mahdnc

It was great to meet you as well, Noreen and Peader. It's good to know that your flights back to Ireland were so much smoother than your flights getting to Rome! I hope things go well when you talk to the airline. David and Marcia

Our group size was 12 which I think was the max. However Celebrity ran this tour on 3 different sea days during our TA.

That's what I did.

My wife entered the non-free slot tournament and I think it cost about $25-30 which we paid through our CP before the cruise.

I think the free CC slot tournament grand prize was $25 casino credit. The tournament was conducted several times during our 15 night TA sailing.

Ann, Glad to hear you guys had a good time. Were there a lot of passengers choosing the self walk off option? What were the factors that make you think that you are not certain about another TA? David

For our recent Constellation cruise (and I presume for all M class ships), the Elite Happy Hour exclusion was Martini Bar, and Cafe al Bacio. Embarkation Day was also excluded which I believe is fleet wide.

My wife played in one casino slot tournament and together we also played in a couple of free Captains Club slot tournaments on our recently completed Constellation TA. Here was our experience: The entry fee is purchased ahead of time as mentioned previously. Constellation used 8 slot machines (4 machines in a row x 2 rows). They take your SeaPass card to electronically register you for the tournament right next to the machines. When it is your turn to play, your name is electronically displayed on the slot machine that has been assigned to you. The Casino Host helps out here by calling out the names of the 8 players that are supposed to play. You are then given one minute to play. During those precious 60 seconds, you hit the spin button as rapidly as you can with your right hand and then when the bonus balloons came up on the slot screen, you had to touch them (simulating that you are popping the balloon) with the left in order to secure the bonus points. During the one minute that your right arm is starting to go numb from repeatedly hitting the play button, you can glance up to the upper screen of your slot machine to see your everyone else's score and your position. Your main slot machine screen would occasionally up date you on your position ("You are in 1st place!") as you are wondering if you right arm is going to fall off. When the one minute is up, the winner for that round is declared. Then another group of 8 people then play the next round. For the Captains Club free slot tournament you only got to play once and the person with the highest score from all the rounds win.

I think it is worth doing once although I was able to buy it for $99 before the pricing was raised a few months ago for our recently completed Constellation TA sailing. If you are interested, here are a few photos and descriptions of the tour: The bridge tour was a bit of a disappointment as it was not as good as some of the free bridge tours that I have been invited to because the bridge consoles were roped off so you couldn't get a close-up look at the controls. This may be because we were at sea where the other bridge tours have occurred at port. The highlight for me was the tour of the engine control room which I had never seen before.

As everyone has said, don't pay attention to the app yet. I tried to glean the same information from the app for my Oct 22 Connie transatlantic cruise and I found the menu to be an unreliable indicator in advance of the cruise. It should work in theory. Give your 10 night sailing schedule, it is pretty clear (as I am sure you already know) that your 2 evening chic nights will be Day 2 (sea day) and Day 9 (sea day).

Thank you for posting.

Correction, even the Halong Bay tours are available for my sailing. Somehow I missed it and the overnight tour is already sold out!

We are booked for the 12 night Singapore to Hong Kong sailing Dec 2023 - Jan 2024 (Solstice). This is the 3rd Lift and Shift from the COVID cancelled 14 night HK to Singapore Dec 2020 - Jan 2021 (Millennium). We need Hong Kong to open up in order for this cruise to sail as it is now planned.

Did you see this currently active thread?

This important piece of information was posted by @educated palate (Lael) over on the roll call regarding VAT refund. I thought I would post the link to it over here.

Here is some information on the tour from someone who took it in Dec 2019:

I am sorry, but that subject never came up. I know she is a Cruise Critic member favorite. I can see why. She was a constant presence in the dining room, doing many tasks to help her short handed staff. She worked her butt off and maintained a cheerful disposition.

Here is a slow motion video of the winner's egg drop:

On the plane ride back home today, I was going through my DSLR camera roll. It turns out that I did snap a couple of photos of the lighthouse with the high rise buildings in the background. The image doesn't have quite the sense of height that your photos do.

Thank you for the nice things you said in your post. Your time to see the waves and experience cruising is coming soon enough. Constellation is a very nice ship and an excellent crew. My flight had an 11:43 am departure. Your flight is leaving earlier. You definitely will want to do the self walk off to ensure you make it to TPA on time. It will also keep you ahead of the crowd and the lines that go with it.

In the past, yes.

Yes. Even the Angkor Wat multi day tour is available. The only thing that I haven't seen loaded are the Halong Bay tours (both day and overnight versions).

We made it home about 30 minutes ago. Time to unpack. I have to go to work tomorrow! I hope everyone else is getting home safely. I still have some stuff to post about the cabin and the Albergo del Senato that I may do here or on a separate thread. We also have to fill out the survey.

Our Dec 2023 - Jan 2024 Singapore to Hong Kong cruise (Solstice) is still on the books.

Daisy is a Poodle crossed with an Old English Springer.Spaniel. Springer Doodle or Sproodle. She is smart and very energetic.