GRHinPorts

Hi there, my husband and I just booked this cruise as well. It will be my 8th cruise and 3rd with Pied Piper... it will be my husbands' first cruise. Some of our friends might be coming along as well. We are looking forward to the trip. To be honest, I don't care much about Nassau but I love PR.

Cheers.

 

Stephane

Great! The more the merrier and all that.

The itinerary looks a good one. Not been to Nassau or Punta Cana so a couple of new ports is an added bonus. Its just great to get away from the UK to Florida and the Caribbean at that time of the year.

To answer my own thread and to anyone else who finds this and is interested its now been confirmed that the Post Thanksgiving Cruise is sailing out of Miami on Saturday 24th November 2018 on Celebrity Equinox and calling at San Juan, St Thomas, Punta Cana & Nassua.

Good itinerary and ship combo so I am thinking we are definitely in. Just hope we're not all alone as everyone else has decided to go for the Maiden Celebrity Edge cruise in December :cool:

Pied piper has announced the maiden voyage of the edge for mid December 2018. I would imagine the usual huge crowd on the post Thanksgiving sailing would be about 1/2...

 

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Thanks. Not sure I am that keen on taking a maiden voyage on any ship as there are usually inevitable teething problems. Also mid December is a little too close to Christmas I am thinking.

Looking through my past emails, the 2017 cruise was announced on June 29, 2016 and the 2016 cruise was announced on May 6, 2015. Past performance yadda yadda.

Thanks for this info! Gives me some idea to work with.

Hi....Does anyone have any idea when Pied Piper might release the details for this? I am keen to book this one but although there calendar goes out out until the end of 2018 they are holding out on the details for post-Thanksgiving.

The cruise will probably start on Saturday November 24th and I am just hoping it will NOT be on the new RCI Symphony of the Seas which is also due to sail out of Miami on that day.

Any info (such as when they released the dates for this cruise last year) would be greatly appreciated?

Unfortunately, as long as most cruisers don't really care about sauna/steam facilities, and the new thermal suites are working as revenue centers, that will be the way going forward for RCI and Celebrity. We'll keep enjoying the older, smaller ships that have the free, gender-separate facilities in nice locker rooms (and with decent fitness centers). I just hope we wear out before those ships do.

Of course you are right in what you say. And I agree with your final hope too.

I also think (hope) their will eventually be some market pushback on this so at least some ships retain free single sex facilities.

Ultimately cruise holidays will be far less appealing if its all about being nickel and dimed and then not actually even being able to get what you want. And there are plenty of other ways to spend our holiday money.

Im guessing the new Celebrity Edge will be another new behemoth that thinks its a good idea for a cruise ship to have no free gender separate sauna/steam facilities. Or does anyone know otherwise?

Shame really. Just another cruise ship to cross of our list. Hopefully the marketing departments will eventually get the message.

Hey days@sea, I'm on the Empress right now and it's a lovely ship, the renovations have left her is good shape. But I am sad to say they didn't spend much on the spa or gym.

 

The gym is really an after thought, they placed it out in the open in the balcony area of the Viking Crown lounge. There is no change rooms or showers available, you basically have to walk your sweaty post workout self through the lounge to exit. It's a similar situation to get to the rock wall, you have to go through the lounge.

 

The spa in small, I believe I counted 6 treatment rooms, one being a couples massage room. Other than the showers in some of the rooms there is no wet area at all, no sauna or steam coed or single sexed.

 

From these two fronts the ship is a disappointment but elsewhere it is a perfect small ship for a short get away.

 

 

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I dont think I will be alone on this thread in saying that this is exactly the kind of cruise ship I will not ever bother booking. It will be a big shame if this is the way many cruise lines are going to go.

Just over a couple of weeks now to our cruise round the Med so thought I would give this thread a little bump to catch the eye of any late bookees.

There is a nice big dry sauna in the mens change rooms that will sit about 12 and has two nice portholes that let in natural light and give a good view.

The Persian Garden is a bit rubbish. Mixed sex and not all that warm in the steam room. Also windowless.

Hi there! Only just seen this so hope you get my reply.

Me and my other half are travelling on this cruise (also with his parents) and very much looking forward to it since it will be our first holiday in 6 months. We are from the UK and have met plenty of friends from the USA on other cruises so it would be great if we can meet up.

Cheers,

Gordon

Hi....Me and my OH are on this cruise but we booked it separate from Pied Piper. I tried to get linked in with PP some time after booking but because we are from the UK and booked with a UK travel agent the only way PP could take us was to totally cancel our booking and start again. Since we had a great price and loads of early booking perks this wasn't really an option. Anyway I hope we can catch up with some of you guys even though we aren't part of the main "group".

Any information on Cunard? Especially QE and QM2.

Just got off the QE on Wednesday from a round trip to the Canaries and back. The sauna was pretty busy all the way thru with several regular guys.

The sauna is in the locker room and is free of charge. Its not huge and feels crowded at 6 people. It has a nice window over the ocean which is very relaxing as the sun goes down.

Its the same set up in the Queen Victoria but in the QE they are missing a clock, a water cooler, a couple of benches and a hair dryer which you can find on the other ship. Guess this is budget cut backs.

The lack of benches is the biggest drawback as it means there is less space for cooling down in between sessions.