Ipeeinthepools

That's disappointing, but thanks for the historical perspective.

Me too. The only thing we need now is another opportunity to collect PUP. Congratulations, you were the first to report your points.

Still nothing for me. Perhaps all of the flooding in Florida will delay the points for a few days.

It's always interesting to see who will be the first to report that they got their points.

Maybe guests will be given the option of assembling their own Ikea furniture instead of using the Hoppen stuff.

So when can we expect more Power up points? Is Celebrity ready to release new itineraries? Is there a new ship to talk about? Maybe a Fourth of July event?

The cabin allocation on the Rotterdam for the combination voyages really bugs me. Every time I have looked, they seem to assign a lot of connecting cabins and cabins by the elevators for the connecting voyages. You didn't say what cruise you are considering, but I'm betting that it is a combination voyage. If so, I'd suggest you look at the cabins available for the individual voyages. If you can find a non-connecting cabin that's available for both voyages, contact Ship Inventory, or have your TA do it and have them assign that cabin to you. I've had to do this on several cruises. I hope this makes sense. I wouldn't risk a connecting cabin.

Ok, but I'm still not sure I understand how this is really attractive for anyone. A quick check of one-way prices from Orlando or Melbourne to Atlanta is about $75 pp more expensive from Melbourne. You could use that difference for an Uber and have a lot better flight options.

You keep suggesting Melbourne, they currently have 12 flights per day with only a few with timing good for cruise passengers. Unless you are flying to Atlanta or Charlotte you will need to make a connection. Still doesn't look appealing to me.

I guess your experiences are different from mine. I have seen the PC rental car locations jammed during the 10 - 11 am period. There are few rental cars and very few staff to handle all of the renters. As far as the busses are concerned, waits have always been much longer than 5 minutes. If I go through the effort to get off early with self-assist, I want to be able to leave when I get to the curb. I have also encountered long waits to check-in and to go through security, so I want to control what I can in order to make an earlier flight.

PC is not my favorite departure port, I don't find the same number of nice hotels and restaurants that I'm accustomed to Fort Lauderdale or Miami. I have always been able to find a decent price on a rental car and we do a one-way trip from Orlando to PC. This gives us plenty of flexibility to explore the area for one or more days. Drop of the car early, around 10:15 or so, and catch the shuttle to the port. Th car rental offices get really busy with lots of people returning from the ships and wanting to rent cars. I usually have more issues on the return, because no one wants to wait for an afternoon flight. On the return I arrange for a car to take me the Orlando airport. It's more expensive than a shuttle, but I know I'll get to the airport without waiting. On the plus side, airfares are often lower than Fort Lauderdale or Miami.

I didn't realize that you were onboard a ship. I was in the same situation for the last webinar and I never got more than about 3 minutes into the webinar before the video froze. The good thing was that I still got the points even though I never saw more than about 3 minutes. Hopefully you will have the same experience.

Why the stops and starts?

I'm watching the webinar now and saw two people head in the water to snorkel, but they weren't wearing any inflatable life jackets. Does anyone remember if you needed to wear inflatable life jackets when you were snorkeling?

That's fine, I'm not questioning the merits of Galapagos cruise but I 'm wondering about the effectiveness these webinars.

Did this video cause anyone to call their TA and book a cruise?

They will as long as she is linked to your account

That wasn't my experience. The guest services person walked with me on the Promenade deck to location of the smoker and addressed the issue. I will admit that I was lucky that there wasn't a line at guest services at the time.

Just walk into guest services and report the smoking, guest services will come and resolve the issue. You can only smoke in designated areas, HAL doesn't need to specifically post any area as non-smoking. It's been my experience that anyone smoking on the Promenade deck is well aware that they are not supposed to be smoking there.

Please let us know what you think. Please know that some HAL ships allow smoking in the Casino.

Anyone moving to HAL, I'll be happy to buy you a drink when you get there

That's the problem I've seen coming for a couple of years, the E-class ships are sailing the more desirable itineraries. I'll see you on HAL.

... or you can try another cruise line. The price to book suites is a big step to get things that should be included.

I guess Celebrity doesn't care if they lose me. After a lot of years cruising Celebrity exclusively, all of my future cruises are booked on HAL. The E-class ship design with the IV balconies and loss of any forward view are key reasons why I have left Celebrity. It was great while it lasted. See you layer.

Nice picture of you leaning on the bicycle after a hard workout. 😉