shofer

On 8/19/2022 at 9:01 AM, FrannyK said:

Looks like $101 per person right now for me.  Not sure whether to pull the trigger or not.

We did this on our 15 day TA on Silhouette and loved it!  It was $200 total for 2 of us and worth every penny.

DH & I did all classes on Celebrity but the Edge class.  Loved everything about them.  Then hubby saw a video on Symphony of the Seas and was hooked.  Our trip was planned for 2/7/21.  Unfortunately, the day before we were in the ER while hubby was being worked up for a possible cardiac event.   It wasn't that diagnosis but nevertheless, we were a "no show".  Insurance covered everything.  Then Covid happened.  

We finally started that trip on 1/29/22 and loved it.  I'm sure it helped that the ship was at half capacity and had been shut down the previous 3 weeks for deep cleaning and sick crew.  We felt that it had the best entertainment we had ever seen on a cruise ship.  The ice show, specialty talent, Hiro, and Flight were all outstanding.  We honestly felt that Celebrity was almost boring by comparison.  I tried out the water slides and the Ultimate Abyss, ( I was 75 at the time).  We never got off the ship except for Coco Cay on the last day.  I would go back in a New York minute if it weren't too crowded.

6 hours ago, cruisegal40 said:

that's our deal too. But hubs gets -0-.  He does not drink.

That was mostly me who doesn't drink much.  I did enjoy my Strawberry Daiquiri most evenings and an occasional Pina colada.  Hubby liked ordering the top shelf vodka and trying different brands.  That being said, we never used all 8 on our cards.

One of the things DH loved about Celebrity was their afternoon tea.  Since we are late risers and barely make breakfast before they switch over for lunch, the buffet afternoon tea is great for a light snack to hold us until dinner.  

On 8/31/2022 at 2:07 PM, davekathy said:

Not listed in their prohibited item lists. You can bring on a hairdryer, curling iron and hair straightener. 

 

https://www.celebritycruises.com/faqs/before-you-board

Actually a friend of mine used to bring her steamer (on RCCL) and we made good use of it on longer European cruises .  They might be stricter now.

On 8/17/2022 at 11:08 AM, NutsAboutGolf said:

 

Where IS your DH willing to cruise?  ha ha

Even he doesn't know.  A full transit of the Panama Canal?   We did a partial transit in 2007.  I am throwing suggestions out there, like New England or Pacific Coastal.  I am not going to dwell on this or it will drive me crazy.  

1 hour ago, jsn55 said:

I'd poll everyone at lunchtime and tell the maitre d' how many and when.  They'll do their best I'm sure. The first day, do it in person and leave a nice gratuity. 

The first day will be chaos.  Make the reservation for the first night and you can play it by ear the rest of the trip.  

On 8/17/2022 at 12:02 PM, laslomas said:

My favourite itinerary is not available on Celebrity and I have cruised it on other cruise lines. But I would much rather be able to do it on Celebrity.

 

It is a Transatlantic crossing that includes a few Caribbean Islands. Coming from UK, I don't really want to visit several European ports before the crossing just to then stop at Bahamas before docking in Miami to fly home. Or vice versa. It is not really warm weather until a good way across the Atlantic. The only exception to the temperature would be the itinerary that visits Canary Islands on the way, but that is a popular holiday destination for Europeans so also possibly well visited. 

 

I understand many cruisers from North America will have probably visited several Caribbean Islands so that would not be so popular with them. But cruisers from U.K. and Europe have also probably already visited most of the European ports. I would love Celebrity to do a cruise that spends time in the Caribbean and includes the Transatlantic crossing. 

We did a TA on Silhouette in 2018.  It was sold as "Boston, Broadway & Bermuda".  Flew into London a few days early as we had never been there as well as the other ports.  We were able to visit our daughter and her family (and do laundry!).  Next stop, NYC and a private 9/11 memorial tour.  Another private tour in Bermuda before sailing for Fort Lauderdale.  

19 minutes ago, NutsAboutGolf said:

-Boston or NY/NJ to/from Greenland and Iceland over the summers; B2B are offered

-Antarctica from Argentina

-Pan Canal

-Bermuda

 

I forgot Bermuda and the Panama Canal as pat of our cruising history.  I am looking at Antarctica, but DH isn't enthused.

1 minute ago, davekathy said:

Yes the CAS drinks loaded on your SeaPass card is  good at most bars all day/evening. They don't carryover to the next day. Use or loose them. Then the clock starts again after midnight. Even good on disembarkation morning. 

Like I said, we are not big drinkers but this "amenity" has a real feel-good vibe to it.  We also received a welcome gift of 2 drinks (Coke/Water) each and some cookies.  This really costs them peanuts but promotes such good will.  The Elite amenities are really nothing to brag about and I can't say we ever used them.

27 minutes ago, davekathy said:

IMO what sucks even more is the elimination of the CC HH (pre dinner drinks and snacks) in the Sky Lounge from 5 to 7. Glad RC still does the CAS HH (pre dinner drinks and snacks) in the DL from 5 to 8. Yes we now have to use our CAS drinks loaded on our SeaPass cards in the DL. No biggie as we are at the DL by 5:00 for a snack and a couple of drinks before heading down to the MDR NLT 5:45. Still leaves us with 3 drinks. Couple glasses of wine with dinner. Then grab an unopened bottle of water and an unopened can/bottle of beer to take back to the cabin for another time.  

So RCCL no longer has carte blanche use of the drink voucher all day?  That would be real downer.

We took a delayed cruise this past January on Symphony.  DH had seen a video and and he wanted to go on THAT SHIP.   Our expectations were met and it helped the ship was coming off a 3 week isolation/cleaning with only half capacity.  Having been on 16 cruises, many of them in the Caribbean, we never got off the ship except for Coco Cay for a few hours.  We have been to Alaska, Hawaii, Mediterranean, Baltic and Trans Atlantic and would like to try one of the new ships although I don't think I will be a fan of the new "verandas".  DH wants Australia but refuses to fly that distance.  I have to say I do like the Solstice class ships.

 That being said, what was your favorite itinerary?  Is there anything new out there?

On 8/11/2022 at 11:51 AM, RichYak said:

Here is a link to the current Captain's Club tiers and all their benefits:

 

https://www.celebritycruises.com/content/dam/celebrity/pdf/captains-club-tiers-and-benefits-chart.pdf

Our last cruise was this past January on Symphony and our first as a Diamond member.  Neither of us is a big drinker but we loved the 4 drink/pp/per day voucher on our Sea Pass card.  We never used all of them.  Celebrity's unlimited (what a joke) drinks between 5-7 PM from their drink menu is a real downer.  They spend $1billion on a ship but they can't give anything to the people who helped them reach that goal.

On 8/7/2022 at 2:27 PM, HicksRA said:

That’s a fact. It has kept me exclusive to Royal (foolishly or not). I know I would have bounced all over the other lines if not for those stinkin points…. 🤔

Our Diamond status was a combo of Celebrity and Royal points accumulated over 25+ years!  Putting 2 kids through college and 2 weddings cut into our cruise funds.  Now we kid free and retired and I am hoping we can work 2 cruises/year into our "schedule". LOL.

On 8/7/2022 at 1:56 PM, yogimax said:

The real "problem" for the double points isn't new Pinnacles, it's new Diamonds which may force RCCL to change their C&A program.   Think about it, 8 free drinks per couple per day.  That's 56 free drinks every 7 night cruise.  That's a big financial hit in cost and income lost for RCCL.

We sailed on Symphony last January as Diamond for the first time.  Neither of us is a big drinker but we sure enjoyed the free drinks even if we never used all 8 vouchers any day.  I wanted a BBC the entire cruise but whenever I requested one, the bar didn't have any bananas.  There may be another cruise this fall and I plan to grab a banana from the buffet every day and keep it handy!

7 hours ago, DMP609 said:

How was it managing your luggage with the bus service? Did you have many suitcases?

Just like phabric said:  the driver loads and unloads your luggage.  It helps if you can just push it on four wheels if you have to walk a bit to the hotel.   At the airport, we had to check in at the bus desk, show our reservation and the clerk put a sticker on it before directing us to the correct location.  Coming back from London, I stood in a line w/25 people ahead of me passing the departure time (!) to have a clerk scream at me that I only had to show the paper code.  Luckily for us, the bus was over sold and there was a lumber of people waiting for them to bring up another bus for the trip to Southampton.  It was a 2 hour, 10 minute trip and after we arrived, we just lined up to wait for a cab to take us the <5 minutes to the ship.

We took the National Express bus from LHR to London.  Pre-paid 5 pounds/pp-Senior rate plus 1 pound service chart.  Our hotel was only 0.3 miles from the Coach station so we walked.   Used the same bus to Southampton to take our cruise.

We used the Ibis hotel-Central area.  Clean, modern small rooms but good enough for 2 nights pre cruise.  Location was great.  Next door to the train station, close to canals, shopping, restaurants.  We could have walked to the pier but my travel partner was having big knee issues so we took a taxi instead.  Reasonable room rate.

OK,  there was only the 2 of us for MTD.  The Maitre'd was very visible and made a 6:30 PM reservation for us at the same table.  Sometimes the Early dining people were still occupying "our" table when we arrived.  One time we were seated at a different table.  After that, we just lingered over our pre-dinner cocktail till 7 PM and were always seated immediately.  I'm sure it didn't hurt that the ship was only at half capacity!

We are late night people at home so not much changed on our last cruise.  Barely made the 11 AM close time in the buffet for breakfast!  We purposely made late show reservations so we could hit the casino after dinner.

On 7/16/2022 at 8:54 PM, smokeybandit said:

Avoid the beef stroganoff in the MDR. Not sure what that recipe is but it's not any stroganoff I've ever heard of. Not that it's bad, but, just not stroganoff.

 

 

 

 

I had the stroganoff on Symphony and liked it so much I asked for the recipe.  I have made it from scratch and with a packaged sauce and RCCL version was pretty good.

On 7/24/2022 at 9:54 PM, Sea Dog said:

Sailing on Symphony on September 16th. Anyone know what terminal she will be out of?

Symphony has its own terminal but I don't remember the number.  The taxi driver knew exactly where to take us.  This was our first time our of Miami.  Be prepared for aggressive porters telling you your luggage may get "lost" if you don't tip them.

On 6/28/2022 at 2:41 PM, Crusin Cindy said:

Thanks for your review. It was nice and to the point.  Do you have any trouble getting reservations for the nights and times you wanted?

We were on Symphony 1/29-2/6/22 and loved it.  There was a show schedule in our room and hubby and I chose which show for every day and I just had to call the number given.  We did this as soon as we got to the room.  No problem but the ship was at half capacity.

Several years ago Celebrity would have a priest onboard for every cruise and 8 AM Mass was on the list of activities in the daily bulletin.  Of course this was when they only had 3 ships. LOL.  Last time I was aware of  a priest on the ship was in 2003 when we went to Hawaii RT from LA.

I have found tons of info on YouTube.  Not specific prices but definitely what is free or extra.  You can see all the ships and cabin selection.    I check online travel sites for price comparisons but still use my own travel agent.