bigbenboys

We did not dine in the MDR because we were in Aqua & were assigned to Blu. We were not very impressed with the menu choices in Blu & probably will not choose Aqua in the future.

We are not impressed with Blu also. Looking at the menus again they had no Prime Rib in Blu. They did have ribeye and yes they are good. At least for me ribeye is very easy to cook at home for one or two. Prime Rib takes longer to cook and harder to cook for 2 rib cooked med-rare. Our next cruise we are back in Select Dining, May we are back in Blu. Going to give Blu another try. Aqua cabin was less than the C2 rooms we had booked. Richard

It is at the buffet in the Oceanview Cafe. On the S class ships as you look aft it is on both sides at the end of the desserts. Richard

The Priority tickets are delivered to your stateroom the night before. Go to the tenders whenever you like, give the person the ticket, and hop on.

We have gotten Priority Tickets in our room, then we had to go to Michaels Club to get the real ticket. Richard

How many Elite happy hours nights are there on a 5 night cruise?

They dont have Elite happy hour on the 1st night or the night of the Captains party. Richard

Thanks so much roohound. This will help us decide whether to upgrade to the Premium drink package or not.

Premium drink package has the following. Coke, Diet Coke, Fanta Orange, Coke Zero, Sprite, Diet Sprite, Barqs, Specialty Coffee, Specialty Tea, Cranberry, Pineapple, Orange, Tomato, Apple, Grapefruit, Samuel Adams, Red Bull, Non-Alcoholic Frozen Drinks, Vitamin Water, Evian®, Pellegrino, Coors Light, Becks, Heineken, Amstel Light, Corona, Franziskaner, Dos Equis, Grolsh Swing Top, Red Stripe, Carlsberg, Hoegarden, Guinness, Newcastle Brown Ale, Boddington's, Leffe, Stella Artois, Peroni, Johnny Walker Black, Glenfiddich Pure Malt, Dewars 12 year old, Chivas Regal, Glenlivet, Crown Royal, Tangle Ridge, Old Black Bush, Knob Creek, Blanton's Single Barrel, Remy Martin VSOP, Courvosier VSOP, Hennessy VSOP, Bombay Sapphire, Ketel One, Effen, Level, Belvedere, Grey Goose, Pyrat XO Reserve, Montecristo, Bacardi 8, Patron Silver, Patron Anejo, Patron Gold, Extase XO, Grand Marnier, Bollini, St. Francis, J & H Selbach, Southern Right, Paul Jaboulet, Jena Luc Colombo, Beringer, Heron's Nest, Tenuta de Nozzole, Antinori, Chateau Castera, Rutherford Ranch, Kendall Jackson, Marques de la Concordia.

I know it's not a big deal, but sometimes it's the little things that really annoy me.

 

Celebrity goes through this big production of adding Elite Plus to the Captain's Club membership. We are Elite Plus - My Celebrity shows me as Elite + so I know Celebrity knows my Captain's Club number is Elite Plus.

 

When I looked at our Cruise documents online for our April sailing, we're listed as Elite.

 

Not a big deal, I know, but why would Celebrity not get this right on your cruise documents?

 

They are really, really bad with the details.

We all know the website has problems. Some days I sign in and I'm Elite. The next day I sign in and I'm Elite Plus. I'm just hoping that it will show Zenith one day and stick. When you print out you e-ticket and it has Elite, then I'd begin to question. Your not alone. Richard

It was super easy to catch the train right by the port....cheap too. Just not a lot of time to spend in Paris! We had enough time to walk up to the Louvre and back to train. We were afraid to try to catch the last train and potentially miss the ship. There was a group of Braziliians who did it right. They preplanned and basically left the ship at this port and planned the rest of their vacation in Paris. Smart. Wish we would have thought of that. All that was missed was onesies day and for that they spent the rest of their vacation time in Paris and flew home from there.

 

 

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Yes you can plan your own travels to Paris. Paris is about 2 hours from the port by bus. We used Celebrity tour. Others took the train. As it happened someone jumped in front the train that day outside of Paris on its way to Le Havre. Cruises passenger did make it back in time that were on the train. But the taxi ride did cost them plenty. It is one thing to hire a private tour near them ship. It is another to go hours away. Do you fell lucky? Richard

I do like Hubbard glacier a lot. We have done the Alaska cruise many times. As we are living in the Seattle area. I have not been impressed with Tracy Arm Fjord. But as we cruised in May the cruise ships cant get in as far or close to the glaciers as later in the season. So time of cruise will be important.

What about the Celebrity's Celebrity Century leaving out of Vancouver, BC. It is a 7 day and round trip. And it goes to Hubbard glacier. You also get a true Inside Passage (Cruising) on Century. Century will be only with Celebrity a short time longer. I have not cruise on her, but we did cruise on her sister ship Mercury. Loved Mercury! They are smaller ships and should be able to get closer the the glacier. Vancouver is a really nice city. The cruise port is right downtown. Dont get me wrong I love the S class ships. But is the cruise about the ship or is it about Alaska and Hubbard glacier. Richard

I personally keep all my shot records in a book called International Certificate of Vaccination. The book is CDC 731. The doctor updates it every time I get shots. I have the following. measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine, diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis vaccine, varicella (chickenpox) vaccine, polio vaccine, and your yearly flu shot. Also Yellow fever, Hepatitis A & B. Typhoid. Some of them are once in a life time. Some are good for 10 years. I take the book on every cruise or land vacation. Richard

Don't think anything I said implies a charity organization. And according to Celebrity Bistro on Five is not being done away with so that is a mute point by now. I guess one thought I have is that if in fact Celebrity currently has no problems booking suites (and they always seem to be filled on my sailings) then why would they be adding other perks which cost them money and possibly annoy the mainstream passengers? That goes exactly contrary to the idea of them being in the business to make money.

 

These perks do take away some real estate currently open to all, make it more difficult to get good dining times in the specialty restaurants for all, and perhaps (unknown at this time) may adversely impact service or quality for the mainstream to some extent (by virtue of the best servers, best chef's, etc., going to the suite sections). It also to some extent (particularly for long time X cruisers) creates some (probably temporary) feeling of exclusionism to the 95% of the cruisers who cannot partake of these categories.[/QU

 

If we are talking space. Suite take up to much room. You could have 6 more cabins in place of a large suite. Sky Suite would be 2 cabins. What do you want Celebrity to do? Change all cabins to inside and windows only. People with real money dont cruise on cruise lines or are getting paid to be their. Why do that when you can rent a yacht. Or you can rent the whole cruise ship. Richard

I was at one of the wine tasting events. I thought the Sommelier said the S class ships holds 4000 bottles of wine. Has anyone heard that? Richard

But for an alarm clock, it is better to use the ship's telephone wake up call which will be on ship time regardless of your actual geographic location.

 

That way there is no concern about the "correct" time setting.

 

I use my mobile phone alarm clock at the pool. Richard

Between this and the Captain's Club caste system, a first timer in a regular cabin will be little better than a galley slave.

 

Roy

What is all tell me is if I was crusing for the 1st time. I would want to get the high end suites. You get all the perks. You get the most points per day. Then after you get to Elite start booking none suites. The reason being is that you will now have most of the Perks that suites get. Richard

Just like high end gated community's at home! The Oprah and Donald wanna be's won't have to associate with the minions :D

Opp's, unless they want to sit by the pool:rolleyes:

Now if only we could get the roped off area at the pool like RCL has. Richard

If your dining in traditional MDR or you are in a Aqua cabin and dining in Blu you don't have to prepay gratuities. You do have the option of withdrawing the money at the casino cage off your sign and sail card. Last I check it cost you 5%. Richard

We chose our cabin carefully and our TA specifically put on the reservation "do not upgrade without first notifying and getting permission" - or something like that. We were in A2 and did not want to get upgraded to A1 as we wanted the balcony shade.

 

Perhaps he didn't have to do that, but he seemed to think it was a good idea. And I thought I'd read on these boards about people being told at the pier by Celebrity that they were upgraded, and they were never consulted, they didn't want the offered upgrade, but their old cabin had already been given away.

We were given upgraded rooms on HAL. We didnt want them. They seemed to give us a choice to take the upgraded rooms or not go on the cruise. We went on the cruise. The rooms were nice. Double sinks with shower and separate tub. The cabin was also larger. They were not in the location we wanted. We have not cruised with HAL since. My last cruise on HAL was 2009. We have done 14 cruise since that HAL cruise. None on HAL. With celebrity we also have a notify TA before upgrade. Richard

For us it is all about cost. If the C2 are less than Aqua then we book C2, but sometime Aqua is less than C2. Then we book Aqua. Our May cruise in Aqua was less than C2 and we get the 25 extra points. Blu is nice but not great. The tea has very little flavor. The bottle water is nice, but I dont have any problems with the ships tap water. Richard

Just had a look at this to request a 2015 brochure

 

screen shot

Request a brochure

 

 

 

 

 

To request a copy of the Azamara Club Cruises brochure by post, simply enter your details below. When you have completed the form, click submit for your request will be fulfilled. Select a brochure

• Azamara 2013 Cruises
  
• Azamara 2014 Cruises
  

If they cannot even get this right then they really start to deserve to be wound up.

From the USA site I have requested a brochure twice and nothing has been sent to the house.

When it comes to the website. It is my understanding that you start with a APP and back build a website. APP site is a smiple verison of the larger website. I'm I right techies? Richard

1. A Pawn Shop

2. A Water Slide in the Atrium

3. Pet Daycare and Boutique

4. Reservations for a psychic reading

5. Japanese Zen Garden on top deck instead of lawn

I love the idea of a Pet Daycare and Boutique. The only ship I can take my dog on is Cunard transatlanic. Richard

Schwab offers two cards...one tied to your brokerage account, the other tied to a schwab bank account. You want the schwab bank account card which refunds ATM fees (where they are identified as ATM fees, or if you have the receipt) and charges 0% on currency conversion.

I have a SPC account with Schwab. I've looked at Schwab Bank. But there interest rate on the CD's are to low. The 0% on currency sounds great. I might have to look into it again. I use my BECU ATM card that has no fees on their side. Richard

A main dining room change that would be able to separate those wanting to dress down and those wanting to dress up on formal nights. There have been so many posts complaining against the formal vs the casual and those that do not mind what people wear as long as it does not bother their evening. 2 MDR locations would solve the issue. Those wanting to dress to formal rules set by Celebrity go to MDR #1 and those requesting casual go to MDR #2. What ever happens please do not place in same area IE upper and lower MDR areas as this would be looked upon as class segregation.

Why not change the specialty restaurants to formal night every night. Dressing in a tux or dark suit ever night is very simple. A dark suit take me 10 mins or less to get dress. Dressing smart casual takes much longer. To many choices. Richard

Yes, they will serve you a glass bottle in a inside bar/lounge but on pool deck this will come in a plastic cup or mug only.

I'm sure my Heineken bucket had glass bottles of Heineken. I was on the upper deck of the pool. Maybe that is why they were glass. Heineken does not have twist off caps. So the server had to open 2 bottles for me. Richard

In the past I have cashed a personal check or travelers check on board. Does anyone know if Celebrity or Royal Caribbean still let you cash a personal check for $200. I hate paying ATM fees. I can get travelers checks free but that requires going to the bank and it seems like I always have leftovers which no one at home knows what to do with.

What about getting cash at home from your bank. Bring your check book with checks and the banking routing numbers on your checks might not be a good idea. Or getting a draw from the casino on your ship and sail card. It does cost 5% though. Richard

I would like the same size ship or smaller. More modern art. I love the Chihuly glass art that they have on some of the ships. The glass blowing on 3 of the Solstice class ships are great. I took a glass blowing class over the holidays. It was so much fun. Maybe something of a live art show with marble, bronze or theater in the round. I do like the Solstice class ship a lot. As to music, I'm wanting 1980's to 2010's. As Celebrity has no plans to build any ships for awhile now. If they decide to get new ship wont it be in 2020 or so. As the title said "A New Generation of Celebrity Ships" Richard

Daily or for the entire two weeks? :rolleyes:

 

Seems like if that is your norm for an entire cruise that it would be hard increase your consumption to the point where they'd be worthwhile, even considering the extra cost non-alcoholic items that would be included. If it a daily figure the drink package would be a great value for you.

On a 2 week cruise I would buy 5 glasses of wine and 2 Pina Colada.... for the entire cruise. Not each day. Richard