paulh84

Probably not a big deal at all. A high tannin wine like a cab will be perfectly fine for a few days even if it's just recorked at room temp. Or just finish the bottle.

If you’re that particular about wines you have to cough up the $$$ for bottles.

Why Fort Lauderdale over Miami? FLL hotels in general are not great at all. Budget? All of the places mentioned so far are classic entry/mid level tourist traps. Are you trying to avoid that? You need hotel status or pay for a guaranteed late checkout. There's really no way around that. If you were already in Miami it would make more sense to pay for a late checkout since you would avoid the commute time on departure day, giving you more time at the hotel.

Why would you not try something else? You don't need to have a dramatic breakup. Just try other options. There are plenty of them. Taking essentially the same trip 20/30/40 times seems pretty redundant and boring to me. Variety is nice. Cruise loyalty status is 100% not worth chasing. It's not like an airline where you have potential to get a comp $5k-$10k upgrade. The CC status you see mentioned here are for bragging rights, if that type of thing impresses you. I'm personally not spending tens of thousands of dollars with one cruise line to get a free bag of laundry and a croissant in an 'exclusive venue'.

🤔 In the three videos I posted above there is a cocktail table at literally every singe seat.

That's the inherent nature of loyalty programs whether it's a cruise line, hotel or airline. The customer base grows to a point where it's either too expensive or ineffective to maintain loyalty perks at the initial level offered. Try getting an upgrade on Delta or American. United just did a massive devaluation this week. Hilton did a significant devaluation this spring. When you have a giant - and growing - population of people who believe they are the 'best customers' you can't please everyone all the time.

For your first time in the Retreat I would stick to Luminae and use the Blu option if you want a more casual change of scenery. I would pass on the MDRs all together. You could make a specialty reservation ahead of time for later in the cruise then cancel it if you were happy with your other two options.

I can't think of a single industry that has lowered prices and simultaneously improved their product since ~2019. I don't want to pay more for groceries, or insurance, or travel, or cars, or houses but here we are. For you something may not be 'at the best price' but for others it is. That's the great thing about options. For me? A price premium is worth it to not have 2,000 kids and parents who refer to them as Littles.

Outside of meal times regular drip coffee can be hard to find. The stuff at the buffet can be pretty tough to get down after sitting in the carafes for so long. You can get an Americano (double shot of espresso + hot water...that's all) anywhere that has an espresso machine but if drip coffee is your go-to you may not like it.

It's often hard to tell if some of the complaints and criticism here lately are real or an attempt at humor. There is not a lot of useful content posted anymore. Celebrity is fully aware changes have been made. That was not done by mistake. There is no need to waste time by throwing someone under the bus to one by one address the same 10 people posting the same complaints over and over again.

Those times are standard for Celebrity’s seven night eastern Caribbean routes. Saint Thomas to Puerto Plata is around 340nm. No time to spare without arriving very late into Puerto Plata. There is far more to do in the evening hours in San Juan than any of the other ports.

That didn’t have anything to do with differing travel agents. You’ve never been able to book all of your reservations in advance if you have a dining package. Pretty easy to do once you board.

I’m failing to see the correlation between opening early and encouraging people to wait in line. People wait in line to get tender tickets, for shows, for walk offs, for meals, etc. You wanted to be first in line at 5:30 to get your coveted window seat and other people beat you to it. Had you been the one in front of the line, there would be no complaint. You’re on a ship with thousands of people. Not everyone can get the prime spots.

First thing on the agenda for me concerning family group trips is to figure out how to avoid going. If that isn’t feasible… A Royal Caribbean smaller ship like Freedom Class may be a better choice. If the kid activities like slides are a requirement then Celebrity is not an option. MSC, RCL and NCL are your primarily contenders. Budget and itinerary preference need to be established first to make any kind of reasonable list of options.

PASSENGER IS FURTHER DIRECTED TO PAY CLOSE ATTENTION TO SECTION 4 AND THE INFORMATION AVAILABLE AT WWW.CELEBRITYCRUISES.COM WHICH CONTAIN IMPORTANT TERMS, CONDITIONS, POLICIES, PROCEDURES AND REQUIREMENTS RELATED TO COVID-19. e. Passenger Testing Positive for COVID-19 Pre-Cruise. Passenger agrees that if at any time within five (5) days prior to embarkation, Passenger tests positive for COVID-19, exhibits signs or symptoms of COVID-19 or has had close contact with a person confirmed or suspected as having COVID-19, or Carrier otherwise determines in its sole discretion that Passenger is unfit to board because of any communicable illness, Carrier may deny boarding to such Passenger. Unless Carrier determines that Passenger has failed to comply with Carrier’s COVID-19 Policies and Procedures or this Ticket Contract, any Passenger denied boarding under these circumstances will be entitled to either a refund or a future cruise credit equal in value to the Cruise Fare Passenger paid to Carrier, as provided in Carrier’s COVID-19 refund and cancellation policy. Carrier, in its sole discretion, may require Passenger to provide verification satisfactory to Carrier of Passenger’s positive test result if the test was administered by a provider other than those retained by Carrier. If Passenger seeks to cancel their cruise booking due to testing positive for COVID-19, please refer to Carrier’s COVID-19 refund and cancellation policy at www.celebritycruises.com. Under no circumstances shall Carrier have any other liability for any compensation or other damages whatsoever, including but not limited to compensation for lodging or travel. f. Passenger Testing Positive for COVID-19 During Cruise. Passenger understands and agrees that if, after boarding, and even if Passenger has fully complied with all COVID-19 Policies and Procedures, Passenger tests positive for COVID-19 or exhibits signs or symptoms of COVID-19, Carrier may disembark, refuse re-boarding after a shore excursion, or quarantine Passenger as well as members of Passenger’s travelling party, or take other steps which Carrier determines, in its sole discretion, are necessary under the circumstances to protect the health and well-being of others. Under these circumstances, any such Passenger with a known or suspected case of infection with COVID-19 who is disembarked, refused re-boarding, or quarantined shall be entitled to either a prorated refund, or a future cruise credit for the unused portion of the Cruise Fare, as provided in Carrier’s COVID-19 refund and cancellation policy. For further details, refer to Carrier’s COVID-19 refund and cancellation policy at www.celebritycruises.com. Each such Passenger is responsible for all other related costs and fines, including without limitation travel expenses. Under no circumstances shall Carrier be liable to any such Passenger for any costs, damages or expenses whatsoever incurred by any Passenger.

You have confused middle management tasks with a CEO. If I had a board seat and the CEO was concerned about butter and bingo, we would need to have a discussion about priorities.

I have not seen it in person but this is the only space a court of any size would fit. I would assume they need to move some of the seating while the court is setup. Really poor use of space in what is typically a well used area. Remove bocce, remove basketball, but put a pickle ball court right in the middle of a seating area that is called a garden? Strange.

Yes. Really dumb concept IMO. I know pickle ball is all the rage in some communities but this is just nonsense to use that much space for 4 people at a time.

Corporations just don't function like that. Especially when it's something as expensive and unique as a cruise ship that has years and years of planning involved. That's the hard balancing part right now for all lines. They can't sit stagnant and not look at the future but growth has to be tempered. RCG still has almost $10 billion across 11 ships on order.

All signs points to suites across the fleet selling at nearly full capacity. I would expect to see prices pushed to a point where it starts to impact the willingness to pay. At minimum, determine the price to make it a tougher decision if it's worth it to pay a high upgrade price in an unknown cabin or just book the suite from the get-to and take advantage of the OBC, WiFi and drinks. The difficulty would be that Caribbean vs. European cruises may have very different price ceilings.

But aren’t the “underutilized” areas complete and utter failures? Isn’t that what was established a few pages back?

Where did you source all of these facts you have?

Yes you do. Retaining a CEO in an advisory role is perfectly normal. Del Rio is doing it. Donald Arnold is doing it. Roberto Martinoli is still on as a senior advisor at Silversea since Barbara Muckermann took over in January. Richard Fain is still doing it in some capacity as the RCG board chair. Michael Bayley also isn’t on the RCG board so there is nothing to surmise from that.