just back from 5/12 sailing...anyone seen my luggage?

[tnomred]

We had a good cruise and were very happy with the ship, the cuisine, the staff, and overall experience. Journey is a work in progress and as the weeks go by more and more improvements will be apparent.

 

The overall experience is intimate, less glitzy one where you can feel at times you have the ship all to yourself. The staff is to be commended for working so hard during their 4 week dry dock refurb and then taking on passengers for their first voyage with hardly an evening's rest before doing so. They seemed to have gotten their "sea legs" for our trip.

 

Before long the sun deck should be complete, hopefully the talked about teak furniture for the pool area will show up, and weather will cooperate so passengers can take advantage of those amenities.

 

The cuisine was better than I have experienced before on three different RCCL cruises. The hotel manager told us one evening they are looking at the cafe area with an eye towards some improvements there in the near future. They have some minor logistical issues but are on it. Advance reservations for specialty venues appear to be in demand for sea days but I would recommend trying them while in port. If seas are rough being on the 10th deck all the way aft can be bothersome. Some people can get queasy watching their martini slosh over the side on their glass! We made advance plans for Prime C on Friday evening and then were able to get into Aquillina for 7PM with only about an hour's notice on Wednesday evening. The service was first rate and we enjoyed both meals.

 

The only snag during our entire trip was the disappearance of our garment bag containing my new sports jacket, tie, and three of my wife's favorite dresses. It was checked at the Bayonne terminal but never made it to the stateroom with our two other bags. Kind of a bummer. None of the stuff was "required" for the trip but it would have been nice to been able to dress up a little one evening, perhaps for a nice portrait... anyway we have paperwork in hand for contacting Celebrity. The staff back at the terminal at disembarkation was very good about double checking to make sure they didn't have. The nice ladies told us they bet it eventually does show up on board the boat. I guess we shall see.

 

I'd love to try this ship again in 6 months or so just to see how things have progressed from this early stage.

[patpaul]

We had a good cruise and were very happy with the ship, the cuisine, the staff, and overall experience. Journey is a work in progress and as the weeks go by more and more improvements will be apparent.

 

The overall experience is intimate, less glitzy one where you can feel at times you have the ship all to yourself. The staff is to be commended for working so hard during their 4 week dry dock refurb and then taking on passengers for their first voyage with hardly an evening's rest before doing so. They seemed to have gotten their "sea legs" for our trip.

 

Before long the sun deck should be complete, hopefully the talked about teak furniture for the pool area will show up, and weather will cooperate so passengers can take advantage of those amenities.

 

The cuisine was better than I have experienced before on three different RCCL cruises. The hotel manager told us one evening they are looking at the cafe area with an eye towards some improvements there in the near future. They have some minor logistical issues but are on it. Advance reservations for specialty venues appear to be in demand for sea days but I would recommend trying them while in port. If seas are rough being on the 10th deck all the way aft can be bothersome. Some people can get queasy watching their martini slosh over the side on their glass! We made advance plans for Prime C on Friday evening and then were able to get into Aquillina for 7PM with only about an hour's notice on Wednesday evening. The service was first rate and we enjoyed both meals.

 

The only snag during our entire trip was the disappearance of our garment bag containing my new sports jacket, tie, and three of my wife's favorite dresses. It was checked at the Bayonne terminal but never made it to the stateroom with our two other bags. Kind of a bummer. None of the stuff was "required" for the trip but it would have been nice to been able to dress up a little one evening, perhaps for a nice portrait... anyway we have paperwork in hand for contacting Celebrity. The staff back at the terminal at disembarkation was very good about double checking to make sure they didn't have. The nice ladies told us they bet it eventually does show up on board the boat. I guess we shall see.

 

I'd love to try this ship again in 6 months or so just to see how things have progressed from this early stage.

Glad to hear you had a good trip,were you by any chance on deck 8. Trying to find out if the cabins are finished and if it is noisy being under the pool area.

[tnomred]

We had an oceanview stateroom on level 4. But I can't see any reason why the rooms below the pool deck would be a problem. The cabins are well insulated. There wasn't an abundance of activities around the pool area anyway. Limited music performances during some afternoon hours and none at all during the evening. Even if they do start having a band in the evening they are not allowed by law in Bermuda to have amplified music on deck after midnight. On our cruise anyway the crowd was VERY "Mature";)and sedate group. You probably wont run into a big gang of Party Animals on this trip!

[tnomred]

There was some work going on what looked like level 8 while docked in Hamilton. Looked like they might have been finishing off the veranda(s) on the cabin(s) that were removed/replaced in order to do whatever was done up there during drydock. Lots of metal grinding and hammering going on during the day.