NMTraveller

5 hours ago, markeb said:

It’s from Hindi. It’s either an equestrian event or a gentleman’s club such as the British clubs in India. Gym is apparently”ball” in Hindi. Distinct from gymnasium in English…

Am I required to wear a "polo" shirt.  Asking for a friend. 😉

23 minutes ago, phoenix_dream said:

Exactly.  Not sure if  I like or agree with it, but that's the way of the world these days. Pay more, get more. In some ways I miss the status free sailings of when I started with Celebrity 30 years ago but those days are long gone. Got to get over it, quit cruising, or go to a luxury line.

Or go to a luxury line ...

Or shorten cruises and do more land vacations ...

When I first started cruising the cruises had the better service and prices.  Now all of that has changed...

16 minutes ago, Boatharbour said:

Maybe best to take a look at the latest posts on the Princess but someone has posted an email response from Princess. 

And many more posters are claiming that this policy has existed in the contract for many years...

18 hours ago, Teechur said:

Hopefully, Celebrity will be a better fit for you. 🤔 

If they maintain the no smoking/vaping in the cabins, then yes.  Those are my minimum requirements for a cruise.  So far Celebrity has that.  The no smoking in the casino is a bonus.

1 minute ago, Boatharbour said:

Maybe best to take a look at the latest posts on the Princess but someone has posted an email response from Princess. 

There were a myriad of responses from Princess.  I had my own...  None of them were consistent.  😁  Perhaps the reason for my skepticism.

27 minutes ago, Boatharbour said:

Latest update on the Princess board is that vaping isn’t allowed in staterooms. The passenger contract is being updated to reflect current policy. 

We will have to see.  One cruiser said that they heard this from Princess 😁  Why is it in the cruise contract?   I may consider them in the future if they really do remove this vaping in the staterooms.  Others had the same policy on their TV.  I have no desire to wait and see while cruise pricing goes up ...

The best response that I got out of Princess was that we will pass your concerns on to managment...  🤣  

What about HAL?  Apparently they are in the same brand and have the same language in the cruise contracts?

Show me the updated cruise contract and perhaps I will believe...

19 hours ago, RickT said:

Just off the Edge and while I expected to not like it I was pleasantly surprised.  Eden was fantastic and quickly became our go to location on inclement days and most evenings.  Very cosy with a nice layout and comfortable seats. 

I expected to like the Edge, and I did not like it as much as my S class cruises...  YMMV.

I like M class the best, then S, and then E.

I do not like the IVs, so I book an SV on E class.  I miss the forward-looking views on E class.  But if they are going to sell those views to the highest bidder then E class is a contender.  In my case E class was the only one that had a cruise where I wanted to go.  My next cruise is on Apex 🙈

13 minutes ago, davejensen70 said:

 There were no "seats to the sides," as those were taken up by Celebrity cruisers who were not permitted to sit in the roped off zones. We ended up with standard chairs that had been brought in against the back wall -- with no view whatsoever of the stage.

For whatever reason I do find that E class seems to be crowded wherever I go.  I expect to spend most of my time on the balcony on my next cruise...

We always go early and seem to find some of the best seating...  You snooze you lose... 🤣

1 hour ago, markeb said:

 A real Michelin 2-Star already reserved in London. 

Which one?  We are going to London/Paris next year.

3 hours ago, Charles4515 said:

They can do what they want but we have a choice of booking other cruise lines. Also there is no reason they have to use the Sky Lounge for  this particular private event. It is just plain wrong. It is bad customer relations. Another reason on a growing list of reasons for me to choose another cruise line over Celebrity. 

The choices of other cruise lines has gotten smaller.  Celebrity appears to be one of a few mass market lines left that does not allow vaping in the staterooms.  I just cancelled a Princess cruise for that reason...

57 minutes ago, chemmo said:

Whilst we are not taking a break from cruising we are definitely not cruising as often. We used to book one ‘world wide destination focused cruise’ a year plus one ‘crash out cruise’.

 

A positive from Covid for us was it made us revisit and thoroughly enjoy venues in the UK within a short drive of home in self catering lodges…We remembered and realised we could switch off, chill out and be surrounded by historical sites and enjoy great food and wine at a fraction of the cost of a cruise and no flights needed!

 

I think the second thing in our decision making is that before Covid a quality AI resort in a lovely venue wasn’t that much cheaper than a cruise whereas (when pricing from the UK to AI in the Mediterranean) AI is now a better option if the main focus is simply R&R…

 

So, in the future, I can see us as still enjoying a cruise a year but then using the rest of our holiday ££££ on a mix of AI venues or enjoying our wonderful country!

 

 

 

 

We find ourselves booking shorter cruises and flying to another country for a land vacation.

I find it amazing at what the cruise lines will do as justified by the cruise contract.  Apparently they don't have enough ships built to deal with demand (now) and are able to reduce the experience and still fill their ships.  

I call this the nickel and dime experience.  Once you pay for all of these upgrades you find out that you could sail on a more upscale line for less or the same.  On my last cruise I should have brought an accountant onboard to track the daily upgrades 🤣

For my next cruise it will be steerage for me 😁

Now the VIP theater seating is not where I would sit anyways ...

Even the upgrades have upgrades ...

1 hour ago, Charles4515 said:

My parents never invested in stocks. They bought CD s with high interest rates. When one was redeemed they shopped around until they found a new one to invest in. They did pretty well with those returns. 

LOL.  That is why the level of investment returns are returns invested with inflation...  Real returns...

The real returns are what determines whether a retiree investing in CDs can survive.  Lately they can't.  All returns should be adjusted for inflation for a real comparison from decade to decade or from year to year..

Why is this not a known fact???

If you get a 15% return and the inflation rate is 15% you are not making money...

I made high returns during this period, but again I did not make money...  Lesson learned...    

3 minutes ago, markeb said:

 

I knew that, but it was too easy to actually find out. And you made me curious...

 

I think I bought my first new car around that time, and interest rates were crazy stupid!

As they are now,  just not to the same level .  #1 and #2 ...

5 minutes ago, jwlane said:

It was a rhetorical question (I knew!  bought 1st house in '83).  They just think it's bad now.

You would have refinanced your mortgage.  I am not sure that you will ever get 3% again ...

29 minutes ago, markeb said:

 

And there were people who hadn't spent money for close to 2 years during the pandemic and had a lot of it to spend. See also: cruise pricing. 

 

If there's more money regardless of the reason than goods available to buy, prices go up. And if there's more demand for workers than workers, regardless of the reason, wages increase. And here we are.

A small percentage.... That is why you get inflation...

It is all about the larger trends,  not the small small ones.

Sooner or later the party ends that leads to inflation ...

5 minutes ago, Charles4515 said:

Prices don’t go up because wage increases. Wages increase because of inflation. Inflation has been caused by increases in the money supply. The government has been printing money. 

I agree somewhat... But they were also sending checks to people who had no desire to work...

Inflation occurs due to an overheating economy.  We saw people day trading AMC stock vs. working .....

The young were not working but the old were.  This is what I observed during many vacations.

12 minutes ago, markeb said:

 

13.87 for a 30-year fixed conventional mortgage...

 

According to HUD.

Ah yes,  we have not been this muffed up for 40 years.  Do we not learn???

#1 high and #2 high ...

Or #1 clown and #2 clown.

1 hour ago, Harrisonkid said:

All I know is if wages go up the products that comes in Will rise in cost to the buyers ..so buy as much as you can now before the increases happen… and enjoy

The federal reserve blames a lot of it on wage inflation.  That is what we are seeing...

Can't buy a new house or car due to the crazy rates ...

9 hours ago, chemmo said:

Never will I ever try the whole meal pasty…

I have never worn a pasty 🤣

6 minutes ago, markeb said:

 

That's not possible! Everyone on this board (who haven't taken a short cruise) KNOWS that these short cruises are simply booze cruises for the younger, disruptive, and noisy demographic Celebrity is pursuing. A report from someone who actually went on one is pure hearsay! 😁

 

(Glad you had a good time. If we lived close enough, we'd probably do a short cruise just for a quick getaway ourselves.)

Toga!  Toga!

Welcome to E class which is missing the Sky Lounge ...

I just cancelled my Princess cruise and booked a similar cruise on Celebrity ...

My plan was to have them install a diving board on the window so that I could go "outside" 🤣

And then the SVs became available...