abbydancer2003

We were just in 10101 (on the other side) on the Apex. Obstruction was the bridge blocking the forward view. People behind us said it blocked their view too.

Apex has one near the concierge stand - it ran the voyage channel with no sound I think.

I found the difference between Michael's Club (or retreat lounge) on the Infinity and on the Summit to be far less radical that the differences on the S class ships. Mostly adding a food area and less comfortable furniture.

The only thing with that is if you have over the transaction limit (after I run out my current bookings with all the suite OBC that won't be a problem anymore), you can't do a single transaction to liquidate it all. On this last cruise, I think I came out slightly ahead. And maybe now we know why they got rid of the suite OBC.

I agree with this, although the experience might also depend on what your expectation and previous experience was. All we really used the butler for was laundry and morning coffee, so we were reasonably happy with our experience. One day, when I wanted a latte midafternoon, I just went down to Al Baccio and got it, but that's pretty much what I always did. And I thought about testing the system for afternoon snacks, but to be honest, I rarely ate them when they were there, so I never tried to get them.

I think this was a fairly recent change - although it's been about 7 months since I did the quick cashout. I also use the OBC for additional tips.

You too. I think I was at the cage 3-4 times asking questions. In 2022, I had no problem going to a slot machine, using some OBC, playing a few spins, and cashing out. I'd cash out after one spin if I won a few cents. Not anymore. And when I asked about reinserting the vouchers until I played 50% they were very clear (more than once) that I had to put my sea pass card in. It may be different because you started with the cashier. Presumably, they asked your room number?

I was told that to use a voucher again I needed to use my card. Otherwise, I think it would still show that I hadn't bet my 50% of whatever. I might be misunderstanding your question.

It was 50% on Apex. Sorry, I wasn't quite clear. You could still play, but no more transfers until you played 50%. And if you have more than 500 of OBC, you can't transfer more than that at a time.

Just found this, I'm along for the ride. We're on the Solstice in just over 3 months, boarding in Singapore at the end of March and getting off in Vancouver in May. we're going the other way, I think. We'll be staying at either the JW or the Tang Plaza Marriott. I currently have reservations at both. Do you recommend the JW? I'm leaning that way. And I think for a while we had the nonstop from SFO booked through Celebrity air (booked when I booked the cruise), but managed to save over 1000.00 for business air by going ANA, first through Narita, but now through Haneda. Have fun!

Boarding the Solstice in Singapore in March for our ride to Vancouver, so following. You do great pictures.

I haven't had the afternoon snacks delivered since sometime last year. In March I was told they don't do that anymore. In February, on day 4 or 5 of 7 our butler brought a bowl of potato chips, because he thought we might like them, we ate them, so he kept bringing them. Our coffee was delivered every morning by one of two room service people. I imagine you can talk to either the head butler about snacks and either they'll arrange it or tell you to call room service.

It appears on some ships (Apex for sure) there are now some restrictions on OBC for slots. If you put in, say 50.00 and do 5 spins of .50 each and you decide to cash out, you'll be locked out for the rest of the cruise.

How much did you put in, was it cash or OBC, and are you planning to go back?

Symphony/Apex Day 12 - Puerto Plata We arriving at 11, so we went to breakfast. I had fruit, a bagel and bacon. Usually after about a week and half on a ship I just have a slightly lighter breakfast. Glen had Eggs in Purgatory, and said it was basically a quail egg shatshuka. He seemed to like that one. After breakfast we went to the lounge. As we sailed in it was raining. Here’s the obligatory fort at sail in picture. We went back to the room to gather our stuff, and at about 10:55, we were docked, so we went up to lounge to be led out. Much easier than in San Juan. Carollyne took us down, and there was no line to get off. I followed the map she printed, and while the directions didn’t match verbiage, the map was accurate. We had to leave the port area. Here’s the map. It was about a 15 minute walk. Just after the gate, we found the correct people (the ticket said to look for their company name). They took us to a 20 person van, and we waited about 30 minutes for the rest of the people. There were supposed to be 14 people, but only 12 showed up. Normally the first stop on the tour is the cable car to the top of their mountain, but because it was still rainy, we decided to do that last. So first we went to the fort area. The fort is open for tours, but they take longer than we head. Our guide Tony gave us about 20 minutes to wander around. Also in this area there’s a performance bowl. There’s a monument there, but only muddy grass to get to it, so who it is will remain a mystery. We walked around the entire area, and then headed to the city center. The area was decorated for Xmas. We saw the former house of the prime minister. I think this was at one point the capital of the country. Now it’s used for music, theater and dance classes that are free for children. They even have a public library. I think they offer free classes there as well. Next stop was their umbrella street. We had 20 minutes there to wander. We split a cheese empanada, and bought two bags of local coffee. If you look towards the back of the picture, the far end of the street is actually an arbor with vines. It’s very pretty. After that, it was to what is the centerpiece of the tour, the only cable car in the Caribbean. On the way, we stopped and two people left the tour. Apparently there was more waling than they thought. We arrived at the Cable Car, technically a Gondola, and at the entrance there was a Caribbean band playing to welcome us. The plan was for us to take the cable car up, and drive down. There was a few minute wait for the car to come down (apparently there are two cars, one goes up while the other goes down. Here are some pictures from the ride. At the top, there’s a replica of Christ the Redeemer, a gift from Brazil. The building it’s on was used at one point for military purposes, although because it’s often cloudy there it wasn’t very useful. Now it houses gift shops. There are hiking trails from there. After wandering around, we drove to one of the trails with the park at the top of the cable car (Isabel del Torres, also the name of the mountain). We saw a typical external kitchen display with many medicinal plants, as well as coffee and cocoa. Once we ware back on the bus, Tony gave us a fruit juice or rum punch, made with local rum. I believe everyone opted for rum punch and it was good. Apparently rum is another one of their top crops. We then headed back to the ship, with a stop for Tony to buy each of us a very ripe banana. We were dropped at the gate, saving a few steps. If you go here on a private tour, the walk we did is the only ext from the pier area. We were back on the ship by about 4 pm, and after a stop in the room to drop our stuff and rest a bit, I went down to Al Baccio for a latte and pastries. I got a dulce de leech eclair and a lemon tartlet (that doesn’t do to go very well). I suppose that if I had a dedicated butler, he/she could have brought them, but that’s not something I’d typically do, normally I get them myself. So I can’t comment on what would have happened if I’d tried to get one. After watching a show on our Roku, and dressing for the second Evening Chic night, we went to the lounge around 7 for a drink before dinner. I had my first hot toddy. It wasn’t too bad. Since it was Evening Chic, the restaurant was crowded. We waited a bit for a table in one of the quieter areas. Yesterday, when the amuse bouche was a fish selection, Lia, our very good assistant waiter gave me some berries. I’d mentioned that on the Silhouette, they’d given me watermelon with balsamic, ie a single piece of watermelon with a balsamic drizzle. Apparently, I wasn’t specific enough, because I got a small bowl of watermelon pieces in balsamic vinegar. For an appetizer I had tomato soup from Blu. The Asiago Grill Cheese croutons were a little lacking, but other than that it was good. We both had the rack of lamb for our entree. I’ve had this a lot, and this time, it didn’t look quite as good, and I’m not sure why. Also, there were no sun chokes on the plate. I asked and Nino had the chef make some, and a bowl of them showed up as we we finishing. I think there was less salsa verde on these than usual as well. For dessert, we just split a creme brûlée, since nothing else appealed. Tomorrow is a sea day and the last full day of the cruise.

On E class, the restaurant is big and pretty noisy. I had no complaints about service though.

Yup. Moniek was our server too. And she was great as well. She'd been our assistant waiter on the Summit back in 2021. I wonder if we actually met? (My mom passed away while we were on the cruise - that might be the most memorable thing about me).

Agree in general, but given the ship, this is the biggest show of the cruise, so parents are going to take the kids. They do have an adult comedy show, though.

Our experience in Luminae this spring was the same. Raphael was the Maitre'd and he had a major problem to deal with - one very loud group that he was getting a lot of complaints about. He did his best to keep them separate, but on Aruba night, the only place for us to sit was next to them, and coming back later was't possible since it was after 8:30. We decided to go to Blu. He walked us up there, handed us over to their Maitre'd and told us we could order from the Luminae menu. Our server also popped by to make sure we were getting good service.

I gather you're in 6145 or 6146? We have 6146 on the Connie, and on the Millenium in March of 2026. And we always had water supplied by our room steward. Head butler brought us coke and ginger-ale. No charge for any of it. Just for the red wine in Rooftop because there were no included reds available.

Got off yesterday. Sorry I can't ask. Actually, the only two seafood items were the fritter and the fish salad. When I book these, I usually put that I don't eat fish, and most of the time there is an alternative. It hasn't been a problem yet. This time, I forgot to mention it. And I will have all posts up by the 26th I think.

That was my experience on this trip as well.

Thanks for this. We're on our first Connie cruise next month. Which suite do you have? We spent 24 days on the Infinity in a sky suite, and loved it.

I just watched it in FLL airport, since we have 8 hours here. It was OK. I noticed on the Perfect Day part, they didn't exactly stress all the activities. Seems they were trying to convince us that even adults without kids along will like it.

Symphony/Apex Day 11 St. Thomas At 7:50 our room service coffee delivery arrived. We have a food tour at 10:00 this morning, and we’re supposed to arrive by 9:45. The ticket says it’s a 25 minute walk, but that’s from the Havenhearst(?) pier, but Celebrity uses Crown Bay, which is a 45 minute walk. Since it’s pretty hot here, we decide dto take a cab. Instead of a full breakfast, we went to the lounge for continental breakfast. I had two almond croissants, and it turns out they do have brewed coffee in the morning. Just after 9, we headed out. We walked through the terminal area to cab dispatch and, got in “truck cab”. We were dropped at exit point with everyone else in the downtown area. We asked where the fort was, and dispatcher said to left, but big red thing was right. We asked a vendor, she said it was the big red building (which is what I though). We bought a magnet from her and talked with her for a while. She was a lawyer but art is her thing. We talked about voting in USVI, and her kids who are in military. We were early, so it was nice speaking with her. We got to the fort early. We found 3 other people going (when Beth and I went,, just us. I guess this is high season). At 10:00 there was no guide, so I called the local number and got voicemail. However, one of the other three people was friendly with one of the employees (maybe the only employee, because she knows her from her hotel, so called her. She was almost there, and a few moments later Jane, our guide arrived. She started with a bit of the history of the Island. We saw their replica of the Liberty Bell, Apparently each state has one, and some other places. (I’ll have to see if American Samoa has one when I’m there in April). We also saw some statues and older buildings, and Jane gave us some more history of slave revolts, etc. Then it was on to the food part. First stop was E’s Garden teahouse. We were treated to a nice cold raspberry tea first. Next up was a salad plate with a fish salad and green salad with crackers. I didn’t eat the fish, although I did try it. Glen said it was good. We finished with ice cream handmade from soursop. It was yummy. Next stop was Gladys’. That was a stop when Beth and I did the tour in 2017, but they’d closed because of the hurricane after that. They’ve now reopened in a new location. Here we were treated to Callaloo soup, apparently made famous in a a Cosby episode, where he was trying to find a recipe, a cornmeal and okra mix to go into the soup to make a dumpling, and a conch fritter. There was also hot sauce. I enjoyed the soup and “dumpling” and tried the conch fritter. Glen said if I put the hot sauce on the fritter, I wouldn’t taste the conch. We also had a drink that was rum and cinnamon and some other stuff that we’ve both forgotten the name of. But it was good. Next stop was Pate’s for meat pies. We had a choice of beef, chicken, fish or cheese. Glen and I split a chicken one, and it was good. Our final stop was dessert. We went to St. John Brewers on the Waterfront, where we enjoyed rootbeer floats with rum. After chatting for a while, we all said our goodbyes. We were the only people from a cruise, everyone else was staying at resorts. I guess that’s the effect of the holiday season. Jane gave us instructions for getting a cab (walk to the Main Street and find the cab area. As we walked over a cab driver offered us a ride in his SUV cab. Because of the direction of the road, we had to go around onto a parallel street, but it was all good. He told us about getting the car, and how proud of it he was. Sadly, no-one else wanted to go the same way, and I don’t think he picked up a fare back. Once back on the ship, we went to Al Baccio for coffees. Then to the room and then to tea in the lounge. While in the room, I read the meeting instructions for our tour tomorrow, At the lounge, I asked Carollyne if she could print the map for me. She said they could so I ran down and emailed the PDF. It was hard to see in black and white, so she said she’d go downstairs, make a color printout for me, and deliver it to our room. Which she did. While watching sail-away (along with a drunk guy talking about his family left behind - note - NOT TRUE) from the lounge, I saw what looked like fun. And the required channel picture as we left St. Thomas After dressing for dinner, we went back up to the lounge and had a drink with new friends Harvey and Joanne. Soon their friends arrived and they went to dinner, apparently taking Glen’s drink with them, because it was gone after they left. He got another one, and took it with him to the show. This was Crystallize, and while not too much plot, it was pretty spectacular visually. Tonight we met our friends Bob and Cindy for dinner. We were first seated in a table in the main dining area, but that was too loud, so we moved back to one in the front alcove. I think I will, on all future E ships, ask for that area. I started with one of their new asparagus starters. I enjoyed it. <6435> Next I had their sirloin entree, and still more like a roast. I finished with the new blueberry mousse. It was pretty good. I think this was the yogurt ice-cream dessert, so I’ll probably ask to switch with a fruit sorbet in the future. . After dinner, we went back to the room, and I tried to watch the new Captains Club video. After 35 minutes of stop and start, all I learned was about St. Lucia, so I’ll watch in either the airport Saturday or home on Sunday. Thus ended St. Thomas day. Tomorrow is our last port and our only new port - Puerto Plata DR.