levramosis

It's not like there's going to be a big chunk of flesh there. Onlly the flat strip on the plate below the shrimpy stuff is probably the actual pig content. As usual, whether this would be any good would be as much what they do with it and put with it as what it is. But hey, for me if it's part of a pig I'll try it.

LOL. Three cruises and the butlers keep us in bottomless supply of Evian large bottles (the bigger personal bottle, not the gigantic one they have in Luminae, and not the teeny-tiny one the buffet bar will give you) and Pellegrino since one likes still and one likes sparkling. They also keep the ice bucket populated too.

I highly doubt things have changed that much in Luminae since pre-pandemic... we have food allergy issues too. We notify the maitre'd and provide an OK/not list at lunch on embarkation day, and every day at dinner they provide us the following day's MDR and Luminae menus so we can choose what we want in case they can make changes so it's safe for us. There are usually plenty of choices and sometimes we even provide a main option and a backup option in case the main one can't be made safe for us. We haven't ever done it but I'm sure could dine in Blu or MDR by reservation - though I sure don't know why you'd want to ever dine in MDR when you could in Luminae.

Same in Japan, passing on the right - even on escalators!

Ship: Summit Length of Cruise: 5 days Cruise Sail Date: 2022 Nov 28 Date email offer received: First email 14 Sep, second email 22 Sep, bid placed 24 Sep Captain’s Club Tier: Select Booked through Celebrity Direct OR via TA: TA Current Cabin: (original) 6128 (Sky Suite) Bid? Yes/No: Yes Cabin Category: Celebrity Suite Bid Offer: $305/pp Notification Date: 03 Nov Accepted General Comments (offer details, etc.) Moved to CS 6106

I wouldn't say it's playfully written but it's written to a different sort of audience. I don't understand half of it either but my wife understands all of the fancy food words, so I get translations. Reviewing it again, I'd call it fancifully written. I'd rather it just be in simple language but *shrug* damn the food is good. I can't wait to be there again. Luminae is one of my happy places. Along with relaxing (and often falling asleep) on the T-pool bubble loungers. One way you could approach this is to review the Luminae menus available online before going, and get a definition from Google for any terms you don't understand. Putting in "define bucatini" or "define hamachi" will get you a good idea what you'd be getting pretty quick. Beyond that, the waitstaff know the menu well so ask questions about how things are served etc. Portions are not large, which might suit light eaters but we usually order extra entrees to share or doubles if we know we like something. Remember you'll have 3-6 courses depending how you order. If you like wine or related after-dinner beverages it pays to get friendly with the sommelier. One thing that has made a difference between an average cruise and an outstanding one for us is the enthusiasm of the Luminae sommelier. When they more-or-less call it in it's not great but an engaged sommelier is worth their weight in gold, maybe more.

Oh hells yeah. We happened upon those lemon tarts at the Captain's Club celebration in the Sky Lounge and oh boy, after the first one there weren't enough guys walking around with them. Ugh. We're northerners so when we say "iced tea" we mean unsweetened cold tea. In the south "iced tea" means what they also call "sweet tea" which is what you had. It's way too much for my palate and blood sugar. In the US if I request "unsweet tea" or "unsweetened iced tea" I will usually get what I'm looking for, which I tend to do these days no matter where I am just to make sure. I think that in the north the tea default changed to some degree when McDonald's started serving sweet tea. Since they are EVERYWHERE (at least in the US) they (sadly) set a standard of some sort. Now THAT.... that is a good idea.

Many great cocktails mentioned. Perhaps it's not a cocktail, but Michael's Club has always served us limoncello when we asked. I'm going for that upon boarding next time.

There was a whole thread about whether to leave things out and at least two people had had items recovered by onboard security. This policy is what allows that to happen. In many cases what you are giving up in personal rights you are also gaining capability to have security keep you from getting screwed with. I'd want to cruise LESS if their policy were to look the other way if pax have items stolen and if they left every belligerent person onboard.

Actually it's kind of surprising that there isn't a Diamonds International on a boat at every port.

Well, I can hear the song of the Moissanite, but if you do this then you might miss all the great color changing crap at Del Sol! Heh, they were definitely there EVERY pre-pandemic cruise we went to. We may have gone to one, but usually I'd just do something else while listening with half an ear while it reran on the SR television. It was a start on knowing where I DIDN'T want to go. I also thought of it as a good way to get a map until I realized maps were free at every port anyway.

14 will not be a problem. Reflection has a double-sized Luminae (at least compared to M-class) and seats like 80-100 I'd guess. Talk to the maitre'd at lunch of embarkation day about what sort of seating arrangement your group will want, and ideally if you have an idea what time you'll be coming in for dinner. If you don't know when you'll come in for dinner it won't be a big problem but you will wait longer the first night if you ask for a unique arrangement. The Luminae staff very quickly learn what time you come for a dinner and plan for it. They try to put everyone at the same tables with the same waiter every meal during a cruise. It works great, just make sure you like where they put you the first night, and hopefully no one sits next to you wearing too much perfume and giving your SO an asthma attack like happened to us once. A crappy situation with Luminae full that night, and handled very gracefully by the staff.

Basically yes. I have tried to talk my SO into trying to cruise cheap, maybe even try an inside *gasp* ... it's pretty much a nope.

OMG, yeah dude, Motor City Wine was one of our preferred hangouts before this pandemic crap. Haha, definitely thumbs up to that. Note to self, find silent disco at Michael's and tip bartenders extra hard to get somebody wasted enough to table dance. LOL

They have been offering refunds or FCC inside of the 90 days during the rest of the pandemic, there is no reason they can't do it now. A few mouse clicks and they can email all pax for a specific sailing. And if they don't have a quarantine plan for each class ship, then why the hell not? They could send it out at six months ahead, three months ahead, one month ahead. And if it had changed for a given cruise (which, again, would likely be done at least a few weeks ahead of when it would come into effect), send it out to the affected sailing and give them a week to change their plans without penalty. I wonder what percentage use TAs vs booking direct. Because, even if I haven't had a "proper" TA, I assume when I had "Costco TA" they could have cancelled readily enough without spending hours on the phone waiting for CS from X. I fully expect to be notified ahead of time that I might have to quarantine in an OV cabin if I come up positive with the Covids. In fact (drawing from some other recent threads), if they will only have 2/3 of the butlers available and therefore will be unlikely to offer the usual, advertised, and expected level of service, I expect to be notified of that as well so I can decide whether I still want to cruise with slightly lowered expectations, or cancel so that I can later enjoy the value of every dollar I'm dropping. I'm not saying this is automatic, but good service is never automatic - it always takes intentional effort on the part of the organization as well as the people that make it up. Good service is mindful, and looks graceful. There are many ways this could be handled more in line with those ideals. But yes, ideally there would be no crowded embarkations or excursion buses and everyone would submit themselves for testing at the slightest sniffle, or better still test everyone every day like Viking.

On the other hand, our experience of Michael's Club / Retreat Lounge is... well, imagine a library with snacks and an open bar. How that hits is obviously highly personal. For us, it's basically heaven. Post-revolution Summit definitely had music occasionally, and a meet-the-officers event in early 2020 so at least some of this is not new. And heck, I think Silent Disco in there is a good idea. Silent Disco would take advantage of the venue always being quiet anyway, and Sileng Disco always makes for good people-watching. Plus there's a higher chance of seeing some suite passengers super tipsy. Sign me up! In Luminae, even the breakfast pastries look way larger than those we saw on the buffet or at Bacio; we're convinced they hand-pick the best-looking and largest. Luminae is my Happy Place. My main complaint from previous visits? I didn't order enough mimosas.

Seriously agree. And I can't believe people go for this stuff. One high-listing article in a google search for "Gwyneth Paltrow diet" claims "Surprisingly, her go-to methods are not as extreme as you think" and then later "one cleanse Paltrow is loving at the moment is the 'Goat's Milk Cleanse', which limits your diet to nothing more than goat's milk and herbs for eight days to rid your body of parasites." Does that seriously sound healthy? Don't even get me started on the 300 kcal/day "cleanse". With all that said, half the "treatments" at the Canyon Ranch Spa were bucketfuls of pseudoscientific garbage too. Since such things typically make great profit centers, I'm not sure this is a battle that is winnable.

Same, and I also have a set of Vibes on my keychain at all times. That little aluminum canister they sell for them is awesome. I guess I will have to keep them on me when cruising also, which probably isn't a bad idea anyway. I've never understood why almost everyone else seems to feel that everything has to be so loud to be enjoyable, but since it sure seems to be nearly everyone else it's probably me. Regardless, the only graceful way to handle the situation overall is to remove myself when it's objectionable, or deal with it (for example by wearing the earplugs).

Solstice class ships: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solstice-class_cruise_ship#Ships Documents of what has been revolutionized: http://www.thecelebritycommitment.com/Revolution.html

I could see them going with "Peak" or even, going along with the mountain theme "Crux". They could get even more technical with "Arete". "Approach" would be decent.

If it was the "goop lady"? LOL, sure.

Or maybe on your first Celebrity cruise... we have our suspicions that they pamper you extra hard the first time to hook you. LOL

Understand that, as I understand it, your butler reports directly to the retreat concierge. Obviously given this and my earlier comments, you can see I find that understanding some of the chains of command help understand how things work and how to get things you want. You can get bottled water anywhere (meaning bars, which are everywhere), and in the suite they will automatically give you Evian if you want still and Perrier (I think) if you want sparkling - unless you request something else (at least, that's what they used to do, I'm not sure what environmental initiatives have done). At bars you may have to request Evian over the regular bottled water, and if you prefer the Evian significantly you'd better have it on you before proceeding off the ship (near the exit they will have a table of the regular water which - seriously - will taste weird if you are used to the Evian water). On previous voyages I've guessed that our butler wasn't restocking our water, but our room steward was. Of course it totally doesn't matter to me who does it, what I cared about was that it was stocked - and it always was. All this assuming you have premium drinks package. I thought part of the deal of getting a suite was always getting that, though they done that wrong recently with the suite guarantee rates. Which makes sense as one of the Retreat Lounge employees once mentioned "we know who has the drinks package and who doesn't" when asked about people taking multiple bottles out with them etc. You never know what might make it into the computer. It would make sense if Celebrity has a file with notes on your preferences and things, like posh hotel chains do.