intr3pid

I don't really consider 'Black Friday' cruise deals actual deals. You see, most businesses create Black Friday savings by producing in bulk, knowing the consumer demand will be there in those dates. But, there is really no such opportunity for cruise lines - they can maybe discount some slow-moving excursions/packages or a last-minute sailing, but that's pretty much it. The best time to find cruise deals is in the first 3 or 4 months of the year when everyone is tapped out after their holiday spending - while the cruise lines still need the cash deposits to continue trickling in.

All the main restaurant and shopping areas are by the beaches. If you want a safe area away from a beach, look up Barra da Tijuca. Hilton Barra is an example of a hotel in this location.

Two words. Shower curtains. Can't imagine vacationing two weeks in a cabin with unhygienic, cheap curtains every day. Might give the new Sun / Star Princess a try.

That was Equinox. Millennium and Summit were 'revolutionized' first, and they showcased those modern staterooms (plus all the re-done public areas). That created the marketing hype. You know, the 'luxury resort at sea' kind. Silhouette and Equinox got Celebrity's version of what RCL would call the 'amped-up' ships. They would redo the public areas but not touch the staterooms (other than maybe the TVs or phones). That expensive modern stateroom reno is exclusive to Millennium and Summit.

Shrug. The discussion is about which ships got the 'marketed' revolution. Whether age or economics prevented the full/marketed version for others doesn't change the answer.

Retreat sundeck and some additional staterooms don't make the 'revolution' that they marketed. Every one of Millennium's roughly 1000 staterooms, for example, was redone - to bring it on par with the modern look of the Edge series. Here is the new verandah stateroom on Millennium and Summit: https://www.nuvo360.com/3d-model/veranda/fullscreen/# And here is that verandah on Silhouette: https://www.nuvo360.com/3d-model/veranda-2/fullscreen/# Which is pretty much the same as that on Eclipse: https://www.nuvo360.com/3d-model/nuvo360-virtual-tours-celebrity-cruises-veranda-stateroom/fullscreen/# You can compare rooms across the fleet in this link: https://www.celebritycruises.com/ca/things-to-do-onboard/staterooms/veranda-stateroom

Elsewhere I'd quote: https://www.who.int/europe/news/item/04-01-2023-no-level-of-alcohol-consumption-is-safe-for-our-health or: https://time.com/6248439/no-safe-amount-of-alcohol/ But, you should simply dismiss it. As a morally onerous RCL shareholder, I encourage everyone to get these drink packages. It's one of the best innovations to come out of the cruise industry.

The flyer in this link will give you the specifics of the pros: http://www.cruisingpower.com/content/en_US/PDF/CEL_Passages_onboard_form_revised_8_2_13.pdf The con is the $100pp deposit you now have to make.

Kauai would be great. Better than an extra stop on the big island or along the Pacific coast. Some of the Royal ships are now including a Napali Coast sail-by if they can't fit into the harbor.

For us, drink packages = slow death sentence, and the included Wifi mostly unusable for anything beyond basic messaging. But, we love these packages for the reason I stated above.

At $100 per day for a cabin of two, this would probably double the cruise fare for some cabins.

TBH, the marketed 'Revolution' was only done to Millennium and Summit. Silhouette and Equinox got somewhere between a paint job and the marketing. And then the likes of Eclipse just a paint job. What they did to Millennium probably no longer passes the cost/benefit muster.

This is great! Let the gullible keep splurging on these drinks packages and AI rates - and subsidize the cruise for the rest of us. 😁

This is one of the several reasons why we steer clear of drinking the tap water on board most ships - but this would have been awful just to even look at. Thanks for reporting it here on the board!

This should not be difficult to resolve. Big box TAs record all their calls, and we have had a few pulled in the past to make the cruise lines play ball. Stay on it.