GenerationX

Apparently I’m not the only one in the GenX family having a best life morning…Jeremy just texted me this pic from his trout fishing season opening day exploits, then I was perusing my Facebook feed and saw this post on my mom’s account of Gen Z…eating a donut ice cream sundae for breakfast…out in public wearing pajamas and a set of unicorn ears…where was this super fun, anything goes, parenting approach when I WAS BEING RAISED????

It is a GORGEOUS day to sail away here in Fort Lauderdale! I started the morning with coffee and a few more work projects listening to the ocean waves by the pool. I’ve just checked out but my car won’t be here for another half hour so the bell team is holding my bags while I Chandon rose’ away at the pool bar enjoying the sunshine and ocean breeze. This morning as I was heating up my fried rice breakfast and realizing I forgot to ask for a plastic fork or chopsticks, I went through the drawers of the kitchenette in my suite and found not only silverware but pretty much everything else you could want including dishes, glassware and electric kettle for tea and a toaster. For those who don’t already know the story of the map dress, I found and bought this dress for a cruise that never happened. It was a sailing on Infinity scheduled for April…of 2020…I thought about cancelling the dress order when the cruising industry, and the world, turned upside down. But then I decided no, I’d still get the dress and I’d wear it to start the first day of every international trip I’d get to go on once the world was a better place again. Putting it on always reminds me just how lucky I am, even when things are down in life, to have the health, means and ability to travel and collect new memories of the world beyond my hometown. Luggage tags are applied, I’ve completed my health questionnaire and safety video in the app and I’m ready to sail. Next time you hear from me I’ll be on Reflection!

Reporting in from the deep depths of my bed, which by the way is incredibly comfortable, after my dinner at Takato (the Japanese restaurant at the Conrad). First of all, as far as ambience, if you’re sensory/neurodivergent, or just someone looking for a peaceful, relaxed dinner atmosphere this may not be your spot. The restaurant is gorgeous, but LOUD. Bumping club music, echoing walls and floors, and a team of about a half dozen sushi chefs working who all shout the traditional Japanese sushi house greeting at the top of their lungs when a table gets seated. Also if you plan to go, reservations are probably a good idea. When I arrived, the hostess was telling people without reservations it would be a 90 minute wait for a table. I was actually about 20 minutes early for my reservation but the hostess told me if I didn’t mind sitting inside (I didn’t), she could seat me right away. I started out with a pretty good miso soup and a beautiful seaweed salad. But main course is where ship got real. I decided to spoil myself and order something that I’ve always wanted to try but have never had: A5 wagyu beef. At this restaurant it’s served raw with a hot stone for self searing and a plate of seasonings. My sever was asked me if I’d like her to prep it for me the way that she likes to eat it (response: yes please). She asked me about my preferred serving temp (anything other than rare for this meat masterpiece should be a federal offense) and then rubbed the carmelized onion over the hot stone for a few seconds to sweat out some of its flavor on to the stone, then quickly seared each piece of meat and then had me sprinkle it with just a dash of sea salt. Those like 3 ounces of meat cost as much as a 20oz bone in ribeye at a good steakhouse in STL l, but to me it was Worth. Every. Dime. I am officially ruined for beef. If I’m ever framed for murder and have to pick a last meal before capital punishment, I’m ordering a plate full of A5 and a glass of Willamette Valley Pinot Noir and the taxpayers better pony up. I feel so bad for Tuscan Grille steak on this cruise. They have not been dealt a fair hand having to follow this beef. Fortunately that reservation isn’t until like night 6, so perhaps by then my palate’s memory of this bovine manna from heaven will have faded some. At least I hope so. The fried rice was also delicious but a huge amount. It’s definitely enough for splitting if you’re getting it as a side. I took the rest of mine back with me in a box and I think I’ll do as the Indonesians do and have fried rice for breakfast tomorrow. Continuing the massive portion theme was dessert: a strawberry cheesecake bingu shaved ice which was just meh until I took my server’s recommendation and let her bring some warm chocolate sauce to drizzle over it. Then it was like having a chocolate covered strawberry slushie. I think the only other critique I’d have about the meal would be service pace. I was seated a little after 8pm and didn’t finish until 10:30. During our time in Italy Jeremy and I came to enjoy a more leisurely dining pace together, but when it was just me sitting there solo with no one to talk to, those 2+ hours really dragged. On my way back to my room I noticed a condo development ad in the hotel elevator. Jeremy and I have occasionally talked about retiring to a condo in Fort Lauderdale one day because there’s no sub zero temps, less taxes, none of the chores and maintenance that fill hours of our day and we’d be cruise adjacent. But then I see this and considering we paid under $200K for our 3 bedroom 2 bath house with finished basement on 12 acres, a studio condo starting at half a million is a tough pill to swallow, even considering it’s beachfront property prices. Well, I think it’s time to doze off to a true crime documentary. Sweet dreams from the Conrad and I’ll talk to everyone on embarkation day!

Well guys, my vacation has kicked off with a great deal of hermitage and sloth. But I guess if you’re going to be a lazy hermit, poolside at a beachfront 4 star hotel is the place to do it. My plan to go out for lunch was quickly waylaid when I got settled on my patio and one of the pool servers Kaine immediately came over with a smile, handed me a cold bottled water and asked if he could get me anything else to drink while I was working. Poolside beverages at the Conrad do not come cheap at all. In fact you think Celebrity’s wine mark ups are bad? This place has the nerve to charge $185 for a bottle of veuve yellow label before tax and tip! I found the hack though. There are several cocktails on the menu that can be ordered in this big shaker. The shaker costs $52 for the first one and $42 for each refill. 1 shaker had about 3-4 glasses worth of cocktail in it that they sell for $20 per glass. The shaker is yours to keep and the refill discount is valid for multiple days and multiple stays, so I’ll remember to pack it if Gen Z and I decide to cruise out of FLL and stay here this summer. In the meantime it’ll be useful for bulk mixed beverages at our hot tub and pool at home too. The blueberry lemonade spiked with vodka was nice and tart and went down way too easy. By the time I was halfway through my shaker, I didn’t want to go anywhere, so Kaine brought me a lobster quesadilla (good, but a bit more lobster at $28 would've been nice) and an order of chips and guacamole. After lunch, I decided it was time for a good long nap. I woke up just in time to watch a couple of cruise ships sail out from Port Everglades, then wandered over to the pool bar for the happy hour special of a very good, but very small, $10 white sangria to enjoy in a slightly lime green bubble bath (I checked the FLL Reddit page and found confirmation that this is in fact a regular occurrence and the water is perfectly safe…plus I spend most of my summer sitting chest deep in Missouri rivers anyway so I can’t really become a water snob now). Jeremy and I had a reservation tonight for Trulucks seafood to have some stone crab and split a seafood tower, but I wasn’t feeling up to doing that solo, so I asked the hotel concierge (who texted me in the afternoon to make sure all was going ok with the stay and ask if I needed anything) to help with canceling and getting me a reservation at the hotel Japanese restaurant instead. After my 8:30 dinner I plan to make the short trip right back to the room to watch a little Netflix, fill out my luggage tags and get ready for embarkation day!

Thank you very much for the heads up on the cave. Im used to caves near where I live that are chilly inside and was planning on layering warm clothing. You really saved me from sweating! Ive never done the elite breakfast but think I’ll be trying it out this cruise. On our 10 night beyond cruise this fall I sadly realized that I’ve gotten to the age where my metabolism can no longer bounce back well from a week or more straight of starting the day with heavy breakfasts.

Oh yes, we’re gonna be BFF’s by the end of the cruise. I can tell already. 😂

Hello from Fort Lauderdale! Other than about 20 minutes of turbulence (that was so bad the captain came on and told the flight attendants to take their seats immediately) our flight down was pretty smooth and my in-flight breakfast burrito wasn’t too bad. I did go ahead and order a screwdriver with it and I probably should’ve told the flight attendant when I ordered that I was just coming off dry January. As you can see from the color of the cocktail in the photo, it was NOT mixed for beginners. We landed in Miami about 15 minutes early and my bags were some of the first off the carousel. I’m a little nervous as one of them came out halfway unzipped. I’ll do a through inventory once I get settled in, but I never put anything really important or valuable in my checked bags (designer attire and accessories, jewelry, meds and of course the map dress always ride in my carryon), so if anything’s missing it’ll be more of an annoyance than anything else. This is probably a good time to talk about pre-cruise hotel. Since we went budget class for our room on the ship, I decided to splurge a little for our pre-cruise hotel this time and booked us at the Conrad on Fort Lauderdale beach. We’ve never stayed here before but hotel started making a good impression before we ever set foot in the state of Florida. On Monday, I got an email from the hotel concierge introducing herself and asking if there was anything she could assist with for our stay. She mentioned that the hotel has a connection and special rates for car service and offered to arrange any transportation we needed for us. I decided it’d be a nice change from standing around waiting for an Uber and asked her to book us a car from MIA to the hotel and from the hotel to port the next morning. Within half an hour she responded to my email with confirmation of our car service and was able to add the fees to our room folio (so I think I’ll earn honors points for it too which is nice because I have like bare minimum Hilton status right now). When I got to the baggage carousel at FLL, a driver in a suit and tie was waiting with our name on a sign. He got my checked bags from the belt for me while I went to freshen up quickly and then carried all my luggage out to a spotless clean Escalade stocked with phone charging cables and cold bottled waters for the drive! When we got to the hotel I was greeted by a very friendly bell attendant who unloaded my bags and directed me to check in. It was about 10:30am so I wasn’t expecting to have a room ready yet, but the front desk let me know that the concierge (who had our flight info for arranging the transfers and new we’d be there early) knew we’d be pretty early and had arranged for a suite to be ready for an early check in! This suite is ridiculous…I think it’s bigger than my first apartment and it’s definitely cleaner and better decorated. I was excited that this hotel has the room type I really like at the Hyatt centric where you have a walk out directly onto the pool with a private patio. I did find this note by the bathtub interesting though…before I draw myself a bath tonight, is there anyone following who lives in the FLL area and can confirm whether it’s true that it’s no big deal that the tap water is yellow? My bags were delivered to the room about 2 minutes after I got here. As he was unloading them, the bellman pointed out all the features of the room and the hours for pool and beachfront in-seat service. He also mentioned that if I’m a morning person, the hotel offers complimentary beachfront yoga every morning at 7:30 (we’ll see if that happens…sleeping in and breakfast in bed also sounds pretty appealing). I have to say, this hotel is almost double what’s usually the top of my budget for a pre-cruise stay in FLL, but I’m already considering making this our new go-to…sorry Hyatt…I have no clue where I’m going to trim fat elsewhere in the cruise budget to afford it (I’m not giving up flying first class so don’t even suggest it), but the finances will figure themselves out I’m sure. 😂 I’m going to take care of a few end of week work loose ends while enjoying the 70 degree temps sitting on my patio then I think I may venture out for some lunch. If I remember correctly from last time Jeremy and I explored the beach a few years ago, there’s a pretty good Mexican place in this neighborhood and I’m kinda craving tacos.

Oh now there’s an idea! Next year I’m definitely just doing damp January instead! 😂 An entire month cruise sounds amazing! What line and itinerary are you doing?

Thank you for the tip! I am ALWAYS up for a little shopping. 😂. I’ll be sure to check out the boutique. This time I even left weight and space in one of my checked bags to bring home some new outfits.

Can’t wait to meet you! Safe travels!

It’s a still dark and early morning here at STL. When Jeremy dropped me off at 4am, the airport was already surprisingly busy. Apparently our flight to MIA is overbooked and as I was waiting to board they were asking for volunteers to take a later flight. The standby list also had about 20 people on it. So much for my hope that I might get to fly with extra space with Jeremy’s seat empty. 🤷🏽‍♀️ Our first class flight attendant just came through for pre-departure beverage service and several people got bloody Mary’s that looked really good, but I figured it’s a bad idea to go from zero to drinking hard alcohol at 5am in a day. I’m sticking to water for now but I may indulge in a cocktail with breakfast service later. It looks like great weather to fly (always a toss up in February in Missouri), we’re boarding on time and if all continues to go smoothly (fingers crossed) we’ll be wheels up in 20 minutes!

You totally should have booked and came along! That would have been the best live review plot twist ever! You’re right, my guy is 100% irreplaceable. Nobody ruin the surprise, but with all this, I got online last night and upgraded our room for our March resort vacation to the top level suite on the property. I figured since he’s missing this one, I should treat him to his next vacation really being in style!

I actually opened the bottle about 11:45 so that it could breathe a bit and then paced around complaining to Jeremy how bad it stinks that we don’t live in Italy because dry January had already been over in Rome for hours!

Well, that’s it, it’s official. Winter 2024 is the absolute, complete, WORST. As I was finishing my (delicious) pre-spa breakfast at the Four Seasons this morning, I got a text message. Since we booked this trip so last minute, our usual house sitter who we LOVE wasn’t available. So we went with someone we know but haven’t used before but had glowing references from a couple of our friends. Unfortunately he was texting to cancel on us due to a serious illness in the family. Especially given the December we had, we have total sympathy for what he and his family are going through. But as you can imagine, the following half hour of texts and phone calls with Jeremy was not our finest half hour of keep calm and carry on. To give some context, we have 4 dogs and 4 cats. Boarding them for 10 days would cost more than the cruise and put some of them through horrific stress (they’re rescues and have residual kennel trauma). We also have hens, rabbits, parakeets and a bearded dragon all of whom require daily care by someone who is experienced with handling them. In other words, animal care at our house is a full time job. Because we live in a rural area, we also aren’t comfortable leaving our house unattended for days at a time. In other words, finding someone to just stop by a couple of times a day isn’t really an option. Nor is hiring a complete stranger on 24 hours notice to live in our home with our babies for a week. After racking our brains on who among our friends and family might be able, skilled enough and willing to drop everything tomorrow and run our farm for a week and coming up with blanks, I said the words I’ve always feared having to say “I guess we’ll have to cancel the cruise.” I started to pull up our annual travel insurance policy on my phone and scan through it but I was already pretty sure that “house sitter fell through” is not a covered reason for cancellation. Then Jeremy said absolutely not, that I’ve been in worse shape and need this time away more than he does and that he is staying home to take care of things and I am to go to the ocean and start healing my heart and mind…I really wish it wasn’t too late to go back and edit the part of my intro post where I called this Incredible man a tyrant. 😭 Of course then I started panicking about whether with Celebrity’s crazy recent solo pricing scheme, I’m going to end up getting charged like 2K more for the cruise when I show up Saturday without Jeremy. But I did a dummy booking for our cruise (BTW apparently there’s a couple of inside staterooms and a sky suite that have opened up if anyone in the FLL area wants to come sail with me last minute!) and it looks like the solo pricing for our cruise does NOT have the over 200% charge. So we’re not saving any money by him not being there. I’m just finishing up at the spa then I’m going to go take Jeremy out for a nice big steak and a big glass of good bourbon to thank him for being the most amazing husband in the world. If anyone has suggestions on what to buy in the ABC islands for a man who sacrificed his vacation for his wife, please share! I just can’t believe this, this cruise is going to be so different from everything I planned. I love a good solo cruise, but I’m struggling a bit to handle getting one by surprise.

Thank you!!!! Oh yes I was VERY careful not to let this cruise overlap dry January. I consider myself a pretty dedicated person but I wasn’t even about to test my resolve against the martini bar! 😂 Yeah, since they pulled the gratuities and OBC out of it, the “all inclusive” pricing seems like it’s rarely much of a deal these days. Worst case if a flash sale had never come along, I would’ve booked our wifi and beverage right before the 48 hour cutoff with the cruise planner 20% pre cruise discount (or if that went away, my Elite Plus discount) and it wouldn't have been that much more than the all inclusive price. I was willing to risk that small amount more for the potential to save much more in a flash sale. I will be sure to give thorough reports on World Class Bar cocktails and Hato cave!

You’ll be on the Ascent cruise that we passed on for this one! We came so close to sailing together. Have a great cruise! If you go to Eden and/or Le Voyage, please share food pics so that I can envy you from across the Caribbean Sea.

It is half past midnight in America’s central time zone which means my dry January is officially over!!!! I have tomorrow off work for a full day of spa treatments, so I decided to stay up late tonight to finish up some work projects and do my packing before Jeremy and his suitcases get in the way. Before I hit the hay it seems like the perfect time to enjoy my first glass of wine in a month…a celebration worthy of opening a bottle out of our special occasion wine fridge I think. Jeremy and I will drink the rest tomorrow night to really kick off vacation. While I’m sipping, a bit about our plans for the cruise… Since we’re on the subject let’s talk first about beverage package. Since we aren’t in retreat where the premium package is included, it made more financial sense to book at the no perks rate and then wait and see if Celebrity did a sale on wifi and beverage package. I don’t know if it’s true pattern or coincidence but I’ve noticed a few times now that not long after the “countdown clock” of cruise rate offers gets to zero, a flash sale on onboard amenities starts. This proved true a few days ago as we were able to book our wifi at 40% off and drink package at 30% off. Our ports for this cruise are Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao. I did these ports during a solo cruise a couple of years ago but this will be Jeremy’s first time. One of the great things about an ABC islands itinerary is that the ship tends to have pretty long days in port so you get lots of time to experience the islands. One bummer of having booked so close to sailing on a sold out ship is that a lot of the better Celebrity excursions were already booked up. But since we didn’t get as much OBC to spend with our booking as we have in the past, booking excursions through Celebrity wasn’t as critical. In Aruba, our plan is to stay onboard till after lunch to take advantage of a quieter ship, then go into port and do some shopping (me) and gambling (Jeremy) then since we have a late all aboard, we’ll have dinner at a beach restaurant that a friend of mine who’s a regular Aruba vacationer recommended. In Bonaire, we’ve booked an independent snorkeling excursion and lunch cruise with a company that I saw on social media that has great reviews. For Curacao, we’re going to go into port and walk around in the morning but then Jeremy is going to have to spend a good chunk of the day virtually attending a manager training for work. While he’s doing that, I took the last spot left on an excursion to visit Hato caves and Mambo Beach. We’ll be dining at all of the specialty restaurants but are also looking forward to seeing first hand how the main dining room experience is these days. Well I think it’s time for me to get some sleep so I’m not snoring during my massage tomorrow morning. One more day till wheels up for MIA!

Looking forward to sailing with you! Yes please do come say hello! I’ll be interested to hear what your Celebrity newbie friends are thinking of the experience!

Hi CC! Well, it’s been a little under 4 months since my husband Jeremy and I wrapped up our incredible 2 week Mediterranean adventure on Beyond, but with everything we’ve gone through in life since then, it feels more like 4 years. After surviving a hectic end of year for both of us at work and a tragic loss in our family over the holidays, we found ourselves in a deep funk that we’ve been struggling to shake. We decided what maybe what we need to reset is to get away asap for a week of sun and sea! Quick Intro: I’m Charla and the tyrant who changed the password on our Amazon prime account to try and stop me from buying any new cruise outfits (well played sir) is my husband Jeremy. We’re in our early 40’s and live on a hobby farm an hour outside of St. Louis, Missouri. We have an 11-year old daughter who I’m pretty sure is even more addicted to cruising than I am (and is in the throes of indecision between Celebrity and MSC as we start to make plans for our summer mommy-daughter cruise) but she will be spending our week away on land getting spoiled rotten by her Nana. My mother has already let me know that as we’re preparing to board Reflection, they’ll be celebrating National Eat Ice Cream for Breakfast Day (I ask you, is that even really a thing????) Since this is a somewhat last minute vacay and we already had a land spring break resort trip booked in March, we didn’t want to break the bank. For our budget and dates, the choice came down to either a basic veranda on this Reflection sailing (Aqua and concierge were already sold out) or a Yacht Club suite on MSC Divina. We also got a very good quote from a TA for an Ascent sailing, but I did quite a bit of cruising on E-class last year and decided that if we were going Celebrity, I really wanted to get some S-class time in. I’ve been experiencing symptoms of Murano lobster withdrawal. For the MSC vs Celebrity decision, I much prefer the overall ship experience on Reflection over Divina and Jeremy wasn’t excited about spending most of the week only in suite areas. Plus the itinerary for Reflection was much more appealing. For about a week, we did have some moveup bids in for the handful of suites left available on Reflection when we booked, but we ended up cancelling them. We decided that with all the Retreat and Aqua cruising we’ve done the past few years, this is a good time to go back to our roots so to speak and see if we still enjoy the simple onboard life that first made us Celebrity loyalists without concierges, private dining rooms, butlers, etc. and save some cash for bigger, badder cruising goals this fall (and ok probably a little more onboard spending by me). We’ll be flying into Miami a day early and staying in Fort Lauderdale the night before the cruise. In the next day or so I’ll do a post sharing our plans on the ship and in port. For now it’s time to start my last day of the fiscal year, last day of observing Dry January AND last day in the office pre-cruise! In my mind, I’m already 2 cosmos deep listening to live music in the Ensemble Lounge…

Sorry I’m a bit late to the thread, but my husband and I are in our early 40’s and we did a 10 night Med sailing on Beyond this past October (last sailing before the ship did its TA to Fort Lauderdale). I would say a little over half the ship was probably in the 50-65 age range. The remainder split between much older folks and people our age and younger. Overall we found the vibe of the ship to be pretty energetic. Music and theater events were well attended and dance floors drew decent crowds. I don’t know if you guys are much of night owls, but it seemed like by about 10pm, the age demographic still out and about around the ship skewed much more towards 50’s and under. The bars tended to stay lively most nights until about 11/11:30, but not much later. As Jim mentioned the Med is port intensive and people often had to be up early the next day for excursions. There were definitely a couple of nights we shut down the martini bar at 1am and were in good company doing so though. It seemed like a lot of the under retirement age crowd were from Europe and Australia/New Zealand. As Americans we really enjoyed getting to know more people from other countries than we usually do sailing Celebrity in the Caribbean. We ended up making good friends with a couple of honeymoon couples in their 20’s and 30’s and I ended more than 1 night on the dance floor in the club with women in their late 50’s and early 60’s who knew the words to the Cardi B songs better than I did. 🤷🏽‍♀️ As others have mentioned, school was in session so I only recall seeing a handful or 2 of kids and most of them were infants or toddlers. We ended up having an amazing time and didn’t feel like we were in a floating retirement home by any means. If there’s any questions I can help with just let me know!

Not this time, my husband Jeremy is coming on this one so you’ll get to meet him as well! I actually haven’t booked a solo cruise yet for this year. We’re looking at spending a week in Italy this fall and then trying our first TA on Ascent to get home and it’s looking like it will really eat into my travel budget. I’m crossing my fingers for a generous end of year bonus next month.

Hopefully this isn’t a case of cruising mandela effect (and hasn’t been the subject of a stealth cutback) because I recall this as well. If memory serves it was the martini bar that would give out the free welcome bubbly. Safe travels!

Looking forward to meeting you! Yes, martini bar is my first order of business after embarkation day lunch. I’ll be the one in the map dress singing Peaches & Herb’s “Reunited” to myself while I sip.

Yes! Only 7 days left to wait! 🙌🏾

Following! We’ll be getting on Reflection as you’re getting off! My TA actually called me last week when a concierge cabin popped open on your sailing (looks like it’s pretty much a sold out ship) and asked me if I wanted to make a last minute B2B. Unfortunately my better half was not game for the scheduling and budget challenges that an extra impulse buy week at sea would bring. These things are so much easier when sailing solo…😂 Looking forward to virtually sailing with you!