Sigyn

@mahdnc and @omeinv this is super helpful, thanks so much. My husband said he stayed at Captain Don's when he was there before. I'm not expecting super swanky rooms at Buddy Dive, just an easy, clean place to stay with good dive facilities.

Interesting article about $14,000 cruises: https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/cruises/2023/06/11/luxury-cruises-experience-cost/70294612007/ It discusses how on luxury cruise lines you get everything included, without being nickel and dimed, so the higher cost balances out. It also touches upon the cruise within a cruise concept on other cruise lines such as MSC's Yacht Club.

yeah, flight attendants used to wash their pantyhose and underwear in the coffee makers until they started using k-cup units in the hotel rooms. That's why the coffeemakers were unsanitary. They would put them in the spot where the coffee would go and run the hot water over them.

Absolutely agree. I look at the list of perks and I find them underwhelming, no matter the cruise line. At most, they're worth a few hundred dollars unless you're at the top rank where you get a free cruise. I'd rather have the freedom to pick and choose which cruise I want based on other factors.

Yes, they would. There's always a chatty person in any group that says things they shouldn't, not realizing it might be shared on a community cruise group. I spent over two decades as a reporter and you wouldn't believe the things people told me that they shouldn't. Even knowing I was a reporter with an audience of millions.

I think it's a good idea to try one of the other cruise lines if you are wondering about the experience. It's always good to compare when you're feeling a bit frustrated, so that you know what your alternatives are. The only way to know for sure is to experience it and do a cruise on the other lines. I had only cruised on Carnival due to friends begging us to go with them in the past, and I knew that wasn't the line for us, so when I decided to try cruising again after a six-year absence, I began booking on a variety of cruise lines to see the difference. I cruised on Norwegian in December, Royal Caribbean in March, and I'll be on my first Celebrity cruise in July. Firsthand experience is the only way to know what's out there.

When I got on the ship - harmony of the seas - this excursion showed up as available and it had been sold out before my cruise. I booked it for my son.

I'm in the midst of doing my open water certification through NAUI at age 55 and I'm so glad I'm finally making this happen. There was an older gentleman in his late 60's, at least, doing a refresher course in another part of the pool the other night and he was there for about 90 minutes, max, and he completed the course. It wasn't a big deal. As for my OW course, there are a total of eight students in the class. Everyone is in their 20's, except for myself, and one man who is 62, and another man who looks to be in his late 60's. It's definitely something for people of all ages. I will say I am quite sore the next day after each four hour class (four classes total, I've done two of them.) There is a lot of physical exertion (particularly the 300m swim and 10 minutes of treading water) but it feels pretty amazing to be accomplishing this.

If you're doing a land vacation in Bonaire, does anyone have a favorite resort? I booked my family at Buddy Dive for December, but I'm seeing some not-so-favorable recent reviews and wondering if I should switch.

We're going to be in Roatan, Belize, Cozumel and Costa Maya on a cruise next spring. Which of these ports are best for scuba? I've heard great things about Cozumel, but that's the extent of my knowledge. I'm going to be newly certified next month with, hopefully, about 16 open water dives under my belt if our holiday vacation later this year to Bonaire goes off as planned, since I booked us for six days of diving and two dives a day, and my husband and son are already certified. I don't know if our experience or, in my case, lack thereof, makes a difference. I would like for us to dive as much as possible on this cruise, but if there's a port or two to leave out and sightsee instead of diving, I'd like to know which ones those are.

I booked through Priceline where you don't know what hotel you're getting and snagged Auberge for $600 for all fees for two nights when it was going for $1,000 if I'd booked direct. It's a great hotel from what I hear, but I won't be there until early July.

Thanks, I love your trip report. It's wonderful. We'll be on an Alaskan cruise in a few weeks on the Millennium, so our risk of sunburn, while not impossible, is less than during your cruise.

I'm interested in the advice you get - I'll have my first taste of the suite life in something like 26 or 27 days. On the Millennium, but still...

It sounds like your TA was going to check the box saying you needed one whether you did or didn't, just to give you the extra space if that's what you wanted. The TA was going to break the rules for accessible cabins. Not your fault - you didn't know what the rules were. I blame the TA for this one. As others have mentioned, you were previously given the accessible cabin because it was a MoveUp situation and no one who needed it had booked it after final payment and at that point Celebrity gives them to everybody in order to fill the ship. I am currently booked in an accessible sky suite myself for a July cruise because I booked a suite guarantee and that's what Celebrity gave me since it was after final payment when they assigned it to me. I don't need an accessible cabin, either.

same!!!

We don't need the accessible features, it was the cabin we were given through the suite guarantee. I knew that was all that was left when I opted for the guaranteed suite, but even though I'd read about the shower water issue I was okay with it given that it saved me $1,000 from picking my own sky suite, had a non-accessible one been available. There was a non-accessible aqua sky suite available but it was about $2,000 more.

I want a butler named Boris!

We're in 8127 on deck 8 on the Millennium. it's an accessible cabin.

I saw that, but it says it lasts four hours, beginning at 9 am and ending at 1 pm, so it still gets me to the airport insanely early and I'm stuck on a bus instead of a train. I thought the views from the train would be prettier. I've driven that highway before from Seward to Anchorage. I called the Hertz in Seward when I was going to need a car from Friday-Sunday and had originally booked a car for 48 hours. The cost was super high - $800 - for a one-way rental from Seward to Anchorage.

As an update, later on, Celebrity did make the train from Seward to Anchorage an option for disembarkation the morning we leave the ship in July. So, I booked it. (screenshot below) The only problem is, we decided to cancel our two nights in Anchorage post cruise, and we're now flying out that night at 8:30 pm, so we will have about 7 hours at the airport with nothing to do. Ah, well. I like to read, so I will do that.

With cats, preferably in those clear backpacks, and possibly a name change. But no photo change.

I've looked at those. The prices are good.

I'm going to be on the Millennium in a month, so there are only 2 penthouse suites, 8 royal suites, 8 celebrity suites and 32 sky suites. With only 50 suites total, I hope that the butlers don't discriminate against the "lesser" passengers in sky suites such as myself. I looked for comparison and the Apex has 2 iconic suites, 6 edge villas, 2 penthouse suites, 4 royal suites, 16 celebrity suites and 146 sky suites.

Which ship has your favorite sky suite?