canderson

Thank you, Paul! ☺️

Don't know who contacts Sky Suites. Our contacts have been a combination of phone calls and follow-up email.

"What we've got here is a failure to communicate". I always bring a hardcopy of the email on the cruise. Nice detail for the butler if needed, and ammunition for/against the Hotel Manager for a dropped ball. Have only needed it once out of a dozen or so cruises in an X suite.

I think they're best known for chocolate mint.

It's a brand of chocolate.

Especially given the discounts are sometimes more than shipboard: https://www.amazon.com/Citizen-Eco-Drive-Satellite-Freedom-CC3035-50E/dp/B07L9JQD33

While we're on the ice cream topic ... need a spotter out there aboard: Some years ago, Celebrity made the most positively amazing cinnamon ice cream. They were making it aboard, and using coarse ground Indonesian cinnamon. Have never had better anywhere. It had real intensity of cinnamon without the astringency that you find in recipes that try to beef it up with what I suspect is cinnamon oil. Very, very smooth, but with lots of flavor. Back in 2021 after the restart, we noted its absence after a week aboard, and asked when it would make 'the rotation'. Sometimes it would only be offered during lunch in the Oceanview on a port day and we'd miss it. We were told that they no longer had cinnamon, but they'd try to make us up a tray of it. They tried twice, and in both cases, the result was nowhere near as good as the original recipe - which may have been lost? So for those aboard in more current times ... do you see cinnamon ice cream anywhere? If so, have you sampled it?

The aft end of M class ships have always held lots of surprises on decks 6 through 9 - and Celebrity finally seems to have figured out the demand and have converted cabin classes and priced accordingly. 6145 and 6146 have always been anomalies when it comes to Sky Suite cabins. They were designed as 'adjunct' cabins to the the two Penthouse suites - and have interconnecting doors if used for that purpose. Both were always highly sought S1 cabins after back in the days when these were 'just' Sky Suites. Some have even booked specific itinerary dates just to snag one of them. They are indeed bigger inside and out. They also have standard glass doors out to the veranda, if it matters. For Constellation and Infinity, both have been 'converted' from S1 to AQ (Aqua Suite) cabins.

No intent to he condescending. Once you get rolling on your adventures, you'll no doubt find your own favorite ways to deal with the early arrivals laundry issues shoreside that will help to uncomplicate or reduce the costs aboard. If your Spain start is in Barcelona, we have a couple we can recommend depending upon what part of town your lodgings are in. Since we'll be down in the Gothic Quarter this next time, we'll be using the Lavaxpres nearest our hotel. It's too small to have its own guest laundry.

Another Silversea plug: anything we turned in by 9am would usually have been delivered while we were at dinner. Agree re pre-cruise. We have our favorite hotels, laundromats and wash-and-folds in a number of foreign ports. We tend to arrive several days early for foreign port cruises, and while we don't pay for laundry aboard ship, it seems a bit unfair to dump 5-6 days of laundry on the ship on day 1, and if we did, sometimes items would start to run a bit thin 48 hours later!

What limits the selection is that we must have a cabin that either a) has two bedrooms and separate living space (very rare) or b) start with a suite that is comprised of a cabin with separate living/bedroom with an adjoining connected cabin.

There aren't a bunch, but they're out there. Having separate living space for BOTH spaces is what makes it more difficult. Many cabins have no separate living space, for example, even though some fair number of them have adjoining cabins. You'll be looking for something with separate sleeping quarters for the suite, so I'd start by looking at Royal suites and some far forward cabins if you can handle being all the way on the nose! Starting with the smallest ships ('Millennium' class), there are two Royal suites on deck 6 with Concierge class cabins just forward and connected. Both Penthouse suites also have interconnecting cabins just forward. Next up are the 'Solstice' class. The suites on Solstice class have no interconnecting cabins. Not sure why this was neglected. As someone has already noted, however, the four Ultra Deluxe Veranda cabins (far forward) on this class have interconnecting 'Ocean Prime View' cabins. When you get to the 'Edge' class ships, things get a little strange. One of the two Iconic Suites (get a bigger checkbook!), starboard, I think, has a Royal attached to it just aft.

Yes, there are smaller, interconnecting cabins associated with some suites for exactly this purpose.

I was kidding about that! 😄 Just wondering about how long it will take the new CEO to RCCLize X ships. We've been a couple X ships after "refurbishment", and it seems that it's not always done across the board. For example, public spaces and suites might receive all new soft goods, and then we hear reviews after the cruise stating that regular veranda cabins are still looking tired. If wondering what's been done on a particular ship, I'd be asking someone in a comparable cabin what they encountered since otherwise, the answer might not match up.

No, sorry. We did a Lisbon TA on Silversea last Fall.

Not if you're sailing Silversea, it isn't.

I'd like to see a few nicer Super Tuscans represented in the Celebrity list in ANY venue. I was VERY happy with the options presented in the MDR on Silversea - even came up with a new 'affordable' favorite while aboard (Solaia is just a step to high in $/value - have to draw the line somewhere): Another 5 years or so and this one will be perfect. Would cellar this one for the long haul, but drinkable now.

It's known around the entire industry as a cream liqueur, priced under $10, so one could certainly plead ignorance of the pricing discrepancy and try to insist on having it poured in the Classic package. That's one I have never understood. Here's a fresher one that shows more recent moves (e.g., the Strongbow): 2024+Celebrity+Cruises+Drinks+by+Package.pdf

To be clear, that's a function of ship class. In this case, the OP is on E class. We've never found Luminae on M or S to be noisy, or super busy - and that's on cruises where the ship was booked full.

I've never had FBC offer one vs. the other (refundable vs. non-refundable).

Could be that it's just minor carriers that don't participate. All of our flights have been on major carriers with one of the three major 'alliances'.

A few of the changes: enhanced spa/fitness center, updated entertainment venues, redesigned lounges, renovated pool area, rock climbing wall, basketball court.

As for breakfast and lunch (on at-sea days), we've never had any delay at all, and Luminae doesn't do reservations except for unusual requirements or groups, and then it's still an exception.

Two tops are a very common Luminae setup, unlike the MDR where they are rare, so that isn't going to slow you down. Much depends upon which ship you're sailing. It seems that the Luminae space to suite count ratio varies, with the newest ships having the most congestion - but that's just anecdotal reading the posts here at CC. We've never had to wait more than a minute or two on M or S class ships for a seat ~ 7pm, and that's usually when we roll in.

Have never once run across this, and > 50% of our FBC have been international. Is there any particular logic as to which flights are pre-charged and which are charged only at final payment? @563toM Am curious - where are you going and on what airline that required up front payment for the air?