kywildcatfanone

Well said. eliminating the ability to get coffee for the mini bar swap still makes me mad because now I have to pay about $70 per cruise for something I used to could trade for, but now resign myself to about $10 worth of soda. It is what it is though, and you have to make the best of it.

For us, not so much ballgames, but we cruise different than most. Also, seems to me espn in the Caribbean is mostly soccer or cricket. We both work, long hours in stressful environments and we use cruises mostly just to hang out and chill. Don't go to MDR or specialty dining, rarely do excursions or other shipboard entertainment, maybe a comedian or something. Basically our day, at least when the weather cooperates, is hang out by the pool, shop around ports, then go eat a leisurely dinner, maybe walk around a bit, and go back to the room and watch TV. That's why I bought premium (kills my soul) so we could stream stuff. On Princess it's not needed because they have a large selection of on demand stuff to watch.

I think it's safe to assume regular price increases will continue till they see a noticeable decline in purchases.

I bought it during a "sale". Still outrageously priced.

Well, I think if you are trying to cast from your phone to the TV you have to be on wifi to do that because the TV is on wifi. Now, I have premium, which I loathe what I had to pay just for internet, but I did swallow and purchase it, but I'm also taking a computer and a HDMI cable. If you are taking a device with a HDMI port, you probably could take the cable and connect to the TV and then display your downloads on the TV. I mean that should work, if Celebrity allows you to change the input on the TV, which I'm not sure about, but I'm taking a cable to see. Perhaps others who have done this can comment.

One other comment after re-reading your post. You had 1 gallon jugs, so those are more fragile than 6, 12, or 24 wrapped water bottles, so maybe that was the reason.

Interesting. Some have posted, as in this thread, no issues checking bottled water. We are leaving out of FLL, so curious about there from recent experiences. I suppose for me, if I got there and they said carry on, I just take it with me, but would anyone recently out of FLL comment on this? We have found FLL security to not really care what you have when we cruised with Princess as far as water and soda.

Yes, to a degree, but steak has varying grades of quality separate from the cut itself, choice, select, prime, etc. What I have noticed is they might still offer strip, but it's select now instead of choice or prime. At least on Princess have seen this change in their specialty steak houses, but haven't been to one on Celebrity. As to the comment from someone that "they didn't starve", I sort of share that sentiment and view it as a positive. To me, that means there are enough choices to try different things and still be satisfied that you had a meal you didn't have to pay more for. Now, if your expectations are Jeff Ruby or Capital Grill or Ruths Chris, then yes, you likely will view all the options now on a cruise ship as substandard. At least that is my view. I have tempered my expectations that the quality of the meals are going to be just okay and if it's better than that I'm pleasantly surprised. Higher quality is not coming back to mainstream cruise lines unless the passenger capacity drops off, which it isn't likely too.

Back to food. Food is very subjective, but I have found cruise food to be reasonably equivalent to a chain sit down restaurant with better presentation, similar to say Cheesecake factory. The difference on the ship is you can easily get a different entree or have choices of food venues that you don't have at a sit down restaurant. We used to go to Crown Grill on Princess on formal nights, but stopped doing that when they raised prices and used cheaper cuts of meat, and this was before covid. Cutting costs, and raising prices is everywhere now.

Oh, yes, of course. Take a bag with handles it would fit in and tag it. That's a great idea. Will do that next week. Am also going to get some soda to take on, but I think it's more fragile and I'll carry it myself. Thanks for the tip.

Hello to you! I have no animosity to Louisville sports fans. I might have been the only Kentucky fan who was glad to see Pitino back in the state, lol. Okay, so let me see if I get this right. You have say Netflix logged in on your mobile phone on Celebrity Wifi I guess. You click streaming, get a code, then get the ability to cast, which I have never done. How do your phone and the TV "talk" to know this? Is that where the codes come in, you get prompted? That sounds interesting. I've never done that before, but I would love to give it a try. Edit to add: I'm going to be on Equinox, not sure if that matters. Hopefully all ships operate the same.

Wait, you mean buy like a 24 pack of packaged bottled water, put a luggage tag on it and the porters will take it to your room? That would be awesome. edit: I guess I would need to take some tape with me to do this.

I'm sort of dreading this on our upcoming cruise. We cruise Princess most and they have a fantastic selection of ondemand programming to watch. We tend to like to go back to our cabin and just chill most nights after dinner, so having some good TV to watch is big deal for us. I did purchase the premium wifi at an outrageous price, so I'm hoping I can connect to hulu, netflix, max, etc and stream a bunch of stuff. I might even take a HDMI cable and try to connect to the TV.

Thanks for sharing. Your comments sound very similar to how we like to cruise, and I'm glad to hear your expectations were met with the food venues. We don't have super high expectations, but do like some variety for options. Sounds like there are plenty. We are onboard next month, and I'm so looking forward to getting away.

Ah, didn't think about that. My only issue with regular size bottles if sods and water is fitting any in the fridge.

There is no statement about soda or bottled water at all, either plastic or cans mentioned anywhere in the documentation. I've read where several people have brought various size plastic bottles. I'm going to bring canned soda and some bottles of water with me in a couple of weeks. Will buy more in ports if needed.

Formal night really isn't that formal anymore.

Yes, was going to say they really don't enforce the rule, you can take more soda or water onboard if you want.

Thanks for your review. It does seem a lot of poor review for the MDR, so we are not planning to go there either. How is the Oceanview cafe for you? Good food, good selection?

And this is a terrible way of doing this. Why would they not allow pre-booking? Almost every time when we are in the elite lounge waiting to board, people are crowding the door because they are rushing onboard when they allow people to board. Had one woman almost knock me down to get past me. It also only allows a handful of people to get access to the Sanctuary that want it. Full disclosure, never been in there myself, no interest in it.

Princess, like all other lines, are devaluing loyalty benefits, and making cutbacks in quality and services while increasing prices on everything. It's a shame you had those bad experiences.

Sugar and gluten free items are marked at the buffet, and on the menus I think. As far as the actual nutrition information, not sure that is available, but you could ask one of the chefs.

This looks like the turn to Carnivalization or Royal competition. Not having a dedicated adults only area will keep me off this class.

Does anyone know if they have canned coke zero, sprite zero and/or 7up zero? I think they do, but wasn't sure if it was fleetwide or not to have zero canned sodas.

Easily, and yes take a taxi. Do self walk off. Done it many times. Once through security it's 15 minutes to the airport.