calicakes

Are you serious?

Iceland had the first openly gay Prime Minister. Jóhanna Sigurdardóttir, the first openly LGBT person to head a national government

My spouse is on Good Reads, can you tell me your name there so I can have her friend you. Her name is Julie.

@GeorgiaPeach51 Have you read any Diane Mott Davidson( Goldy Shultz, culinary mysteries?) Great books with recipes thrown in. Should be read in order. Also, Jodi Picoult. Her genre is moral fiction. She's an excellent writer.

The lesbians( my wife and I) like to eat early. LOL.

Were the edges of the hard cooked egg grey or is that just the color of the photo? One of my pet peeves is improperly cooked hard( cooked, not boiled) eggs.

We've stayed there, its awesome.

We go to Mendocino every year. We bring our standard poodles who love the beach. Where did you have your union? When is your anniversary date? Julie and I have been together for 14ys, but we actually met in 1993 and had a brief "affair" as I was with someone else. It took 16yrs for us to find each other again. We'll be celebrating our 9th wedding anniversary on our Reflection cruise next month.

@Jim_Iain Thanks for showing all the diversity(aka rainbow things) in Canada. My first marriage was in 2003 to a Canadian woman( and I lived in Ontario). Canada was way ahead of the US in that respect.

How does one go about ordering vegan items? Often times, I don't care for the seafood/chicken options and I'd rather eat something vegan. We're cruising next month in a suite on Reflection.

I'm LOL'ng at this. We've had 5 Celebrity cruises and in February, we decided to try Oceania. There were 338 guests on our Caribbean cruise( ship capacity 1250). We could not walk more than 500 feet without a crew member greeting us. I think 20 people greeted us every morning at breakfast. They must get the same training.

Thanks. We had our first O cruise in February. We decided to try O, because I felt the food quality on Celebrity declined( we had only traveled in AQ, so never had a dinner in the MDR). Someone on the live blog I did for that cruise( Equinox, September 2019) suggested O. I thought the pastries were excellent on O, much better than on Celebrity. I loved the specialty restaurants on O too, loved they were all included. The Miso Sea bass from Red Ginger was amazing. One of the best fish dishes I've eaten.

How do you feel the food quality compares to Oceania.

I downloaded the APP so I can see the menu in Luminae. For some reason, I thought ever ship would have a different menu. I mentally chose what I'm going to have for lunch on the first day and I chose the soup. How was the meal?

I'll report back after our upcoming Reflection cruise. However, I think( I've seen this at restaurants) with the rising food prices, every food service establishment is looking to cut back on expenses. Were there ever berries on the buffet? Removing expensive meat options is one way. Do folks eat meat heavy meals at lunch? I for one, prefer quality over quantity, which is why we switched lines( to Oceania). This upcoming cruise is using FCC, but after this, we're back to Oceania. The food was so good, especially the pastries. I hate waste too, it irks me when I see full plates of food left on tables. I try to take a small amount to see if I like it and then if I want more, I go back for more. Funny story, when I was a kid, I would watch LOVE BOAT and I would drool at the "midnight buffet". I wanted to go on a Princess cruise so badly. LOL

Yes. Awful.

Ship: Reflection Length of Cruise: 10 nights Cruise Sail Date: 09/16/22 Date email offer received: Not received yet, looked at my cruise planner Captain’s Club Tier [“PREVIEW” = first Celebrity Cruise]: Select Booked through Celebrity Direct OR via TA: TA, this was a cruise using FCC Current Cabin: Sky Suite Bid? Yes/No: No I haven't received an email to bid, I went into my cruise planner and I was given the option. In order to have a "good" chance, the min bid for a Celebrity Suite is 1850 PP. The other suites are RIDICULOUSLY expensive. We'll be staying put in our Sky Suite. This will be our first time in a suite on Celebrity.

I for one, never though the food quality in OV was amazing. After all, it is a buffet serving thousands. I tend to stick to the vegetarian Indian options or salad. Someone mentioned they never had any berries on their Baltic cruise and yet berries are so prevalent in the summer months.

Someone on another current thread( Summit???) said they asked their rheumatologist for a script and they obliged. I plan to ask mine too, I have an auto-immune disease, thus I'm at a higher risk.

We did our Oceania cruise in February, it was amazing. Next month is Italy/Greece/Montenegro on Celebrity.

Thanks, I just sent my rheumatologist a message asking for this as well.

Sadly, she doesn't. I do though. She really does have the palette of a young child. I think the children's menu will be her jam.

Regarding Berries: When we did a NCL cruise in June 2018, I never saw one berry on the buffet. We were traveling with friends who were staying in a suite. They had big bowls of berries served to them. I think the cruise lines save the berries for the upper level suite guests.

Could you find good GF bread in the ports? I would have bought a loaf and asked the waiter at the buffet or OV cafe to toast it. I don't eat beef, so I tend to stick to the Indian food at the buffet. I consider myself "plant based" more than vegan( I do eat pasture raised eggs and pasture raised chicken). We decided to try out Oceania after someone on one of my live blogs suggested it. I was complaining about some of the food on Celebrity. I think I'm going to request some special vegan/vegetarian meals on cruise next month.

I hope you have a wonderful trip. I'm a bit sad you won't be posting food pics. Our next cruise( September 16th, Reflection) we'll be a suite for the first time. Our previous 4 other Celebrity cruises were in AQ, so we've only ever eaten at Blu. On our last cruise( September 2019) before the world shut down, I did a live blog. I felt the quality of food in Blu had declined. We had more than a few issues. I'm curious to see if the menu has changed. My wife is very picky, I can't imagine her enjoying the food in Luminae. I have a feeling, she'll be eating a kids filet most nights.