MISTER 67

If any of you miss the traditional promenade deck on HAL ships like I do and are sailing on Pinnacle class ships there is a small but nice quiet and covered area with loungers on the Panorama deck on the starboard side just forward of the Tamarind restaurant.

Average age of 70+ seems a bit high, Holland America maybe but not Celebrity, we’ve sailed with both lines many times and also Princess who age wise is about the same as Celebrity.

We thought that the Seaside was geared toward a younger crowd and younger families, they had a DJ in the Atrium from late morning to late evening blasting music, it was so loud that you could hear it while having dinner in the MDR, we and other diners actually complained to Maitre D. There was also a lot rides and others things on the top deck for the kids. The Seaside also had way too much glass and mirrors with the decor, sometimes you really had to figure out if you where going to walk into some glass. The Divina and Maraviglia are much classier ships. As far as status match, we needed to fill out a form that was emailed to us along with taking a photo of some documentation what your highest status is with another line, it went very smooth.

Just don’t sail in the summer with MSC when the ships are loaded with kids but to tell the truth, I found the behavior of some European adults on MSC ship to be quite boorish.

We have sailed with MSC 5 times but we are not wild about driving down to Miami, we drive to Ft. Lauderdale all the time for cruises but those extra 35 miles on I 95 is like being in a NASCAR event. As far as the differences, Celebrity has better food and service but some of the Italians dishes on MSC are outstanding as is the pizza. Not a lot of variety in the buffet, just about the same everyday, you can’t beat the variety in the buffet on a Celebrity ship. Entertainment is better on MSC but Celebrity is pretty good. Both lines have beautiful ships but we didn’t care for the Seaside, we liked the Divina a lot more. There will be announcements on MSC in 5 languages, once on board you have to go to Charge Card station to register your credit card which I always found strange. Dealing with guest services is much better on Celebrity. MSC will give you a status match with the cruise line that you have the highest status with, our first cruise with MSC we were automatically given Black Card status because we were Elite with Princess. Some nice on board perks but I’ve heard some have been discontinued.

We booked a cruise a day after Hurricane Ian hit us last Sept 27, that was the 28th and we cruised 2 days later on the Infinity to the Caribbean. We had to get out of town as we had no power or internet, recharged the phone with my car, good thing we still had cell phone service otherwise we would been stuck at home without any services. We had just enough gas to get us to Ft Lauderdale about 160 miles from Punta Gorda. No problems at all with booking, if we waited one more day we would have been out of luck as Celebrity will not book a day before a cruise. We had a great cruise and by the time we returned home our electricity, cable and internet were all up and running. As far as excursions and reservations for other things, we are in our late 70s and hardly get off the ship anymore so I can’t answer the concerns you had in that regard.

Celebrity does a good job with most of their salads at dinner in the MDR. As far as veggies, most dinners have just a couple of measly pieces and not enough to rave about.

Every cruise we have booked with Celebrity has been with the non-refundable deposit and we don’t take out insurance either. I know we are gambling but we live in Florida and only take cruises to the Caribbean as we refuse to fly. We are in our late 70s in good health and have seen enough of other parts of the world and are happy just being on a beautiful ship with good food, service and entertainment. Right now we are ahead of the game and down through the years Celebrity has been very fair as we have done well with some very nice on board spending money and future cruise credits along with some cabin upgrades at no extra costs. We might get burned one of these days but we refuse to pay a higher rate for a refundable deposit.

Trivia contests are a cheap way of entertaining passengers, sometimes they don’t even give out prizes.

We were on the Refection on the week before Easter and the ship was 400 over normal capacity due to kids on spring and Easter breaks. Those 400 kids for the most part were well behaved. BTW normal capacity is 2 people per cabin with extra passengers being 3 or 4 to a cabin usually in bunk beds or sofa sleepers.

We’ve been on 8 cruises since the startup with 4 with Celebrity, 2 on the Equinox, 1 on the Infinity and 1 on the Reflection, all have been excellent cruises with no complaints. Service, food and entertainment have been outstanding. We are booked again on the Equinox in July.

Spot on.

Has to be where the movie theater once was. Good move by HAL.

Service is comparable but Celebrity wins hands down when it comes to food and entertainment.

I was on the webcam when she was in the channel and there were plenty of horns and whistles from the condos when the Cole sailed by.

I corrected it on my post, that’s the USS New York. I was able to get a glimpse of the Cole as she was docking.

Opps, that’s the USS New York there, the Cole is docked right in front of her but the Beyond is blocking the view.

USS Cole docked at where HAL usually docks when they have 2 ships in port, just a short walk from the mid port garage.

Good morning from beautiful Southwest Florida. Thought I would come aboard and let all know that I was checking out the Port Everglades webcam this AM and just caught the USS Cole coming into port. Of course that was the Navy ship that was attacked by terrorists back in October of 2000 in Aden Yemen. All the sailors were out on deck standing at parade rest and waving to the people in the condos who were out blowing their air horns as they were welcoming the ship to the port. You could see where the ship was attacked as there is a big metal plate on the starboard side. I messed up and forgot to take a screen shot. Hope all are doing well.

We’ve sailed on Celebrity ships 4 times last year and so far once this year with another cruise on Equinox coming up besides 5 previous times. At this point in time Celebrity beats HAL in just about the whole cruise experience including food by a wide margin as well as entertainment. Service is about the same except Celebrity services the cabins twice a day with chocolate mints on the pillows every night. Celebrity also offers lobster at no extra charge as well as shrimp cocktail as an everyday appetizer. There is no comparison when it comes to the buffet, Celebrity has better buffet food and great variety plus they aren’t skimping on butter. We were on the New Amsterdam last December and you just about had to beg for butter and cream cheese. Right now the only thing I like better are the Vista and Signature class ships on HAL though the Equinox and her sister ships are excellent vessels as is the smaller Infinity.

You cant go wrong with any HAL Vista or Signature class ship, unfortunately the rest of the HAL product is lacking when it comes to food and entertainment.

This is not just a Celebrity problem, you see it everywhere, even in newspapers. You have to wonder how did some even graduate grammar school.

Things are looking a lot better but there are still quite a few homes that are waiting on new roofs. A lot of road signs are still missing. The Hampton Inn and Holliday Inn at exit 170 on I-75 still haven't opened. We haven't heard much about Sanibel, most of the the talk has been about Ft. Myers Beach as that place was just about destroyed and the word is that big money is going to rebuild Ft.Myers Beach and will see large luxury hotels and restaurants popping up everywhere replacing a lot of the seedy bars and beach stores that once populated FMB. It will wind up looking more like the beaches of Naples with places like the Ritz Carlton and Ruth Chris steakhouses.

We just returned from a cruise on the Reflection this morning and have sailed on the Equinox many times, we sailed on the Infinity last October and as veterans of 70 cruises we found the Infinity to be in great shape and as good as the Reflection and the Equinox. We loved that it had the older type promenade deck with deck chairs away from the crowds and sometimes loud music heard in other parts of the ships in the cruise industry, great place to read a good book as you experience the sights and sounds of the ocean. I we had one thing to complain about it would be the buffet is not as large as the bigger ships in the fleet and thus lacked the variety of those ships, not enough of a complaint as there was still plenty to eat and would not stop us from sailing on the Infinity again.