comxkid

On 4/16/2023 at 2:11 AM, smillerholmes said:

I'm on a back to back.  November 2-12th and then November 12-26th.  I plan to start working on that one when I get back from my Panama Canal cruise in May.  It will be my first time on the Breakaway.

We will be on the first leg of your back-to-back.  Looking forward to following Happycrafter's trip.

My daughter is on the ship right now.  The engine issue has not been resolved.  Unfortunately, that probably means another trip to Freeport only for additional repairs this upcoming week.

I love Concierge! Pre-embarkation priority check and boarding, embarkation day lunch in the MDR, welcome blanc d blanc wine and fruit in your stateroom and pre-disembarkation lounge with coffee and pastries...plus the better location on board ship. It's a winner to me.

 

Thanks for this additional information.

I wouldn't spend $200 for the Concierge as others have said.

 

But, upgrading for $28 to a regular verandah as you say may or may not be to your liking. For me, it would depend on the location of the cabins. And, you didn't say what cabin # you currently have for a partially obstructed or what cabin # you were considering. I've been in some that were not that obstructed at all. For example, I would keep a cabin on deck 6 that is partially obstructed if it was mid to aft on the ship, as opposed to regular verandah far forward on the ship. I also don't like the cabins on the port side directly above the smoking areas, as the smoke can drift up to your balcony, obstructed or not. FYI - on the S class ships, partially obstructed verandahs on deck 6 usually mean you can see out to the ocean just fine, but if you look down you will see the lifeboats.

 

All of the cabins on located in the same area of the ship...mid- to mid-aft. Current cabin on Deck 6 port, unobstructed view cabin on Deck 7 port, and concierge cabin on Deck 9 port. Smoking area is on Deck 5 port....correct?

Since you're not looking for points right now, then I agree it would only be worth $28 and not $200 to concierge. We would pay the $200 ourselves for the points, but if points were not the objective then I don't see $200 in value for concierge in a S Class ship since the room sizes are the same and the additional benefits at this time are marginal. I would recommend spending that extra $172 on a couple nights in specialty restaurants (Murano especially) and you'll really enjoy your experience.

 

Happy Sailing!

 

Thanks Paul (and everyone else). I'll get a better view with the extra $28.00 and save the $172.00 for other uses.

If you get the extra points it might be worth it. You go get priority boarding & a concierge & a really nice bag. That being said I’d spend the $28

 

 

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Thanks. So the upgrade would be worth $28.00 but not $200.00.

It will not be a larger cabin. On Solstice Class ships, of which Equinox is one, the cabins are all the same size in balcony (obstructed or not) and concierge class. On M-Class ships the concierge class cabins are a bit larger. So take that into your decision.

 

This is a major factor. I trusted the Celebrity website when it stated 204 s.f. for a concierge cabin. The default search for "concierge" must take you to an M-Class page.

Having just sailed Concierge on the Equinox (disembarked Monday), I would say spend the $8, not the $200!

 

We really didn't feel that the concierge experience was worth the extra. In 10 days, the only thing we saw was the daily canapes and a couple times through the cruise, our concierge left a message on the phone with the weather forecast for the next day! We never saw her for the whole trip! Oh, and we had a lounge to wait in with coffee, juice and pastries on the morning of disembarkation.

 

If we sail Celebrity again, which is likely, we would either go for a regular balcony or splurge for Aqua class so we could eat in Blu!

 

Thank you for the feedback.

If your looking for "points" do it , otherwise I would stay where I am.

 

Not really at this point. It's our first cruise with Celebrity.

I have the opportunity to move from a partially obstructed verandah cabin to a "normal" verandah cabin for $28.00 or to a concierge verandah cabin for $200.00.

 

We're booked for a 7-day cruise on the Equinox. What sayeth the Celebrity experts? Are the larger cabin and few extra perks worth the $172.00 difference? My gut says "yes".

 

Thanks.

Well that's disappointing. I'm booked for the November 22nd sailing (after the drydock) and I've already made reservations for "Hairspray". I hope that the showtimes are the same.

 

I've not heard good things about Cats, so I have avoided it for years. But all streaks must end.

 

This is what I posted 3 years ago when the announcement was made to change shows on the Oasis after I had already booked.

 

We went to the show...my wife and oldest daughter left at intermission. My youngest daughter and I stayed for the entire show and enjoyed the hell out of it. We still talk about the show today and how it is one of the few things that we both liked.

 

It's an odd show plot wise....but the sets, the singing, and the dancing are great.

 

My advice to those who haven't seen it...do it. You never know.

Anyone watch the season premiere of Supergirl. Looks like a Celebrity M ship in the background of one of the scenes.

 

Laura

 

The show is filmed in Vancouver.

Did a bridge tour on Grandeur in Aug. The fuel question came up, and we were old they carried enough fuel to sail around the world. But not enough food. :)

 

For our cruise, they were at 1700 metric tons of fuel. Total capacity was around 2550 metric tons.

 

I do not remember how much they burn under weigh (but it would depend on speed), but the hotel load was about 0.5 metric tons per hour.

 

BTW, one reason the FL ran out of fuel, is because every one went to fill up. Same reason up North, when a snow storm is predicted, all the bread, milk, eggs, and toilet paper are gone from the shelves.

 

There is more than enough stock for people to buy what they need, but when they stock up, they clean out the supplies, and the pipeline cannot keep up.

 

One day, I will take one of those behind the scenes tours.

 

I saw lots of "panic buying" over the two weeks...cars, trucks, RV's, boats, gas cans, etc. Even saw one SUV tying gas cans to the roof. The supply chain issues related to the refineries and ports in Texas didn't help either.

Thanks. I live in Florida and refueling my automobile was an issue for the two weeks surrounding Irma.

With all of the port changes going on lately, I had a question....how often and where do the ships refuel?

 

I always thought San Juan was a refueling port for some reason or the other.

I'm sailing on Equinox tomorrow and I've made week long reservations for 6:15. I'll try to include in my review how the waiting was.

 

Dabeers,

 

I'm jealous...a 10 day cruise starting tomorrow. I see that our cruises share two common ports....St. Kitts and St. Maarten. I am very much looking forward to your review.

 

Have a great time.

I've had select dining on 2 or my last 3 cruises and never made a reservation.

Showed up at different times and was seated right away.

I think we had to wait once, but it was less then 10 mins.

There usually is not a long wait if there is one at all.

If you showed up a few minutes past 6 it won't be a big deal, they won't put you over to the non-reservation side.

 

Thanks Debbie. That's good to hear. I've seen some scary lines for My Time Dining on RCCL and Anytime Dining on Carnival and was not looking forward to that.

My wife and I are booked for our first Celebrity Cruise on the Equinox in December. We were originally scheduled for late seating (which I am not a fan of) and waitlisted for both early seating and Select Dining. Celebrity just changed us to Select Dining and I was able to make reservations for each night at 6:00 p.m.

 

My questions:

 

1) I've heard that even with reservations, there can still be waits up to 20 minutes. If true, should we show up early?

 

2) I don't foresee this (being that I'm OCD about being on time), but what happens if we are late? Do we get moved to the "no reservations" line which could significantly extend our waiting time?

 

As you can probably tell, I'm not a big fan of waiting (much to my wife's chagrin).

 

Any responses will be appreciated.

Brilliance is a beautiful ship. If you getting a good deal, my advice would be to book it and test the RCCL waters.

 

Bill H.

We kept seeing tis yellow gunk on the ocean as we traveled, and I was wondering if it is from dumping waste in the water from cruise ships? Does anyone know what it is? It really spoils a beautiful ocean as we cruised by lots of it....yucky!

 

 

Looks like Sargassum:

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sargassum

May I be one of those negative people excoriated by leisuretraveler223, but I am going to say...................

 

YUCK.

 

I am TOTALLY a "show" person. On Broadway, on local stages, on cruise ships, back in school. This news just leaves me saying "yuck".

 

Your turn.

 

:D

 

I will trade your "yuck" for my Cats.

[quote name='Alter Ego']I'm curious - where does the rest go to?

I'm just thinking - every business has fixed costs. Is that what the difference is? Not being argumentative, but if those costs don't change, then I would think (hope) that a huge windfall such as this is would be more weighted towards research and current patients. A $5M budget (I don't know how much they made last year) is a lot different than the $20M or $40M they'll have this year.[/QUOTE]

32% to public and professional education and 14% to fundraising expenses. Very comparable to other health based charities.

We have never cruised on Carnival, usually Celelbrity or RCCL. Can someone tell me their thoughts on the Sensation? Just looking at a 4 night to the Bahamas. Of course any cruise is a great cruise but just wondering how the ship is, shape, things to do, dinners, etc...

 

It's been a few years since our Sensation cruise, but we were on her sister ship, the Fascination last year and had a great time.....and as you can see we're scheduled to sail on the Sensation again in a little over a week.

 

The 4-night will be a little more "reserved" than the typical 3-night weekender cruise.

 

As noted, it's an older, smaller ship. The food is fairly comparable to RCCL in my opinion, some things are better and some are not.

 

Go with an open mind and don't spend too much time comparing one cruise line to another. Just have fun.

That IS a good deal!!

 

I'm assuming that was the price for a TA though.

 

My Thanksgiving cruise was not the cheapest but it was a lot cheaper than a Christmas cruise.

My MIL has offered to babysit DD (18 months) so DH and I can have a short getaway for our 5th anniversary. MIL lives near Tampa so we were looking at 5 night Brilliance to Grand Cayman and Cozumel, but I've always been curious about Celebrity so I also was looking at 4 night Constellation to Key West and Nassau. We've been on Jewel OTS before and enjoyed it as well as HAL and Princess.

 

We have to go during the Christmas vacation because MIL and I are both teachers and I don't want to leave DD for more than 5 nights.we're looking for relaxation/pampering as opposed to a very active vacation. Which do you think? Or is there are 3rd choice I'm missing?

 

If the cost is the same....I always go with the longer cruise. I like Brilliance's intinerary better also.

 

However, I have never been on Celebrity so I cannot speak about their on board experience.