ctbeacher

On 1/10/2024 at 1:49 PM, RICHARD@SEA said:

I sailed in ROTTERDAM this past NOV / DEC - 

 

If you want a nice bar w a killer aft view & great service and drinks go to Tamarind.  It was never crowded & the service was great( I can't say the same about the other bars).

 

The billboard bar is more active / crowded.  Because of the lounge setup on that deck - The Billboard is either dead because the lounge across the way w the dueling pianos(there is only a  walkway dividing the 2 "lounges", no walls) or very busy when the band was playing in Billboard.  It was like sitting iin Grand Central station & the service almost non existent.

 

As far as the much loved OCEAN BAR on older HAL ships - on ROTTERDAM it is indeed just a pass through in the hallway w about an 8 seat bar & a small seating area w piped in music.  The bar was full & the service non existent in the attached seating area.(this bar also serves CLUB ORANGE, Sel de Mer & Pinnacle grill.

 

The HAL cutbacks are blatantly obvious in the service areas.

Agree with your comments.

The best place for us was sitting at the Billboard bar.  We would arrive around 6:45 and always got a seat at the bar, where the service was excellent and the bartenders were very friendly.  We stayed for music trivia and then on to dinner.

It was a good fit for us.

On 1/10/2024 at 12:45 AM, Candyman232 said:

This is our first time on the Rotterdam Mar 8-29th having been on the Koningsdam and Neiuw Statendam We loved the Martini bar on Celebrity as well but are looking forward to the Half moon bar as they have unique drinks including a few smoked ones.....Always looking to try something new

Looks like this will be closest to the Martini Bar experience

 

We found that the Billboard bar was a good fit for us for pre-dinner cocktails.  We liked sitting at the bar and Jon and Henry were excellent bartenders.

Music trivia at 7:00 on some nights was fun.

On 1/9/2024 at 2:36 PM, FlaMariner said:

 

We've had no problem getting seats around the piano when we arrive after first sitting dinner...so around 7ish.....Sometimes we will "hold court" at our good seats around the pianos for the entire evening but we've also scored seats around the piano after attending the first show in the main theatre.

 

.....and yes, the seats will turn over during the evening......but does seem to vary by ship/performers

 

YMMV.....

 

Enjoy Billboard Onboard......it's our favorite entertainment venue

We had the late seating dinner and went to the bar at Billboard every night.  The bartenders (Jon and Henry) were great.  Most nights at 7:00 there was music trivia, which we enjoyed.  The other nights had one piano player.  She was good too.

We considered it the best bar on the ship.  Others were more sleepy (to us anyway).

I think Wlie E meant "do not know" of any material.

I agree.  The line and flag are to warn about the bulbous bow below water.

Ok, subject closed.  Thanks to all who responded.

On 11/20/2023 at 7:11 PM, FlaMariner said:

Billboard Onboard is our favorite entertainment venue.......A seat at the piano side bar stools is a must for our evenings.  Lots of fun no matter the genre of the evening....and "all requests" is a blast. 

 

 

Hi.  How mobbed is it for pre-dinner drinks - say from 7-8:00?  Do seats around the pianos turn over much?

Thanks to all for the great information.

2 hours ago, Sir PMP said:

The bill board bar is the best followed by the Tamarind, the ocean bar is ok, but not a real bar more like a hallway.

 

 

Thanks to all.  We have a good plan to visit all suggestions.  (Thanks to the HIA package!).  We are looking forward to experiencing the Rotterdam for the first time!

Thanks to all for the suggestions!

We will visit all of these!

Thanks,

Hi - My first time on a HAL in February - sailing on the Rotterdam.  We usually cruise on Celebrity and really enjoy a pre-dinner cocktail at the Martini Bar, which is always fun and the bartenders are great to watch.  What would be a similar active, fun bar on the Rotterdam for before dinner?  We are not interested in music before dinner.  Thanks for the help!

On 9/10/2022 at 12:59 PM, Luvmypups said:

I think you will find plenty of places to eat on Las Olas. Though not low carb, one of our favorite places is Louie Bossi, great Italian food and atmosphere. They also have dry-aged steaks.  You can also Uber easily if you want to go somewhere not within walking distance.  
 

I would also be curious to know how you like your hotel. Considering it for a future cruise. We usually stay on FL beach but end up taking an Uber to Las Olas 2-3 times. 

Sorry for the late update.....

We booked a room at the Hyatt Centric using two award nights and we paid for one.  We found the Centric to be very nice.  There was a big sales meeting at the same time we were there, but we never felt crowded.  The one downside was that we got the usual "resort" fee charge for each night.  I hate that - just a profit maker for the hotel.  They have a pool on the roof that was small and the water was cold so we never used that.

Normally we would rent a car but since the hotel parking cost per day was a little steep we chose to use ride share services to get around.  It was much less expensive to do so.

We got rides from the airport to the hotel, then to/from the Publix supermarket on SE 6th street.  The last ride was from the hotel to the port.  Much cheaper than a rental and parking and very easy using the appropriate phone app.

Restaurants - We chose to explore places that we could walk to.

We ate dinner the first night at an outside table at Eddie V's prime seafood.  Very good.

Second night was got takeout sushi from a place on E. Las Olas.  I can't remember the name of the place, but it was OK.

We did get a take out lunch from the restaurant in the hotel.  Not bad.

Dinner the night before the cruise was at The Boathouse at the Riverside.  Not easy to find, but we eventually found our way to the entrance.  There is a sidewalk along the canal that is the best way to get there.  We had an outside table on the canal.  Good enough food and it was fun watching boats go by.  We enjoyed the night so much that we stayed after dinner for a cocktail or two.

Could not be easier to get the the port.

We are planning on going back to the Centric in August for our ABC islands pre-cruise.

On 9/10/2022 at 5:55 PM, Lois R said:

I knew I had seen a website over the years and here it is.......scroll down and you can see a listing of many, many restaurants along Las Olas Blvd.

 

https://lasolasboulevard.com/fort-lauderdale/directory/restaurants-dining/

Thanks Lois.  The link is very helpful.  I saved it as a bookmark.

On 9/10/2022 at 12:59 PM, Luvmypups said:

I think you will find plenty of places to eat on Las Olas. Though not low carb, one of our favorite places is Louie Bossi, great Italian food and atmosphere. They also have dry-aged steaks.  You can also Uber easily if you want to go somewhere not within walking distance.  
 

I would also be curious to know how you like your hotel. Considering it for a future cruise. We usually stay on FL beach but end up taking an Uber to Las Olas 2-3 times. 

Thanks to all who replied with advice.  We are looking forward to the visit and we will let you know how we find the Hyatt Centric.

On 8/16/2022 at 11:26 AM, PTC DAWG said:

Yes you can upgrade on board..very easy.  I think it is now a total of $18 per day, gratuities included in that figure.  Once booked you can also call Celebrity and they will upgrade over the phone. 
 

The Wife and I always upgrade on board at the Sunset Bar,..the bartenders-servers get a cut of the upgrade, and they will not forget it. 

I agree.  If we are on the Classic package we wait to upgrade to premium at the Martini Bar the first night.  I think the bartenders get a cut, and since we are there every night before dinner, we want them go get the credit.

Hope you have a great trip.

We are staying at the Hyatt Centric Las Olas for three nights pre-cruise in October.  We hope to not have to rent a car.  Any restaurant suggestions within easy walking distance?  Or not-to-be missed places by taking an Uber?

These days we prefer places with low carb options. 

Many thanks & happy cruising!

Hi,

I need to rent a car to travel from FL to Sarasota post-cruise after disembarkation in Port Everglades in October.  My choices through Costco Travel are renting from Port Everglades (Budget or Avis) or at the car rental center at FL International Airport.

Right now I have a fast-break reservation with Budget (full size car) from FLL for $106 one way to SRQ airport.  From the port using the cruiseport shuttle is $174. So the cost of renting at the port is $68 more. 

I am leaning toward taking an Uber/Lyft/cab from the port to the airport rental center.  I know it is a crap shoot as to where the crowds will be, but I suspect the airport at 8:00 am will not have as many people getting cars vs the port.  Plus the $68 savings will more than cover the ride to the airport.

I assume getting a Uber/Lyft/cab is a snap at the port.

For those in the know, does my logic make sense? 

Many thanks & happy cruising!

I was always curious as to why Celebrity ships fly a flag from a line under the bow while in port?

I always wondered about it and tried to find out the true meaning online, but I am coming up empty.

I did find and somewhat heated exchange online between two people in a forum.  One claimed it marked a "fire wire" - used by tugs to locate a line to pull the ship off the dock in case of fire.  The other claimed it was dropped as a warning to other vessels to stay clear of the bow.

Captains of Celebrity - can you enlighten us so we have dinner table banter to impress our friends when we sail again?

Jaime & Skylar - great videos of your trip on the Summit (one of our favorite Celebrity Ships).

It was great to visit the islands again!

Hi Maris,

Thank you for another great post. 

I read a few times in your posts that you have trouble orienting when on a ship (fwd/aft).  I sometimes have the same issue - certain that I am going forward only to discover I am heading to the stern.

One tip - check out which way the staircase landings face.  On the Summit, the last flight faces the forward when going down.  Knowing that always helped!

Be safe!

Hi,

I saw this and know I am too late in responding but the mention of an old favorite caught my eye.

I assume you were asking about Galleon Beach on Freeman's bay near English Harbour.  It is a nice beach, but it is far from the port and there are no facilities.  The Galleon Beach Club unfortunately closed a few years ago.  There are still private villas there, but the GBC units are closed.

You can still go to the beach there, as any beach on Antigua, but there are no chairs.  There are 3-4 thatched umbrellas on the beach that offer some shade.

Good snorkeling right along the beach from the first dock to the last dock toward the left of the beach.

At the opposite end of the beach is the Inn at English Harbour.  That is operational, but I do not believe they offer day passes for chairs.  You would have to find out by contacting them.  They do offer a nice little restaurant on the beach.  Not inexpensive but you can get a nice lunch there.

Sad about GBC.  My family vacationed there at Christmas for 20 years.  It was a beautiful little gem and the people were wonderful.  Hopefully it will get sold and reopen at some point in the future.

Just a note to say thank you for posting this.  Staying at home during this crisis means we are living vicariously through your posts.  

We are booked to sail on Celebrity again in early December and are keeping fingers crossed that a major breakthrough happens so life can return to normal.

In the meantime - everyone stay safe!

Best wished to all.

On 7/2/2019 at 3:14 PM, PelicanBill said:

If you have 6 people then a taxi is the same price as the van shuttle and will depart immediately.  This can be important.  The chair and umbrella rental place opens at 9am.  Get there early. The line gets to be an hour long and many people give up and lay their town down on the sand. Bring TWO towels!  Also the rentals are very expensive. Over $50 for 2 chairs and an umbrella.

 

But the beach is beautiful.  Enjoy it will low crowds early and leave by noon when the crowds get bad.

 

I agree!  Go very early and try to get your chairs in the front row.

We arrived around 10:00 and the beach was packed.  No sand chairs left.  We got the loungers and unbrella and I tipped very well to get a front spot down by the last lifeguard stand.  The chairs were heavy so I dragged them for the attendant for the last 40 yards or so.

We went on August 21.  Not the best water conditions vs. previous years.  There was a lot of seaweed and an undentified white substance floating on the water surface.  We walked down to the next cover (opposite end from the snack bar) and the water quality was a little better - just seaweed.

On our last day (short day) we tried Snorkel Beach (a short walk from the dockyard).  This is a man made beach.  The sand only goes out about 3 yards and then coral and rocks so bring swimming shoes if you have them.  Costs $5 pp to get in.  Very crowded but most only go in the water near the shore.  They were out of chairs and umbrellas so we just swam out beyond the crowd for a nice hour long swim.  OK for $5.  Drinks were on the expensive side, but it was OK for our last day.

On 1/25/2019 at 11:30 AM, STREETKING said:

I'm sure it would be great. The reason I wanted to cruise there was for the value you receive on a cruise. I did a rough estimate for a land package and compared Celebrity's prices for an Oceanview cabin which included a drink package and $150 ea. OBC plus airfare and compared it to a land-based stay at the Pompano which only included your meals and the price difference was over $2000.That's just too much of a cost difference for me to consider.

Same here.  We used to go to the Reefs back in the day.  An absolutely wonderful hotel - but expensive.  I looked into it.  For us, when you add up the numbers I just can't justify it.    I just can't beat a deal on the just renovated Summit. And from Bayonne there is no airfare, on top of the OBC and free drinks. 

On 2/14/2019 at 10:44 PM, luv2ski2 said:

Celebrity sales to Bermuda and we, personally, much prefer Celebrity over Princess - better food, better service, fewer sales pitches and cleaner ships.  And, unlike Carnival Corp that owns Princess, RCL Corp., that owns Azamara, Celebrity and Royal Caribbean, doesn't do remodeling during cruises but puts their ships in dry dock to do this type work.  While we were on a 2-week Holland America cruise sailing around New Zeeland and Australia, HAL had workers replacing all the wall covering in the corridors. For several days we had to climb over workmen, tools etc. to get in/out of our balcony stateroom.  I asked the HAL new booking agent on our sailing who sat with us at dinner one evening about this and she said it was standard for HAL.  The Celebrity Summit is scheduled for dry doc in Feb/March 2019 for a major interior update and she will be sailing to Bermuda this June. 

Agree - we love the Summit and have sailed on her many times over the last few years.  We have sailed on Princess too, and have wonderful memories, but, personally, Celebrity has a slight edge in the food in the MDR (we like having the same wait staff).

We will be sailing back to Bermuda in August.  We look forward to seeing the Summit after the renovation.  Also no air travel/hotel for this trip.  You can't beat sailing from Bayonne! 

We are also booked on an eastern Caribbean cruise on the Summit in November. 

See you at the Martini bar!

It's not like the ports of call forums are heavily visited. This is a low visitation forum and it's a very specific group of people you're looking for. I wouldn't worry.

 

Plus many people are still flying in the day of sailing right now.

I would agree. I think lots of people are silently changing plans to travel from the US the day of departure.

We were booked at the Caribe Hilton for two days ahead of our sailing 11/11/17 on the Celebrity Summit. After numerous calls, we got the news that we would be cancelled. So it made more sense to us to fly into Fort Lauderdale instead. It ended up costing more in airfare (Delta's flight to FLL was $80 each more and we elected to take a Jet Blue flight early Saturday am that we paid for out of pocket).

Since we had a oceanview balcony room at the Caribe Hilton, I had hopes that Hilton would be accommodating and book us in the same level of room at a beachfront hotel in Florida. They gave us 15% off the going rate and we are now in a city view room with no balcony. We are paying the same cost per day as for the oceanfront balcony room in San Juan. 15% off for a "city view"? Big deal. Thanks Hilton. Its not like all your rooms were booked in the slow month of November. Customers tend to remember little things like this.

Anyway, we are good to go. Good luck to all getting to San Juan and good luck to Puerto Rico recovering. If you have not donated to a good charity to help Puerto Rico, please consider doing so.

It's not like the ports of call forums are heavily visited. This is a low visitation forum and it's a very specific group of people you're looking for. I wouldn't worry.

 

Plus many people are still flying in the day of sailing right now.

I would agree. I think lots of people are silently changing plans to travel from the US the day of departure.

We were booked at the Caribe Hilton for two days ahead of our sailing 11/11/17 on the Celebrity Summit. After numerous calls, we got the news that we would be cancelled. So it made more sense to us to fly into Fort Lauderdale instead. It ended up costing more in airfare (Delta's flight to FLL was $80 each more and we elected to take a Jet Blue flight early Saturday am that we paid for out of pocket).

Since we had a oceanview balcony room at the Caribe Hilton, I had hopes that Hilton would be accommodating and book us in the same level of room at a beachfront hotel in Florida. They gave us 15% off the going rate and we are now in a city view room with no balcony. We are paying the same cost per day as for the oceanfront balcony room in San Juan. 15% off for a "city view"? Big deal. Thanks Hilton. Its not like all your rooms were booked in the slow month of November. Customers tend to remember little things like this.

Anyway, we are good to go. Good luck to all getting to San Juan and good luck to Puerto Rico recovering. If you have not donated to a good charity to help Puerto Rico, please consider doing so.

Great suggestions. Here are a few more:

3M Command Hooks. Great to stick up to hang things & then a snap to remove without any damage.

Small pair of folding Bushnell binoculars.

Beach towel clips to keep the towels on the chairs by the pool.

OH! I forgot - a pack of $50 in ones. I never seem to have enough ones. I use them to tip from the start to the end of the trip.