terrydtx

I think they must, we have been looking at both Premium Economy and BC air and they are outrageous. We are on the Jan 13th NZ cruise and the Jan 25th GBR cruise both in the same SS cabin, we booked back in January before the SS were all sold out. We're surprised how much less the cost per day for a SS was compared to our other SS cruises. Our 12 night SS cost is only about $800pp more than the current AQ class pricing.

On the Equinox last year in August, I saw very few men in jackets or suits, it was so very hot in the Caribbean. On the Reflection this year in the Med, many more men in suits and formal wear, but we had a much higher percentage of people from the UK and Europe. For me, I retired all of my jackets and suits when I retired in 2020 and on all cruises, my dress up night is khaki or golf pants and a button up shirt like one of my nice Tommy Bahama Hawaiin shirts. Most other nights, it is still long pants and either a polo or golf shirts to a button up shirt. I never wear shorts in any dining room on a cruise for the evening.

The CC admins will remove any posts that violate any of the CC guidelines about covid discussions. I think there were several posts in this thread that went too far in their covid discussions and may have been removed.

My wife got covid on the Oosterdam in August and was sent to 5 days of isolation in regular verandah cabin, we had a Signature Suite, and I tested negative. HAL first wanted to isolate her in an inside cabin, but it turned out they were already all full of covid passengers, so they found a veranda in the "Covid" ward of the ship. After the cruise, we got dumped in Venice for another 3 days of isolation in Venice by HAL, once off the ship we got nothing of what they promised us. However our TA filled a claim with our travel insurance company, AON, for the missed 5 days and our post cruise hotel and meal expenses. We received this week full payment for the missed 5 days for both my wife and I, plus all other expenses. The only thing they didn't pay was $40 for cough syrup on the ship from HAL's medical people. We and our TA have never heard a word from HAL but getting a full cash refund from AON was much better than any FCC.

That has been our experience in a Sky Suite, too. Also all drinks ordered with our butlers for room service, like a bloody Mary with breakfast were included in our Premium drinks package. We have never been charged for any drinks or mini bar's use in any suite since post covid. On our Reflection cruise in August our butler kept our mini bar stocked with red and white wine and Evian bottled water all at no cost to us. I refuse to drink the standard canned water they want to leave in our cabin.

We just booked our business class tickets for next September with FBC and for our return flights from Athens on Bristish Airways, FBC could not book our seats and I couldn't do it online with BA website. I called BA yesterday and got right through to an agent and he was able to book our seats on both flights with no problem. Our flights to Amsterdam pre-cruise were on United and I was able to book seats online in the United website. BTW you can get a confirmed ticket before final payment by paying for the flights at the time of booking or anytime before FP with FBC. However, once you do this you are limited in making any flight changes without a penalty.

I tip at end of cruise, some here tip at beginning of cruise. Our Butlers always brought our room service breakfast and snacks during the day. Once while bringing drinks back to our suite, the butler saw us and told us next time to call him and he would bring our drinks to our cabin. We have done this many times and we usually get our drinks within a few minutes. On our Reflection cruise in August, we had a couple of days where we had a very late lunch on an excursion and all we wanted was a bowl of the delicious French Onio soup and a shrimp cocktail in our cabins for dinner. Our butler brought the piping hot soup and shrimp to our cabin in about 5 minutes. If you don't use your butlers, they will think you are not happy with their service. Last year in our first suite on the Equinox, the first morning after delivering our breakfast our butler asked how everything was, and I mentioned the pot of coffee was a little weak to my liking. The next morning, he stopped at Cafe El Bacio and added several shots of expresso to the pot of coffee, and it was perfect, he did the same every morning after.

The list of refurbs that Celebrity has reported in print are mostly required standard maintenances and inspections, mandated by maritime law and lack of cash doesn't prevent them. I believe the Reflection had one of these required maintenances before she did her TA last month, they did repaint the hull to the new blue color and do some minor soft goods replacement, but no Retreat Revolutionizing was done.

The 2019 partial refurb had nothing to do with the pandemic, the original dry-docking yard had an accident and shut down partially then the Equinox had to go to another location for the partial Revolutionizing. I doubt that the rest of the revolutionizing gets done this year. From what I learned on the Reflection in August, the continued Revolutionizing of the fleet may never restart because of the lack of available cash. If it does restart it will be after 2024. We were in aft SS 2153 last year in August and really liked the cabin, none were available for our Equinox booking next June, but we will enjoy the side SS. We thought the bed was very comfortable but like food, bedding quality is very subjective. Our Equinox cruise had only 900 passengers and at times parts of the ship seemed deserted, but the Retreats cabins were sold out but still no crowds in Luminae or the lounge.

Since you are going south leaving and then north to get back to FLL, not much difference between port and starboard. If on the portside going south the morning sun will be on your balcony but coming back going north, it will not be. In a SS we like to have our butler bring us breakfast on our balcony every morning so we try to pick the side that will have the fewest days with morning sun on our balcony. We have booked S1 cabins near the elevators and never had a noise complaint, but very convenient to go anywhere on the ship to be closer to them. On the Edge class ships the more forward cabins on deck 10 or 11 are very convenient to all of the retreat facilities above them.

Yes, we do this as well when we go to Europe. This past August we arrived 3 weeks before our cruise in Italy.

We were in an aft facing Sky Suite last year on the Equinox and nothing about our cabin looked tired or worn, it was one of the best cabins we have been in on any cruise line. Now our Signature Suite on the HAL Oosterdam this summer was what I would describe as tired and worn and that ship was refurbished in 2019 and out of service 2020 and most of 2021. The couch was thread worn and the carpeting had several bad stains. The outside of the front door was dented and badly scratched as was most of the hallway from our cabin.

You are correct and here is an article that explains the process. Sushi-Grade Fish: What Is It and Where to Buy | Alaskan Salmon Co. – Alaskan Salmon Co. (aksalmonco.com)

We have been doing anytime dining for over 10 years and prefer to enter the MDR between 6:30 and 7pm, I do not recall ever having to wait more than 5 minutes to be seated, even on sold out cruises.

I had the same issue, try closing all browsers and reboot your computer, this fixed the issue for me.

Once onboard you should be able to talk to the MDR manager and get switched to anytime dining, if that is what you prefer.

The same as booking with any airline, 330 days out from the return flight. You would be able to see flights in July or August 2023.

We saw her at one of our ports on our cruise in Greece and Italy in August, the Century was our first Celebrity cruise in 2008.

My wife will not eat sushi, but she loves Sushi on 5 because they offer some really good non-sushi Japanese items that are cooked. We always do lunch at least once on a cruise there.

My wife and I are both 72 and very very active and in excellent health, and the age restrictions by ship sponsored shore excursions has driven us to booking more private tours without the restrictions. We did this all over Italy and Greece in August, not once were we asked our ages by any tour.

Thanks for your reports, we are booked in a SS on the Apex next September for the Amsterdam to Athens 12-night cruise. Looking forward to our first Edge class cruise. I agree the SS pricing is high for next year's sailings, considering that our 2024 SS bookings on the Edge of New Zealand and Australia are considerably less in cost. Our cost for our 12 nights New Zealand cruise is about $1400pp less than the 12-night 2023 Apex cruise.

We used it online Sunday to book our September flights to Europe. It took a lot of tries to finally get them booked, and we saved over $2000 over published fares for business class seats. I was having issues with error messages when I first tried to book on Sunday, but when I rebooted my laptop, I was able to book on my first try. Good luck.

Bo, we are saving about $2000pp on our business class seats for next September by using FBC over current published fares for SAT-AMS and home from ATH-SAT. BC fares for next year are ridiculously high but by booking now with FBC we can rebook or cancel if fares go down with no penalty. We are on United and AA and we also have seats reserved.

We depart on the June 4th. cruise.

Thanks for your review. We love the Equinox and will be back on her next June with our 12-year-old granddaughter for her first cruising experience. Our 2021 Equinox cruise was our first in the Retreat and it so spoiled us, that now we are only booking suites for the future. We sailed on the Reflection in August from Rome and also loved that ship too.