Celebrity home porting at Port Canaveral in Dec 2024

[Knights on the Beach]

2 hours ago, tfred said:

X can't survive on just central Florida people wanting to cruise. There must be a driving radius that includes South Caroline and Georgia that they are factoring in 

 

MCO is a big airport but it is a hike to get to Port Canaveral

 

It's only about 45 minutes from MCO to Port Canaveral, so not too bad.

 

2 hours ago, Tom-n-Cheryl said:

 

I recall seeing terminal 1 being mentioned initially - but with uncertainty going forward. 

 

Tom

 

That would be awesome - we can start our vacation day early at Grills then walk over to the ship when it's time to board. 🙂

[PTC DAWG]

15 minutes ago, Knights on the Beach said:

 

It's only about 45 minutes from MCO to Port Canaveral, so not too bad.

 

 

That would be awesome - we can start our vacation day early at Grills then walk over to the ship when it's time to board. 🙂

I prefer Rustys, both both are good. 

[sunshower9]

1 minute ago, PTC DAWG said:

I prefer Rustys, both both are good. 

Fishlips for me. 🙂 

[cruise wizard]

The restaurants and hotels around the port must be celebrating. We always enjoyed having an early dinner at one of the restaurants and watching the ships leave port. Most all of the hotels have cruise packages..........better book rooms early!!!!

[tfred]

12 minutes ago, Knights on the Beach said:

 

It's only about 45 minutes from MCO to Port Canaveral, so not too bad.

 

 

That would be awesome - we can start our vacation day early at Grills then walk over to the ship when it's time to board. 🙂

If you live on the I4 corridor then PC is an easy drive. To fly into MCO and then easily get to PC is another question. Many posts here and on FB are pax wondering how to get to Lauderdale port  from FLL which is 10 minutes away. 

[Tom-n-Cheryl]

Rusty's for me too. We've gone there many times in the afternoon - just to watch the ships leave. I just wish it was further down the channel, so as not to miss the larger ships (Mardi Gras, Wonder, etc).

 

Tom

[2chiefs]

8 hours ago, Tom-n-Cheryl said:

 

Thanks !
 

Being that it's just 20+ minutes from our home - looking forward to this FINALLY.

 

It would be better still had it been the Reflection or Silhouette (for Lawn Club Grill/Porch) or an Edge class ship, but we'll take it !

 

Tom 

The Equinox has a Lawn Club. Am I missing something?

[Tom-n-Cheryl]

Just now, 2chiefs said:

The Equinox has a Lawn Club. Am I missing something?

 

The Reflection and Silhouette (last of the Solstice class ships) both were built with a Lawn Club Grill and Porch restaurants (both specialty) in lieu of the glass blowing place. The Lawn Club Grill has an amazing gourmet burger lunch on sea days, and The Porch is a great laid back place to enjoy a nice meal.

 

Tom

[2chiefs]

3 hours ago, cruise wizard said:

The restaurants and hotels around the port must be celebrating. We always enjoyed having an early dinner at one of the restaurants and watching the ships leave port. Most all of the hotels have cruise packages..........better book rooms early!!!!

Yep. Same here. Sometimes even with people on these threads.

 

[2chiefs]

1 minute ago, Tom-n-Cheryl said:

 

The Reflection and Silhouette (last of the Solstice class ships) both were built with a Lawn Club Grill and Porch restaurants (both specialty) in lieu of the glass blowing place. The Lawn Club Grill has an amazing gourmet burger lunch on sea days, and The Porch is a great laid back place to enjoy a nice meal.

 

Tom

OK. Gotcha. I saw Lawn Club but missed the Grill/Porch reference. My bad....

Cheers

 

[phoenix_dream]

3 hours ago, tfred said:

If you live on the I4 corridor then PC is an easy drive. To fly into MCO and then easily get to PC is another question. Many posts here and on FB are pax wondering how to get to Lauderdale port  from FLL which is 10 minutes away. 

Yes, "not too bad" is relative.  Instead of a $20 taxi ride to FLL I will now have to pay probably at least triple that to get a Celebrity transfer (assuming they don't book up) or an even more expensive Uber ride.  Not to mention less convenient and gives me fewer options for flight times.  In addition, there appear to be more sea days in the new itineraries and some are chock full of ports I would rather never see again, like Falmouth and Belize City, since the port is a couple hours north.  And then there's the cancellation of longer cruises overall to add shorter ones to attract a younger crowd.  Further proof that Celebrity is marketing a whole new demographic at the (oftentimes) expense of their older, loyal customers.  So what part of this am I supposed to like???

[Tom-n-Cheryl]

1 minute ago, phoenix_dream said:

Yes, "not too bad" is relative.  Instead of a $20 taxi ride to FLL I will now have to pay probably at least triple that to get a Celebrity transfer (assuming they don't book up) or an even more expensive Uber ride.  Not to mention less convenient and gives me fewer options for flight times.  In addition, there appear to be more sea days in the new itineraries and some are chock full of ports I would rather never see again, like Falmouth and Belize City, since the port is a couple hours north.  And then there's the cancellation of longer cruises overall to add shorter ones to attract a younger crowd.  Further proof that Celebrity is marketing a whole new demographic at the (oftentimes) expense of their older, loyal customers.  So what part of this am I supposed to like???

 

There are so many 3-8 night sailings out of Pt Canaveral already, it would have been nice to see some longer (if even just 10-12 nights) cruises offered.

Tom

[paulh84]

We're in that evil "younger demographic" group that will pass on Port Canaveral. Blah. There is really not a single appealing aspect about that. Inconvenient drive to port and poor hotel selection if you don't want to stay in suburbia Orlando. I do suspect these cruises will be predominately drive to port "Flaridah" residents. 

Edited August 16, 2023 by paulh84

[PTC DAWG]

5 minutes ago, paulh84 said:

We're in that evil "younger demographic" group that will pass on Port Canaveral. Blah. There is really not a single appealing aspect about that. Inconvenient drive to port and poor hotel selection if you don't want to stay in suburbia Orlando. I do suspect these cruises will be predominately drive to port "Flaridah" residents. 

Choices are good, they will still be sailing from FLL etc..

[cruise wizard]

53 minutes ago, 2chiefs said:

Yep. Same here. Sometimes even with people on these threads.

 

 

I heard that rumor..........maybe at Rusty's????

[2chiefs]

1 minute ago, cruise wizard said:

 

I heard that rumor..........maybe at Rusty's????

LOL. Yeah Rusty's .. Perhaps again sometime??

[PTC DAWG]

7 minutes ago, 2chiefs said:

LOL. Yeah Rusty's .. Perhaps again sometime??

Now I’m craving steamed oysters.

[cruise wizard]

5 minutes ago, 2chiefs said:

LOL. Yeah Rusty's .. Perhaps again sometime??

 

Sounds great!!!!! We are looking at January of 2025 as we are booked through 2024 and a couple in 2025

[mac_tlc]

4 hours ago, Tom-n-Cheryl said:

Rusty's for me too. We've gone there many times in the afternoon - just to watch the ships leave. I just wish it was further down the channel, so as not to miss the larger ships (Mardi Gras, Wonder, etc).

 

Tom

We have had lunch at Grills or Fishlips, then go to Jetty Park to watch the ships go by so we dont miss any of them.

 

mac_tlc

[2chiefs]

2 minutes ago, cruise wizard said:

 

Sounds great!!!!! We are looking at January of 2025 as we are booked through 2024 and a couple in 2025

We're eyeballing December 2024 and possibly January 2025 as well. We've been booking Celebrity lately.

[cruise wizard]

4 minutes ago, PTC DAWG said:

Now I’m craving steamed oysters.

 

The diet seafood au gratin for me and the coconut shrimp for Mean Mary.............MMMmmmmmmmmm

[Tom-n-Cheryl]

The wings are tasty too (Rusty's)

 

Tom

[cruise wizard]

2 minutes ago, 2chiefs said:

We're eyeballing December 2024 and possibly January 2025 as well. We've been booking Celebrity lately.

 

We are almost exclusively Celebrity now. We have the Beyond for 12/2 & 12/13 for 2024 - maybe see you in Fort Lauderdale??

[Jeremiah1212]

1 hour ago, phoenix_dream said:

Further proof that Celebrity is marketing a whole new demographic at the (oftentimes) expense of their older, loyal customers.  

 

This is such an odd sentiment on this board. The reality is the older "loyal" passengers are on an uphill battle. Celebrity started scraping the 14 night Caribbean routes years ago. The older loyalists are no longer filling ships. That customer is diminishing. These people may fit into several buckets. They may no longer be living, physically unable to travel, financially unable to travel, needing to work later in life has eliminated their free time, still unwilling to travel due to COVID, etc. They aren't doing this at the expense of anyone. No one is precluded from cruising by Celebrity because the ads aren't filled with pictures of senior citizens. If the money and passengers were flocking to 21 day cruises, they would offer them. 

[phoenix_dream]

8 minutes ago, Jeremiah1212 said:

 

This is such an odd sentiment on this board. The reality is the older "loyal" passengers are on an uphill battle. Celebrity started scraping the 14 night Caribbean routes years ago. The older loyalists are no longer filling ships. That customer is diminishing. These people may fit into several buckets. They may no longer be living, physically unable to travel, financially unable to travel, needing to work later in life has eliminated their free time, still unwilling to travel due to COVID, etc. They aren't doing this at the expense of anyone. No one is precluded from cruising by Celebrity because the ads aren't filled with pictures of senior citizens. If the money and passengers were flocking to 21 day cruises, they would offer them. 

I have a different opinion.  Pre-Covid (and that was not all that long ago), the Celebrity ships were sailing full or close to it and they were filled with the 50+ year old group.  Yes, times change, and all of us will sooner or later age out.  But as we age out, the younger group ages in.  It was a nice flow of business - more younger people with kids sailed Royal, then as their kids grew and they preferred a more quiet experience they came to Celebrity.  (of course this is a generality - in fact I've been cruising Celebrity since my son was around 6).  A win-win for both the passengers and the cruise lines.

 

And yes, I understand that the longer routes were cancelled some time ago.  Too bad, as I even enjoyed them in my 40's and 50's.  But there is a big difference between moving the cruises from 14 down to 10, 11, and now moving them to 7, 6  or fewer.  I would also like to know how they would know that passengers wouldn't flock to longer cruises as they don't offer them??  

 

Frankly, while some younger people are getting tired of hearing we are frustrated with Celebrity seemingly caring only about them (and for the record I'll repeat what I've said before - it is Celebrity we are frustrated with, not the younger crowd themselves), I am getting tired of hearing that my concerns and feelings seem to have no value, and being said in rather insulting ways insinuating I should just head back to my nursing home and keep my old mouth shut (not directing that at you - a general statement),  And to your comment, it has zero to do with whether there are senior citizens in their ads.  There never were.  It's about major changes to the entire direction of the company resulting in a very different cruise experience, with little regard for passengers who have been loyal to them for years and have, in fact, helped build the company to what it is today.  And at the end of the day - yes, I know it is about business.  I am not ignorant of that fact.  But I personally also feel that it is a very suspect business decision that may eventually come back to bite them as the saying goes.