The Fun Researcher

This is what I'm doing for our July Alaskan cruise on the Quantum. I'll be up late tomorrow night until just after midnight. I'll be getting the earliest check in I can for our 6 cabins. 🙂

People may shoot me for this but if I arrived early, I would give it a try getting on early.

Sounds like my kind of drink! I'll have check if they can make me one on the Quantum in July (no Playmakers). I'm assuming the midori replaces the sour mix? I typically ask for Long Islands without sour mix because I don't like the taste of it and sometimes they overdo it to make the drink look stronger than it is. Yes! Vodka is my go to, mixed in something. Anything practically. LOL

I don't like drinking large volume after volume, or overly sweet, so I go for stronger drinks typically, my go-to being: Long Island (or as I say "Strong Island")

$800 savings in drinks for my wife and I on a 7 night cruise is not "no big deal", at least not to us. Add in my son's non alcoholic vouchers and it's closer to $1000. Add to that three free days of wifi. This is what we did in March on the Anthem. Myself solo interior connected to my wife and son in another interior. I got double points and now all three of us are Diamond. It will be wonderful for my wife and I to be Diamond on our July Alaska cruise, and my son can share his vouchers for specialty coffees with his sisters. Actual points: Me 82, Wife 75, son 53, daughter 46, daughter 46

Yeah, would have been nice but not a deal breaker by any means. It will be fun to see what our kids and my in-laws think of Celebrity. My wife and I only sailed once on X once with friends and loved it, and now that our kids are older they don't really do as much of the kids stuff, so this 5 night cruise on the Equinox will be a nice "toe in the water" for them with X. I'm almost certain my in-laws will love the laid back quiet vibe, with the food and décor being a slight bump up from Royal.

Just circling back to discuss what I found out. The only problem with my plan is that our son is only 16, and for Celebrity you need to be 18 before you can get a Captain's Club number, so my son's Diamond status could not carry over to Celebrity, at least not until he's 18. Dan

Thank you. Our son has not sailed Celebrity before (my wife and I have), so he does not have a Captains Club number I don’t believe. Can I call Celebrity before the cruise to get him a Captains club number assigned so that he then shows up as Elite and his cabin mates get his benefits?

This is interesting. My son and daughter and a friend are in a connecting cabin for a Celebrity cruise we have booked for December. My son, 16yo, is Diamond which transferred to Elite on Celebrity. So my 19yo daughter and 19 yo friend will also be Elite for that cruise? (they are not Diamond on Royal)

I imagine this is way easier for MTD since table locations are more fluid if they want, but now that they changed the MTD process I'm not so sure. Our first 7 cruises we did MTD. Most of those cruises we sent a table request in, something simple like 1) away from main entrance 2) away from (loud) bussing stations 3) near a window if possible. If we liked the table and wait staff the first night we would talk with the Maître D on the way out and we always got the same table from then on for the rest of the cruise.(we committed to a fixed time, like 5:45 or so) Worked that way for at least 7 cruises.

Mention it to the room steward, have a drink and move on. 🙂 That's not exactly the easiest color hair to see against that shower wall. Not sure I would correlate once a day service to finding light colored hair on your shower wall. I would take some TP, grab the hair and throw it in the trash. I'm probably not as grossed out about these things though by my own admission.

Common spaces are constantly being cleaned throughout the cruise so disembarkation day is no different than any other day. As others have said, staterooms don't open until at least 1pm, partly because they need that time to turn over the rooms and clean them.

Deck 9 (and deck 8 less so), has to be the most frequently booked deck for our family across all the ships we've sailed. Having at least a couple of floors of cabins above and below you help keep things quiet. We also tend to be in the forward section. That generally limits our closeness to food but that only matters really for us in the morning for coffee, but that's a quick elevator or stairs down or up to the cafe promenade or solarium bistro (depending on ship) to resolve. 🙂

We like early traditional but it is too early now, agreed. I didn't realize they changed MTD to this process. Makes sense now that I think back. On the Anthem in March we had early seating, and a couple of times I left the MDR to use the bathroom, only to find HUGE throngs of other cruises waiting for a table. Normally by the time we left dinner the crowds were gone (we must take a long time dining)

Just chiming in to say that's a pretty smart way to use your vouchers. Also a smart way to only pay, IMO, the exorbitant price of one drink package.

On the Anthem in March, we were told anything past 30 minutes late and they would give it away. We showed up 15 minutes "late" every night. Not really on purpose. We didn't realize until the last night that the actual time we were supposed to show up was 15 minutes earlier than we thought. LOL 15 minutes won't impact anyone at all for traditional seating. We had our own table of 5

That's fair. Sounds like you've had bad luck. We've always had clear(ish) water. Not crystal clear but not murky We haven't had noise either It is a long way there, agreed There is a tram that takes you all the way, but I agree it can maybe be a hassle finding the right one We've been there 5 times or more and so far we've had great experiences. Bummer yours wasn't so great. Maybe next time... Reminds me of how we raved about Megens Bay in St. Thomas to our friends. They went and didn't like it much at all. The difference? Their day was misty and cloudy overcast, which made everything a struggle and the water just looked dark and dreary. We went on a beautiful sunny day, so the sand was sparkling white and the water was amazing hues of blue. Add to that the lush greenery to the sides of the cove and it just felt amazing.

Thank you. Bummer that my Daughters missed out. They are 21 and 19 now, but have 46 points on their own and will get another 7 in July so they are on their way... 🙂

FYI, I'm circling back to tell you what did end up working, which was a 7 night cruise in two interior cabins. As of March 2023 these were our points: Myself: 68 points Wife: 68 points Son 15 yrs old: 46 points My wife, son and I took a 7 night cruise on the Anthem in two connecting inside cabins. I was solo in one, and my wife and son were booked in the connecting cabin. So I got 14 points since I was solo, and my wife and son got 7 points each. Now, after the cruise all three of us are Diamond. Our actual points are shown below. Myself: 82 points Wife: 75 points Son 16 yrs old: 53 points Not sure if this helps anyone or not but just thought I would share.

We've done deck 8 or 9 interiors multiple times on that class of ship. We have zero problems with those rooms. Sleep great with the nice dark cabins (day or night if you like). Having two full bathrooms is very nice for getting ready in the morning or showering before dinner etc... We typically get connecting cabins, but they sell out more quickly. Adjacent cabins would also be fine. We use the room to sleep and nap, not much more. We love being out on the ship in all the awesome venues or taking in views of the ocean

I do agree about Harvest Cay. Not even food is included, and the drinks were $$$ and watered down in our experience. What made Columbus Cove so bad?

Hah, I could have written your post verbatim as we are looking for the same thing coming up! For our Alaska cruise in July we are also a family group of 16 across 6 balcony cabins, all linked, looking to be placed together in the MDR (2-3 tables). Hope your request goes well! Also thanks to the other poster who gave the mgutierrez@rccl.com email contact!

Decades

I like the quiet laid back feel of Labadee better. I like the food better on Coco Cay. Between the two I would choose Labadee. Love the beach and loungers at Columbus cove with the ship as the backdrop. Love them both though. Always a very nice relaxing day in tropical “paradise”

Here’s my poll results for the same question a few months ago