kirtihk

Yes, yes, yes… from the last sip of neat Scotch (enjoying sounds of piano or flamenco guitar notes) to the first glass of Champagne (preferably with black caviar)! So, sleeping time flies like a light!!!

I read your Ponant post (so many colorful details - sounds like almost a novel). In most, it correlates with our experience. Actually, I am similar to you toward what you expect and like on a cruise - it is a ship, ocean water, a whole cruising atmosphere changed from morning to day to night “routine” (it was developed and evolved in that direction over 24 years of cruising). My mantra is “every minute counts on a cruise”; therefore, I developed sleeping from around 1-1:30 am to 6:30 am only enjoying every aspect and angle of the best vacationing choice - the cruise!

The same with us (couldn't refuse - more than quadruple itinerary for less than double the price you refer!). What didn't you like in Fort-de-France? We will have a Seadream cruise in November 2025 stopping there.

Oh, you booked around us (combined 3-leg itinerary - March 14 - 30, March 30 - April 16, and April 16 - May 1). If you booked May 1 - May 12, we might see you, perhaps, around disembarkation (ha-ha!). Actually, I saw on some web sites that there are 2 choices: April 30 from Ashdod and May1 from Haifa (I don't know whether it's correct, though, because on the Silversea site there is only May 1st choice, and we disembark on May 1st).

Silversea already released a while ago its 2026 140-day Silver Dawn World Cruise and 10 individual segments (some cabin categories for different segments are already sold out). Regent went even further with bookings available up to May 2026 for all ship.

I wrote “from my experience” on purpose - therefore, I cannot evaluate other cruise lines. You must be correct, anyhow.

I should add: we had a South Pacific cruise on Ponant Le Soleal on March 8-24, 2020 (obviously, Panda cruise) - that was the best cruise, but now as all cruise lines, Ponant went down.

All right: as of today, - Seabourn, Regent, Ponant, Azamara and Celebrity (on par), Norwegian (just returned from 7-day New England and Canada cruise on Escape).

Of course, not!

I modified a little my post.

Nobody is perfect (from an experience for last 2 years) - not Azamara, not Celebrity, not Regent, not Seabourn, not Ponant, nobody…

Panda is even a better (fit).

One way or another, every cruise line (including Regent, Seabourn, Ponant, and others) was constrained to decline service since December 2019 in multiple aspects - we first experienced it on a Ponant Le Soleal March 8-24 South Pacific (obviously, Shmandemic) cruise; everyone knows a reason; so, there is nothing to discuss like "who is doing less damage to their image". It is what it is. I don't think hopping from a cruise line to a cruise line helps - it's "a dog is chasing its own tail, so to speak" mentality. Azamara is not an exception: we observed it during our June 24 - July 10, 2023 Intense Norway cruise on Pursuit.

Nice to hear about Seadream. We've been on Seabourn Venture (a new ship) expedition cruise (264 passengers): it's basically what you described about Seadream. We booked the Seabourn Pursuit (another new ship started cruising just a few weeks ago, the same size as Venture) expedition cruise for next April while on board.

Only if one makes a quote on the day prior to the day of the tips removal from the "All Included" option.

The Retreat is not (and wan not) close, because (as I say) on Regent the entire ship is for your dispose regardless of a cabin category, and it has the highest "ship passenger to space" ratio.

I came back from a cruise a few days ago. I always look at the source web site for an actual information. I've just saw this thread, looked on the Celebrity web site, and I don't see "the change announced by Celebrity for new bookings after October 3" there.

So, it appears as the past 10-15 years' Choose 1 or choose 2 or sometimes choose 3 from the list of 4 promotions. Games, games, games. The bottom line is to make a decision which cruise and with what cruise line to choose, as always, one needs to calculate the whole booking "picture" (price, included and not included extra items, potential OBC, itinerary, number of cruise days, cabin category, refund/OBC from TA, excursions prices, and such).

So, will it be only drinks and Wi-Fi or something else replacing tips?

Do you know whether it will affect currently booked itinerary? We've booked (a few months ago) a March 3, 2025 Millenium cruise in Aqua category.

We've been in Shetlands (August); the high temperature was 48 F. The island (including ponies) was beautiful.

Where is the gratuities not shown anymore? I still see them today in the "All Include" rate on the Celebrity web site: Get our most popular amenities—drinks, Wi-Fi, and tips—prepackaged when you add All Included.

A game of words

It is not; it is a simple arithmetic calculation - if a country has no tipping “culture”, restaurant employees would get whatever agreed upon salary, and a food item’s price would include a prorated portion of what would be a tip amount (and tax, by the way, too) in US. If a customer accept (l purposely did not write an “s”), such an item for that price, they (the same as for a missing “s”) buys (again, the same) and enjoys the product. That’s all.

I will accept Calvados only - the only appropriate drink within French environment!