BosoxI

I have seen plainclothes cops hustle drunks and others off Bourbon Street so fast that it made my head spin. One minute a guy was acting up, the next second he disappeared in the arms of the police like he never existed. NOLA has always recognized the need to impress visitors with its safety. But it would be foolhardy to think it's safe anywhere in the city, including Bourbon Street. As I recall there was a murder and nine or ten woundings there back in November and that wasn't during Mardi Gras. It's a tough town and as Gonzo noted, neighborhoods change rapidly. Heck, one of the notable things to view is how there can be marked changes from house to house in the same block. It's a fascinating city and always has been. My Dad would tell me stories about NOLA during the war, but I don't think people were shooting themselves with wild abandon back then.

Celebrity will only provide transportation to the parades if you book the grandstands ... no transportation back, though. All public transportation options close down during parade times.

All this information is listed under the Feb 20th, Celebrity Equinox roll call. Start at the end of part 2 and work backwards, unless you want to read 10K posts. Mary has put all this information into a spreadsheet ... she's incredible.

 

Yes, NOLA can be pretty risky walking around at night but we're going by the safety in numbers philosophy. There will be a LOT of people from the ship going into town. Just join in on a group if you feel uncomfortable. There is also a lot of no nonsense advice on avoiding some of that risk.

 

If you are still apprehensive about going, they also have a jazz festival cruise in April that will be crowded but maybe less intimidating than the Mardi Gras itinerary.

Thanks to all for the info. I am a relatively frequent visitor to New Orleans and I've been to Mardi Gras several times, so I am well aware of the situation. Actually, once away from the French Quarter, the festivities are very family friendly and without the mad crush of people. Having seen it before is one of the reasons we are hesitating, the other reason is Celebrity pulled a bait and switch on our cabin.

The cruise ship terminal is roughly a mile walk to the French Quarter. Not sure about customs.

Hmmm. I'm not sure I want to walk a mile in New Orleans at night, especially during Mardi Gras, and with my dear wife. Thanks for the info. We are holding a cabin and struggling with whether we want to revisit these ports or take a different cruise to new places. NOLA is a pretty rough place once the sun goes down. Perhaps the ship will run jitneys, if we're lucky

Duane and Bosoxl

Do either of you remember the names of your servers in Blu?

We will be on the Eclipse in a couple of weeks and our favorite server, Vinod, told us he has been transferred to the Equinox.

Thanks!

 

 

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Yes, he is a very nice Indonesian by the name of Ada. On our cruise he was working the rear wall at the back room of the restaurant, the place we sought refuge, far from the madding crowd

The Equinox will be docking in NOLA next month. Where will that be in relation to the French Quarter?

How is Customs handled? This will be the first port of entry but the cruise ends in Ft. Lauderdale.

i have never heard of returning the sparkling wine for an obc....all the exchanges were specifically for another bottle of wine.

 

 

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I can assure you that once the Blu sommelier gave us a credit to our account, something we had not requested or expected.. Most recently, the Blu sommelier gave us a $39 credit towards a bottle of wine. That is the most we have ever received. Usually it ranges between $28 and $32.

Is there a difference between the credit given for a suite bottle versus an Aqua bottle? Our experience is the two bottles in question are different in appearance, though the quality may be the same.

Is a bottle of Celebrity sparkling wine the new fruitcake?

 

I've always taken private excursions until a cruise we took this year. We had a lot of OBCs to use up. So we thought we may as well use the OBCs for a few shore excursions. Twice we sat in the theatre way past the tour start times, waiting to be called (and the tours were not extended by the amount of time we sat waiting). The tours were all disorganized and crowded. No apologies for delays were received. /QUOTE]

 

And you said nothing to the tour desk upon your return? We had a problem on a ship's tour when a promised stop was not made. I mentioned our disappointment to the ship's staff, bingo, we were refunded more than a fair amount. I suspect I was the only one to voice a complaint and the only one to gain some compensation.

 

People who constantly complain should be ignored, but there are times when it pays to speak up. After all, we're not cattle, right?;)

Not really. Your ranks are thinning out every year and younger people with money also like to be catered too.

Your ranks are thinning out every year? I see it quite the opposite. If they're lucky, today's young people will live to be old people with much different tastes than they have today. Isn't that the way it's supposed to work?

Incidentally, as I never heard of Lovato, I took the time to Google her and listen to her sing something I think was called Heart Attack. She sounded like Grandma's rocker had crushed Tabby's tail. But maybe I settled on her one weak song. :cool:

For my taste Princess' food has always been better than Celebrity's, though the gap probably has closed. I sure love the small Princess ship but in general, I like the X ships better. Of course my opinions are of no value unless you and I share common tastes, and I don't know you and you don't know me. :)

I assume the OP was on the December 11 cruise. We were, too, in a Celebrity Suite. We then moved to an Aqua cabin for the back to back which ended today. I'm not up to writing much at this point but I do want to note just a few things before I completely forget.

The food in Blu and the service were excellent, much better than our recent experiences in Blu. Actually, the food there was at least the equal of Luminae with a much more expansive menu. I noticed a good number of Luminae diners ordering from the MDR menu. Too bad they felt that it was necessary. But on the first night in Blu, it was so noisy that we couldn't hear ourselves think. We took to entering the dining room around 6:30 to 7 so we could eat in peace before the hoards of loud people arrived.

The butler service was the best we have had on Celebrity, a meaningless fact, I guess, unless you are fortunate to get our butler.

The chefs on the Eclipse know the proper use of spices, God bless them. The food was tasty and the soup was not salty.

I try to avoid the entertainment but there was an English baritone who had a beautiful, full voice with great range Unfortunatey, his song selection coud have been better. I think he has performed on other of our cruises and I wish I could tell you his name. On the other hand we suffered through one of the worst comedians ever because my escapre route out of the theater was blocked by dozing people.

A cannon could have been fired in Michael's Club and not hit a soul. Virtually empty at all times. To think people were worried that MC would be overwhelmed when the Sky Suites were allowed in.

The same goes for the Elite Lounge and breakfast buffet. Not well attended, probably in the former case, at least, because everyone has a drink package nowadays. It was annoying to see the waitresses in the elite breakfast spend so much time chatting with some diners while other diners went without service.

There were days our Aqua stateroom wasn't made up until late afternoon. The poor stewards must be overwhelmed now that their assistants are no more.

This has nothing to do with Celebrity, but our visit to the Hilton on a day pass in Barbados was a waste of money. A crowded beach and lunch service that was so slow, we couldn't finish our food before we had to return to the ship. I'd advise against it.

On the first cruise we dined in Barbados at The Cliffs. A very nice setting made nicer by the number of extremely attractive young women accompanying their elderly fathers. It's so nice to see loving daughters caring for their daddys. Oh, I am not complaining because we knew what we were getting into, but a two course dinner for two went for $265 US and with wine and tip the tab was pushing $400. A nice experience but never to be repeated by us.

The price of the Christmas cruise was ridiculously high and yet the ship was packed. 400 kids we were told, but they were not a problem for us at all.

An excellent dinner in Murano, no surprise there, and I still think the best deal on Celebrity is a good veranda stateroom with a dining package.

Eclipse has it and for the last twenty two days it was virtually empty every day.

[quote=markeb;51882316

We met people who decided to go on a lark when the ticket prices dropped to $50. I did not hear of anyone getting a refund when the prices dropped...

The were disclaimers saying that seats were not guaranteed, so it would be possible to drop $300 and have to stand for an hour. While I doubt that actually happened, who would want to take the chance for a relative unknown? I never heard of her, which is meaningless, but as I walked back to the Eclipse that night, it seemed that people were standing closer to the stage than the people who had seats. My wife, who is more curious than I, went up on the Solstice deck and heard her perform one song before the heavens opened. Fortunately, the performance did continue, but I think I was better off in the Sky Lounge. I believe the performance was never planned to be more than an hour, incidentally.

There is only one Aqua cabin left on the Eclipse sailing tomorrow and guess which one it is! There must be a similar one on the starboard side, I wonder why we don't hear about it.

If I ever meet her, do you think we could be best friends? :)

On board in January we booked a high priced S! pre-Christmas cruise with four perks and the $300 booking bonus. In April X gave us an additional $300 OBC, so now we have $900 from Celebrity which will be difficult to use. Two price reductions softened the blow a bit, and our TA gives us $700 in refundable OBCs which I'm sure will go untouched.

Normally, we would have booked the Christmas cruise but it was so expensive we decided to pass this year until miraculously, Celebrity made an Aqua guarantee available for about 1/3 the then going A1 rate. We grabbed it, figuring as Elite+s with $700 returned from the first cruise it was just too good a deal to pass up. So that's how we are doing our B2Bs. We never would have done this except for the alignment of the stars.

Oh, and I should also mention that we upgraded our S1 to a CS last month only because the increase in price made it attractive, having paid so much for the Sky suite. We have traveled so widely over the years that now we would just as soon stay at home than pay through the nose. I feel sorry for people who are facing such high costs for such average product.

Thirty years ago I went in search of my uncle's grave. He was a B 25 pilot who died in 1944 while stationed there. I merely hired a cab and took off. That was thirty years ago but I can't imagine times have changed so much as to make it impossible to do today

Well, it's not Concierge and the lamb chops are great

The first package we had was the classic which was a free perk. We didn't feel like up grading so we stayed with that since we weren't going to be drinking much. What I would do is to order a vodka and then a few minutes later the kahula. I would then mix them myself.

Reminds me of a half price Happy Hour when I ordered a Gibson. The waitress said that would be full price, as only a martini was on the half price list. She was adamant, so I finally ordered the martini with a side of onions which she was happy to provide. Rules is rules, I guess.:rolleyes:

Once we determined that we didn't care for the ship's public areas and found it's buffet a madhouse, we retreated to the Yacht Club which we liked more than any suite arrangement on any other ship we'd traveled on. I would return to the YC without hesitation, but we would prefer Celebrity in regular cabins, based on conversations with fellow passengers. OP, give it a try and judge for yourself.

And I was surely going back to Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. Experience teaches it's best to seize the day. We never know what future political and personal situations might arise. Better a few expensive days now than a missed opportunity, never to be repeated

Does anyone have any details of private tours to Machu Pichu. I am horrified at the price that Celebrity are charging (£1800) per person. We are in Lima for 2 days next November arriving on Infinity. There must be a cheaper option.

There probably are cheaper options but do consider what you're undertaking. We paid quite a bit for a Princess tour but it was worth every last penny, everything was first class and we had absolutely no problems. A simply wonderful trip.

Two weeks later terrible rains fell, stranding hundreds of people in the little town Aguas something or other, I think. Many of them must have been on their own. I wonder how they made out. My point is that this is not a four hour tour where alternate means of returning to the ship are available. This is a fairly major undertaking. Consider it carefully but do go, it's fantastic.

Main advantage in Blu is that it is QUIET and refined dining and your waiters give EXCELLENT service

Obviously, you weren't near the foursome who frequently sat near us on an Eclipse cruise last December. One of them should have been yelling "cockles and mussels, alive, alive-o":eek:

The noise level in Aqua can be quite loud, we've taken to asking for a table away from the windows on S class ships. It seems a bit quieter and my hearing ain't what it should be.

Finally, (and I really don't mean to take issue with you) on two separate occasions on two different ships, we left Aqua without eating because we and others near us were completely ignored by all staff until, that is, we neared the exit, when suddenly the maître d'hôtel appeared from nowhere begging us not to leave. I had my Irish up and continued to the buffet. So Aqua can be a challenge but DW prefers it still to the MDR. I find the staff just as harried as in the MDR

DANG! That's harsh. But that's why it's good to book super early. I'm waiting and checking waiting and checking for those new itineraries. Any day now!!!!.

I dunno about super early. Sometimes the rates only rise, but sometimes there are even better rates to be had by waiting. We did not book our typical Christmas cruise on the Eclipse this year because the prices were outrageously high, but out of nowhere this month, the rate for an Aqua guarantee dropped to about I/3 of the most recent A1. Very briefly then offer disappeared. We grabbed it and were assigned an A1. On the preceding cruise a CS is now only $600 or 700 higher than the S1 we booked on board back in January. Ya never know. And then OBCs and promotions make it more complicated

My rule of thumb is if it's a can't miss it cruise, book early. If it's a ho-hummer, wait until final payment and hope for the best. Most of our cruises fall into the latter category

I am increasingly sympathetic for the OP. Charging full freight for what is clearly an obstructed view is really shady business. Worse yet, it's an Aqua cabin which means even greater expense.

Personally, I don't think it would bother me, as I sit on the balcony to relax, or nap, or even to simply drink in the night air. From the pictures I believe my needs would be satisfied by sitting and looking under the carriage. But X would have to give me an exceptional deal and tell me up front why they are charging me so little. I wonder how many cabins there are on a Solstice class ship which have a similar situation.

I must say that on our last three or four cruises we skipped early disembarkation. The combination of my wife's not liking getting up at the crack of dawn and the madhouse that the walk off has become chilled our ardor.