Conestoga Charlie

We stopped booking on a “premium” rival cruise line because ii was creating a “nickel and dime” ambiance on its ships. I hope Celebrity doesn’t go in the same direction.

Novice question: Will a bartender mix a desired drink, e.g., a Manhattan, using a favorite bottle one brought aboard?

Have to make a connection in Copenhagen. Anyone with experience on delays there?

In Athens having just completed a  round trip Mediterranean cruise on the Celebrity Apex. We were told this was only the 8th cruise for the ship, which is sailing at greatly reduced capacity. The cruise staff could not have been more welcoming and attentive. Special shout outs to Nina, who kept my wife supplied with diluted Coffee Americano in the Luminae Restaurant.

We enjoyed dining in three specialty restaurants (Fine Cut Steakhouse, Rooftop Grill, and Eden). Special shout out to Shakes from Mauritius our waiter in the Eden. We were a little disappointed in the Rooftop Grill, where the mixed drinks (Margarita and Wandering Scotsman) were weak and the barbecue only “ok”. (Fair notice: coming from Texas, margaritas and barbecue are both matters of pride.) We enjoyed greatly the Chef’s Table, a somewhat pricey but great experience. Only 4 participants. However, in addition to the published price, there was an upsell for a special wine pairing. We took the added pairing ($60 per head) and felt it was worth it. As expected, dinner in the Fine Cut Steakhouse was excellent. However, one may want to reserve a table close to the windows and away from the Grand Atrium, which made that part of the restaurant too noisy for our tastes. Our veal cordon blue in the Tuscan Restaurant was disappointing, somewhat overcooked and understuffed.

The theatre visual and audio environment is beyond state of the art and must be described as awesome. The production shows displayed incredible athleticism and dance.

More later.

Is this requirement unique to the Edge or sailing from US? We’re booked on Edge’s sister ship, Apex, next week,

Looking forward to Apex “Spain, Malta and the Greek Islands” cruise this summer. Though after the past week in Dallas, any ship anywhere will work!😉

We’re booked for August 5th. Missus Charlie is a bit apprehensive about COVID. But, so far, she’s buying my theory that the safest time to travel is shortly after an incident and when things are really “tightened up.”

Looking at HAL website, they have added a number of wine packages and confusion. Can anyone shed some light on the content of the 11 night 6 bottle Double Signature wine package? It’s inviting because of the Pinnacle Grill inclusion. But, the price makes me suspicious that the wines are the finest from Oklahoma.

An aside - we went to a commercial travel clinic several years ago prior to traveling in South America. Immunizations were costly. For our recent excursion to India, we visited the local county immunization clinic. Saved mucho dinero! If you’ve such a clinic, we recommend you check them out.

Welcome back! We'll board Zuiderdam in 10 days. I've noticed a bit of critical comment about the condition of staterooms, common areas, etc. Of course, she's going into dry dock in the fall. What was your experience?

Other small indicators of cruise line parsimony: print your own tickets and baggage tags. Still have the folder our first HAL tickets came in. It said"class act." No more.

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We're preparing for our 6th cruise with Viking. This time we'll board the Viking Buri for a trip from Lyon to Avignon, where the Papal palaces are my sightseeing objective. (Changed person in the sentence because my wife is more interested in the wine tours than seeing another palace.) Our experience with Viking has been very good. The Yangtse River cruise in China was fabulous.

We've not had customer service problems with Viking. We did have to rake a few bus rides on the Grand River cruise a few years ago because water levels were low or river traffic too congested. But, the buses were first class and the scenery interesting.

Like others, I am not happy with Viking's payment policies. It annoys me to be compelled to pay way in advance of a trip and give them the use of my money. But, as you can see, I've not been annoyed enough not to continue to sail with them.

Thanks for the information.

It appears that we've spent so much time trying to coordinate the schedules that we've missed out on pre-booking some desirable shore excursions. Does Disney reserve some excursions for booking on-board, as some other cruiselines do?