phoenix_dream

Had vouchers for the first time on our last cruise and I am now a big fan. No complaints, but if I could manage it the way I wanted to I would make a couple changes. First, I would honor it anywhere liquor is sold. As long as you stay within the dollar amounts why not. As long as the waiters or sommeliers keep the coupons and turn them in and get their 15% gratuity (I presume they still do??) then what is the difference. Second, I would eliminate the time constraint. What difference does it make if they are used at 7:30 versus 6:30? If they think this would increase the usage too much I would (gasp:eek:) go to two coupons instead of three. The flexibility would be worth it to me. On our cruise the bars were absolutely jammed from 5-7 - sometimes nearing standing room only.

My opinion only. Once again, not complaining, just explaining how I would tweak it if I was in charge:)

I have not been to this port, but in general the last tender time is a half hour or so before departure. As long as you are in line, they will not leave without you. It is always a risk to do private tours, as if the tour is late the ship will not wait for you. An hour seems enough time in general, but I would say it depends on the logistics of the tour itself, as well as the back-up facilities of the tour operator. Is this a port where you could fairly easily catch a taxi back if the tour was running late? If not, does the tour operator have back-up options such as other buses or taxis or so forth. Does the tour go into remote areas of the country where it would be difficult to find other transportation, or does it stay fairly close to the port? You can go onto sites like TripAdvisor and check their reviews of the tour company and get a read on their reliability but of course even a slew of good reviews does not guarantee there will be no incidents. Last and not least, how far away is the next port and worst case, what would be your options to get there. All of these are points to consider. Sorry I could not answer your specific question.

One more consideration - if you do go make sure not to overuse the 'good' arm. I have not had this surgery (thank goodness, based on what I have read here!!) but did injure my shoulder a couple years ago (inflamed rotator cuff). I could not believe how long it took to heal (about 1 1/2 years). One thing I had to be very careful of was to not abuse the other shoulder due to my frustration at not being able to do what I wanted to with both. Even with help travel can present a lot of stress to someone working with injuries as other people are impatient and stressed out themselves and may bring some 'peer pressure' to do more than you really should be doing. I love the idea of the sling - it definitely will help keep others aware and away, and perhaps a bit more patient. Good luck. Hope all goes well.

I don't recall the tea brand these days, but if you are a 'tea snob' then I recommend you just pack some of your fav's. Takes up little space and weight so why not. That way you know you will enjoy.

The great advantage of Select Dining is meeting different people but also being able to wear repeat formal wear & no one evens knows:D

And some of us older folks have come to the realization that even if someone sees you in the same outfit more than once who the heck cares:D

I also agree with the previous posters that people tend to dress up more the first formal night. One exception - if the first formal night happens to fall on a day where the ship has been in a fantastic port, then it seems to be a bit less formal. But this rarely happens as it is usually the first full day which is usually a sea day (at least for Caribbean, Alaska, or west coast cruises, the only ones I have been on so far)

What Is NOT an Exciting Deal....

 

when cruise lines offer their "free drink" packages as a perk and then raise the overall cost of the cruise. Saw it happen both on HAL and Celebrity.

And I have been on a couple cruises where the price was exactly the same pre and post perk offering. I confess I remain skeptical, but honestly I have seen it work the other way - meaning same price before and after. What can happen sometimes is that the perk offering can suddenly push up the bookings substantially, which in turn then drives the price up as we know the prices are driven by supply and demand. Not saying you have not seen it happen, just that it is not necessarily a given all the time.

It has been a number of years so it may have changed, but I have sailed on Easter Sunday a few times. There were no decorations, and no special meals. I had hoped for a more 'Easter-like' dinner in the MDR but it was the usual. I recall there being a minister or priest onboard who did do an Easter service, but that was it. Perhaps others have more current information.

I did the teeth whitening. Trust me, it was not strong enough to cause any sensitivity (and I have had sensitivity from using things like whitening strips). DH swore it whitened my teeth a couple shades but I honestly could not tell the difference. Personally, I would never do it again.

My main considerations are three: am I locked into particular dates due to work schedule, am I booking a cruise that is likely to sell out, and how many flight choices are available for the dates I am looking at. The answers to those questions tell me whether to book early and watch for price drops or to wait and take a chance. Those who can drive to ports of course have significantly more options to choose from than those of us who cannot. Same goes for many retirees who do not have to coordinate around kids vacations or work schedules. So there is truly no one right way to answer the question of early or late - the only realistic answer is 'it depends'.

I'm not sure if this applies to the OP but I do know people who were totally turned off to posts referring to being Elite. I think its really an unfortunate choice of names since it makes some feel their status is inferior and the fear it will be reflected in their treatment onboard. Definitely won't be obvious difference in treatment by staff, so don't let that affect your perception of your cruise experience.

 

I would suggest the OP contact previous cruise lines to apply for their loyalty programs. That way as you try out lines you will have membership to begin building credit for when you select the couple of cruise lines you prefer. Since I choose my cruise based on ports and price I have membership in 3 loyalty programs, with Celebrity, Royal, and NCL.

I understand your point - even most of us 'Elite' folks really hate that name. You're almost paranoid to mention it in a posting even if it is relevant to the comment because some people presume you are saying it to brag or lord it over them or something. The very, very vast majority of people who have reached that level are normal, friendly, everyday people like anyone else and they also would never treat anyone else with less than respect, regardless how many times they have cruised. The OP need have no worries about feeling like a back of the bus passenger.

I have mixed feelings about this issue. On the one hand, I think when paying for a line like Celebrity one has every right to expect the ship to be clean, and most especially an area where one makes skin contact with the surface. If it is mold, then it is definitely an issue for those like myself who have allergies to mold.

At the same time, I can personally relate to issues in keeping grout sparkling clean. We have a small interior bathroom (ie, no windows) off our master bedroom (40 yr old house). We are meticulous in our cleaning and yet the grout and silicone caulking around our shower stall get dirty looking within a day or two of our serious scrubbing. We have tried everything to keep it looking sparkling clean and nothing works. We leave the ventilation fan on for a good period of time to try to get the humidity out. We are very clean people, and yet our shower always looks like it is dirty or moldy, even when it is not. Just saying all is not always what it appears and despite the less than inviting looks, the shower area may be cleaner than you think it is.

You can the morning flight with no problem. I look for a 930 flight ideally as we are always off the ship in plenty of time. Yes there is chance disaster strikes and you need to move a flight but it's a small chane . I have not had a flight leaving past 10am in 5 years and have never had any problem at all.

And yet of the dozen or so times I have sailed out of FLL on one we did not even start disembarkation until after 9:30. Good luck making a flight that leaves before you are even off the ship. It can happen. It does happen. One day it will happen to you as well. It's just a matter of time. Your business to take the risk but eventually your luck will run out.

BEAV, Thank you for the info, although your example of upgrading from Sky Suite to Royal Suite already makes you more 'special' than many of us:D.

I am confused. The original post implies the daughter would not be eating with her parents except for the wedding night. Huh?? OP, please clarify. Were you suggesting she would be eating alone the other nights, or were you suggesting you would all forgo Blu except for the wedding night and eat elsewhere on the other nights?

As to food, I agree that teenager or not, Blu would be enjoyable food. Also, they have a great breakfast menu.

Every time we have upgraded at embarkation (which is several times), we've been referred to Guest Relations and it was handled there. Do yourself a favor and monitor inventory up until the last day or two when your sailing gets pulled off the website. Jot down available cabin numbers in the category or categories you'd consider upgrading to. Don't be one of the gazillions of people who all just slouch up to Guest Relations and ask "any upgrades?" !! ;) Do your home work!

 

Good luck and have a wonderful cruise.

But at what cost? The current website price? A discount? Are you a 'special' traveler (meaning, lots and lots of cruises on X, or always booking expensive cabins, etc.). Just wondering.

I would put the odds at 80/20 in favor of being able to make the earlier flight, all things considered. So the question is - what would you do if you were in the 20%? Are there seats on a later flight? What kind of change fee would you incur and is it worth it to you?

As has been said by numerous posters on other threads, including myself, it is of no consequence if others tell you they make it all the time. We have been delayed in FLL where disembarkation did not even start until after 9:30. It happens. Is it actually 20%, or is it 10%, or is it 25%? Who knows. We have also had the airline change our flight time, in one case bumping it up more than half an hour when we already were concerned about making a flight - we ended up running through the airport and literally were the last passengers on the plane. It all boils down to your appetite for risk and what is an acceptable back-up plan.

Good use of soap and water, followed by a squirt of the better hand sanitizers like Purell Advanced will keep your hands clean. But the sad truth is that noro viruses are extremely virulent, much more so than many other illnesses. It take just one tiny particle to infect you. If you are in a rest room or elsewhere where someone has been ill there are particles in the air and sorry to be gross but if you can smell it then guess what is already in your body. May or may not make you ill but you have been exposed. I only say this because sometimes on these threads there is so much accusation that the virus is spreading because people are not following good cleanliness protocol. And I agree 100% that doing so can make it worse and spread the virus faster. But often you can wash your hands diligently and often, avoid touching things, avoid the buffet etc etc and still get sick. Currently there is a vaccine for this being tested - it can't come soon enough!!

We normally sail the Caribbean due to cost and lack of vacation days to do a longer cruise, so we often spend a good portion of the port days on the ship. We sleep in, enjoy a leisurely breakfast, and then for the nicer islands we may walk around a couple hours or perhaps go to a beach (although we are not big beach people and would just as soon spend time in the pools onboard). These types of cruises for us are so very, very relaxing. When we can finally graduate to locations new to us such as Europe, we will definitely book excursions to see countries we have never seen before. Each option is enjoyable in its own way.

You can do it with either' date=' I would assume. They don't know or care when you make reservations whether or not you have a package, as you are not billed up front. Book now, then buy the package on board, if you choose to do so.[/quote']

 

You know what they say when you assume:):). A couple cruises ago we did this (that is, booked through the Captains Club line), but as we were booking a package we absolutely could not book all of our reservations ahead of time - only the first one. We tried to book the rest ASAP when we boarded (early) and had a lot of trouble getting good times and days. Someone mentioned packages perhaps getting specialized treatment. I would argue the opposite. You give up the privilege of getting the best times as a trade off for getting better prices. In the future, if I book a package I think I will pre-book my reservations and then try to convert to a package onboard.

In the US we would call this a curling iron, along with those that are similar but without brushes. Should be no problem bringing it onboard.

We used to always book onboard, but stopped doing that with all the sales that required 'new bookings'. Then we booked online, but saw TA's offering a lot of extra perks. Now we usually use a large online TA but there are disadvantages. Primary are two: An extra cancellation charge if we needed to do that, and most important - the inability of this particular TA to be available on week-ends. Sometimes special prices or rooms come available on the week-end and we want to grab them but have to take a chance and wait until Monday or lose all the extra perks. Very frustrating. Land based TAs are usually available at least on Saturday mornings, but few offer the same kind of deals as the online TA's.

Contrarily, on my last Solstice cruise it was jammed. Had to wait up to half hour or more if we wanted to come during 'prime time'. Breakfast was ok although service was only good when we sat by the window - otherwise it was hit or miss. I guess it just depends on the cruise. Overall, I still liked it, and would do it again if the AQ price was not too much higher than a balcony. I liked the breakfast in particular.

It never hurts to call the media officer to ask if they can put on the game on somewhere. Usually if they have the satellite feed for it they will, unless someone else has already beaten you to the punch and asked for another game. But be aware their satellite options are limited, although sometimes in port they have more options.

Most true upgrades (which by my definition mean a call out of the blue telling you that you have been upgraded to a higher level cabin - as opposed to people who purchase guarantees and consider it an upgrade if they get a higher level cabin than the lowest they could possibly receive) are indeed very few and far between. If stories on these boards are true, it seems that most upgrades go to one of two types of cruisers - those brand new to Celebrity or those who often sail on Celebrity in the higher category suites. Based on this, you have a slightly better chance than the average Celebrity cruiser, albeit still a slim one. It couldn't hurt to mention the honeymoon, but there are so many celebrations of major events I doubt that helps with the upgrade fairy. I am another person who has sailed Celebrity many, many times (24) but never got any upgrades.

I hardly think a little rust on the balcony gives the OP an answer as to whether the ship is good or not. Geez. If that was representative of the upkeep of the entire ship I would agree, but I seriously doubt that it was. Correct me if I am wrong. I don't want to sail on a rundown ship either but a bit of rust here and there on the outside of the ship?? If this is so onerous I suspect few ships would meet your standards after they have been at sea for more than a few weeks.

As has been said, all the M class ships have the same design and therefore generally the same options for entertainment, so if another M class did not satisfy then this one likely will not either. Many of us love the M class ships as we feel they are more 'classic', more comfortable in design (better placed elevators, smaller, more intimate, more classically designed bars like Rendevous for dancing rather than the ridiculous concept of using the foyer), and of course for the ultimate in relaxation, the T-pool.