Djptcp

After our first HAL cruise, all of our cruises with HAL have been through casino offers. In reality we have paid for our "free" verandahs and suites by spending lots of money in the casinos over the years. DH and I are 4* Mariners and we deserve our status. This is not at all unique to HAL - we have had "free" cruises through ships' casino offers on Carnival and friends regularly receive them from Royal Caribbean and Celebrity.

We prefer the Neptunes on Deck 7 because of the proximity to the Neptune Lounge. Had an aft Neptune once, not by choice as we had a Guarantee, and never again - way too far from everything.

We always eat in the Tamarind and Canaletto at least once, sometimes twice on longer cruises. We usually don't eat in the MDR so the two specialty restaurants are a nice break from the Lido Buffet and NY Pizza. We tried Rudi's twice and weren't impressed; wouldn't have gone the second time but we had friends on board who wanted to try it. The Pinnacle Grill is okay, but the steaks are just too large. We prefer to eat there for lunch on at sea days.l

Thanks tschwa2, I appreciate your information.

We have sailed 75 times on other cruise lines, mostly Holland America. Our first Celebrity cruise is in March. On the other lines we can purchase more Onboard Credit for our cruises before we sail. I thought I saw it was available also on Celebrity one time when managing our reservation, but can't find it again. Is this possible to do on Celebrity?

Thanks for your responses. I guess I will bring a Holland tote in case we need it for carry off at the end of the cruise.

We receive tote bags in our cabins on Holland America to use during the cruises and to carry stuff off at the end. Will Celebrity provide something similar in our cabin?

We are new to Celebrity (will be our 76th cruise overall) and are used to paying the staff gratuities before we sail on other cruise lines. I have searched our reservation and cannot find that opportunity. If it is possible, where do I find the link? Thanks.

We didn't sign up for it. Received a Move Up offer email about 2.5 months ago for our March 11th cruise. Bid the top bid amount for a Family Balcony cabin. First time on Celebrity and the ship is full, so doubtful we will get it.

I had a Neptune Suite Gty once and my PVP suggested I send an email to the Inventory Dept. telling them I had mobility issues and needed a suite near an elevator. Unfortunately, we were assigned a Neptune at the absolute aft on Deck 4! I emailed the Inventory Dept. again and requested a different Neptune. Never heard from them. We were 4* Mariners. We hated the location and the Neptune was smaller than the Neptunes we were used to. Really made a negative impact on our cruise being so far from everything. It was a casino offer and I had to take a GTY - never again! Most of our cruises are casino offers with free verandah or Vista suite GTY. We now always pay more to select a specific cabin and it's worth the extra money after only having to pay port charges, taxes, and fees with the offer.

We have had Vista Suites on the Rotterdam a number of times and also a Veranda once. We much prefer the Vista Suites as they are larger. Plus we receive double sailing days - a 7 day cruise gets you 14 sailing days. We are 4* Mariners and having Neptune and Vista Suites got us to 4* a lot faster than if we just kept booking Verandas. Being new to Holland that might not mean much to you now though. Whatever you decide, have a wonderful cruise. The Rotterdam is a beautiful ship with a great crew and wonderful food.

We were on the Rotterdam in Oct.-Nov. and enjoyed watching the dancing in the BB King area from 5-6pm. We sat above on Deck 3. There was one couple that looked very professional and it was so much fun watching them.

DH and I are new to Celebrity, although our March Constellation cruise will be our 76th cruise overall. Does the Constellation have ATMs onboard?

DH and I will be taking our first Celebrity cruise on the 12-day Constellation out of Tampa on March 11, 2014. This will be our 76th cruise, so not new to cruising at all. 1) Does Celebrity do the new muster drill (since Covid) where you just go to your lifeboat station and check in with your cabin cards and leave? 2) I use a rollator (walker on wheels with a seat) when on cruise ships and on Holland America (our favorite cruise line) I just push the rollator through the cabin doors and don't have to fold it up. Could anyone who has used a rollator before on the Constellation let me know what the situation is on the Connie? 3) When in the casinos on Holland America and Carnival I can charge $20 to whatever amount to our cabins without a service charge. Is that also true on Celebrity? We look forward to a new cruise line and appreciate your answers. Thanks.

My husband and I have been Diamond for several years and last week we both received letters welcoming us to Diamond status and telling us we have free dinners, plus the luggage tags, etc.. We are going on a 7-day Legend cruise next Dec. and plan on using one letter one night and the other on another night at the steakouse. We had received letters soon after becoming Diamonds and received the free dinners offer plus red leather luggage tags and leather passport holders. We ditched the passport holders after we always had to remove the passports at embarkation.

No great loss for us. Ate there twice on the Nieuw Statendam this past Jan. and Feb. First time was pretty good, but the second time was a disaster because of a horrible waiter. He was more interested in waiting on the table next to us so he could speak French with them. Some of our food arrived cool as he didn't pick it up on time. It was embarrassing to us because we had friends with us and we had said it was worth the price in Jan. The Maitre'd got an earful on our way out

We are 4* and had a Mariner's luncheon on one of the sea days on the 12-day Rotterdam sailing Oct. 22nd. It was great. Not sure if it was just 4-5* - lots of people so 3* may have been there, too. There was also a cocktail party by the Lido pool one later afternoon and I think it was 3-4-5* Mariners.

I am always curious about the first cruise after a major dry dock. Hopefully, these little annoyances will work themselves out before we sail on the Nieuw Statendam on Dec. 10th. How do you like the new casino with the spiral staircase gone? I've seen photos of it on Facebook and it seems a lot larger which was needed. Enjoy the rest of the cruise.

Nov. 9-26, 2023. The major change will be in the casino where the current staircase down to Deck 2 will be removed to add more slots. We will be sailing on her in Dec. and look forward to more slots. I have found the casinos in the Pinnacle Class ships to be tiny so the additional space for slots will be welcomed.

In addition to the New York Pizza breakfast menu, the guys made me scrambled eggs or fried eggs plus bacon. Just ask for something not on the menu and they will make it if they can. DH got the Bagel and Lox with a fried egg on it. Joey and Homang were great and we tipped them a lot.

Received ours 3 days after we left the Rotterdam last Friday.

DH and I ate in Rudi's on the Nieuw Statendam in January and February of this year. We enjoyed it in January, but February was a bust. Same menu, etc. What made it not so enjoyable in Feb. was our waiter. He totally ignored us and was more interested in speaking French with the people at the next table and spent an inordinate amount of time waiting on them, laughing with them. We constantly had to ask him to clear our dishes and bring the next dish. What made it doubly bad was we had invited friends to join us at Rudi's in Feb. because we had enjoyed it so much. I did report him to the Maitre'D on the way out.

DH and I had a wonderful 12-day cruise on the Rotterdam (our 5th on that ship). We went throught the new Panama Canal locks this time so have been through both old and new. Liked the new ones better - faster and they are different from the old ones. Due to political unrest in Panama, the Captain was told by the Panama Tourism Dept. not to dock in Colon for the safety of the passengers. For that reason we also did not get to cruise in Gatun Lake - we went through the locks to the lake but turned around and immediately went back through them. Colon was no big loss to us based on previous visits. We are 4* Mariners and this was our 75th cruise overall (18 on Holland America). Looking forward to our Nieuw Statendam cruise in December. Love the free cruises and casino free play we receive from the casino. The casino was great the first two nights and then took a downward turn until the last day when I recouped some of my losses. As 4* Mariners we were invited to a free wine tasting and have done this before. Crew was wonderful as always. The first day at Sail Away a bar steward at the Sea View Bar area remembered me from a Nieuw Amsterdam cruise last year and gave me a big hug. Funny because I don't drink much at all. The food was really good as always. Only ate once in the main dining room, ate most dinners in the Lido or skipped dinners because we had too much for lunch:-) We ate at New York Pizza for breakfast every morning, had a delicious lunch in the Pinnacle Grill on one of the at sea days, and ate several times at the Canaletto and once at the Tamarind - both always good. Love the Wall Street pizza at the New York Deli for lunch or dinner. Halloween evening was fun with both passengers and casino staff in costumes. The Library was great and well used by us and others.

My husband went to the location where it was the last time on the Rotterdam and the book shelves were gone and it was set up as a meeting room. I don't think he looked any further. We do not have a smart phone and just use a trac phone when we are on car trips in case of an emergency. I think I only charge it a couple of times a year. We still have a land line as our main phone. I can't imagine my life carrying around a cell phone all the time like I see other people do. Ridiculous. I have a Kindle and I download books from our local public library, but we also both read books from the library. I also have a laptop I use everyday to check our emails, pay bills and search. I feel our little bit of technology suits us just fine. To each his own.

Frozen Mango Dacquiri in the Sea View Bar. Also, in the Tamarind the Emperor's something - can't recall the whole name, but have it every time in the Tamarind. Will be sailing on the Rotterdam on Sunday - looking forward to those cocktails!!