Mike981

I love this. It has been a long time since I have cruised a M ship, I'm not sure what the Mercury would be classified as but that was our first ever cruise, then we followed up with the Millennium the next year. We are booked on the Constellation this coming January and really looking forward to it. Don't let the age of a ship throw you or the size of the ship. My DW and I like the smaller ships. I study the floor layout before our cruise to get and idea, but there isn't anything like actually walking around and seeing for yourself. It eliminates a lot of frustration on trying to get from one area to another, if you know you need change a floor to get there. I will add what I have always said and my adult kids live by, learn to go with the flow. EVERY trip will have things pop up that are not great, how you deal with it makes your trip. Remember, everyone with you is on vacation and want to have a good time.

Wow, thank you for that @kwokpot! I just went and put it in my cart. Speaking of Amazon, we all know that at times their reviews seem suspicious and it is hard to know who to believe. I use a website called ReviewMeta, they analyze Amazon reviews and sort out unnatural reviews they detect from their algorithm. I have used it a lot and it seems very good.

I can relate to not liking to fly long distances. Four hours is long for me, we used to go to Jamaica and once to St. Lucia and they were tough. I now have had both hips replaced and it makes it even harder, I do purchase larger seats but those long flights are still tough. Now if I could purchase those first class seats that Jim had, that might change things.

My wife and I will be visiting New Orleans for the first time this winter and I have been researching different tours and tour guides and one thing I keep seeing in the reviews is, "we should have just done our own tour." Even some who felt the tour was good, but still felt they could have had a better time on their own. So I am wondering what your opinion is for two folks who will be traveling down from the frozen north for their first visit to New Orleans. For reference we will be sailing on Celebrity Constellation, visiting on January 4 and our planned time at port is 9:30am - 10pm.

@abbydancer2003 thank you for the great pictures. You reminded me of a cruise my wife and I were on with and aft balcony. I can't remember the island, but we had an amazing sunset. If you looked to the right you could see the spectacular sunset and if you looked to the left you could see smoke coming out of a volcano in the wonderful light of the sunset. It looked like a movie scene and a moment that gets brought up every trip.

I can understand your feelings on bar soap, but... I liked the bar soap so much that I purchased some when I got home.

Thank you @justcrusn, I posted it there as well.

For me: I click on 'manage reservation', then scroll down to 'cruise planner' and then click on 'drink packages'. You should then see 'drink upgrades'. If not, just give them a call.

Hi kids, I just upgraded our classic drink package to premium at a 35% discount. Just wanted to give you a heads up. I have been watching for a while and it has been at a 5% discount. I believe this is often on a per ship basis and not fleet wide, just wanted to give you a heads up.

That is where I am with my iPhone 7s, I just read last week that Apple has moved iPhone 6 behind the barn to shoot it and there will be no more support.

Hi Jim, no need to check models on your busy vacation. I was just wondering if products had turned over yet. When we purchased one back in 2020 on the Reflection they had a decent offering of iPads not the latest, but we were fine with what they had to offer. I guess we will just wait until we board and see what they have for us. Thank you all for your help.

Well I honestly don't get this thinking, it is just good business. I would be amazed if they didn't try to resell the room. When I was in sales this situation would come up time to time. A client signed a contract that they paid in full so they could get a great rate, knowing if they change their plans then the contract was null and void. If they did cancel I would start calling my other clients and offer them the same rate, first come first serve. I would make commission on both sales, since both paid.

Doing a search I found there are many references to "Apple"; apple pear, apple pie, apple iPhone...But not what was looking for. I remember after the Covid break many folks were saying that the Apple products for sale on board were rather outdated, have you seen any updating? We are sailing on Constellation next January and I am just trying to figure out the best use of our OBC. Thank you~

Here in Minnesota it was a usual cloudy spring day. There was no chance we could see anything, but that is very common.

We did an AQ room this past January on Silhouette and loved it. I believe we were in room 1642, very quiet and just a short walk to the pool area. The room was a basic balcony room, the big enjoyment for us was Blu.

There just isn't any way to do it without taking away from the other children. If anything, there needs to be another level of support that the provider can contact and then that agency/person can attempt to contact the parent. Parents do have to give us alternative contacts, but guess what? They don't always work, and the parents don't always answer their phones either. A lot of times parents won't answer our call because they think their child is sick and they don't want to leave work to come and get them. Especially if they have drugged and dropped their child, where they load up their child up on medicine and don't tell us, BECAUSE they know they should keep their child home and not infect everyone else. We have a 24 hour wait period if your child has had a fever or thrown up. Parents will lie. And we have had the actual child tell us the parents said not to tell us they were sick. But I digress... I know this is uncomfortable for some to hear, but this is VERY common with parents and it extends to school age children that get dropped off by the school bus at our daycare. It is scary when the bus goes by our house and the child does not get off. We will do everything we can to find out what happened and 99% of the time when we can get a hold of the parent they will laugh and say, "oh yea I picked them up." Oh I could go on and on and... As for the time change, no somehow the parents still drop their child off at the proper time.

*Sidebar* My wife and I have an in-home daycare in the USA. This conversation reminds me, every year parents forgetting their children in their vehicle as they go to work for the day. When they go back out to their car to go home, their child has passed. So-so very sad. Parents forget/chose not to tell us almost everyday in our daycare if they are coming or not. Our state was trying/thinking of mandating that if a parent does not show up or contact you, the daycare providers will be mandated to follow up with the parents until they get an answer on why they did not show up and that the child is safe. It is a nice thought on paper and sounds good for people who do not do daycare, but I am sure you can see how wrong this is. Move the blame from the parent to the provider who is most likely taking care of 6-12 other children.

That makes me sad. I was hoping that they would fix the problem, not more smoke and mirrors. My wife and I sailed Millennium shortly after you. The year before we went on our first cruise ever on the Mercury. We have a 10 day cruise booked this January on the Constellation and hope to have some memories brought back from our Milly cruise. Speaking of Constellation, we are toying with the idea of getting the Unlimited Dining Package. Do you think it would be worth it on that size of a ship, I believe there are only two premium dining options and one is the cartoon meal? On our last cruise we did Blu and loved it, so if Luminae cuts it we would be happy with just one option.

This past January my wife and I were on the Silhouette for 10 days and it was very nice. It had been four years since our last cruise and we didn't notice anything wrong. As a matter of fact, there was more staff around and definitely more bar waitstaff than before. I thought they had done away with the bar carts and it seemed like they always had two going around this trip. We ate in Blue and it was very good and the buffet seemed to be on par with other trips. All in all, it was a great trip.

😁

I have a friend who lives in a HOA in Nevada and he calls them, FIP's. Formally Important People. They have several folks who used to work in Silicon Valley and they all believe they know computers better than anyone else, so the lovely computer room they have set aside sits empty. PC/Mac/Linux, they can't come to any common ground so they just gave up. It is a lovely place, but when he told me that story and the effort it took for him to be able to get approval for a 3x3 piece of Astro turf for his backyard, I knew that HOA's were not for me or my wife.

A little to "Into The Mystic"?

My son had that happen to him in Mexico, scary for sure. VLOG reminds me of how students were disciplined in my Catholic school.

LOL! Oh Jim, many of us just wait for your posts.

Thank you again for your great review.