mahdnc

Glad to read this. What was the gift, if you don't mind me asking?

I don't recall seeing that limitation mentioned on this thread. Besides UK, I know CC members that have participated with PUPs being from Canada, Mexico, and Asia (I think I remember Hong Kong).

Our OP and his bride may be in a quarantine of sorts..........

I understand what you are saying and the trend is a concerning one for us non-retreat (non-surrender) passengers. Fortunately the space carved out for Retreat Guests is minimal on Infinity. It is limited to Michaels Club (which I rarely visited back in the old days) and Luminae.

In 2024, Celebrity's Europe ships are being sent back (westward) across the Atlantic on Oct 26, Nov 1, Nov 3, Nov 7, Nov 16, and Nov 21. So for 2024, you have an array of fall time choices for a European cruise. It changes from year to year, it will be interesting to see what they do in 2025.

When will Celebrity and Cruise Critic bring back the onboard Cruise Critic Connections gathering (aka Meet n Mingle)?

Last year, Celebrity returned to their normal schedule of releasing the next season’s itineraries and sailings in late Nov thru Dec. I would expect that Europe 2025 to be released during the same months this year.

That is quite true.

The S class FVs are overkill for 2 people (e.g. 2 bedrooms). One funny thing about them is that the FVs are furnished very differently among the S class ships. When Solstice came out, its FV cabin was barely furnished--lots of empty floor space. By the time Reflection was built, it was like the designers finally got it--they made proper use of the large cabin space and furnished it accordingly. Equinox (I think) and Eclipse FV furnishings were somewhere in between Solstice and Reflection. Silhouette's FV cabins were well furnished like Reflection, but that is history as her FV was converted into Horizon Suites (I cannot imagine paying the high prices for a Deck 7 Horizon Suite balcony). Here are some photos from Reflection FV 8107:

@mkuliesh, Here is a better photo of the TV wall mounting system and the different positions the monitor can be put in. This is taken aboard Eclipse's younger sister, Reflection

You are speaking of the S-class FV cabins, of course, as they are not anywhere as spacious as the M class FV balconies (as you know). The answer is that I very much liked them, with a qualification: The Deck 8 FV balconies are much much much better than the Deck 7 FVs. Deck 8 FV balconies are very wide, but have the standard balcony depth. In fact they are wider than a normal balcony. Plus the balcony area closest to the bow is actually enclosed on 3 sides so it offers protection from bad weather. Because the balcony has the standard depth, you do have to squeeze around the furniture to move around and you can't have a dining table sized for 4 (like you have on the M class FV balcony). Deck 7 FV balconies are not as wide. In fact it is less wide than a normal balcony (at least what I consider to be the usable portion that offers a view). A significant fraction of the balcony is taken up by the 3-sided enclosed area that I referred to earlier. It is not very good. It is difficult to visualize what I am talking about, so here is a photo of the port side FV balconies on Solstice. The balcony underscored in red is the Deck 8 FV. The balcony underscored in blue is the Deck 7 FV. The difference in the two sizes are obvious. The lousiness of the Deck 7 FV balcony is also obvious. Just to complete the discussion, the Deck 7 FV cabin interior area is also smaller than the Deck 8 FV interior. Deck 8 FV balcony (red underscore) vs Deck 7 FV balcony (blue underscore). Solstice, Jan 2018, Great Barrier Reef

Hi, and welcome to Cruise Critic, @mkuliesh. We sailed on Eclipse in 2014, 2015, and 2016. Our cabin (a family veranda cabin) had its single flat screen TV installed right above the stateroom desk. This TV was mounted on a metal bracket that included a swing arm so that the TV could be pulled away from the wall which created room for the TV to be turned at an angle so that other parts of the cabin could view the TV straight on. This feature should permit the TV to be positioned in a way for the bed in a regular stateroom to be able to comfortably view the screen. Eclipse FV stateroom television. Jan 2016.

@Kwilson51, Your cruise is stopping at San Juan, St. Thomas, St. Maarten, Tortola, and Dominican Republic. Of those ports, we have only dove at St. Thomas back in 2014. I initially tried to book our dives with St. Thomas Diving Club. Unfortunately they said that our cruise ship schedule at St Thomas (8am-5pm) was not compatible with their morning or afternoon dive trips. We ended up booking our dives with Aqua Marine Dive Center. That worked out very well and I highly recommend them. Eclipse was stuck having to anchor at Charlotte Amalie that day (6 cruise ships scheduled with pier capacity for 5) and so it was a tender port which made it more complicated to meet up with Aqua Marine's shuttle which was scheduled to pick us up at Havensight cruise terminal. We ended up needing to take a cab to get to Havensight. I would imagine that the diving would be excellent at Tortola which we have never been. Eclipse anchored at Charlotte Amalie on Jan 8, 2014.

Click on the "Points History" tab

We regularly sail in regular balcony cabins. When you get on board, you guys are going to have a great time and you will feel well taken care of. Besides, you are getting married on this cruise--you will feel anything but second class. Congratulations, by the way.

I have yet to receive it via email as well. Go to Post #6755 and use the link provided there to access the quiz.

Done x4 (one for each family member). Thanks for the link.

I just tried it and have no problems. Perhaps a different web browser will work better?

No, they weren't. My wife and I are notorious heavy packers.

Thank you for your reply. I was asking because I have been shopping for long haul tickets for a couple of trips and have been shocked (and unhappy) with BC fares. In one instance I am securing award seats for our Vietnam cruise on Solstice in Dec (ORD-SIN and HKG-ORD). Now that United has switched to dynamic pricing for their award seats, the number of miles needed tracks more closely with the actual price. In another case, I may have a business trip to Japan coming up that may involve flying from ORD to ITM (Osaka). In both cases the airfare (miles or dollars) for PE and BC have gone through the roof compared to pre-COVID. Flying to Hong Kong or Singapore used to be 40k/120k/180k miles for economy, PE, and BC respectively for flights in 2022 (that were never took because the cruise was cancelled). Now Economy is 100k, PE is 170k and BC is 300k miles. Sheesh RT flight to Japan in BC is currently like $16,000!

If I remember correctly, you usually book business class when you can. If so, did you book PE because BC was not available or prohibitively expensive?

Their communication was excellent. We traded emails several times because the number of passengers and bags grew. They always got back to me pretty quickly. RomeCabs has very clear instructions on where the driver would be and everything that occurred on the day of transport occurred as planned. Here was the confirmation email that I received from RomeCabs:

We stayed in Rome before our cruise last October. We hired RomeCabs to pick us up at our hotel (next to the Pantheon) at 10 am on embarkation day to take 5 of us and our luggage to the pier at Civitavecchia (32 Euros per person). We arrived at 11:16 am. Oct 22, 2022 9:55 am: getting picked up in front of our hotel (Albergo del Senato) to take us to Civitavecchia for our Constellation TA. Oct 22, 2022 11:14 am: arriving at the cruise pier in Civitavecchia.

We've yet to sail on E-class. Having said that, Eden seems to be a favorite among Cruise Critic members.

You will want to drive to Dallas, TX or Arkansas to see next year's total solar eclipse. Sorry to hijack this thread. I return your TV to its regular scheduled programming,