abbydancer2003

Elevator wasn't working last month. Some very unhappy people about it.

I've heard that the big Warehouse store doesn't.

Summit Day 7, Sea Day 3 - Tuesday 2 Well, today started out with a bang. I woke up at 8:15 when my phone chirped that my mom had just passed away (5:15 in CA). It wasn’t unexpected, and I confirmed she was sleeping, rather than choking, so that at least was good. I texted back that I’d call later. We headed to breakfast. Instead of my usual bacon I decided to have chicken apple sausage. Not what I expected. This was more like a ground chicken patty. Not ordering this ever again. Yesterday, we’d been invited to a bridge tour today, and were asked to call the lounge. I did, and spoke to Conner, who first put us on the 10am tour. I asked if there’d be an afternoon tour and he said probably, so I asked for that as my first choice and morning as my second. That was the last I’d heard of it. However, another couple told us that they’d received an invitation, so at the end of breakfast I headed to the lounge to see what was going on. Apparently, my request had been lost in the shuffle, so no tour for us. I was a bit emotional about it, so I explained what was going on, Both Connie and Conner offered to help in any way they could. The also told me we’d be on a tour later. So back to the restaurant I went. I collected Glen and then headed towards Al Baccio, where I found Arie & Cheryl, so I talked with them until it was time for our Cruise Critic slot pull, the first one I’d ever organized. I arrived at the casino at 10:30 and headed to the machine we’d selected previously. I found Jenny there, and she said Charlie was looking for the casino guy (they’re my helpers). One of the casino staff came over and gave us 25.00 slot play certifications, plus a whole bunch of dice keychains. We had a total of 23 people, and while we were feeding the machine, it jammed, but one of the casino guys fixed it, and we started with 6 pulls each at about 11:10. Some people did really well, and we ended up with 20.00 each. Not bad at all. Everyone seemed to have a good time, and some asked if we could do a second one, but I said no, but they were welcome to organize on. After the pull I did my free match play with Arie’s guidance and won 15.00. Most I’ve won anytime on this ship. I also did a little slot play, but lost as usual. (Hmmm, I just realized that lost is an anagram of slot - coincidence? I think not). I then walked Arie & Cheryl to the buffet, and we agreed to meet at 2:45 for Catan. After that, I headed towards the lounge, and met Glen. I had my favorite bartender get me a latte (she gets them from Al Baccio) and I called Beth. We talked about our plan for the next couple of weeks (we’ll fly home from the cruise, then go back to New York and on to Massachusetts to deal with my mom’s ashes and then home a week later). I also asked what tasks I could do, most of which was calling some people. After that we went to lunch. Today I had the Cobb salad, with lardons rather than regular bacon. They taste similar. For dessert I have the olive oil pudding. Good, but I never do taste the olive oil. Also kind of pretty. After lunch we headed up to the buffet for our game time. Today I brought Splendor Duels, which is a variant designed for 2 people, as it introduces some additional game play to keep it interesting. We first played Catan, which Arie won (as usual). Then I set up Duels and Glen and Arie played it. Then it was back to the room and I tried calling a couple of my mom’s friends. I did reach one person. I did get a text from Beth about getting a document to sign (e-sign) but no document, so at 7 went to the show, where Arie and Cheryl had saved seats for us. The performer was a broadway singer, Emily Koch and she was pretty entertaining, and she had a great voice. Following the show we went to the lounge with Arie and Cheryl. My only complaint is that in the back area the seating areas have the couches too far apart for good conversation. While we were there, I did get the document sign (from the funeral home I guess to authorize everything), So I headed back to the room to sign it, and then we went to dinner. I started with the grilled asparagus salad from Blu. It was good, but no asparagus - just arugula. They remade it and gave me extra asparagus. That’s been an occasional problem throughout the cruise - missing ingredients. We both had the NY steak entree, and it was good. For dessert I had strawberry shortcake from main, and Glen had the Caramel Granache. After dinner we took a short walk and then back to the room, where I talked to my sister one more time. And then we called it a night.

I just booked a Crown Loft Suite (assume that's whtat CLS is?) on the Symphony for December. We're very experienced Princess cruises, and started sailing Celebrity in 2017, and now do most of our cruises on X. About a week and a half ago, I booked the Apex for mid December, and then, since I'm from California, I decided I didn't want to just fly to Florida for a 7 day cruise, I added 6 days on the Symphony before. We've never sailed Royal before, so this will be our first. I'm hoping this thread will give me lots of useful information. Thank you

Silhouette got full dry dock I think, Equinox got part of it due to having to go to Europe for it because of an accident with one of the RC Oasis ships in the North American they were supposed to use.

We were on the Summit after the Infinity. The retreat sundeck was nice, and Michael's Club becoming a retreat lounge made it a bit lighter, and there was self service food. But the seating became less practical, ie tables too low to be used, etc. Also the room lost some storage and there are fewer shelves ie, part of the closet became a bench with two shelves underneath. Drawers seem be gone. And the US plug by the bed is glued shut (engineering manager said because they're not wired). Our friends in the inside room had lamps with USB and US plugs. They had much better power options than we did. We were also on the Silhouette last year, which is the only S class that got the full treatment. Two decks of the atrium were replaced by inside cabins. There's still a library but the concierge area is gone, as is the game room, I think.

We were on from March 11 to April 4th (I think) and switched rooms. First room had closet door issues, and a couple of other things. Second room things worked better. We also noticed that the meat in Luminae was better on the first cruise - Manager said it was because they had better quality meat from Argentina than from Chile. The food was generally good, although their chefs seemed to have issues with grill temperature. At one point, there were 3 chefs at our table, and DH was explaining how to cook a steak - his were coming well done on the outside, and raw in the middle. Overall, food was good, though. We didn't use the pools or the spa. What we did notice was that there ship was cold as you went by the doors - apparently the weatherstripping had given out, and needs to be replaced. Our waitstaff in Luminae was good to great - we have some very specific exceptions and it didn't take long at all for us to not have to ask. And they did do a special dinner for us one night.

Summit Day 6 - Curacao Monday 2 This is the last of our three boom boom boom ports and Arie had found a free walking tour site. We signed up too, as all we’ve ever done is walk around and visit the synagogue. The tour is at 9:30 so we agreed to meet a 9. We were up in time for breakfast, but we got some coffee and ice from Pratip before we left for breakfast. Luminae was pretty empty, so I had one pancake and some bacon. From there, we headed to Al Baccio to meet Arie and Cheryl, and headed out. The instructions were to meet at the entrance to Fort Rif, just by the port and part of the Renaissance Mall. We got to the entrance, and nobody was there, so I went through the fort to the other side and found our guide. He followed me back, calling for people who were on the tour. Turns out there are two entrances to the fort, and the meeting place was the town side, not the port side. After everyone gathered, our guide Rayry introduced himself, and asked each of us to do the same. It turns out there were about 14 of us, and a mix of cruisers, and tourists from Holland. Our first stop was a flagpole with a metal ring/sculpture around it. A little blurry, but you get the idea. The ring had plaques that you can see in the picture, describing Curacao in the local language. Our guide had us guess what the words meant, based on what was below. I don’t really remember what each was. Next we stopped at a statue of one of the founders of Curacao, where Rayry gave us a brief history of the island. Following that we headed up a hill into the neighborhoods in Otrobanda, which is the port side of the Queen Emma bridge that separates it from Punda, which is considered the Dutch part and where most tourists go. One of our first stops was a hotel with a slave museum, where I will probably visit with my sister the next time we are here. Following that, we wandered around neighborhoods looking at street art. I loved the way addresses were on buildings. We saw lots of street art, most of it quite good. Our guide talked about it. There’s a wall of painted women. (Doing the panarama with the phone makes it curved. it's not so much) And a wall with a sculpture. The items in the sculpture on the right are what you are supposed to free yourself from. We also visited a street where there’s a festival every year and the buildings have images from the festival over the years. The festival is called Kaya Kaya, and it celebrates the neighborhood. It loosely translates to street street festival. And one last street image before we head over the bridge to the more commercial or Dutch side. Once we crossed the bridge, it became all about visiting art galleries and talking to the staff, sometimes the artists. One of the more interesting was a store where the proprietor makes cat sculptures. I did like them, but have no use for them. This is outside the door. After about the third or fourth visit, we decided we’d had enough, so we tipped the guide and left. I don’t think I’d do this tour again, as once we crossed the bridge, it seemed more sales oriented. We first headed to the synagogue, but it was indeed closed for the holiday. Next stop was a grocery store. On the way I saw these pretty planters. We went there to find aged gouda, but this was more of a local market, so no cheese properly packed. We then walked back to the ship. On the way, we passed this interesting building. We also passed the Parliament building. On the approach to the ship, we’d noticed a shop that had a refrigerated case with cheese. They did have some aged gouda, so Arie got some for his family and I bought a small sized one for us. From there it was back to the ship. I stopped in the room for a glass of water, and soon got a text from Arie that they were at the pool bar, with one of their favorite bartenders. I went over while Glen got a pre lunch ice cream. I joined Arie and Cheryl and had a daiquiri and then we joined Glen for lunch. Today’s theme was Taste of Britain, so I had some beef pie and some chicken pie. Arie had the fish and chips, but said the fish wasn’t great. After lunch I went back to the room for a bit and then got a latte and a dessert. While there, I did work on the blog a bit. We’d been invited to the helipad as part of the retreat, so we headed to the lounge to wait for time to go. We chatted with some people also waiting, and eventually headed to the helipad. While there, we spent some time talking to Pratip. It turns out that he was a butler on the Silhouette when we were there, he just wasn’t ours. Following that, we met Arie and Cheryl at the show. Tonight it was a magician, who was pretty good. We then all headed to Rondezvous where we danced to the dance band for a set, and then went to dinner. We were seated far from the large group, so that was good. I started with the corn fritters from Blu, which had a chutney and aoli. The fritters were good, but the green stuff wasn’t a chutney and the orange wasn’t exactly an aoli. Glen had the grilled baby veggies to start and he said it was pretty good. For my entree, I thought about the veal cheeks, since I liked the sides, but Blue had Prime rib, so I got that. Glen had the cheeks and said they were stringy, so I guess I did well. For dessert, I was trying to decide between the creme brûlée dome and the crepe suzettes from Blu, but Monick said the crepes weren’t great, so I opted for the dome. She brought both and she was right. You can see the crepes in the background. The dome is pretty, but barely bruleed. I was I had a brûlée torch with me. And here are the crepes by themselves. As dinner was starting, Beth called, so after dinner I went back to the room and tried to FaceTime. Apparently the nurses were with my mom, but I did say hello before I asked her to call back when they were done. She didn’t call back, but did text to say that mom had a fever and low blood pressure. Her blood oxygen was not great but also not terrible. After that, it was bedtime. Tomorrow is the first of the four sea days to New Jersey.

Same for us on two different ships. I did ask if they were going to bring back the other shows, since I can't see many people wanting to go to the same one multiple times, and I was told they eventually would. We'll see.

Thanks again, and I think you should make a contribution to the December cruise I just booked on the Apex because of this. (KIDDING) I hate to admit, though, that there is a 6 day on Symphony of the Seas that fronts to this, and we're tentatively booked on that, since I've decided to try new lines.

Hi I'm back. It's been, and continues to be crazy, but I'm halfway done, so I'll finish this week. I should have a post a day, so should finish next weekend. We last left us been Aruba and Bonaire. Summit Day 5 - Bonaire Today is our only early day (compared to several on our last cruise), so we ordered a continental breakfast, to be delivered between 8-8:30, with a note to deliver right at 8. Pratip did show up at 8am with our breakfast. We probably couldn’t have ordered a full breakfast, because there isn’t enough table space for it. Apparently, Kelly Hoppen doesn’t do rooms service in her life. After we ate and dressed, we met Arie & Cheryl for our tour. I did wear my bathing suit under my clothes, but I didn’t bring my hat or wear sunscreen. Oops. We left the ship and walked to the office/dock of Epic tours, our provider. We’d booked their snorkel and bbq lunch tour. The manager came out and told us that it would be a little while as they were preparing the boat. There seemed to be a lot of people there. Last time in Bonaire we had 4 of us on a small boat, I think this one, a catamaran sailboat (is that redundant?) and there were about 17 people total. Most were from the ship but there a few people vacationing from Holland. There was wine, water and soda available. Cheryl and I did sit up with the captain of the boat, and enjoyed some conversation while we said to our location. I did use some of Cheryl’s sunscreen. After about 25 minutes or so, we arrived at the snorkling spot. I decided not to go into the water, as it seemed like too big a deal with so many people, and I was enjoying sitting by the wheel and chatting with Cheryl, who also didn’t go into the water. (Arie and Glen both snorkeled) After about 45 minutes of snorkeling, every one came back and we were given our lunch. Everyone had a beef skewer, and a chicken skewer. Most also had a shrimp skewer and a foil wrapped fish filet. Because I said I didn’t like fish, I got two beef and one chicken. There was a sauce for the chicken and the beef had a chimichurri like sauce that was quite good. We also got pasta salad and a piece of garlic bread. Over all, a pretty good lunch. After lunch, people could swim for a little bit longer, and then we headed back. We said past the dock and the ship because the wind was fast, and we had a bit of extra time. Here’s the ship as we went by. We finished the tour around 2pm, and headed back to the ship. The captain of the boat suggested an ice cream place along the way, but apparently they were closed. He also told us that tomorrow is a big holiday in the Netherland Antilles, and a lot of stuff was likely to be closed tomorrow. So we went straight back to the ship. We headed to the room. I’d decided that we should send my sister a gift from Amazon, and so we selected a “spa box” for her of things you’d do in a spa. I picked one with a delivery tomorrow. Next was a visit to the lounge and a latte. I did take a walk around the dining room and discovered that, as I thought, Blu is a lot bigger than Luminae. At about 5pm we got ready for dinner. We’d been invited to watch the sail away from the retreat sundeck, so we eventually headed up there. It was windy, so that made it a bit difficult to have a drink, etc, but Jay, the solo guitarist was playing, so we were able to dance a few songs. He even did a request for us. At about 7 pm we got a text from Arie & Cheryl about the show, so we met them there. The show was a group called December 63, and they were a Frankie Valli. tribute band. They were pretty good, but you do have to like Frankie Valli and/or the Four Tops. Glen wanted a drink before dinner, so we headed to the lounge. There’s a group of six and some of them were there, so we talked to them about visiting the synagogue in Curacao. Because of the holiday, they weren’t sure it would be open, so they asked the concierges to check. They found out it’s normally open Monday, but might be closed for the holiday (it was). About 8:40 we headed off to dinner. Glen suggested we check Blu, but I wanted to just use Blu as a back up, so we went to Luminae. The front window table was available, so we stayed. Gary and Susan were at the next table, so we chatted with them until they left. I started with the smoked potato soup, but without the chorizo. Glen had the same and laughed at because the bits of chorizo were small, and tasted like bacon. I followed with a roasted chicken breast, which was good, but the gravy was a little spicy for me. I had the Macaroon for dessert, always pretty and tasting pretty good. After dinner, we took a small walk, as we’re up early tomorrow for our last port stop. We have a free walking tour. .

It was around 60.00 per person plus gratuity on the Infinity a couple of months ago.

Great review, but what are the emojis instead of words here? It looks like the first is shrimp, but that's what the second looks like on my browser, and I'm pretty sure shrimp is NOT your favorite dessert. Thanks.

Thanks again for this. I got way behind dealing with my own travel and family stuff, but finally caught up. I enjoyed it a lot and am looking forward to my transpacific next year.

Nice. Do you need a ride from the airport at home?

Thanks for this. By the way, a question. On our 2 hour late flight (on the plane the whole time) last month, we got everything - the nuts they serve after take off, the salad, appetizer and entree all on a single tray. Not exactly what I'd consider Polaris service. Did they shortcut service for you?

Agree, and my view is even if I have to cancel occasionally (which I have once or twice) I've saved a boatload more money that the few hundred dollars in change fees.

I booked a sky suite using an onboard certificate, and I had to pay additional deposit. I also just moved two cruises booked on board, and was told that I have to now pay the full suite deposit when moving.

My question is this. If I book a cruise in a suite after 6/1 and move it, does the full cancelation apply? I thought a few weeks ago X changed the deposit policy to cancelation resulted in forfeit of full deposit, but moving it still incurred a 100.00 per person charge. Is moving and cancelling still different? Or now will I lose it all and have to make a new deposit?

Have a great time. Looking forward to reading this, and treasure your time with your mother.

I see a lot of those on FB - or asking for advice on what to book - I don't know these people personally, so how would I know what's right for them?

There's Ze (1000), Zen (1500), Zeni (2000), Zenit (2500). All with no benfits.

I watched it today from a hotel room, and it was fine as far as running, but did they actually say anything? My 10 day cruise that ended Saturday was supposed to post today. 10 nights Sky suite plus Go Green would have given me 1498 points, so this snooz-inar would put me halfway to Zenith. While I was at dinner, the points posted, and I got a nice surprise. I think I originally booked it as a double points promotion (so long ago during the pandemic that I forgot what I did), but ended up moving it when they changed the ship. I got the double points. So now closer to 1600 than 1500. Now I really wish they'd put a level between Elite + and Zenith. It's a long way between them.

Hmmm, I assume they were on the first half? We had them on April 30th. I'm guessing they boarded Millennium at the start or first few days, and then on the 29th flew to Aruba or Bonaire, as they were first seen on April 30, and again on May 5. (We went to the first show, and enjoyed it, but didn't go to the second)

Summit Day 4, Aruba. Today is the first of our boom boom boom port days. Three in a row, then on to New Jersey. Our arrival was listed as 9 am, and we had a wine and tapas tasting with Arie & Cheryl at 10:30. The instructions said it was a 5 minute cab ride. So I checked and it was a 15 minute walk. We decided to go to breakfast and then meet them. We called Pratip for coffee and we also gave him my dress for dry cleaning before the second evening chic night. We ate breakfast and met Arie & Cheryl at Al Baccio at 9:45. We left the ship and walked about a kilometer to a strip mall along the main boulevard or Aruba. We found the place, the Wine Room and it said it opened at 6pm, but of course the door was unlocked for us. We passed this along the way. Inside, we found a table with snacks set for 4. You can see the snack spread (or tapas) and two glasses per person. It was hosted by Monrick, the proprietor. It’s not quite a wine store, but they do sell their wines. They cater to their members, but walk ins are welcome, and they have dinners, etc. We tried 5 wines, 2 white, 2 red, and one from Chile that’s bottled just for them. We did learn some new things about drinking wine. Apparently, I’ve never swirl mine enough. Go figure. The fifth wine was a chilean wine that’s bottled for him. The whole thing took about an hour and a half. I think it was billed as 3 hours, but our suspicion was that it would have taken a lot longer if there had been more than four of us. After we got back to the ship we invited Arie and Cheryl to see our room, the good and the bad. We chatted for a bit and eventually went to the buffet for lunch. I wasn’t very hungry so I had a salad, some papadam and a piece of carved roast beef. Following lunch, and a brief rest, I went back out to the shops in the terminal and bought a small change purse to use with my travel bag. We’ll see how long it lasts. Once I got back, we met Arie & Cheryl for a quick game of Splendor. Next was a visit to the lounge to work on my assignment due tomorrow. It was tea time, so I had a scone, but it was cold and not great. However, the tea was nice. When I was done there and back in our room, I noticed that the laundry we sent out on Day 2 was not back yet. I know they apparently aren’t doing next day any more, but I thought it was two days, so I called Pratip. He delivered the laundry from day 2 and my dress that I sent for dry cleaning this morning. (Much appreciated) We went to the balcony and saw it was cooling off, so we decided to take a walk outside. We walked to the Renaissance mall, and saw some fun stuff along the way. First was one of the blue horse statues. Each tells the story of a specific horse. This cow on a bench was advertising a steakhouse. We also passed the Aruba parliament building It was getting dark as we walked back, so saw a view of the ship that we don’t often see. It was around 7 when returned, so did more on my assignment. At about 8:40, we headed to Luminae, and it was packed. It’s also very loud because of a group of 8 is there and they all talk loudly and over each other. Usually we sit far away and it’s bearable, but tonight the only place was right near them. At that point, we gave up and decided to try Blu. I think the Manager, Raphael felt bad, so he walked us up to make sure the Blu staff did a good job. He also told us we could order from the Luminae menu, We did have a nice dinner. The restaurant was pretty empty (Manager later said that it was unusual for that time -I guess the people in Aqua were eating in town, the people in suites were not. I started with an iceberg lettuce salad (says warm bacon dressing, but apparently no one in the Celebrity kitchens know what warm bacon dressing means - I think they think that it means it was cooked prior to being put in the dressing - since it was the same as on the Infinity), Glen had burrata salad, we think. For my main, I had the turkey from the main While we were eating our dinner, our server Monick came up to see how we were doing. We appreciated that. For dessert they offered us the luminae menu. I ended up ordering the Hibiscus parfait from Luminae. Would we do it (move up to Blue) again? Probably not unless it got as loud as it did. The service was good, but the bread service and overall experience is better in Luminae. After dinner, we went back to the room, and watched part of the Two Towers again, since we’d started it at Arie’s house. Tomorrow we do the snorkeling excusing in Bonaire, and it’s a fairly early day.