Charles4515

They are still building ground stations so that is expanding. They are upgrading the capacity too. Elon Musk is a self promoter and there is always a lot over hype and over promises but Starlink should be better than the previous service. Starlink can keep building because it gets funds from the US government. Musk did not give Ukaraine Starlink. The US is paying for it.

I would give Starlink a chance. They have not reached full coverage. The service is not complete. They have launched a little over 3000 satellites out of 12,000. They may eventually launch 40,000. Theoretically Starlink should be getting better. Time will tell.

I am afraid then there is not fantastic news. You sailed more recently than my last cruise. That is unfortunate to hear. I was getting those for years. The more I hear recently the less I like about Celebrity. I will keep doing their Bermuda sailings because not much else to Bermuda but that is about it. So sad….

I have had many time changes over the years. And they don't always notify. I check my flights every week and a few times caught changes they had not notified. For a flight in May there could be another time change.

There are private tour operators that guarantee they will be responsible for geeting you to the next port if you miss the ship. I only use those for excursions that are take us a distance from the ship. Never came close to missing on a private excursion but the closest I came was on a ship excursion in of all places, Costa Rica that went a long way from port. Since I could not find a private excursion I had booked with the cruise line. We were in a small bus and the bus broke down. The tour operator was able to send a bus back from the ports to retrieve us and we made it back at the scheduled departures time. I don't know how long they had waited. I do know that the bus should neve rhave been used. The driver was having technical problems the whole way to the rain forest. So don't trust the cruise line to vet the tour companies they contract with.

If they have US cell phone service. Where is Gateshead? And from their first post I gather they are unfamilar with NYC.

I have heard people riding Amtrak on speakerphone making multimillion dollar deals. Also discussing upcoming criminal indictments. Also telling their boss they were home sick.

Ship transfers are set up to make the flight so I would not worry about missing it. Also we have often done groups and gone down to guest relations to change tags so we can go together. No problem.

Ask for an early disembark time. If we don't like the one assigned we go to guest relations and get tags for an earlier time. At many ports they don't put out all the bigs at once because of space so if they go early disembark that does not mean the bags will be out yet.

Celebrity rotates the flavors at the lido ice ceam station but they have had those flavors.

Not in the New York area but I have had them cancel long rides. It would show driver coming in 10 minutes then cancel, then another 12 minutes then cancel then 40 minutes later the ride would show.

I have had wonderful gelato in Italy amd mediocre for tourists gelato in Italy. The Celebrity gelato is okay. I would not pay for it. Here is a tip. The Celebrity gelato does make for a good affagoto (expresso with gelato) at Cafe Bacio which is next to the gelato place. if you hvae a drink package or are Elite Pus there is no charge for the affagoto.

And most taxi drivers will refuse to go there. They will go to Newark Airport. They are required to go there. Uber and Lyft drivers might also turn down Cape Liberty. A pre arranged service as you suggest is their best option.

The beach grill at John Smith's is a good place to get lunch with a beach view. I don't know why they don't do chair rentals. Seems like they may want to keep the beach local. It is a local favorite. Any beach that has rentals and facilities is going to draw tourists. A beach that has a concession, rentals and facilities that draws less tourists is Clearwater Beach. Since it is on the opposite end of Bermuda from the Dockyard so it takes longer to get there. Ferry to St. George's (45 minutes) and then a taxi (15 minutes) to Clearwater. (there is a bus but it only runs once an hour)

I have been there and John Smiths Bay is a great non touristy beach. Be aware that there are no chair or umbrella rentals and the facilities are porta potty’s.

Welcome to Cruise Critic. Yes, many cruisers are gullible enough to believe the cruise line excursion sales pitch that they won’t leave passengers on a cruise line excursion. Been telling people that was not true who said they would never book a private excursion. So glad you posted an instance when they did not wait. However the cruise line will get passengers back which they did. Unfortunately acts of nature happen and the ship has to vacate the port for various reasons. Sorry your husband had a bad experience and cruise but sometimes the unforeseen occurs.

I never had bad ice cream on any Celebrity ship.

It is only a 20 minute ride from the port to Newark Airport. It would have to be an awfully long delay. They have everyone off the ship by 9:30 for turnaround. I doubt you will miss a 12:35 flight.

It is not because of Bermuda. Cruise lines can set their own requirements. That is what Celebrity has done for both transatlantic and transpacific cruises.

They used facial recognition on the last cruise I did on Summit from Bayonne pre Covid.

Are you on a transatlantic? Celebrity requires vaccination on transatlantic cruises even though Bermuda does not. Since you posted on the Bermuda port board I thought you were asking about Bermuda’s requirements.

That is surprising. The equipment must have been down since all cruises out of Bayonne are from the same terminal.

No. Bermuda discontinued all requirements effective November 13, 2022. I feel like I keep repeating myself…..

Note that there may be multiple passengers and they are on an international flight to a Canadian destination. There may be limited flights.

Also that 8:00 time is conservative for arrival. I have woken up at 7 and the ship is docked at Bayonne. They use Face ID so customs goes fast. However they should not dilly dally as they will be on an international flight. They should do early disembarkation.