karmamule

We were in a regular Yacht Club suite on Meraviglia and Seaside and those were both equally restrained. I can't be 100% sure but it's probably a safe bet that all Seaside, Meraviglia, and Meraviglia Plus class ships all have the toned-down design. The videos I've seen of their new oasis-rivaling World Europa also appears to have similar decor. In general anything launched after 2016 (when the Seaside was launched) should be safe.

Original muster was at a single point in time, whereas for e-muster they have to have crew stationed at each muster point for 2 to 3 hours, so I can see why it would demand more total crew-person-hours than traditional muster.

It's funny to see how the older MSC ships looked. As a point of comparison, here's a pic of the main living area for the Royal Suite we had on the MSC Seashore. (The bedroom was equally subdued).

Yes it is. They've started sending us e-mails with deals on Explora cruises.

The newer MSC ships we've been on all are polished/shiny verging on gaudy depending on your tastes. We think they just avoid being gaudy and love the look. But, from what we've seen of their older (pre-Seaside) ships they definitely were a bit comical in some of their decor choices. The cabins in newer ships like the Seashore are actually quite understated, with lots of muted gray tones and much simpler decor. (A little too much so in my opinion, I'd have liked more personality in our Seashore cabin) Though I must say even on their newer ships the Italians seem to like their odd chair designs sprinkled about the ship. In any case, happy to hear you're having a fun time so far! MSC Yacht Club service really has been top notch for us on all of our cruises with them. We're giving Celebrity a chance in our cruise next week but as you now see the bar is set pretty high for them to replace MSC in our affections, at least when it comes to suite-level service.

For us a limited selection of food will be ok if what we do get is tasty and enjoyable. It sounds like you've been generally happy with the food you've had so far, is that true? Being first time Celebrity cruisers we won't have past experiences to compare too, so just the mainstream lines we've been on. In any case, a 'go with the flow' attitude really does help get over the inevitable snags or things lacking here or there as long as it isn't a constant parade of disappointments. Happy to hear you're enjoying things. 🙂

As our next cruise gets close it's wonderful to stoke anticipation by digging in to a 'live from' thread. Lots of fun detail and pics so far, looking forward to more and hope you have a wonderful time! (Also, as someone maybe 2 or 3 years away from retirement this is a wonderful glimpse how I want my life to be sooner rather than later! 🙂)

Very much looking forward to reading this! We've been on 3 cruises in MSC's Yacht Club (on the Seaside, Meraviglia, and Seashore) and had a great time on all of them. MSC definitely has a different feel in comparison to other cruise lines but the Yacht Club experience has been excellent for us. We were in the Haven for the first time on the NCL Joy recently and, while very enjoyable, wasn't as good an experience for us. The Yacht Club's facilities are more comprehensive and their service was top-notch. (Especially on the Seashore) We'll be on our first Celebrity cruise a week from Saturday on the Apex in an Edge Villa and will be doing the same as you but "in the other direction": since we're very familiar with the Yacht Club we'll be looking to see how the Celebrity Retreat compares for us. We'll be flying out to that cruise right around the time you'll be wrapping up the MSC portion of your travels so it'll be fresh in our minds as we fly out. Hope you have a GREAT time on both cruises! 😊

Count me as one more among many who greatly appreciated his and your posts and the calm, factual, and above all so very helpful nature of them. May you and your family cherish your best memories of him, help each other through these difficult times, then journey onward to future shores and adventures.

As first time Celebrity cruisers (with that cruise just 12 days away!) we won't have past Celebrity cruises to compare to, rather we'll be interested in how things compare to our past cruises on RCL, NCL, and MSC. (We generally book suites so we'll be comparing to Coastal Kitchen, and the restaurants in the Haven and Yacht Club). We're hoping Celebrity will be better than those, so that'll be our measuring stick. I'm not sure if my reading the unhappy posts on CC will bias me in any way, so I'm not planning to tell my partner Rich about these posts, and see what his reaction is to food in OVC, Luminae, and the specialty restaurants. (We probably won't do any dinners in any of the 4 MDRs this first trip). We also have an 11 day Canada/New England trip on the Summit this fall, staying in an Aqua class cabin so I'm sure we'll be dining at Blu frequently for that cruise. This is Celebrity's chance to win some new loyal fans. If cost saving measures haven't hurt their quality too much we'll be planning more cruises with them, but if we don't feel the benefits of the extra $$$ over the other lines we'll go back to them. We also are going on Virgin's Valiant Lady in April and have heard very good things about their food from people who have sailed with them, so that will be an interesting comparison too!

Thanks much for this! We're on the Apex this January so it was helpful to hear someone else's view on it. I was debating if we'd want to try hitting up a couple of the MDRs to see what they're like during our cruise but you have me reconsidering that. Maybe we'll stick to specialty restaurants.

I'm surprised to hear someone other than a Facebook employee using Metaverse. 😁 At some point I may dust off our long-unused Oculus Quest and check it out.

One of my best purchases on Amazon was this bowl with lots of small hand sanitizer bottles. I keep it out in the kitchen of our home and in addition to everyday uses for ourselves and house guests, any time we leave on some sort of trip it's easy to grab a couple bottles to take with us. https://smile.amazon.com/PURELL-Advanced-Hand-Sanitizer-Refreshing/dp/B004T0GJDO/ref=sxts_rp_s_1_0?content-id=amzn1.sym.17af0c91-9bbd-4b60-8f2f-e62e6e6651a5%3Aamzn1.sym.17af0c91-9bbd-4b60-8f2f-e62e6e6651a5&crid=CE1CB3Z1UNMZ&cv_ct_cx=hand+sanitizer&keywords=hand+sanitizer&pd_rd_i=B004T0GJDO&pd_rd_r=9f060e01-71d1-417b-b9a0-1a1d9780a192&pd_rd_w=4ByoO&pd_rd_wg=pZHCR&pf_rd_p=17af0c91-9bbd-4b60-8f2f-e62e6e6651a5&pf_rd_r=SKD6YTAHVM9750SE0H9K&qid=1671040365&sprefix=hand+sanitizer%2Caps%2C81&sr=1-1-f0029781-b79b-4b60-9cb0-eeda4dea34d6

We just had our first real snow of the year and that view out the suite lounge of warm Caribbean islands has me sighing in anticipation. These 40 days can't pass fast enough!

As someone else cruising for the first time on Celebrity and on the Apex (coming up in 40 days) it's always great to hear first impressions from someone else who just did the same thing. There've been a couple of these 'new to Celebrity' threads recently on CC and it's great to see another one pop up. Thanks so much for taking the time to post this, Barb!

Love reading about the Apex as our first Celebrity cruise on it will be coming up in a little over 40 days! Thanks so much for taking the time to post. 🙂

I would think that enormous magic carpet jutting out on the side of the ship creates significant drag, so maybe they had to compensate by reducing # of true balconies?

We don't see it for our 1/21 cruise on Apex either. Maybe it's a "test run" on selected sailings to see if it's popular enough to start doing more widely?

Thanks for the additional detail! With all the options my main worry is they'll need a forklift to carry us off the ship at the end of the cruise.

Royal Suites, Edge Villas, Penthouse and Iconic Suites. We're going to be in an Edge Villa.

With our first Celebrity cruise coming up this January on Apex this is wonderfully helpful. Thanks for taking the time & effort for these posts! Our cabin includes unlimited specialty dining so any and all impressions of the specialty restaurants are especially good because we're debating what to try to cram in during our 7 days. I'm especially happy to hear you like the rooftop garden grill because I love bbq and am looking forward to that! Also useful to hear Eden's food is that good as that wouldn't be my first assumption. Hope you enjoy the last few days of your cruise.

After I first completed check in the docs had a blank boarding zone. The next day when I downloaded them again they had the boarding zone filled in. Just look at them again in a day or two and you should be fine.

We are waiting for our room to become available so we can finish check in and enjoy the rest of the day before our cruise starts tomorrow. I especially appreciated having some Willdra time to make lounging in the lobby less boring. 😀

I don't think we could ever do fewer than 7 days. You look forward to something for hundreds of days and then it just feels beyond cruel it ends so soon. I always try to put on a brave face that last night before disembarkation "Oh I can't wait to see the kitties again" but, no, if I had a choice they could wait a bit more. At least you have your next cruise coming right up. It looks like the Vista and Mardi Gras won't overlap in any ports but we'll be scooting around the Caribbean at the same time.

This is the layout Carnival shows on the page for booking a cabana. We booked ours early and got Cabana #1.