simon.hed

same

we are boarding Mariner Saturday. It will be our first cruise since August last year (Harmony). The food a year ago was pretty good to fantastic, we ate in MDR 2 or 3 nights and specialty rest of the time. We are eating MDR first night this trip. We have 3 night specialty dining plus Izumi. So, I suppose that remaining night will be determined by the first night MDR. We have always enjoyed the MDR, it's just part of the cruise experience for us. If the food there has gotten as bad as everyone says, we will figure something out for remaining booked cruises.

I have done the Kennedy Space Center, and it was fantastic. I did it standalone on an Orlando visit, not cruise related. I can see where it would be too short if done as a cruise excursion.

JVF was good to respond to specific questions on twitter regarding potential effects on a particular sailing. I wonder if new guy will do that.

We’ve done Mariner promenade cabins twice and booked again in October. Love them, especially compared to an interior.

that might change a few things for us.

never knew there was such a thing.

south beach

nope, go for it

I literally lol'd at this one. For more than a few seconds.

Also, by “this” (in my first post in this thread), i meant the opinions in this thread, not any actual news.

Understood, but I think I’ve heard more ‘there could conceivably be issues’ in this thread than I have read on the boards in months. That could be my perception of course.

We are scheduled for our first trip there next month. I haven’t been that concerned with it because the general consensus has always seemed to be ‘Labadee isnt really haiti’. This seems to contradict that.

Thanks for the review. It sounds like bad MDR food is a universal truth at this point. We havent sailed since Harmony last August and are booked on Mariner next month for our anniversary. The food (specialty and included) was amazing on that trip but sounds like it may not be in near future. as an avowed capitalist, I get the 'what the market will bear' part. As many have mentioned, prices going up and the product getting worse will result in alternatives being considered. That is one reason I ended up cruising multiple times a year (last year and next couple at least). My vegas trips became less and less of a 'value' for me so I made other arrangements.

I have only sailed on Celebrity once (Solstice to Alaska) and it was amazing. The vibe is much more aligned with where we are in our lives now. I agree with most of the points about both lines in this thread btw. Sailing with our early 20s children has lead to us doing so on RC. We have 5 booked on RC, though I suspect we will end up back on Celebrity at some point.

interesting information. My wife and I went on Celebrity for our 25th anniversary a few years back and I never regretted that decision. Cruising with our early 20s kids now RC is the play due to the bells/whistles RC offers. We plan to go back to Alaska for our 35th and we will look at Princess but I suspect it will end up being Celebrity due to reciprocal status with RC. It was exactly what we wanted when we went, perfect balance of more "grown-up"/upscale and cost. Apologies to OP as I added nothing of benefit to this discussion.

we are booked in 9558 next month. Cruisedeckplans has a link to a YouTube vid showing it and I presume it is not updated. Not much help for you but thats what I know.

second this.

I have no real desire to wade into this, but I did receive this 100 or so days out. I am in the '3 different reminders' group on this and had them set closer to final payment date. Glad the OP got it worked out.

literally exact same thing here. South Beach wasn't showing in CP for us. Breezy Bay was $100 cheaper and I couldnt find any (what I felt like was) actionable info on which was 'better'. So I booked BB. A couple months later South Beach showed up in CP and I canceled BB and booked SB because that is our favorite area of the island. This post makes me feel better about that. More kudos to @BlueCattleDog

I can't tell you how much I searched for EXACTLY the information you have posted here. Many, many thanks for this.

It’s $319 pp for our sailing on Utopia oct 2024. That will certainly go on sale but its a heckuva starting point.

I booked a drink package and a down payment on another cruise (200+914) and got the bonus.

Not an answer to your question, but we are sailing a 6 night itinerary in August that Im excited about. I love that ship and love the fact they have thrown in some different sailings. 7 nights on Wonder or 3/4 nights on Independence didn’t have the variety we wanted. /end hijack

I got pretty close to that one for my wife, who is fairly picky about drinks. Its a good one.