CRZR58

We took the city bus to Kaanapali beach on Maui. Wonderful beach. Great lunch. Shopping for my wife. Cheap to get there and back, but was expensive for lunch (Well worth it) and for beach chairs and umbrella (Also worth it). All in, way less than an excursion and no where near as crowded.

People who don't dress up aren't 'poking fun' at those who enjoy dressing up. They are simply dressing the way they like to dress. I doubt they care what other people wear.

16 hours ago, ak1004 said:

 

We were on AI twice, once on 4 star once on 5 star, and were bored.

 

We are not big fans of just lying on the beach, and we don't drink. So except for taking couple tours on the island, it was just sitting most of the day on the pool, taking some walks in the area, and that's it. We were never bored on a cruise ship. Always something to do. If you don't go to the port, you have activities, enrichment lectures etc.

I went to a couple of lectures on Celebrity that were to put it mildly boring. We'd rather be out in the sun. The one's having to do with the next port were very thinly veiled sales meetings pointing you to places that give the cruise line 'kickbacks' and selling the lines excursions. Windstar on the other hand has great lectures with their port lectures being some of the most informative (Yes there is also some sales, but it doesn't feel like the top priority)

AI lectures that I've gone to were more like Celebrity than Windstar and some were basically 'invitations' to time share presentations. There... you're forewarned.

There are activities on both AI and Cruise vacations. I've never been to an AI that doesn't have daily activities.

1 minute ago, ak1004 said:

 

Well, cruise has everything you described, but you also get to see new places almost every day.

 

And if you don't want to crowds at the pool, go on a smaller ship. If you don't want to pay extra for things, sail with cruise line that has all those things included.

 

And when comparing prices, make sure to compare apples to apples in terms of resort level.

The point is that cruising and AI's are very much the same.

I've never been to an under 4 star AI. I'll never go to one either, as I've heard stories from folks who have. I'm assuming they are much like lower end cruises. Not something to compare with Celebrity or NCL or HAL or even MSC (I'm led to believe, I haven't been on it to say for sure).

An all inclusive is very much like a cruise.

You can still take a daily excursion if you want to pay for it. (There's a zip line, a bus tour, snorkelling, scuba, a boat ride, shopping, well pretty much everything that a cruise excursion might offer, but you get to do all of them on the same island)

You can hang out by the pool, but you don't have to get there at 8 AM to get a chair.

Pools and beach games daily.

Want an adult only pool... no problem.

Usually non-motorized water sports are included, so you can take a sailboat or a wind surfer out for free. Snorkelling is also included, although you're gonna pay if you want to scuba.

You can go to the beach and it doesn't cost extra. Chairs, drinks and food are included.

You can drink and you don't have to purchase a drink package.

You can get a 'Specialty' coffee, and you don't have to pay extra.

You can eat at the buffet and it's very much like the one on a cruise.

The daily warm cookies at Sandals in the afternoon are to die for.

You can go to one of several MDR's and they are all included. You can go to upgraded restaurants if you make a reservation. 4 star+ AI's include 2 or 3 specialty restaurants a week. Some of them cost extra, some don't.

If you want, you can go off site to any other restaurant you want as long as you pay.

Some AI's have a stay at 1 vaca at more which allows you to visit other versions of the same

company for free, including transportation.

Packages include airfare and transfers to and from the property and resort fees.

Some AI's have tipping. Some don't. I don't know of any that add mandatory tips on top of the posted price, but they likely exist.

Rooms are bigger. Booze in the fridge is free. All rooms have balconies, which are also bigger.

If you don't like the bar(s) onsite, you simply go to on at a different location.

No nightly yard sale, but there is nightly entertainment. Don't like the entertainment you can go elsewhere.

Different categories of rooms for sure. You can pay extra to get a better room or to get the VIP experience, or to get nightly specialty restaurants or lately the resort within the resort experience.

Want the spa experience? AI's got it.

All this for less than a cruise when you're talking the door to door price, especially in Canada.

Things on a cruise you don't get at an AI...

Being on the water. (The #1 reason to cruise IMO)

Visiting a new port every day or two. (They all have pretty much the same excursions in the Caribbean)

3 hours ago, cangelmd said:

Whoo - (moving into tongue and cheek mode, paraphrasing Seinfeld) No soup/cruise for you!

 

The food is still very good (subjective, I know) on Celebrity. Importantly, the food in the OVC is quite good and quite varied - I can't speak to the MDR, we tend to sail AQ. I have done RCCL in the last 2 years, and the OVC was head and shoulders above the buffet on RCCL (although not as large) and the MDR on RCCL was awful (we sailed with people who are dedicated Carnival cruisers, and they felt the food on Carnival was better, remember subjective).

 

I've never been to an all inclusive, so I'm not sure what you get there that you don't get on a cruise - alcohol, maybe? I assumed in an all-inclusive you still might have different categories of rooms - room vs suite, perhaps specialty restaurants - something additional to capture more of the guests' money! What you don't have in an all-inclusive is access to multiple ports, etc. It's just a different type of vacay.

An all inclusive is much like a cruise.

You can still take a daily excursion if you want.

You can hang out by the pool, but you don't have to get there at 8 AM to get a chair.

You can go to the beach, but it doesn't cost you anything.

You can drink and you don't have to purchase a drink package.

You can get a 'Specialty' coffee, and you don't have to pay extra.

You can eat at the buffet and it's very much like the one on a cruise. You can go to one of several MDR's and they are all included. You can go to upgraded restaurants if you make a reservation. Some of them cost extra, some don't. If you want, you can go off site to any other restaurant you want as long as you pay. Some all inclusives have a stay at 1 party at more which allows you to visit other versions of the same company for free. Rooms are bigger. Booze in the fridge is free. All rooms have balconys.

It's about expectations. Lower them and you won't have any problems.

Food may be subjective, but that's not why folks are complaining about it. It's because they expect high end food, but get little better than Olive Garden At Sea unless you go specialty restaurants which are still very good IMO.

Yes, quality can go down drastically in 18 months. We went from cheerleaders to choosing to go to an all inclusive after 3 Celebrity cruises in a year and a half.

Nickle and diming, nightly yard sales, and reduction of the entertainment budget are just part of cruising life. If you didn't get annoyed at them on your last cruise, you won't be annoyed by them this time around.

Cost is a problem of the cruise lines own making. They pretend you can get on board for an advertised price, which you can't actually do because they add on a bunch of other costs. They pretend they are competing with all inclusive's, when in reality they are more a hotel room with food. They call things free that aren't. Everyone who cruises know this in advance, but newbie's can be shocked at the all in price after they get home.

As for it's just complainers... it's really not. It's up to you to decide if what they are complaining about applies to you or not. Quite frankly, you should have a good time if you set your expectations properly and never have a need for customer service.

21 hours ago, Static events said:

 

Well a cruise on Viking or Windstar looks mighty boring...

As opposed to the it's 10 PM, most folks are in bed vibe on Celebrity?

We've been on Windstar and loved it. Food and service are leagues above Celebrity. Small ships mean going places that the big ones can't. Embarkation/Debarkation and getting on/off the ship in ports is a breeze. Even if you need to tender, the wait time is only a couple of minutes. In small ports, you might be the only ship there so everything isn't crowded on land. The beach party on a private beach that only shipboard folks can even get to is a highlight.

Downsides for some would be no off off off Broadway style shows or sidewalk sales of cheap crap no one needs and a very small pool (Can use the water toys off the back of the ship in port which makes up for some of that). Other than that, there is about as much to do on board as on a Celebrity boat.

Celebrity and Virgin aren't going after the same demographic at all.

Virgin's ads embrace a much younger, party central, group. No kids is really 'leave your kids at home and pretend you don't have them for 5 days'. I'm betting it won't be the 'go to bed by 10 cuz most of the other folks do' vibe at all. I expect late night parties, pool parties, and party vibe shore excursions.

We're 60+ and have very little interest in pretending we're 30 somethings. Celebrity no long fits our needs due to the constant downgrades in food and service but we won't move on to Virgin. More likely to go Windstar or Viking.

100 or even 200 well behaved kids are no problem at all.

2 who are swinging on the curtains and yelling at each other when the music's playing and their parents are dancing are. The little 'darlings' screaming around the pool when the water shot up through the deck may be music to their parent ears, but annoyed my wife and I. The little ones in fecal tea bags (Diapers) who just had to go in the pool then follow their parents into the hot tub were also a problem.

For some reason the parents didn't even try to correct any of them.

Take the extra day in Vancouver. It's a great city to visit.

If he likes to wear a Tux, then he should, it's his vacation. He won't be the only one, but he will be in the minority. I'd agree with the 10% estimate.

St Thomas - Crown bay. Nothing to do there, not even shop. Gotta take some sort of excursion and every one starts with a bus ride to the other port.

Progreso - Dirty. Loud. Poor food. Take an excursion to Merida or to Mayan ruins and you'll have a good time.

As others have said, it's a very long drive and I'd fly to Calgary, do Banff, then fly to Vancouver, but if that's what you want to do....

IMO:

Best Lake Louise hotels:

Chateau Lake Louise - Grand old hotel with magnificent views.

Post Hotel - Not a nice views, but world class food.

Best Banff Hotels:

Banff Springs - Iconic mountain Chateau.

Rimrock - Great views. Great food.

Pro tip: Book now so you aren't disappointed.

Have fun.

Talked it over with my wife. She suggested fly to Calgary, drive to Banff, stay the night. Do Banff and Lake Louise the next day, then through the mountains to Kelowna. Finally, drive Kelowna to Vancouver and drop the car off. She's right... it's a bit more expensive, but half the driving and twice the vacationing!

Looks like that one is over top of the theatre and looks out on the Helipad. Not sure if the crew bar is below the helipad or not, but there was one on Equinox and it was pretty loud. We like the forward facing cabins, but prefer to be up a deck or two higher.

Note that there is more movement and some banging noises in forward facing cabins. Doesn't matter to us, but something to let you know.

Have a great trip.

We've stayed in them on both the 7th and 8th deck.

We wouldn't do the 7th deck again. It was very noisy. There is a metal crew stair right outside the room, which is loudly used all times of the day and night. Not only did it overlook the Hellipad, it also overlooks a crew bar which is underneath.

The 8th deck didn't have any of these problems. There's the banging of the waves against the bow and the noise when docking, but that doesn't matter to us. We'd do this one anytime.

No sea sickness for either  of us and the waves were quite high a few nights.

A few crew members say 60% of passengers removed the tips on a bad trip so it must be true! Outrage! Anger! Those poor crew members!

Here I was hoping that Celebrity's IT problems were all over. 😉

It's not an argument. I was just wondering why folks love to stand in lines earlier than the cruise lines ask them to be there. Now I have a better understanding and I know it's not for me.

To each their own and thanks to everyone who shows up early, especially if you're supposed to show up later. Makes it easier for us to get right through when we show up at our scheduled time or later.

Last cruise, we walked right through without any lines after doing a tour of the city. Went to our room, changed and headed out for a late lunch and a drink or two. No lineups. No fuss. No bother. Great way to start our cruise.

Cruise before that, we showed up first thing in the morning, cuz we were with the in-laws who had to be on board right away. Waited in long lines in more than one place. Got into the rush to get onboard. Room wasn't ready, so we schlepped our carry-ons around the ship while we got in line for lunch then in line for drinks.

Gotta say, I prefer getting on later.

Vibe passes make sense.

We always show up at the time they tell us to. I've never understood why folks want to show up early to stand in line. What's the advantage of getting on board before your cabin is even ready?

Our TA sent strawberries dipped in chocolate to us for our first night. They weren't delivered until 3 days later and looked like they had been prepared before we got on board. Shriveled, dry, chocolate cracked, inedible. Didn't find out it was our TA until after we got back. She freaked. Hope she got her money back.

We will be sailing on board the Celebrity Summit in November. We don't plan on eating in the dining room very often - buffet, room service, etc for us. In your opinion, will we be better off tipping as we go or sticking with the gratuities package being added to our total bill? We plan on tipping our room attendant very well as they will probably be doing the majority of work for us.

 

Any thoughts?

 

thank you :)

Do you mean cheaper when you say better off? :confused: If so, then it's completely up to you.

Scam? Nope. Expensive? U bet. Slow? So I've heard. Inconsistent? I've heard that complaint too.

Hotels used to charge for internet. Most don't anymore. Restaurants & Bars & All Inclusives of 4+ stars don't charge either. As 'kids' these days won't live without it, I can see a time in the near future where it's included in the base fare.

Personally, I mostly give up internet on vacations. I check on things when I'm in port having a coffee or drink or food where the internet is free.