tinaparrotthead

We have reservations at both Coral by the Sea and iberia Hotel. Never stayed at either....already had three hotels to cancel. Anyone have any experience with either of these "hotels" since the Hurricane? We are more than nervous because for Coral by the Sea, I am hearing bad things....iberia hotel had bad reviews before the hurricane. I have broken a rib in a silly accident and will have to cancel the cruise because obviously, I can't spend hours at the airport. Any information about these two would be greatly appreciated!

They do, but need to as they serve Coke products on the ship.

Im not sure what you were trying to say but I appreciate you answering :)

Its been quite a while since we cruised Celebrity. Going on the Equinox in June and with Royal you can bring cokes on board. Does Celebrity allow this?

Thanks in advance to all that answer!

We liked Portofino's menu much better! Never done G's but from a look at the menu, we didn't like anything on it!!

The beds are so bad! We now take floats and blow them up and ask our stateroom attendant to be sure and place them under the bottom sheet each night! Honestly, there is no way we would have a great vacation with no sleep. The attendant doesn't like it much but maybe if they complain RCCL will do something about it!!

I wish Royal Caribbean would do better than they do with the beds! I've sat on concrete that was more comfortable.

This looks like a very laid back, uncrowded beach. Do you know if they have chair rentals there? What what your experience at this beach? All responses very much appreciated!:)

That link has Very Old Pictures!!!!!!

I hope that is the case. We have been on the AOS 3 times and scheduled for 2 times this year. It has been since 2008 that we cruise on AOS so I hope these negative comments are just off base.....

What do you mean by enclosed vs regular?

We had Owner Suites on deck 10 several years ago and instead of the balcony being regular with the partial glass in between ours and our neighbor, the balconies were enclosed with the steel from the ship....does that make sense??

I have been on the AOS 3 times but its been a while and I am trying to remember if all D2 balconies have the enclosed balcony on deck 8 and 9 or just the regular balcony???

Please advise!! Picking out cabins and this is important to DH . Thank you to all that respond!

I wonder how many passengers on that British Airways flight now have influenza?

 

I think these questionnaires are intrusive and fatuous, and for everyone like yourself who answers honestly, there must be twenty who lie.

 

Those who cruise often know the draconian consequences of a wrong answer, as you have discovered, hopefully not to your cost!

 

When I fly into Taiwan, I am pulled to one side, presumably as a white man, and evidently a foreigner, and they point a kind of ray-gun at me which gives a temperature read-out.

 

I have noticed they have have a more sophisticated system at some airports with this Ebola scare, where everyone walking past the scanner has their temperature read. Coming soon to a cruise terminal near you!

A temp scanner is not intrusive from my perspective!! I hope you are right and they are "Coming soon to a cruise terminal near you!"

Please believe when I say I am very sorry you and your daughter missed your cruise. It is always a disappointment when our travel plans go awry.

 

But I'm sure you must also understand now that Ebola has begun to be a concern to us all, the cruiselines must take every precaution to keep passengers safe.

 

You stated that the next day in England your daughter was diagnosed with the Flu......which as you know is highly contagious. It would have been very bad for your fellow passengers....some of whom are elderly....to have been exposed to this virus.

 

While I know you are disappointed......you are to be commended for doing the right thing! I hope you are able to get things worked out with the cruiseline!

Ditto...everything you just said!

Thanks everyone! I will pass this along!

I had a good friend to ask me today "So, why do they call it a port-hole....don't they have them on Starboard too?"

It was funny but I thought, hey that's a good question. Wonder if anyone on CC knows the answer...... I mean did they only start out on port of a ship and then for whatever reason, go to Starboard side too?

I'm sure one of our maritime historians can tell us how that came about. ;)

The BOGO average price is currently $1,000 MORE PER PERSON than I paid 2 months ago (for a November 2014 cruise).

 

Oh yeah. D2. Navigator.

Tell my friend Robert Taggart (Hotel Director) Tinaparrotthead from Chattanooga said hello!!

:D

Can anyone tell me, from experience, how early you can board the Solstice out of Seattle on the Alaska itinerary?

Friends are doing their first cruise on the Solstice and have been told they cant board until 2 p.m. (I know they tell everyone that but we all know you can get on earlier) I just don't know how early.

All responses appreciated!!!

Happy Cruising!

Corner FVs are to die for IMHO. The older ships are going to show some wear and tear, no matter how much maintenance work is done on them. I have yet to be on an M class ship (in the past 5-7 years) that was in as good a shape as the newer S class ships. They really can't replace the curtains due to the design/size of the bathrooms. The ventilation in the bathrooms is just not as good as on S class ships so there will occasionally be stained grout no matter what they do. The FV cabins do get a lot of kids staying in them, so there is more wear and tear on the furniture. I am not saying this to be snarky, but if you are really very picky about the ship being in excellent shape, then I doubt any of the M class ships would be up to your standards. If you can accept a bit of wear and tear here and there, including in the bathrooms, then a corner FV is a wonderful room (other FVs are nice as well, but corners have a HUGE balcony). I love M class, but none of them can ever be new again so some flaws are inevitable. Kinda like me - I can dye my hair, fix my face, wear nice clothes, stay in shape (almost) but at the end of the day I can never look 30 years old again:)

Very well and respectfully stated Phoenix :)

The last time we cruised Celebrity Summit, a couple of years ago at least I think.....

The buffet was always closed during dinner/supper hours. They had an "alternative" resturant in a portion of the buffet but that was the only choice (other than pizza).

Can someone that has been on the Summit recently tell me if this has changed? Do they have the buffet open during dinner/supper hours??

Thank you much much to all that respond!!!!

Happy Cruising!!!!

After a little thought in how to make this thread more useful, I decided against collating all comments into a table. The thread is searchable and so finding a stateroom number is easy.

 

What is less easy is finding adjacent or nearby rooms where your exact room is not yet available.

 

My solution was to collate the staterooms vs ships and list the post numbers within this thread where the room report is found.

 

I think this adds the most value with least overhead and duplication of the information within the thread.

 

The file is attached, which I will maintain

 

 

 

 

Mark

THIS is AWESOME!!! Thanks for doing this it was much needed and easy to use!!

Jubilee was the ship that started it all for us. My DW and I took our first cruise on her, the date, September 13, 2001. That's right ladies and gentlemen, only 2 days after the 9/11 attacks.

 

My wife had received the cruise as a hiring bonus (those were the days!!!) from the University of Louisville Hospital. (We lived in our native Kentucky at that time). For one one reason or another (the biggest being the birth of our DD) we had postponed the cruise a few times, but the time came when we had to either take the cruise, or lose it. So we booked for 9/13/2001 on the Jubilee out of Tampa.

 

We were all set, kids going to grandparents, vacation time scheduled, airfare paid for, bags packed. We were going to fly in a day early and spend the day in Clearwater before boarding our ship.

 

On the 11th, I was in my office, pretending to work. Actually I was daydreaming about the upcoming vacation. My DW was preparing by getting a manicure and running last minute errands. She was in the nail salon, when the news broke about the first plane striking the World Trade Center. She immediately called me to tell me what had happened. I went to the office next door where there was a TV, just in time to see the second plane strike the other tower. I knew immediately that this was no accident.

 

I called DW back and told her to take the car, and have the oil changed, tires rotated and the belts and hoses checked. I was certain even at that point that flying to Tampa was not going to be an option.

 

Many friends and family expressed alarm and concern that we were still going on our cruise, given what had happened. I understood their fears, but told them all that I was not about to change my plans just because some sick, evil people were trying to make me afraid. That’s what they wanted, I felt that to change my plans would be another small victory for them.

 

So we set off, in the car, for Tampa. A mere 14 hours away. At this point, no one at Carnival could confirm for certain if the ship would actually sail as scheduled. We called every hour.

 

Needless to say, the ship did sail as scheduled. I was told by one of the crew (cruise director??) that even with the restrictions on airline travel, over 90% of those who were booked on that cruise actually showed up. The couple behind us in line at check-in had driven from New Jersey, and arrived in Tampa at 9:00 that morning.

 

The cruise itself was very good; we had a wonderful time, even though we missed our scheduled stop in Key West due to a Tropical Storm in the Gulf. (Our first and only missed port……so far). I was a bit concerned that the stress and worry about the tragic events that had just taken place would make the mood onboard a somber one, but that was far from the case. It did my heart good to see everyone enjoying themselves.

 

That cruise started our addiction, but our family vacations for the next several years consisted mainly of trips to WDW, which we also love. In 2004 we moved to the Alabama Gulf Coast, and in 2007 we started cruising again, that cruise was on Jubilee’s sister ship, the Holiday. We were joined by my MIL and FIL and we’ve been cruising as a group ever since.

 

My FIL and I will become Platnium cruisers on our next sailing, 3/24 Carnival Glory from Miami. DW and MIL have taken a couple of "girls cruises" and reached Platnium a few cruises ago.

 

Carnival has changed a lot since 2001, some changes good, some not so good, but the ting that keeps bringing us back (besides the fact that we just love being on the ocean and seeing new places) is the wonderful Carnival staff and crew. We have met so many wonderful crewmembers over the years, and have made many great memories.

Although I am not exactly a Carnival fan; I have to say that your post was very emotional, well written, and stated so many of the reasons why I love cruising and why the people in this country cannot be scared away by some, as you so well put it, evil people....thanks for writing this, I enjoyed reading it!!!

I don't have a tag right now so I will hope someone responds to your question....I do hate those paper tags and your holder, if it fits, will be just the perfect thing....

Anyone got a tag they can measure???

We love Royal, have been on Celebrity Millie and Celebrity Summit....The food and service on Millie was the best we have ever experienced but the food and service on the Summit was NO different, in any way than on the Royal ships we've been on.

ENTERTAINMENT - For us entertainment was where the biggest difference was. If you love Jazz, and Big Band music you will love the entertainment on Celebrity. That is all they had outside the one band at the pool deck. We got so board and irritated because there wasnt much going on in the evening outside of the big theatre. We were board.

If you want things to do, music to listen to, and the ship not to basically shut down after 10:00, then don't go on Celebrity. Our first cruise on the Millie, my daughter called and wanted to know how it was....my DH responded jokingly and said, well, the ship paper says there will be a metimucel (sp?) shooters contest scheduled.....that pretty much said all she needed to know about the demographic of the ship..... :)

Hi,:) I am seriously thinking about booking my first HAL cruise on the Zuiderdam in Sept. Have any of you sailed her? Would you give me some input on her? From reading all your replies, I think I would be making a good choice. Sounds like a lot of good food:D

 

After 3 Celebrity cruises...I was going on my 4th one in Sept but due to unforseen circumstances had to cancel.

For those of you who have cruised both lines, do you think I will be pleased with the HAL experience?

I am 46, divorced and I sail solo...shy has never been part of my personality:) ;) And I LOVE to cruise!

Looks like you sailed the Zuiderdam in Sept. 04 ???