Stem to Stern

I can see your point if MDR menu is not an option in E-class Luminae. On Summit we ordered from all three menus including Blu. I would try the corn soup since Abby raved about it on Beyond last week. The short rib and coconut dessert sound promising. i wonder what the theme was in OVC tonight?😅

Last month on board Silhouette the countertop in The Hideaway was completely cleared. No coffee machine. No coffee. Disappointing to say the least.

How was the noise level around the ship? Any favorite quiet hangouts?

So if I am keeping up with you, Italian day in the Oceanview Cafe was on the second to last sea day? Appreciating all of your detailed reporting and making extensive notes.

You certainly have a knack for a thoroughly written, truly live review. This must not be your first rodeo. 😉 Enjoying every word and pic so far.👍

OMG there are only 3 spots left!🤣🤣🤣

Lovely video. For kicks and grins I may need to waste some time researching this Coco Cay cabana experience not that I would ever spring for it.🤣 What did you cough up for it? What was and was not included? How was the food in the two bento boxes that you posted pics of? Was that a price list on the door of the mini fridge?😏 How many others could you invite to join you? I am glad you enjoyed it and it was quiet. Thanks for you posts.👍

Quirky stateroom, but I thought there are four of these on Reflection? On Silhouette these have been rebranded as Horizon Suites in The Retreat. Celebrity placed a very proud starting bid on them during the MoveUp process on our last cruise. The video made me think how appropriate this would be for that unfortunate situation when someone’s darling spouse is sawing logs and gets kicked out of bed. At least rather than moving to the “sofa” in the middle of the night they can retreat to a real bed in the “child’s” bedroom.🤣🤣🤣

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!😁

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

I enjoy their Ginger Beer.

Thank you, sir.

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?🤣