zanderblue

Hi,

looking for any one local in Seattle who may have any input about how soon I should be looking to book a flight out of Seattle. Talking about a Friday morning in late August, we’ll probably walk off with baggage and Uber to airport. We do have TSA pre check.

I do appreciate decision is about how risk averse folks are, but any local input would be much appreciated.

thanks in advance

Good call. I hadn’t considered that.

We’re booked on this cruise, but I can’t see it being offered any more online. Has anyone heard any news or is this likely to be a website glitch?

thanks in advance

Whilst it is irksome, if I were you I wouldn’t be too concerned. 
Celebrity hold back some peak times (6:30 to 7:30) for folks to book onboard. Go see the maitre d when you get onboard, and ask for times locations you want.

We were on Apex December 10th-17th and internet connection was so poor as to be practically unusable. High time they improved the system!

I’m happy to provide a datapoint on this. We sailed on December 10th on Apex from Terminal 25. Our allotted arrival time was 11:30-12:00, we actually got there at 11:15. No lines and told to walk on in to terminal. In fact there were no lines anywhere and we were through and onboard by 11:25.

Best embarkation we have ever had.😊

Hi, hoping for some thoughts from the collective mind.

I am sailing very soon on Apex and I am currently on keto based diet. Whilst I am reasonably confident I will be able to figure out my food options I am less sure about my drinks. Does anyone have any experience of being able to get “skinny” drinks or perhaps even something like slimline tonic for a gin?

TIA

Perhaps I can add a little bit more info.

We are on Apex in a month or so and are currently booked in Concierge. I reckon sailing is between 80-90% booked.
Move up minimum bid amounts are:

$200 to Aqua

$650 to Suite (recently had 20% discount)

$1900 to Celebrity Suite

Now I do appreciate you can’t directly compare one cruise move up bids to another, but at least you can get a feel for what they may be.

Whatever you do, I’m sure you’ll enjoy Aoex. 

In my own mind, I think of the HAL ships being more wood and brass, whereas X ships are more stainless steel and glass.

We have been almost exclusive with X over the last 15 years or so, but have recently booked a cruise with princess for next March. A few factors involved in that decision; departure port convenience, deal with Princess and erosion of X elite benefits means we have less to lose.

I will feedback our thoughts………

3 minutes ago, Wishing on a star said:

Great Zanderblue.

What type of cabin are you going with?

I hope you have a great cruise on the Ruby!

Thanks.
We have gone for C753. It’s aft facing on the corner.

Looking forward to a change of scenery on Princess. 😊

Thanks to everyone for their input.

We have gone ahead and made the reservation.

Hi all,

long time cruisers, almost exclusively with Celebrity, but with erosion of Elite perks now seems a good time to try elsewhere.

We’re looking at a cruise on Ruby Princess out of Galveston next spring, but know pretty much nothing about how things work on Princess.

Any info that would help us figure if it might work for us would be appreciated.

We like to eat before the second show, so around 7:30 ish, will dine my way work for that? 
Not really into speciality restaurants and are quite happy at 2 top in main dining room. Is that a realistic option?

I see there is more than 1 main dining room, any preferred over others?

We enjoy a cocktail pre dinner and a glass of wine with dinner, so I’m guessing basic beverage package might work?

We like bars that have background music, piped or live, but quiet enough that we can talk without shouting. Any suggestions?

We are most definitely not pool party folks. We prefer a bit of sunbathing and a dip in a quieter pool. Is there anywhere that might fit the bill?

Im just reading back the above and I can see it may sound we are really picky. We’re not and generally can compromise.

We’d appreciate any replies and obviously anything additional that you may think is worth taking into consideration.

thanks.

Quick question please?

has the final payment lead time reverted back to 90 days yet?

TIA

Asking for a friend. Are the swimming pools on Edge salt or fresh water?

thanks in advance

20 hours ago, Gracie115 said:

 

I know Summit was one of the M class that was renovated before Covid so I don't know what  6145 & 6146 look like now.  Prior to that they were furnished much like the Penthouse with rich woods.  It sounds like the reno was not for the better.   Did you like IV "balcony?"  

Actually, yes. We did like the IV, largely due to the additional flexibility of having that area inside or outside the cabin. TBH we were very impressed with the ship in general. So much so that we booked again for later this year 😁

18 hours ago, Gracie115 said:

 

As far as the suites are concerned on the M class ships like Summit I find the Sky Suites really lacking.  Except for the 2 that are next to the Penthouse they are mostly just too small to pay the additional $$.  

 

I've read and not just on X that dining post Covid has been hit or miss even in Luminae.  Lack of personnel, training and quality product HAS impacted the lines.  We haven't been on X since 2019 and are eagerly awaiting our sailing this October on the Apex.  Also hoping that some of the reopening issues have been ironed out.  I still expect we will be very happy just to be back on X.  We have done 2 Royal cruises in the last year which were fine, but not even close to the quality we find on X.

We were in one of the SS1 adjacent to the PH suite. Cabin was large, as was the en-suite, but was poorly laid out. The sofa wasn’t really positioned to watch TV, the chair at the vanity wouldn’t slide under the table top and stuck out into the walking area. The balcony furniture was minimalist and looked quite cheap. Considering the other aspects you can see why we were underwhelmed. I’d struggle to justify paying for it again.

The Summit was the second cruise on a S2S where we did a week on the Apex in an IV cabin first. Absolutely loved the Apex. The public spaces are something else and MDR options were very good. Overall a much more enjoyable experience.

Long time Celebrity cruisers, all in regular cabins. We like most things onboard, hence we keep coming back.

Our last cruise was a SS1 on the Summit in early March this year. We had to try it and there was a reasonable deal so we booked.

We found dinner service in Luminae particularly underwhelming in pretty much all aspects. Food quality was variable, service poor (long waits for food), wait for a table on 3 nights (one night the wait was more than 30 minutes), sommelier service was very poor, the poor girl was run off her feet, also wine choice was limited. 
I did discuss above with retreat manager and received an apology, but nothing changed.

Slightly off topic………. The overall suite experience wasn’t much better, cabin whilst larger was nothing special. The retreat lounge was always busy and drink service was slow. The one aspect that we found worked well for us was the retreat sun deck, where food and drinks quality and service was very good indeed!

We have booked another Celebrity cruise on Apex, but we’re back in a veranda cabin.

See below from UK Government website advising on entry requirements to Norway.

Id say you’d best get a new passport!

On 4/8/2022 at 8:03 AM, ScottC4746 said:

Did they actually follow up on it?

In the 7 days I only ever once saw it happen. The pool butler in the solarium was going around laying fresh towels out and he removed a bag from lounger next to me that had been there for more than an hour. 
The same guy also had words with some parents who had brought young children into the Solarium pool. The family left but were back next day. I didn’t see anyone talk to them the second time, but they didn’t stay long at all.

Last month on Apex the pool butlers left small notices on all sun loungers; stating that if a bed was left unoccupied for more than 30 minutes, then any personal items would be removed. 
It seemed to work.

On 3/15/2022 at 3:03 PM, mcgorr said:

Can anyone update me on accessing pre-boarding covid testing for UK passengers?  We are embarking on the 17th April and flying to the US on the 15th so would need a test on the evening of the 15th or the 16th.  

I’d think it may be best to buy a Qured supervised test in UK and book appointment for online  test when you are in your hotel in US. I’d also suggest you travel with it in your carry on baggage.

OP glad you were able to get a good outcome.

I have to say I feel your angst. We are currently on that Apex sailing and had flights booked to get us to Mia on Friday (day prior to sailing)

We then experienced a rolling delay for our flight for most of the day. I was frantically looking at options as time wore on but was coming up with nothing. 
the flight did indeed operate but very late and we eventually made it to MIA after midnight and our hotel in Ft Lauderdale after 1:00am.

Anyhows, we’re here now and having a great time after a stressful time on Friday.

• Ship:  Apex
• Length of Cruise: 7 days
• Cruise Sail Date: March 12, 2022
• Date email offer received: February
• Captain’s Club Tier : Elite
• Booked through Celebrity Direct OR via TA: TA
• Current Cabin: C2 on deck 11
• Bid?  Yes/No: Yes

If YES -  Bidding Details:

• Cabin Category: Celebrity Suite
• Bid Offer: $1570pp
• Notification Date: March 10th
• Accepted / Rejected: Rejected

35 minutes ago, xraymomma said:

I’m not the person you asked, but Abbot Binax offers proctored Covid tests that can be done in your home, any day and any time. The results are sent to an app that you download and show at check-in. I print mine too, just in case. We’ve used them for two cruises so far and it was very easy. If you go that route, get extra tests. If you drop the swab, or do something wrong, or if the test is faulty, the results aren’t valid. 

I can reconfirm this as a great option. Very straightforward when we did ours this morning. 

20 hours ago, RichYak said:

Yes, and as part of the process where you "do" the test on emed.com, you will either login to your existing Navica account or create one if you don't already have one.

Thanks for calcification.

One further question if I may………..

I don’t need an appointment right? I just log into my NAVICA account at the time I want to take the test and follow the links through to the online video proctor?

TIA