markeb

That actually looks a lot better than most of the lobster I see pictured here. I always find the "fine dining" thing humorous on a number of levels. For one thing, I'm not sure I'd classify anything on a cruise ship that I've been on as "fine dining". Maybe I just haven't cruised those lines. And secondly, so much of what is called fine dining out there is a modification of a (mostly) French technique to turn a near inedible source of protein into something you could digest. Bœuf bourguignon sounds really cool, but it's basically cooking the crap out of some form of tough beef in wine until you make if fall apart. Panko is just a fancy name for bread crumbs, although made from a different style of bread. Maybe they should just say lobster with chips de pommes de terre. Problem solved. If it tastes good, who really cares.

So how did it taste?

This sort of question comes up periodically. You're looking at a minibus to put everyone in the same vehicle, and those are almost always going to be by-the- hour and charged garage to garage. It might only take 30 minutes to get your group to the terminal, but if it takes 45 minutes to get to the pickup point, 30 minutes to get to the terminal, and another 45 minutes to return the bus back to its origin, you're paying for 2 hours of time. Your best bet will almost certainly be splitting the group into 4-5 vehicles depending on luggage. Get quotes from Carmel Limo and Dial7. Pre-scheduled Uber may be your best bet.

According to the app the current "party band", which seems to be the title of the primary band these days, is something called "Alter Ego". Unfortunately, a quick Google search will yield about a dozen or so bands named Alter Ego. Even one that is actually Alter Ego Party Band that doesn't sound like a cruise ship band... You can find the entertainment in the app. Just check the current cruise.

A few thoughts here. My first thought for hotel is actually the Hotel Michelangelo. It's on 51st Street just outside of Times Square. It's going to be at the top of your range depending on what room and package you book. For instance right now you can book their "Sweet Suite" package that includes a Junior Suite and a very nice breakfast for two. $485. There will be taxes and yes, the dreaded "destination fee" on top of that. They have other options like a bed and breakfast rate, but the big room with breakfast is pretty nice. Breakfast can get pricy in Manhattan, so account for that in the hotel price. Bathrooms have tubs, which can be tricky. The main entrance has 2-3 steps, but I'm pretty sure they have an accessible option as well. There are plenty of other hotels. $500/room (is that right?) gets you a lot of options. Depends a lot on whether you want modern or traditional, and whether you have chain preferences. The more info you have, the better answers you'll get. Dinner is complicated. Really need more information. You can, for instance, eat at a Michelin 3-star restaurant across the street from the Michelangelo (Le Bernardin) and priced accordingly. You can also eat the same meal or something a bit simpler in their lounge. That's a bucket list for a lot of people, and a lot of people have never heard of it. You probably need to nail down the hotel to get good dining recommendations nearby. Price range, cuisine, and your preferences kick in here. Not all, but many. Maybe even most. It's become a major annoyance... A subject of long debate around here. The ESB has the history. Top of the Rock has almost the same view, and you can actually get a good view of the ESB from the Top of the Rock. As with most hard questions, it depends...

You don't. You walk down a pier to the enclosed compound. Most people who don't do the zipline will never see the perimeter security. If you do, it's pretty impressive. If you don't, you probably won't even realize it is an enclosed compound.

Size isn't really an issue. We find the products on board to generally be fine. I think DW tends to bring her own conditioner. I'm all but bald, so not really an issue. Neither of us find the products on board watered down or sub par. Admittedly our last cruises have been in the retreat. The body wash and shampoo are on par with a high end Marriott/Hilton hotel. I wear contacts, so I normally hit a CVS/Walgreens or if I'm lucky a Target the night before boarding to grab full sized contact lens products. Never had an issue. With a little luck, you'll find a Willamette Pinot Noir and/or Chardonnay on Edge and feel at home. Unfortunately, you'll probably have to pay full price for them 😱! And I agree, have a wonderful cruise!

We're kind of the opposite, and I freely admit I haven't even looked at a cruise on any line after our May Alaska southbound cruise on Summit. Booked before the changes, so we do have gratuities included. And before the recent price increases that make you take a deep breath on the Retreat. And while Regent and the like may be comparable to the current Retreat pricing, I don't know that we'll pay that anyway. Which creates quandaries on multiple levels... We enjoy the evening entertainment on Celebrity. Our last two cruises we played a game of "follow the house band". The first was a very cool guitar based mostly rock band from Mexico, and in November a guitar based mostly rock band from the UK. And maybe we're living the youth neither of us had growing up in flyover country. (We saw the remaining members of Kansas last night, have tickets to 5 Springsteen shows starting in just over a month, and I'm catching Alanis Morrisette with Joan Jett in June.) We're 61 and I'm not ready to to spend my evenings listening to strings and piano (unless it's Roy Bittan or maybe Billy Joe). Maybe I'm just a man without a country! I've said before that we're probably looking at land based vacations, and even just driving places in the US versus going on a cruise. It's not a simple calculus for us, as we've enjoyed cruising, but the Caribbean has become multiple stops at the same port, just changing the name, and for the most part if we're going to Europe we'd rather fly, go to a location, and immerse ourselves there. Greek islands and parts of Northern Europe would be the exceptions. The Pacific is different, but I'd rather spend two weeks in New Zealand and/or Australia than bounce around from port to port on a cruise ship. And I enjoy cruising! Oh, well...

This thread was aimed at hotel questions, but briefly... Most of what I've posted recently has been easily found on Google Maps or City Mapper, just informed a bit by personal experience. Before you go to London please download one or both. TFL has some amazing, practical, and easy to use information on traveling in London. Look at it as well. There's a YouTube channel that I have no affiliation with at all called "Love and London" that has a lot of short, excellent videos on visiting London for first timers. We're not first timers, but I still find her style and information very useful. And she has practical things like video showing her using her iPhone on the Tube... I would generally support going to major timed and ticketed sites earlier. It's been a looong time since we went to the Tower. I mean we're talking using actual printed travel guides. At that time, the best piece of advise we got was go to the Tower early. As in get there when it opens. At that time, the buses tended to arrive a little later, maybe 10:00? and if you were there at 9:00, as we were, you had the run of the place. We literally entered the Tower grounds and went straight to the Crown Jewels and were able to walk back and forth a couple of times! I doubt that's as true today, but look on TripAdvisor and other sites for current recommendations. And today you can buy your tickets ahead of time and have them on your phone. But I believe they're now timed tickets, so early arrival may not be as important as a good timed ticket. Use your native roaming on your phone or get an eSIM. In 2024, do not navigate London without a smart phone with an international data package. You're spending THOUSANDS on this trip. Suck it up and spend a hundred bucks on data! I am deadly serious on that. There are too many people on Cruise Critic who just won't do that! If you're going to Royal sites or the Imperial War Museum sites (Churchill War Rooms is an example), look at the price and rules for an annual pass. You may get front of line privileges (worth it's weight in gold on a short visit) and if you go to two sites you may well break even or come out ahead. Passes are a hidden secret in London! The same may apply to other museums; those are two I've looked at and the IWM pass paid for itself when we had it, in both money and time. And above all else, enjoy yourself. There is so much to do in London that is not an A-list tourist attraction. Check out the Campaign for Real Ale for actual pubs that serve casked ale. Check out Michelin for 1-star restaurants if you love food. We've had incredible Indian at Michelin starred restaurants (lunch is affordable and casual). Go to China town. Walk down the South Bank. I can go on and I'm not a Londoner! And I'm now well away from hotel discussions... Tower and Abbey in same day will be a stretch. The opening times are not really conducive, and they're not near each other. I'm sure it can be done, but if you're wanting to see the chambers where Anne Boleyn was imprisoned, for instance, at the Tower, and Poet's Corner at Westminster Abbey, you need to allow time. The Abbey services give some grace on time. I've not done them and I'm unsure whether you enter the Abbey and can wander a half hour before sitting down for the service or not. The Tower is a lot bigger than you think. Even just the White Tower can take time if you're interested. And you kind of have to see the ravens...

My gut says feasible, but not necessarily enjoyable. Google Maps is your friend, or in this case probably enemy. And unless you plan on returning to Paddington after each stop, proximity to the Circle Line probably doesn't matter. For instance, it's about 40 minutes from Paddington Station to the Tower. That is on the Circle Line, with a 10 minute walk. Other Tube lines will work as well; I didn't look at walking distance recommendations for all of them. I'd probably allow 2 hours at the Tower for planning; that's unlikely to be perfect and will probably be either too much or not nearly enough. It looks like you can pre-purchase timed tickets. It looks like the Tower opens at either 9:00 or 10:00 depending on the day of the week. I think when we went years ago we spent a half day... From the Tower, it's about a half hour to Buckingham Palace, including a 15-20 minute walk (Google's pace may not be yours). That looks like District or Circle Lines. And probably not to the visitor's entrance you'll be using. You'll need to time that to meet the tour times, so you'll undoubtedly lose some of your day. The Royal Collection Trust says to allow 1.5 hours, but I've seen other sites that recommend allowing 3 hours in total for the tour. From Buckingham Palace, it's about 19 minutes to Harrod's; most of that is walking across Green Park to get to the Tube. Harrod's is open until 9:00 pm. From Harrod's, it's about a half hour back to Paddington, regardless of Tube line or bus. Assuming you pre-purchase tickets for 9:00 at the Tower and leave your hotel no later than 8:00, you'd be leaving the Tower 11:00-11:30 and getting to Buckingham Palace between 11:30 and 12:30. You'd be unlikely to make the Changing of the Guard at 11:00 if that interests you. You probably wouldn't want to try to schedule the tour before 1:00, maybe 1:30. If you get a 1:30 tour, that's 3:00-4:30 depending on whose estimate you use. You'll then be walking your probably exhausted body across Green Park and looking for somewhere just to sit down, but if you push on, you're at Harrod's about 5:00 heading for the food hall in all probability. Then however long you want to spend at Harrod's before another half hour back to Paddington and the walk to your hotel. If you spend any time at Harrod's, that could easily be 7:00 or 8:00. It would be a very long day. I don't know that changing the order will really help. The Tower to Harrods via Buckingham Palace avoids switching back on your travels. And Buckingham Palace would almost certainly be the most immovable timeslot. Oh, and if you're planning on the Heathrow Express, buy the advanced purchase tickets as soon as they're available. TL;DR: It would be a very long and probably rushed day!

Are those the only sites you want to see? Or the primary ones? Do you want to visit the interior or Westminster Abbey and St Paul's? I'm assuming you want to tour the Tower? You are probably 150-200 meters from the Marble Arch tube stop, and maybe 15 minutes from the Bond Street underground. There's a bus stop on Park Lane just south of Oxford Street and essentially in front of the Marriott Park Lane. I'm reasonably sure both TFL (Public) buses and HOHO buses use that stop. That's 10-15 minutes (more dependent on lights than your walking pace) from your hotel. My answer would be a qualified yes. If you're primarily looking at exteriors then rather than walking everywhere (some of those are long walks and will take significant time), look at doing a HOHO on your first afternoon. I believe you can catch those at the stop on Park Lane. That will give you a good orientation, and should go by the exteriors of the major sites you want to see. That will take you by most of the places you've mentioned and then some (you have to get off and walk at Buckingham Palace, but that's probably to your advantage). You'll need to check opening times of attractions you want to enter. The Tower is probably the big one. It looks to be a little over a half hour by Tube from Marble Arch. You can walk from there back to St Paul's, and in fact it's a nice (long) walk all the way back to Trafalgar Square from there. It will take time, but I like it. According to their web page, Westminster Abbey's hours are 9:30-3:30 for Monday through Friday. You could be hard pressed, for instance, to see the Tower, St Paul's and the Abbey in the same day unless you're just moving from one to the other and not taking time to see your surroundings. Depending on the day of week, the Abbey may be open for an evening service (Evensong, for instance). I don't know if that gives you an opportunity to wander the Abbey as much as be there for a service. To me, London is a city you experience as much as see. Slowing down and having a pint is a nice break!

You won’t be out of place. You may be rare, but so what. (Biting my tongue on finding you some nice bright orange accessories… 😀)

Which part? The belief around here is that if people leave their tips in place and tip extra cash, the individual gets to keep the extra. That definitely seems to be the case if you use the additional gratuity form. The reality is, other than for fares where gratuities are included (which are pretty much gone) and maybe pre-paid gratuities (I don't know what the terms and conditions are on those) you can remove gratuities essentially up to the point your check is closed out. Which is after your last evening meal. If you've tipped cash as "extra" during the cruise, in theory once you remove the tips, those cash tips are no longer "extra" and would be subject to pooling. And the line at Guest Services has usually been after the last dinner. There's probably a system in place to protect the staff, but the person who got the cash would have to pony it up to share with everyone else who just got stiffed. Da Kahuna understood the second part. Groups tend to enforce themselves. Someone who's hording tips is likely to have wet uniforms and unlikely to get help when they need it. For instance. You kind of have to have served to understand a GI party...

That’s not how anyone would have interpreted your original comment. I think most of us do that, and I also don’t concern myself with what happens after I leave a gratuity.

There’s no way they’re not pooling the base tips. And since tips can be removed until departure, more or less, how do you account form”extras” before you’re sure they’re extra? The Navy had GI parties, didn’t it? What happened to the screw up who didn’t pull his weight when the officers and NCOs weren’t around?

But the cruise line and its employees do. You just make more work for the ones you gave cash to. They’ll be turning in the cash to be distributed to the pool. Just like most land based restaurants (and tipping systems). You can’t do what you think you want to do.

Living here, that's not always true anymore. Almost anything can disrupt traffic here on any day of the week. On Saturday the 31st the Nationals host the Cubs at 4:05, for instance. Probably not a big deal if you stay on the Beltway to the Wilson Bridge, or spend the evening in Alexandria and hit the road earlier Sunday. But it could impact you if you're planning on driving across DC to the Parkway from about 2 hours before to 2 hours after the game. If you have an EZ Pass, the Express Lanes open northbound from Fredericksburg to DC at 4:00 pm on Saturday (unless they don't for the holiday weekend). Historically Saturday and Sunday on a holiday weekend have had lighter traffic, so that's a plus. And if you did stay in Alexandria you can easily get there from the Express Lanes. I do like the Annapolis idea. You'd be very close to Baltimore, and it's a very nice place to visit. But it is a detour from the direct route to Baltimore.

I would have hoped if they were doing one red and one white from Argentina the red would have been a Malbec. It's kind of the national wine of Argentina...

I did it on Equinox in November. It was basically as described, and underwhelming. There were a couple of interesting wines at best. I think I wrote about it in my sort of review at the time. The premium wine tasting was a sit down tasting and much better, but also much more expensive. And I think the last afternoon. I had done the World Wine Tour before, also on Equinox, and had a totally different experience. So unfortunately it's almost impossible to predict what you're experience will be. And I also don't know your level of interest in wine or experience with wine from around the world.

I guess I wouldn't put that in the same category. But maybe the OP does. Amuse Bouche is normally served before the first course, which is what they do in Luminae today. That's become the style in most high end restaurants, especially French, and almost universally in Michelin-starred restaurants. Typically 1-3 small bites that are designed to show off the chef's creativity and prepare you for the meal. I've really enjoyed the ones they serve in Luminae. The "palate cleanser" is served between courses, probably mostly on tasting menus. Sorbet used to be common (may still be; haven't had one in awhile) or typically a clear liqueur, like a grappa or maybe a Gran Marnier depending on the before and after course. Sometimes a sparkling wine. Small glass just to indicate a course change. I've not seen either in Luminae.

I guess I don't remember having a palate cleanser served in Luminae. Definitely ate their before 2019.

😀 Do you work for United? I’ve watched dozens of bags come off the belt before the first orange “Priority” bag came off. No real confidence in any cruise line being better.

I'm trying to understand how priority baggage service would even work. I'll have to look, but I don't think it's part of the Retreat. And having had priority baggage for years on airlines, good luck with that...

If you look at the web page, Elliott Advocacy is a 501(c)(3) non-profit. I would assume they do a lot smaller advocacy. The news articles would generate income, but those are going to be larger cases. Changes in the wine list, footstools, etc., aren't going to generate good stories, or really consumer advocacy issues. Like it or not, and I really don't, "decline in the product" isn't going to be a violation of the cruise contract. That's also his point in the article Bo linked. They met the terms of the cruise contract, and the final straw was absolutely not Celebrity's fault. He could probably do an article on the overall industry that would include Celebrity, but I don't know what the market is, outside of maybe The Robb Report, for articles that most readers would boil down to "spoiled rich people complain about no Grey Poupon". And I only see a couple of Celebrity hits on Google for the Robb Report (far more for Regent).

Apparently a lot of people contact him, just not people on this board and this thread. https://www.elliott.org/about-christopher-elliott/ Interesting bio. I may have heard of him in the past, but we have a ton of consumer reporters in the DC area (he worked for the WaPo for 14 years). "Travel Troubleshooter" will get you dozens of Google hits on his travel advocacy articles. So, yeah, people with travel issues contact him and his team constantly.