5:00_Somewhere

That's correct. Just read yesterday that the 2 variants that have been spreading in Europe and are now dominant in the US, BA.4 and especially BA.5, are very good at overcoming immunity that may have been afforded from exposure to prior variants. I know 2 people who had Covid within the past 2 months and just recently contracted it again, one of whom is very sick (she had the J&J vaccine when it first came out, and no boosters because she'd gotten Covid and thought she was protected). Be careful out there.

As others have said, Aqua Class passengers are assigned to the Blu restaurant/dining room, which has no set reservation time. You can show up whenever you like, during their operational hours, for breakfast and dinner. However, I do understand that there can be some confusion when looking at your reservation online. I've noticed ours never reference Blu (or Luminae when we're in a suite), but simply say "Open Dining - Seating Time Anytime". For example, the picture below is from our upcoming sailing in Aqua Class on the Constellation. But, you are, indeed, assigned to Blu when traveling Aqua Class. Hope that's helpful.

Finally, a definitive answer. Thank you. Perhaps we should ask the Admins to "pin" this. 😉 I do find it interesting that they went with salt water for the Edge, then switched again for the newer E-class ships.

I'm curious to hear why you say that about new cruisers. Other than issues with the Medallion and internet - which were frustrating, but not "fatal" - our cruise on Discovery was wonderful. But, I'm genuinely curious.

I was part of this discussion, and a few similar here on CC and on FaceBook, which always seem to devolve into rather heated debates, and sometimes include fascinating (truly) explanations about the shipboard water filtration systems, but rarely seem to result in a definitive answer. 😉 What I can say from first-hand experience is that the pool water on the M-Class ships tastes salty when you get it in your mouth, but the pool water on the S-Class ships does not, and all smells of chlorine (and, no, I don't intentionally drink pool water, but you cannot help getting the water on your lips or sometimes in your mouth. I have been told by people who have sailed on E-Class ships that their pool water also do not taste salty, but my first E-Class cruise has been delayed so I won't be able to report personal experience until next year. 🙂 Perhaps someone else can fill in that gap.

Agreed, and a very good point. In fact, I think it may have been on our 12-day Med cruise on the Silhouette when the waiter mentioned we could order off the Blu menu, if memory serves.

Thank you SO much for this information. We only recently opened our Celebrity Credit Card and haven't used the points yet. We've had a Princess CC for years (through Barclays Bank), and they have made it incredibly easy to redeem points on the CC website in recent years, so it's good to have this information. Gracias. 😉

I'm another huge fan of Blu, and will add a slightly different spin on the topic of ordering from other DR menus. We love Aqua Class, because of Blu and other features, but also sail Retreat Class on X occasionally. We enjoy the Luminae dining room dedicated to suites, as well, but were pleasantly surprised a few years ago when our Luminae waiter mentioned that we could also order off either the MDR or Blu menu. Apparently, this option is only available on M-Class and S-Class ships, due to DR and galley layout, but I fully intend to take advantage of it when we sail Retreat Class on the Summit in September. 👍

In answer to your question about passenger capacity, if you read other discussions here on Cruise Critic (and other cruising groups) you will find that the ships are sailing at close to capacity these days. Reports are 80%-90% or higher. We were on Discovery Princess to Alaska in May and she was sailing at just over 80% at that time.

Yes, with the caveat that there can always be delays in disembarkation on the last day, if everything goes to plan, you could request early self walk-off and I think you should be fine making a 10:45 train or bus, so long as you're comfortable lugging all your baggage with you as you disembark the ship. I would not recommend a flight this early, due to long security lines and needing to be at the airport 2-3 hours in advance of a flight, but you don't have those issues with a bus or Amtrak. Best of luck.

The other comments are correct: ship's time will adjust with local land time. We were on Discovery to Alaska in May, and the time did more 1 hour back the night before our first port (so after the day 2 sea day) and then returned to Pacific Time after day 6 and before our arrival in Victoria on day 7. The above is very true, and something to watch out for. I've had this happen on several ships, including Discovery in May. I'm told it may have something to do with the location of the land link to the satellite the ship connects to for wifi service. Don't know if that's true, but my phone kept thinking it was somewhere in Kansas, and would automatically set the time accordingly (to US Central Time). So, I had to set my phone time manually whenever on board and in Airplane Mode. I would note that, when on shore, with full phone services turned on, the time would adjust to the correct local time after a couple minutes of being connected with local cellular service. But, I had to reset it manually once I'd returned to Airplane Mode onboard the ship. Hope that's helpful.

Yes, we were in the same area, just on the port side instead of starboard. Unfortunately, I'm not sure I can answer your question, though. As I mentioned in my original post, we had rough weather with clouds and rain on our way north through the Inside Passage, so we couldn't really see anything from the ship that day. On the way south, we chose to get seats in The Sanctuary for our last sea day. We had some nice views from up there, but I'm afraid I just can't recall what the views were like from our cabin's balcony that day. You could always give it a try and if you're not happy with the view, then venture out and about. You'll be fortunate that all you have to do is walk out the door at the aft end of the hallway your cabin is on and you'll be on the Sun Deck above the main pool with great views on both sides of the ship. Another great place to view the scenery is the Wake View bar area on the stern Lido Deck outside the buffet. There is seating under cover and out in the open, and it also affords about 180 degree views. Oh, and they have hot cocoa. 🙂 And the transit through the Passage is long enough that you could walk around and try different areas of the ship. Regardless, I'm sure you'll enjoy Discovery Princess and Alaska.

We're looking for Nov-Dec 2023 and are surprised those aren't even posted yet. Hopefully soon, now that they've (presumably) got all their reshuffling straightened out.

I would agree with this assessment. First, as @CruizinSusan70 said, you really are comparing apples and oranges. There is really no comparison between the 20 year old M-Class ships and the 6 month old Discovery that is approximately 60% bigger and can carry about 60% more passengers. Also, if you did not like the Summit then you will likely not like the Millennium. We have sailed on the Summit twice (and have a 3rd in the fall) and the Constellation (both sisters to the Millennium), as well as the Silhouette and Reflection. We like them all, including the Summit. And We've also sailed on nearly all Princess ships, including the Discovery just last month and many of her sister ships, including 2 recent cruises on the Sky Princess, which is very similar to Discovery. I love Celebrity, but I think you would likely be happier on Discovery Princess than on the Millennium, especially where you said you didn't really like her sister ship. Discovery is an absolutely beautiful ship with tons to do. We find the food on Celebrity generally a little better than Princess, but we thought the food on Discovery in May to be quite good, and on par with the food we had on the Reflection in March. I don't think you would be disappointed in Discovery Princess. I hope that's helpful, and hope you have a wonderful cruise, whichever you decide.

Beat me to it. We've sailed in Sky Suites on Celebrity a few times (with 3 more booked), and have always had access to Luminae for all 3 meals, as well as other Retreat access and perks; Oh, except for assistance of the Shoreside Concierge pre-cruise, which is only available to Celebrity Suites and above. I do think that's probably just a placeholder image. You're correct that it looks like a very slightly modified Royal Class ship, but I highly doubt that's what we'll see in the end. At least I hope not.

Just an FYI, I was able to watch the Webinar. It was definitely designed for TAs, and there was not one word about the Sphere Class ships. I tried to ask a question in the chat window - as did about a million others - but it was not answered. Maybe next time.

Good point. We cruise with both X and Princess and have both sizes, and I did notice that the Princess tag holders are the same length as those for the X tags, but wider; so the X tags will fit in the Princess/P&O holders with room to spare.

I agree with this. I love the holders, but if you don't trip the excess paper and fold them - as intended when not using a tag holder - it creates a lot of bulk to fit in a small space. I just trim off the excess paper on the sides so that you're left with only the actual printed color tag portion, fold it in half as directed, and slip it in the holder. The vinyl of the holder can tend to stick to itself, so it helps to slid a finger into the pocket before sliding the luggage tag in to help make it a little easier to slip the paper tag in.

We love the Summit and will be sailing on her for the 3rd time in September, but the Solstice-Class ships are our favorites. We just love the design, layout and all the features - many mentioned already by others. The Silhouette and Reflection are our favorites, but I wouldn't hesitate to sail on the Equinox. In fact, we had one booked on her, but it was cancelled due to Covid. I'd say if you've already been on the Summit, I would highly recommend trying an S-Class ship to see how it's different. I think you will enjoy it. Happy cruising whatever you choose.

If it helps, here's a picture of the power outlet in the desk area that I took a few weeks ago when we were on Discovery. That's an outlet expander we use sitting in front of the right most E/F outlet.

Yes, one thing we love about the design of the older Grand Class ships is the huge balconies on Caribe Deck that are 1/2 covered and 1/2 open. And, actually, Princess did add some of these kinds of balcony cabins to the newest Royal Class ships (Majestic, Sky, Enchanted and Discovery Princess) on Dolphin Deck (9) forward and aft. They tend to go quickly and Princess was using Dolphin Deck for Covid isolation cabins on our last 2 cruises, but you could always ask. I've attached a picture showing their locations. Yes, the vast majority of balcony dividers have a door in the balcony partition that can be opened between adjoining cabin balconies. Just ask your steward once on board. One caveat, though: due to the design of most balconies (the "skinny" ones), and depending on which side your sliding balcony door opens on, the open balcony partition door may block the slider opening to one of the cabins. It's sort of a crap shoot, unfortunately, whether you'll end up with this situation or not, and it can be managed. Just a heads up.

We were on Discovery to Alaska in May. The ship is beautiful, the staff and crew are wonderful, and service was excellent nearly everywhere on board. The only negative was that the wifi was really, really bad, but I'm hearing that's the case on a lot of ships, especially in Alaska. Also, many of us were having trouble with the Medallion App but, again, that was a technical issue that had nothing to do with the specific ship. Unfortunately, the majority of balconies on Royal Class ships are tiny, but this has never dampened our enjoyment of a cruise. I'm posting a link to a semi-live from thread I did while we were on board and after that might answer some questions. Hope you have a great trip. Live From Discovery May 22-29

I wondered whether the video would be made public. I searched for similar videos and, while I found some older ones with Jan Schwartz and other videos featuring Carmen Roig, I didn't see anything like what was described here publicly available.

Thanks @azbirdmom I signed up. Don't know if they'll let me attend, as I'm not a TA, but figured it was worth a shot. 😉

I'm afraid I can't answer that, as we did not attend any performances in the theater. I do recall people talking about the comedian and magician, and I know people came streaming out of the theater every night walking through Take 5 where we were listening to the jazz ensemble, but don't know what people were seeing. Perhaps someone else who was on our cruise or is currently on Discovery can provide an answer.