Honolulu Blue

I think we're getting confused here. The ship @gkbiiii and I were discussing was the GRAND CELEBRATION, formerly the CARNIVAL CELEBRATION (not to be confused with the new CARNIVAL CELEBRATION, which will start sailing next month). That one is in the Holiday Class, since the Grand Celebration and the Carnival Celebration are the same ship. The Carnival Ecstasy, the ship in the title of this thread, is in the Fantasy class, which is NOT THE SAME CLASS as the one the old Carnival Celebration/Grand Celebration is in.

Yes.

Holiday class. For more details on the Grand Celebration/Carnival Celebration, head to Celebrating the Life of the Grand Celebration - Cruise Industry News .

The ship Bahamas Paradise sold was the old Carnival Celebration, which was NOT a Fantasy-class ship.

Mr. Heald has been posting some videos of his day; including the terminal, his cabin, and several things in between.

He posted a video about an hour ago that showed his luggage made it to his cabin. I guess he doesn't need that stuff from Wally World after all.

Welcome! I like your packing style so much that I use it myself! I've done a few cruises and I prefer to leave the porters and ship baggage handlers for those that need it. The main gotchas have already been mentioned - your room might not be ready when you embark (though you might be able to drop your luggage off in the room - YMMV) and you have to be prepared to carry EVERYTHING, EVERYWHERE until the room is ready. It's no fun carrying 30 pounds of stuff up and down 8 flights of stairs, I assure you. I think it's worth it, but you'll have to decide that for yourself. One other piece of advice is since you're packing relatively light, be sure to monitor what you missed and perhaps remember to take it along next time. Enjoy your cruise, whenever it is.

I'm a little disappointed to hear this, but I know in my heart of hearts what you're saying is true. When I walked off the Summit in November '17, I was one of the first 10 people off. I don't expect to be nearly as lucky on my upcoming trip on the Millennium next month. Self-disembarkation seems to have been a much more popular option on the other cruise lines I've tried, and it seems Celebrity is just catching up. P.S. 300+ people in line on the Summit! Why, I remember the good old days when there were barely 300 passengers on the ship! I'll always remember my September 2021 trip fondly.

I booked a last minute cruise in September 2021 that was 6 days before embarkation. It wasn't on Carnival though. I've booked some Carnival cruises after final payment. I think a month is about as last minute as I've done on CCL.

My trip on the Celebrity Summit in September 2021 was similar in some ways to what @Aquahounddescribed above, but in some ways different. Ovation OTS is a lot larger than the Summit (which holds 2200 at double occupancy), but we had even fewer passengers - only 320, which was 15% of capacity. I also thought the experience was mostly great, but sometimes wondered where all the people were. No lines, no crowds, and sometimes no other passengers in my line of sight - even in the busiest of places. I had an ocean view on deck 7. I don't think there were any limits on where I could have booked or stayed. I got the feeling there were very few people in OVs on this sailing; everyone else seemed to be in balconies or suites. Also, I booked this with exactly 6 days' notice - purchase on a Tuesday, embark on the next Monday. This was an ordinary revenue cruise from Miami, where the Summit had just relocated from St. Maarten. Not free, but inexpensive.

I'm disappointed and somewhat confused by these reports (but thanks for the TL,DRs). I got a consistent 3-6 Mbps up and down on the Majestic in April, which was good enough to stream TV shows and movies. Granted, this was a California coastal that only went as far south as Ensenada that sailed 70-ish percent full. But even given the many factors that obviously favored me on my cruise that have turned unsatisfactory on the cruises of others just a few months later... I struggle to understand what has happened.😵

Hi Brandon. Your understanding of the test requirements is correct. Masks are optional for all passengers on the ships and in all the ports you're going to visit. One gotcha you didn't mention is that if you're visiting Grand Turk, Tortola, or Cartagena, adult passengers who are unvaccinated will have to stay on the ship while in any of those ports. This stuff is subject to change with little or no notice, so it's wise to keep an eye on things. Enjoy your cruise.

I'm not optimistic. The tribute band shows and Carlos Oscar's performance on the Regal were all in the main theater and not crowded, despite only having one show per night. They only had one show per night because we had fewer than 1000 passengers. I expect you'll have far more than that on this sailing, and even though I expect there will be two shows per night, they should pack the theater every time.

At least one CC member and Celebrity cruiser was able to get Paxlovid onboard. This was in July. You can read their story in this thread:

I posted a summary in the roll call: I'll post an edited version here since I think it adds value. It will duplicate what others have said here: I am a veteran of one of the 80s themed cruises that sailed last year (Regal, November-December) and can add a few notes on my experience and what you can expect on this sailing. My sailing was 5 nights and not the 4 this one is scheduled for. More fun in less time! We had quite a few movies and some TV shows on the VOD section. We had "A Christmas Story" and "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation", but your cruise might be too far away from Xmas for them to show up. But the other big 80s Christmas movie, "Die Hard", seems like a lock. Enjoy! There were some people who dressed in various 80s costumes (but maybe they weren't costumes to them, just ordinary clothing?), but not many Our theme was announced less than two months before the cruise, so you guys have a big advantage We had a different Bon Jovi tribute act (Slippery When Wet) who impressed me even though I'm not a Bon Jovi fan at all Our other tribute band was Rich Girl, who did Hall & Oates. I thought they were great and I'm sad that they're not on any of these cruises. ☹️ DSB was on some of the 80s cruises last year, but not mine Trivia was a lot of fun. I won twice at 80s music trivia. There were other 80s-related trivia sessions that I didn't do so well at. There was a lot of 80s background music in the hallways, common areas, and before the shows We had Carlos Oscar on my cruise; he was good, well worth seeing I had so much fun on my cruise that I booked another 80s themed cruise. Not this one, of course (though it was under consideration), but the one on the Ruby in April leaving from Galveston. *************************** Could we get trip reports from those of you luck enough to be on this cruise? Pretty please? Thank you!

I've sailed on the Summit three times and am scheduled for another sailing next year. It's an older ship (about 20 years old) but extensively rehabbed and in very nice shape, IMHO. I've sailed on Princess twice, but never the Caribbean Princess. For a short 4 to 5 day trip, I don't think you can go wrong with either.

Here's a local news report about the Ecstasy's last voyage. It's about 2 1/2 minutes and well worth your time to watch, IMHO. There's going to be a party downtown near the port on Monday, with a brass band!

I think you left out the part about what happens to cause us older folks to stop cruising. Spoiler alert: 🤢💀👻😈 Not quite the same thing. Nobody shows the ridiculous and cheesy games on Princess on national TV. Though that time I did a sack dance AND a profanity-filled diatribe AND stuck an "L" on the forehead of Aunt Sally over there in the wheelchair when I beat her at Olivia Newton-John trivia WOULD have been interesting to see by the Jerry Springer crowd at least.* * - None of this stuff ever happened. Please don't flame me.

Maybe they'll sell or auction the decor to the passengers? Everything must go, right? 🤣

Thanks, everyone, for the discussion! Ecstasy's last cruise is just a few days away. Mr. Heald is still planning to see her off. Speaking of seeing her off, has anyone heard anything about the Ecstasy's future plans after this cruise? Has anyone bought her and plans to use her as a cruise ship somewhere far away? Or is her true last journey to Turkey or India to be scrapped?

Brand Ambassador John Heald revealed the new deli menu with one of today's posts:

This isn't as big a change (IMHO) as room service, but I'll submit it anyway, since I'm sure some of you are interested. As always, please don't kill the messengers (either of us):

Thanks for sharing. BTW, Cleveland, Ohio is one of his stock phrases. I have my doubts that those trophies are actually made there. How do you say "Cleveland" in Mandarin? Or what's the local equivalent? 😉

I got very lucky. I purchased 5 of the eMed tests and used all 5 before the rules changed. None of my upcoming cruises are expected to require providing test results to the cruise line before embarkation.

@txflood33 I like your avatar. 🙂 I also like your report and your reporting style. I'm sorry about your wife. It's always a double bummer to get hurt on vacation. I'm also sorry to hear that cases of you-know-what got high enough that the Captain had to take countermeasures. I'm looking forward to hearing about the rest of your trip, whenever you're ready to tell us.