Cheers Celebrity but not on the Drinks

I have just returned from a fantastic taster cruise that I did on the Beautiful Celebrity Eclipse for 2 Nights. We sailed from Southampton and went over to Le Harve in France so we could spend the day in Paris if we chose too. It was the perfect opportunity to take my Wife and Sister and Brother in Law who were all first time cruisers. I had told them how good Celebrity are with 5 star Standards, Amazing food and stylish luxury ships that can cater for every need.

Treats on arrival in My Suite gave a great first Impression

It certainly did not disappoint and everybody loved it and is keen to cruise more and try longer voyages. The food was Amazing from the Ocean View Buffet, The main Moonlight Sonata Restaurant and the Speciality Luminae Restaurant exclusively for Suite guests which I have to say served some of the best food I have ever tasted. The Suite I had was amazing with fantastic room attendants and butler on call. I even found the entertainment far better than I had imagined and just loved the overall atmosphere.

Fantastic Food in the Speciality Restaurant

One thing I did however find to be totally disorganised was the drinks packages that had been included or the upgrades on offer. From the start the way the drinks shows on the documentation needs to be a lot clearer as I had a cabin for 4 and it did not show drinks anywhere or for how many people they would be included for and at what level of package. Now Celebrity are normally really generous with the drinks package that you get when included as part of an offer. They normally offer the Classic Drinks Package which gives a good mix of beers, wines, cocktails and spirits. However on the shorter cruise they offer a more basic Standard Package. This includes a limited choice of beers and wines and again a few cocktails. Now what struck me as really bad was the amount of guests on the cruise who had no idea what package they had and what it included. I saw one poor guy as for 2 glasses of wine, 1 Pinot and 1 Chardonnay to be given the drinks and then when he handed his card over had them snatched back of him as it was not included on his package. You could see the guy was clearly embarrassed and he had to say to put them on his account and he would upgrade his package later.

The all confusing Drinks Packages

What was clear was they Celebrity wanted everybody to upgrade to either the Classic or the Premium package which includes everything such as Martini’s in the Martini Bar which is always nice. Even before you had embarked the ship you had the chance to upgrade in the cruise terminal and then as soon as you had got on a number of staff pounced to try and upgrade you on arrival. Now as I had a cabin for 4 the drinks are only included for 2 so I had to go and upgrade and went to guest relations to do this. Everyone else being served and waiting all had questions about what package they had and what was included. I had to bit my tongue as I could hear travel agents being blamed for guest not knowing what they they did or did not have included. I then had to chuckle as every staff member need to refer to a drinks sheet to check what was on each package and the cost.

Once I had done my upgrade from Standard to Classic which cost me around an extra $11 a day we headed off to explore the ship and get a drink. What I then found was that every bar seemed to have its on rules and guests had been told one thing by one member of the bar staff and then something else by the next person to serve them.

Overall I think for a Cruise line the Standard of Celebrity that was pretty poor to say the least. I even had to show a few guest what they could have from the package list that you get when you upgrade.It may be down to the fact that the normally don’t have a Standard Package as they only do them on the shorter sailings but if they did I think it could be bedlam.

It did seem to get better after the first day but to me it could all of been avoided by showing what drinks package you had on the documentation and the package lists near the bars.

It did not spoil my cruise for me but I would like to think that it was just a teething issue with it being the first sailing of the year out of Southampton and that it would not happen on any of the longer cruise on the Eclipse this year.

If I could give any advice to you in advance it would be to check what package you have included if any and then decide what you want to upgrade to in advance and add the package on so you know exactly what you are getting and you will have a hassle free time.

If you would like to know any further details on Celebrity or any other cruise then please give me a call on 0330 303 8382  or email [email protected].