AmberCascades

1 hour ago, biebz said:

So it has been a few years since we cruised and from what I am reading we must pay for water now? We can't get if for free from the bar or dispensers? Also, we use to buy 6 packs of water on the ship. They no longer offer this service? What about iced tea or coffee? Are they available at a self-service station?

You do not have to pay for water.  It is available in the dining rooms, the OVC and the taps in your cabin.  I've never asked for a glass of water at a bar, but I'm sure they would have some.  They no longer offer a "water package" as such.  Coffee, tea and other non-carbonated soft drinks are still available in the OVC and the dining rooms.

Water, coffee, tea, iced tea, lemonade, other drinks, are all available in the buffet.  Water is always available in the dining rooms. 

You only get water in cans if you have a drinks package, or purchase it, but you won't go without water if you don't have a drinks package.

2 hours ago, rcrabb1513 said:

I understand that.  I'm a real geek at heart, my wife not so much.  I don't want to spend a bunch of $$$ on something just for me.

It's just one aspect though.  What about the other ports?  Even if she doesn't enjoy canal day, there are other interesting ports to explore on other days.

I'm the one who does the cruise picking and this cruise came up when I was looking for something for our special anniversary.  We did the full canal cruise in 2015 for our 25th anniversary.  My birthday, was also included so that was a bonus.  We were in Cartagena on the actual day and we had a great tour (with Marelvy Pena).  We enjoyed our other ports as well and looking back it is one of our most favourite cruises.  Neither one of us is a canal / dam / lock geek, but we ended up spending a lot of time watching from all over the ship as we went through the locks.  

I don't know your wife, so I can't say for sure, lol, but I don't see why she wouldn't also enjoy this itinerary.

Have you tried the Gravol with ginger?  It is non-drowsy. 

My husband used sea-bandz on our last cruise and he said they worked pretty well.

We had prime rib and lobster on the Summit recently, but the app also showed (while I was on the cruise) that Steak Diane was on the menu one night (I forget which one).  Sadly, it was not.  I think the app is probably managed by the same people who manage the website.  lol

Are you interested in all the perks Aqua has to offer?  Have you been wanting to try it?  Do you want to lie around in heated lounge chairs and eat in the private dining room?  Then I would say yes, might as well go for it (without knowing how much extra  you'd have to pay, of course). 

If you like where your current cabin is located and none of what AQ offers interests you, then I would say no.

Also, you could end up in a very good location, or you may be very far forward.  I'm not usually prone to seasickness, but there are some evening when the ship is rocking so much I can't deal with an hour in theatre, so I, personally myself, wouldn't risk getting a forward cabin.  But that's just me.

Have you checked the app to see if there's anything scheduled?  I haven't been on the Constellation but on our recent Summit cruise there was an hour or so of ballroom dancing every day (or almost every day) in the Rendevous lounge.  It was pre-recorded music (I didn't attend but I saw it in the daily).  This was a repo cruise so there were a lot of sea days.  I don't know if that's the norm.  

6 hours ago, Ken the cruiser said:

We are currently on the Eclipse cruising from Honolulu to Vancouver and Eddy Jenkins, our CC, just mentioned there will be 4 lectures tomorrow on the 1st of our 5 sea days in a row before arriving in Victoria. We’ve been on the ship since Sydney and have usually had 3 lectures on each sea day! I also have a Live From  thread going on if you want more details about them. 

Lucky you!  I love Eddie.  One cruise he did a talk about Wales (not whales) and the naturalist did a talk on whales (not Wales).  That was their schtick for a few days.  🙂  He also DJ'd a 60's dance party one evening.  

What are the topics of all these lectures?  If you don't mind taking the time to say.  Just curious.

Would this be considered a "vintage" thread?  Or is one year not long enough?  lol

6 minutes ago, Ex-Airbalancer said:

On our Reflection TA , there was a couple of speakers, I usually don’t go 

One speaker was a DNA speaker , it was interesting but he was a terrible speaker , very dry 

 Sounds like a physics guy we had on one cruise.   We went only managed to sit through 1 1/2 talks.  One of the topics was "what is time?"  Sounded interesting.  He was boring.  I found out that the answer was "time is endless if you are listening to this guy"  hahahaha  Fortunately most of the talks we've attended have been interesting.

11 hours ago, keesar said:

On our last 10 cruises, there has been only one speaker.  It was a naturalist on our Alaska cruise.  When we first started cruising on Celebrity, there was at least one speaker on each cruise.   Major reduction in the Beyond the Podium Program.  

I was surprised (and a bit disappointed) to see there was only one speaker on our recent repo cruise.  We had 6 sea days so we were expecting at least a couple of speakers.  I hope they don't do away with it altogether.

On our recent Summit (repositioning) cruise we had one speaker who became a stand-up comedian late in life and did talks on the history of comedy and various comedians.  It was interesting and funny.

When we did Alaska we had a naturalist who talked to us about the types of wildlife we might see and also did other "natural" topics like volcanos and earthquakes, etc.

On our Antarctica cruise we had 3 speakers.  We had many, many sea days.   2 of the speakers dealt with wildlife type stuff and the 3rd one was a (former?) Hollywood script writer.

The number and type of speakers may depend on the type of cruise and the number of sea days.  

The Concierge lunch was a thing on our recent Summit cruise.  The app is a whole other thing.  I wouldn't believe anything it says.  

2 minutes ago, RichYak said:

Olives 🍸

Olives are a fruit.  Fruit will be covered in a different thread.  LOL

Hahahahaaa  But seriously.  I love vegetables and why shouldn't they get a spotlight??

The ceasar salad is not to be missed.  Also, pretty much any of the salads offered at dinner in the MDR are really good..  

On Summit recently, in the OVC, they had a display of whole roasted vegetables which looked quite interesting.  We didn't try them, but we saw staff hacking off pieces of these giant veggies for people.  Like a veggie carving station.  🙂

Do it!  We always pick Concierge if it's around the same price or only slightly more than verandah.  We just got off a cruise on Saturday.  We asked our attendant if we could get a cheese plate instead of the daily canapes.  My husband is celiac and can't eat some of the canapes.  We received a plate each day, late afternoon, with a few slices of cheese, some fruit and a couple of dried apricots or nuts.  It was just enough for a little nosh before dinner.

On Chic night recently we saw a few tuxedos and one guy was wearing a kilt.  My husband decided to wear a sports jacket and tie (and pants of course lol).  A lot of men wore pants and button down shirts, and many just wore pants and polo shirts.  The minimum requirement seems to be "dress nicely and cover up the ugly bits".  🙂

5 minutes ago, st5310 said:

A more "appropriate forum?"  Excuse me.

Probably the Canada/New England forum as it will be more specific to that area.

We've been cruising Celebrity for 10 years and always request a 2 top, no problem.  Don't be anxious,  you'll be fine.  🙂

6 minutes ago, Wookie01 said:

If the passport stays onboard then what happens if for some reason you miss the ship?
How do you get to the next port, which is probably in a different country, without it?

If you miss the ship there will be someone waiting for you at the pier with your luggage and passport.  When we go ashore we also take the daily with us which has the port agent's info on it.  Just in case we need to contact someone at the pier.

11 hours ago, IamHungry said:

But why is it always the customers that have to tip everyday to help the crews getting a livable wage?Why can't cruiselines do that from the start then the tips will really be the extras. Cruiselines never gives us an honest information on how they really distribute the tips. Talk to the crews and you will get the real information. 

Grab a bunch of like-minded individuals and picket outside Celebrity's head office, if you must.  In the meantime, until their compensation policy changes, don't take it out on the crew.  There's not much they can do to change things and they shouldn't be punished because  you are angry with the corporation.   

We did the Pride of America with our young adult kids a few years ago.  They didn't want a million sea days so we liked that the POA offers all Hawaii all the time.  lol  It's an older ship.  There aren't a lot of bells and whistles.  The evening entertainment wasn't as good as Celebrity but it was enjoyable.  We thought the food was okay.  Lots of selection in the buffet and we always found something to eat in the dining room.  The crew was pretty nice.  Not the awesomeness of a Celebrity crew, but our steward was amazing and anyone we dealt with was friendly and helpful.

The main reason for doing the POA is for Hawaii.  We spent so much time exploring the islands that we were just exhausted each day.  There were some activities on the ship as well that we participated in like lei making and Hawaiian dance lessons.  

It's not a fancy ship for sure, but nothing about the experience was terrible and we thought it was a really good way to see a lot of Hawaii in a short period of time.  We also went a couple of days early so we went to a luau, hiked up Diamond Head and went to see Pearl Harbour.  It was pretty action packed.  🙂

We did this trip 10 years ago but it was the last week of August and it was pretty perfect.  Lots of salmon running in Ketchikan.  I think it was sunny most days - very hot the day we were in Juneau.  Some glimpses of bears and whales in the distance (we didn't go on specific tours to see them).  I've heard it can be more rainy in September and gets dark earlier.  

12 minutes ago, sbsz said:

Thanks for your speedy reply.   I can't find the roll call and the trip is just it's just 6 weeks away.  I must be doing something wrong.  How do I find the roll call?

 Go back to the main Forums menu.  Scroll down till you see the Roll Calls heading, click on Celebrity Roll Calls and then look for Millennium.  Click on there and scroll until you find your cruise date.  

I'd do Concierge with the bump out.  The cabin itself is slightly larger than a regular veranda.  There's also a good view from that balcony because you can easily look forward as well as just straight out.  On actual glacier viewing day you will likely be on the helipad or top decks or Skylounge to get the best views either way.