JoieNsk

Then the Neptune suite + verandah cabin.

It doesn't look like there is anything like privacy partition between the bed and the sitting area? At least a curtain?

Even with me and my husband - he likes to go to bed real early, and I usually stay late. Would really like to have at least a curtain separating the bed.

And it is long enough cruise - a week.

I was even looking at the option Pinnacle Suite + adjoining veranda, but then the price gets above the reasonable point for me. I don't think we would be able to make it money worth for Alaska trip, where mostly it is not very warm to use the jacuzzi on the balcony etc.

How experienced people deal with the issues like this? Or HAL is just not for people like us?!

Thanks in advance for any information!

I watched couple of videos about the Pinnacle suite - it looks very nice in general, but if we put four adults there - we would need to add a rollaway bed for my daughter, as neither my daughter nor my mom would sleep well in the same pull-out bed, no matter how nice the bed would be.

Second - it seems like there is only one full bathroom with a shower there. And to get to that shower - you need to go through the bedroom?

Like me and my husband can use the bathroom together - he can use the shower and I can shower in the bathtub - at the same time.

But even my daughter and my mom would not be able to use even that huge bathroom at the same time as there is no privacy between glass enclosed shower and the separate bathtub. And the second bathroom in the hallway doesn't have a shower? Am I understanding that correct?

We are looking at Alaska cruise for our family - husband, wife, 18 yo daughter and 75 yo MIL.

I did a little research with the result that Holland America is one of the best as to Alaska Cruises. And actually the itinerary I am looking at is perfect for us - better than any other cruise lines.

The problem is that looking at the videos and pictures of the rooms on HAL ships - it looks like the cabins are totally not family friendly.

I booked already two cabins for us - aft suite and adjoining aft verandah. And I was even looking at the pinnacle suite for 4 of us. But really no one of those options makes me satisfied.

Unless I don't understand something, as we never sailed with HAL, and actually didn't cruise much at all.

So I am guessing you did not (do not) sail in a suite so as to enjoy the services of a butler!

 

That is my question for you and others on this thread -- do you choose suites in order to have a butler, or for other reasons? Don't want to hijack the thread, but if posters could speak to this question along with the OP's question, I am interested.

We booked suites on two cruises. But not for the butler. In a way having a butler makes us both (me and my husband) feel a little uncomfortable, as we are low maintenance people in general. I would hate somebody to "serve" me - you know.

But the first cruise we booked the suite for is our 10 year anniversary, and I liked to make it special - with Jacuzzi on the balcony, in-room fine dining and stuff like that.

The second cruise we booked in a suite - we are taking our daughter on graduation cruise (she graduates from high school and I graduate from medical program in the summer), and the reason we booked a suite on NCL - as it is 9 days and we like separate bedrooms, two bathrooms, more space and being in separate Haven area on the predictably crowded cruise during summer vacation. Also the thing that we can get on and off the ship without waiting in line - that is priceless for a cruise like this for us.

So we don't care about the butler, but we like other perks coming with the suite. So it's worth for us to pay for them - sometimes :)

Just wanted to say congrats and enjoy whatever it is that makes you happy! I wish I could offer advise, but I doubt I'll ever see the inside of a royal anything. However am also sailing on Silhouette soon. Love that we have so many options! Hope it's everything you dreamed about.

Thank you!

I booked that suite because it is 10 year anniversary, and I wanted it to be out of normal :) Ten years don't happen a lot :)

Otherwise when we were on Disney (it was our only cruise experience, so that is my only comparison) - I didn't feel like we needed a suite or anything like this. Normal cabin was great for us.

The only luxury which I would try to keep - a balcony. This is my favorite thing about cruise - that I can come out there any moment and watch the ocean - all by myself or with my loved ones.

Though I can see myself for some cruise with cold weather booking an oceanview - just with big window to really have that oceanview :)))

And we all need different things. If I was younger - I probably would like to more party and socialize, then I could be totally happy with the inside cabin.

Like you said - great we have so many options ;)

Sorry, haven't been to this topic for a while as it moved far down.

But thanks again to everybody for all the great information!

Just a final point...no one yet has mentioned the buffet....Just because you are in a suite does not mean you cannot take a quick stroll some evenings down to the buffet and pick up a stir fry, pasta, Indian, pizza even and take it back to your room to enjoy! Even when we book the PH there will be a point in every cruise when we can't decide what we want and simply decide to go and 'see what we fancy'!

Yes - we certainly would go for the buffet. It is such a no-brainer.

We liked breakfast and lunch buffet on Disney Dream a lot. They say the food on Celebrity Cruises is good.

Hi!

 

Congratulations on the graduations. You must be very proud of your daughter and yourself.

 

DH and so have one month of vacation, 12 holidays, 2.5 personal days, and if I need to I can take a few days unpaid. It sucks but sometimes I do it...

 

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WOW!

Thank you VERY MUCH for such detailed response!

It is great that you guys seem to always travel together and both agree on such advanced planning.

My husband has enough of vacation days and kind of flexible schedules, I work shifts and most likely will be working shifts after I graduate. We could have done long vacations.

But my husband is more like a last minute person, and I need to fight him every time I try to schedule our vacations way in advance :))) And he also like golfing with his friends, so that takes about a week of his vacation time as they go places once a year - somewhere around US. Also school schedules play the role.

Nothing is impossible - I know. If we travel just two of us, we can be more flexible.

But if we would like still take my daughter with us, it will be not that easy as she (hopefully) will be in college for next several years.

But I have a feeling that the main thing about being able to take longer vacations - is the advance planning. Hopefully after we take this very nice cruise next summer, my husband will get more appreciation towards advanced planning :)))

When I was on the Getaway in may I thought about that too.....I as afraid of sun deck noise from lounge chairs so I booked 15014 (2 bedroom penthouse) and it was a great choice. it was just right up a little stairs to the haven lounge, restaurant and pool. wasn't a big deal staying right outside the pool. either way you are in the Haven! you are going to have an amazing time! Make sure you ask for Liza in the haven restaurant she is AWESOME!

Thank you very much!

I read whatever reviews I was able to find on deck 16, and none of them mention noise.

But I see that almost all the rooms on deck 15 are booked (though there are less of them than on deck 16, that is most likely the reason). So I am all worried that if I would not decide now, I would have no choice later.

I know it is stupid to worry about small things like this, I am sure we will love that cruise. Even the itinerary by itself gets me all excited.

But it is rather expensive, so I feel like I need to make right choice :)))

We have Family 2-bedroom cabin booked for European 9-day cruise next summer.

Now I have 16106 booked. But at the deck plan I see there is a sun deck just above. Was wondering if there can be any noise in the early morning from cleaning, or noise from people being on the sun deck?

I like this room, as it has more private balcony. But my husband needs really good sleep, especially on vacations. So wanted to make sure he would not be waken up at 5 am every day by the noise from the deck above.

Also I was wondering if the ships bridge blocks the front view from the balcony?

Decisions... Thinking probably I would be better off switching to the room on the deck 15?

Thank you very much in advance for any advice.

How nice that you have an Airedale! That's our Molly in my avatar, we had 3 Airedales over the span of 25 years. Our last one died in January of 2014. We were thinking of a puppy in the summer, but then in March we heard of a 3 yr old Mini Schnauzer whose owner had died and needed a home. So, now we have downsized to a 22 pound terrier, and he's a great dog too.

I LOVE terriers!

They are my favorite type. Though they are usually hyper and mischievous, but so fun to be around.

It was very nice of you to take the doggy in. I am sure he is very happy now :)))

You don't say which ship you'll be on, so it's hard to advise you on the specialty restaurants.

Thank you!

We are going to be on the Silhouette.

Hi!

 

Happy Anniversary! My husband and I are celebrating our 10th Anniversary in May. We are going on NCL ship via a Spa Balcony cabin. We too plan on spending as much time in our room and in the included spa as possible. I understand how you feel.

 

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Happy Anniversary to you too! :)

For us this is not 10 years since we married, but 10 years since we met :))) The marriage anniversary will be in September of 2018. And we haven't decided yet what to do. But that time I will try to schedule in the way so we would have more time for everything.

We LOVE to travel, but because of all the schedules etc we never seem to be able to get more than 4-5-6 day of vacations.

Though I am getting better, and we are going to do really long (for us) trip to Europe - 9 days cruise to Baltic's plus couple days before and after in Europe. This is the longest we can possibly get so far :)))))

But it is going to be special summer, as both me and our daughter are graduating - she is from High School, and I am from my medical program. So it is going to be the graduation trip and family trip together.

Do you guys usually plan vacations way in advance - to get so many days together? Or some other strategy I just don't know about - for getting longer vacations? :)))

Thank you VERY MUCH to everybody for all the useful info!

People are so incredibly nice and helpful at this forum!

 

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Thank you very much!

Yes, they can provide you with cognac, wine or champagne in lieu of vodka, rum, etc.

 

As others have said, Celebrity no longer has formal nights so as long as you are not going to the dining room for dinner in shorts or a tee shirt you'll be fine. For breakfast & lunch, shorts are ok.

 

Speak to the Michael's Club Concierge about wanting a bridge tour and they should be able to set it up.

Thank you!

There are many different reasons we do it that way, one of which is we don't like 2 hour meals. You might love that, we don't.

I agree with that.

On Disney cruises I felt like dining in MDR takes so much time that we didn't even go two of the the three nights when we were only two of us.

Though one night we did go to a specialty restaurant, which was fun and I liked it better then MDR. And the other night we just went to the buffet, grabbed some food and took it to our room.

And please don't worry about dress code anymore!!!!! For lunch you can appear in Luminae - the suite restaurant - in your shorts and shirt. Also same for breakfast if you don't do that in your cabin. It's just at dinner, and now that the dress code is not formal it sounds like you're coming to Celebrity at the right time!!

This is wonderful news! I am glad I mentioned all this here, and got this info!

Did you mention which ship?

It is Silhouette.

Thank you!

 

Please, if you have time and think about it, come back and give us a little review about how it went -- what you did or didn't do, your impressions of a cruise, etc. etc. Short cruises are said to have a very different "vibe". We mostly sail 11-14 day cruises, have never been on anything shorter than 7.

Thank you VERY MUCH for such wonderful and detailed response!

I think I did already get cruise bug, and I'm the one who plans our vacations :)))))

I went only on two Disney cruises, one with my mom and my daughter and another with my husband (which was first and only for him). And both were just 3-day cruises. I still don't understand how people can do such long vacations as two weeks on the cruise :)) Probably we just need to do a lot of advanced planning. I still have to figure that out.

I think we both would be interested to visit the bridge, if that's possible. My husband probably even more, as he likes all this "navy" stuff and he is a pilot: I would think that be a captain on the plane would be somehow similar to be a captain on the ship? :)

So we will definitely try to do that.

And I promise I will come back and tell how is was. The cruise is in January, so it would not be too soon :)

Thanks again!

Your butler will be the one who serves and coordinates meals in your suite.

I like your profile picture :)) We have an Airedale too :)

Sounds a bit of a waste of time going on the ship, if you don't want to experience what is on offer.

 

 

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My favorite thing to do on the cruise is watch the ocean. That is first thing I do in the morning - go on the balcony to watch sunrise :)

And spending time just two of us is priceless, as we can't do that very often.

We do plan to spend all the time we can snorkeling while in Cosumel, which is going to be the only port day. The other two days are just sea days so it did make sense for me to pay for a suite.

We are not party animals. Though I do like to dance. But my husband doesn't :)))

We could get off only for so not many days to do what we want, and I don't feel it would be waste of time. I'm not familiar with the ship, and don't feel like we would have lots of time to wonder around trying everything ship has to offer :)

Your butler will be the one who serves and coordinates meals in your suite... Just a gentle reminder that your butler is usually tipped commensurate with how much service he or she provides.

That was my other question. Which most likely was answered before somewhere. But as long as you mentioned it :) What is the customary tip for the services like this? Like how much for a day is typical?

Also, as mentioned above, Luminae and the specialty restaurants are lovely and the food is usually a few cuts above what is served in the MDR --- you may want to consider at least a visit or two, these perks are part of what you are paying for and much enjoyed by almost all who go there. You don't have to get too dressed up, Celebrity has done away with formal nights, although it's true of course that you wouldn't go in shorts or anything too casual.

That's what I was worried about. We both are kind of foodies, but when we go to cruise, we would just like to completely relax. We went on Disney Cruise, and didn't even go to the famous Remy restaurant because of their strict dress code. And I was glad we made this decision while we were waiting in the bar next to Remy for our other dining reservation in another less fancy Palo restaurant: people were wearing tuxes and evening gowns.

I would be happy to go places where you can get by without wearing tux :) Last time my husband wore it was our wedding :)

Thanks again for the information!

You also have two bottles of spirits of choice...

Thank you!

We don't drink usually high spirits except for cognac for me.

Do they have cognac there, or can we just ask them to give us something else instead - like wine or champagne?

 

6. You made a GREAT choice and will love your trip. Enjoy!

Thank you VERY MUCH for such detailed and helpful response!

We are going on 4-day cruise for the 10th anniversary. So I booked Royal Suite.

One of the reasons for the suite is that I hope we can literally just stay in the room all the time. There is everything there for that matter. The more that we don't like to dress up while on vacations etc. Just want to relax during 2 sea days.

We are not very experienced cruisers, and this would be first time on Celebrity. Did not know anything about this cruise line, picked up just because the dates worked for us.

From what I understand, we can dine in the room? Can we order food from the specialty restaurants, as the dinner package seem to be included with the suite? The alcohol package is also included. Can we order drinks too then - like wine?

Thank you very much in advance for any advice.