Honolulu Blue

I'm quoting this mostly as a record to see what was said before the IMO makes their move. We'll see what they do, when they decide to do it.

Ditto. I used them four times in the past year and they've always been as advertised. In fact, I bought another two tests (from Optum) because I need to test for a charter that I'll be on (not on Princess). I'm not sure when or if I'll need the other one, but it'll be nice to have in case something bad happens.

Thanks for sharing the (relatively) good news about breakfast and lunch. I'm tired of all the doom & gloom too. I appreciate all the true and honest reports from X's fleet. I wish Celebrity gives us nothing but good things to talk about from now on.

A couple of quick questions if you have the time & inclination: 1) No choice of morning or evening service given to you, right? 2) Pullman remains down all day every day, right? Thanks! And have fun!!

I purchased a 2-pack of proctored tests from the Optum Store. They've served me well in the past, and StarVista doesn't seem to want to budge from their requirement for negative COVID-19 results before boarding certain of their charters. The local options other than these have mostly dried up. I might find a use for the second test if things spike again, or the expiration date is farther out than I expect it to be, or I take another StarVista cruise by the end of the year. Now I'm in wait mode for the UDC and TEC to publish their preliminary schedules.

I don't know about CCL, but I've heard of reports of cruisers receiving Paxlovid on Princess (another cruise line owned by Carnival Corp.).

I'm surprised you haven't gotten an answer to this... let me throw my two cents in. I am going to guess that either your excursion is small or it's not very time sensitive. They probably also did this for similar excursions back in the old, old days when they called them tenders. My experience with excursions at tender ports was the same as yours - we met somewhere inside the ship and were guided directly to the tender/water shuttle/whatever. I don't recall using my Platinum card for water shuttle priority, but I THINK the way it worked was that excursion groups had first priority, then it's Diamond/Platinum/FTTP - depending on the exact mix, they might be called separately. I hope this has been of some help. I assume if I'm completely out to lunch, I'll get called out quickly.

Thanks for sharing. This will go especially well on the Pearl, which is in the middle of a gazillion consecutive charters. 🙃

@SundsgnThank you for sharing these old Capers with us. It took me a minute to figure out that "motor launch" is the same as what we call "tenders" or "water shuttles" now.

I'm interested too, but the crowd that hangs out here isn't much interested in music themed cruises, I've found. Perhaps there's a roll call? I'm too lazy to look, sorry. Other notes on music themed cruises: Carnival isn't much of a player in the charter cruise market anymore for whatever reason; they don't even list their charters anymore at their site. NCL, Celebrity, HAL, and Royal all have much bigger pieces of this pie. Princess has some 80s themed cruises over the next few months where 80s tribute bands are featured. They've had some in the past couple of years. I was on one in late '21 and will be on one in a few months. I think they're a lot of fun. I will be on two music themed charters in the next two months. I like the themes on both. I actually sailed the same two last year and wrote some reports on them; search around and maybe you'll find them. I'll probably write up this year's cruises in some form. Music themed charters are great but @Saint Greghit on a key point - they can be very expensive, even for the cheapest cabins. $600 ppdo per day isn't out of line for these. I'm paying about that for one of my upcoming cruises.

Thanks for sharing. I'm highlighting this bombshell. I struggle to understand how 5 mbps down can be considered "premium" - especially for as much as Celebrity charges for it.

Thanks for sharing. This seems definitive, but look what I found on the peasants' MDR menu for my upcoming cruise on the Summit in February (day 3 of a 5-day charter out of Miami, FYI):

My interpretation of what we've heard of those who have contacted LLP's office about the OVC dinner changes is a little different. I think they're surprised by all the feedback and are truly not sure what to do from here. This I view as a positive in that they're open to making favorable changes or go back to where they were.

This made my day too. Thanks! 👍 I'll be on the Summit in 5 weeks. It's a shortie where I could do without the Net, but maybe if it's actually good, it might be worth hooking up for a day or two.

Same as above for me - except that I never bought the slot play or chips because they were never offered to me. The poker and BJ tourneys were offered, but I checked this morning and they no longer are. I'm on the Summit February 25. It's a charter, in case that matters.

This topic has mostly played itself out, it seems, but I still come here hoping to find posts of value, such as... "I'm on/recently disembarked from (XXX) and ate at the OVC. This is what I found..." "The fish fingers/pizza/whatever in the OVC on (XXX) is really good, the best I've ever had!" "I talked to someone from LLP's office/random corporate VP, and this is how they spun these changes/what they hope to accomplish by doing this/when they plan to make these changes final fleetwide" "I talked to (random officer in charge of the food in the OVC) on (XXX), and this is how they spun these changes..." "Looky what I found in the OVC - fresh from the MDR - PORK AND BEANS!!!!" 🤮 Other than these categories, it's just noise to me at this point.

Noted. I'm happy for you. 👍 TEC still includes a drink package for its passengers, even the ones in the cheapest cabins. But that's on Royal Caribbean, so I don't know how much of the good stuff it includes. For the UDC, of course, drink packages are extra, and likely to be popular. 🍺🍷🍹

My last hotel experience longer than overnight was at an AI a bit over a year ago. That had once daily service. But I've certainly heard of service cuts by hotels during the pandemic and that some are being kept as we transition away from it. See above. Also, I tend to hang out in my cabin more when I'm cruising than I stay in my room on land.

Thanks for sharing this. It sounds that, unlike Carnival, there's no choice of morning or evening service; they'll get to it when they get to it. I admit that I'm not thrilled about this, but it's not too much different than my land hotel experiences.

My perspective is a little different. Yes, MSC did quite a number on Costa. But the Corporation also has Princess, HAL, and P&O UK to pick up the pieces in the region. I don't fully understand what Carnival is doing with Costa these days, but they've lost a ton of market share in Europe and mostly lost the Chinese market, so "temporarily" lending their ships to Carnival (who can use the capacity) makes a little sense and who knows? It might actually work. China might eventually open back up fully, but things are going slow there now. Costa placed the biggest bet in the region of Carnival Corp.'s brands. They may get back there yet.

From Brand Ambassador John Heald's post today: Many of you wrote yesterday asking about the news that we would add Starlink Internet services to our ships and for more news on this. The timeline and specific rollout across the CCL fleet has not been finalised. We are excited about the prospects for this agreement but I have no further details just yet.

Somehow I missed this one when it was first posted. Thanks OP. I've told most of my OVC story in the other threads on this topic. But in response to the specific poll question, I've done four Celebrity cruises - two 7 nights and two 5 nights. I ate dinners in the OVC all nights except one on each where I went with room service. I haven't dined in the MDR or any of the specialty dining options on Celebrity. I assume they have better food there. My next cruise on Celebrity is in 5 weeks and will be for 5 days. I don't anticipate using any of the specialty dining options and really don't want to head to the MDR. But we'll see.

Cruise ship stops are canceled often enough that you really don't want to book solely because of a particular stop on the itinerary. As for reasons, I've mostly been given e-mails from the cruise line about them when cancellations have happened to me. If you booked through a travel agent, they might have received it instead - in which case they would know and be on the hook for telling you. But sometimes the cruise lines never disclose why they're changing or canceling their stops. They don't have to.

I found another listing of music festivals, which also happened to include some themed cruises. TEC was listed. Here's the article: Classic Rock Music Festivals and Cruises (ultimateclassicrock.com) . This is more confirmation that these music themed cruises can offer really good value without most of the mess and hassle of festivals on land. That said, I'm really tempted by day 1 of the M3 Rock Fest in Maryland in May. Styx and Quiet Riot are favorites of mine, and there's just enough support there to make spending a day there a pretty good experience. Don't be surprised if I take a flyer on this.

Thank you for taking the time to detail your observations. I'm impressed that you got to talk to the F&B director and the head chef. It's not my nature to ask for such. Anyway, my comments on your comments: More confirmation that they want people out of the OVC for dinner. Disappointing, but helpful to know they feel this way. They're concerned about costs, which isn't a surprise They're also concerned about waste in the OVC, also not surprising I agree with you and disagree with Ivan. I don't want to be served dinner every day, even on a cruise.