JeffB

Day Eight: Lunch at Luminae. We keep trying and we're rewarded. Luminae opens for lunch at noon. We arrived at 1pm. No wait and we were seated and recognized immediately - the way it should have been previously. We enjoyed a long, leisurely lunch with staff engaging us increasingly as the closing time approached and the place emptied out. For a starter, I had the smoked salmon salad. I'll attach a picture of it - and me - to demonstrate the bit of culinary presentation that Luminae is by reputation and reportedly known for. later. IMO, this dish rose to the level I had originally expected in Luminae. Beautifully presented and delicious. The center of the dish had something that tasted like a small potato crisp and under that a thickened salad dressing. The smoked slamon - of mid-to upper level quality surrounded a small amount of fresh greens. My main was lamb chops over brown rice and a sweet beet sauce. The flavors were complimentary like they should be. The chops were prepared mid-rare as I requested and should be served. Perfect. At the risk of being inappropriately critical because this was a great meal all around, the 3 lolly-pop lamb chops had some gristle in them that suggests a lower quality or cut of this meat. Getting past those, they were really good tasting. No dessert to conserve calories. A- ...... and I'm really happy that Luminae finally measured up. It is possible that bad timing on my part and new staff that just came aboard in Fort Lauderdale this cruise accounted for my first impressions. Thinking about dining here for dinner on Wednesday evening - a formal night - but only if they offer lobster and Beef Wellington.

Day 8: Mast Grill for lunch. This venue is outside (covered) and just aft of the Magic Carpet with the Mast Pool Bar right next to it. The venue starts serving at 11:30, just before OV Cafe opens. When we arrived at 11:40 there was plenty of available seating and no one in line. Walking past this spot previously and after 2pm, it was very busy with no seating available. I had a turkey burger. It came out of a warming bin but was still juicy and hot. My wife had a real hamburger and a hot dog. Neither of us had buns. We had french fries. Watch for one of the chefs behind the counter refilling the serving tray with a freshly fried batch of fries - the fries cool off quickly and get a bit soggy when left in the serving tray. Lots of toppings and condiments available. Nice lunch. A Returned to Tuscan: considered Laminae but nothing special or different on the menu. Having experienced less than I anticipated in Luminae, we chose a dining venue where we did have a great experience, Tuscan. We arrived, again just before 8pm having left the show early to avoid the crush. No one was waiting. The hostess asked if we like to share a table next to a window. Fine with us. We sat with a very nice couple from Ireland and had a nice dinner conversation. The table service was, again, very good. Our head waiter was the first to arrive and almost immediately after we were seated. This is what is supposed to happen. His assistant then brought bread and water. The head waiter returned just after that and gave an expansive explanation of all the foods on the menu that evening. Following this, the same sommelier that served us the first time was there for the second. She remembered our wine selection - another "the way it should be." I had the Tuscan roasted pork chop - one of my favorite Celebrity menu items. The Tuscan version has a nice rub on it and is then roasted (I think it is pan roasted). The chop has the bone in and that insures its tenderness. It was served with a small amount of tomato based gravy and broccolini. I had a strawberry frozen yogurt. The entire meal was delicious and the excellent service was repeated insuring the first visit wasn't a fluke. A+

Day 7: Dinner at Blue: We arrived just before 8pm having left the 7pm show a few minutes early to avoid the crush. It never arrived??? We were seated immediately, service was smooth. Staff were engaging - it wasn't that busy compared to what we had previously observed when walking past it after 8pm. The menu features "clean" food. Perusing it, it is that. Based on the experience with the grouper in Eden, I went with an heirloom tomato salad and what appeared on the menu as "Pan Roasted Sea Bass." Nope. It was branzino a commonly substituted fish for the more expensive sea bass. It was quite thin and dried out on cooking at the thinner ends of the filet. This fish dish was more similar to the kind of below average fish dishes I usually avoid. Sea bass filet are usually around an inch thick. This was about 1/4" thick. Not good. Desert was bananas foster. In the day, this desert was prepared table side and flambe'ed. No more. The bananas were over-ripe, mushy and brown. If I'm going to eat a high calorie desert like bananas foster, it better be really good. This was sweet and tasty, if you ignore the bananas, but flawed. One cannot claim that Blue is an exclusive 5* dining experience by which access is gained through booking a higher fare aqua class or a suite. Blue, needless to say was a disappointment. That comment is made based on food quality for the two dishes I ordered; I could return and try other menu items but first impressions are very important. Aside from engaging staff and prompt service Blue was not that great. C-

Day 6: Dinner at Eden: This is the Edge Class ship's featured specialty restaurant. It is a first rate 5* spot. We've found that for the most part, specialty dining across Celebrity's fleet is not worth the up-charge. That's because few of them separate themselves from main dining options. Eden on Edge class ships and Murano on the Silhouette and Millennium class ships are notable exceptions for us. The restaurant is nestled within the 3 deck expanse of Eden itself at the after-most part of the vessel. The restaurant is on the lowest level. You step down to it from the Eden Bar and entertainment area. a few steps below the seating area is the expansive kitchen that is an open concept design. Tables are spread out with all of them having a view out the stern onto the wake when underway or looking at the port when docked - in this case Aruba. The menu offers a la carte dishes and a 7 course tasting menu paired with wines. The restaurant has a $60 pp charge. If you select the tasting menu it's another $100pp charge making it the most expensive dining venue at sea. We passed - too much food. Service was the best we've experienced in any restaurant and it was very quiet. A wide selection of appetizers were all appealing. I ordered the Civche and a pan roasted shrimp. Both beautifully presented and flavorful. My main was Grouper - very high quality and likely a filet cut from a fresh whole fish, not frozen filets. Desert was a slice of chocolate pie - delicious. Overall, A+. We booked another reservation planning on having the beef tenderloin filet that's on the menu. Totally worth it and for us, one of only two specialty restaurants across the Celebrity fleet that separates themselves from the mains.

Day 5: Dinner at Luminae: Right after the 7pm shows, there are guests waiting to be seated at all dining venues. There were close to a dozen in line at Luminae when we arrived ar 8:10. This venue does not take reservations. Instead of standing in line, we simply went to our cabin and returned about 10 minutes later. No one waiting. We asked for a quiet table and were seated in one much quieter than our last two visits to Luminae (1 lunch, 1 dinner). About 10 minutes passed before anyone came to the table and acknowledged that we had been seated. We were about a minute from walking out. It was the sommelier that first showed up so, that was probably a good thing. Once the table service started, it went smoothly but I had already been primed to be unfairly hyper-critical. One of the offerings on the Luminae menu is from the corporate Executive Chef Daniel Boulad. He creates Celebrity's menu and a three course meal is one of Luminae's offerings. I considered it but was also looking at the Peppered Tuna. Our waiter suggested I try the Tuna as the Boulad offering is available every night. The Tuna is not. For my appetizer I had the duck consume and also, separately, braised octopus. The consume was greasy (yes duck is greasy so,there is that) and flavorless, should not have been. The octopus was interesting. I've had plenty of squid (calamari) prepared in garlic sauce and fried. Octopus has a much different texture and tastes different. It was a bit chewy but tasted good. Apps C-. The peppered tuna was disappointing. It wasn't sashimi grade tuna but rather a tuna steak sliced to look like ahi tuna. I wasn't fooled. It wasn't bad but I'm not food stupid. Call it a sliced peppered tuna steak on the menu. I'll give it a D for trying to fake me out with a cheap short cut in a supposedly 5* restaurant. I've seen the desert - coconut creeaux on Celebrity dinner menus before. I picked it for desert tonight. So, what is cremeaux? Sweet, texture of yogurt, served on a plate surrounded by little round sweet crackers, coconut and tangerine sections and two puffs of a light lime meringue. It was tasty but the presentation was strange. The cremeaux looked like it had been squeezed out of one of those squeezable ketchup containers in this strip of it in the center of the plate. The flavors were nice and complimentary. Grade B-. OK, look, I was primed to be hypercritical by waiting 10 minutes for a server to get to us. TBH, in three dining experiences there, Luminae has been disappointing overall considering you're paying a large fare premium (the "Suite Life" in the Retreat) to dine there. I politely asked the hostess after our meal what a good time to dine was to avoid a crowded experience. Before 7 was her response. That doesn't work for us as we go to all the 7pm shows. For sure, I could adjust our routine but, no. The restaurant could smooth guest flow, synchronizing it to available servers by limiting the number of diners at 30 minute intervals to assure 5* table service. All the other restuarants do reservations. WHy Luminae doesn't is a mystery to me. I've not been impressed with Luminae's food quality either (the tuna routine was a real downer) expecting more. They do try but it's not being delivered. Noise, average food quality and less than a premium table service experience renders Luminae the least impressive dining venue of what should be the promised Celebrity excellence plused up in the "Suite Life." Not happening.

Day 4: Dinner at Tuscan (one of the 4 mains). Seated immediately on arrival at 8:10. Greeted upon seating. Service impeccable throughout dinner. Wedge salad (a Tuscan signature dish), Seafood Chowder (on offer tonight), Grilled salmon done on the rare side as I asked for it over a tablespoon of cooked spinach and a 1/4 cup of creamy mashed potatoes, Kiwi Sorbet for dessert. Servings accompanied by a glass of white Conundrum ( a less sweet version of a Pinot Grigio) and a Connundrum red blend. Appeared to be at the same number of diners as our previous restaurant dinner experiences but much less noisy. Probably a factor of where we were seated. If noisy restaurants bother you just ask for a quiet table. The service elevated the overall experience and I commented to the Matre'd recognizing how good it was - I'm becoming aware of slightly different levels of service in the 4 restaurants we have dined at for dinner. Lots of factors at play for sure but Tuscan seems to have a more organized approach to service and that is a function of the specific restaurant managers and Matre'ds. Best overall dinner dining experience aboard Edge of the 4 venues so far. It's hard to mess up the menu choices we were served. All were nicely presented and tasty. A+

Day 3: Dinner in Normandy, one of the four main dining rooms - Cosmopolitan, Normandy, Cyprus and Tuscan. As I mentioned previously, each of the 4 restaurants has signature dishes that set each of them apart. We chose Normandy over all the others, including Luminae, because of the menu choices. Made a reservation for 8:15 and had to stand aside for 2-3 minutes as our table was made ready. It was very busy. I've now come to the conclusion that when the restaurants are nearly full and busy, it's going to be noisy. My wife had for a starter, a delicious brie. Her main was the tenderloin of beef encrote, same as beef wellington. 4oz of high grade tenderloin wrapped in a bread crust. There was a nice mushroom pate' inside - nope, not goose liver. A table spoon of creamy mashed potatoes with a small serving of an assortment of vegetables. Small portion sizes ok with me. This dish got an A. I had chicken consume and an arugula salad for starters and the brazed trout for my main. A small scoop of cooked spinach accompanied the trout that was served on a creamy lemon flavored sauce. This dish gets a B- because the trout filet was thin. It was very good but it's hard to correctly "braze" a filet of fish that is thin like this one was. The fish itself was moist, tender, tasty and the skin was easily removed. A thinker filet would have gotten this dish a solid A but the thinness of the filet spoiled this one. The dessert was a chocolate cake - definitely an A - and espresso. The Normandy is a beautifully appointed venue with cases that contain artifacts from the liner that the restaurant is named after. Service was a bit slow to start but once started the sommelier, waiter and assistant waiter worked seamlessly together delivering a good dinner experience. Overall, I'd give Normandy a solid A-

Day 3: Lunch in Ocean View. On a port day, seated dining with table service in the main or specialty restaurants is usually not available. I tried the stir fry. You grab a plate and fill it with what you want in the stir fry. Two meat choices: Chicken and lamb. Both meats were in small clumps and looked dried out. I passed on it and went with an all veggie stir-fry. You then hand your plate you built to one of two servers cooking with the wok. Cooking takes about 5 minutes. You can add noodles. I passed on these. Soy sauce, chili peppers to taste. The stir fry was very good but make no mistake this is a high sodium (MSG) high kcal dish. On port days, crowds in OV are supposed to be reduced. In that this passenger cohort appears to be older and fairly experienced cruisers, there are many that don't disembark. It was very busy again. Overall B+ with notably good bar service.

Day 3, Georgetown Grand Cayman, breakfast in Ocean View. Still very busy. One thing about Edge class ships is that they handle larger crowds in the OV better than the Silhouette and Millennium class ships. We got spoiled with our early, post pandemic sailings with 500 - 1000 guests. Oh well. Another nice thing about Edge is that there is plenty of seating even when there are a lot of guests for meals. Breakfast food choices are gigantic. I had an uninspiring but healthy breakfast of two hard boiled eggs, oatmeal and fruit assortment. Accomplishing that was a glass of tomato juice and coffee. My wife had an omelette - it contained at least 4 eggs worth. It was big. She reported it was prepared quickly with no waiting from the time she placed the order to the time it was on her plate. No line - she just hit it at the right time. Tables are cleared and cleaned quickly. It's rare to see a dirty table. Food serving trays on the serving lines that are emptied are quickly replaced. That's great restaurant management. That has been my typical dining venue experience throughout my cruising experience with Celebrity. It is one of the things that sets it apart from other lines.

Day 2: Dinner at Luminae. Change of plans. We had thought we were going to do our version of progressive dining by ordering from different main restaurants in Luminae. Turns out we liked the offerings on the Luminae menu. More on that later. After our meal I inquired of the hostess about ordering from the main restaurant's menus while dining in Luminae. Her response did not seem to encourage that although she said it was possible based on availability of a Luminae server to go and get the dish and a person in that restaurants meal staging area willing to make that dish available to Luminae staff. I probably would't try this. Although it can be done, both times we've dined in Luminae it's been very busy. Table staff doesn't need extra work although I'm sure they'd be glad to do it. On to the meal: We dined at 8:10pm right after the 7pm theater production show. This can be problematic because early show goers tend to dine afterwards - that's a lot of people looking to get seated in one of the ship's restaurants. Luminae was busy when we arrived but it wasn't show goers. We were seated promptly. Again, it was quite noisy. More on that later too. After a time, we were approached sequentially by several wait staff asking if we had been served yet. This seemed to reflect some disorganization on who was serving our table. There seemed to be plenty of wait staff. Strange - this is a restaurant manager issue that I would not have expected in Luminae. We sat for quite a while waiting for wine and beverage service. When it came it was fine and beverages were promptly obtained and served. Our order was taken about the same time. The starters we ordered came quickly. The main course took a while to get served - again, wait staff organization issues . The lobster, hearts of palm salad was absolutely delicious. Nice sized chunks of lobster in a creamy dressing. I had a Jerusalem artichoke soup with a big mushroom and a thin slice of prosciutto in it. Excellent flavor and consistency beautifully presented. Main course consisted of Baked Alaskan Halibut on Jasmine rice and a small side of bok choy. We enjoyed a glass of Conundrum Cab blend. The halibut was deliciously baked with a very fine crust on top of it and drizzled with a lemony sauce that did not take over the dish - maybe the best fish dish I've had in any restaurant aboard a Celebrity ship. Prepared and presented perfectly. We finished with a delicious chocolate cake with a small scoop of coffee ice cream and an espresso. Meal quality and presentation exceeded expectations for fine dining. A real treat. This one gets an A. Not a plus because of the noise and seemingly confused wait staff about who was serving our table. On the noise. I wear hearing aids so, of course, everything is amplified. Even when I took them off, the noise levels were uncomfortably high. The design acoustics seem wrong - low ceilings and no baffling. I spoke to the Hostess/manager about the noise levels. Apparently I'm not alone in my expressed concerns about it. I asked if there was seating with less noise and she said there is. She made a note in her system that would I like a quieter table. In my 22 years of cruising, I have complained 2x, this was one of them. Both professionally addressed. To be clear, the points I raised in Luminae are nit-picky issues. However, my sense is that for what you are paying for Celebrity's "Suite Life," these issues shouldn't exist.

Glad my general info helped. I know that traveling to Europe to start a cruise can seem overwhelming. I've never flown into Venice so I can't offer any help. There are some good websites - usually not the airport website but rather a travel website - that can provide helpful info about getting around in the airport. Some of them will have photos or video of places you may need to get to and how to get there after deplaning. I suspect at some point closer to your sail date, RCL will provide more detail to you about transportation arrangements at the airport.

You're booking arrangements are not all that clear, e.g. who made the transportation from the airport to the ship booking - you or an agent, what ship, what airport and I assume this is a Celebrity fleet booking. Regardless, when you land at the European airport for your cruise, you'll proceed to customs and entry then to baggage claim. Close buy will be a representative from the cruise line's port representative team. They'll have a sign with the company and ship's name on it. Check in with that representative. You'll be instructed on what to do from there. Usually the busses or vans will be in a specific location dedicated for them to park. You may have to wait for a large enough group to fill the van or bus. If you are traveling from the US, transatlantic flights arrive early in the morning - 6-7am. Typically, ships don't board until 11am so, you'll have to wait and the cruise line will have arranged for that.

Day 2: Lunch in Ocean View. There are just over 2600 passengers embarked (capacity is 3380). On sea days Ocean View is mobbed between noon and 1pm. Thins out after that. Salads, Chef's specialties, Mexican, sandwiches, pasta station, soups, pizza station, deserts - I think I got them all! A large and varied offering. Guests are mostly spatially unaware. This means if there is a line it will be cut by some dinners. Or they are oblivious to appropriate traffic patterns. This renders the Ocean View on Sea days a less that desirable dining venue. On port days its great. I had a big salad, lots of vegies topped with a tilapia filet. I also tried both soup offerings - a chilled spli pea soup and hot fish chowder. My salad was a good average. The soups were both thin but tasted ok. I had a glass of Pinot Grigio. We go to Cafe Albacio for coffee and desert. I had chocolate macaroons - excellent - as usual. The tilapia had not been grilled with care so finding a complete filet among crumbled pieces was hard. Can't go wrong with a salad - choices of add ons is large. 4 different dressings, the usual, to choose from. The OV gets a C. Will return on a port day. We may try our version of progressive dining tonight. We'll dine in Luminae and order from 3 or 4 different restaurant menus. Should be interesting.

Something to point out. I'm on a mission to prove you can eat healthfully when cruising, not gain weight and even lose it. I'm a nutrition data geek. I'm using two apps (both have fees) to assist in this experiment: Noom and Cronograph. Both are guides to nutrition based eating, the later much more detailed. I'm two months into Noom and have lost 6 lbs. I'm 2.5 lbs from my goal and am determined to achieve on this cruise or atleast not lose ground. What strikes me is that you can eat enjoyably and healthfully on this ship and stay within your kcal daily goal. For me, I'm seeking a daily kcal deficit of 500 kcals which puts my daily goal at under 1900 kcals. If I exercise, which I do when cruising, that goal gets bumped up the number of kcals expended exercising. I burned about 400 kcals yesterday increasing my daily kcal allowance to 2300 kcals. It's not hard to stay under that on a cruise ship still enjoying a cocktail, wine with both lunch and dinner and snacks in between. The two apps I use allow me to pick foods to stay within the daily kcal allowance. This approach on a cruise isn't for everyone some who might ask why do this? For me it's an interesting challenge. YMMV.

Day 1: Dinner at Cosmopolitan. As always the first night is, how do you say this, a cluster. The crowds and noise distract from the enjoyment of the meal. Still, seated quickly (I made a reservation on the app - this helps), service was a bit slow but ok. The restaurant was 95% full. Could see lots of staff but they have no time for casual conversation. Corn soup. IMO, Celebrity chefs do wonderful soups. If you've never been into these as starters, try one next time you're dining aboard ship. Bread basket. Breads are great. The bread sticks, a fave, are often stale. I also don't care for the plate of spreads. I ask for butter pats. No problem. Baked cod, Fava, edamame, quinoa. This was good fish. Clearly frozen to baked but decent. Unfortunately, it was a tad undercooked. I'm actually ok with this as cooking can really dry out fish. Prefer it on the rare side. This was a bit too rare. The quinoa was mixed with edamame and Fava beans. A nice complement to the flavor of the cod. An appropriate amount of a lemon sauce was under the stack (chefs love to do this) it all. Great flavor addition. Guava Sorbe. This is another thing celebrity does well. B- overall. Some notes. Two meals down and my impressions are thus. The menu entrée list is 1 less selection than I've experienced previously. Classic starters and entrees are all the same. Portion sizes are reduced. It's still plenty and this isn't new. Started to recognize this post pandemic. I'm fine with it.

This is day 1. Strolled through Ocean View Cafe. It's busy, lots of choices beautifully presented. Lunch at Lumanae. Very busy. Service prompt despite this. Extra staff is obvious so is training and experience level. It was very noisy. Surprising. Split pea soup with ham and scallions. Soup was poured from a taurine into a small bowl containing ham and scallions. Very nice. Delicious - one of my Celebrity favs. Kale salad. Small, good for a starter. Quinoa, orange sections, light lemon flavored dressing also nice. Tasty. Steak Frits w/bernaise. A medium sized uncut sirloin a bit fatty and undercooked but tender. Two potatoe wedges as frits. Taste was good. I can think of a lot of ways to improve presentation. Dinner next. Overall B+.

On Edge. Fitness Center all class pass still $99 w/18% gratuity = $116. If you do > 5 classes it's worth it. There arec7 spin classes so, I'm set. No printed schedule. Fitness class schedule in the daily and on the app. You can reserve a space in any class in advance at the spa desk. Manger told me the ship isn't full so should be no.problem just showing up. Free classes can get crowded. Go 15 minutes early to stake out your spot.

Fitness schedules vary by ship and much depends on how may fitness staff are working the sailing you are on. As your sail date approaches, the fitness schedule will appear on the Celebrity app. However, your best bet is to go to the fitness center on your boarding day and get a schedule. Hint: don't bother with a spa tour. Go straight o the fitness center and meet the instructors who will be standing there usually after 12 noon on boarding day. There are some no-fee fitness classes - morning stretch, stretch and relax, abs - but Cycling, HIT, Pilates (can't remember all of them), Bar have fees. I think it's up to $22/class now. The activity staff adds some line dancing and Zumba classes usually on the pool deck that will be on the schedule in the app or your daily. These are complimentary you just show up. To my knowledge, an Aqua CLass Cabin does not affords any free classes based on that cabin category but I've never sailed in Aqua Class. Elite plus guests get one free fitness class. There is also an any class pass and the costs depends on the length of the sailing. For a 7d cruise the last time I sailed in October, '22 (Equinox), it was $99. Celebrity doesn't run the fitness center or spa. It's contracted to OneWorldSpa which is the new name for several previous named companies that are essentially all the same company just reorganized (usually under bankruptcy) and renamed. The contractor is there to make a profit with spa services and products exorbitantly priced. Speaking to guest relations to point out something you're not satisfied with in the spa or fitness center gets passed to the spa manager. See my comment below The fitness instructors are great, mostly unlike corporate. So are the spa staff if you want to indulge with some of the offerings. The acupuncturists and aestheticians are highly qualified. Fitness instructors report to the spa manager - I've never been impressed by any of the managers that I've had contact with to resolve issues. I reported a non-functioning Peleton to one of them. Nothing happened. We are gym rats and make lots of use of the fitness center and I cycle and do the spin classes. We also do the free stretch and abs classes. IMO, the fitness instructors are well qualified to conduct personal training or any of the classes they teach. There profiles are available for you to review on boarding day.

This is a great thought - that you selected a return engagement on Infinity in April '23 based on the crew who you got to know. After the restart in June 21, we sailed on the second Apex sailing out of Athens Greece on B2B Greek Isles itineraries in July 2021. There were 580 passengers on the first leg, just over 1200 on the second (about 1/3 capacity). The ship, according to the hotel manager, was staffed at about 80% on both legs - every crew member so glad to be back at work that the experience was really special. The performers especially stood out - also over-joyed to be performing again. We did a return trip on Apex sailing the med in October, 21 mostly because of the crew. We've been sailing Celebrity since our first cruise on Mercury in 2001. Our recent fav is Equinox - because of the crew and ease of sailing aboard her (we live in Fort Lauderdale about 15 minutes from Port Everglades). I was just counting up how many times we've sailed aboard her since the restart - 6X to be exact including her first sailing from Fort Lauderdale in June '21. "Travel (cruising) Revenge," I guess. Production performers completely switched out on one of the later cruises but we knew the first bunch by name and they knew us because we alway sat in the same place. Greeted us in the Ocean View Cafe on the regular when we crossed paths to eat lunch. Needless to say, over the last couple of years, we select a sailing because we like the ship and the staff - some of whom we come across multiple times over long periods of time. It's not about the itineraries, well some of it is, but we love to get to know the staff.

We'll be sailing on Edge out of Fort Lauderdale, 11n S. Caribbean departing 1/23/2023. Mike brings up a good point that food services onboard each ship varies. Still, Corporate drives the menu selections and prep - chefs have some discretion in plating and appearance. Food prep process is key. Each station in the kitchen from the sou chef on down involved in delivering the plate is going to be manned by people with different skills and motivation. Supervision and training is really important here. This alone is going to affect taste and appearance. That Celebrity, at least in the past, has maintained a remarkable level of consistency in food quality and presentation is notable. On recent cruises, talking with food service managers, all of them are dealing with supply issues. None of them will say it directly but I've had table staff in the restaurants, when asked, if they've seen a price crunch affecting produce, meat and fish. Yes, has been the response. That would mean lower quality produce and cuts of meat, frozen (questionable processing) seafood products - poorly frozen fish unless it is very carefully prepared is a non-starter for me. You can't make a cow leather grade sirloin taste juicy or cut like butter. Properly ripened tomatoes are a tough get. Wholesale fruit and veggie supplies from S. FL ports are pretty decent. Wholesale food sourcing is going to affect your like or dislike of a dish. I'll check this out in both the Edge MDR and Luminae. No plans for specialty dining as Murano is the only one I really will pay the upcharge for and these are not on the Edge class ships. Maybe Eden - I do like the environment. I'll be reporting on the food issues noted on Apex and will post while I'm aboard.

Celebrity cabin pricing is up on average by 20-30% in the categories I want to book. The cost of sailings from European ports is on the high side of that range. You really have to shop aggressively for low prices. Verandas for under $200/d-pp don't exist anymore and that used to be easy to find before COVID. Suites under $400/d-pp are there but hard to find. There seems to be strong demand for Celebrity Suites so, unless you get in on intro pricing, you'll end up paying a lot. Repositioning (Translant/pac) sailings are still decently priced but nonetheless up) I've started looking at Princess. Never sailed that line. I booked a Club Mini-Suite for June, 2023 aboard Caribbean Princess under "Black Friday" incentive pricing. Hundreds below equivalent Celebrity Suites and availability was good - why Caribbean Princess suites were decently priced. The special offerings attached to each cabin booking are confusing - I had a good idea of what I wanted but relied on my TA to make sure I was getting what I thought I was getting. She did and agreed special offers are complicated. We have friends, same ages, who sail Princess regularly and like it. That does not mean I'm abandoning Celebrity but I'm price conscious so, there is that. I have 7 Celebrity sailings booked through January 2024, nne NCL (A Broadway Tour out of NYC and the Princess Cruise I just described). 4 of them are suites (3 on Celebrity) and I got a bargain on a Beyond Suite booked on-board an Equinox sailing almost a year ago for January 2024 when sailings were first bookable. I'm committed to getting to Zenith before I die. We have 65 Celebrity sailings out of 74 total under our belts since January 2001 but I'm still short of Zenith. Even the cheapest Celebrity suites are off-putting from a price standpoint and the pricing is not off-set by the extra points you get for booking suites. I'd rather sail more often and book fewer suites to allow that. I will book OV and verandas (often the same prices) to do that to stay within my travel budget.

This thread intrigued me. I went back to the first post to see what the basic question was. Several posts get it right: After final payment (how far in advance of the sail date may vary) you're locked into your full payment amount. Before that final payment date if there is a price change at the RCL or Celebrity website and you are dealing direct with them on your booking (not using an agent to make the booking), they'll issue a new invoice with an updated final payment amount. The farther out you are able to plan and book your cruise, the more likely a price change will occur that you can take advantage of. If you book inside the final payment date and make final payment, no changes are allowed. Another thing to think about, use an agent.`Good agents often track their client's cruise pricing and will alert you to a price change. Most of the time, you have to check the RCL or Celebrity website yourself- the cruise lines are not going to call you. Your agent, assuming you made the booking in question with them, will make the call and get the new pricing and invoice change. These days, that alone is worth finding a good booking agent. There are web sites that track cruise pricing, cruiseplum.com is one of them. A base fare drop of 15% or more on the ship and cabin class you are watching will trigger a post. Back up the post on cruiseplum.com with a check of the base fare at the RCL or Celebrity web site. It has to be listed there in the exact cabin class and sail dtes for the company to honor the lowest price guarantee and rewrite your invoice. Cabin pricing for all the cruise lines is dynamic and based on demand, among other factors. I've gotten several price reductions with Celebrity when I catch a price drop. Those will normally happen when the ship's load factors by cabin class aren't being met. You'll also see prices go up, for example on interior cabins with high booking rates, and go down on OVs to increase booking rates in that cabin class making it a no brainer to cancel the interior cabin and rebook the OV. Be mindful that when you cancel and rebook a new cabin, the perks may not be the same. You have to do the math to determine if you are gaining or losing by rebooking. As long as you've done your math to insure you're not loosing a nice perk by rebooking (that has the net effect of raising the original cost per day, per person for your cruise), grab the lower price. I've had no problems with Celebrity giving me the lower price. Just saved $200pp on an Edge booking in January, 2023 about a week before final payment. I saw the change at the Celebrity website, called my agent, asked her to check, she did then sent me the new invoice with the lower final payment. Her time on the phone, not mine.

I'm not a Casino user so, probably not the best to answer you. However from a size standpoint, the AOS Casino is probably 2X as big as that of casinos on Celebrity's Silhouette class ships and 2.5x that of Celebrity's Millennium class ships. Again a personal preference but I like the smaller Millennium class ships of the Celebrity fleet. They retain some of the charm of the ships of the golden era of cruising in terms of decor and furnishings. These smaller ships are reaching the end of RCL's defined service life of around 25 years and comparatively speaking they are more costly to operate than Celebrity's Edge class ships. But the Edge class ships are, in terms of baseline Celebrity ship design and layout, are completely different. Not in a bad way but rather different. The experience is different. It takes getting used to, IMO. In my last post I should have mentioned another factor in comparing dining. The Chef's. To be honest, there is no difference whatsoever. That's because of two factors: (1) Menues are pre-ordained at the corporate level. All the Chef has to do is be able to execute it well and I've not come across any Celebrity dining experience since the end of mid-night buffets - which did show creative differences among Chefs - where a particular Chef stood out. (2) Something that is getting a lot of emphasis in the ship's kitchen's across all RCL brands is food waste and minimizing it. Portion sizes are smaller - fine with me. There's also emphasis on efficiency in food prep. The less time it takes to prepare, plate and serve a dish, the better; e.g., app & salad plates and shrimp cocktails are no longer chilled. Takes too long and uses too much space.

I've sailed post COVID and recently aboard Allure of the Seas, Celebrity Equinox and Infinity. I've looked at Silver Sea. I found no significant differences between the food quality in the two buffet type venues on AOSv. Equinox/Infinity- both offer varied selections, appetizing presentations and quality foods. Comparing the restaurant dining venues depends on what class of ships you might want to compare. Equinox, a Silhouette class ship, is not at all like AOS when it comes to comparing restaurants. AOS has many more dining options than any Celebrity ship. IMO, the table service within Celebrity's main restaurants is a bit more elegant - at least that is the corporate goal - than on AOS. Over the most recent years, specialty dining aboard Celebrity ships has not been that much better than main dining. That is likely because of cost control measures taken at the corporate level. I can't draw any distinction between food quality on AOS v. Equinox - main or specialty dining. I'm pretty sure sourcing of food on both lines is centralized through RCL. It then comes down to table service and presentation. I'd give Celebrity an edge there but that's just me and is a subjective opinion. I've not sailed on Silver Sea but have done a lot of comparing. If you're looking for smaller ships and what they can afford in general, Silver Sea is a good option when comparing this line to others in a similar niche. The issue for me is sailing nicely for at or below $200 per day, per person on an RCG brand v. sailing on Silver sea for upwards of $600 per day, per person. It comes down to 3 cruises on an RCG brand ship or 1 on Silver Sea or similar. As well, you'll see a different cohort of guests on Celebrity v. RCL and Celebrity v. Silver Sea. Service levels between RCL and Silver Sea are going to naturally be different with Silver Sea having a lower staff to guest ratio than either RCL brand. For me, I'm not willing to pay the higher price of Silver Sea for a higher level of service. I'm satisfied with Celebrity - my go to line since 2001.

As a follow up on my post above.... am now aboard Infinity and, no suprise, when we got to our stateroom a prepared sheet of paper showing the itinerary change was on the bed with our usual stuff. We'll do Key West, then Bimini then day at sea then to Cozumel, then Costa Maya, day at sea, Port Everglades. This is a much shorter route than the one I speculated about that would have gone to Caymans and then Grand Truk, the higher cost fuel route I would have liked to sail. Nope, fuel's expensive. The Captain came on Infinity's info channel and provided a great weather briefing that explained why we are headed to the western Caribbean. He used windy.com which has a very nice and easy to understand graphic presentation. The graphic the Captain showed displayed 100kt winds off shore from Puerto Plata as Fiona moves in a NW direction from PR to Hispaniola to pass by on Wednesday the 21st. In any event, that's a lot of wind, not safely approachable so, no, don't go there, go somewhere else RCL concludes...... and, yes, damage could be done to the port. While Fiona is strengthening, it is turning N faster which is exactly as predicted.......weaker storm would stay more west, stronger storm to bend to the NE. It's already doing that on the most recent Huricane Watcher flights. Hurricane force winds are expected in PR tonight and tomorrow (70+ kts). If things hold, Bermuda is in Fiona's target zone.