markeb

They should be in the app by venue. The drinks tab is just the packages. But when I just looked at Infinity in particular there were a lot of items that weren't populating, especially for the dining rooms. That's where the much of the wine should be. Summit is fine so I don't know what's going on. What are you looking for? Wine would normally be listed with the dining room menus, for instance, as well as Cellar Masters and the Rendezvous Lounge among others. Beer can be all over the place and harder to track down, but there's a decent sample under the Constellation Lounge. If you're looking for cocktails, the only ones in the app are specialty drinks. A well drink (gin & tonic with house gin, margarita with house tequila, etc.) will be whatever the upper limit is of the classic package. Most call drinks (Hendricks and tonic) will be somewhere between $12 and $17 (upper limit of premium package). And most of their specialty drinks look to be $15-$17. The martini bar is pretty much universally $17, although I'm sure there's something over the limit if I look hard enough. If you're not seeing things on your sailing, go to the current sailing or try a different ship. The wines won't be exact anyway even for your ship. But it'll give you ballpark sample.

Yes. John Bull is listed on www.rolex.com as an authorized dealer.

😁 I don't know about Celebrity. We used to cruise over spring break when DW taught and the whole East Coast took the week before Easter as Spring Break. There were always services of some sort, but I have no idea who performed them. We should have gone, but we didn't, and usually the Spring Break cruises ended before Easter.

That looks fun, but not exactly an ecumenical Easter service...

Just stating upfront that all of those are above my current "comfort zone"! I don't see myself booking any of those fares... The Regent I believe is "all in". There are no real add ons. Drinks, gratuities, etc. are as I understand it included in the base price. I don't know about the Silversea pricing, but I think it's the same. Regent includes excursions, which isn't a big deal to me and may be a negative depending on the port. Same "I don't know" disclaimer on Silversea. The Celebrity won't include gratuities in their current pricing, so you actually need to add $23/person/day to the celebrity pricing. That's still less than the other two, but let's be fair here. If you're going to that price point, Regent definitely is worth consideration. The "intangibles" from Celebrity as a larger ship with more options are going to be a plus for some and a minus for others. From a business marketing and strategy perspective, they've all "lost" if people are comparing prices. Their value proposition is the intangibles, IMHO...

Hey Lois! If this is your first time in a suite, a lot of the negatives here won't apply. You're not going to see a decline in something you never had before. I don't know how things work in Bayonne. You should see a different boarding experience. Unfortunately, it may not be obvious. At Port Everglades, there's a totally separate entrance for the Retreat on the far left. You just skip the line and are pretty much whisked in and onto cruise mode. Hopefully someone can give you some info on Bayonne, but that's a major change from 2016. We love Luminae. It's a very different experience from any MDR we've been in (Full Disclosure: We've only cruised Aqua and Suite/Luminae on Celebrity). The menu can be adventurous. I'd argue not adventurous enough. Others want less adventure. But it's a very nice menu. We don't eat much beef in general, and a lot of the complaints have been on beef dishes. Don't know where you fall on that. Fish will likely be overcooked, but that's a clientele thing (I love raw to lightly seared tuna, and minimally cooked seafood in general). I find the notorious "decline" to be beef, and we just don't eat that much beef. If you do, you may notice it. If not, you may not. Wine is hit or miss. As always, much better by the bottle than by the glass. Depends on your preference. By the glass has not been great on our last couple of cruises. I remember a few years ago discussing Le Bernardin as an option for you while you were in New York. Don't know if you went. Don't expect that. But odds are you'll be fine. Enjoy your cruise!

So piracy made perfectly good sense for them. They were after money. From all appearances, the Haitian "opposition, crooks, whatever" are actually looking to replace the Haitian government. Attacking Labadee would be a distraction from that goal. And likely to provoke regional and international intervention where right now that's unlikely. Without US hostages in Haiti, how long do you think it would take to create the political will in the US to intervene in Haiti? Attacking a US corporate leased space with US citizen tourists would change that calculus. Remember US med students in Grenada? If their goals change to purely money, that changes the calculus. Again, the right answer for RCG is probably to get out of there for now.

No. But you act like it's a video game. If I were RCG, I'd get the h... out of there at this point for general purposes. I can think of a lot of ways to take out a ship in Labadee. I just don't see a reason to do it. Especially if your aim is to replace the Haitian government. Anything you do that detracts from that aim is a waste of energy and money. And the Haitian government is in Port-au-Prince. Hours away on bad roads.

While I recognize a tendency to sarcasm and sometimes extreme sarcastic positions (takes one to know one), you're also a notorious over planner and over analyzer. You wouldn't have picked a TA without more research than the average bear. Give them a chance. And no, it shouldn't be that simple. That's how you do silly things. The TA SHOULD protect you from yourself!

I assume you're a former Marine assault planner? I mean, you've done air assaults into contested terrain, obviously? And amphibious landings onto a beach? Were you planning on flying the assault craft in via a Cessna? What about fuel once you commit? Ammo? Medical support? Or are you just planning on being Napoleon during the Russian campaign and eat your horses? It's not a simple approach or a simple assault. You could probably land a handful of people via commercial helos, but you'd have a heck of a time reenforcing them. They could probably access some Vietnam era UH-1's for enough money; probably not UH-60's. The commercial Bells are all over the world, but they have limited lift and range. Do they actually have pilots? And aviation fuel? The approach from the sea is probably more doable, but again you need some logistics to make it work and sustain an assault. And for what purpose? What's your goal in taking Labadee? Honestly, I think it makes perfectly good sense for RCG to just stop the visits, but this amateur hour assault planning is getting really old. Never did it, but I know people who did this for a living. With the US fleet backing them. They still wouldn't be anywhere near this flippant about that assault. There are things a well financed insurgency could do if there was a strategic result. See what Ukraine has done to the Russian fleet. No evidence this group has either the tools or the strategic interest to attack cruise ships in Labadee. Even a terror attack has a strategic goal. What would be their purpose? Call in the US Navy and USMC on their positions? Not a brilliant strategy.

Have you talked to them since doing your own pricing? As stated above, things may have changed in those two months. They may be able to do what you're seeing. But it wouldn't surprise me for them to have had a better group rate than the rack rates you can see on Celebrity. But if you can now see a rate that's much better that includes everything you want, AND gets you the experience you want, the first step would be to ask the TA to look at the change. But I'd also listen to them if they break any of the "not obvious" parts down to be sure you understand the entire change. But before trying to change TA's on an answer you got two months ago (if I'm reading your post correctly), make sure your current TA's information hasn't changed as well. We had a saying when I was in uniform that the truth has a date-time-group...

Just for clarification, it’s one 750 ml bottle. Not liters or magnums. Max of 2 per cabin. The policy doesn’t specify an ABV. Port, Madeira, or sherry “should” be fine, but I probably wouldn’t bring my 30 year old vintage port, just in case. Ice wine, late harvest wines, Sauternes, etc. would be well under any ABV considerations, which theoretically don’t exist. But the limit is by bottle, so 2-375 ml Sauternes or ice wines are your two bottles even though it’s half your allowed volume.

Yes. You can purchase and get the discount before boarding. It’s generally best to go by before their first demo to actually schedule your time.

They’re notifying to CYA. If they didn’t they’d be accused of covering it up. Why do people assume spraying has anything to do with Legionella? It makes little or no sense. You eliminate areas where water collects and can be aerosolized. They’re not going down the halls spraying chlorine dioxide! It provably wouldn’t have an impact anyway. And so far no one knows if the patients were infected on the ship in the first place. Did they all stay at the same hotel before the cruise or eat at the same restaurant with a crappy HVAC system in the islands? Who knows what they were spraying and why. Freaking conspiracy theories!

There’s open seating. You can watch as much or as little as you want. They do demos, and you can watch customers make their own pieces. It’s obviously designed to encourage you to book your own time, but it’s fun to watch.

Actually Crown Royal is a high corn mash bill. But it's not made in the US and it's not aged in new oak barrels. So it can't be a bourbon. But yes, most Canadian whiskey is made from a high rye mash. But not Crown Royal.

That's actually not surprising. Maker's is a wheated bourbon. Its secondary grain, after corn, is wheat, finished out with barley. Woodford Reserve (and actually most Bourbons I've ever looked at) use rye as their secondary grain, and also barley to finish out the mash bill. The rye is a very different flavor from wheat, and also very different from Scotch whisky. There are a lot of different Jameson's. Some of them are pretty good. The entry level is entry level. Generally not my favorite Irish whiskey, and I don't drink that much Irish whiskey (other than this week, of course).

A perfect non sequitur…

If you're into the Japanese whiskies, those are much more in the Scotch whisky family than the American bourbon, or Tennessee whiskey families. @mac66 gave a nice breakdown on the various whisk(e)y styles around the world, although Irish whiskey is not corn based so I wouldn't compare it to bourbon. Good ones are probably more like your Japanese whiskies. They're made from malted barley like Scotch Whisky, but they are different. The reason many of us hesitate to recommend the Macallan tastings is we're whisk(e)y snobs. We don't get much out of it because it's our thing. I'm probably one of the commenters in that 2021 thread! Even my insistence to use the parenthetical (e) is a bit of snobbery. Scotch whisky doesn't have an "e". Irish whiskey does. American whiskey generally is spelled with an "e", but Maker's Mark insists on being a "whisky". It's part of the fun. The Macallan tasting is interesting, especially if you don't have a lot of experience with Scotch whisky. I wanted to do the JD tasting on my last cruise, but it was cancelled for the time I could go. I honestly don't think I've ever had Jack Daniels. I've had Uncle Nearest, which is a very nice whiskey. Uncle Nearest was a slave named Nathan Green who taught Jack Daniel how to make whiskey. The current brand honors him. IF, and that can be a big if, you have a good guide to your tastings, they can be informative. They can also be full of misinformation, just like any other beer, wine, rum, or whisky tasting anywhere else. If you have the time, interest, and the cost isn't too bad, do them both. Some ships also have a Johnny Walker tasting, which is really a sales thing, but you don't have to buy anything or pay anything to go, and you'll get a nice sip of Johnny Walker Blue. It just may be a really awkward time. There are certainly tasting events on land, but the ones on the ship can be fun. And the ones on land will probably be full of whisk(e)y snobs playing stump the chump...

There aren't any true "excursions". The only stop in Haiti for RCG is Labadee. RCG may like that peninsula, but no evidence they'd expand to Haiti beyond Labadee. Do they go to the Dominican Republic? The other part of Hispaniola? I really don't know.

One of our favorite cruises was Montreal to Boston on HAL. On the Maasdam which could sail from Montreal up and down the St. Lawrence Seaway. A long time ago... But that was a typical 7 day cruise. Which allowed us to spend time in Montreal at the beginning. When you throw Bayonne into the mix the cruises become 10-12 or even 14 days. Not including any pre-cruise activities, and I'm not sure how far up the St Lawrence Celebrity cruises. But that's just not a great business model for Celebrity today. The 7 day cruises are basically 5 days off work; less for people on flex schedules. The NE/Canada schedule seems pretty short already and it probably is good business to offer more short cruises.

Ride the HOHO for an orientation and to see a lot of exteriors. Walk or take the tube to actually visit sites. If the HOHO includes a river cruise, do that; they're actually pretty nice. Do not use the HOHO for point to point transportation! Other than Buckingham Palace where you have to get off to see the palace, I probably wouldn't even get off the HOHO. And check out the British Isles board here on CC for information...

I've had less than great success with them over the years. The worst was Manhattan, but that was probably my first HOHO and I mistakenly was trying to use it for transportation versus staying on for an overview. Back to a previous poster, that's the most common complaint in London. Ride the loop, get a feel, take the Tube for transportation.

So many of these have turned into Celebrity, the current Celebrity, not some idolized history of Celebrity, versus a luxury cruise line. With little or no context. Didn't realize until the last few posts that you were 80. That's not a negative, but it provides context. I'm 61, but have potentially life shortening health issues and we're trying to enjoy life while we can. Our views on some of these things are a generation apart. I do still enjoy some late night activity, although I fade a lot earlier than I did in my 20's or 30's. I'd rather hear the Foo Fighters than Sinatra on most nights (not all; Frank is still great). We're game to the notion of small ships, but not sure. The minibar is irrelevant to me. It's about 45 minutes for me to get to Union Station in DC and 3 hours from there to Midtown Manhattan on the train. Nothing in a cruise ship restaurant is going to compare to what I can get in Manhattan. And at some of the per person per night rates quoted in this thread my wife and I can stay in a very nice hotel in Manhattan and actually, believe it or not, eat multiple nights at Michelin 3-Star restaurants. Those aren't the rates I normally spend on a cruise, but that's what I'm comparing in my mind. And most days of the week I'd rather be in Manhattan than on a cruise ship if it's the same money. Or London, Munich, Naples, etc. And I do enjoy cruising! I suspect we'll explore other lines more thoroughly in the future. We have a comfort level with the Celebrity and Royal Caribbean products. We're probably more likely to move laterally, maybe back to HAL, although there's also a memory of a cruise line that's almost certainly significantly different than when we last cruised them. The jump to the luxury lines requires a mental leap and normalizing $15-20K or more for a week long vacation, and we're not yet there. If I'm lucky enough to make it to 80, I suspect my perspective will be more like yours. Who knows, the minibar may even become important! 😃 Fair winds and following seas...

Ah. Grad school. Other than the cruise ship and the paddle and number. That was a few years, I mean decades, ago...