cruzeluver

I am loving this!!!! Thank you so very much for taking us along.

We board the day you disembark! We just booked three days ago when Royal cancelled our Serenade of The Seas cruise, so quickly learning about all things Apex.

Sounds like a great start. Smooth sailing!!

Thank you for the quick replies! Is it a full breakfast option, or more continental?

We have been sailing primarily on Royal the last few years but are excited to be coming back to Celebrity in a week on Apex.

We are Elite and one of the listed perks is "coffee-house style breakfast". I tried to find more info on the X web site about this without any luck. Does anyone have anything they can share? Know where this takes place on Apex?

Thanks!!

Used to be that roll calls were always pretty hopping with lots of participation, regardless of the cruise line or length of cruise. But message boards are going the way of the dodo bird. Social media sites are a lot more popular with good reason. They are far easier to search for information, quicker, and you can weed through unhelpful comments much faster. I have almost quit reading reviews on Cruise Critic because for every post/photo provided by the OP, there are three pages of comments from others. Sometimes you have to get to page ten of a review before you reach boarding day!

We have two cruises booked on Serenade in then next nine months. One has no roll call, the other (which is less than 90 days away) had no roll call so I started one and a whopping two other people have joined. Both cruises have very active groups on the book of faces.

We are on the January 15 seven night Western Caribbean on Serenade and excursions are slowly being added. Quite a few for Costa Maya, four for Belize, one for Roatan and none for Cozumel as of yet.

Juts off of Allure and were in a junior suite. As I had carefully read what was included there were no surprises. We went to Costal Kitchen on boarding day and spoke to Giovanney who was able to make us a reservation that night for dinner. When we arrived at the expected time we did not have to scratch at the door nor beg (I realize  those words were used hyperbolically) to be let in. A gentleman saw us at the door and opened it for us. Dinner was very good but hardly life changing. When we could not get a reservation the following night we decided it was not worth it to call every day and gamble on a reservation so we made do with the main dining room and specialty dining as we had a dining package.

The junior suite itself was great and as expected. Loved the extra space, the walk in closet, bath tub and the larger balcony. The location of these rooms is also a plus. Considering we only paid a small amount above what we originally paid for a standard ocean view balcony we thought it was well worth it.

Very excited to be boarding Allure next month, restrictions or no restrictions. We are beyond lucky and privileged to be able to cruise. If we ever become so jaded about it that it becomes just another cruise" then it will be time to stop. We are fully vaccinated and not going to stop living our lives and having adventures because of Covid. Its here and looks like it will be for the foreseeable future.

We have snorkeled all over the Caribbean, Mexico and Central America and frankly Fury in Cozumel was one of the least impressive.

The snorkeling was mediocre at best. We were nearly swimming distance from the cruise ships. Not much to see. The beach was ok. It had sand and water so technically it qualified.

The real emphasis seemed to be on the included booze served on the way back. 

If you have nothing to compare it to and have low expectations Fury is alright but there are much better options out there.

On the September 5 sailing and our TA forwarded us the email confirming a new departure time of 7:00PM as well. As long as we sail I am good!

Gold Rocks beach rivals any other Caribbean beach we have visited. Its gorgeous! Last time we were in Freeport we booked a private tour that included Gold Rocks beach, a tour of the Lucayan National Forest and lunch. It was a great day! Freeport does not get much love since the port area itself is not much, but if you get away from there Freeport has some nice things to offer (come to think of it this applies to a lot of Caribbean ports where the immediate port area is just an overdeveloped tourist trap).

Let me add my thanks for the live reports.

Would be curious to know, with regards to the drink vouchers for Diamonds and up, do you have to use your free vouchers first? May sound odd, but could I pay for a soda at lunch and save my vouchers for wine later?

You can get any mocktail you want! As long a there is no alcohol in it you are good to go. We do pina coladas, mojitos, virgin marys etc. Bartenders are great at creating something unique. Just tell them what tastes you enjoy (fruity, not too sweet, fizzy etc.).

The August and September sailings booked up very quickly when Royal announced the return to service for those specific ships.

We were booked on another line that cancelled our September 5 sailing on Monday. I contacted our TA to see if she could get us on the September 5 sailing of Allure. She managed to snag us one of the last remaining cabins and a few hours later the cruise was sold out (or at least inventory was closed). My TA said she has been booking the Royal ships like crazy that have confirmed returned to service dates.

• Dinner at Giovanni's Table. Oh that filet!!!
• Strolling through Central park.
• Settling into a seat in the theater for the first show
• Waking up on that first sea day and stepping out on our balcony (there may be tears)

Nowhere in the article does it state that those specific ships are being sold. It lists them because the writer of the article wanted to identify the oldest class of Carnival ships as selling them would be the most obvious choice.

Yes, can we please ditch the politics and get back to wildly speculating on when cruising will resume and what it will look like despite having no new information, or perhaps randomly stating that someone "heard" about additional cancellations without any source whatsoever to back it up?

Really hoping to book one of the seven night sailings on Divina from Port Canaveral. I'll be watching very closely for bookings to open! More than likely the itinerary won't be particularly memorable but its all good.

Agree with the above. Nothing concrete. But that doesn't mean you wont get some speculation.

Nope. And anyone claiming to know is lying.

Great news!!! Port Canaveral is our favorite port to sail from and is an easy drive. We have sailed on MSC Seaside and it was absolutely gorgeous! Loved the diversity of the passengers and the food was excellent.

Don't call during peak hours. The worst is early afternoon. A lot of folks want to call on their lunch hour. Call early morning or well into the evening.

I work for a bank and we will have 45 minute holds right now at noon and no wait at all after 5:00.

This is neither a HAL nor a Seaborne issue, its across the industry. Thousands are waiting on refunds from all lines and the 90 day window seems to be pretty much across the board. We are waiting on a refund from Celebrity for a cruise that was supposed to sail 03/14 and was cancelled less than 24 hours prior to sailing. We had flown into San Juan the morning of 03/13 and spent a great day touring around one of our favorite cities only to be notified at approximately 7:00 that evening that we would not be boarding the following day. So far we have received a refund of one excursion and what we paid for our beverage packages, nothing else.

Let me preface by saying it is entirely possible the problem is with me. 

We are on the October 18, 2020  seven day sailing of Eurodam. I do not see a cruise leaving when we get back on October 25. But there is one the following week. What am I missing?

Eurodam October 18, 2020. We have nearly thirty cruises under our belts but this will be our first with HAL!

Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts. We will be boarding Summit next month and are really looking forward to it! This will be out first Millennium class ship in several years and are actually excited to be on a more intimate size one!