shipshape sam

Found my first duck earlier this year on Rotterdam. It was in a plant in the aft elevator bank on deck 6 as I recall. We kept it to bring home and show granddaughters. Going of a Royal Caribbean cruise next January and my grandkids want to have fun with some ducks, so will get some. As for jokes, I would love to walk by and get a joke of the day. So would my 7 year old granddaughter. She loves to tell jokes and has even made up a couple of jokes now that she understands the word play. We laugh at all of them too! 😃

Everyone has a story. We are Elite Plus and know we will never sail enough to reach the next Captain's Club tier based on our cabin preferences. Thus, for us, we like Celebrity and will look at them along with other cruise lines when we are making our cruise decisions. Right now, we have chosen/booked HAL Rotterdam 2 times over Celebrity this year. I used to love the M class, but with the addition of so many more cabins at the removal of public space has turned me off. We still like S class and, due to our likes/dislikes do not like E class IV category and thus (as I understand) there are not any standard balconies other than suites. So we, self imposed, are limited in the number of Celebrity sailings we will have to compare with other lines. We also are sailing Royal now as we are enjoying sailing with our grandkids/kids. With a larger group and kids, Royal tips the scale in their favor. We too, will make Crown & Anchor Diamond Plus in early 2025 which gives us a few more items unless they are removed by the time we get Diamond Plus. Actually the loyalty programs have very little sway now on us as for example with HAL, we are 2 stars and have been choosing HAL over Celebrity 2 times this year. We sailed on Beyond in January 2023 and I enjoyed the ship except the IV cabin. We too were on a sailing that only had about 65% of capacity. Finally, we (me more so than DW) love the musical groups/musical location on HAL Rotterdam. I am not a fan of the traditional production shows, so Rotterdam appeals to me as being familiar to more how Celebrity use to be with the added bonus of the live musical groups each night for most of the night, not just a musical set a couple of nights.

Hope you do too! On Beyond this past January, we only ate in the 4 MDR's and had no issues. WE did love the Lamb Shanks in the Greek themed MDR.

Always look at your options. We too are close to Diamond Plus and plan on making it in 2025. Will never get the top tier in Celebrity. We like Celebrity for quiet sailings and also like Royal when with grandkids or a large group.

We have seen wines we are enjoying run out during a cruise. Tried something else and amazingly 2 days later, they found some of the original wine that did last us till debarkation. I need to become friends with a 4 or 5 star 🙂

My wine we enjoy bringing onboard costs less than the corkage fee. Not sure what that says about our taste. 😃

That is a great response from Royal. Sorry for the passing of your mother in-law.

It is starting to happen on HAL too. My guess is cruise ships for the next 8-10 months will not be taking freighter slots in the canal. This too is assuming it starts to rain around lakes in Panama or there will be even more canceled ships.

A nice read though.

We got the crew appreciation (tips) included for our 2025 sailing that was made earlier this year. We were told the tips were included as part of early booking. I think they still could show up in promotions, but as I see it, it won't happen till after I book a cruise without them being included.

LOL

Some where I read that some vessels were waiting up to 21 days or more to get a slot for Panama Canal. In addition to the time issue for going around the horn you have the added fuel and other costs when ship is traveling.

We have had a port of call cancel and did receive a credit for the port fees not paid. I would assume at least that, the fees for going though the canal won't be spent. A bummer to say the least. In 2009 we had 3 ports of call in Mexico cancel due to H1N1. Still had a great full transit cruise but did go through the canal. Then in 2010 missed Antartica on our initial attempt due to rough seas, but Captain looked at weather forcast and made a 2nd attempt 2 or 3 days later - don't remember any we got there. I agree it is a bummer, but do not recall even any discussion of a reduction in our cruise fare. We also missed Falklands on that trip. Lots of people upset at missing pigeons and mines.

Yes for sure! Even if it proves to be false, it is not out of the realm of nickeling and diming of past behavior. I like a post that suggested Celebrity could sell a benefit where you do not have to sail for a year and thus not have to spend money (if I read the comment correctly) That would be a funny thread.

Hope you have a great cruise which ever choice you make. Would very much appreciate your feedback once you return from your cruise and anyone else to give their thoughts on the excursions. I am thinking we might try the small boat excursion that goes through the locks and then do a tropical excursion in Limon, Costa Rica. Will have to look into those excursions. Our sailing on Rotterdam is not till early 2025 though

It could be a prank. 🫥 You have to wonder though. I seem to remember many years ago, over a period of time, they raised the prices for Speciality Restaurants, then packaged them and then raised prices again till they reached a strong resistance level. With the bottom line, that prices/profits went up. They still do this process of raising the individual price and then do a package price that is higher than previous individual prices if added together.

LOL

Good question. That is our go to location for desserts. Sometimes I wonder what are they thinking. Not too long ago, it was putting gourmet burgers out on the pool bar at a cost of (I am thinking it was around $10) or go into OV to get an 'included' hockey puck. Oh and don't come in OV without proper attire. I use to say that Celebrity Management is not stupid, but I will now have to take that comment under advisement. They need to be thinking of how to increase the value proposition and not nickel and diming their customers. I can't imagine how little that charge would bring in compared to the negative cost it would generate.

Thanks for that tidbit. As for canal lock sizes, just repeated from a Wikipedia.org article. Panamax is determined principally by the dimensions of the canal's original lock chambers, each of which is 110 ft (33.53 m) wide, 1,050 ft (320.04 m) long, and 41.2 ft (12.56 m) deep. The usable length of each lock chamber is 1,000 ft (304.8 m). The available water depth in the lock chambers varies, but the shallowest depth is at the south sill of the Pedro Miguel Locks and is 41.2 ft (12.56 m) at a Miraflores Lake level of 54 ft 6 in (16.61 m). The clearances under the Bridge of the Americas at Balboa, the Centennial Bridge near the Culebra Cut, and the Atlantic Bridge in Colon, are the three limiting factors on a vessel's overall height for both Panamax and Neopanamax ships; the exact figure depends on the water level. It looks like it is evolving for the new locks as to what dimensions are being used. And if the above article is correct, then a cruise ship being limited to 965 ft is a self imposed restraint, not a structural restraint.

I will give you my take of a partial transit of canal we took on Princess many years ago. We did the 3 Gatun locks (not sure of Rotterdam length, but I think max length (panamax) is 1,000. for the old locks. After we rose (started around 7 am) the approx 82 ft to rise up to Gatun Lake water level we sailed to the left and passengers who had excursions, got on tenders and (from here not sure how their specific excursion worked). We then basically exited the same locks by going back down approx. 82 feet to the Caribbean. Then we cruised to a port near by and waited till all the excursions came back to that port. There were a good number of vendors there at the port and we did get off ship and walked around the port area. Also had a snack/drink off ship. As to a pain, that is subjective. I can tell you that I would not stay in my cabin balcony during the 3 locks rising to Gatun Lake. I would be all over the ship getting different perspectives. I touched the wall (don't tell) as were were entering the 2nd or 3rd one. AND if you are sailing back out, I again would plan to be all over the ship and for our 2025 trip, will scope out spots to be in. I can tell you that going into the locks early in the morning EVERYONE is up and up early to get primo positions, usually at the Bow. If you do stay on, you can count on less people positioning for primo spots for pictures as ( my guess at least a few hundred would be off ship) We have since sailed two full transits on Celebrity Infinity and both times we enjoyed being around ship. On our full transits, there were no excursions and takes most of the day to get to the locks on the Pacific side. We are sailing Rotterdam in 2025 for the partial transit and will look to get off for 2 main reasons for us. We have done the in/out of Gatun Locks before. We are interested in seeing what excursions there are. We want to do a tropical excursion and see some of the colorful birds and other animals. In Limon, we are going to look at some the excursions that also are tropical there. I do not count Cartagena as similar, but could be mistaken, depending on what you are wanting to see. There were some small boats going through the locks when we were there, but do not know if they were people from our ship on the heading back through the Gatun locks to the Caribbean. That would pretty interesting too to be basically on the water vs. 4+ stories above the water. A tidbit that I recall is there are no mules. They have train engine like machines that did the work in 2006 and 2009, our full transits. We did the partial transit on Island Princess in 2004. I would definitely look at all the excursions to see if there are 2 (can't miss) and if so, then you have to weigh what is more important, going back through the locks or one of the two can't miss excursions. As you mention, it your interested is similar excursions at Panama Canal and Limon, then staying on would seem to be a good choice for you. My reason would be that there are other ship itineraries that do Limon ( check to see if I am correct on this point) and do not go into the Panama Canal that you might consider or like us doing now our 4th Panama Canal. Have a cruise!

I would not be hard on yourself. I would be surprised if asked, would anyone think a spa cabin is an upgrade from an aft facing (stern) cabin.

Us too. I did think over the past few years or so, there was talk of maybe a middle tier, but with the AI pricing, I think they have created conflict with their own program.

Yeah, understand. We will be 9 points away by next year as we are sailing with our family on Royal a couple of times. Issue is that if you make it to Diamond Plus on next cruise, you then have to sail another cruise to start enjoying the added benefits of the Diamond Plus level. For us, we have been Elite Plus to for some time and also will not get to next level either, being at 855. We do plan to sail Royal and get the 175 points needed. At 9 points still needed after our 2 currently booked sailings, for us, it looks like 2 cruises anyway you cut it if our longest cruise on Royal will be a 7 nighter. Most likely two 5 day cruises or one 4 day and one 5 day. Then as I mention earlier, would need another cruise to enjoy the new benefits. Will not rush getting the 9 points, but will look forward to some nice Caribbean trips with family over next couple of years. All this with planning a snow ski trip and a land based Alaska trip in 2026. Oh the effort we will have to make. 😁 Wishing you some fun family/friends trips!

LOL

Thanks for that clarification.