much more crowded than other ships due to the same size venue but more AQ cabins (and on that particular sailing, the refusal of the maître d to not admit suite guests even when there was a long wait for tables).

 

So all in all, given a good price we will pick suites, but these days that means we usually end up in AQ and are very happy with it.

Edited June 16, 2021 by phoenix_dream

[jelayne]

59 minutes ago, marieps said:

 We have aft corner sky suites on two of our next three cruises, and one on Summit with an angled balcony (6131).  Does your comment extend to the aft corner Sky Suites?  Thanks. 

There are no corner aft Sky Suites on M Class ships  only on S & E class.   The aft corner suites on S class are  great.  
On M class 6131 has a large balcony angled forward.  We haven’t stayed in that Suite  but have been in 6125, 6121 & 6119.  We spent very little time on the balcony on 6121 & 6119 since they were tiny.  6125 has a decent size balcony so we used it more but my issue with both 6125 & to a greater extent 6131 is that anyone on their balcony on the aft side of elevators  has a good view of your balcony. 

[marieps]

1 hour ago, Mike45LC said:

On the Edge, I will take the four Main Dining Rooms over Blu any day!  Blu seems to serve asparagus with every selection as part of the more healthful menu.  I keep expecting the desserts in Blu to be veggie centric as well.

 

I agree.  Really because of the location of Blu on E class.  Regret I didn't try the main venues.

[marieps]

48 minutes ago, jelayne said:

There are no corner aft Sky Suites on M Class ships  only on S & E class.   The aft corner suites on S class are  great.  
On M class 6131 has a large balcony angled forward.  We haven’t stayed in that Suite  but have been in 6125, 6121 & 6119.  We spent very little time on the balcony on 6121 & 6119 since they were tiny.  6125 has a decent size balcony so we used it more but my issue with both 6125 & to a greater extent 6131 is that anyone on their balcony on the aft side of elevators  has a good view of your balcony. 

Oh my.  I never said I had  corner suites on M class.  S1 - 6307 Sky Suite  That is Silhouette.  S1-8336 Sky Suite  That is Equinox.  Just to be clear.  Happy Cruiser and I seem to agree on many things, so I very much look forward to our first experiences in Luminae.  I'm also interested to see what the Rev changes to Michaels Club look like.  I remember a deeply warm room watching Perry in there years ago, but did not have full access as a guest on AQ.

Edited June 17, 2021 by marieps

[Cdresser]

Thank you to everyone for the feedback. It is especially reassuring to know that my sense that we had an unusual experience with our room steward in AQ was correct.

 

Just to be clear, I enjoy Luminae but had a more personalized experience in Blu. That could also be because we did not use Luminae very often when we had a suite because we took full advantage of the free specialty dining that came with the RS and EV. 

 

I think we will end up in the cruiser category of "AQ unless we can get a deal on a suite".

[TommyD3]

Considering current pricing (at least on Equinox in the Caribbean) has a Sky Suite at 2X the cost of AQ I would NEVER pay that difference !!! Spent 3 weeks in Luminae on Eclipse a couple of years ago and felt it might be worth 10-20% more than Blu but definitely NOT 2X !!!

[Happy Cruiser 6143]

2 hours ago, marieps said:

Oh my.  I never said I had  corner suites on M class.  S1 - 6307 Sky Suite  That is Silhouette.  S1-8336 Sky Suite  That is Equinox.  Just to be clear.  Happy Cruiser and I seem to agree on many things, so I very much look forward to our first experiences in Luminae.  I'm also interested to see what the Rev changes to Michaels Club look like.  I remember a deeply warm room watching Perry in there years ago, but did not have full access as a guest on AQ.

 

Well, I don't want to burst your bubble, but deeply warm is gone replaced by cold and sterile with uncomfortable seating.  And not much service.  I didn't spend a lot of time in there on my last Equinox cruise.  In my view, that was not one of their better moves, although some seem to like it.  My experience in Luminae, on the other hand, was the best ever.  Go figure.

Edited June 17, 2021 by Happy Cruiser 6143

[sn2792]

We book sky suites if the price is decent. Otherwise we book Aqua Class. We have gotten sky suites via a move up bid from Aqua class. We enjoy both Blu and Luminae, but Luminae is our preference. We also enjoy the Retreat deck and the Retreat lounge. I like the new look of the Retreat lounge. On our last Equinox cruise in October 2019., the bartender, Rose made awesome drinks.

[Miaminice]

8 hours ago, marieps said:

I'm very interested in why you prefer Blu over Luminae.  We've never dined there so opinions from those who've done each are welcomed.  Thanks for your input.

 

Well, it´s not a matter of service or food. Both venues are great. However, I have to admit it´s probably the people... We have had fantastic conversations in Blu and created friendships lasting for years. And yes, we have also met nice people in Luminae. But in Blu it feels less pretentious and the conversations are not about "we have done this suite and that suite..." 🙂 
 

For more or less the same reason we don´t frequent Michael´s or visit the CC events. If we wanted a more exclusive feeling, we´d book a different class of cruise or ship. We simply enjoy or cruise - and look for quiet and empty spots 🙂 

[wrk2cruise]

2 hours ago, Miaminice said:

and look for quiet and empty spots

 

Which is exactly why we love MIchaels/Retreat lounge.

[Miaminice]

4 minutes ago, wrk2cruise said:

 

Which is exactly why we love MIchaels/Retreat lounge.

Noted and accepted 🙂
However, the old Michael´s felt like a dungeon to me - might be different in the new Retreat.

 

[wrk2cruise]

It's much lighter but can feel sterile.   On "S" class watch out for the low marble cocktail tables anchored to the floor, they are shin killers.

[Cruise a holic]

I definately suggest that you consider a sky suite.  The aq is the same as a balcony with a few perks- I am not a fan of blu nor the persian garden and love the suite lounge and deck and all of the priorities that come with it.  Or, get a well located balcony stateroom- cabins above and below- midship and dine often in specialty restaurants.