markeb

Thanks! Probably sticking with the APS-C body for now. The 70-350 is almost 3/4 of a pound lighter, so that may be a factor as well. It’s in the B&H cart…

Yes. Probably every night. Some of them are meatless, some of them aren't. They've all been very good in our experience. Can't imagine that you could order from Tuscan, regardless of proximity. That would be like going into Capital Grill on 51st and asking for the tuna carpaccio from Le Bernadin. They're across the street from each other... 🙂

Nothing to do with cruising, but a simple answer. When I remember them, I'll take a compact pair of binoculars to a large venue concert, and occasionally a sports venue. Neither will typically allow anything more than a cell phone camera, and sometimes I'd like to see the artist, or player, with my "own eyes" instead of on the screen. More often than not I forget them, so it's kind of a wash...

Does anyone on this thread believe this campaign is directed at them? This is a new customer campaign, even if they're sending it to existing customers. Cue Carly Simon... The email sent to Captain's Club members... The email sent by Celebrity Cruises... Apologies for the sizing; they're both animations. The first one is thanking Captain's Club members for inspiring the new campaign. The second is soliciting new bookings. Are there any differences? Yeah, it's marketing. We're just not the target. Maybe it works, maybe it doesn't, but the reaction on this thread probably doesn't matter either way. Closing line in the Celebrity Cruises email: YOU'LL NEVER WANT TO VACATION ANY OTHER WAY All vacations are good. Sometimes, they’re even great. But we’re about to ruin all of that. Because once you get away with us, you’ll never settle for less. And why should you?

I'd drop this into the Alaska thread, but I might get more thoughts here. I have an a6500 (would love to go to the a6700 just for the battery, but I can buy a lot of batteries for the cost of a new body!). We're doing an Alaska cruise with a pre-cruise trip to Denali. My primary walk around lens is the Tessar/Zeiss 16-70. I don't have much reach. The Sony 70-350 OSS G lens is on promo, I assume for the month, for $898 down from $998. It "should" be a great lens for Denali, and probably the cruise, and I'm sure I'd use it post cruise. Anyone have any experience or thoughts? Not currently doing the FF upgrade. There's a certain fear of spending the money and time to go to Alaska and being frustrated with not getting any good pics. Thanks!

Interesting. We don't have children, so that wasn't an issue. Most people I follow online treat the Oyster with the sort of historical reverence I'd give to a carburetor... I assume you need a child's Oyster for reduced rates? Your contactless wouldn't have an age associated with it. And the children would each need their own unique contactless card. I've found Apple Pay to be so simple that I don't really look at the alternatives anymore, and I've always been a huge Oyster fan. I mean, you can use you iPhone on MTA in New York now! (Or in Singapore, and who knows how many other locations...)

Can't help with the first, although if you have an eSIM capable phone you can probably buy one online and download onto your phone. You no longer need an Oyster Card if you have either a 1) contactless credit card or 2) a phone with Apple Pay or Google Pay. Each traveler needs their own credit card or phone. Oysters have become kind of a thing of the past. Obviously you want a credit card with no foreign transaction fees.

Demand is only half of the equation. RCG has invested heavily in cruising mostly from Florida, with Trans-Atlantic cruises to reposition for what appears to be a very profitable European season. From the West Coast, Trans-Pacific cruises from Vancouver allow them to transport passengers to Hawaii, which would be a PVSA violation from California. Seattle and Vancouver give them the Alaska season; Vancouver makes the longer one-way Alaska cruises legal In their current environment (pretty high debt) their ROI using the facilities in Florida is going to be higher than California and they'll break even sooner. Florida is almost certainly a better business environment for them as well. To divert a ship to California, they'd have to sail at least as full as they're currently sailing in Florida, AND almost certainly raise fares to offset costs in California and their opportunity costs for not using their Florida facilities. Or the apparently profitable European and Australia/New Zealand cruises. Their business case must say they can't do that and be competitive with the lines you're listing that are already there. There may have been a time when they would have been willing to make less to build the market, and that may happen again, but not now.

On the app, click on the Calendar icon at the top middle at the bottom, below the dates, there’s a link that says Change Ship/Dates. Click on that. You’ll have to browse ships and select another ship, or yours. The first sailing will be the current one. Select that.

Try looking at the current sailing. There appears to be a glitch in the matrix. Again. Our next cruise is Summit. I can see breakfast menus for most sailings in Blu and Luminae. I can only see breakfast menus for Deck 4 Cosmopolitan (MDR) for this week. Not even next week. Keep in mind that the menu you're seeing for your cruise a month from now, or even next week, is usually just a reflection of the current cruise. If you're on an 11 day cruise and the current cruise is 5 days, you're going to get "Venue Closed" for anything Day 6 and beyond...

How long are you actually in New York? By day early do you mean one overnight? What time will you arrive at La Guardia? The notion of staying Downtown is good IF you're only going to be in the city briefly and your plans are to do things in the Downtown/Financial District area (Battery Park, 9/11 Memorial, Trinity Church, etc.). Maybe not so great if you've always wanted to see Rockefeller Center, Times Square, and Midtown attractions. And some of that depends on when you're getting to La Guardia, therefore when you're getting into Manhattan. If you've got a half day, you're going to want to pick an area that you want to see as you'll have limited time to visit more than one area, even in Manhattan. It's all a trade off, other than Uber will be per vehicle, not per person, as Nitemare said. Almost always going to be better, and way more flexible, than a Princess transfer

So someone randomly hacked your phone and the only thing they did was turn off your airplane mode? Are the charges from Cellular at Sea? Are they for the day you were in port? That should be available from ATT and maybe even in your online account.

Their question was how to stay connected not how to disconnect. Many of us don’t.

It’s turned off in port. The WiFi is on, but not the cellular. I’ve had my iPhone come out of airplane mode on a restart. I noticed it immediately and didn’t get any charges. Not sure if that’s how it’s supposed to work (probably).

There's an earlier thread on this here... https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2995503-email-from-x-re-legionella/#comment-67029564 The cases were passengers on the Ascent in January. They've not put out any additional information, but they've also not increased the numbers or reported any additional cases since the first reports (it went from 2 to 3, but no reports of more). I've also not seen any reports of an epidemiological investigation to determine where the passengers were exposed; it's as likely as not that it wasn't on the ship. If the ship were the ONLY thing they had in common, that would increase the odds of a problem on the ship, but the absence of further reported cases would suggest the risk is pretty low. The previous thread goes through a lot of the reality of legionella, and one poster included the link to the CDC's information page on the bacteria. I'm going to guess they've upped the sanitation and disinfection out of an abundance of caution, but probably in ways we'd never see.

There are web pages that track status of various internet domains, mostly by user reports. It looks like folks have been reporting problems with Celebrity off and on since last night, but pretty significantly since this afternoon. BUT, before you blame everything on Celebrity IT, Google, MS Teams, Capital One, Costco, etc., all have outage reports. Could be something broader than just the Celebrity domain going on.

Can't speak specifically to Beyond, but... Generally, if you're in a hurry, they'll pace the meal for you. Just ask. In my experience, other's may differ, figure an hour. You can go to 1 1/2 if you want. Can't answer on show times; we've pretty much quit qoing. What's your definition of "foodie"? The menu is mildly to moderately adventurous, and generally well executed. It's not really adventurous, though. I think the "up to par with specialty dining" depends on why you're doing specialty dining. If you're looking for a great steak, probably specialty. The food will be a less boring than most MDR fare, and we like it, but, for instance, there's a seared tuna steak on the menu and I wouldn't expect it to be red. If that's what you'd like (I would) then go to Raw on 5. Never had an issue getting a window seat in a Sky Suite. They're mostly two tops and it's a matter of timing. Ask and you may receive...

I've always tried to understand this as well. Admittedly, I didn't grow up eating lobster and spent most of my life well away the coasts. Even during the brief time that I lived in New England I didn't get into lobster. All of which probably makes me a poor candidate to appreciate what is clearly the vast significance of lobster as a food, and as a cruise ship food in particular. And my wife and I have had waiters on cruise ships look at us flabbergasted when we say "no thank you" to the obligatory lobster offering. One of my favorite NYC restaurants has a lobster dish as an appetizer, but it's currently served with a curry-lemongrass sauce that makes it delicious. It's also very small. I don't begrudge people who love it, I just don't get it and never will. Kind of like prime rib...

Thats’s got to be it. The Daniel Boulud dinner is $169 without any discounts. No idea why it’s showing as Fine Cut either.

Is that for some sort of special meal? I'd have to have an Edge class sailing to book Fine Cut, but it's listed at $65/person for dinner in the app. But yes, that would be a crazy stupid price. I can have three courses prix fix for lunch at a Michelin 3-star restaurant in Manhattan for $127 plus tax and tip (wouldn't include drinks, but neither do most of the shipboard bookings). Unless that's for a special tasting menu with wine pairing, that's got to be a glitch. Even then it would be high; they're not opening a Chateau Lafite Rothschild for lunch...

750 ml. The size is buried. https://www.celebritycruises.com/company/customer-support/conduct-policy#alcohol-policy It’s actually one per person now. There was a time when it was 2.

FYI from the Baltimore District of the Corps of Engineers. This is from their FB post, and the comments are off the chart, again, so just the graphic...

Who cares? And Captain Rick is an amazing person. Give him Zenith.

Not confirmed. Here's what's actually in the online newsletter: There’s never been a better time to book The Retreat for your next sailing. With a pair of new and exclusive offerings, guests of our top suites will enjoy further elevated services within our all-suite enclave, which features a private restaurant, unlimited specialty dining for lunch and dinner, resort-style lounge, and sundeck*, and a dedicated team of Butlers, concierges, and attendants. Ensure that you look flawless throughout your cruise with new Unlimited Complimentary Pressing of your wardrobe to accompany daily Complimentary Laundry Service for guests sailing in Royal Suites and above. Also, Guests of The Retreat staying in a Royal, Penthouse, Reflection, Iconic Suite or Edge Villa can indulge in more hours onboard with the addition of complimentary Extend Your Stay access.* The program offers you the option of remaining onboard and relaxing on disembarkation day in specific ports, allowing access to luggage storage, public areas, continued use of your Premium Drink and Wi-Fi packages, and lunch before you depart. So, treat yourself to our finest accommodations and service, and we’ll treat you to a vacation you’ll never forget. With a link to the Retreat page on Celebrity. Those pages still have the Retreat team language for Sky Suites. Note that even the newsletter uses "dedicated team of Butlers, concierges, and attendants" when largely talking about the higher level suites. The Retreat link goes to what appears to be the same language that's been there for months. Which makes some sense as they've been in the process of bringing back Butlers. There are multiple posts in this thread of Butlers returning to SS on current cruises. Give it a couple of weeks and see what happens. It would hardly be the first time that Celebrity marketing didn't match reality, or that someone on the phone gave an inaccurate answer...

Which links to a web page with no as of date. Please…