So, I have been on Celebrity five times previous to this cruise. All edge class. I chose this trip because I was tired of the Caribbean, but it turned out to be something very different than what I expected. When I first booked it, it included Lahaina, which I understand is no longer possible because it burned down. However, Lahaina was replaced with a cruise of the NaPali Coast, and, as I’m sure the majority of you know, that was blown up because the captain decided to do a hotdog move on the trip before this. I have read the many, many reviews of the Sydney to Honolulu edge cruise before mine and understand all of the technical discussion, but the reality is that the captain made a decision to spin the ship around twice too close to the shore which prohibited us from going to the NaPali coast. What started out as a trip with five sea days ended up being a trip with seven sea days on a 10 night cruise. There was a couple that we met who had a wedding planned in Hilo and they had to move their wedding to a completely different venue because of the rerouting of the ship. That’s not cool. People were pretty cranky about the whole experience.
I was on a comped casino cruise and the state of Hawaii is one of only three states in the US that does not allow gambling so we understood that the casino would be closed the first five days, but it really ended up being longer than that because we had to return for a medical emergency which again, is nobody’s fault but it nonetheless affected the experience. Zero compensation for the itinerary change. Having said that, be very conscious of the fact that the casino experience is very different than it used to be. I gambled extensively for the days during which the casino was opened and I got $42 in comps. That is completely ridiculous. I’m accustomed to getting a bottle of wine in the cabin and all of my shipboard charges covered, but the world has completely changed. The host attributed it to the fact that Royal Caribbean Casino program is taking over all of the ships’ casino programs. But people should realize that things are very different in the casino from a player’s perspective. I only saw three decent sized jackpots in the whole time that I was on the ship.
We stayed in an infinite veranda cabin and I expected to hate it and I really didn’t. It was better than I thought it was going to be until about the fifth day. We tried to open our window and it would not open. We realized eventually that it was because the blind was off the track . We tried repeatedly to get it fixed, but no one ever came and it banged all night long. So that was a negative. We did not see our cabin attendant for the first day and a half. Another negative. We were in an aqua class room and the aqua class amenities were lovely. Anyone who complains about Blu has standards that are much much higher than mine and I consider myself to be a pretty sophisticated foodie. The staff in that restaurant were fantastic.
I have one more Celebrity trip booked for this summer and I think it will be better because it’s very port intensive. I will never do a crossing again unless circumstances change a great deal. It was just dull and boring. The lectures on board were only about Buddhist philosophy and some Hawaiian culture. It would have been better to have more variety. The comedy shows were meh. The production shows were all pretty good and the singers were fantastic.
One extraordinary highlight was the last night of the cruise, we were approaching Vancouver and the ship’s staff let us know that we would be able to see the northern lights. They rang the bells on the ship when the viewing started and we went up and saw them and it was amazing. Absolutely incredible.
