smcgoldr

I was on the Celebration a few weeks ago and they asked for Early Dining to show up at 5pm twice. Not sure if it was because it was the 1st US sailing and they were working out the kinks. They didn't turn away people that showed up at 5:30, so it seemed odd to have a 30 minute window with people arriving when it was not a YTD room, but other nights everyone showed up at 5:30. As for vaccination status, they must have entered something in the computer, because I saw 2 people stopped from getting off at Grand Turk and told they had to show a Vax card to guest services before they could be cleared to go ashore in Grand Turk. We had an online form we had to fill out about vax status within a week of booking. We were not asked at the terminal.

Depending on the state and how they do their marriage licenses, you may only need the last one. In Florida, they include your maiden name on the marriage license. The most recent marriage license would bridge the married name, the name prior to that marriage and the maiden name (if different). Not all states do this. Some only have the prior name and not the maiden name.

You must have ordered the ribs in the MDR. The beans and creamed corn came in the same little metal cup that they bring out ketchup in. I don't think it even equated to two forks worth. At first I was trying to figure out what the yellow white condiment was until I realized it was creamed corn.

Deli closed at 10pm. It was 9:55 one night and they were closed and packing it up, while I was in the pizza line. As for TN, guess I never updated that after my move. I just fixed it.

Less than 1/2 the guest had suit jackets on the ship last week. I don't even think 50% of the men had on ties for elegant night.

My daughter was on it in the spring and she told me to get her around 9:30, but was in the pickup area just before 9am. I forget if she did self assist or had them take her bags the night before debarkation. As long as there are no delays with getting people off and you are ready when they call your area, I think you would be close to 8:30.

I was on the inaugural sailing of the Celebration out of Miami. Since it is such a new ship, I wanted to give my views on the good and bad. Overall it was a great cruise, some of the offerings on the big ship are great, but at other times, I missed the smaller ships. My overall impression of the ship were positive. Lots to do, didn't really feel like I was sailing with 6000 of my closest friends except when it was time to get off and all 6000 wanted to be at the same place at the same time. The roller coaster was fun, not sure I would do it again. $15 for 2 laps isn't bad, but when you pay for 6 people, it adds up. Definitely a must do once if you like rides. Ropes course was good. I was on another ship and you picked inside or outside lane and had to stay there. This one has tracks to swap side to side before every obstacle. My daughter was excited that one of the water slides was where the floor drops out. Mini golf was sheltered from the wind, no chasing the blowing golf ball around like when I was on the victory. Lots of live music every day. The one area that I didn't like was all the upper balconies looked down on public decks. I felt more separated from the water. You didn't hear water sounds, but people sounds. Also the middle decks extend out so far that in port from a balcony on deck 8, you couldn't see the pier in grand turk even though it was right below you. The other big thing I noticed was all the railings and walls were much higher. Probably 5' were the shorter areas, but most were 7 or 8' high. Much safer for preventing overboard, but you were looking through glass in most public area and very few spots could you look over the top. For some more details, lets start with where they knocked it out of the park. Food offerings - They have spread this out across the ship, so that no one area ever seemed to have long lines, even at busy times. There were still lines for the popular items, but nothing like I was expecting. On sea days you had free offerings at brunch in the main dinning room, Deck 8 - Pig and Anchor on aft, Pizza and sandwiches mid, Cuccina del Capitano fwd, Deck 16 - Big Chicken aft, Lido Mid, Street eats starboard front of pool, Blue iguana port front of pool, deck 17 guys burgers mid and serenity salad bar. Entertainment - There were so many parallel options, that at times you had to really pick and choose. They had 4 main venues for shows. The theater, center stage, punch liner and limelight. 1st night early comedy was pretty full, but then shows were not full often. They used 3 venues for comedy and at times had overlapping shows in 2 of them. Late night they had comedians in the main theater a few times. Other than the piano bar and center stage for the circus, most places had seats 5-10 minutes before the show. The piano bar was always filled. They also had random areas with live music near the bars and at pig an anchor. Area that could use improvement Breakfast and brunch in the main dinning room was lacking in service. Our first sea day was a long wait for food, missed parts of what was ordered, mixed up ingredients in omelets every time we were there. After food was delivered we never saw the waiter again and finally gave up on seeing dessert and just left. The second day at brunch seemed to be better, still had omelet issues, but received all our items. Final breakfast was very slow to serve. The other issue we encountered was getting ketchup or jelly once the food arrived. It took close to 10 minutes one day. Definitely need to work on this area. We also found the dinning room staff at the hostess area to be less than friendly on numerous occasions. Disembarkation was a mess. They had lines coming from different directions, making a u turn and then going back, but with limited staff and no ropes, people were making their own lines down the center, cutting past tables to make shortcuts, etc. It was obvious it was a new ship with new staff and their second debarkation. Alchemy Bar - the staff was great, but the bar location was the issue. It is literally lining a hallway on one side with a railing looking down to deck 6 on the other. There were so many people always trying to get past the bar, while others were lined up 2 deep waiting on drinks. The constant flow of traffic during busy times took away from the bar experience. It really needs to be off the main travel path so that people passing by are not bumping into the bar guests. This layout felt like you were in a hallway, not a bar. Late night food - after 10pm, all you have left is the pizza place. Good pizza, but lots of demand for it as the only place opened. Also one night at 11pm we went looking for ice cream and there are only 2 locations on this ship. One was closed and the other was out of ice cream. They are supposed to be opened until midnight, but not on the night we went looking. I asked a staff member and he told me the closed area, I told him it had a sign closed, he then told me the other location and I told him it was out of ice cream. He threw his hands up and want back to collecting condiments from lido deck tables. Would I sail on it again, yes, but would look at other ships as options too. I did book Mardi Gras last night, so the Excel class are still high on my list, but I did miss aspects of the small ships and will be back to conquest or dream class again. Dates, Embarkation port and ports of call are my main deciding factors. (living 40 miles for Port Canaveral makes that my 1st choice) Excel class didn't wow me enough to be a deciding factor, but it was a nice ship.