sandiego1

I think the mani/pedis are overpriced, but similar to hotel prices. The price for haircut and color is a bit less than I pay at home. Massage prices are also higher than I pay at home. However I’ve found it’s similar to hotels.

You can certainly pay for a friends’s meal. However, the price will depend on their Mariner status. We have done it several times on the World Cruise as a thank you to others.

@SUESEABE I found it. Thanks!

Can you please share the link to the blog? I’d be interested in following it too. TIA.

Excellent point!

A friend posted a photo of her OV cabin that had the bed on the side wall, not under the window. It was the 1st time I had seen an OV in that configuration. It looked so odd to me.

I laugh every time someone says that they have door decorations so they can find their cabin. That’s what the numbers next to the door are for! 😆

My TA send me the HAL invoice every time it is updated by HAL or when I make a payment.Actually, I get 2 as she send mine and my husband’s to me.

Hi Pete, Hope you and Judy have a great time. We will be following your journey!

@OlsSalt @POA1 I checked the HAL website and only see 12 decks and that is what I based my answer on. However, you are correct! The Sky deck is NOT shown on the drop down list, nor in the PDF of all decks. I then checked my old printed Cruise Atlas (from April 2019). It includes diagrams of every deck - except the Sky deck! Next to the diagram of the full ship, it has the Sky deck listed with "(not shown)" next to it. I'm sorry for the confusion!

Crow’s Nest is on deck 12 which is the Observation Deck. No deck 14, nor Sky deck.

The outdoor pool is at the aft of the ship, not the bow.

Check out theinsidecabin.com. Pete has a list of several blogs.

We did a FCR for Grand Asia. Rumor is it will sail from San Diego in Sep-Oct 2026. That would be so convenient for us! We can walk to the pier. Enjoy the 2024 WC!!

Pls let us know if you were able to get the guaranteed refund. I tried once with the Flam, Norway train excursion. HAL added a waffle so the tour wasn’t exactly the same, but it was over 2 times the price! That was one expensive waffle. We booked it independently and didn’t bother getting a waffle 😀

I don’t like the smell of the Elemis products so I bring my own toiletries. I also found that the body wash stings my skin. Your cabin stewards will refill the dispensers in your bathroom. If you are fussy about your products, then bring your own. Otherwise, you can just use what is supplied on the ship.

Yes they do. Make sure you know exactly what color your regular stylist uses on your hair. I told them I wanted 8 underneath and 9 on top. They didn’t have those standard colors in stock. They tried to convince me to use “Ash Blonde” colors. My hair is a warm blonde, not ashy. Plus my skin tone is warm, not cool. It was totally the wrong color for me and she kept pushing me to do it. I finally walked out. Having gray roots was better than having the wrong color that my regular hairdresser would have to fix. I was on the World Cruise and it took over 2 months for them to stock the right colors for me - and that was only after talking to the salon manager multiple times. I brought my own colors on the 2019 but opted to pack lighter for the 2023. I’m going to bring them when we go again in 2025!

Sorry. WC = World Cruise. It was on the Zuiderdam in early 2023.

I was on the WC when they opened the library. The bookcases are set far apart and well lit. there was absolutely no seating in room but I think I read that chairs were added after the WC. There were multiple poppies of each book. I thought there was a decent selection. I read exclusively on my iPad so I wasn’t interested in borrowing any books. Others made a beeline as soon as it opened and took lots of books back to their cabins. I think they didn’t make the best use of the space.They could have either added a lot more bookcases and seating or used a much smaller space.

We often do cheek to cheek dancing in the 2 lounges I mentioned. They do play some slow songs. And friends are ballroom dance lovers and they dance to many of the tunes played there. Others have complained it’s too loud. I wear ear plugs 😀 to soften the music and other friends turn down their hearing aids!

I called Celebrity but was told we could only book the flights IF we were on the land portion of the trip. Since we will be in Cuenca before the cruise and we’ve been to Machu Picchu , we opted to book our own flights.

BBKings and Rollins Stone Rock room are bands and the lounges do have dance floors. We dance there almost every night while we are on the ship that have those lounges.

@mahdnc You and your wife have my condolence on the passing of her mother. May her memory be a blessing to you and your family.

Thank you so much!! I can’t express my gratitude enough. Your photos and documentation of the cruise have been extremely helpful and informative. I will call the Galapagos desk again to ask about an earlier departure so we can make our flight. When I called last week to give them the flight info, they did seem concerned. I had called before I booked the flight and they told me anytime after 10am

What time did you get to the Baltra airport? Our independent flight to Quito is at 10:13. I’m concerned we may not make it.