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In Retreat on board now?

39august

By 39august,
in Celebrity Cruises

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jelayne

jelayne

Posted
Posted
1 minute ago, 2flacruisers said:

We were on the Retreat on the Summit in November and we were not charged anything xtra re: the drinks above $17.00. 

I believe the change to what is/isn’t covered by the Premium package occurred in December.  We were also on at tge end of November and Decoy was $17 and covered.  Now it is $19 so above the limit.

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George C

George C

Posted
Posted
12 minutes ago, jelayne said:

I believe the change to what is/isn’t covered by the Premium package occurred in December.  We were also on at tge end of November and Decoy was $17 and covered.  Now it is $19 so above the limit.

We are in a royal suite in March , planning are trading our champagne for two bottles of Decoy like we did last year. I sure we will have lots of 2 dollar plus tip charges if this continues.

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Martini Queenie

Martini Queenie

Posted
Posted

We just got off Ascent and had no issue getting Whispering Angel in the Retreat lounge without any charge. In fact we knew a bartender from a prior cruise and he was able to find us Miravel with no charge. 
Now Luminae is a different story, $2 up charge for Whispering Angel and $17 for Caymus. 

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Georgia_Peaches "Live from...." Rare

Georgia_Peaches

Posted
Posted
24 minutes ago, TommyD3 said:

Just off Summit a few days ago.

Yest they first refused to serve us Whispering Angel Rose in the Retreat lounge and then said they would with an up-charge. That wine went from $12 a glass to $19 a glass earlier in the month !!

So were  they taking people’s room cards to apply the up charge?  That rate change is ridiculous!

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K Cross

K Cross

Posted
Posted

Just got off the Millennium 2 days ago. You will be upcharged for any wine not included in the premium beverage plan (so any wine greater than $17 per glass). And it applies to any bar or restaurant including the Luminae and the Retreat Lounges. Our favorite wines (Decoy, Elegance, Conundrum, and Cherry Pie) are all now priced at $19 per glass. I knew the pricing before I got on board so I was not surprised by the increase. (But also not happy about it). My biggest issue was when I found out Caymus has been increased to $35 a glass, so a $17 upcharge. That is where I drew and line. 

 

Don't expect any special treatment or pricing just because you may in a suite/Retreat. You won't nor should you get any special preference. Yes... when in the Luminae if you order an upcharged wine they will ask to see your card but after the first time they will just remind you that there is an upcharge to your wine request. In my case the upcharge was applied but they didn't apply the upcharge to any "top offs". Of course I was drinking wines with a $2 upcharge so if you are drinking Caymus you experience my be different. 

 

If you frequent any certain bar if pays to make friends with the bartender and waiter. Treat them right and after the first day when ever we sat down our favorite $19 glass of wine would magically show up, no card, no upcharge. Of course your experience my vary depending on the ship & personnel. 

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tfred

tfred

Posted
Posted

This is the problem to me. X didn’t bring in any new wine, they just repriced existing wines ( and I assume spirits) to put them over $17 so they could literally make an extra buck or two. 
 

if Macallan is on that up charge list I’ll pay it but I’m not coming back. Upwards of $10k in a sky suite and I’m paying $2.40 to drink was included last year ?  Nope 

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billc23

billc23

Posted
Posted
8 hours ago, K Cross said:

 

 

Don't expect any special treatment or pricing just because you may in a suite/Retreat. You won't nor should you get any special preference. 

 

If you frequent any certain bar if pays to make friends with the bartender and waiter. Treat them right and after the first day when ever we sat down our favorite $19 glass of wine would magically show up, no card, no upcharge. Of course your experience my vary depending on the ship & personnel. 

OK. Giving an upfront tips avoids the uncharge? Is that the way to get special preference?

 

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Jim_Iain "Live from...." Rare

Jim_Iain

Posted
Posted

Interesting to read all these reports and suggest you each write Laura at lhodges@rccl.com.

 

On a Facebook thread a user had written and received a call back from her office.   The agent said Laura had told her there should not be any up charges for wines ordered in Retreat.

 

It sure doesn't sound like the message has filtered down from the top.  

 

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Orator

Orator

Posted
Posted (edited)

The choice is yours. You can agree and pay the additional charges or you can chose to boycott Celebrity. They will continue to charge as long as they profit from the charges. Passengers usually don't see themselves as the part of the problem, but they are.

Edited by Orator
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asnaleah "Live from...." Rare

asnaleah

Posted
Posted

Are the Elegance wines now $19? And what about the Steel Chardonnay? We were not charged an overage for those wines in Luminae on Eclipse. Also, DH asked for doubles (tequila reposado) because the regular pours were so skimpy. No upcharge in Luminae. At the World Class bar, we did get charged the extra $2.

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tomcruiser1234

tomcruiser1234

Posted
Posted

I am not sure i have ever paid $20 for a glass of wine, at least that i can remember.

 

However X has all the wine tasting tours on ship. Trying to train a martini drinker like me to enjoy the finer types of wine and then make it tougher to enjoy.   Now a 25 year old scotch.  That’s what I am talking about. 😎

 

I understand the fustration even though…

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billc23

billc23

Posted
Posted
57 minutes ago, PTC DAWG said:

Tipping usually helps in many ways…

It sure does. I wonder how the no uncharge drinks get around inventory control? I know what butlers and servers did in the past. I copied a response I posted in a different thread:

 

For what it's worth and perhaps apropos of nothing, I have been on sailings where my account shows, every day, many charges for drinks that I never had. They were all billed a $0 because they were included in my drink package.  It turned out that my butler would deliver drinks to SS passengers in their room and use my card to charge them. I asked my butler about the charges and he said it was for his convenience. Later he confided that he likes to delight his assigned guests and any request put on the PH guest card is not questioned.

The Luminae sommelier would not charge passengers who did a move up bid, without a drink package, for drinks in Luminae - they went on someone else's card. My suite had included specialty dining so I often would order sushi to be delivered as an afternoon snack. My order often had extra items on it that were delivered to several SS down the hall. 

None of the above bothered me but I guess it bothered Celebrity. What will bother me is being charged an extra $2.50 for a glass of an inexpensive wine in the Retreat lounge after paying $40,000 plus for my all included upper suite on a 7 day sailing. 

It seems to me that Celebrity is taking away the ability of staff to delight their customers for a small amount of current revenue. Shortsighted in my opinion. 

 

 

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goofysmom99

goofysmom99

Posted
Posted
10 minutes ago, billc23 said:

It sure does. I wonder how the no uncharge drinks get around inventory control? I know what butlers and servers did in the past. I copied a response I posted in a different thread:

 

 

For what it's worth and perhaps apropos of nothing, I have been on sailings where my account shows, every day, many charges for drinks that I never had. They were all billed a $0 because they were included in my drink package.  It turned out that my butler would deliver drinks to SS passengers in their room and use my card to charge them. I asked my butler about the charges and he said it was for his convenience. Later he confided that he likes to delight his assigned guests and any request put on the PH guest card is not questioned.

The Luminae sommelier would not charge passengers who did a move up bid, without a drink package, for drinks in Luminae - they went on someone else's card. My suite had included specialty dining so I often would order sushi to be delivered as an afternoon snack. My order often had extra items on it that were delivered to several SS down the hall. 

None of the above bothered me but I guess it bothered Celebrity. What will bother me is being charged an extra $2.50 for a glass of an inexpensive wine in the Retreat lounge after paying $40,000 plus for my all included upper suite on a 7 day sailing. 

It seems to me that Celebrity is taking away the ability of staff to delight their customers for a small amount of current revenue. Shortsighted in my opinion. 

 

 

This happened on my recent November Constellation TA quite a but.  Anytime I ordered a drink in the Oceanview/Sunset Bar, there would be five or six other $0 charges.  Only occurred at Sunset though, never anywhere else.  I wasn't in a suite but am a zenith and guess they never question those either.  Hoping the upcharge goes the way of the cookie....if enough people complain to the home office.  Please complain, one and all!

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