markeb

Suggestion one: Take a deep breath. You've already overplanned for two days... You're going to be a bit rushed no matter what, but here are my suggestions: First, carry your smartphone and have an international data plan or get an e-SIM for data. Period. Have Google Maps, TFL Go, and Citymapper on your phone. I mostly use Google Maps. I'm assuming this is a summer cruise? If so, the sun is out very late. You can see a lot of London from your location simply by walking around. That's what I'd plan the first days once you've somewhat recovered. Cross the Westminster Bridge and walk along the Embankment beyond the MOD main building (it's huge) and eventually cut over to Whitehall. Plot a course on your phone to Trafalgar Square, probably cutting over around Charing Cross Station. Look at the map and pick something else that interests you. You'll eventually end up back at Westminster Bridge passing Westminster Palace and the Elizabeth Tower to your hotel. I would probably do the Tower in the morning of your second day and Buckingham Palace that afternoon. Latest time you can get at the Palace. From your hotel, you have two primary choices to the Tower. You can catch the Tube at Waterloo (Bakerloo Line) and transfer to the Circle Line at the Embankment. You can also cross at Westminster Bridge and get directly on the Circle Line. (Can't remember if the District Line also stops at the Embankment?) The other option is to catch one of the Thames River Cruises at County Hall. Allow more time, but you'll get a nice view of the Thames, usually narrated, and I believe the first stop is the Tower. Check that out. I'd allow 3-4 hours. Don't plan on anything else in the area if you plan to make it to Buckingham Palace. You may have time, but don't commit. Tower to Buckingham Palace is about a half hour on either the District or Circle lines with a walk on both ends. I'd probably allow an hour before your tour. Abbey and War Rooms work well together. I can't tell you how long to allow for the Abbey. The War Rooms will consume as much time as you'll let them. It's walking distance between them. I really can't see a good way to also visit the British Museum with your other stops. I'm sure it can be done, but it'll be a poke your head in and leave visit. If you're there on a Friday, they are open until 8:30, so that's a possibility. My one time experience with timed tickets at the British Museum was a "so what". It was one line for screening with or without a timed ticket and everyone was flowing together. YMMV. First thoughts. Enjoy. Don't overplan. Have a pint (lots of neat places just wandering the South Bank near your hotel) in a pub.

Easiest course of action is to go straight to your stateroom, grab your Seapass card off the door, drop off your carry-on, lock anything you won't need in the safe (passport...), and then head for the Retreat Lounge. If you're boarding first, the elevators will still be free. If you head for the lounge, you'll be tempted to head for Luminae, and you'll be dragging your bags and suddenly everyone will be on the elevators. The lounge will definitely be open, but you'll probably be happy that you (or one of you) made the trip to the cabin first.

It's really a math question. If you drink premium water or Red Bull, for instance, those are not available in the Classic package and you'll pay full price for them. They're just excluded completely even though they're below the dollar limit. Red Bull is I think $7 plus gratuity. or $8.40 Can't remember which waters are included, but figure $6 each or $7.20. If you're looking at wine, cocktails, beer, or spirits, you pay the upcharge plus gratuity. If you are looking at the $17 martinis versus a $10 classic package, you're paying $8.40 extra per martini. Take the upgrade price (including the extra 20% gratuity) and divide by $8.40. If that's say $24/day, then you'd break even at three martinis in a day even without accounting for higher priced wine or beer or water. It's a calculated guess for a first timer. But if only one of you is looking at premium package drinks, unless they're talking about (using the simple math above) six martinis for themselves, every day, it's likely going to be less expensive to pay the upcharge as you go...

That's what a good sommelier should do. Glad you have one. I also think too many of the sommeliers on Celebrity just fall into asking the customer what they want, so we never give them the opportunity to recommend other wines. And we (the customers) have a bad habit of just asking for something we recognize. Not on Celebrity, but I've worked with sommeliers at a couple of nice places that have described a pairing I never would have thought of that ended up being amazing. Like a mid-body red with a white fish, because of the sauce.

I'm one of the rarest of Marriott/Bonvoy members. Made Lifetime Titanium at the merger. The only time it was offered. My wife thanks me for all those trips every time we have breakfast in an M Club... Ambassador wasn't a thing. I guess there are stay and dollar criteria, so it's not invitation only like Global Services. Never got there. Don't perceive a real advantage. I do still know what my house looks like!

I tend to agree. There was a Delirium cafe in Brussels with a lot of beer on tap, but I don't think even they did flights like you'd see in the US. I just don't think it's a thing in Belgium. The better beer is served in small glasses and enjoyed fairly slowly. And the really good stuff is 10-14% alcohol (barley wine territory) and one can be quite enough. Probably can't take the supermarket beer onto the ship, in most cases, unfortunately. It'll probably get nabbed and returned on the last evening. At room temperature or above... And I'll second a previous post on Mary Chocolate. Probably my favorite Belgian chocolate from too many trips to Brussels over the years. I'd buy others to bring back to the office (Leonidas) but Mary always made it home to my wife...

That’s good to know. My big complaint with Tuscan was that the portions were just too big. Might try it again and split a better steak. I usually cook a 10-12 ounce ribeye and slice it for the two of us. And sometimes save some for breakfast the next day. 16 ounce t-bone or porterhouse is just too much!

Probably Porter in Coombsville and Paloma on Spring Mountain. We were mostly going to small places. Paloma was literally in the winemaker’s dining room. Darioush is a bit of an off the beaten track winery. Great wines, just not necessarily well known. We were at a tasting tonight for Sky Devil. Don’t know that they have a tasting room, but Kirk Venge is their winemaker. Venge wines, Trespass, and Sky Devil among others. Amazing winemaker. I’d buy pretty much anything he makes and probably most things he consults on.

If you have data onboard, "some" of the wines by the bottle are a good deal. In the past that's included some not by the glass that were far better and averaged out at a decent price. No, Conundrum is probably still overpriced. But there are some decent to very good Pinot Noirs that aren't badly priced. Not 3X retail for sure. Actually, Pinot Noir may be one of the best bottle prices I see in the app. Again, if you're drinking mixed drinks, beer, water, soda, and specialty coffees, you'll do better than you think. Some of the whites by the glass are pretty good. Right now, it's the reds that seem to be lacking. I'll try to report back after the Summit. Where are you going in Napa?

I've never found an alternate Cabernet. In the past, I've frequently found very good "other reds". Malbec, Zinfandel, Primitivo, Syrah/Shiraz, Sangiovese, etc. Not so much my last cruise. We'll see on Summit in a couple of weeks. What would you have paid for 2-3 bottles? Just curious as that seems like it would be a better alternative for dinner. Better wine and maybe even less expensive if you're paying the upcharges anyway. The question then becomes would you have drunk enough other covered drinks to pay for the package.

An extreme case, of course, but the argument to "can I make a XX:xx flight"? We're overnighting in Vancouver after our Alaska cruise to not be rushed and have a day in Vancouver, but... Hope all goes well with the patient. That's the most important thing.

When is your cruise? Sometimes the menu option doesn't appear until closer to sailing. This is my sailing later this month and I have a "Menu" option right above the opening times. Do you see that? If not, you'll need to change the app to a current sailing. On the app's home screen, there will be a calendar icon at the top center. If you select that icon, you'll see the itinerary for your cruise. At the bottom is a faint "Change Ship/Dates" link. If you select that, you can choose any ship and sailing. I'd recommend selecting your ship and the current sailing (should be the first date). That's obviously not your cruise, but it's a good approximation. Honestly, your cruise is only an approximation until you're on board. To get back to your cruise, do the same thing but the app will offer your cruise first.

Did you look in the app? Generally $17. Probably a few that are more.

Can you provide documentation something DID happen to the captain? Because if nothing happened, there are probably no news stories or documentation. Maybe it was time to rotate. Maybe they moved them temporarily for PR purposes to investigate. And reinstated them when the review found they needed to revise procedures.

Same photo, same resolution. They're too close to shore, and I'm not an expert on interpreting overhead photography. The original article alleged 1000 feet. That's possible, but the distance will be distorted by the angle. Blowing up a 67 KB photo that appears to have been chosen because the original poster didn't have or didn't want to use any data isn't going to give you a better view. Apparently some of the recent Android phones use this as a file format. Or that's what Hawaii News Now uses on their web page. They should probably expect a subpoena from the investigators and maybe they actually have a real photo that can be examined. I'm assuming it hasn't been manipulated. Those are reflections. They all follow the same curvature. The one "closest" to the ship actually overlaps the stern, so it's clearly not underwater. The tan has an unnaturally precise shape, and again, since it's on the same curvature as the other artifacts, it's a reflection of a manmade object. Almost certainly on the helicopter. It actually could be a human hand on a controller; that may be a thumb. Someone somewhere has pictures of the interior of tourist helicopters in Hawaii that will match that look; the helos I've flown in, long ago, had open doors and jump seats. But yes, they're too close to shore. And they may have damaged the sea floor. I'm far more interested in how it happened and how to prevent it in the future.