SPacificbound

Not unusual at all with private tours.

Not sure but I would think it was 30 consecutive days, not business days. However, the title of post "trauma"...... seriously? OP has certainly lived a blessed life if this is trauma.

It's been 6 years since we have been on a cruise, or any type of vacation. We will be B2B on Summit in a few weeks. We have been so looking forward to this trip, and these cruises, but all the negatives I've been seeing about X has me wondering. (MDR not a problem because we don't dine there.) If someone currently on Summit would share what they are seeing and experiencing, I will appreciate your notes. Condition, cleanliness, service, entertainment? Thank you.

For 2024 we have RC Voyager of the Seas out of Galveston to Barcelona. We'll have 22 days in Europe, then Queen Mary 2 from Southampton UK to NYC. The only flight will be coming home from NY.

Now I recall we did not actually make all of those listed above due to sea conditions. This was on RC Rhapsody of the Seas and was our first cruise.

We have only done one TP, it was out of Sydney in 2013, with 18 nights to Honolulu. I looked back at my blog and this was the itinerary. Sydney, Australia; Noumea, Caldonia; Isle of Pines, New Caldonia; Mystery Island; Vila, Vanuatu; Suva, Fiji; Apia, Samoa; Pago Pago, American Samoa; Lahaina, Maui Hawaii; Honolulu, Hawaii.

We have done many TAs. They aren't round trips because we want to be in Europe longer than a RT would be. I pick a TA itinerary I like on Royal Caribbean or Celebrity, then I look at Cunard's Queen Mary 2 crossings to see what will coordinate with the amount of time we want to spend abroad. Book both, and done. We have done Queen Mary 2 both East and West depending on what other travel we plan. For 2024 we have them booked again.

I know absolutely nothing about vaping. Is it a fire hazard like smoking?

It depends on location, however we don't do many of the ship tours. Sometimes it's private tours put together on Roll Call, or we just do our own thing, I also have booked with Tours By Locals in many parts of the world. We have never had a bad experience with TBL.

Every sail away is worth being on deck for me. I don't care anything about a party, I just want to be on deck. Welcome to cruising!

I'm so sorry Celebrity has decided to screw 10s of thousands of customers! This is a horrible way to treat your customers. We are B2B on Summit the month of August, but those are the only X cruises we have booked at this time, our others are RCCL and Cunard. I will definitely remember this when I think of future bookings.

We only go to the buffet on any ship, much more choice for vegan/vegetarian. We have seldom found it too difficult to find a table, but when it has been crowded we have asked to join a table, and have offered to share a table. We have never seen tables full of folks who were not eating, I guess if we did we would ask to share.

The way I look at deposits is, I have less to pay at final payment. But if some book multiple cruises knowing they can't take them all, then I guess they would be looking for low deposits.

To change direction just a bit, we do both cruise and land travel. I book a cruise for itinerary, but also I book for destination. We have done a lot of TAs and we stay in Europe and the UK for a few weeks and then return to the US on Queen Mary 2. We're doing this again in 2024, it's a lovely way to travel, plus we do enjoy the ships. I don't book Caribbean because we have already done that multiple times via air and land back when the grandkids were young. Everyone has preferences of their own. We are all incredibly fortunate that we can even have this "conversation". 😀

I actually don't remember any overnights other than Venice and St. Petersburg (not Florida). For favorite, that would be Venice. Cruisemom42 We come under the heading of had enough for the day, or as much as we can manage. 🙂

If there is any air travel involved, check the airline's baggage rules, 29" may be as large as you can go.

Although they are not the brand that business travelers would recommend, we have had good service from Samsonite soft side luggage. Plus they always have colorful options that are not black. In 2012 we bought four pieces of Samsonite that traveled many times by air in the US, by air and/or sea in Canada, Alaska, the UK, including Scotland and Ireland several times, all over Europe multiple times, South America, Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Tasmania, and multiple business trips to Asia. We retired them this year and bought basically the same four Samsonite soft side again. Macy's frequently has the best sale price I have ever found for Samsonite. The new ones are very colorful also, easy to see in a sea of luggage.

I carry a back pack on flights. As for bags, I carry a larger one on air and rail travel, then scale down to smaller for cruise ship.

We like soft side. Got rid of the luggage we bought in 2012, boy it could tell some stories. Just bought replacement, also soft side, hopefully it will last a few years.

We have so far never been sea sick, but we also take Bonine and ginger capsules when indicated. The roughest seas we have encountered that I remember, were in the Tasman Sea, and the other going around the horn of South America it got pretty high. We have done one Pacific crossing and a bunch of Atlantic crossings going both East and West. The sea rocks me to sleep, I love it!

Yes, we are on this sailing also. I guess she will sail faster than usual?

This is very kind of you, thank you!

You have answered your own question and in my opinion you are correct. I would not pay $1,000. more for the newer ship, so certainly not $5,000. Newer is not necessarily better, the M class ships are fine.

You have a great itinerary!

I book for itinerary, and we do TAs quite often, so have booked more RC than CC. Also prefer shows on RC.