pirategirl007

Enjoying following along. thanks for taking the time to report in and enjoy the rest of your cruise!

Unfortunately its not just as simple as missing the boat and catching up. Assuming this boat is leaving US and returning to US regulations/ passenger laws will come into play. The missing passenger will have to petition the captain (often the office on duty) when arriving at port and ask for permission to be allowed on the boat. There is also a fine involved which can or cannot come into play (I've had people who have not had to pay it some who have) and it will need to be paid in cash in most cases. Its about $300 usually and they can charge you a service fee on top of that for handling the fee issue for you and handing it over to the government.  Given that the missing passenger has to embark a few days into the cruise and in Cozumel he will also have to get clearance from Cozumel port authority to even enter the port area so good luck with that. That's a total wildcard. Definitely notify celebrity ahead of time and see what you can do to start the process if they will even allow it and the reason should be good. Given that you know in advance its probably not going to be an emergency so it may not get granted. 

Great review, thanks so much for posting! We are sailing MSC next week and I'm very meh about it. The plus' for us are I WON this cruise and we get to visit our favorite port San Juan (with a dining option solidly in my lifetime Top 5 right near the port) so I know I wont be hungry that day! I'm a Celebrity / Princess gal and while we have done others I always prefer that. Just tying to temper my expectations properly before I go and this review helps alot!

ps you were already famous to me I've watched some of your You Tube videos but know you come here to report in thoroughly has made me a fan for life! Keep traveling and keep vlogging and blogging!

Great review, thanks for posting!

Great thread. We are sailing on Jewel 1/21 from San Juan flying in day of staying out on Condado at the AC afterwards and flying home Monday since Delta nixed our Sunday flight. Excited and a little nervous to try RC again, we did Grandeur several years ago (post fire) and it was ok but have been sailing on Celebrity a few years now .Think Jewel may be a good ship to get a good experience on RC again.

I dont see a lot of talk about the Spa or Thermal suites on Jewel? Is it b/c the itineraries are so port intensive they dont get used alot? Or are they sub par?

I had an $11 negative balance which I had no idea why, and it ended up being refunded to our credit card!

 

We now have an almost $400 one which we also can't figure out, it's been there for a while, and we don't have the shore excursion/OBC credit issue many of you have. It's just sitting there. We sure hope it ends up being credited back to us! If not, that's fine too, since we had no idea why it appeared.

$11 is usually a port tax/fee decrease. that happens alot.

 

Royal's sister ship Regal will be up on the third day of our stay in Fort Lauderdale. I think they are both beautiful looking ships. Donna and I believe that it will be Princess that could potentially sway us away from Celebrity.

 

Thanks for joining in and adding your comments.

 

Regards,

Kevin Reid

If there is anything I love more than Celebrity is Regal Princess. Its kinda like picking which child is your favorite so I can't make the call but its very very close!

We cruise Disney and Celebrity the most often of all the lines. Cel's MDR food IMO is better than Disney's. The 'worst' food we have is off the Top Chef Menu nights (on 3 different Cel cruises now) but its not terrible I think its just not well executed dishes maybe. Did you do Palo or Remy on Disney? If so you might like Tuscan Grill or Morano for something a little more elevated. I love Silk Harvest we usually try to do the dim sum lunch if its offered there, we only have basic strip mall Chinese at home so for us its a treat to get some Asian food that doesn't come with a potential health department warning...

The buffets on Celebrity is light years better than Disneys on all their ships.

Room service may be the only food category I'd give to Disney over Celebrity. Maybe. And thats really the off the menu unlimited Mickey Bars talking...

Well folks, I'm pleased to say finally my price changed on my cruise planner, so I saved 20% on purchasing my alcohol beverage package. We paid a very cheap price for our room, so we had no packages included. My daughter is hoping to get the premium non alcohol, and that one hadn't changed at this point. I just paid our cruise in full yesterday, so I wonder if that kind of spurred the disc? IDK, but I am pleased. There was no notice or email, and it didn't show until I went to Checkout on their site.

CEL started a 72 hour sale again yesterday. I've been watching for months this is the 3rd 72 hour sale we have had for our sailing in June, non alcoholic packages have still not been on sale, I dont think they ever are.

That sounds time a brilliant idea , it really should be more varied .

We told our kids last night that this year we will have a points system ( as one is s fussy eater !)

On the ship this year , one point for trying something new , five points for eating a new starter , main or buffet dish , and ten points for being really adventurous .

The kids are totally up for that !

 

 

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Excellent idea! We were going with try one new thing per day but I may introduce this point system to our 12 and 15 year old. Been trying to fix their McDonalds palette for years now.

Thanks, I already have the Ship Mate app, I was just wondering if there was one Celebrity-specific. Apparently there is, but it won't let me do anything on it. I want to do things like book an excursion, monitor my Captains Club points, etc.

Celebrity does not have an app that lets you do that. For a "modern" ship they are pretty far behind in app use. Princes and Disney are kicking their aft in that arena.

Actually, the only other cruise line we have done is Disney. We are booked on a Princess as a B2B with this Celebrity cruise in February, so glad to hear it will be similar. I know the stateroom will be smaller, and I am going in with a very open mind regarding the new cruise lines. We have been able to keep prices down on DCL, but we are ready for new itineraries, and the DCL prices are crazy for a southern Caribbean itinerary.

We sail DCL often too but loved both Cel and Princess over DCL and can sail twice for the price of DCL anymore. and I have kids/teens and even they pick sailing 2x to 1x on DCL.

Eeekkk! It made my night when I signed on and saw your trip report come up. I cant wait it read more. This should help pass the 30 days till our cruise on Equinox!

Found your review late but enjoyed reading it. I love your writing style and you take some great pics! I can't wait to read about your next cruises especially Regent!

Just getting started reading looks like Im late to the party but I cant wait to see what unfolds.

Now back to page 2...

We will be sailing this summer with our (very newly/barely) 12 and 15 year old. We have sailed CEL before but not with the kids along. On both Princess and Disney the apps were great and we could 'text' each other without having the internet packages to find out where they were at if need be. I work 24/7 on call so vacation is one of the few times as a family we unplug (I do stealth work in the morning for an hour before everyone gets up but I'm the only one with internet package). Does Celebrity have anything like this? Or are we back to writing messages on a dry erase board in our cabin?

Just a wee nervous about my little one being 'free' to roam .They will more than likely be together 24/7 but just in case momma would feel better if I he could check in! Or lets face it if I could check in on him!

We have sailed with him twice, if they could 'guarantee' a certain Captain it would be selling point for us, he is hands down the best cruise Captain I have every had across many many lines.

Any advice on Victoria ? We will be there from 6 pm until midnight . And thank you for sharing your nice photos and advice on Ketchikan . Especially the eagles .

We did Solstice last year on a similar itinerary. My husband loves nature and birds so we got off the ship and headed right along the coast line and walked the path there to where there was a pier/jutty out into the water and caught a few birds there grabbing up some insects in the late day sun. Then we walked thru the park and took a few pictures in the fading sunlight, went and saw the Empress as the sun was going down and hit up some shops and pubs. There are shuttle buses back to port in town that are $5-10 they weren't much at all. Well worth it.

If you do the gardens take the ship excursion b/c often its only open late for 'special tours' which are usually locked down by the ships and its a ways out / longer drive too. Tea in the gardens is a highlight but often hard to find offered on the evening only stops.

Except we made artificial kidneys !

My mom was a nurse when I was a kid and brought one of these home once, I dont know why but I was fascinated by that thing and played with it for weeks carry it around with my dolls and such. I dont know what use I thought it had but knew it was to be protected like baby dolls. Hadn't though about it years now!

Thank you for that clarification .

During this review we will be using our resent cruise experience on the Regal Princess to compare and contrast with the Eclipse . In December on the Regal we arrived at 11:15 , entered our cabin at 11:45 and had a choice of 4 free dining venues open to everybody for lunch .

Following along can't wait to see what your comparisons are. We were on Regal in November and are back to CEL with Equinox this summer. I'm trying to get my expectations in line. I adored the Regal but love CEL too so hoping I'm not too jaded by Regal Princess awesome experience.

Great review, thanks so much!

Looking forward to more updates.

I just went to look at the teen club and was given a mini-tour! There are separate activities based on age and there is a 'bar' in the 12-17 teen club. I tried to ask if drinks were free or required a drink package and she said it was up to the management each night. Ages 15-17 can stay until midnight.

 

Here is a sample schedule.

You are the best!! thanks so much!

FWIW the Solstice didn't enter Tracy Arm last year pretty much all season. I watched closely as we were one it in late July. We went into Endicott Arm which was also gorgeous. Being aware of the situation I asked at guest services and no one would acknowledge they weren't sailing Tracy Arm. The morning we were to sail (starting at 6am) about 430am Captain announced the 'sudden' change in itinerary. Most passengers didn't even know when we were looking at it that it wasn't Tracy Arm as most people were asleep when the announcement happened. They still did the get off the ship and go close to the glacier on the catamaran thing.

We tendered in Juneau its one of the worst experiences I had on any ship I've sailed on and we missed out ship booked excursion for whale watching b/c of back ups. And we were not the only ones.

Many people get off in Victoria, you can head into town (shuttles are like $10) and you can shop, dine, see the city a little bit. There used to be water taxis back to the dock but those have been shut down. Before sundown head to the park and check it out, its lovely. The ship will also have some excursions and they seem pretty popular.

Did Silk Harvest go up? I thought it was $30pp but $28 is not 20% off of that no matter how you crunch those numbers so it must be $35 now. Sailing Equinox in June looking at the 72 hour not really a sale "Sale"