ElectricBallroom

43 minutes ago, bnurick said:

DCL and will do without my nightly craps game.  Bad asthma, unfortunately.

Make sure you skip the main showroom, if vaping aggravates your asthma. The atmospheric effects that make the lights and lasers look good are based on propylene glycol, the main liquid in vapes.  

32 minutes ago, kittyraptors said:

Also, how far is resort world from the pier and how long did the tram take? We love to walk so I’m wondering if we can avoid a long wait for the tram on the way back by walking. 

I measured it on google earth (which shows a Virgin ship at port) and it's .77m. 

There's Radio Beach on the South end of the island. Forgot about that one. It's 2 miles and there are taxis. 

1 minute ago, kittyraptors said:

Aww man this makes me nervous. We only booked it because the pool looks amazing and we’re doing beach stuff for the other ports, so we want to go to the pool. 

If I had to go to Bimini again, I would go to the beach that’s immediately to the right of the ship. It is next to a sewage treatment plant, but I think it’s far enough away that it hopefully won’t smell. At that beach, there are some enterprising Bahamians that will provide a chair and umbrella, and even some drinks, for a fee. 
 

I don’t want to scare anybody off about the sewage plant, but there is another beach, just next to resorts world. It’s a public beach, and similarly, enterprising locals  have chairs, umbrellas, drinks, and even some snacks. I talked to a couple that went to that beach, and they enjoyed their interactions with the gentleman that helped them and had a great time for about a third of the money.

On 5/6/2023 at 7:43 AM, LadyBerard said:

After doing more research, I booked Ultimate Beach Experience - Resort World Day Pass.  Total cost with Celebrity for 2 of us was just under $90 - we have OBC with Celebrity, so it makes sense.  It includes beach chairs plus one drink each.  I had read on tripadvisor that it cost $75 for two chairs with an umbrella on Paradise Beach.  It's extremely uncomfortable for me just to sit/lie on a towel, so chairs are a necessity.  

 

If anybody here has done this excursion, I'd love to read more about it.  Thanks!

I did this same excursion last week. My advice is to cancel it right now and stay on the ship or look for an independent excursion that doesn’t involve that Resorts World property. 
 

Virgin is smart enough to staff the beach club with their people when they stop at Bimini, not Celebrity. Our FB group, as well as a Reddit group, have dozens of stories just like we experienced. The staff was horrible, from the welcome desk to the bars and “food”. They don’t want to be there and they take it out on the guests.

No one would take guests to the beach, nor provide an umbrella. Few people got their welcome drink and the food service was like a church camp snack bar. I heard people talking about buying drinks, because the custom wouldn’t be accepted. It took some folks over an hour to get on the tram back to the port. Why? There was no organized line and a couple hundred people left at lunchtime because they were not having a good time. It was awful . 
 

The beach is spectacular, everything else shite. 

1 hour ago, Fedic said:

My wife and I were on the 7/16 sailing of the Eclipse.  While there were no physical signs as shown on previous Equinox cruises, this was in the rotation on the screen of every single slot machine:

 

 

There are no markings in the casino indicating what they consider to be the port side, since most of the casino is located on the starboard side of the ship, with shops and a main walkway on the port side.

 

I was on the same sailing, and saw this same thing on the display. What I did not see was one single person vaping in the casino. 

I did see passengers sneakily huffing their vapes indoors in other places. I also saw two crew vaping, one of the hot glass guys in his work area, the other an officer in the crew area (on the tour). 

I cant believe that there 35 pages of people saying they’re going to quit Celebrity over this policy. Which other cruise line will you go to? Which one has a truly non-smoking, non-vaping casino? 

I have the Verizon pass, but found zero coverage on Grand Cayman. This was in July . 

I got off Radiance this morning and the MDR turkey looked better than that. We guessed that it was hand sliced from breasts. It was okay. 
 

The Lido had a nice looking turkey. The young lady that was carving it didn’t seem familiar with the bird and the slices weren’t great. It tasted about the same as my grandmas. 

The Thanksgiving turkey looked like that in the Miracle MDR last year. I didn’t see the Lido.

When we did that same itinerary back in November, it was expressly forbidden to do this. 

We got off at 7:28a three weeks ago. Our flight was 10:30a. We sweat it the whole cruise, b7t it worked out great, we had one bag to check at MIA and we’re through precheck and at the gate at 8:30. 

We were on two weeks ago and found ourselves randomly looking for spots that were too hot. There were only some small, tight areas where it felt warm. None of the public assembly spaces felt hot.We were never uncomfortable. 

We stepped off Horizon at 7:30a last Sunday and were in the security line at MIA at 8:15a. Carnival knew that we had an early flight and left a note in our room that we could debark as soon as they called the first group. We were sweating it before the cruise, but it was fine. 

$20 OBC for the trouble.
 

I went to high school in Miami , so we rented a car for cheap and are making the most of it. Two of my high school rock band friends are still playing , thirty years later, so we say them last night. Today will be lunch at Jaxon’s in Dania and a quick trip to Publix. 

Did you hear any discussion regarding todays embarkation being delayed? We were supposed to get on in two hours, but CCL emailed, called, and texted everyone to tell us to show up four hours after our boarding time. 
 

The Facebook group for the cruise is buzzing with rumors. The two big ones are they the boat has to be clear of all passengers due to USCG inspection . The other that it’s being sanitize because of a high number of CV cases. 

I’ve posted my feelings before, but I won’t be buying binding packages again. It’s just a poor value and I missed the experience of the MDR. We felt like we had to eat at Chops and Jamie’s because we’d spent the money. 

I have better Italian, Steak, and Teppanyaki back at home. 

There are three or four hibachi tables, as well as six or eight seats at the sushi bar. 

Hibachi is not included in the package, leaving you with Jamie’s and Chops. When I sailed two months ago, each of us got a $35 credit to use at the al-la-carte restaurants (only choice; Izumi Sushi), so my girlfriend watched me eat $70 worth of sushi. 

There were a handful of hibachi tables, but sushi was just at the bar. We showed up and out our name in and they asked us to wait in the adjacent lounge. When the bar was empty, we asked if they forgot about us. Then we were sat. Sushi is first come -first served. 

If I go Royal again, I won’t spend a dime in any specialty restaurant. 

Mariner does have sushi. We had Ultimate Dining for our four night, we got dinner every night at Chops or Jamie’s, plus $35 a person to use at al a carte restaurants. I ate 75 bucks in Sushi myself. 

I regret buying the package. Two dinners in each of the restaurants was boring and we felt like we had to use it, since we’d paid extra. I miser the MDR. 

21 hours ago, Host Clarea said:

Same. I did this last month and really enjoyed it, 

 

We enjoyed this:  https://www.trubahamianfoodtours.com/

 

Recommended to us by Carol (Merion Mom), thanks again Carol!

 

 

 

They DGAF . I was on Mariner three weeks ago and I can tell you that people dressed up very casually in Jamie’s Italian and Chops. 

Our Mariner itinerary was the second or third to use the dock a few weeks ago. With regard to the food, I’d read the reviews and was expecting little selection of food and that it would come from the ship. It was quite a surprise to see that there’s a kitchen and several buffet lines. They had salads, barbecued meats, sides, desserts, and even a soft serve machine. The restaurant staff from the ship was running it. 

We we weren’t expecting much, so we had a big, late breakfast in the Windjammer that day. We had some fruit, cookies, and soft serve . It was a nice surprise. 

Oh, the food lines closed down around 3:00. Our visit to Coco Cay had been cancelled, then uncancelled, however. I’d expect it to close closer to 1:00 normally. 

Last year on vision, the code was on a little card with our keys. Last week on Mariner, it was not. I went to the Voom booth and the dude there wrote it down for me. 

I’ve been on both and have found that the entertainment on Royal was better. Beyond that, it’s pretty close to being same-same. 

When we were shopping for the cruise that we did last week, the real determinant was that Royal has the private island, Coco Cay. 

I’m on that itinerary right now and they DGAF. Turns out that The Love Boat was a lie. No mention of it at all and you can dress however you want in any venue. Maybe Chef’s Table is restricting some, but the specialty restaurants are empty. 

Last night, wedesnday, was anecdotally the most dressy, that I noticed. There were more photo opportunities compared to the other two nights and some people were getting fancied up for the pictures. 

The captain announced that they were brought back on board and were safe about 10 minutes ago . 

I’m on Mariner right now. This afternoon, I talked to a woman who is doing B2B2B (this cruise is the middle one) and she told me that the dock is open and that Mariner docked there last weekend. She mentioned that it seems impossible that a tender would be able to dock, leaving the main pier as the only way onto the island.