cindivan

They were $60. For reference we paid $89 in the cruise planner and they were selling for $99 on the ship. 

We were on the symphony over New Years and while the general resort never felt crowded, the waterpark had such long lines our kids were able to go on two rides all day. They were told to come back around 2 when the lines were really long for the tall water slide in the morning. However, around 1pm half day tickets were being sold so the lines never decreased

Granted it was a holiday cruise with tons of kids, but we all felt the money ($89) for admission to the waterpark was pretty much a waste of money due to the long lines. 
 

Other than that Cococay was beautiful and chairs were plentiful. 

On 1/4/2020 at 7:07 PM, miched said:

I have seen in movies where the butler draws your bath water and open your curtains in the morning the minute  you wake and then presenting a tray with a Martini.    🤗.   

 

Happy cruising 🌊🚢🇺🇸🌅

 

We all need a Hobson!  If I ever get a room with a butler, I would prefer a mimosa for breakfast!  

57 minutes ago, ECCruise said:

You will need to get information specific to Japan.  Their immigration procedures can be fairly exacting (taking your temperature, fingerprints and eye scans, face to face meetings, etc.) so don't know how that might affect your plans.  This info would need to come from Celebrity via your TA.

We actually loved Kagoshima and actually are returning later this year.

What did you do in Kagoshima that you loved/would recommend?  Thanks.

Thanks for all your replies.  Sounds like Japan is not the country in which to try this.  Now I can plan Kagoshima and Okinawa instead of wondering if we can do Tokyo.

We are on the Millenium in February and aren't exactly thrilled with the two stops in Japan (Okinawa and Kagoshima). We are contemplating flying to Tokyo for an overnight and flying to Okinawa to meet up with the ship the next day.  I wrote my TA and haven't heard back, but I was wondering if anyone else has been able to do this and what the steps are.

I know we are taking on some risk if we do this if our flights have troubles.  We aren't sure if we want to do it, but just wondering if it's even a possibility.

Thanks.

8 hours ago, Pengawin3 said:

Cindivan,

My info on those forward deck 7 cabins is from a family who were in one on our 2017 Fiji to Tahiti cruise. She complained many times about the anchor noise and rough ride. Granted, we were in some high seas around the Cook Islands.

I'm thinking PG wants the fan tail for suite passengers. 

Sorry you got whammied by this change too. 

Thanks for that info. Anchor noise is loud whether high seas or not. More info makes my decision easier. Way too much money for a cruise being shifted around like that 

I would definitely feel better about if I were on deck 8 and not 7003. I am going to waitlist for something on the deck 8 and make a call after the refurb. I have tried to find reviews of that room and only found 2 and both commented on the very small closet and only 3 drawers and one referred to the room having disadvantages over the category Bs on deck 8 but didn’t elaborate. But did say they would never book that room again.  If we don’t get moved by June we will cancel and do something else this fall. So sad after waiting several months to book one of those rooms. 

We were booked in room 765.
221 interior/74 balcony

They moved us to Room 7003.

256 interior/47balcony

doesn't seem like an upgrade to us at all. I have no idea what I would do with a butler

and no longer a king bed. Just a queen bed. No tub. 
 

Outside of butler who can’t make balcony or bed grow,

what is the upgrade??

We were in 765 on the October 14 sailing and they upgraded us to room 7003, which is right next to the bridge. Not sure I’m a fan of that. Going from primo aft view to sharing a wall with the bridge?  Also appears to be the only category B stateroom without a tub, only shower.  And says queen size bed. Meaning the others have king?  So confused 
 

All category a and b are sold out. 
 

We were on the November 10 Allure sailing and Cococay was canceled due to weather. We all got future cruise credit relative to the costs of our rooms.   We got the pineapple drinks that they usually sell for $10 on cococay half price on boardwalk - they were surprisingly delicious.   The call to not stop was made that morning so I guess all the preparations had been made. 
 

Would have loved to see all the new things there, but nothing bad about another sea day!  And FCC was unexpected but nice. 

Apples or oranges?

Cycle boat is more interactive with other guests and captain.  And a five minute walk from ship, fun bar next to the boat where we had a few drinks before the boat took off. 
 

Sapphire beach on your own might be more relaxing and private?  Not sure how hard it is to get chairs etc. 

I think both sound fun. Depends what you are in the mood for. 

My mom never takes off her wedding ring unless required for surgery or something like that. I personally can’t sleep in any jewelry because I feel too twisted up or swollen in it by morning.  I learned a while back to get a habit or sometimes after a *fun* night I wake up and go on a search. So when I travel,  I put all my daily (wedding ring, watch, etc)  jewelry in a water glass and put it in the safe every night.  Even at home I have 2 spots where I put my jewelry. Just easier for me. 
 

Glad you got your rings back!!  

Unless things have changed in the last year or so, rooms don’t have to be adjacent. Across the hall or within 2 (3?) rooms works. But you can’t book it via RC online. Using a good travel agent is easiest. Calling RC also works. 
 

And then the extra key dance 

We have sailed both (Allure and Oasis and Harmony and Symphony) and love both (all)!    
 

Haven’t really followed to know what the oasis refurb includes, maybe some of the extra slides Harmony has.   But to us there isn’t a ton of difference other than the slides and (if you like it) the bionic bar and some different specialty restaurant choices. 
 

I would choose itinerary and price over which ship of these four. We have never had a cruise where we have thought (on our own or in discussion with other passengers) that it was a “bad cruise.”  

Just off the Allure. Saw several door decorations (including ours 😇) and stewards helped us when we decorated my sister and husband’s stateroom door for their anniversary. 
 

I have read some of the celebrity thread as well. Personally not much anyone else does bothers me much on a cruise outside of the elevator crush. And now that I have my new total knee I can take stairs most of the time.

1 hour ago, phillychick said:

I do MTD every cruise. Link your reservations & make reservations for each night when you think you’ll want to eat.  If you don’t show up your table will go to someone else.  Also, just because you have a reservation at 7:00 you can still go at a different time. Hope this makes sense.  

Although if make a reservation and  later you know you won’t make it - as a courtesy to other cruisers -  it’s appreciated if you call to cancel so a table is not held for you and delays other waiting passengers. 

On 11/15/2019 at 11:46 PM, Ms411 said:

She got run over by a car a few days prior????? Explain that one, please! Thanks for posting!

 

She had some abrasions on her face and one of the first things she said was “let me address the elephant in the room” or similar and explained why it looked like she had been in a fight. 
 

She explained she was walking in a parking lot (and admitted she was texting while walking) when a car hit her and drove off. She was knocked out and luckily a friend saw what happened and helped her. 
 

it didn’t affect her driving. 
 

As I mentioned before she was part pirate part captain. 😏

On 11/15/2019 at 4:17 PM, TTEllis said:

Thanks for the review, sounds like a great time. What's that buggy cost pp?

Thanks Todd

I think there is different pricing for different times.  Ours was $77 per person after taxes. 

Anne Marie was our fearsome and awesome captain who got run over by a car a few days prior. She was very engaging and had lots of fun stories.  She was not your typical tour boat captain - part pirate for sure. However, we never felt unsafe. She knew was she was doing along with her first mate Valley. 
 

Pedaling is completely optional. There is a motor and I don’t think any of our pedaling  helped at all.

The rum punch  was much better than we expected, however be forewarned. It’s very effective.  
 

The ride from the dock to water Island was about 35 minutes. Water Island wasn’t the best beach stop in the world, but it was fun for an hour and a half.  The ride from the dock to water island was about 35 minutes.   Pretty small but not overcrowded. We got drinks and (very rare) hamburgers at Heidi’s. One of apparently two bars but we never made it to the other one. 
 

There were several other large tour boats that had 100+ people on them from the cruise ships. Personally we prefer smaller numbers so this was great for us. We maybe also lucked out and had a fun group on our the cycle boat. But also maybe this is also a tour more outgoing people sign up for since it is smaller and possibly more active if you choose it to be. 
 

I would definitely do this over a big tour boat to water island. And it would be a ton of fun if you had your own group of 10 or so. 
 

there are 10 cycles and I guess the max of 16 would mean the other 6 would be sitting on the back bench or standing around.  

On 10/31/2019 at 7:03 PM, schlimazel_traveler said:

My 23 and 25 year-olds had the same experience. Being old enough to drink doesn't make that much of a difference. They spent most of their time with us. There just didn't seem to be anyone their age looking to connect with new folks.

 

They had fun though. 

That’s a great point. There are not always a ton of single young adults on a cruise looking to hang out with other single young adults. And if there are, with 2-5k passengers it’s not always super easy to find them.

The older our kids (23, 21 and 18) get the more they hang out with us on cruises.   Not all the time for sure, but it really has been a lot of fun hanging out with kids when they were too old for kids club!  So maybe a silver lining?

I’m not sure that the main reason many Americans don’t go there is because they’re afraid. We are recently empty-nesters and so get to travel longer distances and times, but I could probably list 100 cruises that sound infinitely more interesting If I’m going to travel that far.  

I also feel that if I’m going there and putting money towards their tourism I’m basically saying that I have no objection to their discrimination laws. I know that is a slippery slope, and I’m sure someone will push me down it.   But when things like marital rape are legal, and being a homosexual is illegal, that’s a pretty big red flag for me

In all the years I have been cruising, I don’t think I have ever seen suites go down in price. They seem to have some algorithm that increases suite cost as the number of suites available decreases.

But if someone else has seen suites decrease in price I would love to know the strategy!

18 minutes ago, ValerieJo said:

This is from the "Book of Face Group"  from people who are currently on the Presidents Cruise.  "To better serve our members?"

 

Molly - “In 2020, we will look at the Crown & Anchor program for possible changes to better serve our members.”

could they be more vague?

We have gone through this with 2 kids and still have an 18yo. It is a weird age on the ship because you can’t  go to the kid club but you can’t drink. However all of our kids have had fun in the casino and night clubs because that is a new privilege for 18+.   But definitely a change because it’s more on them to meet people independent of kids club.