Boycey

I’m afraid we won’t be using ‘Venice’ as a turnaround port again so long as Ravenna is the temporary substitute. The road from Venice to Ravenna is a single lane in each direction. It’s full of trucks, all doing around 30-35MPH. The distance is maybe 90 miles but it’s a minimum 2.5 hours as the route is clogged. We did it by X bus transfer from airport to ship and private hire for the return as the coach transfer was a nightmare (a small group of our fellow travellers insisted on stopping at a McDonald’s en-route, and the driver didn’t have enough English <or spherical things> to refuse, despite being < half hour from the ship). IF self disembarkation really had been 06h30 as Celebrity said on board, we would have missed our flights (booked and paid for pre-pandemic in 2019 so prior to the change). Luckily, the ship docks at 5am and we were off at 05h40.

A timely topic. I turned up for dinner in what I thought were acceptable (tailored, not sports) shorts recently on Constellation and the hostess discretely and with great sensitivity asked me to change as shorts weren't allowed in the MDR. I was more than happy to do it and assumed simply that the people I'd seen on previous nights in shorts were perhaps victims of lost luggage or similar. I didn't ask, but assumed that there must be some special dispensation. However, through the cruise I noticed people (men and women) in the MDR in shorts every night. Some in sports shorts (and one lady, on evening chic night, in a bathing suit beneath a one piece cover up/Sarong) Evening I concede, but Chic it wasn't. Maybe they'd been challenged and declined to change, or more likely the hostess chose discretion over valour, but the end result is the same. Generally, I don't worry too much about what other people wear, but I do question the inconsistent application of a rule or guideline. Allow shorts or don't, but be consistent. That's surely the only sustainable policy?

I guess perception in Europe may be a little different from US, but when we talk about lines with an older customer base Celebrity isn't typically amongst them. If there's such a thing as a mid-life demographic, then for us Celebrity certainly catch it. I'm envious - the first cruise is like the first ever hit of anything that goes on to play a big part in your life; you'll be forever trying to recreate it. You've chosen wisely. Now all you have to do is enjoy and figure out when/where you do the next one...

As of this week (July 21st) the main dining room is still only half open (one deck) due to crew shortages, and reservations were hit and miss. Either very early or very late seemed to be respected, but lots of people in between were disappointed. The available crew were great - just not enough of them.

Very odd. We are just back today too from a fly cruise originating in Italy, but we had to go through passport control in and out and got passports stamped, even in the chaos that is Marco Polo airport in Venice. Something clearly went awry in your outbound trip, but at least it saved you the 'all passports' queue in Europe that is our new normal post Brexit.