KKB

When & where are you looking? I love digging around for a good deal!

Say hello to Hailee (the blond) from Kristin. (I just messaged her this week about the whole Syd's issue). Syd's is no longer on the Breakaway entertainment list but their contract is thru June.

Looking forward to this! We are 56/60 & sailed the Equinox with some VERY young minded 60 something friends met on the Equinox in 2018! We LOVE the ABC islands. Nassau sucks--but 5 ships, port area construction & a Veteran's Day parade downtown made it even less desirable.

I too am a bargain hunter. We do find cruises more alike than different. We put Celebrity 1st, followed closely by Princess (service & food r tops on these lines) Celebrity has fantastic speciality restaurants too (tho MDR is so great there is no need) but we found Princess specialty restaurants no better than MDR (which is very good) Then RCCL with NCL right behind (they do shows & "extra" stuff best--ziplining, etc) If you didn't care for RCCL food you won't be impressed w/ NCL. We find both those MDRs to be adequate. We found RCCL specialty restaurants quite good when we had several on the Allure. NCL specialty restaurants are inconsistent--sometimes great, sometimes OK. You might consider Princess next!!

Balconys: avoid Celebrity E-class unless you do Aft balcony (they have "infinite veranda" balconies...people love or hate them but not quite a true balcony) Food: Celebrity has the best food, imo, followed closely by Princess Thermal spa: my understanding is there are no jetted pools in the Celebrity thermal spa (but I cannot confirm from personal experience) Broadway shows: E-class does the best shows tho Equinox had a couple close in Nov; but NCL has 2 broadway shows on every ship (I THINK every ship...every one I have been on/have booked!) Music: I think all cruise lines do a pretty good job of a variety of music acts. Pretty much covers all lines tho Celebrity & Princess do the best enrichment talks, imo

We expect to take this cruise. Using my American Express I can get $175 back if I spend $500 by the end of March. Final payment isn't due until Sept. I ASSUME I would get that extra payment $ back if we had to cancel but want to be sure before I pay! Thanks!

Different one but still great--spend $500 get $175 back! I WILL be using that to make a payment on our Dec. Beyond cruise! YES

I agree with you on Celebrity EXCEPT a 5 day Spring Break cruise on the Constellation in 2015. 2/3 of the passengers were FSU students (I am not exaggerating). QUITE a few drunk by muster drill (that when they jammed us into the theatre & such. The only "issue" we encountered was our young neighbors having a loud party the last night. DH walked over & visited with them & they immediately toned things down. NOW I heard MANY stories of debaucle along the week...both from not so happy non-spring breakers to the spring breakers themselves. We are doing our 1st CCL cruise Sunday. Cruise Match offer (some ad on FB). Just got an upgrade call to a balcony today. So between upgrade, drink package, tips & wifi, I'd say we still paid half what we would on Celebrity in a similar cabin on an older ship. NOW--I'm NOT saying that would be so if we had paid full price. (interior was comped). It would maybe be $500 cheaper than Celebrity. Throw Princess in the ring & prices are nearly identical (again, this is adding in tips/wifi/drink package on all) There is a perception that Carnival is cheaper. Sometimes it is, but certainly not always, ESPECIALLY if you factor tips, wifi & drink packages in.

Interesting, we have NEVER felt that way on Celebrity. Last summer on the Edge we made friends with a young gal on the entertainment staff--we are still in contact today. On the Equinox in Nov we had the most special MDR experience ever--spectacular maitre de (so outgoing, even on port), a fantastic waiter (more subdued but once he discovered my love of 80s alternative music we had a connection & he opened up!), a sassy asst waiter & cocktail server. There have been others, but those come 1st to mind.

Depends on the cruise line. For Celebrity, Princess & NCL, much cheaper to add their all-inclusive feature when booking (you can typically add these later by calling)

Carnival price: FREE (Casino Match) Free 14 day cruise to Hawaii? Think we'll be OK But yes, moments like last night give us all pause & be grateful for our blessings. Praying that young man recovers & lives a long happy life.

OK...we took Discovery Princess to AK in Sept & our friends did Encore in July. We also just sailed Encore to Caribbean last month. These friends took their first cruise on Celebrity Edge last summer with us. I cannot comment on Glacier Bay but we got VERY close to the Dawes Glacier & that morning's cruising along there was amazing. We thought our AK cruise was amazing. Our friends did as well on the Encore (tho I do remember Encore got the berth furthest from the port in Juneau...which was a distance) Ship: Discovery is stunning. Food was terrific. 2 shows were terrific (tho Choir of Man on Encore is one of the top 5 shows I've seen anywhere...) We have sailed numerous Princess cruises & an AK cruise is MUCH more sedate than the Caribbean (gets quiet early) Encore: Observation Lounge could be a fabulous place during an AK cruise. Choir of Man is fantastic & Kinky Boots was very good. Food was good but not great. I don't think water slides would even be open in AK. But they do have go carts & a VR pavilion (for a fee) that the kids might like. Both ships have trivia & game shows so I feel that is comparable. IMO for that big of a price difference, I'd go Princess for sure. It really depends on the kids. My YA kids are open to about anything & aren't bored on cruises if there aren't bells & whistles like water slides, go carts & VR. But I have a friend whose teen/YA kids were bored on a Holland AK cruise (I can't comment on Holland, never sailed), so clearly they would have been happier with NCL.

Yes, I read those. It says it will be refunded minus any cancellation fees. I never received an invoice showing the specifics of the cancellation fees (just was given a cancellation amount), I guess I was reading that as the CND would be returned. The CS rep said "You lost that when you cancelled" so you can see how that line led me to mis-interpret the policy. Apparently I did NOT lose it, I just lost part of it via the cancellation fee.

The Syd show is the same on all ships.

I actually rather like this...I'm concerned that there will be too much food at that evening meal & I will be done for the evening!

On Celebrity our room attendant moved everything (stuff on hangers can stay; pack everything else). But we could not get into our room until everyone else could. Now, on E-class, passengers are allowed to drop their hand luggage in their room immediately upon boarding & room keys were at the room.

Glad you liked it--I've been intrigued. Curious... What ailment (s) did you get it for? What was the cost?

I don't think I've ever seen an entertainment staff click so well...some have come close! They had SO much fun together--which meant we had so much fun too!!

Usually they ask if I want to dine alone or with others. If they don't, be proactive & ask.

Everyone does have different tastes. There were lines at lunch on Equinox in Nov. And we all know that it can be specific to a ship or even a sailing. On Caribbean Princess in July gluten free pizza was GREAT the 1st week & horrid the 2nd. Not so good on Discovery in Sept. I know the maitre de said they didn't have all they needed the 1st week so couldn't always make what I wanted in the MDR (perhaps all the GF flour had to be sent to the pizza place!), but the 2nd week they were fantastic in the MDR.

Honestly not sure...but again, you are going to wait...

I understood that I had to pay the cancellation fee but losing my Cruise Next certificate? Wrong.

To me this is clearly to push more people to go to specialty dining. (save $ with a more limited menu, make more $ via specialty) I can't eat pasta, so that is out for me. Spinach artichoke dip & chili? Straight from the Local/O'Sheehans menu. We won't go hungry, but not super thrilled.

We sailed Getaway in 2019 & fell in love with Syds & The Waterfront. Saw Syds every night. I sailed her 2 weeks in August--WAS AT EVERY SYD'S SHOW! (ok, I did only go to one Fleetwood Mac show each week) We booked her in April & then got worried when Syds has disappeared from all ships entertainment offerings on the NCL site, except Prima. (not sure why, I know a band member who is on Breakaway thru June). Worked out...I wanted to try Prima anyway so switched. Loving your TR!

Bleh.