Woo Hoo... Pinnacle now equals Zenith on Celebrity

[Arzeena]

3 minutes ago, RFerrington said:

Can't wait for this one !!!!

We calculated from Orlando to FLL and it is not cheap. It came out $398 for Smart and $478 for Premium, that not including luggage and rides to and from the station for the first one. There seemed to have been no "savings". We would love to try BL. Am I doing something wrong in calculating this?

[Arzeena]

5 minutes ago, orville99 said:

Not yet. We are looking forward to trying Equinox. We actually cancelled a December 2024 Adventure sailing to make room for this one as soon as we found out X was putting the ship in PC.😇

IMHO you made the right choice picking EQ over Adventure. We love the Equinox and are happy she is going to be home ported in our home port for a while. But the cruises are all 7 days and one 3 or 4 day sailing.

[orville99]

4 minutes ago, Arzeena said:

We calculated from Orlando to FLL and it is not cheap. It came out $398 for Smart and $478 for Premium, that not including luggage and rides to and from the station for the first one. There seemed to have been no "savings". We would love to try BL. Am I doing something wrong in calculating this?

At our age, the drive down and back is becoming a problem, and when we add in the cost of parking, the convenience of the train makes sense for us. 

[RFerrington]

1 hour ago, Arzeena said:

We calculated from Orlando to FLL and it is not cheap. It came out $398 for Smart and $478 for Premium, that not including luggage and rides to and from the station for the first one. There seemed to have been no "savings". We would love to try BL. Am I doing something wrong in calculating this?

Yikes !  I have no idea what the cost will be....I  just love the idea of the train !  ☺️

 

To be completely honest, I am not completely "sold" on the whole idea of using the train as I think the logistics of getting to/from the train station/home and then to/from train station/port to be somewhat daunting.  The expense is certainly an issue but it's more a matter of convenience.  I hate the thought of schlepping bags hither and yon plus having to wait around at a train station.  There's something to be said for packing up the car and being done with it until you hit the port.

 

On the other hand, the idea of not driving PLUS the savings of not parking, are attractive.  I guess we'll just have to try it once it is feasible (the Stuart stop is functional).

[lovesthebeach2]

1 hour ago, orville99 said:

Hard to know for sure, but with X bringing one of their newest ships to PC, my best guess is that they will permanently home port a ship there.

I sure hope so, that will definitely encourage us to book X then. 👍

[cruiselvr04]

We wish Celebrity would bring ANY ship to Galveston.  There was talk but nothing has come out of it.  

[cruise wizard]

5 minutes ago, cruiselvr04 said:

We wish Celebrity would bring ANY ship to Galveston.  There was talk but nothing has come out of it.  

 

I hope that you get your wish. Celebrity is a great product and experience..........and not having to fly to a port is such a benefit.

[cruise wizard]

22 minutes ago, RFerrington said:

Yikes !  I have no idea what the cost will be....I  just love the idea of the train !  ☺️

 

To be completely honest, I am not completely "sold" on the whole idea of using the train as I think the logistics of getting to/from the train station/home and then to/from train station/port to be somewhat daunting.  The expense is certainly an issue but it's more a matter of convenience.  I hate the thought of schlepping bags hither and yon plus having to wait around at a train station.  There's something to be said for packing up the car and being done with it until you hit the port.

 

On the other hand, the idea of not driving PLUS the savings of not parking, are attractive.  I guess we'll just have to try it once it is feasible (the Stuart stop is functional).

 

We have used AMTRAK from West Palm to go to Miami and Tampa - excellent pricing.

[orville99]

1 hour ago, RFerrington said:

I think the logistics of getting to/from the train station/home and then to/from train station/port to be somewhat daunting. 

We book their "door-to-port" and "port-to-door" Uber upgrade. Uber picks up at our front door, takes us to the Train Station in Orlando, and then another Uber picks up at the train station in FLL and takes us to the port. We also look out for BL sales (they have them all the time - the current sale is 50% off adult Smart fares).

 

Edited June 4 by orville99

[RFerrington]

11 minutes ago, orville99 said:

We book their "door-to-port" and "port-to-door" Uber upgrade. Uber picks up at our front door, takes us to the Train Station in Orlando, and then another Uber picks up at the train station in FLL and takes us to the port. We also look out for BL sales (they have them all the time - the current sale is 50% off adult Smart fares).

Never even knew this was an option !  Thanks.

 

 

[orville99]

44 minutes ago, cruise wizard said:

 

We have used AMTRAK from West Palm to go to Miami and Tampa - excellent pricing.

By the time you add up the cost of gas, the cost of parking, etc., taking Brightline is a fairly equal cost and time either way - but the train is much more relaxing😇🚅

[orville99]

3 minutes ago, RFerrington said:

Never even knew this was an option !  Thanks.

 

 

If you book the Premium option, the Uber service and 1 suitcase/person is included in the cost of the ticket.

[orville99]

24 minutes ago, orville99 said:

If you book the Premium option, the Uber service and 1 suitcase/person is included in the cost of the ticket.

I need to correct this a bit. As of the end of March, Brightline changed this Premium ticket benefit to a $10 voucher that is added to your Uber wallet. Now you book your rides directly thru Uber. On the good side, they dropped the price of a Premium ticket from $149 to $129, so it would be a wash for us.

[island lady]

19 hours ago, cruise wizard said:

 

Yep - the 12/1 & 12/12/25 is out of Port Everglades..........PC isn't doing the 10 & 11 nights. We are cruising out of PC on 1/4 & 1/11/25 on the Equinox.

 

Forgot to mention...we would have joined you on that one, but we are in Australia and NZ cruising going to the "Dark Side" 😉  with Viking.  

[cruise wizard]

1 minute ago, island lady said:

 

Forgot to mention...we would have joined you on that one, but we are in Australia and NZ cruising going to the "Dark Side" 😉  with Viking.  

 

We'll cruise together again............sometime in the future. Hopefully sooner rather than later!!!

[island lady]

4 hours ago, lovesthebeach2 said:

We also have been straying from Royal, have 5 booked with X, one with Silversea.

never been on either yet, but very excited to cruise them. Royal was always comfortable, but it’s becoming uncomfortable now on the large ships,

 

Totally agree with every word!  We have X booked as well, and want to try Silversea in the future.  Not a fan of the recent change with RCI to "Mega theme park" ships.  Happily will be booking much more with X.  

[island lady]

3 hours ago, orville99 said:

It will be a lot easier once they complete the Cocoa Brightline station🚅😇

The train ride is quite comfortable🚅

 

We flew to Miami from Orlando last Sept. to join WC, flying 225.00 per person first class.  And the plane was empty...I mean 10 pax total!  First class nice to drag on all our long term luggage.  😄 

 

Still have to pay for a transfer to the Orlando airport from home, flying or train.  Not much difference I guess, but would like to try the train just for the experience. 🙂 

[orville99]

9 minutes ago, island lady said:

 

We flew to Miami from Orlando last Sept. to join WC, flying 225.00 per person first class.  And the plane was empty...I mean 10 pax total!  First class nice to drag on all our long term luggage.  😄 

 

Still have to pay for a transfer to the Orlando airport from home, flying or train.  Not much difference I guess, but would like to try the train just for the experience. 🙂 

When we took BL back to Orlando at the end of our Serenade shakedown cruise last Nov/Dec., the total cost for the two of us was $268. That included two Smart fares from Miami to the OIA multimodal train station, 3 pieces of checked luggage, and Uber from the port of Miami to the Miami train station and then Uber from the OIA train station to our front door.😇

[Another_Critic]

Looks like I ventured into the Florida departures thread by mistake.  😉  😄

[island lady]

1 minute ago, Another_Critic said:

Looks like I ventured into the Florida departures thread by mistake.  😉  😄

 

LOL...lots of us old cruisers here in Florida.  😄 

[Arzeena]

2 hours ago, cruise wizard said:

 

We have used AMTRAK from West Palm to go to Miami and Tampa - excellent pricing.

Hmmm. I guess I will research them next. Although to get an Amtrak I would have to go north to dtn Orlando, whereas the Brightline station is at the airport, which is  closer to us. Google said it was a 20 minute drive, but I am not so certain.

[Arzeena]

13 minutes ago, Another_Critic said:

Looks like I ventured into the Florida departures thread by mistake.  😉  😄

Apologies.

But have been thinking, weighing the pros and cons of taking the train vs drive, hotel and park at port vs Drive to park at BL station/Uber, take train to and from FLL.

[kirtihk]

9 hours ago, cruiselvr04 said:

We wish Celebrity would bring ANY ship to Galveston.  There was talk but nothing has come out of it.  

We wish it would bring any ship to Buffalo.  Well,.. a wish is a wish…

[squadron]

On 5/30/2024 at 12:11 PM, Another_Critic said:

RCI and X use the same password.  If you change it one, it changes it on the other.

Now I know!  Couldn't understand why I was having passwords rejected.

[FOXTROT]

Last time we sailed on Celebrity they gave us Elite status. The Happy Hour was a sick joke. Now we will be Zenith. A definite improvement.