CruiseNYC

I was at the Rooftop Garden Grill tonight too! I also had the burger and totally agree about the bacon - and the size of the burger. Took it off the bun and had about half - without the bacon. I really like the venue, though. Beautiful sail away out of Aruba!

RRFPresident - I truly don’t want to hijack your excellent review but we are on the cruise with you in a Penthouse Suite, so I guess just down the corridor from you. First time for us on Edge Class. The ship is beautiful. We have an amazing Retreat Host, Lobo, except we honestly don’t ask for anything in particular. We have dined in Fine Cut, Le Voyage, Eden, Raw on Five and Rooftop Garden Grill. They have all be outstanding - truly exceptional - and we have not been charged at all. The only restaurant we haven’t tried for dinner is Luminae! Although the weather was challenging for the first few days, as RRFPresident mentioned, it has not taken away from this lovely cruise. We did the Local Experience Jeep Tour today and it was a hoot. We’ve been to Aruba several times before but had not done this excursion.

We cruised many times on both Princess and Celebrity. My DH was on PD for quite a few years. When we cruised, he always did manual exchanges as we felt more secure in case of any power outages or machine glitches. At home, he drained into the commode; not sure you'd be able to do this on the ship - depending on the size of the cabin - without an extension line. You'd definitely want to drain into the commode. Safe travels!

Thank you very much!

Would very much appreciate if anyone has contact/email for Executive office - Laura Hodges Bethge. Thank you for your help.

Please say hi to Lyle from Carole and Aubrey. He had mentioned that he was supposed to return to South Africa this past Jan or Feb. Real nail- biter til you got to FLL. I kept checking on my phone!

Thank you, Charla! Another fabulous virtual cruise for me 😆

Totally agree about Grand Hyatt DFW It has always been my go-to for overnights at DFW. Clean, decent bar and food - and runway views are fun!

Thank you, as always, so much, for taking us all along with you and Iain! Very much looking forward to following this new adventure. You have given so many terrific cruise hints and helpful Celebrity info, particularly for those of us who are Celebrity newbies. We leave on Equinox B2B in June - so, meantime, really love sailing the high seas virtually with you (and Charla, too). Safe travels. Carole

Always love following along with you, Charla. Toes look marvelous! We're on Beyond in December. Do you have any other spa appointments booked for this cruise? I've found that some of the spa services on other ships range from outstanding to meh. Please be sure to post reviews of the spa whenever you've been. Thank you! Much appreciated.

Hi Charla - another wonderful read. Thank you, as always! If you stay at the Plaza, please be sure to take GenZ to Afternoon Tea at the Palm Court. It’s a lovely experience

Charla - as always, loving your review/diary. I had a good chuckle about the kids club and its charms. It brought back memories of our wonderful cruises on Princess when every free moment, our daughter would ditch us and spend as much time as possible with her new cruise friends. Enjoy every moment with GenZ. She is beautiful and a wonderful reflection of your loving parenting. Our amazing daughter, who so enjoyed all those kids club cruises, is getting married end May - and DH and I are celebrating on the Equinox in June!

Interesting! Hoping to avoid doing this but, of course, will do so if dining slots are unavailable. We are pretty flexible and don’t mind eating late. In fact, if I have a busy “activity” day, I much prefer going at 8:30 or 9, when the restaurants are usually a bit less busy. Will absolutely keep this as a Plan B - thank you very much!

Thank you for letting us know. That would definitely not be pleasant. I will be sure to ask. That’s why I love Cruise Critic. Great input from members!

We have not been on the Equinox in many years and the last time was in Aqua - which we loved. We were in Retreat on the Summit last summer and we thought the food in Luminae was just ok. However, we were able to order from the other dining rooms, which was very nice. Believe me, we did not starve! We had unlimited Specialty dining and ate in Tuscan Grill a couple of evenings. We really enjoyed the meals we had there.

Thank you! We will plan on Murano for sure. We have enjoyed Tuscan Grill on other ships. I assume it would be very much the same on Equinox. DH is not a sushi fan but I enjoy having lunch there on my own - with a good book

Thanks, Jim! Looks like we'll definitely wait to book with Shoreside Concierge. I believe you had mentioned it when you did your Equinox review but which was your favorite restaurant? Thank you!!

Thank you very much! I seem to recall that the shoreside concierge did phone a few weeks before our last Celebrity Cruise. I have been catching up on Celebrity (our last cruise was on Enchanted Princess) and had read that a lot of the specialty dining venues were fully booked on recent cruises. We enjoy Luminae but also like to try the other restaurants.

Excellent! Thank you very much. We'll wait for the shoreside concierge to contact us. We are looking forward to getting back to Celebrity.

Sincere apologies in advance. I know I've seen the answer to my question somewhere here but can't seem to find it now. If you're traveling in a Penthouse Suite or Royal Suite, are you charged for specialty dinner reservations when booking in advance of the sailing? I tried to reserve a few dinners for our June Equinox sailing but it appears that I will be charged. Would very much appreciate your experience with this. Thank you, as always, for your help, fellow cruisers.

Hi Charla! Looking forward to following along with you and Gen Z. It was a real pleasure meeting you in person last summer on the Summit. Somehow I missed your last Apex review (with Jeremy). I’ll need to go back and find that one. Safe travels - can’t wait to read along.

We were in a Sky Suite on the Enchanted Princess last month for 14 days. (We've also previously sailed in Owner's Suites on Regal and Royal.) The service on Enchanted was excellent - no complaints. I know that food is very subjective but we thought that the food in Club Class on Princess was just ok at best. The buffet was probably less than ok. Specialty restaurants on Princess were fine. We've also recently cruised on Celebrity Millennium and Summit in the Retreat. Luminae is a very nice step up from Princess' Club Class; Oceanview Cafe was very good on both Celebrity ships. We haven't really used the services of the butler on Celebrity but the Suite Experience Manager in the Enchanted Sky Suite was very special. Specialty restaurants on Celebrity were very good. Would we sail again on Princess? Absolutely. That said, we have 4 more cruises booked on Celebrity and none on Princess.

We’ve used Scootaround for years with no problems at all - until last month. We were on Enchanted Princess on a 14 day cruise. DH rented a mobility scooter, which broke down twice. Staff very quickly brought us a wheelchair each time and attempted to figure out the problem but, after the second time, they were able to locate a back-up scooter for him. Wonder what’s going on with them. We may have to try SpecialNeeds next time.

Hi Jim. What a lovely surprise to see you and Iain back on the high seas! I must have been off Cruise Critic for several weeks. We were on a 14 day cruise from NY to Caribbean on Enchanted Princess a few weeks ago - Wi-Fi was terrible - and when I logged in this afternoon, I was delighted to spend time catching up. Love that itinerary, by the way. Can’t wait to follow along with you. It’s not only fun but I learn quite a lot from your posts. Thanks so much. Carole

Just returned from 14 day Cruise out of NYC. We were able to bring the full cartons directly from home. However, when we’ve had to fly to the port, we bring a couple of bags in our rollaboard and the rest is delivered directly to the ship in original cartons. TSA usually does look at the open bags in the carry-ons so please be sure to bring a letter from your dialysis center stating that you’re a dialysis patient.