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https://www.celebritycruises.com/gifts

I think they were just trying to be helpful. You owed the money due to their mistake but better to handle it while on the phone than to risk your reservation getting cancelled because you now owe a balance you didn't pay. Modern computer systems are great at automating a lot but sometimes it can be detrimental to the customer, especially once the people who set up the system initially have moved on and their replacements have no idea how it all works.

Most of us somehow survived childhood boredom. If it was a mistake, it was a mistake, but you won't know that until it's done. Are you willing to lose the $1K? Otherwise, go and make it a fun trip for your family. Celebrity is more sedate than NCL. Knowing that now, you can plan for it.

Love your photos. Oftentimes people post their food shots and people scream "looks delicious!" and I don't see it. Yours actually make the food look good, or at least real-to-life (I saw a sketchy baked potato). I will say that HAL's food almost always looks a lot better to me than comparable lines, and your photos really capture that.

Luminae is carved out of the main dining room space, deck 4. Michael's Club is the Retreat lounge space on non-Revolutionized ships.

Facebook. It's not forbidden to say it. Not sure why people think otherwise. CC just doesn't want you to steer people from here to roll calls on FB is all (don't join a roll call and tell people to join them on your FB roll call). It's in the guidelines.

If you're on a cruise that has the same itinerary, you can look that up and get a good idea, e.g., if the one this week is going to be the same as the one you're on. Or if you post which one you're going on, people can generally give advice as to what days will be Chic Night. Most often on sea days and never the last night.

If everyone has to sign a slip, it slows down the service because the bartenders have to print a slip and then wait for people to sign. I can see why it would be annoying if it was being done at every (or most) bars, especially the busy ones. Part of the all-inclusive appeal is that you can just order without thinking about it, including waiting for a receipt to sign. X has had a longtime problem with some bartenders charging multiple drinks to a single card whether they belong to that package or not. This was probably meant to address that. Hard to get real analytics if the front line people are doing whatever they want and skewing the results. I think the answer could be in having drink ordering done via the app, but I don't know that RCCL has the technical know-how to dream that big.

When Luminae was first announced, they said it would be open every day for lunch but did a retreat (!) on that before it was rolled out. Quite a brouhaha about it then. Luminae has not been open at lunch on port days (except embarkation), from the beginning.

I might agree on Persian Garden, though I think they are very similar products so not sure what Celebrity's would have over HAL's. I would not say Celebrity's food is "far superior" than HAL. That may have been true at one time but Celebrity's food standards have slipped a great deal from when that was true. I find them more similar than different and have had some terrific meals on HAL. I too would vote for Glacier Bay and HAL as the itinerary unless you plan to do this route regularly. If it's a one-and-done (which I think it is, though I know many who would disagree), I would choose to see Glacier Bay.

Posting history.

The ships can be cool in the evening, too, so that should be a consideration. I often find them cold, even. I wear shorts all the time at home but feel more comfortable in long pants (or jeans) in the evenings on the ships.

Same OP, new username. Same drumbeat.

Same OP, same topic, more or less same answer... .

Mind if I ask where you're taking that class? I'm in your area and looking for a gift idea for someone.

More ships are sailing out of Galveston these days and I doubt X has the demand to compete with the others. I have family in TX, but my problem every time we've looked at sailing from there is that it takes a couple days to get out of the Gulf and a couple days on the back end, so the itineraries are very limited on a typical 7-day cruise. Cannot get too far into the Caribbean before turning back, so lots of Western Caribbean/Mexico stops but not much else.

The internet discussion is interesting but a fatal flaw of the OP's post is the idea that you have to send a photo to anyone, let alone pay more money to do so. Texting photos is a relatively recent development in our lifetimes, even more so from the middle of the ocean. I'm sure the recipients will survive without visual proof that you are where you say you are.

Frankly, I wish they would sell one or two of them and use the crew to better staff the rest of the fleet.

But the instructions you receive on the ship always give you a time to be out of your room and in a designated area and it's never "stay in your room until 10am." That's the whole reason there is an embarkation lounge for Elite level.

They have to strip all the cabins to start the changeover so you're delaying them from their turnaround job, which is already stressful enough. The steward is going to tiptoe around guests because you could still give them a bad review. Really unfair to put this on the steward when you're not following the rules that most everyone else does. Adults shouldn't have to be asked to follow the procedures for leaving the ship.

You've also sailed enough to be Elite yet have never heard of the embarkation lounge despite it being a benefit for years and years. Sounds like you need to start paying attention more. Your justifications for delayed debarkation are just excuses for being selfish and inconveniencing the workers and other passengers.

Familiarity breeds contempt, so it's a wise strategy to rotate around, IMO. When I first sailed HAL, I found the food on par with X and the service often exceeded anything I experienced on X (content/happy/relaxed employees on HAL versus some aloof/angry/stressed ones on X). I think X ships are better overall, but the price on X usually doesn't justify the product they offer, especially on routine itineraries. HAL generally has better and more varied itineraries. I think when HAL first introduced the Music Walk, it was miles better than anything X has ever done, entertainment-wise. I know Ken has the opposite opinion, but I think that is a minority one. They've made some recent changes that are less popular, but HAL does seem to listen to their cruisers and will make tweaks to keep their customers happy whereas X seems to always be chasing people who are not cruising while ignoring the ones who do. X used to be known for their food but the other lines in their class caught up, and now X has degraded their product to the point where the differentiation no longer matters. I still price out Celebrity and will sail them when I find a deal, but it's no longer my go-to once you learn what their competitors offer.

A big part of the cost of suite class is access to Luminae. I'd do everything possible to make that work (with requests as suggested by others) versus going to the MDR. The menu descriptions are sometimes awful, IMO, often not indicative of what is really being served. Focus on the base dish (chicken, seafood, beef) and then also ask the waiter what they recommend. They tend to know what is popular and what is less popular on a given menu. You can always order a replacement if what you get isn't to your liking. I think the MDR menu descriptions are sometimes the same in that the description makes you think one thing but the execution is something else (and often not the same ship to ship).

She's in her mid-60s. I think this was all just part of succession planning and making a change in direction coming out of the pandemic before she retires. I know of at least two other businesses that have done the same thing: kept a leader who was ready to retire just as the pandemic was hitting. In both cases, the leaders were past ready to leave when all was said and done.

Celebrity has the family veranda on M-Class ships that might work but otherwise people who want to spread out generally do it in two cabins. https://www.cruisecritic.com/articles/best-family-friendly-cruise-ship-cabins