markeb

Celebrity has actually won Wine Spectator awards for apparently 10 years straight, including 15 in 2022 (2023 will presumably be announced in July). I have to assume that's on the strength of their bottle list, which at least was pretty impressive. I'm generally not inclined to pile onto food threads (and haven't cruised since last August), but I don't know about the current wine experience. My normal Wine Spectator reaction is that anything Robert Parker would give 100 points to is something I know I won't like, but he just did it to one of my favorite wineries (and I have three bottles from the wine club; they sold out of stock in three days so that's my wine), which gives me pause on Wine Spectator awards, but... I don't envy a cruise line trying to manage a by the glass wine menu. A lot of it is going to get drunk outside the dining room, and you need wines for that purpose. Unfortunately, I don't know how you can curate your by the glass offerings to your food menu since unlike a Michelin restaurant, the menu changes every night. Well away from the OPs question! It is kind of hard to screw up Prosecco. Although there is Prosecco and then there's really good Prosecco...

Yeah. There are a LOT of Provence rosé wines on the classic package...

Define decent? Looking at Equinox MDR in the app. There's a $9/bottle retail Pinot Grigio from Italy, a $7/bottle retail CK Mondavi Sauvignon Blanc, and a ~$10-11/bottle retail Chilean Sauvignon Blanc. All listed at $9/glass in the app. Haven't had any of them and they're all at price points where there are no reviews. They all look inoffensive...

I'd really suggest asking this in a separate thread as you really have multiple questions. The good news is your dates are after the UN General Assembly opening and New York Fashion Week. So that's two big hotel room eating events you're not competing with. I'll split the difference between GTJ and njhorseman that it's not urgent to figure this out, but don't linger too long. But anywhere in Manhattan is close enough to the terminal. After that it's what do you want to do and how much do you want to spend. And PLEASE once you find a hotel, price the total cost of transportation, ground and air, to Manhattan. Saving a couple of bucks into EWR with a large car service bill doesn't save money. Saving a couple of hundred into EWR could be a good deal even with the car service bill! Direct flights from Atlanta into LGA or JFK could be priceless...

FWIW, I'm the guy who'd not only not open the door early, I'd have ship's safety clear the hallway to keep them from blocking an egress route. But that's just me. So I guess I'm with you on opening at the stated time. On the other hand, have you been to a concert, sporting event, movie theater, theater, etc. recently? Or boarded an airplane? Even at events where there are assigned seats and no real reason to get there early, people queue way ahead of gate times. I don't know why. It takes the same time to get through the rate limiting step (security if it's there, and showing your ticket). The difference is how long you stand before you can enter. And I've always been through in plenty of time to get a beer, buy merch, use the bathroom, and find my seat. I just don't think that not opening the doors early does anything for what you observed. People would still be there early.

I've never arranged something like this in Manhattan. For anyone who has, I'm "assuming" you need a pretty good idea where you want to go and for how long when you book? The Sprinter Van is more of a transportation company than a tour company, isn't it? Or do they normally plan out a "7 people 3-4 hours ending at La Guardia" tour? Curiosity and making sure the OP has the right expectations.

No problem. Appreciate you coming back. Enjoy a good (properly cooked) burger!

I'm assuming you're just being flippant, don't remember the major outbreaks a few years ago, or pay no attention to the news and food recalls. Probably the best known foodborne outbreak in the United States involved Jack in the Box and ground beef. Four children died of renal failure. It's a real thing. Outbreaks are reported constantly. Some make the news and result in major recalls. Most probably don't. As Rick said earlier, it's not as big of a problem in steaks. It's a surface contamination issue with beef and the surface of the steak gets fully cooked. The surface of the beef trimmings used for ground beef all gets mixed together so the surface contaminants stay in the meat, and the meat actually heats up slightly while grinding which encourages them to grow. And you can cook hamburgers to a safe temperature (160 F) and not turn them into grey hockey pucks. You can also create grey hockey pucks and not hit a safe temperature (that's probably harder). We're now beyond simple unattractive burgers and into actual food safety. Which I'd prefer to avoid on Cruise Critic.

Basically, you were the only passports in the queue that didn't pay to expedite... 😁 (I actually assume that system isn't that simplistic, but who knows!)

At the same time, everyone selling a jar of honey at a market in the US has a credit card reader on their iPhone or a Square terminal. Yet CC'ers seem perfectly content to pull large volumes of cash, sometimes paying transaction fees, and carry it with them overseas, to pay a vendor who could easily do the same thing, for a private tour...

Honestly, I can't think of a good reason to buy it ahead of time. Are you planning on taking the train from Schiphol to Centraal? You can actually get a chip card at Schiphol. If not (I see you're staying at the Movenpick), you can walk to Centraal, or go to the iAmsterdam store at Centraal. Depending on what you're planning on doing, it may (or may not) make sense to just get a multi-day Amsterdam City Card that includes admissions and transit (2-3 days is probably tight to break even on museum admissions).

When? Next week, next month, next year, October? Agree I wouldn't be tempted by really early flights. I have status and Global Entry (includes Pre-check) and still just don't feel like rushing to the airport. Do you fly at least once a year? Do you ever fly internationally? Are you a US Citizen? If you fly internationally, Global Entry is the best $100 you'll ever spend. If you don't fly internationally, but fly at least once a year, TSA Pre is the best $78 you'll ever spend.

My favorite part of the buffet. Probably too much Punjabi and not enough Southern Indian, but a great selection. Wish they'd work some of those choices onto the Luminae menu...

Pre-pandemic, there was a fairly frequent theme on this board of someone who'd gotten a great deal on a flight, usually into Newark, and was now trying to get to the Manhattan Cruise Terminal. (Sometimes it was La Guardia to Cape Liberty.) They'd saved $50 per ticket, and were suddenly looking at a car service from Newark to Manhattan, round trip, that would eat their entire savings, sometimes many times over. You can get from Newark to Manhattan by public transportation, but these were often families with children or older travelers who just didn't use public transportation. I laugh sometimes at GTJ, but they know the public transportation system! Unfortunately, not every traveler does, and many cruisers just don't do trains...

Are you set on JFK? Where in Canada are you coming from? If you're unsure of the cruise, it may be premature to look too closely at JFK. Any of the three airports may work depending on whether you're cruising from Cape Liberty (Bayonne, NJ), Manhattan, or Brooklyn. If you're cruising from Bayonne, if may make much more sense to fly into Newark, for instance. Newark is a Star Alliance hub, so I'd expect a good choice of Air Canada flights. And it's the closest airport to Cape Liberty. For all travel into the NYC metro area, understand your total cost of transportation before settling on your flights and airports. You can eat a lot of airfare savings on transportation costs from New York to New Jersey (or vice versa)!

Which is why traditionally early seating was for the late show. Eat early, take your time, go to the late show. Late dining was for the early show. Go to the show then eat afterwards. Set dining times made it difficult to do otherwise. Then they introduced the anytime dining concept (multiple cruise lines). Then Royal (probably others, but that's who we cruised) effectively decoupled dining and show times, especially on the Oasis Class where there's some activity constantly and you'd be hard pressed to schedule traditional dining around the activities. Celebrity has followed the same trend. We tend to go to Blu (when we were in Aqua) or Luminae (for the Retreat) at 7-7:30, which is when we'd eat at home. And usually have walked right in, frequently to a window table. If I really wanted to see the 7:00 show, I'd eat at 8:30. But I'm on vacation, live near DC where that's "normal" (no one gets home before 5:00!), and have lived in and travelled a lot to Europe where I'd never find an open restaurant that early anyway. So it doesn't bother me. That's clearly not true for many on this thread.

I hadn't followed this. From the press releases, this is essentially RCG owning a 51% or greater stake in its own version of Atlantis? Pull into the same dock and bus passengers to to the beach club? I guess time will tell if that's best or worst of both worlds...

What would you propose for an investment in Celebrity with a similar or greater ROI for RCG? It appears the investment in Galveston is similar to the investment in Terminal 25 at Port Everglades. It allows them to bring one of their largest and probably most profitable ships to an alternate port within driving distance of one of the largest populations in the country. And RCG could chose to share the new facility with Celebrity if it made sense (which with 12 non-Galapagos ships and one more coming on line, it probably doesn't). If there had been a project with a greater return for Celebrity, I'm sure it would have been approved. As Rick noted, the Celebrity investment at this point is mostly in ships. Food, food quality, drinks, drink quality, staffing (for the most part) are operational (income statement) decisions, not investment (balance sheet) decisions. Like it or not, those improve pretty much solely by increasing revenue (prices).

Agree with the previous posters. A car in Waikiki is an expensive anchor. You can rent a car for the day from pretty much any of the rental agencies right in Waikiki and turn it in that night without paying parking. The ONLY possible exception is if you have a military ID and park at the Hale Koa, but I'm pretty sure there are restrictions on overnight parking if you're not a guest. The Bus and Uber are your friends in Waikiki.

We did this in August on Equinox. It was a 5 minute walk to the boat (same pier as Equinox), then across to Jost Van Dyke. As others said, we docked and were trucked/bussed over the ridge to the beach. Honestly now one of my favorite beaches. I don't know how long we were there, but hours to enjoy the beach, the surf, lunch, a couple of drinks each, then a trip back (which may have included rum punch, but I don't remember). I would do it again in a heartbeat. We've actually considered flying down, probably to the USVI and ferry over to Tortola, just to do it again!

Let's be honest. Many if not most customers would send back your homemade burger for being undercooked. They can't win... And yes, I've seen that. Also true of fish. Too many people send back Ahi when it's red (which it should be). You get a group together and someone decides to order their steak "blue" (which places will do in Europe; haven't seen it in the states), largely to outdo his buddy who ordered his rare, then freaks when they realize what they've ordered an almost raw piece of meat. I'd rather have the home made one as well, but the one you're showing is cooked where most people would want it. Now it's dried out because it wasn't served immediately, but that's a different issue. I'll take the Luminae burger...

Part of the challenge with what you're reading is the proverbial "it depends". You can enter Canada or return to the US by land or sea with an enhanced driver's license; you can't enter by air on either end without a passport (or Nexus or Sentri). And you can enter the United States as a US citizen with any valid passport. There's no time requirement. And if you go to the actual government site in Canada and complete the document questionnaire for a US citizen, it just says bring identification, such as a valid passport. No timeline mentioned. If you put in other countries, you get visa requirements of varying costs for 6 months. I don't see any language that resembles that Google hit on the Canadian government's web page. https://www.cic.gc.ca/english/visit/visas.asp

Two separate questions: No, I have not. And no, it shouldn't be a problem. What are your actual stops? You generally don't even need a passport to travel in the Caribbean to begin with (on a closed loop cruise). The six month "rule" is mostly for Europe, parts of Asia, and some distant stops in Central and South America. With the actual countries, it's pretty easy to look up their individual requirements, but the typical Caribbean stops do not require six months.

Just seeing this. On our last cruise on Equinox we had a significant amount of OBC and used a lot of it for gratuities at the end (you can get a form from the concierge for additional gratuities that will be charged to your account; no need to bring extra cash). I think we did around $80 to the butler (could have been $100) and some to our room steward and the Retreat bartender. That was for a 7-day cruise and actually the concierge mentioned the bartender when we were asking about the form. I actually might have forgotten him! You will likely see the butler far more than your room steward, which is probably unfair to the steward for additional tips. We didn't ask the concierge to do anything for us (other than the gratuities form) and didn't give them anything extra. Honestly, I'm a little confused with them these days as they're now wearing (hotel) officer's uniforms and I'm left believing they're fully salaried. I'd probably only tip them if they did something crazy like get you into a sold out specialty restaurant. Kind of like I normally wouldn't tip a hotel concierge for giving me a map or helping me figure out subway routes, but definitely would if they got me into a Michelin 2-star in Manhattan (if they got me into a 3-star, I couldn't afford the tip...).

It's been awhile since I've been to Labadee (Not directed at you as you didn't say it, but Labadee is NOT an island! It's a peninsula on Haiti. Minor pet peeve...) or Cocoa Cay, but from the sound of things they've been converted into miniature theme parks. With one Celebrity ship in the Caribbean during the summer, I can't imagine a way for it to make financial sense to lease any private island or beach just for Celebrity. And the two RCG leased spaces are now theme parks, and apparently constantly busy. I remember years ago stopping at Half Moon Cay on HAL (actually I think on New Year's Day) and it was exactly what you're describing, and a lot of fun and relaxing. I don't know what it's like today...