jsacco20

On 9/13/2023 at 10:16 AM, hkaya said:

Thanks a lot

As well as the Robotic Bar…

13 hours ago, peacefulOR said:

Could you share your opinion of the hardness of the beds? I've been reading that the Quantum is one of the worst for "rock hard beds".

 

We're also wondering about your impression of the MDR meals.....a poor experience on the Navigator recently!  Thank you for offering to answer our questions. I hope that you had a great time in Alaska.Rainey

Was on 2 weeks ago and my bed was uncomfortably hard. I usually don't complain too much about beds since I'm not sleeping on them for long but it's actually one of the few things I mentioned on my survey. 
 

FWIW, I happened to enjoy all the dishes I had in the MDR. For the cuisines that didn't really stand out to me, we went to specialty that night. 

48 minutes ago, Ocean Boy said:

@jsacco20Your pictures truly make me want to go to Alaska.

It was beyond what I ever could have imagined. Always joked that I wanted to do it all while I was here because I would probably not ever come back. Definitely coming back. 
 

ps: I got married on Explorer 🙂

And while whale watching, our Captain took us to the shoreline where he usually sees bears in the wild. And we saw one! 

Did Fortress of the Bear, Raptor Center, and saw all the Salmon in Sitka. One of the most beautiful places I've ever been. Also did a whale watching boat. One of the best days ever!

Pics from the Glacier Excursion yesterday.

21 hours ago, ktope said:

We are coming from New Hampshire (greater Boston).  I am sailing with my husband and my 9 year old daughter.

We live in NJ. My husband, daughter (11), and I have done a 10 day on Anthem years ago.
 

We have a 11 of us! It was my 40th bday party/present that never happened in 2020 (that one got cx’d). My parents, siblings, and their kids (13,6.5, 5)! 

I’m sure we’ll be hard to miss 🤣 Hopefully our kids can meet up! My daughter is still friends with the kids she met on that cruise and they still email each other. 
 

10 hours ago, ktope said:

You are wonderful, Seadog67!  I am booked on the April 24 cruise and I am watching your posts closely.  Thank you!

Me too 🙂

9 hours ago, 1992cruiser said:

My daughter will turn 6 two weeks prior to our cruise. My other daughter will be 4. Does anyone know if they will allow a 6 year old to drop down to the 3-5’s?  

They will be fine either way, but would prefer them together. 

The only time they allow other ages into a different group is if there aren’t many kids onboard and they end up combining everyone. They will most likely be in the same ‘area’ but doing a different activity. They are usually really good about grabbing a sibling if one of them gets upset or just needs to see a familiar face 🙂

My 9 yr old is still on the ‘younger’ side but did fine in the age group change. She is easy and can do fine with either but she loves the younger kids (most likely due to younger cousins) so to me it’s a non issue. They find ways to get them all included and the younger kids always find their ways to hang together. I wouldn’t worry! 

I just got off Celebrity Edge and there were a total of 29 kids onboard. Great cruise to go on if you don’t want to see any kids. 

My daughter was 7 when she did it. I didn’t participate but I stayed in the cafe where it took place and had a drink. My daughter was the youngest with maybe one other older kid and the rest were adults. They made a ‘cheeseburger and French fries.’  It was pretty elaborate. I definitely agree that it depends on who is onboard. The teacher was extremely helpful in assisting my daughter so I didn’t feel the need to help. It’s definitely worth the money though if your wife is interested at all in participating. 

19 minutes ago, John&LaLa said:

 

They get around that by saying reservations required😉

 

Anthem CK is a very different animal from what I've been told

Well darn lol

We are staying in a JS in August on Oasis so I guess I’ll find out then! I now know to make reservations! 😬

We have never had a problem eating at CK in a JS on Anthem. We ate there every night at 6 except for the 3 nights we ate at other specialty restaurants.
 

Strange. Never even noticed anything saying it was based on availability. 

We didn’t have anyone watching over the reception at the entrance. There was a sign that said private party and we did have a few guests of our guests that were also sailing come into the reception (with their own drinks) with no problem whatsoever. 

7 minutes ago, cb at sea said:

I have a feeling it's because you're "catering" a formal reception....perhaps you could rethink it, since everyone will be a passenger, and just head to the bar of choice and party without a "reception".

This is a great idea!

11 minutes ago, Merion_Mom said:

 

There were no drink packages 11 years ago.  This conflict would not have arisen.

Exactly. Which is why I said we just paid for alcohol to be included in the reception. 

Oh and also, I had a travel agent in charge of everything so they dealt with the (mostly) inept 3rd party company when it came to requests and such so it was a huge relief that I didn’t have to deal with that regarding the ceremony and reception. As with anything, there are always going to be things that slightly go wrong but nothing that was obvious to anyone but me. I also knew I had to dial back my expectations since it wasn’t really in my hands at all. I did pack a suitcase filled with decorations and things that I wanted to make it personal and had my friend go to the lounge and set that all up with the staff. She made sure to sort of fix anything that was relayed incorrectly or that they just decided to do on their own. 

Hey there! I got married on the Explorer 11 years ago so I’m not sure what has changed (if anything) but it was great. We had 150 people come onboard for the ceremony and reception then gave everyone the option of sailing with us (which 90 something did!). To answer your question, we paid extra for drinks to be included during the reception. Unfortunately there are some things that just don’t make sense but it’s kind of like how you have to pay for room service alcohol. 
 

If you have any other questions feel free to ask and maybe I can help! 

33 minutes ago, edgee said:

I was on the cruise. Plenty of NFL games. A choice of four games (two early/two late) on Sunday afternoons and Thursday, Sunday and Monday night games. Someone can correct me if I am wrong, ,but I do not believe I saw any college games. While Celebrity, like most cruise lines have ESPN and ESPN2, in the Caribbean they are forced to carry the Caribbean version of the networks, so when I hoped to view college football, I was unfortunately treated to a cricket match or soccer.

Ha! Not quite the same! 
 

Thanks so much for responding! Our team happens to be playing on Sunday AND Thursday night and I promised my husband he would be able to catch at least one of the games (without really knowing the answer. :P)

Do you happen to know if they show any football games? 

21 hours ago, mayleeman said:

 

 

Don't scoff at the warnings.  I bought one of the early cheaper models before I saw any of the warnings. I would routinely get winded after only about 2 minutes of using it. I thought I was just out of shape. But with my regular snorkel I could swim 15 to 20 mins nonstop. Only after reading about the deaths in Hawaii and subsequent investigations did I learn that my problem was due to excessive CO2 buildup in the mask that didn't clear out as well as does a tube (and the better fullface versions).

 

Had I bulled through trying to build stamina, it could have been dangerous. Trust me, it only takes a few minutes to be affected, and any breathing accidents in the water ain't pretty. At a minimum, it is only sensible to research your purchase and make sure it exchanges air properly.

 

I wasn’t scoffing at all! I was merely stating that because we aren’t scheduled for any snorkeling excursions and we literally are standing at the beach looking in the water (not even swimming) we’ll be good. 

1 hour ago, Fouremco said:

Given the dangers and the number of deaths associated with some versions of full face masks, particularly less expensive models, I hope that you've done the necessary research to ensure that the design of the ones you have purchased is safe.

For the few mins we put our face under the water while at the beach to look at fish, we’ll survive. But thanks. 

I usually just use the ones provided however, we now have the full face ones so we are bringing them with us.