shofer

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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?

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

We used National Express from Heathrow to London and then London to Southampton. It was an excellent experience and in 2018 the Senior rate was 5 pounds/pp with a 1 pound service charge.

In 2015 we stayed pre- and post-cruise at the Ibis-Central in Amsterdam. It's next to the railroad station and on a canal. I don't remember what we paid but it certainly not expensive. Basic, very clean, very modern. No meals included but close to many restaurants and shopping. We walked to the Anne Frank house. After, we took the canal boat back to the hotel as my friend was dealing with a bum knee.