Bmac

A review of our thoughts about our cruise, things we liked and things we felt could use improvement. We have only cruised Royal so this is really a comparison between the two.
First off we thought the ship was beautiful. The decor was upscale and classy as opposed to the Vegas Casino feel that you get with some Royal ships. We felt the service and food were definitely a step up from Royal and more reminiscent of what Royal was pre shut down. I can say that we had no meals that we felt could be improved. We did sail Aqua Class and used Blu for the most part aside from specialty dining. All of our meals came to our table piping hot so much so you couldn't touch the plate. What we did notice was that in the dining venues we didn't see them using cloches to keep the food warm which I feel has a tendency to make crispy foods a bit soft or soggy. The Oceanview Cafe was also very good with a large selection of different items daily. We are not buffet people but we did enjoy the Oceanview Cafe. The specialty dining was exceptional on this ship we ate at Fine Cut, Raw on Five, Le Petite Chef, Rooftop Grill and Eden. Our favorites were Eden and Rooftop Grill not saying the others were bad we just felt the overall experience was better at these two venues the food at the others was just as good.
Now on to the bar service. Like I mentioned we sailed in Aqua Class and opted for the inclusive package which included the classic drink package any drinks up to $10. The classic drink package would work for people who are really just wine or beer drinkers as they have a good selection of beers and wines at the $10 and under price point. If you prefer mixed drinks as my wife and I do I would recommend upgrading to the Premium package as I don't recall seeing and mixed drinks for under $17 so you would get charged the difference to you stateroom bill. The bartenders were friendly and worked very hard to make sure everyone was served in a reasonable amount of time and they poured heavy compared to Royal, never any need to ask them to add more liquor. Many of the bartenders kept track of your name and cabin number so we never really needed to present our sea pass for a drink particularly the bars we frequented.
Now to the things we feel could used to be improved keeping in mind these might be a bit trivial but I'll mention anyway. As with any cruise you will run into "hogs". We were in Aqua class and had access to the thermal spa which we both enjoyed aside from the heat bed hogs. It was almost impossible to get time on one of the heat beds as people would spend hours either surfing their phones reading or completely sleeping and snoring. How they could improve this I don't know aside from more policing by the staff which as we know leads to poor customer surveys "which by the way I hate". The show times could be pushed off another 30 minutes to allow for people to eat dinner and still have time to catch a show afterwards. We didn't see a single show due to time conflicts with dinner and I'll explain. This cruise had many elderly people who would line up at the theatre an hour to an hour and a half early which was a frustration not to mention the theatre only seated 900 passengers for a cruise that had 3000 people on it. Most of our dinners took 75 minutes. We had an early seating time which I can't understand why they ask your preference being as there are multiple dining venues. The first night Blu didn't open until 7:30 which is entirely too late for us to eat we like to try and stay on our home eating schedule as best possible I know it seems trivial but we have a pretty set eating sleeping schedule so we tried eating at Normandie grille. We went to Normandie at our set time of 6:00 and were promptly informed that the dining didn't work that way. We were told that it would be a ten minute wait and were handed a pager as if we were waiting at Applebees which I felt was a bit tacky and the wait turned into 25-30 minutes. The good thing was we were Aqua class and we could get into Blu at any time we chose after the first night. As I mentioned in another post if you don't see anything you want at any of the main dining venues you can order the signature dishes from other restaurants at all of the main dining rooms. Other than these few gripes overall the cruise was excellent and we might be Celebrity converts now, although we do have a Caribbean cruise booked for Halloween. 
If anyone has any questions I'd be happy to respond.
 

A review of our thoughts about our cruise, things we liked and things we felt could use improvement. We have only cruised Royal so this is really a comparison between the two.
First off we thought the ship was beautiful. The decor was upscale and classy as opposed to the Vegas Casino feel that you get with some Royal ships. We felt the service and food were definitely a step up from Royal and more reminiscent of what Royal was pre shut down. I can say that we had no meals that we felt could be improved. We did sail Aqua Class and used Blu for the most part aside from specialty dining. All of our meals came to our table piping hot so much so you couldn't touch the plate. What we did notice was that in the dining venues we didn't see them using cloches to keep the food warm which I feel has a tendency to make crispy foods a bit soft or soggy. The Oceanview Cafe was also very good with a large selection of different items daily. We are not buffet people but we did enjoy the Oceanview Cafe. The specialty dining was exceptional on this ship we ate at Fine Cut, Raw on Five, Le Petite Chef, Rooftop Grill and Eden. Our favorites were Eden and Rooftop Grill not saying the others were bad we just felt the overall experience was better at these two venues the food at the others was just as good.
Now on to the bar service. Like I mentioned we sailed in Aqua Class and opted for the inclusive package which included the classic drink package any drinks up to $10. The classic drink package would work for people who are really just wine or beer drinkers as they have a good selection of beers and wines at the $10 and under price point. If you prefer mixed drinks as my wife and I do I would recommend upgrading to the Premium package as I don't recall seeing and mixed drinks for under $17 so you would get charged the difference to you stateroom bill. The bartenders were friendly and worked very hard to make sure everyone was served in a reasonable amount of time and they poured heavy compared to Royal, never any need to ask them to add more liquor. Many of the bartenders kept track of your name and cabin number so we never really needed to present our sea pass for a drink particularly the bars we frequented.
Now to the things we feel could used to be improved keeping in mind these might be a bit trivial but I'll mention anyway. As with any cruise you will run into "hogs". We were in Aqua class and had access to the thermal spa which we both enjoyed aside from the heat bed hogs. It was almost impossible to get time on one of the heat beds as people would spend hours either surfing their phones reading or completely sleeping and snoring. How they could improve this I don't know aside from more policing by the staff which as we know leads to poor customer surveys "which by the way I hate". The show times could be pushed off another 30 minutes to allow for people to eat dinner and still have time to catch a show afterwards. We didn't see a single show due to time conflicts with dinner and I'll explain. This cruise had many elderly people who would line up at the theatre an hour to an hour and a half early which was a frustration not to mention the theatre only seated 900 passengers for a cruise that had 3000 people on it. Most of our dinners took 75 minutes. We had an early seating time which I can't understand why they ask your preference being as there are multiple dining venues. The first night Blu didn't open until 7:30 which is entirely too late for us to eat we like to try and stay on our home eating schedule as best possible I know it seems trivial but we have a pretty set eating sleeping schedule so we tried eating at Normandie grille. We went to Normandie at our set time of 6:00 and were promptly informed that the dining didn't work that way. We were told that it would be a ten minute wait and were handed a pager as if we were waiting at Applebees which I felt was a bit tacky and the wait turned into 25-30 minutes. The good thing was we were Aqua class and we could get into Blu at any time we chose after the first night. As I mentioned in another post if you don't see anything you want at any of the main dining venues you can order the signature dishes from other restaurants at all of the main dining rooms. Other than these few gripes overall the cruise was excellent and we might be Celebrity converts now, although we do have a Caribbean cruise booked for Halloween. 
If anyone has any questions I'd be happy to respond.
 

A review of our thoughts about our cruise, things we liked and things we felt could use improvement. We have only cruised Royal so this is really a comparison between the two.
First off we thought the ship was beautiful. The decor was upscale and classy as opposed to the Vegas Casino feel that you get with some Royal ships. We felt the service and food were definitely a step up from Royal and more reminiscent of what Royal was pre shut down. I can say that we had no meals that we felt could be improved. We did sail Aqua Class and used Blu for the most part aside from specialty dining. All of our meals came to our table piping hot so much so you couldn't touch the plate. What we did notice was that in the dining venues we didn't see them using cloches to keep the food warm which I feel has a tendency to make crispy foods a bit soft or soggy. The Oceanview Cafe was also very good with a large selection of different items daily. We are not buffet people but we did enjoy the Oceanview Cafe. The specialty dining was exceptional on this ship we ate at Fine Cut, Raw on Five, Le Petite Chef, Rooftop Grill and Eden. Our favorites were Eden and Rooftop Grill not saying the others were bad we just felt the overall experience was better at these two venues the food at the others was just as good.
Now on to the bar service. Like I mentioned we sailed in Aqua Class and opted for the inclusive package which included the classic drink package any drinks up to $10. The classic drink package would work for people who are really just wine or beer drinkers as they have a good selection of beers and wines at the $10 and under price point. If you prefer mixed drinks as my wife and I do I would recommend upgrading to the Premium package as I don't recall seeing and mixed drinks for under $17 so you would get charged the difference to you stateroom bill. The bartenders were friendly and worked very hard to make sure everyone was served in a reasonable amount of time and they poured heavy compared to Royal, never any need to ask them to add more liquor. Many of the bartenders kept track of your name and cabin number so we never really needed to present our sea pass for a drink particularly the bars we frequented.
Now to the things we feel could used to be improved keeping in mind these might be a bit trivial but I'll mention anyway. As with any cruise you will run into "hogs". We were in Aqua class and had access to the thermal spa which we both enjoyed aside from the heat bed hogs. It was almost impossible to get time on one of the heat beds as people would spend hours either surfing their phones reading or completely sleeping and snoring. How they could improve this I don't know aside from more policing by the staff which as we know leads to poor customer surveys "which by the way I hate". The show times could be pushed off another 30 minutes to allow for people to eat dinner and still have time to catch a show afterwards. We didn't see a single show due to time conflicts with dinner and I'll explain. This cruise had many elderly people who would line up at the theatre an hour to an hour and a half early which was a frustration not to mention the theatre only seated 900 passengers for a cruise that had 3000 people on it. Most of our dinners took 75 minutes. We had an early seating time which I can't understand why they ask your preference being as there are multiple dining venues. The first night Blu didn't open until 7:30 which is entirely too late for us to eat we like to try and stay on our home eating schedule as best possible I know it seems trivial but we have a pretty set eating sleeping schedule so we tried eating at Normandie grille. We went to Normandie at our set time of 6:00 and were promptly informed that the dining didn't work that way. We were told that it would be a ten minute wait and were handed a pager as if we were waiting at Applebees which I felt was a bit tacky and the wait turned into 25-30 minutes. The good thing was we were Aqua class and we could get into Blu at any time we chose after the first night. As I mentioned in another post if you don't see anything you want at any of the main dining venues you can order the signature dishes from other restaurants at all of the main dining rooms. Other than these few gripes overall the cruise was excellent and we might be Celebrity converts now, although we do have a Caribbean cruise booked for Halloween. 
If anyone has any questions I'd be happy to respond.
 

A review of our thoughts about our cruise, things we liked and things we felt could use improvement. We have only cruised Royal so this is really a comparison between the two.
First off we thought the ship was beautiful. The decor was upscale and classy as opposed to the Vegas Casino feel that you get with some Royal ships. We felt the service and food were definitely a step up from Royal and more reminiscent of what Royal was pre shut down. I can say that we had no meals that we felt could be improved. We did sail Aqua Class and used Blu for the most part aside from specialty dining. All of our meals came to our table piping hot so much so you couldn't touch the plate. What we did notice was that in the dining venues we didn't see them using cloches to keep the food warm which I feel has a tendency to make crispy foods a bit soft or soggy. The Oceanview Cafe was also very good with a large selection of different items daily. We are not buffet people but we did enjoy the Oceanview Cafe. The specialty dining was exceptional on this ship we ate at Fine Cut, Raw on Five, Le Petite Chef, Rooftop Grill and Eden. Our favorites were Eden and Rooftop Grill not saying the others were bad we just felt the overall experience was better at these two venues the food at the others was just as good.
Now on to the bar service. Like I mentioned we sailed in Aqua Class and opted for the inclusive package which included the classic drink package any drinks up to $10. The classic drink package would work for people who are really just wine or beer drinkers as they have a good selection of beers and wines at the $10 and under price point. If you prefer mixed drinks as my wife and I do I would recommend upgrading to the Premium package as I don't recall seeing and mixed drinks for under $17 so you would get charged the difference to you stateroom bill. The bartenders were friendly and worked very hard to make sure everyone was served in a reasonable amount of time and they poured heavy compared to Royal, never any need to ask them to add more liquor. Many of the bartenders kept track of your name and cabin number so we never really needed to present our sea pass for a drink particularly the bars we frequented.
Now to the things we feel could used to be improved keeping in mind these might be a bit trivial but I'll mention anyway. As with any cruise you will run into "hogs". We were in Aqua class and had access to the thermal spa which we both enjoyed aside from the heat bed hogs. It was almost impossible to get time on one of the heat beds as people would spend hours either surfing their phones reading or completely sleeping and snoring. How they could improve this I don't know aside from more policing by the staff which as we know leads to poor customer surveys "which by the way I hate". The show times could be pushed off another 30 minutes to allow for people to eat dinner and still have time to catch a show afterwards. We didn't see a single show due to time conflicts with dinner and I'll explain. This cruise had many elderly people who would line up at the theatre an hour to an hour and a half early which was a frustration not to mention the theatre only seated 900 passengers for a cruise that had 3000 people on it. Most of our dinners took 75 minutes. We had an early seating time which I can't understand why they ask your preference being as there are multiple dining venues. The first night Blu didn't open until 7:30 which is entirely too late for us to eat we like to try and stay on our home eating schedule as best possible I know it seems trivial but we have a pretty set eating sleeping schedule so we tried eating at Normandie grille. We went to Normandie at our set time of 6:00 and were promptly informed that the dining didn't work that way. We were told that it would be a ten minute wait and were handed a pager as if we were waiting at Applebees which I felt was a bit tacky and the wait turned into 25-30 minutes. The good thing was we were Aqua class and we could get into Blu at any time we chose after the first night. As I mentioned in another post if you don't see anything you want at any of the main dining venues you can order the signature dishes from other restaurants at all of the main dining rooms. Other than these few gripes overall the cruise was excellent and we might be Celebrity converts now, although we do have a Caribbean cruise booked for Halloween. 
If anyone has any questions I'd be happy to respond.
 

We just got back two days ago from a 13 day Trans Atlantic on Apex. I booked the aqua class just because this was a cruise for our 35th anniversary coming up June 3 and having a dedicated restaurant seemed like something nice for a special occasion cruise. We did the all inclusive and upgraded the drink package for $6.99 per day per person there very few $10 drinks except for beer and some wines so everything else would hit your stateroom account for $7 each drink. We both used the thermal spa couple of times my wife especially loved it (my wife enjoys torturing herself doing bikram hot yoga me not so much) but I did enjoy the thermal spa. Blu is nice but Blu does not do lunch, at least not on our cruise so your lunch options are Cosmopolitan, Oceanview cafe or any other venue that is open for lunch. We booked early dining but the point of early or late is kind of moot as we just went whenever we were able based on what we had going on at the time. Here's a little tip for people who have an aqua class room. If you can't find something on Blu's dinner menu that you want you can order from any of the other dining venues signature or classic entree's. I'm going to post a review of what I liked and didn't like about the cruise in a few days just currently trying to get my life back together after being gone for so long. Overall we enjoyed Celebrity and we both thought the food quality and service was much better than Royal's has been lately. Not hating on Royal but the food quality and service has suffered a bit since the restart.

ummm THIS IS HUGE. THANK YOU FOR THIS TIP!!
really looking forward to hearing your thoughts on the cruise itself; i know there are some differences with a transatlantic vs the caribbean cruise we have planned for february, but your insights will be so helpful!!

We just got back two days ago from a 13 day Trans Atlantic on Apex. I booked the aqua class just because this was a cruise for our 35th anniversary coming up June 3 and having a dedicated restaurant seemed like something nice for a special occasion cruise. We did the all inclusive and upgraded the drink package for $6.99 per day per person there very few $10 drinks except for beer and some wines so everything else would hit your stateroom account for $7 each drink. We both used the thermal spa couple of times my wife especially loved it (my wife enjoys torturing herself doing bikram hot yoga me not so much) but I did enjoy the thermal spa. Blu is nice but Blu does not do lunch, at least not on our cruise so your lunch options are Cosmopolitan, Oceanview cafe or any other venue that is open for lunch. We booked early dining but the point of early or late is kind of moot as we just went whenever we were able based on what we had going on at the time. Here's a little tip for people who have an aqua class room. If you can't find something on Blu's dinner menu that you want you can order from any of the other dining venues signature or classic entree's. I'm going to post a review of what I liked and didn't like about the cruise in a few days just currently trying to get my life back together after being gone for so long. Overall we enjoyed Celebrity and we both thought the food quality and service was much better than Royal's has been lately. Not hating on Royal but the food quality and service has suffered a bit since the restart.

We just got back two days ago from a 13 day Trans Atlantic on Apex. I booked the aqua class just because this was a cruise for our 35th anniversary coming up June 3 and having a dedicated restaurant seemed like something nice for a special occasion cruise. We did the all inclusive and upgraded the drink package for $6.99 per day per person there very few $10 drinks except for beer and some wines so everything else would hit your stateroom account for $7 each drink. We both used the thermal spa couple of times my wife especially loved it (my wife enjoys torturing herself doing bikram hot yoga me not so much) but I did enjoy the thermal spa. Blu is nice but Blu does not do lunch, at least not on our cruise so your lunch options are Cosmopolitan, Oceanview cafe or any other venue that is open for lunch. We booked early dining but the point of early or late is kind of moot as we just went whenever we were able based on what we had going on at the time. Here's a little tip for people who have an aqua class room. If you can't find something on Blu's dinner menu that you want you can order from any of the other dining venues signature or classic entree's. I'm going to post a review of what I liked and didn't like about the cruise in a few days just currently trying to get my life back together after being gone for so long. Overall we enjoyed Celebrity and we both thought the food quality and service was much better than Royal's has been lately. Not hating on Royal but the food quality and service has suffered a bit since the restart.

We've found that quality changes ship to ship for all dining. We've had better food on some ships than others but have never had anything I would consider inedible. We've been on sailings where Chops was excellent and Giovanni's was meh and visa versa. I think it all comes down to staffing and some chefs are just better than others particularly head chefs who should be in charge of all aspects of the dining experience. We've done the Chef's table on a few sailings and have always enjoyed it. On one of our last cruises we went to Giovanni's for dinner and the waiter we had was the head waiter we had for a Chef's table on Allure. We mentioned we remembered him from that cruise and he said he would do something special for us for a meal that evening. Hid did a surf and turf for us that started with the caprese salad combined with the arugula salad which was delicious and for the entree he did filet mignon with tiger prawns. The whole meal was delicious and a special surprise.

I don't recall the courtesy reservation actually showing up anywhere visible.  It's just in the system.  When you board and go to make the rest of your reservations, it should be there (and can be changed at that time).

Specialty dining on embarkation day is definitely the way to go. The wife and I have been doing this for the last few cruises, it makes everything much calmer and you're away from the chaos. Also by the time you finish lunch the ship has had a chance to calm down. So much more relaxing.

Specialty dining on embarkation day is definitely the way to go. The wife and I have been doing this for the last few cruises, it makes everything much calmer and you're away from the chaos. Also by the time you finish lunch the ship has had a chance to calm down. So much more relaxing.

Started doing specialty lunch on embarkation day a few years ago and will never do it differently again. Worth it for the quiet, no chaos experience. It's just the best. 

You can always consider pre-purchasing lunch at a specialty restaurant.  This is what we do.  Yes, it's additional $$ but it is so worth it for a calm, enjoyable boarding day reward.  Prices have gone up but lunch is still one of the few bargains left on Royal Caribbean.

We will be on the sailing with our 9 year old grandson. It’s his first cruise.  Our 3rd on Harmony.

I have ALWAYS purchased the deluxe drink package regardless because it has always been worth the money because it covers more than just alcohol. You get soda, tea, coffee, premium water brands, juice and more!
The average drinker will reach alcohol fatigue well before they get their money's worth or more in drinks BUT below are many reasons you can get your money's worth without hurting your waistline/health or overindulge by getting the deluxe drink package:
- I go to vitality spa for their juice/smoothie bar twice a day in the morning and night. ( I get their green apple, cucumber, ginger, carrot and spinach smoothie)
- Rather than buying the packaged water deal or bring my own, I use my deluxe drink package to get 2 Evian water bottles at any of the bars and hoard them in my cabin to drink whenever.
- Access to fresh brew variety of coffees in the morning.
- They usually have coke zero and sprite zero if you ask.
Add that on top of my wine and cocktails, i've actually surpassed and came out positive in my deluxe drink package.

The sale price doesn't mean anything to me because they are always having "a sale". I look at the cost per person per day and decide from there. When calculating your break even point don't forget to add 18% gratuity per drink as this increases the coast of the drink and reduces the break even point. A $14 dollar drink is actually $16.52 with 18% gratuity. We got the drink package for our next cruise at $73.99, with gratuity that brings the price to $87 per person per day making our break even point 5.2 drinks per day which for us is just about perfect especially when including bottled water and specialty teas and coffee.

Hi Bmac;
OH, fear not... haven't forgotten gratuities; especially when I RACED to pay them (base gratuities) after finding out about the impending increase recently. In fact your calculations are the crux of the issue ;;.. I'm going to pay $16.50 every time I have a cocktail?? That's crazy highway robbery. Ya' know, I might have an $8 beer once in awhile...oh sorry $9.40 beer.
Incidentally, looks like the D. Bev. Package for my sailing has once again dropped from the 50% off of 1 person to 30% off both ($72.99/day):

https://www.celebritycruises.com/blog/

Just had 9 days on Constellation, have to say the service was excellent. First night MTD was a mess but other than that all was good. Lots of waiters around serving drinks, didn't wait too long when at a bar. We loved it and have to say with Royal's move to shorter sailings on larger ships we'll be spending more time on Celebrity ships.

Royal is partly to blame for this incident on Symphony as the crew member requested his contract be for Voyeur of the Seas. 

Veteran cruisers know to store their suitcases under the bed, thus eliminating space for stateroom attendant to hide. 

We just recently sailed out of Vancouver. I have a DUI on my record from thirty years ago. When we booked the cruise I was not aware of Canada refusing entrance for anyone with a DUI. I did my due diligence and put together any information that I may have needed to be able to get into Canada, passport, copy of prior criminal record and a completed temporary residence form stating that I was rehabilitated. When we got to customs everything was automated kiosks we entered all of our information scanned our passports and walked right through. I believe if the DUI is less than ten years old it could be an issue but we had no problems. My advice for people in this situation is to do what I did and get everything ready and if you are flagged present all of the info. From the information I've gathered if you are flagged and have all of the proper paperwork and a temporary residence form filled out you can pay a fee to be able to pass through Canada. If you were staying in Canada for an extended time things may be different.

We had the premium package last month on Reflection. There were a few drinks that weren't fully covered by the $17 limit, but those were the fancy drinks at World Class Bar and premium wines by the glass.

It seems both RCL and Celebrity are trying to maximize profit with all these small changes. Just recently watched a video were two cruisers on a Celebrity cruise tried to get a drink at every bar (can't remember the ship) doing a kind of bar crawl. They had the classic drink package which caps at $10 they only found one cocktail on the whole ship that fit the $10 cap aside from a few wines and beers. The reality is that they make a killing on drinks, most likely the largest profit margin on a cruise ship. If you think of the cost of a bottle of liquor even at retail pricing which I'm sure the cruise lines get a pretty good discount due to the amount they purchase it only takes about two drinks to break even and the rest is profit. I'm ok with them making a decent profit but at some point it becomes price gouging. It's disappointing that you buy a drink package and wind up with a bar tab at the end of the cruise because almost all the of drinks are more than $10 typically $12>. From a business stand point they see this as maximizing profit but the reality is they may be shooting themselves in the foot. This is a kind of bait and switch tactic and as more cruisers realize that they aren't getting much for their drink package they may op out of buying a package at all.
We're sailing on Apex in May for a transatlantic sailing, we upgraded to the premium package hopefully that isn't a bait and switch package also. Also hoping service will be better than RCL as it should be for a higher priced cruise line. We'll see.