Host Jazzbeau

The Luminae dining room was carved out of the MDR on all M and S class ships. Where else would be Luminae galley be?

I removed my post above because the information is now outdated. The link in post #1 now goes to the latest version of the Ponant document (rev. Sep. 16, 2020)

Different people to have different opinions, and it isn't necessarily true that the most experienced cruiser is always right. I have seen the galleys on both M and S class [not on Edge class, which I would never cruise again anyway]. Not an 'armchair expert' – actual experience. Just a different interpretation and opinion. And in my opinion it's unfair to Celebrity to complain about the 'lack' of something that is there because you refuse to take advantage of it.

If you've taken the Galley Tour on Celebrity, you would know that the extra work of ordering MDR items in Luminae is minimal. The kitchens are literally adjacent and the waiters simply have to move about 10 feet to the next serving window to pick up MDR items. As to custom orders, that's part of what you're paying for – and we only started doing it because a waiter went out of his way to suggest it.

Not sure what you mean calling Luminae a specialty restaurant. In my mind, a specialty restaurant menu doesn't change from night to night – but Luminae has a different menu every night, just like the MDR. IMO biggest difference between Azamara MDR and Luminae is that Luminae's range of options is smaller – but on most Celebrity ships they will let you order from the regular MDR menu [the kitchens are adjacent].

In addition to the cabins that Azamara uses for passengers there are other cabins used for staff and crew. A new owner wouldn't have to keep the same passenger/crew ratio. So counting cabins wouldn't settle it either!

I was able to get this deal ($89 pp/d) on the Spanish Serenade sailing of April 15, 2021. I hesitated because DW doesn't drink, but when I analyzed the numbers it is still cheaper than just buying the parts we wanted.

Accuweather is great for tracking historical weather. You can see a monthly display with each day's high and low for last year plus the historical average high and low. I haven't found another website that shows historical data at this level of detail. Here's an example for Budapest in September: https://www.accuweather.com/en/hu/budapest/187423/september-weather/187423?year=2019

It's amazing how cruise ship shore excursions manage to pack so little into a day!

I'm continually amazed by the drastic differences in the way different countries are treating tourism. My New Zealand cruise on Ponant at the end of January seems totally unlikely. But I got an email from a land tour company yesterday telling me that Galapagos is completely open to US tourists for land tours!

I understand your point, but in the TA's defense he has probably had bad experiences with customers who would say 'well, if you won't give me the discount I'll find someone else who will.' This must be a terrible time to be a TA.

The closest to the United States of America of any R-ship at the moment is Oceania's Regatta, which is in Ensenada, Mexico. But heh, if there's so much confusion about Britain and Europe why not conflate the USA and Mexico? Seriously though, with CCL looking to divest its older ships, and Princess being its most tarnished brand, IMHO the most likely R-ship to come on the market would be Pacific Princess. Carnival Corporation to Sell More Cruise Ships

Let us know as soon as you hear!

Still works for me (on a computer)

Probably easier to move that crew over [they are already post-quarantine] than fly a new one in.