mahdnc

I also recommend the Behind the Scenes Tour. My wife and I took our first and only tour a year ago on one of our many sea days during our transatlantic cruise on Constellation. We received a lanyard (which you wore during tour) and a small piece of rope tied in a special knot. Of course we also walked away with memories and photos.

Good morning. Nice view. My wife is a Marriott Platinum Elite member. I’m believe/hope that will get us access to the Executive Lounge when we arrive next Wed.

Hi, Rebecca. As you already know, we will be taking the sailing after yours (Southern Loop). Have a great time and put that D500 to good use! David

Thank you for the information. Now if Celebrity could get our CC discount to show in the prices of the cruises....

If I read your post correctly, it always has been like that--you cannot get an assigned dining time when you buy a specialty dining package. That is the tradeoff for getting the package discount. When you get on board, you can then nail down your specific dining times. If you buy specialty dinners separately, you pay a higher price but you get to pick your time based on availability. As for as lunch is concerned, it sounds like you are talking about the "Specialty Restaurant Trio" dining package which is for 2 dinners + 1 lunch. The product description makes that pretty clear. Usually the trio dining package pricing takes into account that lunch should be cheaper than dinner. The other package is the "3 Night Specialty Dining Package" which is for 3 dinners.

Hi, Kim. Thanks for posting your review and the nice photos. It's good to hear that you were satisfied with the compensation that Celebrity offered for your one-day-late cruise. David

When her retirement was announced, she said that it was time or something like that. Her retirement occurred when the new Celebrity president was installed. I guess it wasn't really time for her to retire after all.

Yeah, good point. That release date is obviously a typo.

If and when it is apparent that Xcel is going to finish ahead of schedule, I imagine you might see those pre-inaugural sailings offered.

I hope you have a nice cruise, Ruth.

Sorry, the URL I posted is messed up. Here is the correct one: https://creative.rccl.com/Sales/Celebrity/Deployment/CEL_2025_26_Itinerary_Reference_Guide.pdf

Both times we sailed on Solstice shave been from Sydney. It is an awesome city and Sydney Harbour is so picturesque. I guess we were lucky as we have never had a problem with embarkation however I can see how the traffic to the Overseas Passenger Terminal could be bad during peak times. Also the space for traffic around the OPT is especially tight. Tendering at the Great Barrier Reef ports is a very long process, indeed.

I have not seen a Celebrity or RCG number associated with the food cut backs. However in this Seatrade Cruise News article that was published earlier this month, NCL reported that they cut food cost per passenger by nearly 30% since 4Q2022.

Thank you for your review. We will be sailing on her for the 3rd time next month (the first time since the cutbacks). How were the ports you visited?

Here is the newly published Deployment Itinerary Reference Guide 2025/26. Dates and itineraries for Xcel's cruises are listed.

Maybe the color of the logo changes with the season. We are looking at the fall logo.

Thanks for posting! How’s the ride?

Here is something I found on a Celebrity website (not the usual celebritycruises.com website) that gives some guidance: link (see the third FAQ). It doesn't say you have to fill out a form but you need to present a notarized letter with the specified information/language in it. Like the form I mentioned in my previous post, this is for a situation where the adult is neither the parent nor legal guardian, but I think the guidance on the wording of the letter would be the same as for your situation. If you want complete peace of mind that you are documenting this correctly, I would contact Celebrity Cruises or have your travel agent do it.

You don't have to use a form per se as long as all the relevant information is on it (and it's notarized). Having said that, you could use this Royal Caribbean Group form and assign your husband as the accompanying adult.

We don't know for sure, but my guess it will continue to be a Millennium class ship.

Last year, the westbound transcanal sailing (Summit, Apr 2024) was released on Nov 15 while the Caribbean sailings were released in mid December. The eastbound transcanal sailing (Summit, Sep 2024) was not released at the same time when the westbound one was. I think that one got released in late December.

Yes it was! We were lucky enough to go on 5 Celebrity cruises before Celebrity's relationship with Michel Roux came to an end. He oversaw the implementation of the original specialty restaurants on all 4 Millennium class ships.

You will want to head straight to the specialty restaurant as soon as you board the ship to talk to someone there about getting your reservation time changed to something more to your liking. There likely will be a small line of people doing the same thing as you.