markeb

It's really a math question. If you drink premium water or Red Bull, for instance, those are not available in the Classic package and you'll pay full price for them. They're just excluded completely even though they're below the dollar limit. Red Bull is I think $7 plus gratuity. or $8.40 Can't remember which waters are included, but figure $6 each or $7.20. If you're looking at wine, cocktails, beer, or spirits, you pay the upcharge plus gratuity. If you are looking at the $17 martinis versus a $10 classic package, you're paying $8.40 extra per martini. Take the upgrade price (including the extra 20% gratuity) and divide by $8.40. If that's say $24/day, then you'd break even at three martinis in a day even without accounting for higher priced wine or beer or water. It's a calculated guess for a first timer. But if only one of you is looking at premium package drinks, unless they're talking about (using the simple math above) six martinis for themselves, every day, it's likely going to be less expensive to pay the upcharge as you go...

That's what a good sommelier should do. Glad you have one. I also think too many of the sommeliers on Celebrity just fall into asking the customer what they want, so we never give them the opportunity to recommend other wines. And we (the customers) have a bad habit of just asking for something we recognize. Not on Celebrity, but I've worked with sommeliers at a couple of nice places that have described a pairing I never would have thought of that ended up being amazing. Like a mid-body red with a white fish, because of the sauce.

I'm one of the rarest of Marriott/Bonvoy members. Made Lifetime Titanium at the merger. The only time it was offered. My wife thanks me for all those trips every time we have breakfast in an M Club... Ambassador wasn't a thing. I guess there are stay and dollar criteria, so it's not invitation only like Global Services. Never got there. Don't perceive a real advantage. I do still know what my house looks like!

I tend to agree. There was a Delirium cafe in Brussels with a lot of beer on tap, but I don't think even they did flights like you'd see in the US. I just don't think it's a thing in Belgium. The better beer is served in small glasses and enjoyed fairly slowly. And the really good stuff is 10-14% alcohol (barley wine territory) and one can be quite enough. Probably can't take the supermarket beer onto the ship, in most cases, unfortunately. It'll probably get nabbed and returned on the last evening. At room temperature or above... And I'll second a previous post on Mary Chocolate. Probably my favorite Belgian chocolate from too many trips to Brussels over the years. I'd buy others to bring back to the office (Leonidas) but Mary always made it home to my wife...

That’s good to know. My big complaint with Tuscan was that the portions were just too big. Might try it again and split a better steak. I usually cook a 10-12 ounce ribeye and slice it for the two of us. And sometimes save some for breakfast the next day. 16 ounce t-bone or porterhouse is just too much!

Probably Porter in Coombsville and Paloma on Spring Mountain. We were mostly going to small places. Paloma was literally in the winemaker’s dining room. Darioush is a bit of an off the beaten track winery. Great wines, just not necessarily well known. We were at a tasting tonight for Sky Devil. Don’t know that they have a tasting room, but Kirk Venge is their winemaker. Venge wines, Trespass, and Sky Devil among others. Amazing winemaker. I’d buy pretty much anything he makes and probably most things he consults on.

If you have data onboard, "some" of the wines by the bottle are a good deal. In the past that's included some not by the glass that were far better and averaged out at a decent price. No, Conundrum is probably still overpriced. But there are some decent to very good Pinot Noirs that aren't badly priced. Not 3X retail for sure. Actually, Pinot Noir may be one of the best bottle prices I see in the app. Again, if you're drinking mixed drinks, beer, water, soda, and specialty coffees, you'll do better than you think. Some of the whites by the glass are pretty good. Right now, it's the reds that seem to be lacking. I'll try to report back after the Summit. Where are you going in Napa?

I've never found an alternate Cabernet. In the past, I've frequently found very good "other reds". Malbec, Zinfandel, Primitivo, Syrah/Shiraz, Sangiovese, etc. Not so much my last cruise. We'll see on Summit in a couple of weeks. What would you have paid for 2-3 bottles? Just curious as that seems like it would be a better alternative for dinner. Better wine and maybe even less expensive if you're paying the upcharges anyway. The question then becomes would you have drunk enough other covered drinks to pay for the package.

An extreme case, of course, but the argument to "can I make a XX:xx flight"? We're overnighting in Vancouver after our Alaska cruise to not be rushed and have a day in Vancouver, but... Hope all goes well with the patient. That's the most important thing.

When is your cruise? Sometimes the menu option doesn't appear until closer to sailing. This is my sailing later this month and I have a "Menu" option right above the opening times. Do you see that? If not, you'll need to change the app to a current sailing. On the app's home screen, there will be a calendar icon at the top center. If you select that icon, you'll see the itinerary for your cruise. At the bottom is a faint "Change Ship/Dates" link. If you select that, you can choose any ship and sailing. I'd recommend selecting your ship and the current sailing (should be the first date). That's obviously not your cruise, but it's a good approximation. Honestly, your cruise is only an approximation until you're on board. To get back to your cruise, do the same thing but the app will offer your cruise first.

Did you look in the app? Generally $17. Probably a few that are more.

Can you provide documentation something DID happen to the captain? Because if nothing happened, there are probably no news stories or documentation. Maybe it was time to rotate. Maybe they moved them temporarily for PR purposes to investigate. And reinstated them when the review found they needed to revise procedures.

Same photo, same resolution. They're too close to shore, and I'm not an expert on interpreting overhead photography. The original article alleged 1000 feet. That's possible, but the distance will be distorted by the angle. Blowing up a 67 KB photo that appears to have been chosen because the original poster didn't have or didn't want to use any data isn't going to give you a better view. Apparently some of the recent Android phones use this as a file format. Or that's what Hawaii News Now uses on their web page. They should probably expect a subpoena from the investigators and maybe they actually have a real photo that can be examined. I'm assuming it hasn't been manipulated. Those are reflections. They all follow the same curvature. The one "closest" to the ship actually overlaps the stern, so it's clearly not underwater. The tan has an unnaturally precise shape, and again, since it's on the same curvature as the other artifacts, it's a reflection of a manmade object. Almost certainly on the helicopter. It actually could be a human hand on a controller; that may be a thumb. Someone somewhere has pictures of the interior of tourist helicopters in Hawaii that will match that look; the helos I've flown in, long ago, had open doors and jump seats. But yes, they're too close to shore. And they may have damaged the sea floor. I'm far more interested in how it happened and how to prevent it in the future.

It's a 67 KB file in an open source format known to be highly compressed. If you blow it up, you just get even less detail and more grain. On my 32 inch monitor it's already losing detail at the posted resolution, which is 980 x 1305. Gets worse if I try to go full screen. Unless someone has the original, uncompressed photo, what you see on the web is what you get. But that's clearly not a sandbar. Looks much more like a window seat on a helicopter reflected in a window. Not that I think that matters. They're somewhere they shouldn't be. Not directly because of navigable depth. They stir up the seabed all the time, but usually in harbors where that's expected. And there are photos (without the ship, as I recall) that clearly show the seabed stirred up. Regardless of depth they shouldn't have been there, and they shouldn't have been disturbing the seabed. Almost all of the photography I've seen distorts size and distance. Sometimes badly. And much, like the one overhead oblique shot with reflections from the helicopter, were taken with pretty poor quality equipment and compressed even more to post on the internet. I'm not sure why anyone would pay for a helicopter tour of the islands to just take bad iPhone photos...

If you look really closely, you can see Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster carving out square edges ending in a curved end of that tan sandbar….

Do you know they got shallow? Seems unlikely. There’s nothing inherently unsafe about being there. It is an off limits area. That’s different. Do you have alarms that tell you you’re in an off limits area? I assume they have GPS navigation systems as well as charts. Did the navigation systems show the correct minimum distance? Did the charts? That’s why you do root cause analysis. Instead of posting on social media with no actual evidence.

The criteria are based on their overall program. By the bottle. The by the glass offerings don't appear to influence Wine Spectator.

Easiest, but what if this was considered a low risk maneuver and one of the staff captains miscalculated the route? Then you remove the master (again, his responsibility) but leave the staff captain who actually screwed up. Or you remove the entire command structure, and have to replace 2-3 master rated officers. Overnight. Removing the captain without knowing what happened is PR. It'll probably happen, but it's still PR.

What are your plans in Manhattan? It's a pretty big place. Most people, myself included, don't explore much of it. Hidden gems depend on what you're doing. You can, for instance, eat at some of the best restaurants in North America, priced accordingly. Great pizza, great steaks, and a variety of other food. Several world class museums. Views from either Top of the Rock or the Empire State Building. Kind of depends on you interests. I've not gone on the search for great speakeasies that still exist. A lot of the better hotels have great bars. Some things that seem cliche are also good. I'm debating on starting a food finds thread just for fun, but... Amazing restaurant (Michelin 3-star) that you might actually get reservations to: Le Bernardin. 51st Avenue between 6th and 7th Avenue. Amazing French inspired seafood. Lunch more affordable than dinner (surprise). The hidden gem is the lounge where you can order off of the prix fix menu or a lounge menu and have amazing cocktails and wines. Dress code... Wine Bar: Aldo Sohm Wine Bar. Aldo Sohm is the Sommelier at Le Bernardin. He has a more casual wine bar directly adjacent to Le Bernardin. Somewhat limited menu for food, but great menu for wine. Casual Pizza: John's of Bleeker Street. In the Village, not far from the shops of SOHO and Washington Square. I'm still a fan of John's of Time Square for convenience (they used to be related; there was a divorce in the 0's apparently) but the Bleeker Street location is better. Smaller, you may be waiting outside, mid afternoon lunch is probably better. Totally casual. Ramen: A recent find. Michelin Bib Gourmand and well worth it (and also not far from your hotel. Tonchin. Not overly expensive (more so with the full bar, or course), a bit messy (like most Ramen places) but delicious. Hot food on what could be a cold day. Casual. Steak. Also not far from your hotel. Keens. Very old school NY steakhouse. Also has a cool bar. Best use of a sunny afternoon: The High Line. Look it up if you haven't. There's a northern entrance not far from Penn Station. Which now also has a very nice food hall and H&H makes some great bagels/bagel sandwiches. The southern exit is in the Meatpacking District and a short walk to Chelsea Market. No good recommendations for coffee near your hotel. Sorry... Have fun!

The "speculation" is why? Which is the only real question. Unless the photos are exaggerating distance (which they can), the Edge was within the restricted space. Incident/accident investigation transitioned from assigning blame to assessing cause probably 20 years ago. Assessing cause may result in assigning responsibility (and yes, the master is responsible for everything on his watch), but its true purpose is understanding what happened and what can be done to prevent it in the future. That's the more important consideration here. Not attaching blame. It's highly unlikely there was a single failure, and corrective action for future cruises will need to address all those failures. I do tend to fall into a military mindset where the Commander is responsible for everything that does and does not happen in his or her command. Not sure how that applies in this corporate 'command' structure. Right or wrong, I sense a captain being promoted to corporate duties. But first you need to know exactly what failed, when, and why. Otherwise you're firing the coach because the GM signed the wrong players. Looks good on Sports Center but rarely fixes the problem.

Never been there. A lot of good places to visit in Manhattan. It's a pity the Waldorf is still closed. A couple of really cool bars there before the closure. Manhattan is still a great cocktail town!

Speculation. That's why there are investigations.

You never know about weather. In 2015, we were walking around Manhattan in short sleeve polos, with not jackets, on Christmas Day. In 2009, we were watching 23 inches of snow fall... Had to Google the address. I think I get it, but I won't tell... 😃

Back to the OP's question: I will suggest there is no real answer to your question. Dress is different. Sometimes we would perceive it as dressier, but they might not. South of the Alps, a flowy sundress with either flats or heels can be as casual as shorts to us. The UK has centuries of tailoring and textiles and depending somewhat on age a sport coat and trousers is casual, not dressy. Jeans were historically (and I think still?) outrageously expensive in Europe, so wool and cotton trousers are still worn a lot instead of jeans for men (although jeans are certainly common!). And frequently in what would be considered outrageous or even gaudy colors in the US. You may perceive them as dressier, but they're actually their versions of jeans. Dress in France or Italy or Spain will be different from Germany, the Netherlands, or the Czech Republic. Etc. Cruise ships are an artificial environment for dress. Don't sweat it.

But historically common on the Continent. Not so much in the UK... When we were stationed in Bavaria in the 90's, we'd see the same guy on Volksmarches, sometimes more than once a month. Probably in his early 60's, skin was permanently burned, no shirt, and a Speedo. Hiking the countryside...