barbeyg

It is a lot of work, and one of the reasons I don’t do a live thread here. 🙂 It’s a shame this is the only site I ever have this issue with, even my iPhone photos sometimes have issues here, despite all I have done to limit their size. 🤷🏻‍♀️ Appreciate your willingness to do your live threads. Really enjoying the thread. Hope you guys are having a great time! 🙂

Ship: Edge Length of Cruise: 13 night Vancouver to HI Cruise Sail Date: Sep 20, 2024 Date email offer received: 6/24/2024 Captain’s Club Tier: Elite+ Booked through Celebrity Direct OR via TA: Celebrity direct Current Cabin: SS Bid? Yes/No: YES If YES - Bidding Details: Cabin Category bids: Royal Suite: $1800 pp ($3600) Edge Villa: $2015 pp ($4030) Celebrity Suite: $1500 pp ($3000) Notification Date: 9/3/2024 Accepted: Celebrity Suite General comments: Bid strong on Celebrity Suite, since only one available, and for a 13 night cruise, the extra space would be nice. Even with our bid, our all-in price was less than half what the CS was selling for throughout. MoveUp pricing was quite reasonable, considering the length of the cruise. See minimums below. Iconic Suite: $3000 pp minimum Penthouse Suite: $2500 pp minimum Edge Villa: $2000 pp minimum Royal Suite: $1500 pp minimum Celebrity Suite: $500 pp minimum AquaClass Sky Suite: $149 pp minimum Sunset Sky Suite: $100 pp minimum

❤️ the Schooner Bars with a sea view. My favorite!

Im thinking it’s time we revisit the midsize ships. 🙂 It’s been a while. Thanks for the review so far, enjoying it! 😁

I guess now that I’m retired, I am just going to stroll in everywhere late! 😬 Just sat down with my espresso, and lo and behold, an @A&L_Ont adventure to follow! How have I missed this so far? 🙄 Thanks for sharing, Andrew! 😁

There was another volcanic eruption about an hour or two ago in Iceland, near the Blue Lagoon. The ship is there in Iceland. The ship tours to that area were cancelled because of the volcanic activity, out of an abundance of caution, but some from the cruise were on independent tours. A blogger I follow on FB said they believe everyone from the ship may be okay, but evacuations are ongoing. 😕 Hope all of you are okay.

Neither have I. I don’t pay attention to TikTok or the vloggers that try to sensationalize everything. I read a lot, and haven’t really seen very much about the world cruise.

Celebrity has a happy hour period of time, much like RCI used to have. If you remember that, you will have an idea of what is available during the happy hour time. You cannot get drinks any time of day (just like RCI used to be). I’m sure someone will see this and post the menu for happy hour. We usually have a drink package included with our bookings, so don’t partake in Celebrity Elite happy hour.

I would look forward to it too.

Thanks for the tip on the whale watching tour. We are considering this for next year. Did you reach out directly in reference to being picked up at the pier? Thanks again for the info. We can’t wait to sail there. 🙂

That a great travel agent with group rates could get me a balcony cabin for less than the cruise line offers, with shipboard credit, AND is refundable. We booked for years on our own, but have an excellent agent now who has saved us thousands in a few years.

Shorties aren’t for us either. Mainly because of turnaround day. We would book B2B because we don’t cruise for less than 7 nights, but it’s the lost time to logistics on turnaround day that we don’t care for. Yeah, I know only 2-3 hours are spent on that, but I don’t want to sacrifice that time halfway thru a week long trip. 🤷🏻‍♀️ We don’t like to bounce around on land vacations either, staying in one place typically for a week. However, younger families do enjoy that, so it would be good business sense for RCI to try this out. Either way, lots of other ships to choose. Thanks for the review OP. Appreciated it. 🙂

Just checked our upcoming cruise, and 58 days out from the cruise, those on our sailing started getting the MoveUp email.

My condolences to all who love Shelton.

That sounds like a great length to us. 🙂

The main reason we haven’t booked MSC yet is because while we would sail YC, we like the “entire ship” experience. We don’t want to be exclusively in a smaller area on a ship. We like free range cruising. 😂 And the rest of the MSC ship experience doesn’t appeal to us, based on others’ reviews, people we know and trust the opinion of. 🤷🏻‍♀️ The whole shipwide experience is why we sail Celebrity too now….and are considering booking Princess, given the right itinerary.

It’s called Spotlight Karaoke. It’s where karaoke takes place on Oasis. I’ve never done this so can’t comment on it, but I have seen it in the cruise planner when we sailed. This was back in 2022, so things may have changed. I suggest checking the activities in your cruise planner, and even the shore excursions (sometimes I’ve had onboard activities show up there when I searched shore exclusions wide open). If they still do it, should be listed in the cruise planner. Otherwise, your TA can check into it. 🙂

Popped in to tell the book lovers here that Eruption, written by James Patterson for Michael Crichton, is excellent! James Patterson did a great job writing this book Michael Crichton had researched and planned when he passed. Almost felt like I was reading Crichton (I miss him!) I fully expect this to be made into a movie like Jurassic Park, and to be a huge hit if done right. Puts a whole new perspective on our cruise to HI this fall. 😍

As mentioned previously, there is a “Florence on your own” tour that doesn’t go to other sites. We did this in April. If you book that, and do want time on your own, once you get led to the square and shown the meeting point, you can leave before you get the “sales pitch” in the first store there. We did just that, and had a lovely lunch/walk-around on our own. You only get about 2.5 hours on your own (no matter what the description says on RCI), since they stop off on the way at a leather store for a sales pitch/restroom visit. We wouldn’t do it again. We would pay for a private transfer, and spend more time in Florence, a lovely city.

We thoroughly enjoy the CocoCay Beach club, for its intimate, quiet, upscale beach resort feel, and excellent food. We book it when we are sailing RCI, on a 7 night or longer cruise, and the line sails there. That said, we wouldn’t book a Celebrity cruise just to go there. 🙂 If we happen to sail there on a Celebrity cruise, and the price is comparable with RCI sale prices for the Beach Club, we would book it.

On our TA this spring, we met a sweet young couple. She was in a cast to mobilize her hand, which the doc on the ship believed could have a hairline fracture. She was told it didn’t show up on the x-ray, but was advised that the portable x-ray machines on the ships aren’t as accurate as one in a hospital. She was advised to get an x-ray as soon as we got to Italy. Hopefully all went well for her. If this was accurate info she received, it’s possible that the x-ray machine on Brilliance wasn’t as accurate either. 🤷🏻‍♀️ Glad your friend had insurance. 🙂

Thanks @twangster and @Hoopster95, for the great running commentary. Thanks @Biker19 for adding info on my questions about the electric cars. 🙂 You have me so excited for our 14 nights on the Celebrity Apex next year. Hope your journeys ahead are great ones! 🙂

Poor sweetie! Hoping the vomiting has stopped, and he is on the road to recovery. 🙁

@Biker19, appreciate the additional info. 🙂 Early in his work career, Ken managed an electric golf cart fleet, so he sees conservation of the charge as a challenge. And like @twangster he will try to see how much he can “recharge” going downhill. I envision looking like @Hoopster95’s dog video…and like this at the end. 😂

@Hoopster95, thanks! I’m 5’10” myself, and weigh less than that so we should be good. Sold Ken on it with the video shared in this thread, and now just to decide which to choose. The 2 hour or the 3 hour. Thanks much to you and @twangster!