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Following along as we will be sailing on the Volendam May 4-11. Will be our first time on this ship, however we have sailed on Zaandam which is similar. We once left our coats in a hotel in Florida before a Caribbean cruise back in 2019. Didn't realize until we were getting ready to debark the ship and knew we were heading back to cold weather and would need them. Of course it was freezing cold back home in Canada so I bought a zip up fleece in the gift store so I would have something warm. When we got home we phoned the hotel and they offered to ship them to us in Canada if we arranged a courier, which it turned out was very expensive. I had just retired so we found a great deal on a last minute cruise out of FLL. Was similar cruise to what you are on @kazu. Florida to Montreal on the Zaandam - all so we could go back to Florida to get our coats!! Was a very enjoyable cruise and I still have that coat! The joys of being retired 🙂 I hope the food improves @kazu. Am enjoying following along with you 🙂

Yes it is missing for me too. Tried on both laptop and phone and it is missing. Was like that yesterday too. Glad to know its not just me. Hopefully it is fixed soon.

When we were there in 2019 someone from our rollcall organized a full day small group tour through https://privategreecetours.com/ It was a full day tour and included the Acropolis. Was an excellent tour!

Hi all, we typically like to get the thermal suite passes but the longest cruise we have been on previously is 10 days. We have a 20 day Panama canal cruise booked for 2025, and the thermal suite passes being offered are for 21-25 days. While our cruise is also available as a 21 day cruise (as well as 14, 24, 31 days etc) we have booked the 20 day. Does anyone know if there is a thermal site pass for 20 days or do we have to get the 21-25 day pass? Thanks in advance for any insight.

Same thing happened on our recent Connie cruise. Captain made announcement at 6 am looking for blood donors. He put the pedal to the metal and we got into NOLA 2 hours early so passenger could get into the waiting ambulance. Since it was early in the cruise we received updates that the passenger was stable. Sue Denning got quite emotional speaking about it on the last night thanking everyone for helping to save a passenger's life.

Its a very small buffet - continental breakfast offerings. No hot dishes. Basically has all the items that are on the Elite breakfast menu, plus a few extras. Here is what I remember: cold meats, smoked salmon, cheeses, fruit, yogurt parfaits, pastries, croissants, danishes, mini bagels and cream cheese. There is still a menu for beverages - ie tea, coffee, latte, cappachino, smoothies, juices, mimosas etc. I also heard someone order a full size toasted bagel and was able to get it, so seemed like you could get made to order items as well but assume just variations of whats already offered. It was never crowded when we were there and we were on a full cruise on the Connie.

Similar experience for us on the Connie in Feb except our waiter recommended ordering the lobster as appetizer (he explained it was quite small) and something else for the entree. Worked well.

This was only our 3rd cruise as Elite. First 2 were waiter service. On our recent Connie cruise it started off as waiter service and switched to buffet half way through. We chatted with the manager and she said the previous cruise had so many Elite and up they needed a buffet to make it work. They got positive feedback and are trying it again. Not sure whether this will stick and be implemented fleetwide.

Agree with the positives already posted. Thanks for this thread 🙂 We were on the Connie last month and had a great cruise! Positives for us: - every meal in MDR was excellent and lots of choices - they are experimenting with making the Elite coffee/breakfast a buffet which we really enjoyed - no photographers in your face trying to get you to pose and buy pictures We had an amazing cruise!!

Congratulations! We have had to reschedule 2 cruises for the same grandchild lol! Found out our daughter was expecting around the time we were supposed to be cruising in Feb 2016 , so changed until Nov 2016. Well baby came early - in Nov 2015!!! We didn't want to miss his first birthday so changed again from Nov 2016 to Apr 2016. Thankfuly we have a wonderful TA who helped with all our changes. I think this was back before there was both refundable and non-refundable deposits. Don't remember it being an issue to change. Definitely worth it...nothing like grandchildren 🙂

Just checked cruise planner for our Sept Hawaii cruise. One thing we want to do us upgrade to Premium wifi. Below is what it shows. We were on the Constellation a few weeks ago and waited to upgrade onboard. There was a flyer in our room with a "special" to upgrade. When we went to the desk to upgrade they gave us the Elite discount of 30% on top of the special. We ended up paying $6/day US, which is about $8.50 CDN The below is in CDN$ and does look like it is about the same as what we recently paid.

The WWII museum is def on our bucket list...but since it takes a full day to do it justice we thought we would save it for another time. The cruises that spend 2-3 days in NOLA I believe are during Mardi Gras? The cruise before ours did that I think. TBH we were worried NOLA would be too busy and crazy during Mardi Gras so we didn't book that cruise. Have you been during Mardi Gras? If so what was it like?

We were scheduled to be there from 9:30 am to 10 pm. However we arrived early (was already in port when I woke up at 8 ) due to a medical emergency onboard. (should have mentioned this earlier) The captain made an announcement at 6am re the medical emergency and that a blood transfusion was required and looking for donors with specific blood type. The captain as well as our CD Sue Denning did a great job of keeping us informed on the condition of the passenger. Lots of volunteers for blood donors, and an ambulance was waiting in New Orleans. Sue got quite choked up a few nights later thanking everyone for helping to save a passengers life. At last report passenger was recovering. Back to New Orleans: As it was our first time there we chose a 3 hour Celebrity tour to give us an overview. Tour was excellent. Our guide was 4th generation New Orleans and was very passionate about her city. We got an overview of the French Quarter, stopped at the Louis III cemetery, went to City Park and had a surprise stop at Cafe Beignets, drove down Esplanade as well as the St. Charles and Garden district and did a drive by of Lake Pontchartrain. I had done a fair bit of research in advance and we decided to spend the rest of the day exploring the French Quarter on our own. We enjoyed walking about seeing the sites...Bourbon St, French Market, Royal St, Steamboat Nanchez, and the Riverwalk. I had a long list of things to possibly see and do but not enough time (or energy lol)! Due to our surprise stop at cafe Beignets around 11 am we werent hungry for lunch until late aft. I was determined to enjoy a meal in New Orleans so we had a late lunch at the Bourbon House Seafood restaurant (delicious shrimp po boy). We found that some restaurants/bars don't offer food service between lunch and dinner so limited our options somewhat. Had wanted to check out Carousel Bar and we did make it there but it was overflowing with people (standing room only)...looked like a wedding was happening, so we passed. Would definitely love to go back someday...so much more to see! Edit: we were back on the ship by about 7pm...we ran out of steam lol! Was a very full and enjoyable day. Wasn't hungry for a full dinner so had cheesecake and coffee at Al Bacio later in the evening.

Just back from the Connie...on the app I could see our account but the only charges that showed up were those made by DH. The full OBC showed. My charges never showed at all. The final invoice that was emailed included my charges and was accurate. Sounds like this is something I could have guest services fix if it happens again based on @Jim_Iain post. Good to know.

Re Lobster night: Our head waiter proactively told us it was quite small and recommended if we wanted to order it we have it as a starter and then have something else as our main, which is what I did. Worked out well and good on him for managing expectations! You could order a 2nd lobster tail for an upcharge...think it was $16.

It really was a bit of a zoo the first few days. Had it been my first cruise I would have been more concerned that it was the norm.

Elite breakfast was at Qsine on our sailing. That is why I preferred the buffet to ordering one of the platters at the Elite breakfast. I can pick and choose what I want and no waste. The platters are a bit big for me. Other tidbits: Venue names are sometimes different on the app vs onboard. For example, what is called the Sunset Bar on the app is called the Oceanview Bar onboard. Reflections Lounge = Sky Lounge. Sky Lounge is a lovely quiet spot to relax, read, have a drink, and watch the waves. There was a Duo that joined the ship towards the end of our cruise called Avenue something....apparently they will be onboard for a few months. Definitely worth checking out! We also enjoyed the Waves Band. Enjoy your cruise!

Le Petit Chef at Qsine, Raw on 5 (sushi) and Tuscan Grille are the specialty restaurants. We didn't try any of them. Prices have gone up and our MDR experience was so good we didn't feel the need. We have in the past done Le Petit Chef and although we enjoyed it felt it was a one and done kind of thing. We have also done Tuscan Grille in the past and also enjoyed it but not sure its worth the upcharge. We aren't sushi fans.

I should mention the breakfast is actually called "Coffee Lounge". You will get a paper in your stateroom the lists the Elite benefits and where they are. The Coffee Lounge on Connie was in Qsine and was open from 8 to 10 am. Note that it was closed on disembarkation day. Location varies depending on the ship. There was a menu on the table with the beverage options that included mimosas, smoothies and I believe non alcoholic specialy coffees. We only ordered regular coffee and tea so not 100% sure. Food options at the buffet were pastries, bagels, cheeses, smoked salmon,cold meats, fruit, yogurt parfaits. Note no eggs...strictly a continental breakfast. In cases where there is a menu instead of a buffet the food options are similar. We had the drink package so can't offer any help re the Elite Happy Hour. I've been trying to convince DH to try a cruise without a beverage package now that we are Elite and he thinks that is blasphamy lol! Hope you enjoy your cruise!

Hi all, we are fairly frequent Celebrity cruises, and were on the Feb 22 - Mar 2 sailing of the Connie. It was our 3rd time on Connie, but first time out of Tampa. We chose this cruise because it was out of Tampa so figured it would be a nice change, as well as the fact New Orleans was one of the ports. The Connie is a lovely ship and we had a wonderful cruise 🙂 She is showing a bit of wear and tear, but like a comfortable pair of shoes for the most part. Dry dock is coming up end of March I believe, although I don't believe anything major is being done. The one obvious thing I noticed was the aft windows in the MDR. They have some sort of film on them that is peeling in places and the window frames look a bit rough. We were fortunate enough to sit regularly by the window in the MDR otherwise likely wouldn't have noticed it. Not a big deal, but I would think it needs to be dealt with eventually. All of our shore excursions were with Celebrity and we enjoyed them all. Tampa and New Orleans were both new ports for us and really enjoyed them both! Hope to go back someday. Our biggest beef is that the descriptions are often lacking information, or are not entirely accurate. I did include that feedback on our survey. - The food in the MDR was probably the best we've ever had. We ate there every night and every meal was delicious. We had select dining but made reservations in advance to eat a 6pm every night. First time we have done that and we found it really worked in our favour. We had the same table and wait staff every night and really enjoyed that 🙂 Also ate breakfast there a few times and lunch once - all good. One thing to note is ours was a full sailing and the first 2 nights was chaotic as far as the line ups and lack of crowd control to get into the MDR for select dining. 2 lines - one for select with reservations and one for select without reservations. However people are getting off elevators and entering from hallways and stairwells where the signs aren't visible and end up in the wrong line. On the first night there were people lining up for Select who didn't know they were supposed to be in Blu or Fixed dining. Sounds like better communication would help. - I upgraded to the premium internet while DH stuck with basic. He was so jealous lol!! Surprised he didn't go and upgrade his. Only cost $50 for me to upgrade for the whole 9 days. So nice to be able to share pictures with family and friends back home, which you can't do with basic. Was definitely worth it and will likely do it again if the price is right. - We also upgraded to the premium drink package on the Black Friday sale that offered it at 50% off. We enjoyed having the premium package, but are also happy with just the basic if there is a huge price difference. - We did not buy a future cruise certificate due to the fact you need to book within 6 months. We already have 2 upcoming cruises booked so felt that was too restrictive for us (one with X and one with HAL...we aren't totally loyal to X 😉 ). I believe last time we bought it we had 1 year to book. Now for a couple of positive changes we noticed (that we hope will continue): - We are Elite and enjoy the continental breakfast perk. We went a few times, and midway through the cruise they changed it to a buffet. The continental breakfast buffet has more variety and we really enjoyed it. I spoke with the manager and she said they are trying it as an experiment. Apparently the cruise before ours had so many Elite and above guests they needed a buffet to make it work, and the feedback was positive. Everyone I spoke to seemed to prefer the buffet. I wish they would open up earlier than 8 am so you could grab a quick bite before an early excursion vs doing room service (which we did twice - no complaints). I normally don't like buffets but this was very small and not a lot of people, and food was excellent quality. We try to avoid the Oceanview Cafe. - There were no photographers in our faces wanting to take our pictures! Typically they circulate in the MDR on formal nights, and are very visible out in the common areas as well as on the pier. Almost afraid to make eye contact with them lol. Ironically the only time I was asked if I wanted my picture taken was when an RCI shipped docked beside us and the RCI photographer asked us on the pier. Happy to answer any questions!

Just off the Connie. We were able to upgrade for just one of us from basic to premium onboard. The cost was approx $9 day, and then gave us the 30% of Elite discount. For a 9 day cruise it cost a total of $53. First time we have upgraded. We enjoyed it so much and at such a reasonable price will do it for both of us next time. We really enjoyed sending and receiving pictures with family while cruising (which you need premium to do)...now that we have experienced it I doubt we will go back as long as it is reasonably priced. Note that the option to upgrade appeared on the app onboard. Couldn't figure out how to do it. Went to the desk and it isn't possible to do it yourself once onboard. The staff were extremely helpful and had it set up for me in no time.

Sorry to hear about your dog Jeannette 😞 We have a 15 yr old dog and always a worry when we travel. Take care.

Hi Jeannette, following along as we are on the cruise after you. We are also from Canada (near Ottawa) and will also be staying at the Hyatt (Hyatt Place Downtown) for 2 days before the cruise. I am already checking the weather lol....one thing for sure is it will be warmer than here (currently a balmy -1 celsius). Safe travels and looking forward to your updates!

We were big fans of Stryker on a Zandaam sailing in 2019. Hope they bring him back! Love the singalong format and different theme nights!!

Flights were quoted and paid for in CDN. When I went to Air Canada site to select seats it was in USD...didn't seem to be a way around this. So I was charged in USD for seat selection only and the conversion happened on my credit card.