leisuretraveler223

Trying to book Celebrity Select. We are on Summit in Alaska next summer. Three veranda staterooms and my wife and I in the penthouse. While she and I would have access to Luminae, the rest of our travelers do not, so we would prefer to just have all nine of us together in the MDR.

We have a family trip with a party of nine, three staterooms and a suite. Trying to book dining together and the website will not let you select more than eight people for a booking. I booked through a TA. Am I better off contacting her, or reaching out to Celebrity directly?

Why on earth would anyone travel anywhere with a minor child not theirs WITHOUT a notarized letter from the parent or guardian? It's sad that cruise lines need to MAKE people do things that common sense once would have made obvious.

Doing a southbound cruise out of Seward next summer. Has anyone had any experience with the Alaska Railroad to get from Anchorage to Seward? Worth it? Scenic? There are nine of us, so if we drive it's either two vehicles or a large van.

You are overthinking this. They're not going to turn you away or make you abandon one of your bags at the airport. Worst case scenario, they charge you an additional fee. In which case, you are simply paying for exactly what you get.

Question: Did the specials appear on the menu that come up from the QR code at the tables? Or did you have to walk around and see what they were?

Yeah, regularly exposing the human body to x-rays would kinda be a big no-no!😆

Where on earth have you been traveling where they routinely X-Ray people??????

Most of the Galley food stations really only had two or three options and they really didn't change. So it is actually rather limited compared to the casual dining option on most other lines.

April 19th, four night out of Miami. First night, pajama party on upper deck. Large contingent of barely dressed eagerly grinding up against everyone. Sat at bar for five minutes, gentlemen commented about his girlfriend digging on my wife, said they were swingers and "there are a lot of us on board". Next night, Scarlet Night. Countless people telling us to head to the "after-after party" for some excitement. More discussion, it was a swingers get together. The following two nights in the dance club it became almost a joke. I would walk to the bar to get us drinks and when I would come back, I would be asked the tally- meaning how many propositions. It was multiple times every time you walked around in the club. I don't know what to tell you. Maybe there was some unofficial swingers get together on that particular sailing. I am not trying to present any false narrative here. I've been on one four day cruise, and once the sun went down, that was the overwhelming theme.

I don't know if I have a single favorite. Honestly, other than Virgin, which is a unique product, I find most mass market cruise lines to be more similar than different. I've done a lot of Royal, Celebrity, Norwegian. But am warming up to MSC. Cunard was nice for TA, but I haven't done any other trips on it. Really want to try some of the smaller ships too. I know people are getting defensive and think I'm dumping on VV. It's just my honest impression that there were a lot of things I found really disappointing.

Did I strike a nerve? Here is what I experienced: On The Rocks Bar: Out of Bombay Sapphire the entire cruise. Every other bar had it, so it's not like it wasn't on board Pool Bar: 1:00 on the port day, still very quiet on board. Asked for one of the vodka seltzers. Was told "yeah, everybody was drinking those yesterday! We haven't restocked yet". Really? It's a quiet port day, you know they're all coming back, right? Sip, the Champagne Bar- here was the winner: They wouldn't serve me a glass of Dom Perignon. He said "only by the bottle". I showed him the menu that listed a by the glass price. His response, "I just boarded yesterday, I need to check with my beverage manager about that". I asked again the next two days and got the same response and finally gave up. Casino Bar: Out of Woodford Reserve the entire cruise.

I can't believe someone actually typed this sentence like it's a thing. "cruise critic award spot"? Seriously, what even is that? Talk about a homer....

Every bar SHOULD have Heineken 0.0. But in our experience, the bars SUCKED at restocking. It wasn't that the ship was out of something, but every bar we went to was constantly out of various things. As for the party atmosphere, yeah, that's what it is. Also note that it's basically a sex cruise. People are constantly trying to pretty much hump anything that moves. Like getting hit on by guys, girls, couples, every time you speak a word? Then this is the cruise for you. Oh, and the ship has all the aesthetic appeal of a 1960s office building to boot!

The Galley will definitely be open. That way you can start being disappointed with the food offerings on board right away.

I thought the dining on VV was a huge disappointment. The food was mediocre at best, but dressed up to make people think it was better than it is. Choices were limited, offering don't change all week, service sucked. One of the MANY reasons we are one and done with VV.

That's fine if I know when I want to have breakfast the night before. But it doesn't really lend to spontaneity.

I get it. But when you're just trying to have a quick breakfast, it doesn't really add to the experience.

I will confess, if I had been at a table of six people that all knew each other already, I might have considered that. But we were one of three couples seated together and kind of taking over the cooking wouldn't have been something I would have done. I think it would probably be much slower and problematic for guests to cook, and I get that. But not doing it makes the whole format kind of pointless. I mean, it's not like this is even some Japanese hibachi where the cooking is some sort of campy show. If we're not doing it ourselves, I'd much rather be served properly cooked plates out of the kitchen.

No, you don't have to show it. But I have to be honest, this is kind of a strange question. Are you planning on NOT bringing the credit card? The potential for there being a problem at some point on the voyage and sailor services needing to re authorize it is not slim. I've had that happen on plenty of cruises.

There, I said it! I love Korean BBQ. But it's supposed to be a fun and social meal where you cook your own pieces as you go and eat hot fresh selections made just the way you want it right off the grill. But instead, the waiter comes out and cooks (really overcooks) everything all at once, piles it on a plate and then you pass it around. If that's how it's going to be prepared, just have someone actually cook it properly in the kitchen so we're not relying on the waiter not being distracted by other duties and overcooking everything. Aaaaah... I feel better now!

The flags worked okay last week. It was hit or miss. One time, we had someone on us in about 20 seconds, then next time it took a good 7-8 minutes. I have tow big gripes with The Galley. First, is that if you order multiple things, they come at different times. Not really a big deal, but if they're really spread out, it kinda sucks. Two of us ordered four items. The first item came in about four minutes, the last one took close to 25. Kind of a disjointed way to have a meal. The second issue is that it really doesn't offer much variety. It looks impressive when you first walk through with all the different stations. But then when you look at the menu and realize they all have only two or three offerings it's just not as wide a selection as you expect. Couple that with the fact that nothing changes on the menu form day to day and it's really a boring and limited option (sadly, this is the same with their other dining venues).

Well, the water actually rises above the level of the pool and fills the surrounding area, so who knows where they're actually measuring to. All I know is I'm 5' 10" and I could stand, but not by much. I had to get way up on my toes to take a sip of my drink!😆

My bad. I meant to say 5' 1". I guess if it's 5' .11" then it's actually 5' 1.76"- so even deeper! LOL! Regardless, it's kind of odd to have the whole thing that deep. Basically anyone under about 5' 9" is not going to be able to comfortably stand.

Just did a four day cruise on Scarlet Lady. Was a fairly late booking (about three weeks out) and got a good rate on a Mega Rockstar Suite. Thought I'd share my observations. Arrival: As a Mega Rockstar, it was great. Private suite entrance. Easy check in process (show passport, get band). And first ones on the ship, escorted directly to room on 15. Room 15275A very nice. Plenty spacious, comfortable bed and great balcony. Loved the bar and they were happy to restock, adjust inventory. Agent was great for this and anything we wanted. Was a little concerned about noise from the pool deck, but really never noticed. We weren't in our room the night of the pool party, so I can't say about that. Loved the proximity to the pool deck itself. Richard's Rooftop was great, particularly on our sea day when the rest of the pool deck was understandably busy. Overall impression of the ship: Interesting layout. I get the focus on smaller more intimate spaces making the ship feel less busy. And on this completely full voyage, it worked. Never felt too crowded. But it also doesn't really have any of those "wow" spaces. Nothing bad, just an observation. As for the decor of the ship, it kind of runs hot and cold. There are areas that are very nice, but much of it feels a little sterile. The elevator lobbies look like an office building out of the 1960s. I don't care for an over-the-top theming of a ship or space, but this just kind of struck me as kind of uninspired. Pool deck: Main pool deck was kind of odd. The corrugated metal walls and vertical railings on the upper deck made the main pool deck feel like it was nowhere remarkable. No real view of the ocean and just felt a little more closed in. The pool design with the elevated surround is one of the oddest things I've ever seen. In order to get to the pool you must take a BIG (probably 18-20 inch) step up, then five feet later take the same step down into several inches of water. I can honestly imagine only minor mobility issues make this pool almost completely inaccessible to most people. There are stairs all across one end, but once in, the entire pool is 5'11" deep, which means many people cannot stand in the pool because of the depth. So, the edges and stairs are always crowded, the middle of the pool is often empty. But honestly, the big step up and down is a puzzler. I know someone must've absolutely bought it on that by not. Just doesn't make sense. Service: Overall good. Bars, especially the pool bars could be very slow. Bartenders were nice and made good drinks. But there was never any sense of urgency, that's for sure. Bar stock was VERY frustrating. It seems they were always out of something. Never the whole ship mind you, but certain bars. Frustrating because if they have it on board, it shouldn't take a day or more to restock a bar. Case in point: On day three, asked for a vodka seltzer drink at the pool bar around 2 pm. Bartender said, "we still haven't restocked those form yesterday, everyone was drinking them!". So they ran out the afternoon of day two and a day later they still hadn't restocked them. So he spent all afternoon disappointing people. Again, the ship hadn't run out, they just hadn't restocked. Another bar oddity: Sip bar(the champagne bar) lists Dom Perignon on their menu, both by the bottle and by the glass. They simply would NOT sell it by the glass. The bartender said he needed to get approval from the supervisor to do so. They had bottles, but he wouldn't open it to sell a glass. He said it wasn't offered that way. Every printed menu in the place lists it both ways. I showed him and he said "hmm, I'll have to check on that". Three straight days, no luck. Just weird. Food: I had high expectations based on what I've heard. It didn't exactly live up to them. The Wake was excellent. Test Kitchen was okay, but really more style than substance. It makes it look like an elaborate concept but it's not. It's just cranking out six courses hundreds of times a night and talking about them like they are somehow more unique than they are. Extra Virgin was a train wreck with an over 50 minute lag from appetizer to entree for everyone seated near us. In the end, it was highly unremarkable mass produced pasta dishes and mediocre proteins. Gumbae is a pale reflection of actual Korean barbecue. If we're not going to cook it ourselves, then the whole tabletop thing is just a show. The end result being that most of it is wildly overcooked as the waiter is trying to cook while also serving, getting drinks etc... The Galley was okay and the service worked well, other than no one gets their food at the same time, so my breakfast burrito came in two minutes but my wife had to wait about fifteen for her eggs. Overall I really didn't find the food to be a lot better than what I've had in the MDR or buffet on Royal, Celebrity or Norwegian. And the major drawback is lack of variety. At least on those cruise lines, the menus change every day. On Virgin, sure there are more venues, but they all have fewer choices and generally don't change. The crowd was..... interesting. We joked about the fact that the later it got, the more progressive the mood became. Go to the club with my wife and two other couples and it became a running joke of how many times we would get propositioned in virtually every way. We were propositioned as a couple by other couples, by individual women, individual men. We were propositioned is individuals by men, women, couples... Nothing wrong with it, and I think the energy of the more open crown definitely translated in a positive way at the parties and club. Just definitely a different vibe! Overall: I like some of their ideas, don't really care for others. I think it was a fun four day diversion, but don't know if I really have any interest in more than four days on board. Would I do it again? Maybe if the timing, price and circumstances were right. I would likely travel with more than just my wife, maybe two or three couples. But it was a good time. Feel free to fire your questions at me.