DaKahuna

Yes, you can text message others on the ship through the app but I believe there may be a daily charge, $1.99 comes to mind, but am not sure if that was on Royal Caribbean, Celebrity, 0r both.

I love ordering the lobster roll as a salad vs sandwich and have it as an appetizer to go with the Bronzino or the Steak Frites. Great way to start a cruise IMHO.

Yes. Go to Guest Services and ask for the "additional gratuities form." This form will allow you to designate a dollar amount to go to the individual by name and position to anyone on the ship. The dollar amount is charged to your onboard account and will be taken from any OBC you have and if you have no OBC will be charged to the credit card on file. We normally do this a day or two before the end of the cruise so we can keep track of it in the app.

We fly in a day early and have used a car service to get from the airport to a hotel near the cruise port. It’s approximately an hours drive, depending on traffic. The one time we did a family cruise, prior to COVID, our daughter her husband and two youngest, and our son, his wife and their son, I got hotel rooms for all of us near the airport and had a car service take us all to the cruise port the next day.

Breakfast menu’s for Blu are appearing in the app for our April Millennium sailing.

I thought MPC is only applicable at airports?

We are Elite but have not considered a sail only cruise because we prefer to sail in Suites on Celebrity. The reason we prefer to sail on Suites in the peace and quiet of the Retreat/Michael’s Club and the wonderful food and service in Luminae.

It might also have something to do with the weather. We were on Silhouette in April and thought about dining there but found it too windy and cool on sea says.

My answer is .... "it depends ..." The best thing to do is to look in the app for your cruise and see what that hours are for the various venues that morning and pick one. For example, on Oasis class ships I would choose the Park Cafe as it is open until around 1000-1030 on debarkation day.

I am really glad to hear this. We do not sail until April so hopefully it will be fully instituted by then.

This is why I use a TA.

Depends on the ship your are sailing on and what 'non-alcoholic package' you purchased. I found on Quantum that with the 'Classic soda package' if I wanted a can of soda versus a fountain drink, I had to buy the can of soda and let the bartender know that I wanted to buy versus using one of my vouchers. Otherwise I could get a fountain soda or use the soda machines with my cup for free soda's.

More and more, Black Friday has become a shopping event more so than a specific date. Retailer's looking to expand sales volumes have created Black Friday Sales that start before and continue beyond the Friday following Thanksgiving.

I think you may find the crowds to be more of your age on the newer Edge class ships. They seem to be geared toward a younger clientele base, in my humble opinion, than the Millennium and Solstice class ships.

Unfortunately, that went away with COVID. Prior to COVID and the Happy Hour with free drinks at most bars, there was an event held in the Sky Lounge for Elite and above with free drinks, same drink selections as now, and with some really good finger foods. It was not buffet style like in the Diamond Lounge but finger foods severed from a tray by servers who circulated throughout the Sky Lounge. It was quite nice.

My wife and I have done two 7-day B2B’s and had one checked bag each, weighing 47-lbs and 51-lbs. I find the biggest weight items are shoes. We normally have three pair each, dress shoes, tennis shoes, and a pair of slip on shoes to wear around the ship. I could get by with only two pair but I am not so sure about my wife. We also take a collapsable soft sided bag that we use to hold our dirty laundry and other clothing items in case we need more room in our luggage for gifts. So going home we have three checked bags, which is still one under my free bag limit.

We used Lyft from Terminal 29 last May. When you exit the ship, there is a covered area to the left where ride share pick ups occur. There were signs and I found it easy to follow them to the designated pickup area. Terminal 29 is rather remote from the other terminals and we found that it was not as much of an issue as some of the other, more crowded terminals. Unfortunately, we were only going to the Fort Lauderdale airport so cannot comment on getting to Miami.

Someone please let me know when Celebrity makes any changes. If I want to read about changes on Royal Caribbean, Carnival, HAL, NCL, etc.. I'll go to those boards. Until Celebrity changes I could care less what everyone else is doing.

Your Diamond status on Royal Caribbean will make you Elite on Celebrity. Make sure you profile reflects your status, Unlike the drink vouchers loaded on your Sea Pass card on Royal Caribbean, Celebrity has an "Elite Happy Hour" nightly, except on embarkation and possibly the night of the Captain's Celebration. You will be able to, selected from a limited drink menu, get free drinks at any bar except the World Class bar, they do not have the Elite happy Hour beverages there. Here is a link that outlines the privileges you will receive on Celebrity as Elite. https://www.celebritycruises.com/captains-club/tiers-and-benefits

As always, I am looking forward to your live posting review. I hope the app is wrong about the filet being replaced by a sirloin.

On the positive side, that means your girlfriend gets the drink vouchers and Lounge access and does not have to wait for you outside right?

In my case it was the MDR. I do not believe I have ordered lasagna when dining in Givoanni's.

I am not 100% sure whether Diamond + can use the Concierge Lounge on Quantum or not. I do not recall any non-Suite or Pinnacle guest being in the Concierge Lounge when we were there in August/September of this year. If you do have access, yes, it is all the way aft on Deck 12 and has a very nice and relaxing view of the wake, one of our favorite views. You are correct that as Diamond and not Diamond +, your children would not be allowed to join you unless permission was given by the Concierge host. There is a Diamond Lounge and it is on the starboard side deck 4 where the deckplans show the Golden Room

Agree. Tried in once -- have not mustered up the courage to try it again. It was that bad.

Well, I do not know what to tell you. We've been to Aruba, Bonaire, and Curacao multiple times, the most recent was last March - April on Celebrity Silhouette. We have not done a shore excursion in quite a few years in any of those ports and any experiences from past ones would be at least 4 to 5 years old. Lately we have just walked about the immediate port area and done a little window shopping or picking up some nick-nacks. We will be sailing to Aruba and Curacao in February and do have "Picture Aruba" scheduled so that i can update some of the pictures I took many years ago.