Jim_Iain

You are right. We are definitely the Glass Half Full type of traveler. We always try to find a silver lining. Yes - Summit just about a year ago today. That was one of our favorite cruises.

When you mentioned that Restaurant in Buenos Aires, I started salivating. We were planning to return on 12/2024 but as you know Celebrity cancelled their deployment to Buenos Aires. I think Africa may be on the agenda sooner rather than later.

Our trip will be a week from today. We make it a practice to always fly in at least a day early. As many of you know the airline rates have really jumped in the past year. We almost always fly First Class but this time will be flying coach from San Jose to Milwaukee but was able to get a decent First Class on Delta coming home from Toronto. On the good side I'm a 2 Million Mile flyer on United and have Gold Status for life for both Iain and I. This enables us to select seat in Premium Plus and free luggage at no cost. As there are no direct flights we will be connecting through Denver.

For our first Ponant cruise we chose Le Bello

Thanks Kim - Really glad you popped in. We are looking forward to visiting you lovely country in December. I have been in Auckland about a 1/2 dozen times but never out of the airport. Can't wait.

I just kinda linked 2 reservations yesterday. We are traveling with friends from Australia - I asked them for their reservation numbers. Using the Link Function under Reservations I put in one of their Last Names, Date of Birth and Reservation number - It linked Tried making a reservation for 4 at Eden and rejected them because our reservations were in different currencies. I was surprised that I could click on their name and it showed me their account including how much OBC they had. I was able to book a table for 2 at the same time I booked our table for 2 and had the option of charging it to their account or enter a credit card. I did a credit card because I was inviting them to my Birthday Party at Eden. In May we treated Iain's Sister and BIL for a cruise and booked and paid for both in US dollars. When I linked it rejected saying different currency. Contacted my TA and he fixed it and linked them. After that I was able to book all of us on excursions and dinner reservations at the same time.

I was going to look at the current sailing of Edge and looked at activities - Celebrity has "Updated" their app and now have different tabs for activities - Took a while but did find some listed for September. For Silhouette they have the original format an list the same movies but show times. About my Father Champions Creed 3 Love Again The Super Mario Bros. Movie Some of the ones listed on Silhouette in Celebrity Central and Rooftop listed under Entertainment at 11:00, 2:30 and 5 PM Jerry and Marge Go Large Dirty Dancing Elemental Elvis Whitney Houston: I wanna Dance with Somebody Transformers: Rise of the Beasts Downtown Abbey: A new Era Fast X The Flash

I will have to feel that one out with Iain. We love dressing for dinner so no problem with their dress code. We initially didn't like their "Class Structure" and separation but I guess that is the direction many cruise lines have done with the Suite within a Suite concept. There are so many options and so little time.

We did the Singapore to Rome via Dubai a couple years ago and loved it. At first I wasn't excited about India but we took a side trip to the Taj and changed my opinion of India - What a wonderful diverse country.

To help begin to understand the difference in size of a "Super Yacht' explorer size ships a picture is worth a 1,000 words. 92 Staterooms all Suites - The small size of the ships allow them to get into places unavailable to larger ships.

Getting Started with Ponant What better way to get started investigating a new cruise line than Cruise Critic’s Cruise Line Forums. I logged onto Ponant’s Forum which is a much smaller forum than Celebrity’s. I introduced myself with a couple questions. I was really pleased how helpful and welcoming they were to a new member. I found that asking anything was quickly answered. Difference: As would be expected the Ponant Forum is much smaller and CC does not host Roll Calls for Ponant. To give a scale to the difference Ponant has 14 pages of discussion as oppose to Celebrity at 6,062. As many of you know, so many of those we met on Cruise Critic follow along on our live posts and have become really good virtual as well as in personal friends. I really like the Ponant forum but afraid my post may be overpowering with 50 -100K hits. On the other hand, I would like to drive some traffic and potential clients to Ponant and their wonderful forum. Ponant’s Website – Next up I went to Ponant’s website to start understanding their itineraries and ships. I found their site to be fairly well organized and easy to get around. Anyone that has been to Celebrity’s Website know it can be difficult to navigate and lots of conflicting and broken links. Difference - I spent much of my life in Software and Customer Web Experience while working for both US and European Systems so familiar with both logic and sometimes expectation. I find Celebrity site to be painful and lots of patchwork logic which definitely affect my experience. I find Ponant to be very logistical and easy to navigate. At time some of their logic is quirky but you learn it fairly quickly. Ponant does suffer from broken links and lack of updating as does Celebrity. An example was trying to find out the amount of down payment and cancellation penalties. When I was searching I could find all kinds of thing about cruise with confidence that had expired months ago but finally had to read the fine print of the T&C to answer my question.

I think it will be an adventure and actually starting to get excited. I keep saying to Iain --- what if we hate it. LOL

I really haven't visited that neck of the woods in many years. At one point my parents were living in Grand Rapids and when I came home for Summer Vacation got a job at a resort on Lake Michigan (Muskegon area). Really didn't get to see much as my parents moved while I was working and had to drive to Upstate New York at the end of summer to find my new "home".

Thanks Mike - Always enjoy you following along. I hope we get to meet at some point.

I grew up in fare Upstate NY when in 1st and 2nd grade. We use to say the Pledge of Allegiance in both French and English but have forgotten all my Canadian French - Except - Je ne sais pas and je dois aller à la salle de bain Both very useful

Thanks Rocky - I will try to keep this upbeat and not a Groan and Moan about Celebrity. I think there has been way too much of this recently on the Celebrity Board.

We decided to try out Ponant at the recommendation of some very close friends from Australia who sail Ponant regularly but also join us on Celebrity. Actually, we will be sailing again in November 2023 from Singapore to Sydney. One of the main reasons we decided to try a new line after sailing Celebrity exclusively for 22 years is that while the Zenith benefits had been wonderful recently, they have diluted the benefits for their most loyal cruisers. As Suite Guest with the benefits, we once got as a Zenith member for free, we are now paying for them in the cost of the Suite All Inclusive program. In my humble opinion, Celebrity could offer Zenith’s the ability to book Suites without perks which might be a compromise. From reading many posts on the Ponant Thread we booked knowing the Ponant Expedition and Explorer experience was totally different than the main cruise lines. I will try to keep this in mind during my live post. Before I get started, I will tell you a little bit about us. I’m in my early 70’s while Iain is in his late 60’s. We have been together for 34 years and one of the first legally married gays in California. We live in Sunnyvale, California which is in the middle of Silicon Valley. We share our neighborhood with Apple, LinkedIn and Google. We are very active and I walk 10 miles a day while Iain walks 5. I’m interested in seeing how I accomplish this on Ponant. With the port intensive itinerary this may not be difficult. Our first cruise was in 2001 on Celebrity Millennium right after 9/11. I was totally against cruising. I spent my career traveling extensively by Air all over the world and the idea of being “LOCKED” on a ship for a WHOLE WEEK was enough to make me panic. Needless to say Iain talked me into a cruise, or told me I was going I can’t remember which. In less than a week I was converted to a cruise addict and never looked back. We liked the Celebrity product and never really saw a reason to stray until now. With the exception of our first cruise we have always traveled in suites but did travel a couple times in AQ after hitting Zenith as we had use of the Retreat Suite Lounge as a Zenith benefit and could book AQ at about ½ the price of a suite. We found we really liked AQ and their Blu restaurant.

Ok - First up I will post the Itinerary .

I have cautiously looked at Crystal. I had a booking with them when they went belly up and wasn't pleased how difficult they made it to be reimbursed. KInda left a sour taste in my mind. I heard from some friends they were on Equinox with you either last week or this week.

It is good to hear you enjoyed Edge. We have not sailed her in about 2 years. I'm looking forward to trying some of the new items on their recently released menus.

I really interesting to compare an All Suites line to Celebrity. Our room is not what I would consider a suite and much smaller than the Suites on Celebrity. I really enjoy Celebrity's CS and above with a separate bedroom. It can come in handy when someone, not mentioning any names, starts snoring like a Sea Lion.

I was a bit concerned with the French Speaking issues some have had but I understand they are pretty good at accommodating both English / French speaking guests. I do have to admit my favorite Cuisine is French so that's a positive. Iain speaks French fluently so at least he can help if necessary.

To be honest Charla's live post from MSC Yacht Club was a real eye opener. We really have an open mind. I hate to say it is like cheating for the first time and discovering you LIKE IT.

Thanks and welcome. Hope you jump in often it really helps keeping the Live Post interesting. We are on Le Belot in a Prestige Suite on Deck 6, unless they give us a gratis upgrade on our first cruise.... LOL

It is this year and "World Cruise" is always a bit of a stretch. The cruise is this year and is 52 Nights in 4 segments - October 30 - December 21, 2023 Segments - Rome to Dubai Dubai to Singapore Singapore to Sydney Sydney to New Zealand and back