Pfeilm

Where would I find a blank cabin review template to complete as we go and later uploading, please?

Ahoy gentlemen! Please forgive the lateness of our posting but we just read about your (previously) live blog from our roll call for the same cruise in September 2020. We’re Only up to page six but we’re truly enjoying it and will definitely finish it. Like your style! We are also enjoying our similarities to Celebrity cruising - cruised six times in the early 2000s (5x Olivia cruises on Holland America, 1x Avalon river cruise), went away from cruising and came back in 2013. Since then we’ve completed 20 or 21 Celebrity cruises with 4 more scheduled next year. Gotta love Celebrity! Char quickly became a cruise addict and I’m happy to go along! More important than any of those things though is .. y’all are winos!  So to speak.  Hopefully you enjoyed your Staggs Leap SLV as much as we did on our last TA to Buenos Aires. 2012 was a very tasty year! 

It’s been agreed that we would love to meet one day on a cruise - and that’s just based on six pages! - and wonder if we haven’t shared another cruise already. One day we would enjoy seeing a list of the cruises you have already enjoyed. I would have said complete but cruising is enjoying, yes?  Thank you again for the great read. We look forward to completing this one and locating your others. 

Ann & Char

I am so glad I happened upon this posting. We were just looking at booking Island Marketing for our upcoming visit to San Juan.  Based only on the comments, well stated, we will not be booking with them.  Thank you for posting not only your problems but your the paperwork to back them up.  As they say on Shark Tank.... we're out.

I love the aft cabins as you can see from my posts but it’s not just upon docking. It’s whenever the engines are running full tilt. I have stayed back there on all but 3 of my Carnival cruises since 2014 and yes it was every cruise. Some nights were quiet when we didn’t have a long way to go between ports.

 

If it were me I would stay. But if you need quiet or get motion sickness easy from vibration or side to side motion move. That’s about the extent of it :). Hope this helps a little.

Ahoy! Thank you for the info. We are also aft cruisers and love it. I do get motion sickness but ever since being introduced to Transderm there’s never been a problem. Knock on wood. We’ve just never been this low in a ship before. Technically that should make the motion aspect better so this is good. It’s the vibration thing. I can sleep through a nuclear attack... my partner not so much. Thanks again for the input.

Ahoy Mates & Maties! This group sounds like the perfect folks to ask a question regarding upgrading a cabin. A bit of history first if you don’t mind.

I was the happy receipient of a “free” Carnival cruise from our casino of choice. We all know that nothing casino related is free! Anyway, I was given an 8 night inside cabin and a friend was given a 14 day veranda cruise. (Tells you which one leaves more money at the casino!) We have chosen a seven day Carnival Magic Cruise for June. This will be my first Carnival Cruise, first anything besides a veranda cabin, and first time lower than deck 9. Lots of firsts going on!

Though I’ve often said I wanted to try the cost saving inside cabins I couldn’t bring myself to do it and have upgraded my cabin to an OV, still on deck 2 (2474), the very aft of the ship. (Believe there’s a dining room area above us. Hummmm...) We’re big fans of the aft cabin areas on Celebrity and were hoping for the same on Carnival. We have since googled the cabin and come up with some eye brow raisers regarding our cabin location that we’ve never experienced with the higher up cabins on Celebrity - noise and vibration.

Many mentioned the loud noises and extreme vibrations on docking mornings. The funniest being that you’re never late for an excursion since you’ll be up hours earlier than necessary! Now that made us raise both eyebrows. We immediately started looking to upgrade to a veranda elsewhere, and can, but there’s this part of me that wants to give this a real try. For seven days we think we can live through almost anything to include bed vibrations that didn’t require quarters. But there still a hesitancy.

The questions are... what would you do? Be adventurous and stay, particularly after spending money to upgrade to OV? Have experienced the area before and would never have booked the cabin? Would immediately spend whatever money to not have be the first one up on the ship? Have booked the cabin before and loved the early morning wake up so that you could see the sunrise and be the first at the buffet? Etc., etc.

We really are interested in hearing everyone’s ideas, opinions, perspectives, and words of wisdom. Always love the banter. Thanks in advance for any and all.

Glacier dog sledding, in your timeframe has a good chance of being canceled/closed. Yes they will book you "on" the tour anyway. :)

 

There should be times listed with all the tours, they keep fairly close to the schedule.

 

Generally- in Skagway, booking one tour in the am then the second pm, with these tours, can easily be done.

 

The cruise lines won't let you book tours that can't be done based on the time. However, to use OBC, you'll have to wait until you board the ship.

 

Always, fully disclose your plans with vendors, if you book independently. They know, precisely how to schedule, and will tell you if two tours, can or can not be done.

Budget Queen -- thank you. We're compiling our "must do if possible" list and following those with "just in case" or "wouldn't mind doing" lists. If it's on the "must do if possible" list it will be booked either via Celebrity or individually if available. If on either of the other lists we'll probably wait until onboard to see what's left to be had. One will head to the excursion desk and the other will head to Murano to see about booking a discounted dinner for the night. (Love us some Murano!) Anyway it goes, we'll definitely let all concerned know of our intentions. Hate to miss the boat! Thanks!

We had a 2:00 flight. We arrived at 1:50 and watched the safety video and put on our vests and boots. We were in flight by 2:00 and landed back at the dock at 4:00. They will drop you off at your boat if you aren't docked right there.

We could potentially do both desires with the only train times being 8:15a & 12:45p. The 4:30p train not available on our port day which we couldn't have made anyway. (Port: 7a - 6p). If they're still flying you give us hope. Oh, did you say the cost? Thinking something like $550.

Sept will be very late to have dogsledding. We had a whole day in Skagway and did the dog sledding and back to ship for lunch before the train. Should be doable but you likely will only get glacier landing in Sept for Helicopter.

Hummm... seems we're running into that very issue. Nothing shows on Celebrity's site for flights AND dog sledding; TEMSCO requires an email for questions regarding bookings, and ERA shows no combinations after Sep 1 and 5th depending on place. Also ran into that issue with the White Pass & Yukon Train extensions -- not on our arrival date and some stopped altogether. We like shoulder seasons but doing so does run us into these type scenarios on occasion. No biggie -- it's all good -- it's Alaska!

I'm also looking at flightseeing (helicopter or floatplane) and dog sledding excursions for our September cruise. Through the ship (Celebrity Solstice) I nothing for the combination but that could be due to having been already booked. Had hoped to use OBC but alas.... Looking up Alaska Icefield Expeditions now. KM32937 -- do you recall how long the whole excursion entailed? Trying to tie this in with the White Pass train if possible. Thanks.

SHIP: Equinox

CABIN #: 1641

DECK #: 11

CLASS: AQ

AREA: Aft - Port

BED NEAR: Bathroom

QUIET?: Very

BALCONY VIEW: Good view, no obstructions (support bars on balcony do not obstruct views)

BALCONY SIZE: Normal

WIND A PROBLEM?: No

SOOT A PROBLEM?: N0

PROBLEMS/COMMENTS: The only noise noted was a "popping" sound near or part of the sliding door on the nights when the swells/waves were large enough to rock us to sleep. We didn't even notice when the popping stopped.

For those not wishing to walk the cabin may be a bit far from the elevators and stairs, and near the opposite end from the Relaxation room. We loved the walk and only use stairs so it was perfect for us. - Pfeilm

Well there's the problem...you were at the captain's table and not the Martini Bar! Only 14 days to go until the Molecular Bar! Enjoy for us too in the meantime!

No confusion. This is the LGBT Roll call, the other one is the general roll call.

 

Happy sailing,

Jenna

It is? Oh my! :eek: LOL. Hey needtobespoiled! How's life? Kinda missing your emails. Stay in touch.

Be sure to jump over to the other board now and then. There are some wild things going on. There is a spreadsheet with all kind of activities, tours and more. There are over 125 pages so far.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?p=46021590#post46021590

Hello! Do be sure and check in on the link above. lots of plans already in the making. It's going to be one big party beginning at Sail-away if not earlier. Pub craws, cabin crawls, Left-right-center, slot pulls, mahjong, folks already putting together'er masks, door decorations, soppy cups, etc., etc. I'm relatively new to Cruise Critic but even I can tell that it is an unusual roll call this far out. With the ship being about 85% sold out at less than two months after opening and the prices continuing to go up.... It's going to be a heck of a party. And those are our non-gay breathen! Huh, Cabin-in-the-Woods!

Aloha All! I'm hoping you can help. With our four upcoming cruises, it took forever to get registered for the Meet & Mingle for the first cruise due to Celebrity having some problems. Issue resolved and we have our confirmation. The next cruise was an easy join with no problems though it still doesn't have the requisite 25 people. Our furthest cruise out is too far out to even allow joining so no problem there. The problem now is the Alaska cruise we're sneaking in between two. When we attempt to join the only answer that comes back is "Cruise Critic Registration is not allowed for bookings in a status other than booked". We're confused, we enter our reservation number., as displayed on our paperwork and in MyCelebrity cruise page. It's the only number we have. I originally thought it might be because it's not paid in full yet but neither is one of the others and one was just completed. So... Any ideas? Enquiring minds want to know. Thanks in advance for your help.

All very interesting. Tell me, am I the only one who can't find the cruises for 2017?

 

Help! Please.

If the dates aren't shown plug in the latest date shown and next your way through the pages. Or plug in the ship, if you have a preferred ship in mind, and do the same by going to the last page and working your way back. Both have worked for me.

Booked AQ2 the first week the Mardi Gras itinerary (Feb 20, 2017!) came out. It sold out within a month I believe. Last I heard the veranda price is now $700 higher than what I paid for Aqua. Am a big believer in the 123Go promo. Next cruise is the April TA that does not include the promo and lots of extra decisions are having to be made there -$750 to $$900 for a beverage package... per person? Sure wish the 123Go wasincluded on TAs. Looking at all carte, and probably less drinking, now. Anyway, Aqua class and Conseirge classes sold out over two years in advance.

That horse just won't die...[emoji6]

 

It is, however, an interesting read. It seems that some Americans are moving towards the anti-tipping camp (if not already there) and feel the need for change. I also got the impression that some people are getting a bit too greedy.

 

 

From another, earlier, article going along the same lines (http://www.psmag.com/business-economics/tipping-point-beginning-end-gratuities-79244) :

 

"...only about 13 percent of Americans say they tip to influence future service...

 

60 percent of Americans say they tip out of guilt. Sixty-eight percent say they do so out of gratitude. Eighty-five percent, because it’s the social norm. And four percent, pricelessly, to avoid being yelled at."

 

And some end up tipping way over 20% because they can't add up...

And some tip because they're fortunate enough to be able to do so. This includes tipping cruise ship staff, restaraunt employees, newspaper delivery persons, trash collectors at Christmas, postal woman, hairdresser, etc., etc. I don't have to, I'm not guilted into it, I'm not subsidizing their income intentionally. - I'm just appreciating their efforts and services and am lucky enough to be able to do so.

I was once asked what I was doing for the recession. Since I was one of the lucky ones and was not in jeapordy of losing my job I could answer with - I continue doing what I would do otherwise. Eat out, travel, stay at hotels, go to the show, etc. ... And that includes tipping when I can.

I'm betting I'm not the only American doing so.

You're good. The gratuities are included in your free drink package.

We've come to learn that "free" is a relative term. We recently priced a cruise with and without the "free" beverage package. Long story short, without the "free" beverage package the cost is $1400 pp; with the "free" beverage package the cost is $1700. Hummm... Interesting definition of "free". Guess what we went for... Yep, the "free" package. The $300 difference far exceeds the cost of buying a complete beverage package on its own. Anyway it goes though.... "Free" really isn't "free".... But it's good!

Note: dollar amounts listed are made up. Difference between though is accurate.

Phoenix_dream.........

Clapclapclapclapclapclapclapclapclapclapclapclapclapclapclapclapclapclapclapclapclapclapclapclap........... You get the idea. Well said.

Looking forward to possibly meeting you come April. I know we're not the only gay and lesbian couple going so the others must be shy! This is our first TA and have high hopes for it. Hoping I, Ann, can learn how to slow down. Six days at sea scare me a bit. Char has faith but limited that I can learn but limited. LOL!

With 74 or so cruises under your belt,we're in awe. Know in advance that we will be picking your brains for all your words of wisdoms from the wise. It's good to be back to cruising. See you soon.

I know this is a very old theme but why do we have to "tip" extra for being served? I suggest 95% of the people reading this do not expect a gratuity for doing their job. Do you, yes you reader, expect to receive a gratuity?

Luckily I'm supposedly not in an industry that relies on tips to subsidize my income. However, I am in one that has the ability to give end of year bonuses and yearly raises. Once upon a time both were "expected" and happened. In today's era neither is a guarantee with the bonus non-existent for anyone at all for years and the raises tenuous at best. More of a humor them type raise than one which comes anywhere near covering the inflation rate gap.

Do I expect to receive a gratuity for doing my job? I guess that depends on your definition of gratuity -- yes, I do if you consider a salary increase that covers the inflation costs as a tip.

I know this is a very old theme but why do we have to "tip" extra for being served? I suggest 95% of the people reading this do not expect a gratuity for doing their job. Do you, yes you reader, expect to receive a gratuity?

 

I'm not trying to deny the cruise staff a decent wage. I'm simply suggesting that's what they should get in the first place and then "tips" for extra special service are just that. Some cruise lines understand this. Sadly most of those also include free booze as well as a living wage so it gets complicated.

 

Put-up the prices and pay the crew properly so they aren't reliant on charity - even if it is added automatically.

 

Maybe this is a subject for the United Nation's committee on ... sorry, I forgot UN stands for Usually Not-interested.

I do not disagree with you on the whole but a few waitresses taught me a thing or two of late. Upon starting employment with their company they were given a choice of $2.35 an hour plus tips or guaranteed the minimum security wage. When I heard the $2.35 I had a heart attack. Turns out that they all take the $2.35 plus tips because even splitting the tips with the bus boys/girls they make far more money than by accepting minimum wage. If a company also helps to subsidize medical insurance (as some states require) then they make out far better than by a straight salary. Makes you wonder.

I've always thought the same -- set a price that is reasonable and pays the employees a fair wage for their job and then let me decide on whether or not I wish to pay that price. Any additional would be for out of this world service... or a really fun wait person. I've been told by business owners that that would mean they'd have to raise the menu prices. My .02... so be it. I'm paying it now anyway by the business expecting me to subsidize the wait staff's income via tips... especially since I'm an over-tipper. Another reason I love Europe -- my leaving change on the bar/table is not expected... it's appreciated.

As for cruising, we normally have a beverage package (yea 123Go!), I do not tip during the cruise but will go back with envelopes for those "made my cruise extra fun" staff. Loved my Molecular bartenders, Blu wait staff and cabin attendant on the most recent Equinox cruise. Included or not, they deserved the extra and I didn't mind giving it. For the upcoming TA cruise I do not currently have a beverage package.... I wonder how much that will make a difference for me. Or if it will at all. Hummmm..........

The same reason anyone else would do it.

 

As for knowing: my gaydar is pretty good but not 100% foolproof. :)

Gaydars... they're kind of funny sometimes. I vividly recall moving to Virginia from Hawaii and being immediately fascinated with all the gay women/lesbians in Virginia. I just never realized that Virginia was such a gay woman/lesbian mecca. Turns out my gaydar was slightly off. They weren't gay/lesbian -- they were just southern!

Please no one be offended. It's a true story and I'm from the southwest originally!

It is not the CC countdown that I am having trouble with, but the one Cabin-in-the-woods created. BTW, how did you get them side by side?

My bad! I think ought you were talking about CC's clocks. As for side by side clocks, I had to take out extra spaces between the clocks you want side by side but ensure there is one after the second cruise clock. That ended up putting two side by side and the next two on the next line. I included a space or two between the second and third. It took trial and error since it seemed some of the spaces were "invisible". The goal was to save space on the length of postings. More experienced CC members can probably offer easier and faster ways. Good luck.

OK, not that I expect this to be a course in HTML, but when I created the countdown it displayed with only the line "vacation countdown" (like your "let the party begin") line, not the box with the countdown. When I click on the vacation countdown line, it takes me back to their site and what I created. Any tips? I tried e-mailing them but that went nowhere. Oh, and it shows up on the right.

Remember to copy all the text in the box after you have entered the requested information and then paste it to your signature block. Must have it all. My problem now is trying to get the countdown clocks side by side since adding yesterday's newly booked Alaska cruise. Don't have the foggies idea why three are listed vertically and the fourth horizontally now. I've messed with it and messed with it. I'll get it though. Maybe with a little help of those wiser and smarter?

P.S. By the time I uploaded my missive it seems you got it! Yea! My turn now.