Mangrove Snapper

It’s never been for me in all the times I’ve used FBC. And I’ve always received multiple emails prior to the date. But I’m not discounting OP. I’m just giving a friendly reminder to check junk mail folders on a regular basis. I’ve had confirmations come in from noreply@celebritycruises.com, documentation@rccl.com, and most recently noreply%RCLCOEX@rccl.com. They also have used everbridge.net for some notifications. I’m absolutely not saying that’s what happened here but I’ve found some of mine in junk mail, including my most recent shore excursion receipts from the Black Friday sale.

I've really been enjoying reading about your musical journey. We haven't yet taken any theme cruises but I'm seriously tempted by the Headbanger's Boat.

We've done the hop on/hop off trolley in Boston through the ship and there is a designated trolley that meets you at the ship and loads you there. What does Boston have to do with Key West? The reason I bring this up is one of the trolley drivers this past October in Boston was telling us that every year after cruise ship season is done in Boston, he goes down to Key West to drive the trolleys there for the winter. It's the same company. So it's possible that they have the same procedure in all of the ports in which they offer their trolleys. But someone who has done this excursion through the ship in Key West would need to confirm.

We had a great time last year on Millennium in Alaska!

I haven't gotten one yet for our next X cruise but that's not for a year. For this year's, it looks like it came in March for our July cruise. Celebrity has been using at least one different e-mail lately, though. For purchases through the cruise planner in the past, including the July cruise, the notifications came from noreply@celebritycruises.com. I purchased excursions from the Black Friday sale for next year and those notifications came from noreply%RCLCOEX@rccl.com. Those went first to junk mail.

I know Princess had some but I believe they are sold out. You can always check though, as you never know if someone will cancel.

I love the color pattern you did with the Tums and the way the Advils fit together so it looks like a honeycomb. We also use these types of bags to bring medication but we clearly need to step up our game. That is seriously good packing. And I agree with you - we bring a lot of "just in case" medications, as well. You never know.

We had a similar experience in May. We did the bear search tour through the ship last May and while we did see two bears, they said that they were just coming out of hibernation and the salmon had not yet begun to run in that area. We also had a great time! But next time we do Alaska, we're going to do so later in the season.

Also, if you purchase something in the cruise planner and it later goes on sale, it's easy to cancel and rebook for the lower price. And, if you've used OBC to pay for the item, the OBC will reappear and be usable again within a few minutes.

I hope they still have them. They had a naturalist on our Alaska cruise last summer on the Millennium (2022) - Celia Garland. She was on Edge with us in June, 2021 and Reflection in December, 2021, and she was great every time. In Alaska, they also had another gentleman who spoke about other topics.

I hope you have a fantastic trip!

Celebrity has their “Beyond the Podium” guest speakers. On the cruises we’ve been on, many were about the wildlife, nature, history, or local customs of the area. On our Greenland/Iceland cruise, one speaker was a retired FBI forensic analyst. Her talks were extremely well attended.

Celebrity does a cruise from Bayonne to Reykjavik and then Reykjavik to Boston. They’re in August each year. It’s a fabulous cruise! The QM2 does regular transatlantic cruises between NY and Southampton.

Because people have different preferences and interests and like to have different experiences. And that's a good thing. The world would be extremely boring if everyone were the same. One of the best things about cruises is that there's something for everyone and there's at least one cruise line out there to fit everyone. I don't drink alcohol so that's not part of my cruise experience. I've never acquired the taste for it and I have zero interest in it. But it would never occur to me to wonder why others are enjoying it. Drink up! People have different tastes and their tastes are not inherently better nor worse than mine.

I can't speak for anyone else but we took the Harbor Nights private ferry for the convenience. I'm the type who worries about getting to the public ferry early enough that we can get on. I liked having that reserved spot so we didn't have to stand in a long line and worry we're not going to get a seat. It was also less crowded on the private ferry and that was nice. For people who don't stress as much about this as I do it might not be worth it for them. For us it was. We've taken the public ferries to both Hamilton and St. George and they're fine. Certainly easy enough. But this was more relaxing to me and that's worth more to me than whatever the price difference between public and private ferries was. So, whatever your preference, you've got options.

The private ferry leaves from the dock next to the ship.

We've done the glass bottom boat tours during the day, at sunset, and at night and have seen lots of fish at each time. The tour takes you out to the Vixen, which is a shipwreck, so you will also see parts of the shipwreck and you see the corals in the reef.

This is us, too. On vacation, my husband and I want to spend time with each other. We have great dinner conversations - with each other. We don't need any extra parties to liven that up. We're friendly and smile and greet people, and will have a short conversation if engaged, but we're not looking to make new friends. If we wanted to be with friends on vacation, we would have brought some along. I don't think there's anything sad about people relaxing on their vacation, or other downtime, in their chosen way. Some people enjoy chatting; others don't. Others do like to chat but might not want to do so first thing in the morning. Others are sociable but don't want to be approached by strangers. People who want to socialize, will, and those who don't, won't, regardless of internet connectivity. I also don't agree this is "young people these days" behavior. Reading in public, wearing earbuds, and playing electronic games is not new nor is it limited to any demographic. People read books and newspapers in public long before they did so on phones or Kindles. The Sony Walkman came out in 1979. The Nintendo Game Boy came out in 1989 but before that there were portable electronic games as far back as the 70's.

I had no idea AARP had discounted gift cards for cruise lines. I just hit the age where I started to get invitations to join so I thank you all for this information! I still need to buy Cheers and now it looks like I can save 10%.

Pretty much. From the stories I've heard about one of my uncles when he was a kid, it's a shock to everyone that he made it to adulthood. Still, he's very much loved. This is a very sad situation.

Enforcement of what? Climbing from one balcony to another is already prohibited. This is more of a parenting issue than a cruise line issue. Short of enclosing balconies in glass or adding a force field, there isn't really another way to physically stop someone from doing this if they want to break the rules. I guess you could make a rule that only people over a certain age could book cabins with balconies but there are still idiotic and/or drunk adults who could try it so that's not really a solution.

I received an email today for 20% off premium WiFi if you bought it with a photo package or a shore excursion. I’m buying the excursion and that internet package anyway so I bought it today.

Yes, you can do this both if you book Celebrity air over the phone or if you book them online through Celebrity's site. I've done both and it worked well both ways. We also fly first class for similar reasons. I can't speak for anyone else but the times I booked through Celebrity air, the flights I wanted were the same price directly from the airline or via Celebrity air and I was able to choose the seats right after booking.

I get alerts whenever I use my cards. When I'm on a cruise, I will always get an alert each day for the amount I spent that day on the ship, even though it goes to the folio. They're holds and drop off once the full amount gets posted at the end. I also always get an alert for a charge of approximately $100 about an hour after sailaway on the first day. Same thing - it's a hold and it later goes away. I've had this both on Princess and Celebrity. The final charge which actually posts to my card has always matched the folio. An exception is future cruise deposits where it will go directly to the card and not appear on the folio. But that was explained to me at the time of purchase/booking.

We were on the Emerald in October and had the Plus package. On the second or third day I thought it would be fun to do the prizes and I opted in via the door. It added $10 per day to the folio. We didn't win but it was fun.