Banjo

I was on the Constellation last month. I know I had a drink prior to leaving Tampa and when docked in Key West, don't recall any added costs. I did have a drink package.

I used Uber to catch my Tampa departing Constellation cruise from a airport hotel just a few weeks ago. Was at the hotel under 5 minutes and had me at the cruise terminal drop-off in around 20 minutes. Worked great and it was under $20.

Thanks, will be on the Connie Monday. I will check that out.

I been to Labadee just once on Celebrity. It was back in 2015 and was on the Silhouette. I liked it. Did the boat tour they offered. It was nice and relaxing. Also did the zip-line they had. It was good, reasonably long and thrilling. What I liked about the zip line it went across the water, so no fear of the line snapping and me landing on land 🙂 I did not partake of the buffet. Cannot comment on that. Just had a beer.

Looking forward to doing it on my upcoming Edge Suez canal cruise in November. This cruise has a good number of sea days. Talk about the good old days, about a decade ago I did one on the Emerald Princess. They gave you a bath robe. Really nice heavy one (the kind you get in Aqua and suites). Still have it and use it.

Now on Celebrity it seems out-of-pocket tipping become a lot less. I been on 3 cruises with Celebrity since covid decreased, all on Edge class ships. On all of them auto tips were included in the price of the cruise. We rotate between the 4 MDRs, so never see the same waiter or asst waiter. Only steady staff member was the room steward. Always throw him/her a few bucks depending level of service and if I had any special requests.

Just saw your post, so they did away with it. Oh well.

I have not been in awhile, but the Elite or higher used to or still has a High Tea on a sea day. Problem is they had it around 3pm, ruin dinner 😞

I recall back in 2014 I booked a Black Sea cruise out of Istanbul, I believe it was on the Summit. The cruise included several stops in Crimea. It also was cancelled because of the Russian takeover of Crimea.

When we sailed last March on the Caribbean Constellation cruise we had 850 passengers. Capacity is around 2100. I have to admit, it was kind of nice. On that cruise I booked 2 cruises at the Future Cruise Desk. An October, 2022 Edge Trans-Atlantic. They had one Aqua Class cabin available and pickings in the Veranda Class were slim. We selected a Veranda Class cabin. Also booked a Edge October, 2023 Suez Canal cruise Rome-Dubai. Again, pickings were slim. The Celebrity agent said this was a very popular cruise with its itinerary. Because of cost on this one I selected again Veranda Class. I did ask the Celebrity agent about capacities saying "this is great for me but is it good for the industry"? She noted that Tampa has been very slow because Celebrity is new out of Tampa and the capacities have been picking up. Celebrity Caribbean cruise leaving from Ft Lauderdale/Miami have been much better. I did talk with other passengers that did this Constellation cruise several times in November/December/January/February and they also confirmed the numbers have picked up saying back in November it was around 300. I am glad it's picking up. I hate to see this industry die. I enjoy cruising.