BosoxI

MC is usually quite deserted, fine for intimate conversation in a turn of the last century gentleman's club. When there are a number of people there, we have found them interesting company. There can be entertainment, but invariably, we are leaving for dinner when the show starts. Luminae is OK but on a longer cruise it's nice to dine in Murano or even Qsine for a change. The concierge in MC has been very helpful in arranging events off ship, incidentally.

Sorry, I have a hard time thinking of a ship that size is small. I go back to when the Century was considered large and people on this board swore they would never sail her since she was so big.

Boy, do we love the Pacific Princess

I received the same email BUT how can we book when we don't know what the ship looks like, where it is going or the pricing????

aside from that, what's your question? :):):)

Unable to do browse searches, even on those already searched in history.????

 

 

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Wrote a note, submitted t, and BOOM, it disappeared

Blown away by some of these numbers! How can that be???!!

Well, when the most traveled award is handed out to someone with thousands of days and hundreds of cruises, it's a bit easier to understand. Years ago on a Royal Viking ship I saw a plaque in the lobby dedicated to a woman who had taken more than 130 cruises on that line alone. I was told the cabin I had was the one she would always book when she cruised. Apparently, she would spend most of her time sitting by the purser's desk, possibly a lonely soul looking for human contact.

WOW, I'm blown away by some of these numbers!!

6 weeks vacation time? Are you guys hiring?!

And one of you mentioned 2 cruises a year for 'bizness'?! Are you guys hiring also?!

 

 

I have about 20 years left before retirement.. But my wife and I always said that we wanted to travel while we are still young and are still able to get around..... On my second cruise, when I was 18 or so, I saw so many 'older' ones that were miserable.. I told myself that I never wanted to be like that, i.e., cruise when I can barely get around. 30 years later, we're still cruising, but obviously not as much as MANY of you!!

 

 

Keep on cruisin'!!! I'm jealous but happy for all of you! Now I have something to aim at! ;)[/quo

 

But consider this: cruising limits you to a limited area near the port you are in. You will never get to Vienna or Munich from a cruise ship docked in Venice. So I would argue that the time NOT to cruise is when you are young, healthy, and mobile. I don't know how many people in wheelchairs on a ship are miserable, but they are on a ship and they seem to get around very easily.

Six. One Istanbul to Harwich; an Istanbul to Rome; a Barcelona roundtrip; a Montreal-NYC; and two in the Carib. Three trans Atlantic flights were a drag and it's really along way from JFK to Istanbul. We'll never do that many again, as we have practically reached the saturation point for cruising.

These posts make me worry whether we should have gone with a different line, but we will keep an open mind, and if not satisfied we'll try another. Until the grandkids want to go, then be back to Carnival or Disney.

If you're cruising only for the food, I am afraid you did choose the wrong line. Princess food is better. But, you know what? That's my taste and yours might differ markedly. One man's meat is another man's poison is never more true than on a cruise ship. Unless you know a reviewer's taste and yours are the same, don't be too accepting about what you read hear. Good or bad.

As I'm sure you know, if you don't like what you ordered, ask for something else. No need to suffer through a bad meal on a ship. It won't cost you a red cent more to try a different dish. This is particularly true in the buffet on a larger ship where there are so many things available. We spent twenty two days on the Eclipse in December, and while DW insists on eating lunch in the MDR some of the time, I ate lunch in the buffet a good number of times and always found something I enjoyed. If I erred, I would have replaced it with another item. Such a simple solution.

Out of sixty five cruises there are only two where I can honestly say the food was really bad across the board. Unfortunately, one was on the Infinity where the preparation and the foodstuff itself were terribly inferior. I'm sure you'll have a great time, the odds are so much in your favor.

Definitely, your logic is flawed and you have consistently compared apples to oranges. land based food to ship based. Two different worlds. I would be the last to claim shipboard food is haute cuisine, but you have literally gone overboard with many of your observations. My advice would be to stay on land in the future and spare yourself the pain of terrible food. in the middle of the ocean.

Hmm. I think I'm fairly rational. I didn't eat the bad-looking food, for instance. I don't eat in the specialty restaurants and I have a "normal" room. I'm certainly not looking for a "fine-dining" experience in the buffet. But I would expect something along the lines of my local grocery store's deli department for lunch - and there was nothing there of the sort. The buffet was nothing at all like my last cruise 3 years ago on Royal Caribbean.

 

I don't mean to carp on it, as much as try to understand it. They don't expect people to actually eat those scrambled eggs, do they? Take a look at them in my photos! My guess is that a lot of this food is served to the wait staff, etc...it's doing duel duty. If the guests don't eat it (not many did from my experience) then they give the leftovers to their employees? They're trying to do more with less is my guess. They will be doing it without me on their cruise line in the future, unless I can figure out a way to get most of my food on-shore. The Eclipse was a lovely ship and my vacation was great, except for what you see in the photos.

 

https://www.yelp.com/biz/celebrity-cruise-lines-miami?hrid=rJqH9n7frKACrEHU_T8y4Q&utm_campaign=www_review_share_popup&utm_medium=copy_link&utm_source=(direct)

I asked once but I guess you missed my question: on what cruise line did the buffet and the food in general suit you?

An S1 on Deck 6 is now $14,398.00. 'Nuff said

I'm trying to figure out how to respond properly on this forum, this is my first post.

 

I wrote a review of my recent Celebrity cruise on the Eclipse that of course was not published. Now I see your post as I read this forum thread. What cruise are you referring to? I was on the Eclipse for 2 weeks in Jan 2017. The buffet was horrendous. I would like to know what you enjoyed about it. I have photos that I can share. Much of the food was inedible and unappetizing to say the least!

I guess those of us who disembarked on January 2 got the good food. Sorry. First post? I can't wait for your second.:eek:

Oh, boy. I just saw it. Good you found out early, No use in discussing it further, as you are never going to be happy on Celebrity. What shipboard buffet suits you?

That's why we have paten leather shoes with our tuxes. That way we can sneak a peek under those kilts!

Why would that be of interest to you? I wonder

Very occasionally, the concierge will extend an invite to travelling companions to use the lounge. This was allowed when the concierge had booked a meal in the Lawn Club Grill for us and our friends, they were allowed in for a pre dinner drink. We did not ask for this, it was at the concierge's discretion.

Yes, it can happen but rarely. Once we started a B2B in a suite but had to move to Aqua for the second half. The concierge informed us that if MC was not busy, we were welcome. MC was never busy on that cruise, but not wanting to take advantage of a kind invitation, we visited only twice on a two week cruise. It does pay to treat people right, doesn't it?

Okay. I posted earlier on this thread but I held back on this one' date=' because it's so obnoxious. But seeing so many funny sharings about boobs, speedos, and this and that, here it goes:

 

DH and I rarely sit by the pool but we were relaxing one day a year or two ago poolside. An old man proceeded to get into the hot tub in his jockey underwear. Yes, you heard me right his white underwear, actually the color was more like tattle tale grey. They had a tobacco stain in the rear area, if you know what I mean. We were totally disgusted, and felt sorry for those sharing the hot tub unknowingly with him. When he emerged from the tub, the stained was bleached away I guess from the chlorine chemicals!! EWWWW!!!

 

Ergo, you will never see us in a hot tub ever again!![/quote']

 

You are on the money, and the same goes for bathtubs. Please, I know many swear by them..Not I

Some of these stories are merely amusing and thanks for recounting them. Others relate disgusting or unsanitary behavior and I really think it behooves all of us, for the good of our fellow passengers, to call people out. Thankfully, I haven't seen any of the "I'm on my vacation and I'll do what I want" types speak up, or did I miss it?

On a Princess ship we wanted to attend a very good show being held in a small venue. We could only get a seat in the last row which meant an aisle was between us and the stage. We knew people would be passing in front of us during the show, but it was the best we could do,

What we didn't expect was a young couple who positioned themselves in the aisle directly in front of us. I politely addressed the issue with them and the guy finally knelt so as not to block our view. The woman refused to move. In desperation I asked the nearby bartender to call and have them removed. If he actually did, no one in authority ever appeared and we finally left.

To this day, and it's probably been seven or eight years, I could still kick myself for not calling security myself. I don't know why I didn't. Politeness only works with polite people.

The happy ending to this story was that the show was repeated in the theater a few days later.

At guest services there were two women complaining about their shore excursion in Lisbon. They said they went for a massage and it was the worst massage ever. The woman at Guest Services directed them to speak to shore excursions to make a complaint. They said that Shore Ex didn't care to speak with them.... eventually it came out that this wasn't a ship sponsored shore excursion at all. The two women said that they wanted money from Celebrity because even though it wasn't a X shore ex, it was the worst massage in the world and - really quotes are required - "its ruined our entire lives forever", and Celebrity was to blame for bringing them to Lisbon.

 

Must have been some bad massage.

Apparently no happy ending

On the Eclipse this past December a man grabbed the wedge of cheese barehanded and started to cut off a piece. I called him on it and he dropped it, but the damage was done. No attendant, no tongs. I searched out the manager of the buffet and complained. The tongs showed up for the rest of the trip, a case of too little, too late.

Since our first cruise with Celebrity 5 years ago, we have also noticed a significant change. The food quality is better; the incentives are amazing and wasteful excesses that result in tons of food uneaten and discarded, silly towel animals, ice sculptures and many other things that bring minimum value to a only handful of people are gone.

 

What’s left is a competitive and still affordable price for a very pleasurable vacation experience with top notch, committed staff that are there to make your trip a very special experience.

 

We tried a few cruise lines that just didn’t work for us; instead of investing our time complaining on websites and trying to convince people how awful and “lost” some cruise line was, we simply gravitated to something we liked much better.

I, agree with most of what you say, but I don't want to fall into the trap of "Since I don't like/need/require/miss something, who cares if it's gone?" Little things do mean a lot.

I so agree about mixing it up. We flew to Venice and rented a car; drove to the Dolomites for a wonderful time! The scenery was breathtaking.

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The most beautiful mountains in the world as far as I'm concerned. A combination of wild beauty and clean, quaint towns. Plus, the food and architecture are quite distinct from most of the rest of Italy. I give you credit for being able to move on for the rest of your trip.

My TA does this for us and has saved us thousands of $$$$ over many cruises. She does it for free.

Consider yourself extremely fortunate. Most TAs do not have the time or the inclination to monitor prices.

I was not aware that you could pay an "up-charge" to dine in Luminae if you're not in a suite? My husband and I will be taking out 25th anniversary cruise on Reflection April 15th (CC) but can't quite afford a suite but would love to dine in Luminae. Do you have to "know someone?"

 

 

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My advice would be to try it once and then head for Murano. The tables in Luminae are well spaced, the service is excellent, the menus rather limited and I notice quite a number of people actually ordering from the MDR menu.

Of course, dining is always a question of taste and preference, but I like Luminae for its ambiance and service; food? not so much.

The best deal on X, I continue to maintain, is a good, well priced veranda and specialty dining as often as you can afford it.

:confused: Surprised to see such a statement.

Have you ever worked for an airline?

Anyone who has would know that the chance of a bag being lost or mis-routed keeps increasing the more times it gets transferred when it out of your sight and the more different people that are involved in handling

 

 

Many years ago when the last great American airline Pan Am was still in business, I had the opportunity to walk through their baggage area at JFK. In the ceiling were any number of conveyor belts shuttling luggage from one point to another. I was astounded. I had no idea of the intricacies of baggage handling which at that point was limited to seeing porters pushing carts. That was probably in 1989; I can only imagine what the situation is today.

Be thankful every time your luggage appears where and when you expected it. It's a minor miracle.

Has anyone used the site that charges $1 to track a cruise price with good results?

 

 

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Sometimes up, sometimes down. On several occasions the alert came late. It is handy, though.

Nice catch, Captain. Lowest we had seen was $799 for an A2