MarKay525

While I have no specific recommendations, I will share my thoughts.

I know the Pan Pacific is lovely, however you will be arriving at 11 pm which is 2 am east coast/your body time. Airport is not close to Pan Pacific/cruise terminal and you need to factor in the time it will take to get to this hotel.

It will be very late by the time you see a bed.

Hope you have a great cruise.

I question that the water listed under Premium pkg on the chart would be included in the Classic pkg even though they are on the non-alcoholic list.

Enjoy your cruise!

Look for cruises that spend the fall sailing from Boston or NYC for "leaf peeping" cruises to New England/Canada, then sail in the Caribbean in the winter.

Also Alaska cruises followed by Mexican Riviera cruises in the winter. Celebrity may not be doing this, but Princess does.

Good luck - we really enjoyed our NCL repositioning cruise a few years ago.

Jim - you've seen so many absolutely beautiful waterfalls - thank you so much for all your photos! Kay

5 minutes ago, goofysmom99 said:

That's one beautiful ship!

Yes it is! We've crossed paths with it a couple times. Would be a dream come true to be able to sail on her.

Happy belated Birthday Jim - hope your cruise continues to be exceptionally wonderful. 

Thanks for the video!

Kay

What do you love about the Edge class? Eden, the high-tech theatre with fantastic production shows, the Martini Bar as the centerpiece of the Atrium, the Retreat pool with snack bar nearby? Silhouette won't provide these.

Cruised on Silhouette in a Celebrity Suite earlier this year. The ship has been revolutionized and looks very nice. Retreat lounge was an updated Michaels - nothing like the Edge class Retreat lounge. The sun deck was OK and meals in Luminae were nice.

Very little overlap in the specialty restaurants on Edge class and Silhouette. Which would you prefer if dining in a specialty?

Haven't sailed in Aqua, so can't compare. On Silhouette, many of the Aqua staterooms are under the pool or Fitness Center

Have not been on Reflection, but it has not been revolutionized. If it is in similar shape to the Solstice (sailed on in May), then it may be looking a bit tired.

1 hour ago, DaKahuna said:

@Jim_Iain I have a huge favor to ask.  On your sailing when they perform the "crossing the line" ceremonies, would you please take and post lots of pictures?  I have been across multiple times but only on US Navy ships, never on a cruise liner and would like to see how they are conducted as I am sure they are much more pollywog friendly.   Also wonder what roles any existing shellbacks play in the ceremony or if it is only ship's crew that participate. 

 

 

John,

Your post brought a smile to my lips and a tear to my eye. My Dad crossed the line multiple times during his career - he retired from the Navy with 20 years service, then spent about another 15 years sailing with Merchant Marines/Military Sea Transport/Military Sea Command.

After he passed away, we found his Shellback certificate presented during WW II safely tucked away in his ham shack.

For those not familiar with the ceremony:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Line-crossing_ceremony

Jim - I'd love to see photos as well.

Kay

A proud Navy brat

9 minutes ago, Kmkub said:

Yes. We departed at 9:30 pm due to a repair, I believe. 

Thx - we were supposed to be on this sailing, but had to cancel last week due to illness, so I was hoping to watch the sail-away. Unfortunately, with the late departure, our Thanksgiving dinner caused a conflict. 🙁

Hope you all have a grand cruise.

Menu looks delicious.

Were you late departing? The Bridge cam, the webcam at the port and the Marine Traffic map were really out of synch.

10 hours ago, Jim_Iain said:

Good night. 

 

really unusual seats.  The back of the seat folds down and already made with egg crate mattress, sheets, 2 full size pillows and a duvet 

 

also bulkhead have a huge foot area instead of just an angled hole. 
 

 

 

Oh, what a delightful way to travel! This looks so much more comfortable than the Delta Premium Plus upright seats that DH & I were supposed to sit/sleep in on our JFK-Rome flight for our cancelled TA.

I teared up as I read how you and Iain found one another, then again as I shared your story with Mark. How absolutely wonderful that your third time was the charm for the two of you. Mark's was the 3rd marriage proposal I'd received, and after saying no two times, I knew he was the keeper!

Kay

9 hours ago, numnums said:

Is there also a rule about letting people in different cabins into your room to sleep in? If i do the sub, I'd like my mom to be with my grandpa and me with my friend, even though it's written for my friend to be in the room with my grandpa in the system.

If I am reading this correctly, 5 people are booked for this cruise in 2 staterooms - you, your friend, your mom and your grandparents. And your grandparents do not want to go on the cruise.

If one person in each stateroom is still going on the cruise, then 2 new guests can be substituted for your grandparents.

If your grandparents were booked into the same cabin, and the remaining guests who are going on the cruise are in a stateroom together, could you call Celebrity and ask if the cabin assignments of one of your grandparents and one person definitely going on the cruise can be officially switched before the ship sails. I don't know if this is possible, but if yes, then you could substitute one new guest in each stateroom. 

Did you use a travel agent? If yes, they should be able to sort this out.

Do you have cruise insurance? If your grandparents don't want to go because they aren't healthy enough to travel, then travel insurance could come into play with documentation from a doctor.

Good luck.

Jim & Iain,

Wishing you safe travels. I will be following mesmerized as I'm sure I will never be in that corner of the world in this lifetime. And since we had to cancel our TA from Rome due to illness, following you will keep my mind off what we are missing.

With 3.5K views in less than 24 hours, are you on the way to setting a record!

Bon Voyage.

Kay

23 hours ago, KLM3164 said:

We got up early to watch you sail past our hotel. 

 

 

 

Beautiful - which hotel had this great view?

Thx.

3 minutes ago, goofysmom99 said:

Are there two tugs assisting, both forward and aft?  Hard to tell on my tablet.

Yes - they both show up on my PC.

Long time X fans who took 2 cruises on the NCL Dawn several years ago and enjoyed the experience.

We don't currently have any Celebrity cruises booked as we are waiting to see how things shake out with all the changes. We've been pleased with X on our past cruises.

At the end of October, we took the NCL Escape from Manhattan to Bermuda. We knew the ship would be much larger than we were used to and felt we could deal with that. What we were not prepared for was the noise - we found the ship to be loud everywhere! (Ship was not at full capacity - had about the same number of passengers as found on the S Class.)

The Atrium is used for presentations, lectures & games and often had a crowd that spilled over in every direction. Made dining in O'Sheehan's noisy.

We found the buffet to be not well set up - very much like a  high school cafeteria - and loud no matter what time of day we were there. Food was OK.

The one dinner we had in the MDR was delicious and our specialty dining experiences were good.

We really enjoyed the Waterfront and saw Company of Man, which was excellent but not enough reason to sail NCL again.

Smoking is allowed in the casino, which is next to an open (smaller) atrium, so the smoke permeates all three decks in that area.

Our Club Balcony Suite (I use that word loosely) stateroom was serviced daily, but we never saw our room steward - had no idea who it was. [This category does not have access to the Haven.]

Everywhere we went there were lines - took us 1 hour of standing in line to get off the ship and our luggage tag was called at 8 am. Also, it seemed like half the ship was walking off with very large suitcases which made getting an elevator nearly impossible.

Celebrity is perhaps going downhill, but based on our recent experience on NCL, we'll stick with X.

Wishing you happy cruising with whatever you choose.

Thanks - the NCL ship we just sailed on had the Ball & T kind and they were horrible.

Can your friend literally miss the ship (on purpose) at one of these ports?

They could call the Port Agent to tell them they are delayed and will not make the departure so the ship does not wait needlessly. If they carry their passport off the ship, they are ready for international travel.

All their belongings would have to be left on the ship and you would have to deal with that at disembarkation. 

Don't know if this would work, but just a thought.

Hi - do the hangers in the Enchanted Princess mini-suites have Open Hooks like the photo on the left or do they have Ball & T heads that hook into metal "disks" that are permanently attached to the clothes rod?  Thanks  - Kay

Open Hooks	Ball & "T" Heads

Hope you arrived home safely. Was interesting to see the cruise through the eyes of a fellow (albeit much younger) passenger.

We're definitely jealous of how quickly you disembarked. We were in the Brown luggage tag group, got called about 8 am and snaked our way through a line for nearly an hour. Then when we got on the NCL transfer bus to LGA, we sat for almost an hour before the bus was full enough for the driver to leave. Once we arrived at LGA, our driver had to turn around three times before he managed to get us to the Delta terminal. Total of 3.5 hours after our luggage tags first called-ridiculous IMHO. (And we sat on our plane for an hour due to a malfunction with absolutely no air flow - we were so happy to finally get home.)

Self assist disembark-I agree,  we've never seen so many people dragging 1-2 bags per person off a ship.

Hi - we just (today) came off the Escape and the cruise was over Halloween - LOTS of door decorations, both simple and extremely elaborate. Magnets, magnetic writing tablets for messages, full-door 3-D decorations, even saw a pineapple (right side up).

Go for it!

Hi. Really enjoying your writing style and photos.

We're on this cruise as well and spoke to you on Halloween (along with hundreds of others who admired your fantastic costume.) Yes, the venue for the Costume party was just uncomfortable! We had a far more pleasant Halloween on the Dawn several years ago.

Enjoy this beautiful sea day.

Kay & Mark

(AKA the pumpkin and the bearded Hogwarts graduate)

My DH grabbed this screen shot as you left NYC.

We'll be on the same cruise next week - hopefully headed to Bermuda as well!

We were in the Boston area for 3 decades before we retired to Chapel Hill - I miss it every day.

Have a wonderful cruise - Kay & Mark

14 hours ago, spearmint said:

<snip>

Yes, my TA contacted Celebrity in August and was told that first seating was full.  So our only alternative will be select dining, which is fine by us. <snip>

Bill

Are TAs not able to facilitate the change from fixed to select dining? Can it only be done once onboard?

Kay

Don't know about the champagne, but when I've ordered a cheese platter, it was rarely in the stateroom before sail-away. There should be a card in the stateroom with the room steward's phone number. A quick, discreet call should get it delivered by the time you have finished muster check-in.

Happy Anniversary!