JHUNTGOLF

I really like the 500 ml bottles of Grolsch beer. When I was on the Ascent in late January, they were difficult to find, but I was successful at some bars, such as the Magic Carpet. At that time, the Grolsch beers were outrageously priced at the $17 max for a Premium package drink. Another thing to not miss is that under the Premium package you can get premium waters at the restaurants, such as Pellegrino. Then, if you like gin or vodka martinis, having the premium package gives you an opportunity to try all of the different vodkas or gins at the the $17 max price point to see if there may be one you’ve never tried that may be a winner. Plus, if you don’t like a particular vodka or gin, just leave it and try another one!!! John

We just never cared for the specialties that are served only in the Cyprus restaurant. That’s the only reason. We liked the specialties served in the Normandie, Tuscan, and Cosmopolitan restaurants so we just made our reservations at those three restaurants. John

We were on the Ascent in late January and made reservations for 6:30pm for 3 of the 4 MDRs for the four of us. There were no problems with the host honoring our reservations each night. We had people in line ahead of us getting beepers while we were immediately seated at a table for four. John

You can definitely make reservations on the Ascent if you do it far enough in advance to get the times you want. We’re on the 12-night Ascent Med cruise leaving Barcelona on September 2, 2024. We booked this cruise in late June 2023. Within a couple days of booking, we made 6:30pm reservations at three of the four MDRs (left out Cyprus) for 6:30pm for each of the 12 nights. John

On every Celebrity ship, my principal morning job is to get Americano coffee from Cafe Al Bacio to take back to my wife sleeping in the cabin. Over the years, I’ve found that the To Go paper cups can be too hot to carry back to the cabin. Plus, they won’t stay hot for very long. The solution was to bring two 16 ounce Yeti tumblers on the cruise. Every morning I go to Al Bacio with our two cabin keys and ask for three Americanos to be split among the two Yeti tumblers with room in one for my wife’s cream. I always give them a tip so I’m remembered each morning. Then, it’s so easy to carry the spill proof Yeti tumblers back to the cabin. The coffee stays hot until my wife decides to get up, and I’m off to the Ocean View Cafe for breakfast and my morning look at my iPad. John

For our September 2, 2024, 12 night Ascent cruise, we originally got the upgrade for $9.99 plus the 20% gratuity in August 2023 (we booked the cruise in late June 2023). Then, as Stem to Stern said, we cancelled that order when also caught the late October 2023 flash sale that was supposedly 53% off at $6.99 plus the 20% gratuity. We had never seen the upgrade cost that low. So our total 12 night upgrade cost for the two of us, including the gratuity, is $201.36. Plus, we were able to use shipboard credit to pay for the upgrade!!! John

As others have said, just keep periodically checking to see if there’s a flash sale. In late June 2023, we booked a 12 night September 2024 Ascent Med cruise. We had the Classic beverage package as a perk. In early August 2023, there was a sale to upgrade to the Premium package for $9.99 per person per day plus the 20% gratuities. We thought that was a great price for the upgrade. We took advantage of this sale and used some of our shipboard credit to pay for it. Then, in late October 2023, we saw another flash sale on Celebrity’s website for an even better price of $6.99 per person per day plus the 20% gratuities. We jumped on this sale since we never thought it would go that low. We just canceled our earlier order at the $9.99 price and then booked the $6.99 price again using some of our shipboard credit. With the gratuities added in, the total upgrade cost for the two of us for 12 days is $201.12. We feel this is a terrific deal. John

This topic brought back memories of my very first cruise in January 1977 on Holland America’s original Rotterdam. How things have changed in the last 46 years or so. The Rotterdam, at 38,000 gross tons, would be dwarfed by today’s mega ships. Below, I included a description of the cabins, the ship’s statistics, and some menus from the cruise. On that 11 night cruise, we booked an inside guarantee and ended up in a small cabin with upper and lower berths. We were very young back then so no problem for me getting into that upper berth. Wouldn’t want to try that today!!! Back then, we even had a golf long drive contest from the aft of the ship. The wake of the ship was the fairway and they tied a life buoy to a rope and used that to judge how far the drive went. I didn’t win but it sure was fun!!! John

Didn’t sleep very well last night knowing we were being picked up at 4:45am. I finally got up at 1:50am. We’re on an 8:10am flight to FLL. See you on board. John

We’ve sailed on the Apex once and twice on the Beyond and have two upcoming sailings on the Ascent. On each of these cruises, we’ve always made 6:30pm dinner reservations for the four of us at the four MDRs on the ship. We’ve never had a problem making these reservations, and they are always confirmed via a Celebrity email with the Order details. We have a copy of these confirmed reservations with us in case there ever is a question. We make these “free” MDR reservations well in advance to make sure we can get our preferred 6:30pm time. For example, we will be sailing on the January 28, 2024, Ascent sailing this coming Sunday. We logged into our Celebrity booking and made our 6:30pm dinner reservations at 3 of the 4 MDRs on April 9, 2023–about 9 & 1/2 months before our sailing date. When I just looked at the Celebrity App’s My Calendar for this cruise, it shows our 6:30pm reservation for each of the seven nights. I copied our first night below: We’re booked on the 12 night Ascent cruise leaving Barcelona on September 2, 2024. For this cruise, we again logged into our Celebrity booking on June 29, 2023–about 14 months before our sailing—and made our 6:30pm reservations for 3 of the 4 MDRs for all 12 nights. We’re definitely into planning early to get the reservations we want and have always been successful. It may be a case that there are a limited number of reservations available early on so if you try to get reservations later, the system may show no reservations are available. I hope this helps. John

From my past cruises on the Apex and Beyond, the January 28th AFC & NFC championship games should be on in the Craft Social Bar on Deck 4. John

Yes, non refundable is used first, and at the end of the cruise any unused refundable is automatically credited back to your credit card on file (any unused non refundable at the end of the cruise is lost). You don’t need to go to guest services to do this. However, when you are on the ship, please go to guest services and have them print out a copy of your account to verify the amount of non refundable and refundable shipboard credit you have available. Then, during the cruise, periodically check your account on the TV to verify your use of the shipboard credit. John

I always take $2 bills to use for extra tips. I find it really helps in having a bartender remember what my wife and I like to drink. Nothing better in my opinion than having a bartender say, “Hi, Mr. John, Hendricks and tonic with a slice of cucumber and the usual classic Grey Goose martini for Miss Pat.” I’ve always found that they really like the $2 bill. Plus, it has a great picture of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. John

Celebrity has increased the cost of both the Classic and Premium Beverage Packages. Now, the limits are $11 for a Classic drink and $17 for a Premium drink. For anyone that has been on a recent cruise with these increased limits, do you have drink menus to give future cruisers an idea of what drinks and beers are now available at the $11 Classic limit and what martinis are available under the $17 Premium limit? If you don’t have menus, do you remember any of the prices? Thanks John

We (two couples from the Atlanta area) made an appointment a while back to have all four of us take the test this afternoon in our Boston hotel room (we’re sailing on the Summit’s New England/Canada cruise beginning this Wednesday). The process was extremely efficient since it required just one Zoom call. We had to pay for four tests, but getting them completed at the same time was very efficient. We got the emailed test results literally in a matter of minutes. OnPoint also kept us well informed with e-mail notifications. We had an extremely positive experience with them. John