leaveitallbehind

Not to mention that most cruise lines - including Celebrity, the OP's line of choice on this post - do not have self serve laundries on board. So along with the sink method, you would be waiting on - and paying for - the ship's laundry service.

If you are looking at these sites for information relative to any specific cruise that you may be on, the information provided by the cruise line and the published itinerary is all that is necessary to have and would be the most accurate. Otherwise, the only value IMO in these sites in terms of potentially useful Information would be relative to other ships that would be intended to be in port with our ship at the different ports of call on our itinerary.

Pack less and bring more cash. (For port of call spending - and the US $ is universally accepted in the Caribbean). Just my opinion but there is no need for shoe storage bags, over the door organizers, wall magnets (to hang what, exactly?), or other such extra clutter as the staterooms have plenty of well thought out storage for anything you would typically need to bring. Make sure you have extra prescription medications on hand and any other personal OTC meds that you would normally take. One thing we learned early on is to store your luggage under the bed so it is out of the way, and each day place any dirty laundry from that day in it. In this manner your worn clothing is out of the way each day and by the last night of the cruise you are 90% packed for your return trip home. Nothing unique to Celebrity (great cruise line!) or the Caribbean in terms of suggestions other than to enjoy your cruise.

IMO aft view staterooms are very desirable, as they often have larger / deeper balconies and offer a unique view from behind the ship. (Most cruise lines also price them as premium locations). I doubt that the beam will take away from your enjoyment of this location.

No more cumulative trash than land based resorts. And there are very strict guidelines on how this trash is handled on board with segregated recycling and clean burn incineration. The cruise lines, for the most part, are very responsible in this effort or face rather stiff fines in consequence. And even with your valid point, there are still almost 300 times as many commercial ships as cruise ships as sea, which IMO still has to be considered in scale with any environmental concern. The cruise industry is very regulated when it comes to environmental impact and for the most part I believe they do a very respectable job with this. My opinion with this entire discussion is that most conversation and criticism of the cruise lines don't do so in full context or always with accurate information.

To add, most cruise lines publish their upcoming itineraries about 18-24 months out, and typically roll them out seasonally.

Everyone who cruises has their first cruise and there are likely to be a number of other first timers on board with you, so I wouldn't worry about that at all. I'm not sure what difference that would make anyway and would not be anything that would concern me. As to the nationality mix of passengers, there is likely also going to be a variety of countries represented as most cruises have people from all over the world on board in our experience. Keep in mind that to my understanding, only about 10% of cruisers are aware of Cruise Critic, so the sampling of people who would be on any given Roll Call would be very small in comparison to the total number of passengers on board. Not sure that would be a factual representation of who you will encounter on your cruise. My suggestion would be to not worry about whether or not this is your first cruise and go with the intent of enjoying what is offered on board and with the ports of call on your itinerary. If, as most of us do, you enjoy your first experience, it will most likely not be your last. And then you can look to spot the first timers on your next cruise - LOL.

Not all cruise lines are "add-on" based. There are those that are all inclusive to include gratuities, wifi, beverage packages, as well as some to include specialty dining and shore excursions. And although large cruise ships also mean large passenger volumes, their design allows for many varied venues to mitigate large crowds in many areas and long queues. In our experience the lines were waiting to enter the MDR and the first to depart the ship in ports of call, in particular when tendering is necessary. But it certainly is not for everyone and your tastes and preferences are valid. Unfortunately I think the article continues in many of its' points to perpetuate the misperceptions of many about cruising.

Idubs - See my response above to that. I do not believe cruise ships - in particular the newer ones - are harming the environment nearly as much as the 10's of 1,000's of commercial freighters, tankers, and other similar vessels on the high seas. The math just doesn't support the environmental harm argument IMO.

Not surprising as the Mexican Riviera, while very nice weather wise, is still considerably north of the Caribbean - more in the latitudes of the Gulf of Mexico, which is above the Caribbean. Still a pretty big difference weather wise that time of year.

We have done numerous Caribbean cruises in that timeframe and all have been excellent weather wise. The Bahamas, which is much further north than the Caribbean, can be less predictable as it is essentially southern FL weather, so what is normal that time of the year there will be similar in the Bahamas. IMO yes, you are "extrapolating". Stick to the Caribbean, plan at least a day travel in advance to help mitigate any weather related travel issues from the north, and enjoy your cruise. BTW the reason some of the fares are lower then has a lot to do with peak vacation travel with Christmas and New Years, when children are out of school, and the weeks before and after when family travel is much more limited.

Perhaps others can update with an alternate options based on recent experience, but IMO of all the options you mention my choice would be Uber. I don't think there will be any more convenient option that would be much less costly. There likely are multi passenger options that may improve on the cost, but you are then sacrificing convenience, personal service, and timeliness. We have used Uber many times in FL to include MCO / Port Canaveral, FLL / Port of Miami, MIA / Port everglades, FLL / Port Everglades, MIA / Port of Miami, etc., and always have them as our first option. Will do so again next week, MIA / Port of Miami. Just our preference.

LOL - I thought you meant RCCL! Senior moment! So much for useless information. Like Radiance class as well. A couple of our favorite cruises were on Jewel and Serenade. I guess in reality - as they say - any ship I'm on at the time is my favorite!

Referring to RCCL that would be the case with the Vision class ships, of which Enchantment of the Seas is one. Several of the their other class ships (Radiance, Voyager, Freedom), however, have full circumference promenades that also allow access to the helipad on the forward deck. Oasis class ships also have full circumference promenades but do not provide access to the forward helipad.

Probably a good thing as in our experience with behind the scenes tours we have accessed crew stairways on more than one occasion and they typically are open steel steps that are a bit steeper than the passenger stairwells. They are also not as readily accessed. Just my opinion, but I can't imagine that they would intentionally be used during an actual muster drill other than as an emergency secondary access to the main stairwells. I certainly could be wrong, however.

I just take issue with the negative environmental issues in reason 14. Nearly all of the newer cruise ships are very environmentally friendly and most of the older ones have had to undergo upgrades to make them more green. But IMO the real issue is with the implied scale of the problem. In fact there are approximately 119,000 commercial vessels in operation globally. The number of cruise ships globally is just over 450. (Look it up). Whatever negative impact results from cruise ships IMO must be relatively microscopic compared to the potential impact from the sum total of the rest of the commercial vessels. Do the math. How green are they? But that context never seems to be reported with any negative focus on the cruise industry.

And for some unexplained reason when RCCL built Harmony of the Seas, at the time the third of the Oasis class ships, they eliminated the pool in the solarium. Big mistake, as this is the only adult retreat area on the ship. Go figure. This was the only ship in that class to do so. The first two and every one since includes it. I guess at times even the pros get it wrong.

@SPacificbound nailed it correctly! We have been to Cozumel in January a number of times and it is indeed hot. Shorts and short sleeves for sure! I don't think you will need anything but a light jacket or sweater, and that would only be on board at night while cruising. I know you say you aren't going to the beach but if you did, the beach and swimming would be very pleasant. Assuming the balance of your itinerary is Western Caribbean, which will have all of your ports of call in a similar weather pattern - if not hotter, in particular south of Cozumel. Enjoy!

Again in our experience, but we have not had any issues retrieving our luggage early. While it is true that the lowest tag numbers are supposed to be handled first to the luggage area, all of the luggage has typically been available by early morning. You can also go to guest services to request a low number for early departure to assure it is available when you disembark. We have never had any restrictions imposed on us based on cruise line versus our own flight arrangements with this.

No judgement here, but glad you noted the timeframe reference as, to my understanding, cruise lines today frown upon crew interacting with individual passengers in the crew areas.

That sounds like personal time and not something typically sanctioned in terms of a tour by the cruise line.

You just provided additional clarity (to me) not in your original post. If you feel more comfortable on the bus due to the disembarkation time constraints then by all means do so. Different cruise lines perhaps but we haven't used the ship transportation in 30 years and are just more comfortable with the ease of Uber/Lyft or a cab. We also have not had any constraints leaving the ship (both with self and crew handled luggage) at a time necessary to facilitate the flight with our own transportation. The disembarkation call numbers are not generally enforced other than for early self luggage disembarkation - which anyone can typically arrange). Just our personal preference. Enjoy your cruise.

Don't go by other ships. Your cruise itinerary should indicate the intended return dock time for your ship. In our experience most ships actually plan to arrive several hours prior to that to begin the luggage offloading so you can commence disembarkation at the posted dock time. Confirm with your cruise line or your travel agent if you used one. If time is the concern I would not book the ship bus. As mentioned before they will wait to leave until all seats are full and luggage is on board, and then stop at the airport airline to airline. I would suggest Lyft / Uber as it is dedicated only to you and will be much more timely. Just my opinion.

Try any one of a number of people search engines on the internet. But if you are looking for the cruise line to assist, that won't happen as passenger manifests are not for public record and I highly doubt that they would release any of that information to you. (Although on our first couple of cruises back in 1992 they did publish a passenger name booklet of those on that ship for the guests. But that practice ended after that.)

Just for the sake of the discussion for newer cruisers, I had mentioned that ship time is at the Captain's discretion. It is my understanding that this decision is based on the convenience to the crew, not the passengers. Obviously, the thousands of crew members on board have their daily routines and work requirements based on a time schedule, which is the ship time and is typically based on the departure and return port time zone for closed loop itineraries. It can be very disruptive to these many crew members to have to adjust their work day schedule periodically during the week based on ports of call that may be in a different time zone than the departure port. It is far less disruptive to have the passengers take note of a possible difference in time and adjust their activities in port for that day accordingly. Besides, all ship based excursions take the time difference into consideration with their schedule, so there is nothing the passenger has to adjust for. It is only those passengers on their own in port that need to take note of ship v local time and plan accordingly.