vms

As of my last Celebrity cruise in Spring 2016, they still did the Laundry Bag discount on cruises of 7 nights. It was the next to last night of the cruise that it was offered. I did it on a 14 night cruise and I can't remember when it was- more than halfway through.

Back-to-Back cruisers received a complimentary bag of laundry for free.

I haven't had any issues with colors running or anything like that. They do iron in a little tag with your cabin number on it, which I sometimes forget to take out right away and then wonder why I'm itching, or find it months later when doing laundry at home. ;)

As others have said, worth is subjective.

Here are my pros/cons:

Inside pros:

Dark for sleeping

Great for napping during the day!

Encourages me to get out of the cabin and take advantage of activities/public spaces

Price point (especially as a solo traveler)

Inside cons:

Hard to wake up in the morning- I want to sleep the day away in all that lovely darkness!

Oceanview pros:

Love to recharge watching the waves from my room- no distractions

Easy to wake up in the morning- especially great for port intensive cruises where I need to get up and going early.

Can have great views coming into/leaving ports

Oceanview cons:

Not great for napping during the day

Have to be careful to remember to close the curtains to change clothes/swimsuit

Price

As a solo traveler, having an Oceanview or balcony means I'll spend more time by myself in the room and less time meeting other people. Just depends on what I want from the trip.

Also, be sure to do the math-sometimes a promotion will offer a beverage package, OBC, etc for booking oceanview or above, and so the value of that package should be accounted for.

I'm sure you'll enjoy regardless!

I've done both fixed and anytime dining. While several times during anytime dining I have found someone whose company I enjoy and we have made plans to meet up and dine together, there have been times that hasn't happened. The thing I dislike about anytime dining is having the same conversation over and over again each night- where are you from? what do you do? are you married? do you have kids/grandkids? Eating with the same group each night has turned the conversation from feeling like I'm in Groundhog Day to something more pleasant where the discussion can carry over from night to night.

While I always ask not to sit with others during breakfast in the MDR as a solo cruiser because I would prefer to read and wake up slowly, the tables are usually so close together that others want to chat. Usually they're dissuaded with a polite- I'm working on finishing this book- but occasionally they don't take the hint, which is frustrating. But I generally prefer it over the chaos of the buffet.

Another solo cruiser popping in to say that you should go for it! I love solo cruising and highly recommend it.

Another option for touring I haven't seen mentioned yet it is to pop into the roll call for your cruise and see if there is someone arranging a private tour that you can join. That can be more economical than a ship tour but you still will be with others and not on your own. You won't need a tour for the private island, but for Nassau, you might want one.

Also, when doing a tour, make sure to establish a tour buddy. On our ship's tour in Dominica, we almost left someone behind because the guide miscounted and no one else realized that she wasn't back on the bus. A "please don't let the bus leave without me, and I'll do the same for you" has always been well received by those agreeing to be my "buddy" for the day.

I made my final payment on Monday 6/5 through the new website. Within an hour or two I had received a new email with a receipt attached showing zero balance due. So if you didn't get that, I'd also recommend calling.

I've had to call every time to get my points doubled. Captain's Club has always fixed it quickly, but it is mildly annoying that they can't figure it out without prompting from me.

However, it's not annoying enough for me to stop cruising with Celebrity, so there you go. ;)

On a Southeast Asia cruise round-trip from Singapore, the man next to me was complaining about having to turn in his passport to the crew for the duration of the voyage, because you should never give your passport to anyone. And that he was sure his identity was going to be stolen by one of the crew by turning over his passport.:rolleyes:

I left before it was resolved but i suspect he either turned it in or was disembarked because there were multiple calls for people who hadn't turned in their passports before we left the cruise center, so it seemed that we weren't leaving until all the passports were accounted for.

I'm an "it depends" person as well. If the sight I want to see is quite far from the port where there is a concern about getting back in time, I'm more likely to do a ship's tour. While in Asia, I had 2 ports where my tour was one of the last aboard and the ship was waiting after the scheduled departure time, so that was a good decision. I SCUBA dive, and depending on the operation, they may require an extra fee to provide me with a buddy if I go solo, so going with the ship avoids that problem. Also, if I have OBC to spend, I may use it on a ship excursion.

I usually start by looking at the ship excursions to get a feel for what's available through the ship, then check out the roll call, trip advisor and google the ports to see what else I might be interested in, and then start making decisions from there.

I've only been to Sapphire, so I can't answer your comparison question, but I can tell you that chairs were available for rent in April 2016. There wasn't a ton of coral, but I had a couple of amazing sea turtle encounters while snorkeling. Minimal vendors to bother you.

If you are considering private excursions, be sure to validate what they mean if they say equipment is included. One private excursion I was on said equipment was provided but provided only masks & snorkels but no fins, which I didn't discover until it was too late. I didn't bring my own because I wanted to reduce the amount of luggage I was bringing, but due to strong currents, I was really sorry I didn't have them.

The only other things I've seen are things you might already know- there are 16 of them and they're only on deck 6.

I am very curious about them, but the prices are so expensive! I didn't expect them to be equivalent to 1 person rate, but I didn't expect them to be so close to the price for a double-occupancy veranda, given how much smaller the rooms are. I'd really like to see the cabin layout or some photos/illustrations to see how tight the room is going to feel.

I was just on this itinerary in November 2015 and would agree with the previous poster. Casino was closed, and I think shops were closed, but I don't spend time in either of those places, so I never noticed.

All other services were open that I could see- pools, all bars/lounges, shows including the very interesting Balinese dancers & musicians one night. All the dining options were available, and since we were there over American Thanksgiving they had a Thanksgiving Turkey Dinner option in the MDR. That was a really nice piece of home.

I went twice as a solo- once for lunch and once for dinner. Both times I had a beautiful two-top against the windows and had a fantastic time.

Are there still a ton of dishes on the menu I would love to try, but didn't have stomach space for? Sure. But I had a ton of fun eating there as a solo.

I do have a big appetite though. For dinner I had Disco Shrimp, Lava Crab, Lobster Escargot (all of these are not huge portions), Sushi Lolipops, Tacos & Guac & one and a half desserts. For lunch I had Disco Shrimp, Spring Rolls, Indian sampler, mini-sliders (that was really one too many) and lunch sized chocolate tombstone.

If you're not sure, I'd suggest a lunch if they're offering one. It was $20, so much less than the dinner price, and the choices were all from the regular menu, although there weren't as many of them. There were still more than plenty! You don't get to use the ipad to order at lunch, but that wasn't a big deal.

PS -- If I'm not prying too much --- what happened on your snorkeling excursion that resulted in cuts to your feet? DH and I are newbie snorkelers, and I'm trying not to learn everything the hard way. :eek:

:D Nope, not prying too much. Snorkeling at the Pink Beach on Komodo Island, Indonesia. Beach area is really more of a cove. Private excursion said "snorkeling equipment was provided". Once we were actually there, found out that they only meant masks & snorkels, not fins. Then, ended up accidentally getting caught in a very strong current that was further towards the center of the cove we were swimming in than I understood it to be from the guides.

While trying to swim diagonally out of the current & back toward the beach, instead of getting swept out to sea, I ran out of beach and ended up in the very sharp & slippery rocks that make up the ends of the cove. Strong current kept pushing me into the rocks, much like waves crashing on a shore, and so the tops of my feet/ankles and parts of my hands got quite cut up by the rocks. Luckily a few others who were there came to help me get back to the soft sandy beach and then back to the excursion boat, so all's well that ends well.

Lessons learned: 1) make sure they will have fins when they say equipment is provided, or bring your own, unless you are an extremely strong swimmer used to open water/currents/etc. 2) give a wider berth to the areas the guides say have strong current than you think you need to 3) stay calm - I knew this one already but it bears repeating! 4) (and to bring this post back to the topic at hand) bring an extra pair of shoes that can be worn if something happens to your feet

Thank you for your review! Hawaii is one of the states I haven't visited yet, and I'm very interested in the Pride of America as a way to see many parts of it.

Looking forward to more!

Thanks for a delightful review thus far! Love to see some of San Juan, where I'll be departing from in less than 2 months.

Looking forward to more!

To the OP- I wore very similar flip flops in the MDR, even on "formal" night, on Millennium on my Nov/Dec 2015 cruise. I also wore them in Olympic. No one said a word. And if they had, I would have pointed out that between my feet & ankles swelling and my unfortunate accident while snorkeling, leaving my feet with lots of cuts, I didn't have another pair of shoes I could wear without excruciating pain.

Wear what you need to, and don't worry about it. While it may be "bad manners" to not conform to someone's idea of the dress code, it is also bad manners to scold a perfect stranger who isn't doing anything to you.

I did a cash account on my recent Millennium cruise. What I was told is that it wasn't required to put a deposit down, but that once I had incurred a certain amount of charges that my card wouldn't be accepted onboard for charging until I had paid some of my balance off. My understanding is that the amount was based on stateroom type. Since I was in an Oceanview, the amount was $500 that I could charge without having to put money down, or that my balance could get to before they would call me to ask me to make a payment.

I put down less than I planned to spend total, but enough so i wouldn't be running to pay all the time, and then paid the balance on the last night. Easy.

YMMV.

I got 1 on my Nov 2015 Millennium 14 day cruise. It was a lobster that appeared on the last formal night when we had lobster in the MDR. But I know others on the same ship didn't get anything.

I wasn't sure if it was because I had left an extra tip for the room attendant who had taken care of delivering my laundry back, since it was the same day, or if it was just a coincidence. :) I didn't leave extra tips on the other days and didn't get any more.

I've dined in both in November/December 2015 and thought they were both excellent, if different.

Olympic can't be beat for the ambiance of the original furnishings of the Olympic ship. The food was to-die-for, but I love haute cuisine & the more formal service style. If that's not your thing, you might like Qsine better.

Qsine was just fun, with lots of different small plates & really fun and clever presentation of food.

If I had to pick only one again, I'd go with Olympic, but I enjoyed both and didn't think the upcharge was unreasonable.

Hilarious start to your review! :)

Thanks for doing this- I'm on this itinerary in April so I'm looking forward to your detailed review.

I'll be on the Millennium during many of those dates. Am I correct in assuming that I would be able to book these new itineraries through the future cruise sales desk on board on the loyalty dates?

I'm leaving in less than 1 month!! Every day gets more and more exciting.

Wonderful review! I'm more interested in the Dalmation Coast than the Italy ports, so this gave me a great idea of what to expect if I were to book this cruise.

Thanks much!

Thanks everyone! I checked the FAQ and several other places, but never realized that you could click on the During Your Cruise area without choosing one of the other drop-down options.

I'm having a head slap moment since it really was obvious after I got the directions, but glad to have such helpful people on the boards!

Happy Cruising!