JRYMCMB

Just learned today that a former colleague of mine, Joshua Dayboll has passed away. Joshua has been with P&O and Princess Cruises for many years and had most recently served as Hotel Director on the Pacific Jewel.

My condolences to his family, he will be dearly missed.

I worked on the P&O Pacific Dawn when it experienced similar issues and it still sailed for nearly 3 months before finally going in for repairs, one propeller being out isn't going to make or break the cruise.

A forecast last Thursday night (Feb 4) from the NWS Ocean Prediction Center said that by Sunday night, the Atlantic Ocean off the Carolinas would experience winds up to 50 knots (57.5 mph) and seas up to to 31 feet. By Saturday afternoon, forecasts were calling for 65 knot (75 mph)winds and seas to 11.5 meters (about 38 feet) by noon Sunday.

The Anthem has highly multiple sophisticated meteorological systems aboard.

On Saturday has was fully aware the monster was growing, (barometric pressure falling, isobars getting tighter and a defined "eye" was forming.

He knew this on SATURDAY. Armed with the information that the beast was growing, he just headed right into it.

On Sunday at 1 or 2, he could have turned around. pressure system

Who cares ? Did you suffer personal/financial loss due to this ? Were you directly affected by this ? **** happens, the Concordia running aground by a total ******* of a captain was far more newsworthy than a ship getting caught in an Atlantic storm. Sure there may have been a slight lapse of judgement but not to the point that we need to be practically obsessing about it.

I was briefly stuck on my balcony on the Constellation a few weeks ago during the storm in Key West I closed to door behind me and the suction from the wind going through the ship caused the door to stick, man I had to use a lot of force to get it open, and then room service arrived, I forgot to close the balcony door and opened the cabin door which nearly blew the room service attendant and the tray of food down the hall lmao.

Definitely on the breakfast room service menu, but did not see it anywhere else (mind you I wasn't really looking for it)

Understandable. Most of the time, when we asked, this was on HAL, before we started cruising on X, they would tell us the ship was full and no upgrades were available. We were always wiling to pay some extra $$ but not full brochure rate difference. We didn't even pay brochure rate for the original cabin?!?!?!

Was their something wrong with your OV that you didn't like - too far forwrd etc? Sometimes a GTY booking will get you one of the cabins nobody wants. Just curious. Still amazed by your luck!!!

We had a couple of concerns regarding cleanliness (could barely see out of window due to sea spray, worn furniture, bad smell of sewage) but nothing that we really created a stink about. We did of course mention it and perhaps this was the motivation regarding waiving the upgrade charge.

I exclusively used my Galaxy S4 on the Constellation a few weeks ago on wifi with no issues whatsoever, except for the one instance where I accidentally closed the browser and couldn't log out. the iLounge gladly reimbursed me for the five minutes of extra use :)

Dining room/wait staff have pooled their tips for some time, its not uncommon.

Also in some areas where tipping isn't as common (salons, youth centers, etc) they also pool tips. But generally attendants & room service do not, and man do they ever rake in the cash. When I worked on P&O the cabin steward on my floor would bring in almost $2000 a cruise in tips !

Am I understanding you correctly, they gave you a 3 category upgrade for free, simply because you asked for a better cabin? The one time we asked if an upgrade was available, they wanted full brochure rate for the price difference. We passed. You won the cruise cabin lottery!

That's correct lol, we definitely got lucky !

Its the first CC/Balcony cabin I've had before and I think it will be hard to go back to inside/oceanview

Perhaps there is a large number of cabins on hold at the moment, or maybe a large conference has booked for that sailing ? That was the case with our cruise on 01/18

Was there last week, its all by the bottle/glass

One of my favorite parts of the ship, I actually bought one of the paintings that was on display in there :cool:

Just back from 5 day Constellation out of Ft Lauderdale. Ship is in much better shape than the Summit. Aqua Spa room nice ,new appearing, upgraded muti jet shower that the Summit lacked 2 years ago. NO TOWEL animals ,my wife was disappointed, she loved the spa, for me gym was ok ,but small for a ship this size. steam rooms excellent. Blu is fantastic ,no reason for spending on alternative restaurants. Entertainment good . Now my peeves. Aqua spa guests should have reserved deluxe lounge chair area. rooms are nice but the size of a regular balcony ,and certainly smaller than a mini suite. Should have a coffee maker in room ,WI Fi should be standard and needs upgrade is slow. Would like a hair dryer in bathroom or at least an ac outlet. Beds and linen very comfortable , no problem there. Would be nice to have an on board laundry, had that on a Crown Princess and was very useful. Would I go back? Yup, and may book a 7 day Bermuda out of Cape Liberty, if the Summit is upgraded to the level of the Constellation. If you don't like monster ships ,and like relaxed luxury , this is a hard ship to beat

I totally just realized there were no towel animals, I didn't get any last year on the Liberty of the Seas either. Oh well....lol

W.H.O. Declares Zika Virus an International Health Emergency

 

Will Celebrity be offering cancelations to others than non-pregnant women?

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/02/health/zika-virus-world-health-organization.html?_r=0

Probably not, unless you're pregnant the symptoms of Zika are mild at its worst and the body fights off the infection within a week or so.

Agreed woody,

 

Nothing is so fine when sailing the Caribbean than lazing by the pool, sipping a drink with an umbrella in it, with a steel band playing "No woman, No cry" or such. It's "what's missing"

 

I would personally have the DJs in a little boat, towed 400 yards behind the ship.

 

Norris

Funny, the last time I saw Caribbean music and steel drums was onboard the Pacific Dawn doing runs out of Sydney, Australia. Nothing about those itineraries were Caribbean lol

I'm on Reflection in a few weeks and it's my first time on a Solstice class ship. I see "fountain soda" listed. Do they not serve sodas in a can like on the smaller ships?

You can get cans from some bars, I never felt the need to however

Uber is good, if you've never used them before you'll get $20.00 off your first ride too (use promo code Mcc25) download the app and they will give you a quote on the fare, no cash required pay via CC or PayPal.

I'm running an estimate on my app and its quoting me from Port of Miami to FLL its approximately $30-$55

Have fun ! :)

Effective 1/22/2016, gratuities will no longer be automatically added to bookings with Celebrity Select Dining. Pre-paid gratuities can still be added to bookings at the guest's request, but they will no longer be required. Additionally, guests can remove pre-paid gratuities from existing bookings if they desire.

This is awesome, I wish this had been in effect from 01/16 !!! We selected 8:30pm dining but would have loved to do Select and definitely will be doing Select on the next one :)

Celine - Assistant Guest Relations Manager on the Constellation, she was one of the nicest most helpful individuals I've ever met onboard a cruise ship. She is definitely a good candidate as an ambassador to the Celebrity Brand

Ok, this has probably been covered somewhere else, but I can't find it. So, please help!!

So, Celebrity has offered the Classic Beverage Package as a perk. Looking up the description of what is covered, it simply mentions alcohol: beer, wine and liquor up to certain values.

My question is: Are any other beverages included in the Classic Beverage Package? ie; fountain drinks, bottled water, sparkling water, specialty coffees, etc?

And, is there the option of upgrading the package so higher priced drinks are included? Somewhere I thought I saw that one can upgrade for $11.80 per person, per day and most everything is then included.

- All non premium bottled water (500ml & 1L bottles available) (sparkling water is available in cans, its Seagrams brand)

- All specialty tea and coffee at Cafe al Bacio & elsewhere onboard - including some alcoholic coffees (try out the Iglu, its awesome)

- All fountain pop is included

Pretty much its everything under the non-alcoholic package and the standard package is included under Classic, I never once felt compelled to upgrade but if you decide to its $10.00 per day plus an 18% gratuity.

See below:

https://secure.celebritycruises.com/celebrity/media/celebrity/shared_assets/pdf/Classic-Premium-Bev-Pckgs.pdf

I was under the impression that with select dining you had to pay gratuities prior to embarkation. You can definitely waive pre-paid gratuities onboard but I'm not sure about with select dining

We will be sailing to Rome in a couple of months on Connie for the first time. Haven't sailed so long before. Will there be toiletries available?

Plenty, and they keep the extras in the bathroom underneath the rubbish bin bag :)

Princess would be more along the lines of Celebrity, NCL is more in line with Royal Caribbean as far as clientele, level of service, etc. Princess is good to book anytime as they rarely offer discounts with the exception of very last minute I have found. NCL is cheap all the time xD

I was thinking this while onboard last week. The Mexican food after Cozumel didn't quite cut it lol

Can't be any worse than Port Of Miami, those terminals are a joke, I purposely avoid sailing out of Miami because its such a pain at embarkation/disembarkation

Yes and if you are carrying off your own luggage you'll be off the ship even faster, disembarkation if I remember usually starts around 7:30-7:45am