sbt518

3 minutes ago, JintyGirl said:

Before you come to Scotland, I should point out there’s no whiskey here, only whisky! We’re a bit precious about it 😊 You’ll offend some locals if you confuse the 2! Whisky from other countries has an “e” but never the proper stuff from Scotland 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 PS I can’t stand it myself and don’t understand why folk drink it! 

FIXED IT! I'm sure my New Yorker self will find some other way to offend the locals but I'll do my best not to. 😇

This is an itinerary I've never considered but now I am because even though you have not even boarded the ship yet, your review makes me want to go there! And I remember @Jim_Iain 's review also.

But I noticed there are no 2024 itineraries for the Mexican Riviera yet and we have our 2023 cruise coming up in 2 weeks.  Our fall vacation will be somewhere land based, maybe Scotland, which I know to be Iian's homeland but that and whisky and beautiful rolling hills are all I know about it so I'm excited to go.

EDIT to fix the spelling of whisky so as not to offend any Scots! 🤣

I'm so glad you made it to Florida!  And now you have a new skill, independent border crossing, that you can use to make your life easier in the future so good for you!

Your dogs are adorable.  My husband and I are staying at the Hyatt Centric Las Olas in March for our cruise.

I hope you have a wonderful cruise! I'm looking forward to following along.

2 hours ago, Moochi said:

I think he’s just upset that I was paying attention to the wine glass not him.
 

We have another puppy looks just like him, who is the actual “alcoholic”. He “loves” dark beer and liquor, but not wine. Alcohol is so bad for the the little body, but it never stopped him from sniffing around, and attempting to steal from our glasses.

Our cat does this too, but he hates bubbles on his whiskers so if I have any carbonation in my drink, he stays away.

On 2/24/2023 at 1:00 PM, GenerationX said:

A $50 Uber ride delivered us to downtown Fort Lauderdale to our hotel, the Hyatt Centric Las Olas.

 

After a much needed nap, we decided to get the circulation in our legs going and took a 20 minute walk down Las Olas Boulevard to have lunch at Casa Sensei.

 

The Las Olas area has tons of great restaurant options all in easy walking distance.  I’ve passed this Asian-Latin Fusion restaurant on my morning runs a few times and always wanted to try eating on its nice looking riverfront patio.

 

 

 

 

Hi Charla, I'm late to the party following along with this review but I needed to jump in and let you know that because of you my husband and I are spending 2 nights pre-cruise at the Hyatt Centric Las Olas (you had me at champagne vending machine!) before our March ABC cruise AND I've been thinking about Casa Sensei for dinner on St Patricks day in the hopes it won't be too crazy.

So, not to say I'm copying you but imitation is the sincerest form of flattery...

Thanks for sharing your trip with us.  Between you and Barbie and Jim and Iian, I have role models for my retirement years.  Fortunately my husband is supportive of these long cruise goals 🤣 For now we'll settle for shorter trips and live vicariously through you all.

3 hours ago, jean87510 said:

So about 1245pm on Day 4.  Up in the alcoves.  Very glad I did this as it is a zoo in the pool area.  However around 12, the Captains club event was here so we had some entertainment plus more drinks.  10 Zenith on this cruise.  Highest points were 9000? Or 900?  IDK as I've had 2 Mojitos and 3 Champagnes. 😁.  Watched Bocce Ball and Hot glass.  It's really nice and shaded. Just ordered my lunch of a Celebrity burger and fries.  I have watched our butler chase out at least 5 groups of non Alcove people.  One said we are in the Retreat, isnt this included?  

Do you have any photos of your alcove or the amenities? I'm on Equinox in March on the same itinerary and thinking of doing an alcove on the Grand Cayman day.

Also, thanks for taking the time out of your vacation to keep us updated!

1 hour ago, kwokpot said:

Of course you can! When was that ever an issue on Celebrity? 

Maybe it was never an issue but @Rable1 only has 8 posts so they are probably new to Celebrity and Cruise Critic and just asked a question for information.

And yes, you can get drinks and bring them back to your room.  If you want something in a can or bottle for later you can just tell the bartender not to open it.

1 hour ago, David Kane said:

A) Because the chef and their team are literally right in front of you, pretty much everything can be customized around allergens or dietary restrictions. For XZ they even went so far as to change the stock on the soup from a chicken to a vegetable base - quite a nice gesture. They even serve Vegan butter.

 

I have often wondered this and this is totally not the appropriate place to ask but I'm going to anyway, is "vegan butter" just the margarine of our youth that we all found out was not actually good for you?

Or is it some new thing?

And yes, I'm still following along on Day 4 or 5 and really enjoying the review so thanks.  Feel free to post more cat photos.

Oh very exciting, I hope to do some cruises like this when I finally retire.  Thanks for sharing your trip with us.

Oh yes! Ask for cheesy decor and I shall receive!  The curved, possibly upholstered, uplighting next to the headboard is so bad it is almost good.

I think I would find those mirrors distracting too especially in the bathroom, agree, no one needs to see themselves in that much detail.

But, all your other descriptions of the YC, including the prices are making it seem like it may be worth trying.  The newer decor that Karmamule posted doesn't look too bad.

Did I miss the stateroom photos? I was looking forward to the animal print decor 🤣

5 minutes ago, GenerationX said:

We’re staying here! Mostly for selfish reasons as I think keeping two threads going will be too much of a time suck for me.

 

I’ll take no offense though if some want to drop out of following for the MSC half!

Oh NO way, I for one am very curious about MSC Yacht Club and well invested in living vicariously through your travels when I am not booked until March.

Your review has been fantastic so far as all of your reviews are.  Thank you for sharing your vacation with us!

I was thinking about a port day cabana/alcove reservation for our GC day in March. I wonder if we’ll still get the included alcohol. It’s not worth it without that. 

20 hours ago, GenerationX said:

Thank you! I have never sailed NCL but it is on my list to try.  My cousin and her husband are loyal NCL cruisers and Jeremy and I have agreed to try an NCL Haven cruise with them if they’ll try a Celebrity Retreat cruise with us (I suspect we’re both expecting/hoping to convert the other couple 😂). The cards haven’t lined up for the four of us yet in terms of price and schedules, but we’re hoping to get both cruises in before end of this year.

I'm very curious to see your opinions of NCL when you try it.  We've only done one Celebrity retreat cruise (on the Edge) and it was fantastic, I think better than the few NCL Haven cruises we've done but we do prefer the spas on NCL because of the thalasotherapy pools and the larger spa areas.

I'm also considering MSC since they will soon be leaving from a port I could walk to if I didn't insist on bringing way too much luggage 🤣 so I'm excited for this review.  Also, I love your reviews and I do wish my husband wouldn't be too jealous if I cruised without him.  As it stands, I take land based vacations to use up my excess of vacation time with my best friend so I'm not suffering but I do live vicariously through your solo cruises.

Bon voyage!

I think 60 minutes is good.  30 is too short and 100 is too long, especially if you have never had one or haven't in a long time, you may not like it.

Also, massages are so much cheaper at land based spas so unless it's something you really enjoy or have OBC you want to spend, it may not be worth it. 

And, there are different kinds of massages, some are heavier pressure than others, or use hot stones or brushes etc, so think about what you want when you book it. 

1 hour ago, forbjz said:

So what exactly do you get when you pay for the class? Does the 120 fee not let you take the item home?

I think some items are more than $120 so you may have to pay more depending on what you pick.

1 hour ago, Jim_Iain said:

 

Everything is doing well.   I have an appointment on Thursday and get the stitches removed.  Yuck.   The Doctor said it is painless but I'm squeamish.    I didn't even realize there were still stitches after 8 weeks.

 

The good point is they did a cataract surgery at the same time and I no longer have to wear glasses. 

Glad to see this (no pun intended 🤣)

Enjoy your trips, I'm excited to follow along since I have to wait until March for my next cruise.

8251 will have a larger balcony than a cabin not on the angle.

We prefer to book these cabins for that reason.

On 11/15/2022 at 12:19 PM, JoBuXo said:

I thought I was creating a new roll call, lol! 

It looks like there already is a roll call for your cruise

I'm sure they will be excited to have you join their thread.

I love your gatsby dress! Where is it from?

Your review is great, thanks so much for doing it.  It's helping me make it until my next cruise in March 2023.

Fantastic review, thanks for taking the time to write it. I hope you made your connecting flight. 

Happy Anniversary! And Congrats to Julie on her retirement!

I hope you have a great trip.

One tip I have for buying oils and other consumables is to save any plastic bags you get from your souvenir purchases and double or triple wrap the bottles.  I even sometimes bring those giant zip loc bags from home but you've already left so that isn't super helpful for this trip.

You can buy those plastic sleeves on Amazon or other websites if they are no longer available here.  Of course they don't say cruise critic on them.

We were in a suite on our last cruise in December and we never received luggage tags so we printed them out.  Then we got home a week later and got our mail from the doorman and had our luggage tags.  oops.

But you can also get them at the pier if you can't print them.  Or print them at your hotel the night before in their business center.

Agree they are bigger and we like them because you have more room on the balcony to stretch out and sometimes can even request a lounge chair, or they may already have a lounge chair on them.