kwis29

I am glad to see Celebrity returning to Labadee. It was always one of my favorite ports since it served as the "private island" experience. Over the past several years, I wondered why Celebrity stopped going there.

I am also a loyal Celebrity customer who cruised with Princess this summer to Alaska. I agree with your comparison. Most aspects of the cruise with with Princees were just OK or medicore or in some cases not good. The only thing I really liked better was the set-up of the closet in the stateroom, and the fitness center was never busy. I would not return to Princess. No cruise line is perfect, but Celebrity is doing a better job and will keep my business going forward.

Correct. I had Covid in June. No need for a new test for my cruise in July.

3) Tortola: morning view from our balcony. Breathtaking! VID_85930516_161800_890.mp4

2) Nighttime view of the wake from our balcony 20220730_210641.mp4

Some videos now that I have a real internet connection. We'll see if they work. 1) St. Maarten catamaran excursion. Stopped at Maho Beach to see some planes. 20220803_113239.mp4

Just returned yesterday from our cruise. Same experience as LeafsFanNL. No need for a pre-cruise test. No problems with COR at check-in.

Time to catch up now that we are home from a longer than expected day of travel. Quick note on internet speed: now that I am at home, it is no longer painfully slow to upload to Cruise Critic. What a difference! Saturday: Nassau, Bahamas We had zero plans, so we slept in and mixed up our morning routine. We didn't leave our room until 9:30. That is very late for us. Our stateroom attendant was surprised to see us leave so late! He was amazing by the way. A bit shout out to Jason! Breakfast first today, then a leisurely coffee. I think we might have gotten too much sleep, and I just couldn't wake up. Maybe a trip to the gym would help? DH disagreed so he stayed behind to watch the news and check work emails. I headed off for what ended up being my best workout of the trip. As I started running on the treadmill, we were pulling into Nassau right next to the Disney Wish. What a beautiful, new ship! The best part was passing by all the balconies and seeing the little kids wave. The guy running on the treadmill next to me and I had a great time. We were just laughing and running and waving and smiling for a solid 10 minutes. It was, for lack of a better phrase, some "Disney magic." yes, I took these pictures while I was running- do not try this at home I definitely felt energized after that, so DH and I broke our rule of staying on the ship in Nassau. It is our least favorite port, and we usually spend the day by pool. Instead- we walked around the port, got hot and sweaty, annoyed by all the people (3 ships in port, the most of the entire trip), and then returned to the ship. We should have just followed our rule! Time to pack, and DH had the best idea all day when he suggested that I grab a glass of Rosé to make the packing more enjoyable. 😀 After an hour of packing, we went down to the pool deck and spent a lovely late afternoon by the pool. It wasn't crowded, so I was able to hang out in and around the pool and just savor our last hours of the Caribbean sunshine. As we were getting ready for dinner, the Disney Wish was leaving. We had a perfect view from our balcony, so DH and I both went out to wave at all the kids again. It was so cute as they yelled "bye!" and "see you later" to us. Smiles all around again. the view from our balcony Final night of a drink at the Martini Bar, dinner and then the show in the main theatre. Tonight it was a quartet of male singers who performed mash-ups of classic and new songs. We only stayed for a few songs and then went to the casino. DH had some OBC left to spend, and he converted it to promotional chips. I spent some OBC at the shops. I was surprised by the lack of Celebrity merchandise. And any Equinox merch was outdated as evidenced by the ship being white as opposed to the newer paint job. After some losses at the Blackjack table and slots, we turned in for the night. Sunday: Time to leave! The final perk of Retreat guests is to have a nice quiet morning in the Retreat Lounge and then be personally escorted off the ship. We had a coffee and a croissant and some fruit and waited as long as we could since our flight didn't leave until 12:30. There was a "secret" door and passage that led right out to the deck for departures. Connor escorted us to the front of the line (literally stopped the line of guests for us to cut in!) for one last beep of the sea pass. What a pleasant end to the cruise! the secret door to Narnia (and also to leave the ship) Our bags were waiting for us in the Retreat/Zenith area. Customs was super efficient. No need to have your passport out. Just a quick facial recognition and we were out the door. So much better than the old days of snaking through a long line eith your luggage. We have Global Entry, but I didn't see a separate line for that. Not needed anyway since there was zero wait. It was pure chaos outside as so many people were trying to catch ride shares. No organization or system in place like at FLL or other airports. Luckily our Uber driver was experienced and called us to help us locate him more easily. Smooth sailing until our 12:30 flight was delayed for 3 hours due to weather in Chicago. Ugghh! Luckily DH found an empty gate in the Southwest terminal and we settled in to wait, hoping our flight wouldn't be cancelled completely. We eventually made it back home, taking a longer flight path to avoid the storms. ORD was crazy! So many people everywhere due to the delayed and cancelled flights. Long lines at lost baggage. Groups of people sleeping everywhere. Lines of traffic outside. Such chaos compared to when we left last week and remarked at how calm the airport was. By 7:15pm, we were home, cuddling with our dog (who has not left my side since then) and making piles of laundry. I will write a review with thoughts on the Suite life and the cruise in general, but it is safe to say that we had a great time with little to complain about. Thanks for following along!

Let me know if you have any specific questions about the Tortola excursion. I have a lot more pictures as well that I could share

Friday: Sea Day This will be a quick one with not many photos since we did a whole lot of nothing! 😀 Happy to report that we both had a much better night's rest. There is still some rattling and shaking but nothing that prevented a solid sleep. Back to our normal routine for a day at sea: gym, coffee, breakfast outside the Oceanview. The gym was again pleasantly not busy. My only gripe with the gym is the lack of floor space to stretch, do my ab routine, etc. The only space that would work is the group class area, but it was being set up for a group class. Maybe in the newer gyms on the Edge Class they solved this problem? Instead, I had to use some random carpet space next to the weight machines. Sorry to the people on the machines who had their space invaded by my stretching routine. Awkward!! It was a hot day at sea! Not as breezy as our first sea day, which made our day up on the Retreat Deck even better than the last one. I don't have much to report since at the end of the afternoon, DH and I both said "what did we even do today?" We read our books, napped, and enjoyed the perfect weather in the shade. I can tell you that we continued to be spoiled by great service up there. Wow! You really live the "suite life" on the Retreat Deck. Shout out to Luis who runs around (and up and down stairs) all day! We ordered lunch again from the Luminae deck menu, then enjoyed some time on our shaded aft balcony before getting ready for Chic night. We received the dreaded luggage tags last night and information about disembarkation for Suite guests. I am not looking forward to packing. It is the worst part of the trip! The night ended with another production show. The aerial acrobats were the stars this time. So impressive (and scary)! It was the cast's last show since their contract is ending with this cruise. I had a dream last night about returning home to our dog, so that is a signal that my vacation brain is shifting back to home life. One more day to enjoy!

Thursday: Tortola The last time we stopped at Tortola, we took an amazing cruise excursion to White Bay at Jost Van Dyke. We still rank it as our #1 beach. While we contemplated returning there for this cruise, we decided to try a new excursion instead: the Baths at Virgin Gorda. For the first time on this trip, we had a ROUGH night sleeping. Every 5-10 minutes, we were jolted around. Not the typical shaking. It was a severe jolt. Every 5 minutes. All night long. Let's just say that we were not our "best selves" when the alarm went off at 5:55am. We ordered room service breakfast since we had to meet for our excursion at 7:15am. It arrived promptly a little bit after 6am by our Retreat Host. He commented that we ordered such a small breakfast for the two of us. Made us wonder how many boxes people tick on that door hanger! The early morning views from our balcony were lovely. After some fuel and much needed coffee, we started to feel rejuvenated for the excursion. We met in the main theatre and then headed down to the ferry that would take us to Virgin Gorda. Word of warning that we felt was not clearly included the description for this excursion: if you get motion sickness, I would not recommend this excursion to you. The ferry boat went very fast through some rough water for the 30 minute journey to Virgin Gorda. It was intense! There were a few options for seating: inside, upstairs (open air) or a few rows of covered seats in the back on the bottom level. We quickly grabbed the covered seats in the back to enjoy the open air but not the intense wind and sun on the top deck. Once we arrived at Virgin Gorda, there were the typical open-air taxis waiting to take us to the Baths. It was a 10 minute ride. The excursion included 2 guides who kept us all moving along to the 3 different stops. This is not an intimate excursion. There were a lot of people. Maybe 150 people? We ended up moving through the stops at our own pace to avoid some of the crowd. The first part involves a 15 minute hike down to Devil's Bay for some beach time. This hike would be challenging to some. It is downhill, steep and slippery in some spots. The beach was gorgeous and the water felt great after the hike down. You could wait for the tour guides to take you through the caves, but we wanted to be able to enjoy them without the large crowds. We headed off on our own and were so glad we did. We took our time to explore and were happy to not be held up by those who would struggle with maneuvering through the caves. It took flexibility to crouch down and squeeze through tight spots, plus ladders and ropes. Watch some YouTube videos of the caves to see if you would be able to handle it. Also wear water shoes, Tevas, etc. All in all, the caves were spectacular. The caves led us to the last section of the excursion for some beach time at the Baths beach. Another gorgeous spot where a lot of people were snorkeling. There was a small food and drink stand where we purchased two local beers and enjoyed some more time in the ocean. About an hour later, we were called to return to the taxis and get back on the ferry. It was a well organized excursion and a unique experience. You can get to the Baths on your own, but I would recommend going on an excursion. Upon returning, we did a quick loop of the port area. There were quite a few food stands that looked delicious and some stores to explore. It was a very nice port area. The views from our aft balcony were beautiful. DH and I agreed that Tortola is now one of our favorite Caribbean ports. Up next, lunch at Oceanview and a glass of Rosé at the Sunset Bar before taking a long nap to make up for a lost night of sleep. We woke up refreshed and ready to have a great night! We went to the Retreat Lounge in search of a redemption Manhattan from the previous disappointment in the Ensemble Lounge. It was perfect. My grandma would approve! (I love Luxardo cherries now, but she loved the classic bright red ones!) Tonight, Sushi on Five satisfied our desire for Asian flavors and a more casual meal. I had a wonderful view of the clouds from the sunset. The meal was really great, and service was on point as well. We had edamame and potstickers to start. Then we shared pork Ramen and some sushi rolls. The specialty cocktails come from the bartenders at World Class Bar so those were yummy too. Overall, we were glad we returned to Sushi on Five, and it was a nice change from Luminae. I would suggest you give it a try, even if you don't like sushi. DH doesn't really eat much sushi, but he finds plenty of other items to order. We ended the night in the Equinox theatre to see a Whitney Houston tribute singer who was on an early season of American Idol. It was OK. Entertaining for sure and we had a nice time, but we thought it could have been a bit more lively. I spent some OBC on a perfume I scoped out earlier in the week and then it was bedtime. Another successful day!

Thanks for the kind words of encouragement. I look forward to your posts on your trip!

I don't think any renovations have happened yet for cabins except Aqua Class? No renovations done in our cabin. We find the mattress to be comfortable. Overall, the room is holding up. Some TLC is needed on the balcony for sure and small things in the bathroom.

Disclaimer: this post might be a mess due to issues connecting. I have tried multiple times and cant get all the pics to load. I hope you enjoy anyway! Wednesday: St. Maarten Our first ship excursion today! Enough walking around town. It was time to get on the water! The morning started with having breakfast in our usual spot outside of the buffet, close to door was the occasional A/C. As we sat down to eat, a rainbow greeted us. What a lovely way to start the day. For our Golden Eagle Sailaway, we had to meet off the gangway at 8:15am. After a little too much waiting around, we took a quick 5 minute walk through the port and to our catamaran. Andy and I have been a quite a few catamarans, so our preferred spot is at the back of the boat by the captain. The front can be fun, but is usually crowded and honestly not as comfortable to sit. Once we dropped off our shoes, we boarded and secured our seat for the day. The first stop was a snorkeling location for 45 minutes. We didn't get in the water. Instead we enjoyed the sunshine and Andy had his first Carib of the trip. There were a lot of people snorkeling from several boats. It seemed pretty crowded from our vantage point. One young girl did get stung by a jellyfish. The crew was quick to take care of her the best they could and she seemed OK when I saw her later. Then we cruised down the beautiful coastline of St. Maarten and the the drinks started to flow! Rum punch, mimosas, beer and sodas. The captain pointed out Maho Beach and promised he would try to get us some planes on the way back. We anchored off Mullet Bay beach for 1 hour of swimming. You had to swim in to the beach from the catamaran. Some folks struggled, especially returning back to the boat. Andy and I got in the water this time. It was gorgeous! The crew even brought a cooler of drinks to the beach if you wanted to enjoy a beverage while you floated with your noodle. After about 1 hour, we were all back on board and the captain quickly informed us that he saw 2 planes on the arrival schedule. We cruised down to Maho Beach and got to see one small and one bigger plane come in for arrival directly above us. I have a video so we'll see if it will upload. While we cruised back, they serve a simple but satisfying snack of a ham/cheese baguette sandwich. If you are looking for a relaxed excursion on and in the water, I would recommend it. The crew was attentive, drinks flowed, the beach was great, snorkelers were happy. We headed to the Oceanview for lunch then passed out on some chairs in the Solarium for a nap. I spent the first 20 minutes watching a turtle pop in and out of the water. Andy was already fast asleep and kept looking around to point it out to someone else but the Solarium was pretty empty. I eventually feel asleep too once the turtle swam away. Shocking news to report: we went to the Enaemble Lounge for a pre-dinner drink instead of the Marinti Bar. I really wanted to sit I those comfy chairs and listen to the solo artist. While the music was great, our drinks weren't. We were served the palest Manhattans I have ever seen. I always have Manhattans on a cruise in honor of my grandmother who would drink one Manhattan before dinner in the MDR. Oh well! We will try one in the Retreat Lounge and see if I can get a proper drink! Luminae was a ghost town for dinner which meant the service was almost too attentive. It was a quick meal. Probably our least enjoyed so far (besides the wonderful company of course, right DH?) Earlier in the day, we received an invite to a private Silent disco party in the Retreat Lounge. We weren't going to attend but just happened to be the Lounge once it started. The wonderful concierge Connor convinced us to join in after some initial resistance. We are glad we did. It was so much fun! We have seen this in past cruised in the Sky Lounge. It was neat to have a Silent Disco party with a small group.

Tuesday: St. Thomas. We returned to the gym this morning for another workout. So proud of us! It was even more empty than Day 1, so we assumed most people were getting ready for their plans in St. Thomas. We docked in Crown Bay, not Havenshight which we were not expecting. DH scoped out a local brewery that was within walking distance from Havensight so we had to adjust our plans. (Having docked at both locations, we prefer Havensight. More shops and better views) After a leisurely morning of exercise, coffee and breakfast, we jumped into a shared taxi ($5 pp) to Charlotte Amalie. We walked around town and grabbed lunch at a place called Greengo's. We overheard some people talking about it and decided to take a chance. We're glad we did. Cute place. Great service. Reasonable prices. Refreshing margaritas and yummy nachos with fresh, interesting ingredients. Highly recommend! Next we located St. John Brewers to satisfy DH's desire to drink local. They have a new retail shop and tap room. The bartender was extremely nice, and the AC was superb. I had a hard seltzer and DH had a freshly tapped IPA. We really liked them both. After a successful afternoon downtown, we flagged down a shared taxi right outside the tap room. All you need to do is yell out "are you going back to the ship?" and then hop on once you get confirmation from the driver. We changed into swimwear and headed up to the Sunset Bar and then the pool deck, enjoying the nearly empty ship. The best time to go in the pool is on port days! The rest of the evening followed our pattern of drinks at the Martini Bar, dinner at Luminae. We love seeing the "regulars" at the Martini Bar. Really feels like a cruise when you see the same people over and over. Our usual waiter in Luminae was MIA- not sure if he is gone forever and just foe that night. Our new waiter was wonderful. We watched the production show Elysium in the main theatre. It wasn't as good as Topper but still entertaining. The captain gave a farewell speech since he is leaving the ship today. No news about who is taking over. Just set the GPS and hope for the best? We had to set an alarm (!!) for the next morning as we booked an early excursion in St. Maarten. Spoiler alert: the excursion was great! More to come on that tomorrow