Trixie21

We would be very interested in a winter deployment from Southampton by Royal. Canaries and Madeira would be ideal. Even if they based Anthem in Barcelona or similar its only a short flight away. With the increasing demand for cruising generally (I cannot tell you how many people I have talked to who have their first ever cruise booked , or have just been on their first cruise and have the next already booked) I do not see why their should not be the demand year round for Royal in Europe.

Thanks everyone - useful information. Dietary issues sound like they are handled pretty much the same as Royal so that's reassuring. Good tip about downloading the celebrity app to see menus - I didn't think of that and I don't know why because I do it for our sailings on Royal. And we usually share a WiFi package so would do the same on Silhouette. There is a good price on the cruise we want at present but the sale ends soon and my wife has an additional medical requirement which I need ananswer to before booking so I cannot book without hearing back from them. I have emailed the medical needs department. Celebrity is actually cheaper than Royal for this cruise to Iceland at present and sails from Southampton which is what we need.

We are just about to book our first Celebrity cruise on Silhouette from Southampton- we are from the UK . We have a couple of questions. 1 - how much is the WiFi generally? We are thinking of booking the cruise only package as we don't drink much and there is a generous amount of OBC. We would want to have access to basic WiFi. I assume drinks would be a similar price to Royal. 2 - we are diamond on Royal. With the status match on celebrity what benefits do we get? 3 - My wife requires a gluten free diet - Royal are good with this generally and i would assume celebrity are equally good if not better? How is the buffet on Silhouette? I presume the chefs even in the buffet will walk you round and point out the gluten free options or prepare something to order if necessary? 4 - could anyone post a link to current silhouette MDR menus ? Thank you!

We are from the UK and looking at a possible Ireland and Scotland cruise on Regal Princess in May 2023 (round-trip Southampton). My wife is celiac and may have to travel with fluids which she will administer herself. This would be our first time on Princess (previously sailed Royal Caribbean) and we have chosen this as a possible option due to it being UK round-trip and predominantly UK ports due to my wife's condition . How do Princess cope with dietary needs such as Celiac (she has other dietary restrictions as well ) and is travelling with fluids (we may need an actual fridge to store them in ) even an option ? We have a lot of questions which need answered before we even think of booking and I will get my travel agent to contact Princess to try to get answers , but it would be great if someone had first hand experience to share! The price looks really good with free drinks etc included and Regal looks like a great ship. Does anyone have links to current Princess MDR menus ? Thanks all!

Did she try requesting gluten free gravy? And did she try pre ordering gluten free meals in the MDR then night before ? My wife is celiac and used to actually like the gravy.

My wife is celiac and has various other high residue foods which she cannot digest. On previous cruises the head waiter (or sometimes our regular waiter) would bring round the next nights menu so she could choose something and have it modified to suit. Occasionally there would be nothing on the menu she wanted and would just order something else totally off menu which they were always happy to make for her. Can anyone WITH A DIETARY ISSUE confirm that with the new menu regime it is still possible to do this ? My wife has such a restricted diet that I know for sure looking at the new menus there will be nights when she will have to try to order something entirely separate. If this is now not possible it will unfortunately be cancel all remaining cruises time because I refuse to spend all that money and not be able to get my wife something to eat in the MDR. And I know we could go to the windjammer but we could well encounter the same problem. The MDR has always been fantastic in the past at accommodating us.

So I went back into the app to take a screenshot of the kids menu and it is not what I previously saw. It is indeed hamburger etc. When I looked at it yesterday it said minute steak , grilled chicken breast etc - maybe a mistake and they have rectified it now? How and ever , I will be happy with the new menus , I think - if there is too much dissatisfaction with lack of classics I assume they will tweak it as they go along. I personally never ordered from the classics menu , though I appreciate many probably did on a regular basis.

Just the very point i was making a few posts ago. Chicken and steak are also on the kids menu every day so essentially those classics are retained, and in combination with a number of new dishes introduced I think(assuming the quality is good and consistent ) they have done a good job with these menus. I looked at the MDR menus for another cruise line I was contemplating booking and the menus were boring to say the least . Basically the exact same menu each night with only one or 2 dishes changing. Kind of put me off.

I am also really looking forward to trying them - I suspect there are many more people tha you realise looking forward to a this refresh of the menus.

I know a lot of people are concerned about the lack of classics on the new menus. I had a look at the 7th January Wonder sailing on the app which seems to have the new menus (which incidentally from a personal point of view imreally like the look of - a number of new dishes and to me a nice variety each night). The kids menus displayed for each night always have grilled chicken breast , steak and spaghetti bolognese. Is there anything to prevent an adult guest ordering off the kids menus and asking for a bigger or extra portions? If not then those particular "classics" are available every night, I also so warm apple pie and ice cream on the kids menu desserts each night I think. Food for thought?

Thanks for all your replies. - I have not investigated insurance yet , but am aware that could be an issue as our insurance was already high due to my wife's existing condition , and that was before it took a turn for the worse. -I intend to contact P&O to talk about the feasibility of this. It would have been great to find someone who had actually done it as there is no better advice than first hand. Is there a specific email address for their special needs department ? -Before we would even attempt a cruise we intend to take a short holiday in the UK just to get a feel for what we need to think about etc. - And yes there will need to be a period of stability regarding her health before any holidays are likely to occur. Its just important for her to have something to look forward to and to know that life isn't completely pointless any longer , which is why I am just checking out the feasibility of cruising at this point - As we understand it she or I can be trained to do all that is needed regarding hooking up and unhooking the feed bags so medical on the ship would not be needed other than to store the bags. Lots to think about and thanks for the input so far!

Has anyone any experience of cruising on Royal while on TPN (Total Parental Nutrician) - is it even possible ? Looking like my wife may have to be on this long term and she doesn't want to give up our cruises! We are from the UK so I am guessing that cruising from Southampton would be a much easier option logisticaly ? Any relevant comments much appreciated as we are totally new to this.

Wondered if anyone has had any experience of cruising on P&O while on TPN (Total Parental Nutrition - being fed solely through an IV line ). Or would have any relevant knowledge /comments ? Looks like my wife may have to be in this long term and she was not happy about giving up our cruising lol! We haven't been on P&O yet but were thinking of booking and because of the range of cruises from Southampton it would be an even more attractive option to us now. The bags of feed would need to be stored in an actual fridge somewhere - its 1 bag per day . Any input would be greatly appreciated.

Some really good information there and a couple of items such as removing the upgrade option which I had no clue about so thanks again! We will likely book select fare as I like to know exactly where my cabin is. Belfast doesn't seem to be an option for flights to any destination until May , which I kind of understand as they are moving into peak season then and would be more able to fill them. Birmingham is actually a good option for us as there are 3 flights per day from BFS and they are quite cheap and also I am very familiar with Birmingham Airport. OBC with select fare on the itineraries I am looking at seems to be £80 at the moment which seems to be "normal" level. We will likely not book until mid January as there are a few health issues on my wife's part which need resolved in the next few weeks. Anyone know by the way if they do gluten free pizza on board ?

Yep my thoughts exactly. They could do so much with a brand new class of ship that size. Get it just right and they could build 6 or 7 of them to completely replace the aging part of the fleet. We really appreciate what the smaller ships have to offer these days (maybe we r just getting old?) But do sometimes miss some of the features and glamour of the new ships. Range of dining venues as you mentioned is one of those things we miss. The name mentioned "project discovery" also kind of fits as the smaller ships can go to smaller often more interesting ports which cannot accommodate the mega ships. RC in my opinion needs to do this to retain the range of itineraries and current passenger base.

Thanks everyone for all the help. I'm going to ask another question regarding dining- how does MDR work on Azura? I see something called freedom dining - would this be similar to my time dining on Royal where theoretically you can go when you want, but may have to wait? Do they also have set dining where you eat at the same time every evening and you have the same table each night ?

A passenger at captains corner said they were told Royal were currently working on a new class of ship sized between radiance and voyager class - they said it was called project discovery . Those ships will need replaced in the next few years so this sounds quite plausible to me. So many ports where only smaller ships can get into.

We will try Icon in a couple of years time. No one can really say what the experience for couples without kids (we are in that category) on Icon is like until she has done a few sailings .I know it is a ship primarily aimed at families but we have never not been able to find a quiet spot somewhere to relax on any ship at any time . Families can add to the atmosphere in our opinion and we are more than happy to relax on our balcony if it gets to busy. Just saying we all need to wait and see what happens ! Icon does look absolutely amazing , by the way.

We are a couple in our 50's looking at booking our first cruise on Marella. My wife is Celiac and also must have a low residue diet with very easily digested soft foods. How good are Marella at dealing with dietary needs such as this? Me normally cruise a couple of times a year with Royal Caribbean and they are very good with this type of thing. We are keen to try Marella , but this would be a deal breaker if they could not adequately deal with this type of requirement.

Hi all! We are a couple in our 50's from Northern Ireland and cruise regularly (couple of times a year) on Royal Caribbean. We were looking for a sunshine break in February/March without too long a flight and I came across the P&O canary island itineraries which sail from Tenerife and avoid the journey down through the bay of biscay at this time of year. Royal ships don't come to Europe until April/May. I have a couple of questions maybe some kind people can help with which help us to decide whether to pull the trigger and book. - Flights are included which we are not used to. It says London airports when I go through the booking process - which London airport is it they use because we will have to get flights from NI to get there? - You can choose select or saver fare - i can see the differences listed so am clear about that - just curious what most people choose? I normally choose to pay more so I can select my own cabin on Royal - always try to get a cabin between passenger decks to avoid noise. Are there any cabins/decks to avoid on Azura which wouldn't be obvious to me just looking at deckplans? - Tell me the good and bad about Azura. We have sailed both the Oasis/quantum class ships right down to vision class on Royal and enjoy both for different reasons so we have no issues with Azura being an older, smaller shipmwhixh i know she is. - Most important question is about food. I will be fine as I can always find something to eat but my wife is Celiac and picky as well and also just out of hospital and will have to be on a low residue diet also. Are the chefs/waiters good at dealing with specific dietary requests and adapting dishes to suit or making off menu items ? We would normally do MDR for dinner and buffet for breakgast/lunch , although would sometimes do MDR for those also. How do I let them know about these requirements in advance ? I'm quite keen to try another cruise line just for a change if nothing else so all input is appreciated , even things you think I should know about which I haven't asked !

Just how fully booked is Icon after just 1 week? I have looked at crown loft suites on 5 different sailings across 2024 and into 2025 and all are showing just 1 left? And they are an extortionate price as well. If Royal are able to command prices like that for Icon class and maintain them they will soon pay of their debt lol

When we were on Anthem last year , and any other Royal ship we have been on recently the soft serve ice cream has been gluten free. Also the fries on Anthem in the windjammer were always gluten free with their own dedicated fryer. Same for Odyssey and Jewel , the 2 ships we have been on this year.

OK so thats a problem for us! My routine is to get up around 6am , go down and get my coffee then sit in the balcony for a couple of hours watching the world go by while my wife wakes up!

Can I ask what you don't like about the IV's? We are waiting to book Icon for January 2024 and I am interested to try an Infinite veranda to see how I feel about it. I would be surprised it they were all of that type. Are the majority on Edge class infinite?

Thank you. We would likely book in advance - currently only showing 10 beach beds total as available in the cruise planner , and South Beach beds have been sold out long ago.