markeb

Yeah. Had to read the CBP documents again. They do say "vessel". Much of what is written on the PVSA isn't actually in the PVSA. And it's a relatively obscure piece of law outside of cruising. I know I've seen people apply it to a company instead of the individual vessel, but that's not how the information is presented by the governing agency.

We haven't had a good PVSA discussion since Canada closed it's ports in 2021... The Act was passed in 1886. There was no cruise ship industry. Many if not most nations have similar laws that prohibit foreign carriers from transporting passengers between their ports. The same basic principle applies to air carriers in the age of air travel (US carriers generally operate to and from the US and follow on travel is via code share with a foreign carrier. Foreign carriers operate to and from the US and follow on travel in the US is via code share with a US carrier.). The PVSA actually has no language on a distant foreign port; that's an administrative interpretation written into the Code of Federal Regulations based on a fascinating ruling (involving a global cruise that included a leg from I believe San Francisco to Hawaii) in the early 20th Century. The actual act expressly prohibits transporting passenger between US ports other than by a coastal qualified vessel (basically made and flagged in the US, which brings in a lot of related but separate customs and immigration issues). Closed loop cruises are not subject to the PVSA. They're not transporting passengers from one US port to another. They make a foreign stop to qualify as a foreign journey, which allows crew visas and exemption from US taxes (again, same a US aircrew traveling around the world). And as this thread demonstrates, it's the transportation of the passenger, not the itinerary of the cruise, that determines compliance. The cruise line cannot transport a passenger between two US ports no matter how many itineraries are strung together without stopping at a non US port somewhere outside of North America.

They'd have to leave the ship in a day early in Victoria. Which may be what Celebrity is actually suggesting. Then the three legs would become Honolulu to Victoria, which is not a PVSA violation. Just stopping in Victoria doesn't solve the issue.

Apparently Eritrea. I saw one list that had North Korea on it. But that's about it. Didn't know that until this thread...

For some of your questions: Acela is faster and somewhat more comfortable. You don't need First Class and it's pretty expensive. Never done it. You do get meal service, and I think you're met by a porter for luggage assistance. But it is pricey... One advantage to Acela is you can reserve your seat. You can't do that on the NE Regional. But the NE Regional is typically much less expensive if booked early; the prices can get a lot more similar closer to travel. Amtrak trains have quiet cars. Unless you plan an being on your cell phone the whole trip, go for the quiet car... (No cell phone use, conversation at a whisper, electronics on headphones or muted, etc.) At the manned stations (Boston and NYP), there are porters/red caps. Request one. Have a $5 or $10 bill handy when they get you on the train. At NYP, they'll board you early. I assume the same in BOS, but haven't done that. If you need assistance getting your bags off the train, tell the conductor. You really just need to get to the train station in time to board, but if you haven't done this before, be a little early. The new Moynihan Train Hall in New York is wonderful, but it's big and "maybe" just a bit confusing. There's an Amtrak waiting area, which is where you'll find the red caps. Generally speaking it's a very pleasant experience. And you won't have to get to La Guardia when you're so close to Penn Station!

Kind of depends on your experience and tastes. They do a nice job, and the events are generally well run. If you have membership at multiple Napa/Sonoma/Columbia Valley wineries the wine tastings are going to be OK at best. But they do very well with what they have. Same for the whisky tastings. If you’re very familiar with Highland and Speyside Scotch, you can lead the tasting. But if you want a nice introduction to The Macallan, it’s a nice experience. The world wine tasting (I think that he name) was a lot of fun, and you get a chance to experience the different backgrounds and expect of the sommeliers. I’d unequivocally recommend that event.

Ignore the promotion and just look at the final price. Are you comfortable with it? I'm not quite as convinced as others that X is simply going through blatant price manipulation (just raise the first passenger fare so that the 75% off is the same as two at 100%). Eventually that gets you in trouble (see the various lawsuits against Jos. A. Bank for "always being on sale"...). But the real question is whether the price you're seeing is acceptable to you. If it is, book it, maybe check back every month or so for a price decrease (recognizing that the new price is likely different enough that you won't get the same deal), but otherwise forget it and enjoy the cruise. You paid a price you were happy with! (No, for those about to pounce, I'm not saying pay a clearly crazy price. I'm saying the sale is meaningless. The only thing that matter is whether you're OK with your own real after discount fare!)

Fuel. Read their 10-K. Food and fuel. And interest on their debt. Employee compensation is way down on their list of expenses.

Nah. The meat is identifiable in those pics. So is the bread. That's not real SOS!

Or is more trouble than it's worth. My memory is you can't add your key to your Apple wallet, for instance, so you have to open the app, I think select the key option (not the right term, but that's the theory), and then hold the phone up to the door. And sometimes it doesn't work...

You should eventually see a credit for the gratuities. Celebrity posts their internal accounting charges and credits to your account. They make sense to their accountants. Not necessarily to you...

I somehow find it funny that most dishes mentioned in this thread are some derivation of someone's comfort food. Some just have a fancier name than "meatloaf". They should have just called it "pain de viande". Beef Wellington is presumably a derivation of centuries old meat in pastries, including such pedestrian offerings as pasties in Ireland. The French did a lot of them. Wellington was wealthy enough after Waterloo that they used tenderloin, and the British deleted the French names. Beef bourguignon is a wonderful French name for a stew that originated to slow cook largely inedible meat to become edible and is now, at least somewhat thanks to Julia Child, a delicacy. Chicken and waffles have now become a US comfort food, and they're served in all types and levels of restaurants. Do they need to call them poulet et gaufres to make them sound fancier? I mean steak tartare sounds a lot better than raw semi-ground beef with raw egg and salmonella and E coli! Most histories I've seen of pizza involve a working man's foldable lunch. The original "cold pizza" would have been lunch. A well made meatloaf with a high end ground beef, which ground Angus should be, is just another comfort food, like most of the other modern interpretations of European peasant dishes people pay a lot of money for... Food history can be fun. OK, there was tongue in cheek aspect of that. But do we need 200 years of American meatloaf, and a French chef to rename it, to make it sound like a real dish? If I didn't cook it and mixed in some onions, topped it with a raw egg yolk, and called it steak tartare, would people be happy? Might be harder to spot the noro outbreak...

I think you should try this and then people might take you seriously. There are roughly two nights on a 7-day cruise where there's any priority in the theater. And it's way upstairs. The Equinox (where Rick was cruising) does not have a separate retreat area. You would spend 90% of your non-sleeping time outside the retreat. The Retreat lounge is nice, but it's going to get boring in a hurry. We've always spent more time at the WCB or one of the other bars. And there's live entertainment outside the Retreat. Rarely inside. There is priority disembarkation, but not at all ports, and it may or may not matter. The primary advantage is hanging around in the Retreat lounge on the last morning if you have a late flight. They won't rush you before all clear. The Equinox doesn't have a Retreat pool, or even a hot tub. It has a "hot" sunny deck, and it "may" have better bar service, but the bar is two flights down so it takes just as long to get a drink as it does in the Solarium. One of primary draws to the Retreat is Luminae, so no, I can't tell you about the MDR. Nor likely can anyone staying in Aqua. I'll give you that one. You really have never done this on a ship, have you? Yeah, it's data science, but they remember who tipped them, not what color their card was. If they even have time for that. And honestly, despite all the tipping threads around here, I've rarely seen anyone slip extra to the bartenders. I know it happens, and I've done it on rare occasions, but the ship is cash free, and they're already getting the tip (20%) I would have given them anyway. Completely agree. Ignore button used.

With the OPs budget, and a little luck on pricing, that was my first thought as well. It won't have great views, but it's just far enough from Times Square, just close enough to Rockefeller Center, and not too far to Central Park. And it's a really nice hotel.

We've been similar, but a question, Rick. This past cruise we did spend time in the Retreat and with the Concierge (didn't ask for much). The Concierge actually helped us with the additional tip form and how to do it. He even mentioned the bartender by name in his "how to", who we might well have otherwise forgotten. But we didn't tip either of them, and honestly, I'm a little confused now. The Retreat concierges wear hotel officers' uniforms now. Are they fully salaried? I wouldn't normally tip management; they're not in the tip pools on land. And it's a little weird that a tipped member of staff would be doing guest services' roles and effectively collecting tips for other employees!

Why not? I get the OP saying it wasn't cooked as well as they'd like, but it looks like a creative pork dish from the photo, and I can't taste it in the photo. It looks like something I'd find in a French restaurant (other than it would probably have a big side of pommes frittes).

It looks very good. What was wrong with the actual dish?

Arrives at 8:00? If it actually is scheduled at 8:00, no way. You won't be off at 8:00, and it's a 20 minute drive to EWR once you're in a car. Are you flying economy or first class? Do you have TSA Pre? If this is United, are you 1K? Take a later flight and relax. Way too close for me, and I do have all of those...

So, would you walk out of a restaurant in San Antonio that had menudo on the menu? Spam is hardly a traditional Hawaiian or Polynesian food like poi, but it's served everywhere, in every quality of restaurant, in Hawaii. Has been since at least World War II. It's arguably become a cultural phenomena, kind of like menudo as a hangover cure. Or tamales at Christmas. It's fun to make fun of Spam, but you'd be insulting most Hawaiians by doing so in Hawaii.

So I'm going to confess I kind of like Brussels, but I've really only been to the area around the Grand Place and (old) NATO Headquarters building. Having said that, stay in Bruges. Just not enough time, and you can do almost everything in Bruges you could do in Brussels (mussels, frites, chocolate, beer, historic cobblestone plaza), and (if memory serves) there are windmills. There are plenty of lace shops and tapestry shops to separate you from your money, and a number of nice restaurants to just sit and have mussels et frites and a good Belgian beer. You will, of course, miss the Mannekin Pis. But other than the huge crowds standing by it, you could do that in Brussels as well... As JB said, the simple size of Brussels begs for time. Bruges should be much more manageable.

It's a somewhat lighthearted thread, but there are SO many parallels that can be made from that simple statement...

It shouldn't. Since they're a publicly traded company, they have to follow standard accounting practices. Deposits aren't revenue; they're actually a liability on the balance sheet (accounts payable) and not the income statement, but they are positive cash flow. So the deposits would show up on cash flow either way. Don't ask; modern accounting was created in the same place that over engineered Ferrari and Lamborghini so they'd run well but require a lot of maintenance... They can't actually recognize the revenue on their income statements until you take the cruise. Same principal applies to gift cards, etc.

Back of the house waste. Since the US based cruise lines are inspected by US federal agencies, I assume they largely follow the US Retail Food Code. There are limits on how much they can rework product. Things that are put out for service generally don't get reworked or reused (food code). Bagged produce is flushed with nitrogen at the processor (which is why your salad looks like crap overnight in the refrigerator once you open it), so there's little or no ability to rework. Most of the crew is from outside of North America. I'm sure they'll eat things from the buffet, but several common nationalities are heavy vegetarian, for instance. It's not as simple as people want to make it. For any cruise line. Or really any restaurant. Waste eats into margin...

They can't hire enough staff. Labor supply is down. Labor demand is up. Cost of labor has to go up. Economics 101...

You really can't separate food waste from food costs. And food costs have gone up dramatically. As has labor. They probably should have done something to control this years ago...