markeb

Price point? How long are you in the city?

I did this on Equinox last month. I had OBC to burn... It was an OK experience. The event was oversold, and had taken over half of Craft Social. There were four whiskies, all Macallan Travel Editions (the ones you can only get in Duty Free shops like the ones on the ship). The person doing the event was fine, but probably not horribly knowledgeable. The whisky was OK (I confess to much preferring Balvenie to Macallan, but don't have anything against Macallan). The tasting was fine, largely because the group at the table was good. Having done this version, unless I had a ton of OBC to burn, I personally wouldn't do it again. But your mileage may vary.

It's ridiculously high to everyone on this board. But if there are 14 people (assuming Rich is correct and there are 14 Sky Suites available) willing to pay that, whether we believe it's ridiculously high doesn't really matter, does it?

They are definitely pricing Beyond higher, but they seem to be at market. We passed on Beyond next fall for Equinox for a 30% savings on a longer cruise. But, if the market is paying it, they're by definition not overpriced. When people stop paying, the prices will adjust. And I read a short but interesting business finance article today really questioning how RCG can continue to service its debt with rising interest rates. If they can sell at those prices, they need to...

I'm crossing my fingers. Having great upload/download bandwidth will be great, but I'm not convinced they've engineered the routers and access points on the ship to take advantage of the external bandwidth. Too many dropped connections that didn't automatically reconnect on my last cruise, and that's not the external bandwidth! You should be able to walk through the ship and never lose your connectivity...

Did you read any reviews? The rooms appear to be small, even by NYC standards. One review basically says the shower and sink are in the bedroom, not in a separate bathroom. Not sure where the actual toilet is located. It's apparently a hangout for a party crowd after hours. And 47th can be pretty busy. It's a little hard to give a good evaluation, but it probably wouldn't be my first choice from the few reviews I see, and recognizing the photos are of entire room!

Yes. But by default your book on board booking goes to your current TA and you'd have to "take it away from them". If you don't want your TA of record on your current cruise to hold the booking, you'll have to stop that process. If you don't have a TA then Celebrity will hold the booking unless you move it in 30 days. Slight difference that could make a difference.

A couple of things. We've cruised Equinox twice now, both times in a Sky Suite. One "pre-retreat" and a month ago. As others have said, whether the Sky Suite is "worth it" is a function of cost, how you use the benefits, and for us anyway, how often (or rarely) we cruise. And we're booked on her again in 2023. We like the ship... We haven't cruised the E class ships. They were designed for the Retreat. M&S class ships have been refitted to some extent for the retreat. Equinox has a sundeck, for instance, but no water feature. The sundeck is far forward, the Sky Suites are mostly on 12, the Retreat lounge is on 5 aft, and Luminae is on 3 aft. On the other hand when we priced our next Equinox cruise, we were able to book a 10 day ultimate Southern Caribbean cruise for about 1/3 less than an 8 day on Beyond (the E class ship that would be on a similar route at that time). One not obvious advantage to Equinox is she has fewer suites than Reflection, but they both have the same size Retreat facilities. Definitely look at booking your Equinox cruise while onboard! You'll get the best of whatever promos are running, a reduced deposit, and frequently significant OBC. Both the onboard agent and our TA when we returned looked at the OBC three times on our booking. We hit a crazy stupid promo somehow, and this is an itinerary where we will probably do excursions! By default, Celebrity will transfer your booking to your agent of record on your current cruise. I've never had to stop that, but it apparently can be done.

The “should” reflects official policy, as do you. There have been reports of no action taken, especially on European itineraries in wine producing regions. If the OP wants to take their bottles home, no problem. If it’s not the port of embarkation, they shouldn’t expect to have them on the ship. I also wouldn’t expect them to pull them out of a well packed box!

This is your origin? The box should be fine. If it’s a port call, the box should still be fine, but they “should” take them until the end of the cruise.

He never even hears "Space,"...

That's a 2016 article when the "no tips" concept was the rage in some high end restaurants in NYC. My memory is it didn't last. A lot of customers insisted on tipping (I'll leave that alone. It's a loaded discussion.) and in that price point of restaurant, a reasonably competent server could take home $100's (3-5 or more) a night in tips, even with tip pools. In those establishments, the servers hated the "no tips" policy! Obviously that's the Michelin 2-3 star places for the most part, where a tasting menu (often the only option) can run $300+ per person (sometimes +++) before drinks and a 20% tip is $200/table. Three seatings (pre-theater, early and late) of three tables becomes $1800 pooled amongst the front of the house! I can't speak to the West Coast that's featured in the article, but the court ruling on pooling with "back of house" employees exactly reflects the FLSA and is an unanswered (really none of my business) question about back of house cruise ship employees. People routinely talk about dishwashers, chefs, etc. here, but none of those folks are covered under the FLSA, must be paid at least minimum wage (no "tip credit"), and at the federal level cannot be part of a mandatory tip pool (and the court ruling in the article essentially said the federal law prevailed over state laws). The FLSA is US law and doesn't apply on a cruise ship, but the 18-20% gratuity is a US thing... Having said that, yes, it was a good article for that snapshot in time. Would be interesting to see them bring it into 2022.

Is it just two of you? Where are you coming from in PA? I'm going to be a broken record here, but in the NE Corridor ALWAYS price Amtrak options. Amtrak will drop you at Moynihan Train Hall, essentially 8th Ave and 33rd, and a very easy cab or Uber to the terminal. No paying for parking, no worrying about your car, and what you save on parking could pay for a night in Manhattan if you want to go a day early. The only downside is you need to pick a return time, and be willing to stick with it or pay the difference for an earlier train, but Moynihan is so much nicer than Penn Station and is set up with sit down restaurants and is actually (amazingly) a nice place to relax before your train (as opposed to Penn Station...). If I'm willing to book a non-refundable saver far, I can get from DC to NYP for as little as $31/person. For me, that's less than the tolls (more or less) without even considering gas. With two bags each and a carryon (helps that I'm boarding at Union Station with Red Caps). At least do the search and see if you have options. If you're nowhere near Amtrak, none of that applies, but there are a lot of Amtrak option in PA!

I've stayed at the Marriott and the Renaissance and like both (Marriott guy...). The Marriott is close to the Museumplein and the Renaissance is relatively close to Centraal. If you've already been to the museums, the Renaissance has more of a neighborhood feel (Or did. A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...). There were cute little neighborhood restaurants close by, a really nice Dutch pancake place, etc. And it was an easy cab ride to Schiphol, especially early in the morning. Check it out on Google Maps and look at the area. It's also not far from the cruise terminal. I'm sure there are a lot of nice non-chain places, but that just jumps out at me.

We're completely off the original topic, other than shipboard tipping somewhat follows US tipping traditions, but... The US Fair Labor Standards Act allows employers to "take credit" for tips for tipped employees (a pretty narrow range of people, BTW) towards the Federal Minimum Wage. Not a living wage; minimum wage. There's a minimum salary requirement, around $2.15/hour. If the employee does not receive adequate tips to meet the minimum wage, the employer is responsible for directly paying the difference; by federal law, the employee MUST earn at least minimum wage. Individual states with higher minimum wages typically have similar laws. If the employee is paid direct wages over minimum, then none of that applies. The FLSA is an employer side allowance (and an employee protection on the low end of wages). If the server is making well over minimum wage in the first place, it is likely they're working in a higher end place, and tips can add up pretty nicely. But that's a different subject.

I don’t. The Retreat concierge mentioned it. It would presumably include updates to the Retreat sun deck. The implication was the next year or so. I’m hoping by November 2023!

We were just on Equinox with the premium internet, I guess Stream. The connection could best be described as spotty. As stated, better in common areas, not so great in the cabin. Probably most frustrating was that the Wi-Fi didn’t handoff well as you moved around the ship. I was constantly turning the Wi-Fi off and on (iPad) to refresh the connection. Probably my only complaint with Equinox. She’s apparently having a mini dry dock and updating the internet is a key part of the update.

Do you have an ATM card? Just pull Euros from an ATM. Easier and a better rate.

The OP is cruising on Tuesday, so I'm assuming they've already made plans, and I don't know how many are traveling, but for future travelers on that route. One online toll calculator says $33/car. Google Maps is 200 miles, currently 3:45 from BWI to the Manhattan Cruise Terminal. At 25 mpg and $5/gallon, that's $40 each way (yes, that's hopefully high for gas and low for mileage, but it still costs money). There's a cool online calculator that says with those assumptions, you're looking at $95 each way (they're higher on fuel, so using different mileage I assume). Then you're parking in Manhattan. I don't remember the weekly rate, but it isn't cheap. Three days out, a one way ticket on Amtrak (NE Regional) from BWI to New York Penn is $208 for two people. Three weeks ago you probably could have done it as low as $62, or $124 round trip. You'd be paying to park at BWI (or Uber/Cab), and a $15-20 for a cab or Uber from Moynihan to the cruise terminal, but in the Northeast Corridor, Amtrak is almost always a better option. And the NE Regional is scheduled for just over 3 hours on that route. The calculus changes with more people traveling, obviously. And it depends on where they are in Maryland for proximity to a station on the NE Corridor.

To the OP: One thing others have done is find one of the larger hotels in the Times Square area with a restaurant and check bags with the bell man while you go get a brunch of some sort, then wander around for a few hours. An upfront tip and a thank you tip would probably help...

That's definitely unfortunate! Google Maps shows them "permanently closed", but they're still paying for their website? Might be worth an email for the OP? schwartzhq@gmail.com

First one. It goes to Geiranger. Gerainger is one of the most unique sites in Scandinavia. You also get Bergin. Full disclosure: I've never been to Flam, so I can't compare, but I'll never forget Geiranger.

Do you have actual dates and a price range? Any hotel chain preferences? It could boil down to actual dates and day of the week. It's hit an miss in that area for now. I'm hoping things settle down. You can get some nice hotels, but you'll likely pay for them. Whoops! While it will let me edit. How close do you want to be? Have you been to Times Square in the past? Broadway theaters are adjacent to Times Square, which is kind of its own world. Saving a few bucks on a hotel will pay for a lot of Uber. But sometimes (last week, for instance) Times Square Hotels can be less expensive than hotels away from Times Square. Not saying inexpensive, just less...

It may be too late at this point... There's a frequent recommendation on this board going back years to always price out the total trip before settling on the airport. If you save $100 flying into LGA but it costs you $200 to get to Cape Liberty, didn't really help. But it is what it is.

Can’t help with hotels, but I’d at least consider getting it over with and going on to Jersey. Traffic should be as light as it will be barring overnight construction. And then you wake up a few miles from your ship, instead of in Queens…