expattraveler

It’s a Heavy lift ship. Search the following online fordetails: Big Lift, Mammoet, etc

Us as well. We spend 30 to 40% of our time in Souther California. We were very fortunate to sail a few Mexican Rivera cruises out of LA when Japan was shut down. Understandably it was a stop gap for Celebrity when Japan was shut down. It appears Princess and HAL will control the San Diego/LA sailings which, to be honest, I do not have an issue with after the recent Celebrity strategy decisions on pricing and quality. just saying….

I do remember following your COVID quarantine on your interrupted B2B2B and your positive comments on Lymington and the Airbnb. Very happy you were able to book the unit again and under better circumstances ! The unit looks, and from your description, sounds fantastic! Safe travels today! looks and sounds fantastic from your description and its location.

We have very good friends that retired to Lymington and The New Forest. We’ve visited our friends many times and always enjoy the town, the waterfront walks and the pubs. If the weather cooperates, have a pint sitting in the garden at The Mayflower. Very enjoyable….

The Marking department ’s strategy appears to be “throw it up against the wall and see what sticks”. Apparently bookings are trending upward so things must be sticking. Until a bright remote working MBA in the marketing department wakes up at 11:00 one morning after their initial Starbucks and checks the booking #’s declining, the current algorithm will rule….

We always enjoy Kyoto due to its cultural history and historical sights, but Kanazawa, Amori, Akita, Hiroshima and Nagasaki are all unique in their own ways. I had a work assignment in Japan and we were afforded the good fortune and opportunity to be able to travel to many places in the country. While thee we also took a 14 day circumferential Japan cruise on Azamara. A big plus for that cruise, aside from a wonderful experience on Azamara, was we only had to take a 5 minute taxi ride to the Harumi cruise terminal for embarkation. Wonderful! We hadn’t traveled north in all of our internal travels in Japan. This visit was to include visits to Hakaito and Sapporo. Unfortunately a typhoon intervened and disrupted the Shinkansen schedule so we altered our plans and stayed central ending up back in Tokyo for out last week. With that said, we haven’t found an area, or city, which we haven’t totally enjoyed. A truly wonderful country and culture. Looking forward to our next visit

You left out “toilet” which is common in many countries. If in a country where you may be unsure, just make a washing hands signal with you two hands to the hostess /host. Works most of the time in many countries you may be visiting 😊…

No not this time. We were on a land trip to Japan. One of our of our top destinations. Although very hot we thoroughly enjoyed our month there. Wishing you and lain a great new adventure on Ponant!

Jim, Just returned to the US and saw you live review. As always looking forward to following your and lian’s travels. Absolutely love your analogy 😂😂! All the best….

While we are only E level our go to line was Celebrity for quality, cost and experience. On our last three Celebrity cruises in late 2022 and early 2023 the food in the MDR was military mess hall quality at best. From reading the boards, and seeing pictures of the MDR menus for the past few months, it appears the food quality in the MDR has sunk to new levels. Such a shame. What was once a great product, the Celebrity brand is no longer what it was. IMO the two other mass market lines we have sailed since our three past Celebrity cruises exceeded Celebrity’s product and at a better price point. While we typically have at least two, if not three, future cruises booked on Celebrity, we only have one additional Celebrity cruise booked this year. I fear it may be our last until they change the direction in which they appear to be headed. Again, such a shame to a once great product….

Possibly they’ve recently hired marketing folks from the old Bud Lite team?

Jim, Sorry for the delayed response, but currently on the other side of the world. I’ve been following you and lian’s travels on your many trips around the world on CC for a while. I appreciate your posts very much. Always helpful, insightful, colorful and enjoyable! Although we’ve sailed on other lines, we found a sweet spot with Celebrity a while back. We live part time in San Diego. We’d like to see Celebrity do more cruises out of San Diego, or San Pedro, but that probably won’t happen. As you’re most likely aware, Soltice was in San Pedro recently due to Japan restrictions. Unfortunate for Celebrity, but for us it was wonderful. We took advantage of three 7 day short, but sweet Soltice Mexican Reviera cruises out of San Pedro between January and March. They were all very good. We got to see some of our favorite Celebrity staff/crew and we only had to drive 90 minutes. No airports involved. Wonderful! As you elude, with restrictions due to the Jones Act, cruise lines have limited options. They also have to keep an eye on the competition and the balance sheet. In this case I believe HAL has the right ship in the right place out of San Diego for the Mexican Rivera and Hawaii cruises. Wishing you an lian a great cruise on your upcoming Ponant diversion! All the best…..

HAL apparently figured it out. We took three HAL Mexican Rivera cruises out of San Diego in the past 10 months. Just saying….

Disney is feeling monetary increases as well as other self inflicted wounds….

Norris, Thank you for another comprehensive and light hearted review! Always an enjoyable read when following you and Carol’s travels. Sorry you unfortunately ended up with pneumonia and a hospital stay, but hopefully you’re getting stronger each day. Agree with your comments regarding Celebrity’s “inventive” corporate pricing models, and pretty much abandoning many folks on the Beyond repositioning. Leaves somewhat of a bad taste. Celebrity was out preferred line, but we started to explore other lines prior to COVID. We were pleasantly impressed with what was/is out there. Celebrity needs to careful with their pricing. There are many other options available. We’ve never sailed in a Celebrity suite; however, we have booked itineraries we wanted on Azamara, Seabourn and Viking with comparable pricing to Celebrity suite pricing, and IMO better food and service. Oh, did I forget to mention, you also have access to the entire ship without being charged and additional premium?? Look forward to your next adventure on Princess. Until then, all the best and stay well!

Norris, Very happy to hear you are back at home and on the mend. I’m fairly sure you are very happy to be home and out of the hospital as well. Don’t push yourself too much and too soon. All the best to you and Carol!

Carol, Thank you for the update on Norris, and happy to hear he’s improving. Hopefully he will be home soon. Thoughts are with you both.

Carol thank you letting the board know. Norris very sorry to hear you’re sick, but glad you are getting the needed care. Rest and follow the Doctors instructions, and you’ll be back to your everyday activities in no time!

Picture of The Bollard, Mammoet Headquarters building, in the fifth picture above brings back memories of spending many days & nights there reviewing heavy lift and shipping plans. Of course Mammoet being a heavy lift company, they had to fabricate their headquarters at a different site and then ship it and slide it into place where it currently sits. They did the same with tier US headquarters in the link below. They just can’t help themselves 😂😂. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8cjafqoHnh8 Hope you enjoyed the additional time once back in Amsterdam. As you and Carol discovered, Amsterdam is a fantastic city for walking and people watching from a cafe seat on a canal. My wife and I had the good fortune of a work assignment in Amsterdam 2015 thru 2016. We lived in the Oud-Zuid (Old South) about 1KM south of the Rijksmuseum. A truly wonderful assignment. Norris, as always great review.

Sailed Solstice twice in the past two months. Had dinner in the MDR each night. Meat and fish offerings very much diminished opposed to many past Celebrity cruises. When offered, the beef tournedos were sirloin beef not beef tenderloin and the fish was tilapia every night. I’m following a couple of NCL and Carnival threads. The current thread on the Carnival Magic showing the current menu offerings and pictures of the MDR and Oceanview Cafe equivalent. It appears even Carnival’s offerings in the MDR (prime rib, beef Wellington, etc.) are of a higher caliber than Celebrity. The Carnival equivalent to the Oceanview Cafe also appears to be at a higher level, and has a fairly robust offering opposed to what Celebrity is currently offering. We cruise on multiple lines. We always felt comfortable, and a good value, on Celebrity. However, if Celebrity continues in the same direction with food and pricing, it makes the decision to look at the other lines we also enjoy much easier

@sixpackeddiethank you very much!

Fivelinks, Do you have a phone number for BCC? We have a pending offer from BCC. However, due to a pending medical procedure cannot take advantage of the offer in the time frame offered. Just wanted to reach out to BCC to see if any options available. Thank you in advance for your help!

Possibly the casino is tied to all cruise lines like your credit cards??? We’re Elite on Celebrity. We have never been offered any discounts from the casino since we never gambled on cruise ships. However, we just returned from a Solstice cruise out of Los Angeles and did some small contributions in the casino a few nights. Voila! Three emails from the casino arm of Celebrity in the past two weeks offering a 10% cruise discount on cruise fare along with gratuities, wifi and drink packages included. I can only guess the level of freebies associated from the particular cruise line is linked to your $ play. Unfortunately the value of being a loyal Celebrity customer for many years doesn’t equate to the valve of casino losses according to the Royal Caribbean computer algorithms. Just saying…

As the well know comedian was quoted as saying….you can’t fix stupid. My wife and I returned from three cruises in the past three months without COVID. Two cruises were on HAL, and one was on Celebrity. HAL had hand wash stations, and Celebrity had staff with sanitizer offerings. I would estimate less than 10% of the HAL passengers used the hand wash stations. A higher %, (possibly 50% ?) of the folks on Celebrity accepted the hand sanitizer. We carry our own hand sanitizer and Clorox wipes, and have for years. We wipe down our cabin daily, the table & salt & pepper shakers, our hands after touching any utensils or common areas. This isn’t new to us because we did the same before COVID with norovirus always being a concern. Everyone needs to take care of themselves. Do not assume others have the same hygiene and health standards as yourselves before or since COVID.

Unfortunately all cruise lines are trying to dance the fine line between government regulations and what revenue passengers are willing to accept. Unfortunately with the current government policies worldwide, the debit all of the cruise lines are carrying, coupled with the ongoing China COVID situation (not knowing when the next worldwide shutdowns may happen) I personally wouldn’t commit any deposits for future cruises unless you are not willing and able to forfeit the the total future cruise deposit. again, just IMO….