momofmeg

First, I am not trying to be the south end of a north bound donkey:D

 

But with all the choices out there I don't understand why you keep sailing with a line that " is unacceptable" ?

I cna't answer for the person you quoted but for myself, I am in no hurry.

We are on Sunday's sailing of Silhouette. Just called Celebrity to verify rumor about Puerto Rico being cancelled as a port stop. Yes, we are not stopping in San Juan, but they said it was "due to a problem in the port of San Juan"! Well, we all know it's due to the engine problems. We will get $100 OBC, Suites will get $200.

Why can't they just be honest?

Be glad for the onboard credit; all we got back was port taxes last week. I would have been happy if they had offered us one or 2 free drinks or an onboard credit for a future cruise, but we got nothing but refunded port taxes.

However I am able to live with that. What I was unhappy about was the mediocre food in the main dining room and hiked up prices of everything that is extra. I was shocked at the cost of specialties outside of the Bistro and the Porch. I feel like now they offer the $210 ultimate specialty dinner for the week upgrade per person, that they expect you to buy that.

This was my 5th Celebrity cruise and I did not feel this way about other 4. My 4th and 5th Celebrity cruises were in June 2012 and January 2013, so fairly recent. I do think it is the Celebrity 123 program. It seems since they give us a few free things they have to get their money back in other ways.

I have to say, by this last cruise Celebrity was on par with my last NCL cruise. Of course it has been 4 years since I was on NCL so I am sure they have become worse too. I am beginning to feel cruising is not for me unless I upgrade tor Azamara or Oceania. That is what it will take to get what was the Celebrity experience I fear.

I am sure this post will thread on some toes. I am sure all loyalists will say I am cheap not to have booked the specializes, but my feeling is I should not HAVE to book the specialties. it should be a choice and not a necessity since Celbrity is classified as a premium mainstream line.

What is ironic is some of the very same people blasted NCL for going this way. Hey, I knew that on NCL, we went with the assumption we would eat in a specialty at least 3 nights of the 7. NCL is only classified as a mainstream line, it is not supposed to be as good as Celebrity. I just expected better of Celebrity.

I wish Celebrity would keep their onboard credit and go back to the old way. They could even hike up the cruise fare if need be and I would be okay if I had the old Celebrity product. I prefer that as it is more honest. Hey, they would also get more money out of me onboard as I would book the specialties by choice and not out of necessity and I would have bought more cappuccinos too if they had not cost more than Starbucks which I also feel is overpriced for the product.

So... the Dec 7 Sailing has a change in itinerary. Guess what it is. No San Juan. We just got notice by email today. It will be a Sea Day. Only two ports on a seven night out of ft. Lauderdale.

I am glad to know they were honest. That shows me many PAX were not happy on how they handed things on my cruise.

There was no tongue and cheek humor... I was being matter of fact about a real scenario on my most recent cruise. In my opinion, it was more complicated to deal with than just missing a port... Both for the passengers and the cruise company staff.

 

Since you are not the OP (and I was quoting them, not you), I don't know what situation you are making reference to.

 

By the way, embarking at a port 3+ hours away with less than 24 hours notice, is far more stressful than missing a port, regardless of what country you are in. :confused:

 

 

Sent from my iPhone 6 Plus on the T-Mobile 4G LTE Network using Tapatalk Pro

The OP is my daughter and most people here realize that if they have followed this whole thread. So yes, I was not happy with how you expressed yourself to her. You would feel the same if it was your family member wouldn't you?

I alos agreed your situation was stressful more than ours. I am sorry that happened to you Have you read ALL of my posts here on this thread? I already said Meg over exaggerated the issue in my first post on this thread.

You are comparing apples to oranges BTW as the 2 situations are entirely different. If you read all the posts on this thread from others on this cruise, most of us (who posted here who was on that cruise) are more upset Celebrity mislead us than that we missed the port. They knew we would not make SJ that morning but led us to believe we would be late, then 2 hours later said we would not go as we would have only 3 hours in port when the reality considering how far away we were from SJ (167 nautical miles at 11 am)we would have only made it there at the time we were scheduled to leave that port since the ship could only do 17 nautical miles an hour.

I am interested to see if the ship makes SJ next week. It appears the ship needs perfect conditions to make the ports on time at 17 knots an hour since she was late to all the ports on the cruise before ours. Since SJ is only scheduled from 3:30 to 9:00 pm, I can see that port being skipped if they are 2 hours late and only have 3 and half hours in port. that is not long enough for anyone to do an excursion.

but as I already said, since I knew about the issues back In July, I should have switched to Reflection whose ports were almost the same (St. Thomas instead of St. kitts) and whose price was the same; or even better we could have switched to Independence of the Seas which did the same exact ports except they did St. Maarten first and SJ last.

We are booked on the 1/11/15 Western Caribbean cruise on the Silhouette. Based on an earlier post here it looks like that tour is not effected by the slower speed. We are pretty new to cruising but have 3 booked for next year. LOL This will be our first on Celebrity so hopefully it will be a good experience.

That is the first cruise AFTER drydock so all should be good.

Other pictures ,taken ''later'' , give a ''dead give away tell tale sign'' that the starboard azipod is working at 70% capacity....thus the overall maximum current speed of ~~ 17kt.

That ''70% limit on an ailing azipod'' is a familiar scene....over the past 12-13 years, all lines have experienced the now too annoyingly familiar situation where one of the azipods develops the problem, you reduce the output to 70% until it's time to visit the yard. etc.etc...a noticeable number of ships on all those lines, not only Celebrity.

The ripple effects are predictable , $$$-wise, for the operating sides....The PR damage because the officers do not handle it straight forward with the impacted guests, well..that's another story. Celebrity has unfortunately conditionned us to a rather unsatisfactory way of handling those issues over the years.:(

Cheers

Well, it would have been nice if they had been honest and just said at 11 am Tuesday that it would be time to leave SJ when we arrived so we were skipping; instead of saying we would be late. Instead we were told told 2 hours later since we would only have 3 hours there they made the decision to cancel. that made many think it was simply the propulsion problem as to why we was missing SJ.

As I said though, we should have switched to the Reflection back in August before final payment.

The Silhouette's wake on Nov. 13, during the transatlantic. We could definitely see the difference. (BTW, we were doing about 18-19 knots during the crossing.)

 

 

(turtles06)

We were told in the 10:30 am meeting November 29 ( Saturday) in the show theater by a ship's officer that her max was 17 knots. I wonder if that means she is getting worse?

I was just on the Constellation westbound transatlantic from Rome to Fort Lauderdale (NOV 2014). However, the embarkation for the 16 day cruise occurred in Naples (3 hours south of Rome) because the weather was too severe for the ship to make it into Civitavecchia. I would say that is a much worse scenario to deal with when trying to disembark 2000 guests from the ship and put them on motorcoaches for 3 hours to get them to FCO and then turn around do the same thing with 2000 more guests to get them onto the ship. Celebrity did an incredible job and all this was done within 24 hours time.

I feel your post is tongue in cheek. You did not mind, but you seemed to think your issue (which was resolved)was worse than what happened to us. Perhaps it was. I am sure I would have been more stressed with that happening to me in Italy than if such had happened when I boarded in the US.

Well you are right about one thing. We knew about the issue back in July so I guess we should have canceled our Silhouette cruise before final payment huh? I just thought Celebrity would have taken better care of us as they have always done that in the past.

Perhaps we should have switched to the Reflection which had almost the same ports (San Juan, St. Thomas, St. Maarten-so St. Thomas instead of St. Kitts) but left a day early. Especially since she was the same in cost.

Does anyone know if the Reflection was able to make all of her ports?

My apologies, I should have been more pedantic and stated that the broken azipod's performance was obvious to the eye. Even that is not correct since the azipod does work, just not at optimal performance; hence the dry dock in January. When I have sorted out my photographs I will post one to allow you to judge for yourself. Many other passengers made similar comments. Our maximum speed appeared to be around 17 knots. Part of that was due to weather but also part was due to the azipod. I am sure that in perfect weather conditions the 19-20 knots required to reach San Juan on schedule would have been possible. Anyway, I will look out a photograph that shows the imbalance and post it when I find the time to sift through them all. All I am suggesting is that if the weather for next week looks poor then Celebrity should consider an alternative port. I appreciate that some of the entertainers move from the Reflection to the Silhouette by disembarking at designated ports.

I went to the talk on Saturday about how they work the ship. The question of ship's speed was asked. We were told the ship's max speed is 17 knots (nautical miles) and should be 22 knots (nautical miles)

Does anybody know when in Jan. the drydock period will be? This is what happens when one tries to be fancy (azipods). Regular shafting to propellors has served well since the 1870s Yet some folks cant leave well enough alone.

No January 4th sailing for drydock.

I was also on the 23 November Eastern Caribbean cruise. The first leg from Port Everglades to San Juan is a tad over 900 nautical miles. At an average of 18 knots it would take 2 days and 2 hours to reach San Juan. The Silhouette would not appear to be capable of this speed for any length of time. Any time I looked at the TV channel the speed was 17 knots. At 11 am in the morning the captain announced that we were 167 nautical miles away from our destination, and that we would be late. He said he would get back to us with a new ETA. By my calculations at 17 knots that is 10 hours travelling. (The average speed up till the captain's announcement was only 17 knots.) We would be arriving there just as we were due to leave (9pm). Several hours later the captain confirmed we would be missing San Juan. Not sure why it took him hours to do that simple calculation. The Silhouette is just not capable to travelling such a long distance in 2 days. Celebrity should be more honest with their customers. The broken azipod is so obvious to the eye. I have many photographs of the poor performance from the affected engine.

 

The two November reviews are for the other trip the Silhouette does to the Western Caribbean. It only needs to average around 14 knots for this trip.

 

Could I suggest to Celebrity that they look for an alternative port for next weeks journey, in my opinion the Silhouette is just not capable of of reaching San Juan quickly enough. To arrive by 3.30pm requires an average speed of 19 knots. Even that allows passengers only 2 hours before sunset. Remember the normal cruise speed for a Solstice class ship is over 22 knots.

 

I feel very sorry for the couple who were travelling to San Juan to get married. All of their friends had travelled by air to save costs. Several of the entertainers were also affected by the missed port. Finding themselves in the wrong place.

 

I will be watching Celebrity's actions for next week with interest.

Yes! That is so true! Just make a stop for a few hours at Coco Cay the first day after embarkation day. If they left by 3 pm surely the ship would make St. Kitts by Wednesday. Yes, people would be disappointed, but it least that would show Celebrity attempted to make it up a bit.

When the silhouette cost of cruise is the same as the Refection Celebrity should do something I feel.

Cruises are a vacation. Relax amd go with the flow. I know that you are unhappy about missing a port. It happens. It has happened to me. Trust that the captain is trying to keep the passengers safe. If a particular port is that important to you, fly into it and stay. If you cruise, the ship is your first priority. Ports are also important. Be flexible and have a good time.

It was more than that I assure you, (see my previous post) but she did have a wonderful time. Meg has only cruised Celebrity twice. This was my 5th cruise. To be honest my husband and I did not mind the extra sea day so much. it was more we were disappointed in the ship's experience over all and we had never felt that way about Celebrity before.

Hi, we will be cruising in a week. What type of clothing should we bring. Is it warm enough for shorts and tees during the day? Have you seen rain? Thanks.

Barb, it was for us but you never know. We did the Caribbean in Dec. 2003 and about froze to death because of a winter storm that made the usual 90 degree weather turn into highs of 60 degrees with nights running about 45. The up side was it was still warmer than home lol! If I had brought a jacket and a couple of pair of long pants I would have been fine. Since then I ALWAYS pack a sweater and jacket. I also take mostly capris, but I do that because I am 60 and my legs are not so pretty lol!

Sea conditions do change, I can't see how you could make the assumption that it's the propulsion issue just because another vessel docked at a later time.

 

That all being said, I hope you enjoy the remainder of the cruise.

Because RCI Independence of the Seas made their 3 ports which were the same as Silhouette's. The only difference is they had St. Martin first and San Juan last. Now the cruise ships that had Western Caribbean ports did miss because of the weather.

The Silhouette gave us a rough ride all week. In the dining room you could hear the motor, very loud. What we learned was, the Silhouette would have been a little over 2 hours late to San Juan, but since that was only a 5 and half hour port, they decided to skip it.

If she was working correctly she would do 22 nautical miles an hour at top speed. She only does 17 max becasue of the issue, so yes she could have made it up if she was up to par.

We also learned form cruisers who had done back to backs on her that she lost 2 hours in each port the week before. So my guess is, the Silhouette December cruises that are scheduled for San Juan, St. kitts, and St. Martin will probably not have San Juan either. If your cruise is after the January drydock, you are okay.

I will say this, yes food quality has gone down form My January 2013 and June 2012 cruises. Meg is right. It was mediocre at best. I also noticed a considerable price increase on specialty coffees, drinks, and the specialty restaurant costs have gone up considerably too.

Unlike Meg though, I feel, it seems all lines have gone this way. I am finding cruising period is not the "dream vacation" it used to be. I am not in a hurry to book a cruise on any line right now.

We sailed on the Regent Star and loved it. It had been the Statendam and the public rooms and staterooms were beautifully done. Lots of wood.

We were on the Statendam in 2001 pre 9-11. A northbound Alaska cruise. She was around 6 years old then and held about 1200 PAX. She was beautifully decorated too. Not only lots fo wood but many gorgeous antiques. Only the suites had balconies on her. We were in an ocean view; but we had this huge picture window with a ledge that we could sit on and look out to whale watch. Our room was big too around 200 to 250 square feet I wonder if you were on the same ship? of course you may mean an older Statendam.

It would certainly be much easier. What if the OP gets turned down? Then she'll have to contact her friends...and you can't always count on being able to communicate between two different ships. Why not go for the sure thing (assuming that both ships make it to port) and prearrange a meeting place?

I agree and if the OP and her friend finds out where her their ships dock, that could help too. There is one dock in Cozumel where you go up across this bridge type thing and into shops. Usually there is room there for 1 large ship (2000 or above Pax) and sometimes one smaller ship of under 1000 PAX. I have docked there with Princess and NCL. The other dock is outside Cozumel and unless you love a good long walk, you need to take a taxi into Cozumel. It has room for I am guessing 3? ships there. I have docked there on Celebrity, RCI, and Carnival ships.

It may be a coincidence though that we docked at one port on Princess and NCL and the other port with Celebrity, RCI, and Carnival.

I have no idea if certain lines use one dock and other lines use the other dock; but I am sure the cruise lines will know which dock they will be at on a scheduled date. They reserve those docks a long time in advance. We were on a ship once where they had to change the port stop last minute because of weather. We were supposed to go to St. John Novia Scotia, but instead we went to Halifax. We docked at a commercial part of the port and not the cruise ship port as there were no berths open and we were bused to the cruise ship section of the port. This was on Celebrity Constellation. I remember some women from a HAL ship asked why we were in a commercial dock. One lady thought it was terrible we were put there. We told them it was fine, at least we got a port instead of another sea day!

If the OP could find out if their ships are scheduled to dock at the same dock it would be much easier to meet up. Of course they could always say Carlos and Charlie at such n' such time.

Well, I'm not wearing them at all now despite being a fan and owner of a lot of fine vintage jewelry. One reason is that I have unpierced ears (as did my grandmother, whose diamond earrings I now have) and I am terrified of losing one of the earrings. As for the rings, my hands take a lot of abuse every day, so rings are only worn occasionally. And I really don't care for the look of the ones I've inherited, except for one garnet ring from my grandmother. I have long slender hands, and the tiny rings that were in style back in the 1890s/1900s look really odd on me.

 

Can you remember the opal wedding set well enough that you could get a local jeweler to remake it? Custom jewelry is expensive, though, so you may not get enough pleasure out of them to justify the cost :)

 

 

 

Is it a solitaire pendant that you got made? I've thought about a pendant with the 3 biggest diamonds. I already have a large-enough solitaire diamond pendant, AND 3 large-ish diamonds, so if I do a pendant, it needs to include at least 3 diamonds.

 

Your "upgraded" ring sounds like a real eye-catching piece!

 

"Save the money for a trip" -- I love that. :D

 

Thanks very much for sharing your experience! It is giving me more to think about. :)

Yes, he set it into a solitaire. I picked a flower setting (I think they call it buttercup?) he had a catalog that I looked through and chose. But you know now that I am 60 and my neck is full of wrinkles a dainty pendant just does not work anymore. Now I wish I had left it in my engagement ring as I would wear that a lot more often than my past present future ring. I may just put it back. I still have the ring. Of course it would make sense to use the 37 point stone as I have that too and just give the pendant to my daughter.

I have a couple do pieces of jewelry I inherited. My mother's wedding rings were stolen when I was a kid. Her diamond wedding band my dad bought to replace her rings my sister got. I got her 14k gold watch and her mother's ring from the 70's which is all genuine rubies and 14 kgold as all 4 of us were July babies. Mom was not big on jewelry but what she had was good and as she wore them all the time she wanted what she had to be good..I do not wear neither, but I can't get rid of them either,as they bring back memories of my mom.

My grandfather had 2 maiden aunts that never married. One had some jet beads that my mom inherited when he died. She never wore them just kept them in her jewelry box. No one wanted them when mom died so I took them. They are well over a 100 years old I am sure. I doubt though they are worth much,but the fact that my mom kept them I will keep them. I told my daughter,after I am dead, if she is not interested, to make sure they stay in the family, if none of her cousins want them then make sure one of my maternal cousins get them.

I love vintage look costume jewelry. I would probably wear them as is-if they are wearable. I almost bought a ruby and opal wedding set years ago from the 1870's. I didn't because the gold on the ring bottom had worn super thin, plus they were too small of course (sz 4)since people were smaller then. I was afraid a jeweler would charge more than they cost (which was a lot because the ruby was about 30 points and the 2 opals tiny as seed pearls,th erice was based on age not quality for sure) Plus if the jeweler did a louzy job, they would lose their integrity to boot. The person selling the ring set was at his booth (an antique mall near Franklin ,NC in an old school) was also a jeweler and he said he would never dream of touching them, that they were a collector's item only. That convince me I did not want them lol!

 

I told him I wish he would copy the style and make a set I could wear. He took down my phone number, he was going to call me with a quote, but never called. This was over 20 years ago, before internet was common.

Oh I did have my original engagement ring set into a pendant. it is 32 point solitaire. Hubby bought me Past present future ring (75 points)when we were married 20 years and at 25 years he upgraded the center stone 37 points to 1 carat.

At 30 years i told him to save the money for a trip lol! I rarely wear my ring, as I find it a bit ostentatious for every day wear. I know many love big rings, but I don't.

I love vintage look costume jewelry. I would probably wear them as is-if they are wearable. I almost bought a ruby and opal wedding set years ago from the 1870's. I didn't because the gold on the ring bottom had worn super thin, plus they were too small of course (sz 4)since people were smaller then. I was afraid a jeweler would charge more than they cost (which was a lot because the ruby was about 30 points and the 2 opals tiny as seed pearls,th erice was based on age not quality for sure) Plus if the jeweler did a louzy job, they would lose their integrity to boot. The person selling the ring set was at his booth (an antique mall near Franklin ,NC in an old school) was also a jeweler and he said he would never dream of touching them, that they were a collector's item only. That convince me I did not want them lol!

I told him I wish he would copy the style and make a set I could wear. He took down my phone number, he was going to call me with a quote, but never called. This was over 20 years ago, before internet was common.

Celebrity Silhouette should be there too

Actually I goofed, that is tomorrow. We leave a week from toady but we broad a week from tomorrow. I know the Reflection will be there next Saturday. Is she on the transatlantic now?

Celebrity Silhouette should be there too

<sigh> It is "colloidal" silver. It is the mineral you are familiar with, Colloidal just means "particles suspended in a liquid". Nothing to do with a plant.

 

Here is a wikipedia article on medical silver http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medical_uses_of_silver, and here is some actual scientific information http://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-living/consumer-health/expert-answers/colloidal-silver/faq-20058061 http://www.webmd.com/vitamins-supplements/ingredientmono-779-colloidal%20silver.aspx?activeingredientid=779&activeingredientname=colloidal%20silver http://nccam.nih.gov/health/silver

 

Snake oil won't help for Ebola. All it'll do is make hucksters money.

Yes,someone explained to me it is actually little particles of silver. I know silver is a mineral not a plant. I was not sure if it was actually silver or simply the name.

I am not sure of the number diagnosed with ebola in the US, but we remain at one death

He was not form here and had only recently got here from a poor African country so he probably had not had proper nutrition. Americans have a lot better chance of beating it because we have better nutrition. If an American dies from this you can be pretty sure they have a compromised immune system. As in elderly or with a chronic disease such as diabetes,lupus, Addison's,etc. -the same groups more apt to die of the flu.

The New England Journal of Medicine stated that colidal silver can be used in the prevention & treatment of Ebola.

I keep hearing about that. Where can you purchase it and what exactly is it? Does it come from a plant (and the name has nothing to do with silver?) or is it a mineral oil?

As far as flu shots I have not taken one since my youth. I would always become ill for a couple of days after them and would have a "mini flu."

I have not had the flu since my daughter now 30 was 3 years old though. I always take echinacea and goldenseal and odorless garlic capsules as soon as I start feeling unwell and that knocks out a lot. I keep taking that for a week or so even after I feel better which is normally within 48 hours. It is great for sore throats and earaches too.

I am going to check into getting that colidal silver as I have heard many good things about it.

BTW, my hubby poo poos me taking those herbs and he is the one that gets strep throat every year sometimes even twice. My daughter and I herb our selves up. She's a teacher's assistant in elementary school. I have the compromised immune system from diabetes and also taking Januvia for my diabetes and she and I do not get the more serious sicknesses like strep throat and ear infections.

If we are going to be concerned about what could happen to us while on a cruise, let's sped our time worrying about things that have actually happened and not things that never have. Just a thought.

Yes, I am more afraid of an outbreak at home. Not terrified, as we Americans have a better survival rate than those that are malnourished. Even the poorest of us here in the US have indoor plumbing, many in those countries do not; raw sewage is another carrier. Not airborne but flies touching that and then landing on people.

Good hygiene is the best preventative. At home or on a cruise, I wash my hands frequently and try not to touch my face when out in public. As soon as I get home I wash my hands first thing.

As far as the sick doctor, it being normal to feel sluggish/jet lag after a long flight YES that is true, but then I stay home and rest up a day or so. I usually plan ahead to have something in the freezer too for dinner, so I will not need to go to the grocery first thing after coming home from a trip. so, I am not out and about. My husband usually takes an extra vacation day from work to rest up after a long flight. so if anything, all the more reason why he should not been out, he should have been home recuperating from jet lag. As a doctor,he would know exhaustion, weakens your immune system too, so his resting up after such a flight would have protected himself. Now I do not mean eboli, I am thinking colds and flu.

Now, one year I did get the dreaded norovirus the day after coming home from a cruise. Not a long flight but we did drive home 10 hours from Florida. I woke up the next morning not well and by late afternoon those issues were there so I had not been out in public spreading it. Now, if I caught it on ship or a dirty bathroom on the turnpike who knows?

Before I got in the habit of frequently washing my hands, I had norovirus a good many times in my life, Lol! However, I also was bad to get into food after leaving the grocery store before coming home. I had not washed my hands so no wonder! I got smarter though and it had been over 10 years before I got it again after taking a cruise. At least I was back home that last time (November 2008) when it struck me!

Good hygiene is a good preventative for a lot of things. Wash your hands and do not touch your face! if we do have an out break I will be washing in bleach water, as harsh as that is, becasue it has been shown that in these poor countries that those who have done that were not as apt to become ill after contact.