chemmo

Coming from the UK the Canary Islands are a great year round holiday destination for us. Often for a one week taste of sunshine Autumn or Spring…Cruises also go from the UK year round to the Canary Islands (not Celebrity). The food obviously has a strong Spanish influence…Avoid the main tourist areas and you will find traditional bars and tapas venues. Each island has its own sights to see. Mount Teide on Tenerife offers some great scenic drives and walks. In Lanzarote there are lava tunnels you can walk in and a National Park where they show the volcanic heat still being generated by dropping water down a hole and generating a very mini Old Faithful! Gran Canaria has dunes made from sand that has blown over from the Sahara… We cruised the Canary Islands in early October and had great weather, we have visited the islands individually late October and the weather during the day was usually nicely warm with a lovely breeze but cool enough to need a light jacket in the evening. You can get the odd shower, more frequently in the evening in our experience. Some of the itineraries for the Canary Islands also include Madeira and/or the Azores…Again each has its own distinct personality… The Mediterranean weather, whilst still fairly mild, can be both wet and windy by the end of October. The Canary Islands being that bit further South tend to keep warmer. They are all also year round resorts, unlike many Mediterranean ports that shut down by November. Barcelona is one of my favourite ports…full of culture, history and (if you get off the tourist route) great food! Hope this is helpful!

🤞 that Celebrity can help out…

My heart goes out to you and your parents. I so hope that between insurance and Celebrity they will be sailing again soon. A sorry tale for us all. Whilst we generally do use a safe we do usually consider a decent hotel room in a decent area as ‘safe’ itself… Sadly, as an older cruiser myself I realise that the worse thing about a bad holiday experience (be it theft, illness or travel issues) it can shake your confidence…We are booked on Infinity from Athens next year. My first priority when looking for a hotel was a view, suddenly a safe has become more important. Get them back on board as soon as you can! Sincere best wishes to you all…

I guess the really clever thing to do is take each vacation as it comes… Loyalty to no company Look for exactly what you want from a vacation at that one moment in time Consider a range of options and their prices Be willing to be adventurous For the first time in many years we are about to do an AI in Europe, first in a very long time… All we want is a crash out, we didn’t want to fly far but wanted good weather, we didn’t want much sightseeing…If we had chosen a cruise we may have seen good ports as a chore rather than a pleasure… Celebrity doesn’t only face competition from other cruise lines…

Must confess I was thinking exactly the same…So easy to just push passports in a pocket as you go from passport control to luggage collection or as you check in to drop them in the hand luggage that they shouldn’t be in ‘just until you get up to your room…’. 🤞 for your parents. Please keep us updated…

Access to the Retreat lounge has been advertised as a Zenith perk for as long as a suite lounge has existed. Zenith guests over the years have ‘paid for’ a seat in the Retreat Lounge. This is not a new perk for Zeniths, it is a perk that was taken away during the return to cruising post pandemic. Understandable at the time with the need for guests to distance but now it needs reinstating to give loyal guests what they were promised. Personally, we have occasionally found ourselves chatting to guests in Michael’s/Retreat who we have later found out to be Zenith, invariably good company.

Welcome back Zenith’s! I would hope that as they know how many Zeniths are on each cruise they will have a ‘plan B’ on cruises where they know there are lots of Zeniths on board…If I was a Zenith (which I am unlikely to ever get to) I wouldn’t take kindly to being told ‘sorry the lounge is too full this cruise’ without them offering an alternative.

In my experience the hairdryers, even in higher suites, are hard work…Heavy and need the button pushing down. There have been lots of threads with suggestions about using elastic bands or Velcro strips to hold down buttons… However….Totally agree with horseymike….Just take out a glass of wine with you. Even if your hair is a bit frizzy from the drying at least after the wine you won’t care!

Just Mrs Chemmo now, sadly lost Mr Chemmo earlier this year….(we were a CC double act). Your posts are the sort we both used to love to share…I don’t know what he would have laughed at most, your post or my spilling my drink when reading it! Sometimes a subtle one liner outweighs wordy posts by miles!

I have so enjoyed your cruise! Perhaps because we have usually cruised as a family too… There is something about cruising that is multigenerational….Time to spend together and apart, activities to do together and separately… I am sure your review will have reminded many cruisers of the simple joys of being at sea and that your food pictures will have reassured many cruisers that there is good food still on Celebrity both in the MDR and in the speciality restaurants… Sincere thanks again!

There I was enjoying an adult evening beverage which is now down my front! Funniest post I have read in a long time! Thanks for the laugh!

Anything you miss from Celebrity? It certainly is the little things that staff do that make a cruise exceptional….

Having looked at documentaries on Virgin I don’t believe it is the cruise line for us although I can see it’s strengths. However, I am delighted see a rival cruise line highlighting the unpopular changes Celebrity has made over recent months… Whilst not directly affected by either the removal of room service or reduction of butler service I felt both changes, without prior warning, showed a lack of understanding of their customer base and what cruise customers value….Perhaps they need a ‘third party’ to make them wake up and see that they have upset many loyal regulars…

Just a brief message to ask how your cruise is continuing….Hope you are enjoying!

So sorry to see your cruise is at an end, I have so enjoyed your photos, ship comparisons and general commentary…Please board another ship soon!

Sincere best wishes for a wonderful birthday! Continuing to enjoy your review, re the soap…Could be a good excuse to buy a couple of new handbags to carry it in!

To my mind it is always about knowing what what you are booking and what you are comfortable with. The age of the ship and price of the cruise are factors that are important. There are places, because of the itinerary, I am comfortable to book on an older ship. There are ships I feel nostalgic about I want ‘one last trip on’. However, there are cruise ships I remember from 10/15 years ago which looked/felt dated then…How comfortable I would be with them now is questionable. Then there are the facilities on board. I am uncomfortable with only one ‘real’ speciality restaurant…I so wish Celebrity had kept the Ocean Liners (Murano equivalents). At the end of the day, your cash, your choice. We are booked on Infinity next September…There is nostalgia involved and a great itinerary…However, I am watching reviews of this ship specifically, and Celebrity generally, before final payment. Cruises on the older ships of the fleet are not cheap, especially when booking higher category cabins…As I said at the start…it is about knowing what you are booking and what you are comfortable with…

So enjoying your review! Such a lovely mix of life on board and sightseeing. Nice for you to enjoy some quality family time too. Goes to show, despite concerns recently aired, cruising is still a great holiday option!

Sincere best wishes for a wonderful cruise. Enjoy your upgrade! I did contact Celebrity myself following comments that she was going to get a refit and they confirmed what you have been told and what edgee described….a few rooms getting upgraded to a suite but that is it. We are in a suite and torn between loving it’s traditional fittings but equally concerned we are paying a lot of money for a run down ship…

As others have said it is usually quiet. We have only ever dined there for lunch. On sea days when the buffet is busy it is a nice place to chill out and dine casually feeling you are at sea…We found it had the ambiance of a Mediterranean cafe… The menu isn’t massive and the paella really wasn’t nice so browse on line. We have enjoyed the seafood tower but that is at an extra cost. If you are looking at booking other restaurants too I would try in the ‘negotiations for a deal’ seeing if you can get a ‘free’ lunch in the Porch included…

Nice to see breakfast specials in the Oceanview….Those buns look yummy!

Thank you for a thoughtful and well balanced review.

Check what paperwork you need to provide in Ford Lauderdale….I assume you would need to fill in a declaration form and have your receipt for tax purposes. Hopefully someone who has done similar can advise…

Order your drink the minute you arrive, before you even look at the menu, as cocktail delivery to Sushi has taken forever in our experience! Remember you may be unsure after one Spicy mangotini if you like it and consequently need a second to be sure. Purely to ensure you report back appropriately to CC, of course!

As someone who thinks it is OK to drown an occasional Scotch/cognac in lemonade I don’t think the up-charges will be worth it to me! How would you say the food is in comparison to Celebrity (suite dining)? Also what is the atmosphere like in the suite lounge both during the day and in the evening. Are people chatty or do they keep themselves to themselves? Is the entertainment in the lounge good? If you want to give it a few days more before replying to get a better flavour of the ship I totally understand…