Mr Miserable

Celebrity will sell as much as they can at those pretty steep prices and then give away the rest to TAs and the like.

Can you imagine what it is like as a fare paying guest to be surrounded by TAs on a freebie?

We were in that position once.  The TAs were given priority on everything.  

Apart from the fact that the ship will probably be still full of tradesmen finsihing off bits and pieces ie lots of places will be roped off or not yet working.

Fill your boots....

I guess you are from the UK (£200 OBC).  There are some advantages for booking onboard - generally low deposits that can be shifted without penalty and the onboard credit offered as an incentive may (not always) be higher.  You have much better choice of cabin onboard than you can get with a travel agent.  I have seen whole blocks of cabins that aren't available to buy online or through a travel agent that are available to book onboard.  You can get some very good prices but these tend to be for bookings out of season, years ahead.  As always it pays to do your homework beforehand, know what you want to buy and how much you can get it for elsewhere.  At the end of the day however I think overall it's better to book onboard. 

39 minutes ago, bhughey said:

during happy hour

What's a happy hour?

Trouble is the "Dept of stupid ideas" is now going to ruin the Solstice class ships with their Edgeification.

Leave the Solstice class ships alone - they are a winning formula and remember they made enough money for you to blow it all on Edge 

Oh please make the Apex better.

Whoever thought "infinite verandah" cabins were a good idea needs to be fired. 

Whoever put that carpet design in Eden needs to be fired.

Whoever designed the layout of Blu needs to be fired.

Whoever thought that removing the peg from the cabins needs to be fired.

Whoever didn't increase the drain size of the AQ cabins to allow for the extra water from the AQ showers needs to be fired.

Whoever came up with the Magic Carpet idea needs to be fired.

Whoever thinks that the cabanas are well sited needs to be fired.

Whoever signed off on all the above needs to be fired - that'll be you Lisa, bye bye.

By the way, I could go on as the list of what is wrong with the Edge is long but I suspect we would run out of staff to fire.

Quite frankly the loyalty rewards are peanuts. Introduce another level above Elite+  and what, get 30% off a souvenir.  Really?

Not worth pushing for - I'd prefer the existing levels get better rewards.

How about Elite + (& Zenith) getting elevator priority cards?

Never mind the environment - it's really hard to remove from my pants.  

We have done a couple of cruises that started in San Juan - they are a lively crowd - enjoy!

Somehow in 20 years of cruising we had missed a Cartagena call.  This was remedied with a Reflection cruise in March. We were a bit concerned about what to expect and so we went with a Celebrity tour.  Needless to say it was a mistake.  Will we never learn? We should have gone with Dora.  The Spanish Inquisition was a surprise but then, "nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition".  

Don't book a cabana on the Edge if you want my advice. As others have said, they are not well sited.  I did a week on the Edge in January and did not see anyone use one - understandably.  You can make up your own mind when you board - they will not sell out!

Mind you I would not book on the Edge again - but that's another story...

Talking of things to be banned on cruise ships - glitter.

Froze my buxx off on the Relection this year. Damn it was cold! Biting!

We were on the port side which had a very pleasant river view when docked.

It was our first visit to NO.  Enjoyed the place however I'm not sure I "get" Mardi Gras.  

It seems to go on for months.

Most of the world has woken up to the dangers of plastics but everything Mardi Gras is plastic.

Plastic beads, plastic buckets, plastic lights, plastic, plastic...and it all goes in to the bin.

Jazz bars were good and worth a visit.

The Cafe du Monde is the pits - awful chicory coffee,  overrated doughnuts and not particularly clean.

Standing by to be flamed....

Luminae was set up for suite passengers. The long queue for Luminae on the Edge was a joy to behold. It obviously annoyed the suite guests and so they started overflowing to Blu.  Once they sampled the menu in Blu they stopped eating in Luminae which has a pretty limited menu anyway and decamped to Blu.  Now, we as AQ guests, ended up queuing for Blu because of all the suite guests were escaping Luminae.  Not happy.  Buxxxer off back to Luminae! Shoo!

The Magic Carpet is grossly overrated by Celebrity marketing.  It's a platform that sticks out to the side.  It has a bar and you can eat there.  It doesn't move when occupied. That's about it .  Oh, and its painted orange - no I don't know why.  No doubt in a year or two it will be for suite guests only.  Fine with me.  

"Keep a copy of your X-press pass and before disembarking request the printed balance."

That is good advice from GERELMX.

Just back from Equinox May 14 sailing.

Once again, Celebrity have totally ignored the tick box on the Xpress Pass and billed my credit card using Dynamic Currency Conversion.

Last time Celebrity ignored my complaint and so I took it up with my credit card company. That was good for me, the Credit Card Co immediately credited my account with the total and then we waited and waited for Celebrity to sort it out - it took nearly 2 months!

I hope they ignore my complaint again!