mac_tlc

As someone often pushing a wheelchair down the hallway, scooters, strollers and room service trays are not my friends. Even the housekeeping carts can be a challenge depending on where in the hallway they are and whether there are towels, etc. hanging off the sides. Most times any of these result in a Stop. Stand. Fold. Walk. Stop. Unfold. Sit. Resume. sequence of events. No way two scooters or wheelchairs can fit. At least with the wheelchair, I can fold it up and let the traffic pass. The only hallways I have seen where two can pass side by side is the Crown Loft deck 17 hallways. For me, they are a thing of beauty. mac_tlc

What a wonderful itinerary. Thanks for taking us along. mac_tlc

Count me in as one who would love to do this itinerary some day. mac_tlc

My guess is that if Celebrity's score went up a lot of folks would think the data is top-notch and accurate. mac_tlc

We had 7172 on Jewel in June on our Arctic Circle cruise. We loved the aft balcony which was bigger than we thought it would be. Only issue was that it is above the Safari Club and if there was a late night party/band, you could hear it a little. Depends on what time you went to bed.

See you onboard the Vista next November! After being cancelled twice by Celebrity on Fall 2024 TA's (Beyond and Apex) and getting little or no compensation or price protection, we booked a PH1 on Viata for less than either of the Celebrity options (which were in Sky Suites) even when adjusting for gratuities and Premium Bev Pkg. We also booked the Vista Fall TA for November 2025 and its even cheaper than the 2024 version. mac_tlc

I think you could do noon. 9:30 is too early. We had a 2:10pm , took Royals transfers from ship to airport, got off ship around 8:30 and were at the airport by 10:15ish. Couldn’t even check our bags because we were too early. Self disembarkation started around 7, as I recall. Plenty of taxis, you should be able to make a noon flight easy. We would do this itinerary again in a heartbeat. mac_tlc

I loved following along with Trainman on his reviews, especially his pictures of breakfast !!! mac_tlc

Would have loved either of those on our August Oasis cruise. All we had was the house band in the Music Hall a few times. Really a downgrade from last year when we saw Phoenix on two different cruises. They were great. According to their website, they are on Oasis in November but...... mac_tlc

And here I was thinking he was talking about Celebrity as opposed to those TA's ! mac_tlc

I’d be interested in your observations and differences in the Retreat experience now vs. “then”. mac_tlc

Sure thing, here you go.

I agree. Geiranger, Flam and Olden are some of the most beautiful places we have ever been. mac_tlc

Wonderful pictures of Amsterdam. We were there before our Norwegian Fjords cruise in June. We really liked Pancakes Amsterdam !!! mac_tlc

Yah, but those were the two newest ships, so the older ladies may be different. Celebrity Silhouette - 7/17/24 - 11 N - Northern Europe Category 9/15/2023 9/22/2023 9/29/2023 10/2/2023 10/3/2023 10/4/2023 V1 $ 6,412 $ 6,116 $ 6,022 $ 6,022 $ 6,022 $ 5,545 Aqua - A1 $ 9,122 $ 8,997 $ 8,997 $ 8,997 $ 8,997 $ 8,401 Sky Suite N/A $ 12,197 N/A $ 12,197 $ 12,197 $ 11,841 Aqua SS $ 13,572 $ 13,447 $ 13,447 $ 13,447 $ 13,447 $ 13,041 The Sky Suite dropped $356, the gratuities are $506 and they eliminated $800 OBC. A net increase of about $1250. The V1 dropped by $477, the gratuities are $396, a net decrease of $81. The A1 dropped by $596, the gratuities are $407, a net decrease of $189. Well, at least some categories are lower, but the Sky Suite is getting more expensive and less competitive with other lines. mac_tlc

Surely, the Beyond example is an outlier, so let's look at another one: Celebrity Ascent - 2/2/2025 - 7N Eastern Caribbean Category 9/15/2023 9/22/2023 9/29/2023 10/2/2023 10/3/2023 10/4/2023 E2 $ 4,667 $ 4,467 $ 4,468 $ 4,468 $ 4,468 $ 4,440 Aqua - A1 $ 6,256 $ 6,131 $ 6,131 $ 6,132 $ 6,132 $ 6,018 Sky Suite $ 11,094 $ 10,969 $ 10,970 $ 10,970 $ 10,970 $ 10,662 The Sky Suite dropped $308, the gratuities are $322 and they eliminated $600 OBC. A net increase of about $614. The E2 dropped by $28, the gratuities are $259, a net increase of $230 The A1 dropped by $114, the gratuities are $259. Again, all categories are higher today than yesterday. mac_tlc

So, as I stated in some prior posts, I have been tracking four random cruises since they announced this "enhancement" to our cruise experience. I will continue to track them for the next few weeks just for the heck of it. All prices are for two, all included option. Lets look at the Celebrity Beyond 8N sailing on May 18, 2024: Celebrity Beyond - 5/18/2024 - 8N Southern Caribbean Category 9/15/2023 9/22/2023 9/29/2023 10/2/2023 10/3/2023 10/4/2023 E2 $ 5,258 $ 5,058 $ 5,146 $ 5,146 $ 5,146 $ 5,070 Aqua - A1 $ 6,454 $ 6,330 N/A N/A $ 6,331 N/A Aqua - A2 $ 6,131 $ 6,131 $ 6,131 $ 6,014 Sky Suite $ 9,936 $ 9,811 $ 9,811 $ 9,811 $ 9,811 $ 9,547 Looking at the Sky Suite, the price since yesterday has dropped $264. The gratuities for two are $368 and they eliminated $600 OBC. So a net increase of close to $700. The E2 dropped $72, the gratuities are $288 for two. The A2 dropped $117, the gratuities are $296. All categories are more expensive today than they were yesterday. mac_tlc

I disagree. Many of the "little" personalized things that the butler did is now self service. Whether it be dealing with laundry, morning coffee, afternoon deliveries, or a drink or two, you are now on your own -- just like any other stateroom. That's fine if that is what was advertised and sold to you -- it most certainly is not. To state by Celebrity that nothing has changed is disingenuous at best. To have never had any outward communication to the SS guests about the changes is ridiculous. You have a stateroom attendant, who puts on a retreat host shirt when they enter your SS, the retreat concierge's (who have always been there) and a Manger -- somewhere overseeing everything. Why would someone who spends a good chunk of change "want to hear the negativity"? I just want the product that I bought to be delivered -- no more, no less. mac_tlc

It appears that much of what used to be provided by a butler is now self service. We would always give any laundry to the butler, especially on day one when some things may not travel well. We would have a standing order for coffee and danish at 8:00am. Told the butler once and it appeared every day. Can I fill out the card like I do on Royal when not in a suite? Yes, but inevitably I would forget a day or two. Now -- nothing will show up. I'll get good use out of the Berkus totes filling my own fridge. Couple the large price increases with the reduction in service -- regardless of what Laura wants to call it --- and the SS experience has lost a lot of value. Until it returns, if it ever does, we are not booking any suites on Celebrity. We will sail the two we have booked at what now appears to be great pricing and find something else. mac_tlc

Unless they change the itineraries, every summer, from mid-May through the first week of August, whichever Oasis class ship is sailing from Cape Liberty NJ will visit Port Canaveral on Sunday because it will depart NJ on Fridays. Will then sail past Wonder in port. Beginning the second week in August, typically, the NJ based ship will switch to a Sunday departure and visit PC on Tuesday. It has been this way in 2022 and 2023 with Oasis sailing from NJ and is the case in 2024 with Symphony taking her place. mac_tlc

Yup. We have a house in Orlando so often on the weekends we go to lunch at Fishlips and watch the ships from Jetty Park. mac_tlc

And here is Oasis approaching Terminal 6.

Here are some pix when Oasis arrived at PC and sailed past Wonder.

Andrew, We have three Celebrity cruise booked but they were done a while ago and the pricing is much better than now, probably about half for two of them. We also booked Oceania for a TA in Fall 2024 after Celebrity cancelled two on us. Pricing for a bigger room and hopefully better service was less than we had booked on Celebrity. Also booked the HAL Koningsdam because of the intriguing itinerary to Hawaii but being round trip out of San Diego. We have no desire to do a land AI. Rather be on the water. Royal’s suite pricing has gone way too high, especially Wonder and Icon. Owners suites at over $20K for two for a week? Come on. Not interested in 3/4 nighters so Utopia is out. I’ll investigate whatever ship comes to NJ for summer 2025, only because it’s easier with the grandkids, but the pricing will probably be prohibitive. We are also going to do an MSC Yacht Club, just haven’t picked one yet. Probably Meraviglia out of NY or Seashore out of PC. Viking has some great longer itineraries, like Amsterdam to NY or Bergen to NY, but their payment policies and some contradictory reports of their treatment of wheelchair guest has us on pause, but I think we will try them at some point. I’ve looked at Regent but the pricing seems much higher and the ships are much smaller, maybe too small for us. That was one reason why we decided to try Oceania, the Vista is 1200 people while Regent is 500-750. mac_tlc

Following along. After numerous Celebrity cruises we also are trying Oceania next year with a TA on Vista. mac_tlc