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I have always automatically received the e-mail with no need or way to request it.

I'm someone who generally prefers Celebrity but we had a really great cruise on the Prima (Viva's sister). You'll get a little better service on Celebrity because NCL really overworks its staff. But the spaces on the Viva will be quite amazing. I love their waterfront/promenade deck and the Indulge Food Hall concept. Plus the Local is a 24 included great food option. Loyal NCL fans generally don't seem to be a fan of NCL's newest class ship which I think says something about this class standing out and doing something different. We have not yet done an Edge class ship (like the Apex) but are booked for 2025 on the Ascot so I can't speak to the Apex. The Reflection is an S class ship so will be a bit older than the other two (which are essentially brand new ships). S class ships are a great balance between being not too large of a ship but still having a lot going on. They also have the traditional balconies. Personally, I don't think you can go wrong with any of those ship choices. There's just different pros and cons to each one.

The Martini Bar flight does give you a lot of liquor for the price and a chance to try a variety of martinis.

You must have booked this cruise a long time ago. I don't remember when they eliminated the Elevate option but I didn't think it was that recently.

I'm not sure this is right. Our 10 day land/cruise tour on the Xpedition starts November 9. I downloaded cruise docs on October 8. For our May 9th cruise on the Eclipse this year, I downloaded the cruise docs on April 10.

If you are a wine drinker, buy by the bottle not by the drink. It is a much better deal. If you don't finish a bottle, they can hold it for you in the dinning room for another day or you can take it with you to drink another day in your cabin or a lounge. I've even had them hold a bottle for me at Cellar Masters. You also can take on board two bottles of wine and as long as you don't open them in a lounge or dining room, there is no charge. You can open the bottle in your cabin and carry a glass with you to dinner or a lounge. I agree sometimes there is a Captain's Welcome Toast or other event so look for those. You also still often can get a class of sparkling wine when you board from somewhere like Cafe al Bacio. I haven't noticed any happy hour specials or drinks of the day in recent years.

Usually they are available at about day 30 so I would expect them any day. Usually I get a copy e-mailed in addition to being able to access them from the website. I usually save an electronic copy of them to my phone or iPad so I have them if I need to and then only print out the luggage tag page (as many times as I need for our luggage).

No, I was just pushing back against your "always" statement. My last two Celebrity sailings were completely sold out. There were no available rooms to move to. They still offered Move-Up bids to deal with last minute cancellations but I doubt many of those Move-Up bids were granted and of the ones that were, there weren't other open options to move to. Anyone who sees an open room on the website after a Move-up that they would prefer, should call to see if a change can be made. I just don't think it is wise to go into the Move-Up program expecting that to be a possibility.

Your boarding pass (as well as your sea pass card once you get it from your stateroom) should have PALL (maybe in addition to CALL) on it. PALL is the premium package. CALL is the classic package. You should also see it in your order history if you log into your cruise planner.

Anyone with early or late dining (on an M or S class ship) should find a card with a table number in their cabin as they work out fixed dining table assignments before you get on the ship. So I don't see how it would mess anything up to go to your stateroom, find the card, and then walk into the MDR and find your table number.

No, there are not always some cabins available. More and more ships are sailing fully completely full (sometimes over 100% of double occupancy) which was the norm pre-pandemic.. The Move-up program was created because there often is last minute shuffling with last minute cancelations, to shuffle people out of easier to sell room categories when it gets down to the last few rooms, and occasionally ships have unsold rooms.

The ship wasn't full if there was an open cabin to move to.

I generally don't either. I don't book cruises for the captain and I don't try and figure out the captain ahead of time. I trust that they all will do a fine job navigating the ship to where we need to go. But as a pioneer for women in a very male dominated field and one who has shared so much publicly about her journey, I personally have found it very interesting to watch Captain Kate's progression.

We sailed with her in early October of 2015 on the Summit which I understand was only her 2nd or 3rd cruise in charge as Captain. She was personable and present around the ship then and it appears she has only grown into that role. We have a nice photo with her.

I will admit that with both Celebrity and Royal being so far behind the rest, Holland got the business for our next family cruise. I can't say for sure we would have picked Celebrity or Royal if they had all released at the same time (we were looking at options on a lot of different lines), but we weren't willing to wait to compare them when we found something that we liked elsewhere.

I'm not sure there is really a difference between Casual and Smart Casual. Maybe IT is trying to see who is paying attention. 😉

We have done three Celebrity cruises since the restart and had the shareholder OBC available to use pre-cruise for all three of these cruises. Usually it shows both on the invoice and in the cruise planner.

A 3 night cruise likely had a later crowd so if you ate earlier and returned to your room earlier, you may have missed some of the energy. That said, the Summit is one of Celebrity's smallest ships with less to do and a quieter vibe. Just bumping up to an S class ship I have found brings more energy and I have not yet sailed an E class ship but expect that has even more energy to it. That said, unless you are already sold on Celebrity, I'm not sure it is the best choice for Alaska. Princess, Holland, and even NCL have better Alaska itineraries.

In the past, they start releasing in mid to late November (I think starting with Alaska) and continue into December. This year though, most other cruise lines are way ahead of their historical release schedules (and many have already released fall of 2025) so I'm wondering if it will push Celebrity to release sooner.

If you like to eat at the same time every day, you can make reservations in the main dining room for each night at that time using either the app or the website. It's not required but it can be helpful at certain times of the evening when it gets busy. (And even if you set up nightly reservations before your cruise, you can still go to the main dining room on day one and see if there is room in early or late dining.)

I have cruised Princess along with many of the other lines and I agree with you that Princess's app was that bad (we also had issues with the medallion itself which didn't help things). Celebrity's app on the other hand has always worked really well for me. My only issue with it is that menus lately haven't always been completely accurate. So I wouldn't depend on all the content on it. That said, the app is not mandatory. You can completely get by without it.

Yes, guest services (or the concierge if you are in the Retreat) has a form which allows you to name individuals. I've done it a number of times and recently was even thanked by the staff member before disembarkation which gave me some confirmation they got it.

Thanks for sharing! Great photos! We are less than three weeks away from our 10 night trip on the Xpedition.

I wasn't doubting the damage that can be done by importing live birds or that there are smugglers who do just that. I'm just not sure how often that smuggling happens through cruise ships.

".... meats or other animal products, live birds, or sandwiches." Is there a problem with people bringing live birds on a cruise ship? And I love how they are so casually mentioned in the middle of typical foods passengers might try to take off! 🤣