MISTER 67

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.

Just back from our cruise on the Refection, very nice cruise with no complaints except the ship was packed at 400 above capacity due to a lot of kids who for the most part were well behaved. We walked off this AM at 7:20 and in our car at 7:35, would have been earlier but we cruised from and returned to pier 29 which can be a pain in the neck as if you drive to the port you have to take a shuttle bus from the mid-port garage to pier 29. Made it back to Punta Gorda in pretty good time returning at 9:50. Thanks for the Bon Voyage wishes and welcome back comments. Back to work tomorrow with an 8AM tee time. Things are starting to get back to normal as quite a few snowbirds have made their migration north, by the end of April it will just be us locals and traffic will be bearable again and the restaurants will be not as crowded. Hard to believe we have been residents of Florida for 30 years now, seen lot of changes in those 30 years especially with traffic in the Naples-Bonita Springs-FT. Myers area where we lived for 17 years, when we moved in 1993 Interstate 75 in southwest Florida was only 2 lanes in each direction, it's now 3 lanes in each direction and word is we will soon see 4 lanes in each direction, not quite like Chicago but getting close. Hope everyone is doing well and in good health, one of these days I will start posting again on a daily basis.

Just the newer ones, Regal class.

We've sailed on the Caribbean Princess 10 times out of 69 cruises, #70 tomorrow on the Reflection.

This has to be a record, 17 toots so far from the NS. Drink packages will be increasing

Like I said all the other sites have sound like Miami, PC and Nassau. I don't remember this happening before.

Not getting any sound from the PE webcam, am I the only one. All the other webcams have sound. BTW, we are sailing out of PE tomorrow on the Reflection from the dreaded pier 29.

This is probably the saddest post I've ever read on CC. My heartfelt condolences to you and your family.

We are already fed up with HAL, we are 4 Star Mariners but will only be booking with Celebrity and Princess until we hear things improve with HAL.

We always book with our personal cruise consultants on the various lines we cruise with. Seems a lot easier dealing with just one entity. We shop online for the best deals among Celebrity, Princess and Holland America and are always able to find a price to our liking. We are on the Reflection this coming Sunday with 2 other cruises booked in August and December. We also look for good deals while on board which has worked out well for us for quite a few cruises.

I just don't understand some people not taking the time to put on a nice pair of khaki's and a polo shirt, trust me, it doesn't hurt. I wouldn't like sitting near that guy who wore the same shirt the whole cruise especially near the end of the cruise, I hope he at least changed his underwear.

Appreciate your thoughts.

It sure looks that way, as I said it’s not a major issue but it is an inconvenience and something we will live with.

Pier 21 is available both on April 2nd and 9th when we return, looks like Celebrity lacks some clout. One day last week there were 3 HAL ships in port and none had to dock at 29. The solution of course if 29 is going to be constantly used is to build a parking lot close to the pier.

We return to PE on April 9th and there are again only 5 ships in port so that theory doesn’t work, Yeah, it’s not the worst thing in the world but it’s still inconvenient.

I don't understand why Pier 29 is being used so much for Celebrity cruises on the Reflection. This coming Sunday there are only 5 ships in port with the Reflection using out of the way pier 29. We live in Florida and always drive to the various ports in the Sunshine State but we hate Pier 29 as we have to take a shuttle bus from the mid-port garage. With only 5 ships in port why inconvenience passengers when it's not necessary.

Glad you liked the Infinity, we sailed on her last October and it quickly became our favorite Celebrity ship. We had very good food along with excellent entertainment and service. The Infinity is just the right size and we love that it has the old style promenade deck with deck chairs where you can read a good book as you have the sights and sounds of the ocean without any loud music.

We started sailing again in November of 2021 and have been on 7 cruises including 3 with Celebrity. We have never seen the kind of behavior as described by the OP. We have seen passengers turned away at the MDR for wearing shorts and tank tops. Our next cruise which will be our 70th is in 2 weeks on the Reflection and as usual I will keep my eyes and ears open and report back on any unacceptable behavior.

We are on the Reflection on April 2, happy to hear everything was great but how was the entertainment

We were on the NA in December and butter was as valuable as gold.

Holland America is a mess right and they have lost our business, if they continue down the same path, they will soon be out of business.

IMHO, soup and salad are not appetizers, they are courses or part of 5 course meal. Shrimp Cocktail is an appetizer. Our typical meal in the MDR on a cruise ship usually consists of an appetizer, cup of soup, salad followed by the main course and of course dessert. 69 cruises and we have never ordered an extra entree, on the Equinox last summer we were served 2 lobster tails at the same time, on that same cruise we ordered shrimp cocktail and the waiter brought 2 of those each also. On the Equinox about 6 weeks later we ordered lobster and were served one each but the waiter asked if we wanted another tail after finishing the first and we both declined. Both cruises sailed at about 82% of capacity.