lifeisrealygood

Agree. Express Pass is all you need. And of course proof of vaccination. But that long celebrity print-out is not required to be taken with you, and I am not sure it is even relevant to read anymore. I just make sure it has the specifics correct, names, cabin number, etc, then pitch it.

A cute story: My wife and I were on an Australia/New Zealand cruise out of Sydney Australia a few years ago. We arrived in Sydney a few days before. We are Bears fans. We were in Sydney on Monday morning, as our cruise left I think on Wednesday. So, we wake up Monday morning in our hotel room, probably about nine in the morning, and I turn on the TV, and..................there is a live football game on. Although it was Monday morning in Sydney, it was noon Sunday back in Chicago Remember, Australia is a day ahead of us here in the States. So, I get to watch the Bears Packers live on TV from my bed in Sydney, Australia on Monday morning, I told my wife, life does not get any better than this. I am sitting on the bed, looking out my balcony window at the Sydney Opera House, watching the Bears. Life truly is good. Nothing to do with the question asked, but fitting anyway. Also, on our return flight from Auckland, New Zealand, we left around three in the afternoon, and arrived in Los Angeles at ten o clock in the morning, same day. We arrived in LA hours before we even left Auckland.

My comments above relate to S-Class only.

This question is asked a lot. On the S-Class, the concierge rooms are the same size as a regular veranda cabin. And, yes, you get a bottle of sparkling wine when you arrive in your room and you get canape's every afternoon delivered to your room. And a nice live flower in a bud vase delivered on day two or three. The sparkling wine is very low end, and is terrible. And the canape's are often not very good. So, for those two "perks", concierge is not worth it in our opinion. Now, a few minor things that my wife and I like. We always book a concierge cabin on the S-class ships. We have probably been on more than 30 Celebrity S-Class, and always booked the concierge cabins on Deck 10 midship port side. We have not cruised since August of 2019, but back then the towels were fluffier and bigger for concierge guests, which was nice. We take a lot of showers, in the morning and after our day out, and the fluffier thicker towels are noticeably better. Also, the robes are thicker and fluffier. Also, Celebrity gives every passenger a bag for belongings to go ashore or around the ship. The concierge bags are much nicer, at least they were three years ago. Also, the umbrella in the room is a nice golf size umbrella. You also get to use a pair of binoculars in the room, but they are not very high quality. So: Sparkling wine - Not worth it Canapes' - Not worth it Binoculars- not worth it Fluffier thicker towels - Yes, worth it Fluffier Thicker Robes - Yes, my wife says definitely worth it Supplied Bag - Yes, worth it Golf Umbrella - worth it We are also elite plus, so we do not know if it is concierge or elite plus that gives us more benefits, but you get priority tendering for the few ports that still use the tender procedure. Concierge gets an embarkation day lunch in the main dining room, so you need not fight the crowds in the Oceanview buffet. Many like this feature, we do not use it. We seem to always be first to board after suites, so we go to the the Ocean View buffet, pick a great location to settle in, and enjoy the hustle and bustle of that first day. Also, you get the services of a concierge host for reservations, etc. In our 30 or 40 cruises, we have never talked to the guy/gal. I guess some people like that service. One of the reasons we do not upgrade to a suite is that the last thing we want is to be bothered by our butler. We kind of know our way around the ships, make our own reservations, mostly pre-cruise, and if we really need something, Guest Services on Deck 3 is all we need. Lastly, and the main reason we get a concierge cabin is we like the location on the ship. Deck 10 is as high as you can go to have cabins both above and below you. I do not understand when the S-Class were built in the early 2000's, they had aqua class cabins on deck 11under the pool deck. You noticed they fixed that on the E-Class. Aqua rooms have cabins above and cabins below now, at least on the Edge. Deck 10 is an easy walk up two or three flights to the pool/Oceanview Café/ gym. So, we book concierge for location and the fluffier towels and robes. The bags are nice, but we already have like 30 or so in our closet at home. Paying more, but we're retired, so a few more bucks isn't really a big deal. In summary, we pay more for the location. After re-reading my points above, the "perks" of concierge are not really that great. Except, of course, the fluffier thicker towels and robes.

My wife and I have a March 2023 cruise on the Silhouette to the Southern Caribbean. There are still no excursions for St Croix, only one for St Marten, a few for Antigua, many for the Dominican Republic, and so on. Celebrity just seems to be slow at putting the excursions up. For our March cruise, a few more seem to get added every week. For example, Antigua had none listed a few weeks ago, then three showed up, and the other day another three showed up. They are populating slowly. Your cruise is in January, but they still can be figuring out their excursions. Keep looking every day. They will start populating. As far as being sold out, the Celerity excursion will still show up under the shore excursions, with a "Sold Out" banner placed over the top left of the picture. They will not take the excursion down if sold out.. It still shows, just that it is sold out. Hope that helps. We have been on over 30 Celebrity Cruises, and this is the latest that shore excursions seem to be showing up. Perhaps it is the return from Covid causing the problem, who knows. We have an ABC cruise leaving on September 17th, next month, on the Equinox, and the excursions do not seem to be as plentiful as we have had on prior ABC cruises. We love catamarans, whether just a sail to a beach or snorkel stops, but catamaran excursions seem to be very limited for our cruise next month. We booked a catamaran sail in Bonaire, but it seems to be more of a sail to a beach for the day, than a true relaxing catamaran sail.

Okay I just have to respond. Yes, we do carry-ons, even when we are gone for three weeks. My wife and I are 76 years old, and I have been flying pretty much all my business life . When you are gone for three days at a time on business, you get really good at packing quickly and efficiently. That logic just carries over to our current travels as we enjoy traveling in our retirement years. Now, we do not take time to retrieve our carry-ons as we deplane. My personal item is in my left hand (if I am on the left side of the plane), and as I stand up, my right hand reaches up and takes my carry-on from the overhead, And then I deplane. No lost motion waiting for me "to get my luggage". I will say that my wife and I deplane quicker with our carry-ons than most other people do as they leisurely just take their time even grabbing their purse from the overhead. I just had to respond. We deplane as quickly as anyone, as we are conscious that we do have our carry-ons and our personal items with us. I know this is not a forum to "vent", but those of you that blame carry-ons for delays in getting off the plane, that may be true, but certainly not for my wife and I. I too have seen those that wait to get out of their seat until the last moment, then stand in the aisle and reach down for their personal item under the seat, then have to go a few rows back to get their carry-ons from the overheads. We are always in the first boarding section after first class, so we always get to put our carry-ons right over our seats or those adjacent to ours. Enough. Let's go enjoy our cruise.

People tell us we are crazy, but we only take carry-ons whenever we travel anywhere. We have taken more than a dozen cruises out of Rome or Barcelona or Venice or Southampton or Amsterdam among others, and always take a 12 or 14 day cruise, plus spend a week in the port city before our cruise. We are away for twenty two or twenty three days. The carry-on goes overhead, and the "personal" item goes under the seat in front of you. Remember, those "personal" bags are pretty big. And, no, we do not smell on the cruise by over wearing our clothes. My wife wears cocktail dresses pretty much every night, and they easily pack into zip-lock bags. She wears each dress one or two times during the cruise. I, the guy, still take four or five pair of pants, and about seven polos, and that works for evenings. The trick for us is we have a packing list, by day, which lists everything we will be taking on our cruise. Incidentals as well as clothes. We do not have to follow the day by day clothing schedule, but it covers all the days and makes sure you do not overpack. When we get to the airport, we verify that both our carry-on and personal bag fit into the sample bag containers that are located throughout the check-in area. We are elite plus on Celebrity, which gives both my wife and I two free laundry bags per cruise. But, we do not give them anything good. We normally do one bag for each of us during our cruise. They get our laundry, which is made up of socks and underwear, and maybe a few t-shirts for me. My wife only gives them here underwear. She does not trust them with anything else. Some girls seem to have just a suitcase for their shoes alone. My wife looks great, but only takes three pair of fancy evening dress shoes, one pair for walking, and one pair for water activities. I can say that we just take carry-ons, and my wife always looks great, and I think I look neat and clean. In our younger years, when we traveled with our three kids, and we all took carry-ons, let me tell you people behind us when boarding were not happy with us. But, we always were quick, considerate, and stepped into our seats, out of the aisle, while putting our stuff overhead. And , over the years, connecting flights have been messed up, and our luggage surely would have been lost. We have had connecting flights from Warsaw, Paris, Heathrow, & Frankfort among others that have been missed over the years. Glad to have only had carry-ons.

This may sound like it is being posted by a really old guy, and, guess what, it is!!!! I have always checked in for my cruises using my computer. The only item that needed downloaded to the on-line check in process was our photos. Everything else was just input information. Now we have a Celebrity App to be accessed via a smart phone. Here is my question(s). Can I still check in via my computer? I can download my photos and my vaccine information using this process. I know I still have to access the app on my phone to use on the ship. After I check in using my computer, and I download the Celebrity App, will the information I entered via the computer transfer to the Celebrity App on my phone?

My wife and I have a cruise on the Equinox leaving Fort Lauderdale on September 17, 2022. When I sign in to my account, it says that check in is "not yet available". I always thought check-in began at 90 days out from sailing. We are now less than two months from sailing, and I still cannot check-in on-line. Am I missing something, is my on-line cruise screwed up for some reason, or have they changed check in to maybe 45 days out due to this Covid thing. Help! Should I be able to check-in for a September 17th Caribbean cruise?

If you have Celebrity shore excursions already booked for Aruba and Bonaire, for example, will they be cancelled or just moved to a new time at the changed port structure? For example, we have a morning catamaran in Aruba, and we now do not get there until 11:30 A.M., so will they just keep the excursion and change the time, or will they cancel it, and have me just reschedule it later? Surely this has happened in the past to someone. What's the answer?

One more point. You cruise the itinerary., So, whichever ship has the itinerary you want, you cannot go wrong with any Celebrity ship. As we are getting older, and have cruised a lot, the ship is more of our destination now, not the ports, so that is why I commented above. But, you first cruise the itinerary, than the ship.

Both are terrific ships. We have been on both many times. We've cruised the Summit New England - Canada cruise to Quebec out of Port Liberty three times (all in September) and loved the ports. The Summit was the only Celebrity ship doing that itinerary. Perhaps because it is a little smaller, being one of the four M-Class ships built between 2000 and 2004. (Millennium, Constellation, Infinity are the other three). The Summit is comfortable, but I prefer the newer S-class ships, as I like the Grand Foyer layout much better on the S-Class ships. The Grand Foyer and surrounding areas are much more open than the M-class. I say "newer" S-Class in quotes, as even the S-class are getting older, built between 2008 and 2012. We have been on all five S-class and all four M-class, and like the openness of the S-class better. The before dinner cocktails either at the martini bar or the lobby bar off the Atrium seems much nicer to us than the pre-dinner drinks in a low ceiling room on the M-class outside the main dining room. Also, the S-Class ships have the quiet romantic Ensemble Lounge for a pre-dinner (or after dinner) cocktail, while no such venue exists on the M-Class ships. For reference, do you like the casinos in old downtown Las Vegas or the ones on the strip? Low ceilings in town, and more wide open on the strip. That maybe is a good analogy between M-class and S-class. By the way, we have been on the Edge twice, and do not like the layout at all. Maybe a minority view, but the Grand Foyer area has everything going on in a single space, and the Eden area looked nice, but did not seem functional. And I did not like the infinite veranda. Just seemed like a cabin with a window that opens. We much prefer the veranda. But, since the Edge and the three newer E-class ships ready to sail are the future of Celebrity, we like the brand, so we maybe need to start liking the E-class.