Stem to Stern

Belated Bon voyage!  Happy Anniversary!  Enjoy your B2B cruises!  Following along.🚢⚓️😉

Belated bon voyage!

Last time we were in Blu was on Summit in 2022.  I don’t recall anything repulsive about the food, but I do remember it being an absolutely packed madhouse.  The tables were entirely too close together and the aisle ways were barely wide enough for the waitpersons to navigate.  Fortunately on the second night and every night thereafter we were seated all the way to the rear of the restaurant in a row of four two-tops against the back wall which was really more like a communal eight-top, but it was fine.  At least our neighbors spoke to us unlike the first night.  Luminae seating is much more pleasantly spread out.

I am looking forward to reading about your plans on Bimini in the unlikely event that we ever end up there again.

When is your Emerald cruise?  I am very interested in following a live report on that, so I do hope you are able to do one.  Their ships (or do they call them yachts?) are flipping gorgeous, but gosh what if you end up with a huge group like a family reunion or God knows what?!?  Just had a friend tell me about his similar Seadream nightmare.  Definitely could be an on board vibe changer.

I think I read that Ocean Cay is back open.  Yay!🤪

Thanks for reporting.  Enjoy your weekend!😁

40 minutes ago, Mackdogmolly said:

Did you book through a TA? 

Yes.  I always book with a TA.

Three days ago, I emailed Loyalty asking about our four complimentary nights that recently passed the twelve-month mark for redemption.  I received a nearly immediate reply indicating that Azamara would absolutely honor our complimentary nights. Today our travel agent emailed our revised invoice for our recent booking which reflected the discount for the complimentary nights along with all other original discounts.  Not too shabby.  Thank you Azamara and @uktog for encouraging Azamara Circle Members to raise their concerns.

I have not been since 2017, but at the time other than Margaritaville, the island was largely unspoiled and occupied by a few roaming donkeys, horses, a few locals, and gorgeous azure and turquoise water.  Enjoy!

17 minutes ago, zitsky said:

I’ll look at this.  Where did you get this information?  A website?  Is this a spreadsheet you created?

Thanks.

This is from an online agency’s website, but the rules here permit me from identifying it.  I forgot to mention that I am not sure how comprehensive their search engine is, but it’s a start.  I no longer book through them, but I love some of their search features.

I would imagine there are cruise lines that have not yet released their 2026 and beyond itineraries.  So, more itinerary options may arise.

I will echo what has been said here previously that it can be most fortuitous to book as soon as itineraries are released or as far into the distant future as possible.  The comments about Cruise Only fares allowing for lower insurance rates and cancel-ability and rebook-ability of cruise planner items are very on point.

I usually start with a basic search and narrow my parameters if the results are too numerous.  I did a search of cruises from November 2025 and beyond embarking anywhere in Japan.  They are listed in accending price order in the pic below.  I hope the text in the pic is readable.

It looks like it is going to be Celebrity, Princess, Holland America, or Azamara.  Unless you look at stratospherically priced 6-star lines toward the bottom of the list.  I am not yet familiar with Princess or Holland America, but I know they both have many loyalists.  For me it might come down to itinerary.  
 

Azamara offers an intimate, 700-passenger, small ship experience with included basic-level drinks and tips.  I have just made our second booking with Azamara.  They are recently under new leadership headed up by an industry-seasoned, customer-focused CEO.

On 5/21/2024 at 7:53 PM, zitsky said:

Looking at a future Japan cruise

Are you married to a specific sailing?  Maybe there is an identical itinerary on a different date that is pricing out less expensive.  Or maybe another cruise line is offering something similar.  On a recent European consideration, I decided Celebrity’s itinerary was too expensive so I took a few deep breaths and finally went with a somewhat similar itinerary on another cruise line.

Are you shopping your preferred itinerary around to different travel agencies?  On three of my six most recent bookings, I have found very competitive group pricing that includes the Classic alcohol package, basic WiFi, and refundable deposit for thousands less than Celebrity’s direct pricing.  On two of them the travel agent included some on board credit.

I am so sick and tired of all of Celebrity’s attempted money grabs including the all-included and refundable deposit schemes.  
 

The couple of future cruises we have booked as Cruise Only will be firsts for us.  If we do not end up booking the packages in the cruise planner pre-cruise, then these will be explorations of our levels of boozing and net surfing.  And the ideas of how much restraint we can exercise while on vacation and how much we can put our Elite benes to better use.  But we suspect the money saved will outweigh the convenience of all-included.  It should not dampen the vacation mood either.

Our cruise line and agent loyalty have evolved into everything coming down to price and value for our money.  Over the years we have cruised on six different lines.  We are intensively researching alternative cruise lines and itineraries more than ever.  Our current bookings are with three different travel agents.  They are all aware that they are competing for our business.  And we won’t cap the roster at three.

I checked the Inside Access tour I recently booked for our upcoming Beyond sailing only to discover that Celebrity jacked up the price of the tour to put in on "sale" for 30% off which equates to exactly what I had already purchased it for.  Not impressed.

On 5/16/2024 at 12:54 PM, mac_tlc said:

 

On my 4/9/2023 Beyond cruise, I chimed in on a thread started by @GenerationX. That one was fun…..

Hmmm.  Maybe @GenerationX will join us on Silhouette in 2026???  That would be gleeful!!  Tim and I had the pleasure of sailing with the delightful Mrs Tiki on our last cruise.  I am all caught up on your previous live threads now.  Thank you!! 🙏 👍

Inside cabin looks huge!

Looking forward to your Eden report.

I don’t want to miss out on ordering all of the can’t miss items there when we try it for the first time on our next cruise.

5:06pm here in.FL.

On 5/15/2024 at 12:37 PM, tgg said:

I contacted Wadadli Cats and chartered one of their 58 passenger cats for the 12 of us for 4 or 5 hours. It cost each couple $200.

 

We sailed, we snorkeled, we had drinks and food, the music was background rather than blaring, and we had plenty of room to spread out.

Excellent info.

Was the food and drink included?

Which beach(es) did they take you to?

We did the lobster lunch sailing with Mystic.

But it was an Az excursion along with 40+ other people.

So, we were able to burn some on board credit.

This sounds so much more amazing!

And a bargain to boot.

On 5/14/2024 at 3:58 PM, Host Jazzbeau said:

Fevertree

I enjoy their Ginger Beer.

Thank you, sir.

On 2/17/2024 at 3:02 PM, mac_tlc said:

my last review

Sorry to bump this, but I refound it while exercising my search agility.

I am rereading through a few Beyond reviews in preparation for our first sailing on her.

Would it be possible for you to share the link(s) to your previous Edge-class reviews.

Thank you kindly.

PS:  Looking forward (Less than 23 months!!  He he he.) to meeting you and Mrs. C on our upcoming sailing together.

They really should.  But probably not a smart business decision to do so.  One of the weddings had about a hundred or so in attendance.  They all literally took over the martini bar every evening. Fortunately this was one of Celebrity’s website pricing boo-boos, so I am not going to hold a huge grudge.  I will just declare myself DoNE with 4-nighters.  There is a higher likelihood of these raucous groups on board for these short sailings.  Although Beyond will be an 8-nighter, if it is rowdy like that I may find myself spending plenty of time on my SV.  Maybe I am about ready for a return to Azamara or a new line like (gasp) Viking.  Maybe I will love E-class.  If so, I have a refundable deposit booking on Xcel I can carry on with.  If not, I shall cancel and carry on with my M- and S-class bookings.  One of which is a Mardi Gras cruise.  Will I never learn?🤣

1 hour ago, 39august said:

The ship was loud over all and very dark in some areas such as  WCB. Craft Social is ridiculously small for such a large ship. A lot of areas encouraged use of stairs. Those at the Martini Bar seemed dangerous. And speaking of dangerous, who in the heck thought that dark maze approach to Eden was a good idea?!

Despite my reservations we will be giving this one a try later this year.  First Edge-class for us, so it will be new and exciting nevertheless.  
 

I am not big on loud ships.  I learned this quickly the hard way sailing last month unintentionally with hundreds of Tampa Bay Bucs fans and bridal party revelers on board Silhouette.  Give me Cellar Masters on board a Millennium-class vessel any day.

Your comment about the death maze to Eden left me wondering if there is not another alternate route into this venue?  Possibly from another deck or from the exterior deck?  Will avoid serious injury at all costs.

No issue here unless you consider only receiving two emails yesterday instead of the typical three.😂  

One of them was the flash sale associated with National Beverage Day.  As stated above none of the discounts suited any of my needs, wants, or desires.

1 hour ago, ChucktownSteve said:

I go to guest relations to get my refundable in cash

Quick question:  At what point in time during the cruise is it best to do this?

25 minutes ago, 20165 said:

We had a really bad experience with MSC last year, albeit not in the yacht club, but my wife swore we would never spend another dime with that line...

We are leaning toward the Summit especially after reading your post, thank you.  We did enjoy silhouette a lot and we werent even in the retreat.

thanks

 

I love Summit even if not booked in The Retreat.  Cellar Masters is a nice, quiet bar where a strings duo might be playing.  It is a nice departure from the noisy Martini Bar.  Of course you will have The Retreat Lounge as a refuge.  But Summit should not be nearly as lively as Silhouette.  And that is a good thing.  
 

If there is an officers’ soirée in The Retreat Lounge, be sure to catch that.  The couple times I visited The Retreat Sundeck it was mostly deserted.  No crowds to fight there.  But in December the weather wasn’t the balmiest.  Luminae was not overly crowded either.

I am sorry to read about your unfortunate experience with MSC Cruises.  We saw a few sxxt shows starting on embarkation day in the terminal with the Gen Pop boarding (or should I saw herding or corralling?) cattle call.  We were fortunate enough to skip that line among others.  

Fortunately I used our long-time travel agent for the booking.  She speaks MSC and knows how to navigate through MSC’s cow pen.  It also helped that I did my fair share of research on the front end.  We experienced hardly any snafus during the seven days on board Seascape.  The Yacht Club spaces and layout are very nice.  We were showered with gifts and treats.  

However, you will experience far better food and a higher level of service in The Retreat on board Summit.

Enjoy!!

15 minutes ago, cruzzzinma said:

Here is the link to Stem to Stern’s review and comparison:

 

 

Sorry for the hijack, but could you please enlighten me on how one shares a link to another thread on Cruise Critic?  Thank you!

57 minutes ago, 20165 said:

LIVE SIDE-BY-SIDE Celebrity Summit Retreat & Seascape Yacht Club 12/9-21/2023 ~ 1st MSC vs Farewell (?) X Suite Experience

Not sure how to share the link.😐

53 minutes ago, 20165 said:

However, we have also been on NCL in the haven and it was wonderful.  We rarely left the area, but it had a pool and jacuzzies which i dont think exist in the retreat, at least not on Summit.  Please tell me im wrong about that, but i didnt see any in the pics, just a sitting area, bar and snack area.

Have you ever considered MSC Yacht Club?  It is more aligned with what The Haven sounds like.  We could have stayed in the Yacht Club all seven days and remained content.

The Retreat on board Summit is not a self-contained enclave.  It does have one jacuzzi, but it can be windy up there.

Luminae is wonderful.  And nosh options in between meals in The Retreat Lounge are impressive.  Summit has been beautifully updated.  The lower passenger count is a plus.  We are rebooked on Summit for next year.

i would share a link to my Live, but I am not sure how.