jgnova

They don't want parents in the kids' play area, so I don't know, but I'll ask my DGS, who loved every minute he spent in the Fun Factory. We took him on Celebrity Century for his 8th birthday. Equinox likely will be different, of course, but perhaps someone who's been on that ship will respond also.

S

We were on the Century for the 2/15 and 2/23 B2B and are finally beginning to catch up with life. Our trip was unexpectedly extended by two days each at the beginning and end thanks to DC area snow. We left two days early to beat the storm predicted on our planned 2/13 travel date - and then our 3/3 return flight was canceled with nothing available until 3/5. Interestingly, I learned that Choice Air is not linked too well to Celebrity – our original flight time from Miami was moved up to before noon and we were never contacted about that being too early for their transfer service. Guest Services told me that Choice Air is not part of RCCI and I shouldn't expect much help.

I'll write up a review later but thought I'd post these random notes (whines?). I have not had time yet to read anything here yet so please accept my apologies if I've overlapped other comments.

The ship and weather were lovely, it was great to put some faces to many familiar CC names, and the embarkation/disembarkation process at piers 2 and 25 were VERY smooth.

The ship was clean and the only signs of wear were some carpets and some of the lounge upholstery, which was very worn on the edges. Our cabin carpet was faded although we heard reports that some cabins did have new carpeting. I guess the carpeting in the buffet at the edges of the serving area had worn so they installed a 3-foot wide strip of a strange brown carpet, which looked out of place, as it really didn't match any existing colors.

This was our first cruise with a child (our 8 year old grandson) and the MDR seating seems completely random. We expected to have been assigned a table with another family with kids instead of at a table with nine adults.

During our second cruise, we found that they still don't seem to have figured out how to handle select seating. We always told them we'd be happy to share but usually wound up at our own table, albeit between two other two-tops - with our orders being taken at the same time as the other tables. It wasted so much time when the waiter had to walk back and forth around the row of tables to take each table’s order separately. If we had been treated as one table, it would have been much easier, taking all of the women's orders first.

They do handle special dietary needs VERY well. We spoke to two passengers with major food restrictions (dairy, gluten, etc.) and both said they met daily with a maître d' to discuss their options for the day. They were very happy with the food options they had.

And the meal flavors, quality, and selection in both the MDR and the buffet were as good as I remember - no complaints there. The staff were fabulous about trying to help, offering to go from the buffet to the main kitchen or from the MDR to the buffet upstairs if we asked for something not available in that venue!

The sound level in the MDR was usually way too noisy, but it was even worse as someone kept piping music through the speakers for about 30 seconds every 10 minutes. Don't they get it that the MDR is not a performance venue, that people will be talking, and that playing any music will only increase the overall sound level in the room?

Sound levels elsewhere were also too high, especially the ship-wide announcements (captain's daily chat, port disembarkation announcements, CD announcements), which were WAY too loud - about 85-90 db according to my iPhone app. That was painful, unhealthy, and unnecessary.

The captain (Captain George) and the CD (Rich) were highly visible all over the ship. Captain George was at both CC meet and mingles, and instead of isolating himself with the other officers, he dropped into a seat between two passengers and started chatting with them. He was also at the Celebrity Life lecture on ship navigation and recycling and took over the Q&A part.

We asked why a group of officers was in a lounge and were told that the captain hosts a dinner for the employee of the month with the senior officers to recognize the employee performance.

I learned that the vibration on the last night during dinner (felt very strongly at the rear of the MDR) was because they are required to test the manual controls when entering U.S. territory.

They have what look like newer “no touch” icemakers in the buffet (which passengers can’t really figure out how to operate), but they still can't keep up with demand. Fast food places seem to have higher capacity ice dispensers - can't =X= buy those or put two of their existing icemakers in the high-traffic areas?

Not sure why, but there seemed to be some randomness in silverware / napkins in the buffet, especially near the end of the first sailing. Some meals had forks and knives stacked under a napkin next to a pile of paper napkins. The second sailing was more consistent with the "normal" knife and fork wrapped in a cloth napkin. They often ran out of napkins when using paper – passengers had to request them – and getting small cocktail napkins for lunch didn’t really work very well.

Embarkation day lunch in the buffet was served by the staff, probably to reduce the chance of infectious disease problems. Every announcement from the captain included a reminder about the importance of hand washing.

I recall other sailings having more flavor options for the buffet stir-fry. This ship had only soy, teriyaki, and oyster sauce. I thought they used to have some other Chinese and Indian flavors.

The water coming out of the cold water taps in the cabin (sink and shower) was cool only for one day - the rest of the time it was so warm I could take a shower with only cold water - and I like hot showers!

The bedtime chocolates are no longer random varied flavors but now are only milk chocolate from Belgium - no more occasional dark chocolate or flavored.

There were some lapses in communication with strange typos in the daily - and no real publicity (at least in Select dining) about the time changes or the last sea day brunch.

I am positive that Celebrity policy usually allowed smoking only on the port side of the pool and promenade decks. This ship had smoking on the starboard side of the promenade deck instead of port side. We did not smell anything on our balcony up on deck 8, however.

We were one of six ships in port in St. Martin (Century, Summit, Royal Princess, Eurodam, Freedom, Musica) for a total of over 16,000 passengers all crowding the pier areas at the same time - I felt as if we had docked in Times Square!

The only real disappointment was St. Barth's, which was one of the major reasons for booking the first sailing. Just as the tendering process began, we were told that the island "authorities" had announced that the water treatment plant was shut down and public restrooms would be closed. Then they said that restaurant and bar restrooms were also closed. Needless to say, this put a damper on our plans to taxi to St. Jean's beach so we instead walked around Gustavia and went back to the ship. We heard that this is typical of St. Barth's - they don't seem to like cruise ships. Oh well.

I know this seems like a laundry list of complaints – but they were really minor annoyances and did not stop us from having a great time. The ship was clean, the food was delicious, and we did not notice anything leading us to feel that Celebrity service and quality were declining. Our cabin attendants were phenomenal, seemingly always there to open our door for us and to resolve strange problems very rapidly (the slamming staff area door across from our cabin and the missing soundproofing strip on our cabin door). The dining room staff were equally great - getting our grandson's food first so he could eat and get to Fun Factory. And the Fun Factory staff kept him so happy he kept begging us to take him there.

More later.

j

I guess if you're using the Royal "WOW", then the S-class is it, as so many others have said. On the other hand, if your definition of WOW is like DW and I see it, then Century, with its classic elegance has more. We've been on Summit, which is pretty close to Constellation, and all of the ships in that class have been updated with multiple food venues while Century's choices are limited. We'll be joining Lois on Century in a few days because we want to enjoy the old ship before she leaves the fleet.

j

Hey, Newt! So glad to see you here.

J & I are sailing on a B2B on Century in a week -- boarding 2/15 with our grandson to celebrate his 8th birthday, dropping him off and staying on for 2/23 for our un-iversary (there's no leap year day this year). Get home 3/3. We can definitely use some sunshine and Max's smile will be a major part of that, though I'm sure we'll be exhausted after 8 nights with him. Say hi to Cloud and hug each other for us!

Since a few lines are changing their smoking policies, we might be able to extend beyond X in the future and maybe sail out of Baltimore again. It would be so much easier to skip the long drive to NY or the flight to FL or San Juan! Our next grandson, the eldest in Baltimore area, will be 8 in Sept and we may be able to take him in August for a birthday cruise -- we'll offer it, anyhow. So maybe RCCL out of Baltimore somewhere in there. Or possibly Summit out of NJ again. We'll see.

Oh, hey, Newt? That light bulb thingie is on every one of my posts in your honor. Just so you know.

S

If you do go to a fort, they are US National Parks. If one of the party is 62 or older, that person can get a lifetime pass for ALL NPS sites for $10 - that will admit up to four people.

j

There have been several threads on this topic and no announcement from any of the cruise lines. The disease has now spread beyond St. Martin to St. Barts, Martinique, Guadeloupe, and the BVI, with cases reported also on Dominica and French Guiana. I think it's more on the French side of St. Martin than the Dutch, which is where we dock.

My best guess is that this will be a new fact of life for Caribbean travel that we are going to have to learn to live with. Bug spray, dress carefully. Not sure how effective any mosquito eradication would be when you have so much inter-island travel.

j

We did not take an early walk-off and were at the airport before 10. There are some gotchas to flying from there: you have to run your bag through an agriculture inspection system (with only one scanner) and the TSA line gets backed up quickly. The one saving grace is that I don't think there are a lot of early flights (the United desk didn't even open until 10) so it might be light.

j

Reviews are NOT just to criticize - they help us all by letting us know about changes. We were on Silhouette in winter 2012 when escargot became mushrooms - and I included that change in my review.

More importantly, it provides another lens on the experience. You'll notice things I don't - and vice versa. Regular cruisers are helped by being made aware of things that we never notice - and new cruisers need the reassurance that things are still OK.

So please take the time to post something in the review section, if only to say it was great, just like the last time.

j

We were in 7158 last year - recollection is it was mostly staff service areas, like service stairs, elevators, linen storage. I can't remember where the access door were but we've never noticed any noise coming from those locations.

j

The best way to find out things like formal nights or other routine (as in the same from sailing to sailing) is right here. Start a thread with a specific topic, like "Formal nights on 7 night Silhouette?" or "Best night for specialty?", and you'll hear from people who have taken that sailing.

j

Unless things have changed in the year since we were last on a ship (4 weeks to go - will we make it?), they have a decent selection of teas in the buffet, so you could brew your own iced tea there.

j

As JanineM said, it's a concentrate, diluted in the dispenser. This is the same dispenser used for orange juice, fruit punch, and lemonade, so I'm assuming they're all mixed with the same concentrate/water ratio. I found if I mix it either half and half or 2/3 with the lemonade it winds up tasting somewhat decent.

j

Cruise Critic uses Ad Choices - read about their services here. It's also possible that some ISPs and browser hacks could subvert this and insert other ads.

j

I think the banner ads are based on sites you've visited in the past. There are varying levels of granularity and that's probably part of the charge base. So one company might want to have their ads if you ever visited a travel site. Or another company (Cunard) might request to have their banners for people who ever went to a Celebrity site. I think some of the ad companies pay per view - and more per click - and even more if you spend time on the site that you clicked to.

j

Muster has been at 7:45. We ate in the MDR and our first week (we were on a B2B), we had finished the main course and came back for dessert. We don't remember what we did for the second week. I'd suggest changing your time - or plan your courses around the break - and tell them you're coming back for the rest.

j

I've always handed an extra $1/drink to the waiter - and tried to use the same bar as much as possible - in the hope the server would recognize me and might be a little faster. Not sure it's done much given how little we drink. Used to notice it in the Champagne bar on Mercury when we went every night after dinner to hear the pianist - or in Cova Cafe to hear the string trio. But since =X= has dropped those entertainment options our bar bill is much lower. In the MDR when we had regular seating, we'd tip at the end - for select I prefer to give them something extra each meal.

j

Infinity (and its sisters) don't have the staggered cabin design of the S-class ships. On the older ships, the easiest way to tell is to find a pair of connecting cabins. The door will be on the wall without the bed. Then you can count from there (with some exceptions around bulkheads and suites).

j

We did a Summit B2B last January and had a few meals in the buffet. It was almost empty, very quiet (especially compared to the MDR on the second formal night), and quite relaxing. I think we wound up there the first time because the MDR menus repeated each week nothing excited us enough for a repeat. And it was really nice sitting up higher and watching the sea and ships go by through those huge windows.

j

After our first Summit sailing to Bermuda, we thought about flying over for a week. Then I started researching and found out how expensive that would be. Even though the Summit Bermuda prices are more than some other sailings (Bermuda charges a hefty amount for docking, etc.), it's still cheaper than the hotels and food. And we get 3-4 days at sea!

Summit was completely redone a couple of years ago and is lovely. The only reason there is a reputation of the older ships being used for the Bermuda runs is that until they built the new Royal Dockyard facility and started regular ferry runs, the only ships that could go to Bermuda without tendering were the older and smaller ships that could dock in Hamilton and St. George's. At this point, there aren't many of those. The last HAL ship had to tender St. George's after they renovated the ship and made some change that made docking in St. George's too risky.

The Bermuda government has been considering some major work that would let larger ships dock in Hamilton & St. George's but I don't know the status of that project. I think they're also going to allow the ship casinos to stay open in an effort to keep the ships coming.

j

Hi,

We took the Summit again just about a year ago - click here to see scans of the menus from that B2B. They're also in the photo section linked in our signature below.

j

Ditto most of the other comments. Lovely ship and island. And you're there pretty much for 3 full days (well, most of that last one). You can buy a multi-day ferry pass to get around the place - St. George is lovely. We've gone around Memorial Day both times and did not notice that many kids. And our experience on cruises with more kids (like holidays) is that they've usually been well behaved.

There's a trade-off between pricing and the number of kids. If you go when traffic picks up, there may be more families. But if you go before things pick up, you'll have lower prices - but also the risk that they can't fill the ship and start really cutting prices to locals to do that. There was a horror cruise a couple of years ago out of Bayonne when that happened, I think in December.

j

I'm bothered more by the difficulty in finding your order and trying to help you than by the delivery failure. I can understand the difficulties in getting special shipments to ports in foreign countries, especially during the just before Christmas shipping crunch.

j

Does anyone have recent Summit menus? TIA

Not sure how much they've changed but you can see them from exactly a year ago. Click here or on the link in our signature below for the Summit 2013 photos.

j

I recall reading other comments about the reduction in the number of bar servers. My guess is that now that =X= has the beverage plans, it is no longer in their best interest ($$$) to foster drink consumption and instead their interests now align with a reduction in drink consumption (can't say sales since it's not a sale any more). So combining the sommelier and bar server roles helps them reduce consumption.

j

2) Do you have to dress formally on formal nights? We are packing very ligjt for this cruise and will not be bringing a suit jacket. Will we be denied...or be out of place, if we just wear our normal MDR clothes?

Until a few years ago, dress code for formal nights was ship-wide. With Blu and the specialty restaurants allowing smart-casual, that is no longer the case. There will be many others not in formal wear. The only potential gotcha is whether you want to eat in the MDR on formal nights. We've seen them turn people away on some sailings and turn the other way. We were on the Summit last January and they did require a jacket in the MDR on formal nights. We did a B2B and didn't like the loudness during the introductions of the staff and crew so we wound up skipping the second week's formal nights. We ate in the buffet one night (which was nice and quiet and relaxing - check out the grill all the way to the rear for some fresh grilled meats and fish) and in Bistro on the other.

j