Tom and Ingrid

In general, you MUST purchase Anne Frank House tickets on-line and SIX weeks in advance. It's a tough ticket to get if you wait and I don't think there is a "wait in line" option. I'm not sure what those folks were waiting for when you were there. So your sailing is leaving from Amsterdam? We sail out of Rotterdam at the end of July, and I was thinking X had moved to Rotterdam for all sailings. Maybe that's just coming soon, since clearly you're in Amsterdam 🙂

This. But also taking into account a time limit for that "vision" to be researched, planned out, and executed across one or more cruise years. It's not a "snap your fingers" situation, but rather a steady build towards a better pricing model for single (and all) passengers. I can imagine the current types of "sales" - ie "75% off second passenger" or "kids are free" - have the biggest impact on what the "average" booking looks like, so if making adjustments to the solo cruise pricing is a priority, some other pricing becomes a lesser priority, and the folks will start wondering "whatever happened to 75% off second passenger" or "where's the kids are free". I'd love to include my mom as a solo add on to our cruises, but she's a solo traveler, definitely not roommate potential for any other solos in my family, and not guaranteed to have a good time, so when I run the numbers and she is more expensive or as expensive as my wife and I together, I just don't go through with it. My "dollars and cents" (or "sense" in this case) over rules my good son tendency. 😄

I find the starting point for the length of a cruise to be 7 nights minimum. I can't imagine, if I didn't live in FL, how anything shorter would be appealing to me. I always filter out the shorter lengths when browsing sailing options. I prefer longer but not too long as I'm not retired, but anything up to 2 weeks is a reasonable length for a real vacation. The 7 night ones are good for a one week vacation and the 14 are great for 2 week vacations, I could only see offering shorter ones as part of a long weekend & holiday, or as a one time "gap filler" to get things staggered properly in ports. There are still remaining gaps in our Celebrity cruising map & ports list, but we're steadily chipping away at the bigger ones, and when looking to add to the pipeline, I do feel a bit constrained by what's on offer. Luckily, we're not that close to running out, so it's more a matter of getting them scheduled. But, yeah, I am hoping they start thinking more along the lines of what folks have been suggesting here - longer options and/or new ports of call. I agree that RCCL ships can handle a lot of the 4 and 5 day stuff easily and it really seems like that's the whole purpose of some of those bigger ships.

Our Southern Caribbean had Aruba & Curacao (plus Jamaica and the Bahamas). Fun for sure, but just touching the surface.

Yeah, maybe that's where Silversea could find some success.

Me too. And other than St Maarten, they'd be all new ports for me.

I find those ones "out of character" for X, but I may be wrong since they keep them in the line-up. What I do know is that when I talk to someone about cruises, if someone says they'll never cruise AGAIN, it is almost always because their first and only experience was an inexpensive, short, and not surprisingly not-so-fun Bahamas out and back. If I was Celebrity, I'd make sure ANY cruise I offered wouldn't be one that made folks never return, and those shorter ones seem to be the most likely to cause that to happen 😞

It's not avoidance because clearly logistics, planning, and a whole lot of stuff outsiders like us can't think of. But the HAL fleet is, as far as i can tell, the same size as the X fleet. If "they" can do it, "we" can do it! I've never spent much time looking at HAL, but honestly, I'd hope the cruise lines all try to learn from each other. Corporate overlap definitely seems to be a potential issue, but X is by far the more logical line vs the RCL ships - especially the new RCL stuff. To some extent, I am a little confused by X at times when they add the short cruises (say 4 days or the like), and knock off some like that 14 night BA-Valparaiso cruise. M or S class for sure for a lot of those with the E class filling the most "exciting" routes. I'd be fine with that.

...that they don't already have or have long ago dropped? The lack of a world cruise option got me seeing the big gaps they have to prevent even building a B2B2B cruise around the world, but then I also heard they dropped one of our favorite routes - the Buenos Aires to Valparaiso (or reverse) we so enjoyed in 2015. I get "political" instability can have big impacts (like perhaps Israel, the Suez Canal, or the East coast of Africa right now), but working around those hotspot areas, there still seems to be some gaps in their geographical options. Especially with many of us (but not nearly all of us) not choosing to repeat ports if possible, it would seem like there are more options out there for them than putting multiple ships in Alaska or the Med or the Carib. They could likely make repositioning sailings also be "world" legs and/or at least open up some places that have never been a Celebrity option or have been, but have been dropped. Where would you see them expand and include? Or are they doing just fine with the current coverage?

You'd think they could plot ONE of those every couple or three years. It doesn't seem too hard to copy the HAL one or tweak it to existing routes and just adding the Africa bit.

I really like how much I have learned from this single thread. Thanks everyone!

Which sort of makes me wonder if one can piece together a B2B2B2... series of Celebrity sailings to create a nice flow for a World Cruise?

We're on Silhouette in July for Norway, so I bet we'll have similar entertainment to you. In general, you'll get two of the bigger cast events - possibly the ensemble "romance bohemians hanging at a bar" Broken Strings show that has been around for a year or so (hopefully that's gone, but maybe not), but you can check the Celebrity site to see if there is more detail. There will 100% be a silent disco (or two) and likely the ABBA sing-along. Probably a R&R band in the theater, but it is not a given they will also be performing anywhere else. We were lucky enough to have a cruise a couple years ago with the band Our Lady Valentine, where we were in the same hotel with the lead singer pre-cruise. We talked with him throughout the cruise, and he indicated that their other non-theater performances were more ad hoc based on the cruise director liking their show and asking them to perform in other places like a late evening pool event. You'll also get the usual mix of magicians. comedians, and/or singer/violinist on the main stage with the more general strings or duos in the various bar areas. We're big fans of those smaller shows in places like Ensemble (on S class) or Rendezvous (on M class).

So, are there essentially 4x the options of the M & S MDRs, or more like 2x as many? I assume you're all fairly familiar with the M & S MDR menu, where there is there are a few appetizers and a handful of rotating & regular entree options. Is the E-class a noticeable larger selection of entrees (and maybe appetizers)?

Big "C"!! Not little "c"! But, yeah. I think I could enjoy that ship.

I've yet to do the Edge-class ships, but I got the impression that with four DISTINCT style MDRs, it would be most fun (for me, at least) to try each first - ie four different restaurants, but therefore four different servers and tables but whatever time I liked). So, for the experienced E-class cruisers, how does the MDRs song and dance play out? Is it the same set time vs anytime decision? And do they divvy folks up randomly to one of the four MDR? Or is there some process where you pick all that stuff out ahead of time? Clearly, to me, the "simplicity" of one MDR on the M & S ships is that you can easily get in the rhythm you like - same servers, same times, same table even - but with four distinct MDRs, wouldn't it mean you "miss out" on options from the other three MDRs when choosing a default or "regular" one just to get the same servers? I sort of get - from @barneyboy - that you could go to the same MDR every day, but order across the four different menus, but are the MDRs so similar that folks do that? Or is there real additional "value" to eating at a new MDR each night or rotating through them? I do think folks here discuss the specialty spots a lot, but the E-class "basic" MDRs seem equally as interesting having never dealt with them yet.

Ours was in 2016, so surely times have changed but hopefully not too much. We rented mopeds and cruised the island, which was a blast (among other things there).

Years ago we did the Summit NJ-Bermuda 7 night and really enjoyed it. How did you find the crowds? That seems to be the talk these days, and I've been considering revisiting a Bermuda cruise again, but not a ton of sailing options.

Assuming you won the imaginary "Any sailing, any ship, any time, no cost, all included" Celebrity give-away, what would you choose? Ie - no cost, all flights, packages, logistics, excursions, etc. included - what of all the current 24-26 offerings on the website would be your choice? My choice, and I assume for more than a few, it would be the recent additions of the Galapagos smaller vessels. So almost any of those three ships would be great options 🙂 Also, looking at a longer duration, the Tahitian Treasures looks fun combining our desire for a longer trans-ocean type cruise with some remote places we have never been. Having loved both Hawaii and New Zealand, those are nice starting and ending points, too. And at 19 days, that's a rare very long non-B2B cruise for Celebrity. I had never even seen that one, so now I'm actually putting it on my "watchlist" (although the NZ flights are hellishly long). How about you?

Well, "these days" and pretty much as far back as recorded history, too. That's a bit of the "human nature" coming out in many.

Sort of like a Presidential debate, you DON'T answer the question you are asked, but rather answer the "question" you want to focus on. Apparently, some folks like and some folks don't like their balcony doors being open. Go figure. 🤣

It would probably make more sense to add some teeth to the local ordinance? Make it a $1,000 fine per person on the boat/ship? Tiny fines mean nothing to a large business. Individuals are mostly deterred, but a ship with 3k-4k folks aboard would be on the hook for millions not the cost of a "drink package" for a couple.

I think the Hideaway is a different ship(s). Team Earth is on deck 7 of the Eclipse: as opposed to the Silhouette: ...and Reflection:

Echoing what folks say about kids and teens not be a focus of Celebrity. My feeling is teens will find their way while on board. Depending upon the time of year and the specific itinerary, there will a few to quite a few teens on board. How do those folks meet up beyond the specific Celebrity programs (like Teen Club) is probably similar to how they do it at school or the mall or wherever younger folks hang out. Since your kids have done other cruises, they're likely comfortable figuring that out on a ship in a brief period of time. Simple stuff like hanging by the pool, basketball/pickleball courts, the silent disco, Abba sing-along, or other "open" activities likely give them a bunch of options.

Check out the ship specific part of the Celebrity website and you can see the dining options, and also things like the deck plans which help you see where things are laid out. I also forgot to mention the Aqua class (Blu) restaurant and the Retreat class (Luminae) restaurants which you have access to if you are in those. For many, the main dining room is more than enough. For many others, it's all about trying out all the specialty restaurants (for additional cost). There is no shortage of good food especially if it is the first time on Celebrity. After many cruises, you'll know the menus and options (they evolve but not super fast), but at the beginning, it's a lot of choices (and they don't say no to trying more than one thing - two appetizers, two entrees, two desserts).