NutsAboutGolf

Snippets from this article: https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/cruises/2018/11/27/celebrity-edge-new-cruise-ships-cabins-have-walls-glass/2123667002/ "Load-bearing steel structure that traditionally runs down the sides of ships between cabin interiors and balconies has been moved inward." "Lutoff-Perlo said outfitting Celebrity Edge with the Infinite Veranda cabins required adding about 2 percent more volume to the vessel than otherwise would be needed."

Correct; this is almost always the case whether land or sea

From their Q2 earnings call: "But really, the main driver of that has been our ability to be much more effective to curate and take friction out of the process for our customers to book their activities on the ship. And of course, there's a great commercial reasons of doing that. There's also an incredible guest experience benefit of doing that as our ultimate goal here is to try to give a day back to our guests to come on our ships and instead of them having to spend a day booking their restaurants and booking their spa appointments and shore excursions. They're able to do that ahead of time. And we are really in the early innings of that, especially curating -- there's still a lot of friction points for us to resolve, but our teams have really just done an exceptional job of moving that forward, which can also see supporting an even more elevated customer deposit balance as we're able to take on those onboard spend bookings."

It could have been a port that required it or a rule change; some folks were required to wear the blue fabric bracelets yet we didn't in July. As stated, Capt Kate that we don't have to social distance or wear masks anywhere assuming you vaxed (they were letting a handful of the unvaxed on)

Respectfully asking, social distancing on celebrity? Was on the 5th Edge sailing after the restart which was the last sailing you didn't need a COVID test in 2021. FYI, the 6th sailing was the infamous short notice testing requirement where people were passing out due to the humid heat as no tent/cover was set up while queued up waiting to get inside the terminal. The fire department showed up to help and Capt Kate also came out to hand out water The reason I ask you is that during Capt Kate's Q&A, someone specifically asked why doesn't the ship practice social distancing, why are we on top of each other in the MDR and why are we forced to do bubble tours while on the same day a CCL and RCI ship can be in the same port and do not need to do bubble tours? She answered you have to pick one of two paths, option one is the test cruise path with strict on-board social distancing, or option two which was what X decided on, no test cruises, no social distancing but with bubble tours as it allowed X to be first with the restart, twice. The first major cruise line to sail in the Caribbean with the Millie out of St Maarten and the first out of a US port with the Edge

All good stuff. The MC is the easiest tender platform there is for cruise ships I recently got off the solstice where you had to use a flight of exterior stairs to get from the ship to the tender boat and vice versa, some folks were struggling. You'd have to imagine in a foggy situation the orange would be easier to spot for regular boats without radar

Salt in the wounds! jk/lol I don't play slots is the main problem

If the US you have a few fast options at participating FedEx Office locations Add another $210 (paid to the Govt) to FedEx's prices below

And after all that, this is what they offer and 75% of these are unavailable even if you call within 5mins of receiving the email...lol

I think the answer is obvious...Book TWO staterooms 🙃

U.A. will dock very close to the ship, they have a big boat and lots of people you'll probably be gone for only 3.5 hours and you're dropped off by the ship. JJ Divers is where you can dive with harmless blacktips/Caribbean reef sharks, will have far fewer people, will cost more, and will take longer

Back to the original topic, when you're there for a single day and are not hiring a private guide, you're at the mercy of the guide/captain to which dive site they're going to take you. Their decisions can also factor in how many beginner divers there are because if there are many you're probably going to the dive site with the least amount of current. I think your "research" shouldn't be about which island to dive to, it's about what can you do for your wife (nice dinner? spa appt?) to dive in both islands. For Aruba you can meet at the boat avoiding stopping by the dive shop and the four times I've been on the Mermaid II the boat didn't go out far so you were done in roughly 3 hours which is fairly quick for a two tank

Two vastly different price points. Whale sharks are in Cebu Philippines, 99% chance of seeing them as they feed them and there are a bunch of IJN WW2 wrecks in Coron Philippines. There are other great sites but you have to fly or take a ferry if available to different islands to see everything

One positive thing about the "Royalization" of X is they are innovators so maybe we will get some new features. I'm sure they'll do something different with the Eden space as right now its just used as a stage for DJs/bands

Looks like the new leadership including RCG are trying to differentiate themselves by doubling down on the orange for some reason. Here's a fairly good view of what it should look like

https://cruiseindustrynews.com/cruise-news/2023/11/celebrity-xcel-named-as-next-ship-for-celebrity-cruises/ "Celebrity Cruises announced today that the fifth ship in its Edge Series will be named Celebrity Xcel, and will debut in 2025. The company previously announced the ship would be methanol ready. The reveal was made at Chantiers de l’Atlantique shipyard in Saint-Nazaire, France, as executives from both Royal Caribbean Group and the yard celebrated the steel cutting. “The Edge Series has shattered preconceived notions of cruising, and I am thrilled to announce our next bold step as a brand with Celebrity Xcel,” said Celebrity Cruises’ President Laura Hodges Bethge. “True to her name, this next ship will ‘Xcel’ beyond her sister ships with entirely new experiences, yet to be revealed, but that will change the game all over again.” The Celebrity Xcel will make her debut in November 2025 in the Caribbean, sailing her inaugural winter season from Fort Lauderdale, on 7-night itineraries alternating between the Bahamas, Mexico and the Cayman Islands, and Puerto Plata, St. Thomas, and St. Maarten. The sailings are now open for sale."

https://cruiseindustrynews.com/cruise-news/2023/11/celebrity-xcel-named-as-next-ship-for-celebrity-cruises/ Celebrity Cruises announced today that the fifth ship in its Edge Series will be named Celebrity Xcel, and will debut in 2025. The company previously announced the ship would be methanol ready. The reveal was made at Chantiers de l’Atlantique shipyard in Saint-Nazaire, France, as executives from both Royal Caribbean Group and the yard celebrated the steel cutting. “The Edge Series has shattered preconceived notions of cruising, and I am thrilled to announce our next bold step as a brand with Celebrity Xcel,” said Celebrity Cruises’ President Laura Hodges Bethge. “True to her name, this next ship will ‘Xcel’ beyond her sister ships with entirely new experiences, yet to be revealed, but that will change the game all over again.” The Celebrity Xcel will make her debut in November 2025 in the Caribbean, sailing her inaugural winter season from Fort Lauderdale, on 7-night itineraries alternating between the Bahamas, Mexico and the Cayman Islands, and Puerto Plata, St. Thomas, and St. Maarten. The sailings are now open for sale."

It's not just X and I'll still give them the benefit of the doubt but this seems to be the way of all shipping "We're CAPABLE of using greener fuel..."

What's the "all in" price difference? They're only a relaxed 10min walk or 5min power walk apart

There's some speculative buzz that it'll be Galveston which would utilize RCI's brand new terminal. While X said a year ago they had no plans to sail out of TX, there have been a lot of changes from leadership to the general direction of the "new X" wanting more short itineraries and also adding CoCo Cay as a port of call. As good as a guess as any I suppose

Timelines can change, this article states 2024: https://www.seatrade-cruise.com/environmental-health/new-wrtsil-engine-enables-methanol-celebritys-fifth-edge-ship "Celebrity Cruises' fifth Edge-class ship will sport a new Wärtsilä flex fuel engine with the ability to use three types of fuel, including methanol. The vessel is planned for 2024 delivery from Chantiers de l'Atlantique"

It was reported by Dan‘s family vacations that this ship will have the most suites of any celebrity ship ever

If you google "celebrity excel" cruises then "celebrity xcel" cruises and "celebrity vertex" cruises, only the EXCEL appears on the Marine Vessel Traffic website; the data like size and flag aren't yet populated. Now hopefully they reveal something other than the name

I've also wondered if it's inevitable that the Royal franchise partnership are coming to X...Mast Grill to be replaced by Johnny Rockets (I'm okay with this) and Cab Al Bacio to be replaced by Starbucks...On RCI, neither are free

You would have to imagine their legal department ironed that out since it was trademarked at one time