Cruising89143

Unfortunately we caught Covid on our Symphony OTS cruise last October and we had the flight from hell from Miami to Palm Springs. Since then I will only drive to Los Angeles. 🙂 We have turned down numerous offers from X on cruise from Alaska. I remember your adventures of flying from ATL to LAS. Many of us were following your every move.

🙂 You would not know until you tried to accept the offer. We have other offers from MSC and Virgin but we’re not willing to fly for a cruise at this time. RCI sends us offers weekly. Much better than what X sends us weekly.

You cannot accept an offer on URcomped if you have sailed or booked a cruise within twelve months on a specific cruise line and in this case it would be Celebrity. There will be a process where you will have to answer those questions in order to accept the offer. It will reject you if you answer that you have cruised in on X within the last year.

https://cruiseindustrynews.com/cruise-news/2023/05/royal-caribbean-reports-q1-2023-earnings-increases-guidance/

Just arrived home from the Navigator today. Room was serviced twice daily, ship was very clean, crew was great as always. Ate dinner one evening in the WJ with plenty of choices. Chops was not that great. Izumi was good but slow service. Jamie’s was great as always. We had around 500 kids on board. Saw no issues. Royal Caribbean is a family line. They don’t even try to hide it. Why do people go on a family focused cruise line and expect something different? We were back on Celebrity two weeks ago and we found that our experience this week topped Celebrity.

Currently on the NV in a JS. Lavazza coffee maker in room. Exact same type machine that we had on the NV, FR and SY in October of last year. All three was a GS.

Add us to the list.

For us it’s Blue Heaven when it comes to Key Lime pie. 🙂

from Orlando it's a long drive down and across...and there are congested roads at times esp thru Sarasota From Orlando you do not go through Sarasota unless you’re planning to take I-4 to I-75 south and the long way around. You also do not need to go across Florida. My point to Jim is that it may be easier to get a flight to one of the other major airports.

Jim, not sure if you want the drive but have you tried Orlando or Tampa? The drive from Orlando to FLL is not bad going down the turnpike.

Agree. Best burger on the ship. As a side note, we decided to dine at Mast Grill on our recent Solstice cruise. The last time that we dined here was back in 2014 on the EQ. Wow how the burger has changed and not for the better either. We were very disappointed.

We’re on board now and it has not changed. Ship still looks as good as it did in December. So far all has been very good. No complaints.

We found the so called “hot tub” a huge waste of space. As stated, it’s a bathtub with jets. IMHO it took up a lot of valuable space on the balcony.

It’s on the menu in the MDR for next week for our Solstice sailing. I think it was recently added back.

We will be on the 4/01 cruise departing from pier 50 and returning back to 92 at the end of the cruise. Celebrity has given out zero information for those of us embarking on 4/01 other than the address of pier 50. The port gave us more info. At least we’re going to be debarking from the regular terminal on our return.

We had five separate cruises all in the YC booked over the last few years on MSC. All during the pandemic. We found MSC great to deal with on canceling the first cruise. Quick refund and a great response from their agent. The remaining four…..not so much. All cruises were canceled by MSC due to the pandemic. We followed their guidelines/rules. Their Ft. Lauderdale based customer service reps left a lot to be desired. As much as I tried to deal with them on getting refunds, we hit a wall each time and rude and worthless does not even begin to describe their attitude. I ended up having to contact Amex. Who jumped in and took care of it. While I feel that most cruise lines are not great at times with customer service, MSC takes first place. Never say never but they are no longer on our short list to try. It’s a shame as we have read great things about the YC but between dealing with their direct reps and the website, we will pass for now.

{Rest snipped for space}. We both like the same great bartender.

Yes as we always stay here prior to our cruises and walk to dinner as plenty of places to choose from. We will be there again in a few weeks but I think that we’re going to try using Uber as we’re leaving our car parked at the hotel for the first time due to leaving from the outer pier in place of #92/93 but we return to #92. Just hope Uber doesn’t have an issue with the short distance.

Thanks to all for your suggestions.

They will more than likely have at least two nights showing. No reservations for any of the shows on this ship. The ice show is one of the best that I have seen on any ship. Not to be missed.

Going to tag onto this post. We’re docking for an over night in a few weeks and would like suggestions for dinner that evening. How safe is it near the port at night to walk? Are there any restaurants close to the port that anyone would recommend for dinner(casual)? Thanks.

I think that we’re seeing a different kind of cruiser lately from websites like urcomped. The casino has been sending out invites left and right and certain companies send out offers for Celebrity almost weekly. So for the cost of taxes and fees some guests are getting a bargain and many are trying X for the first time due to those type offers. I see it on FB all of the time. As ships fill up, offers will slow down. This is now happening on RCI.

Holidays and spring break can bring more kids on board but it will still be far different (less kids) than Carnival or RCI.

Based upon your comments I think Celebrity would be a good match. Definitely less kids on board with it being a much more laid back experience and the top two things for us would be no smoking allowed anywhere inside of the ship and only one announcement per day. I would suggest at least giving it a try. We like RCI but know what to expect when we cruise with them.

I haven’t stepped foot on a Carnival ship in 18 years but this is what it was like. Found this video on YouTube. Annoying when trying to enjoy dinner.