bobmacliberty

Cruise Critic really, REALLY, needs to add a "boo" button.

This is what I'm most looking forward to as a grandparent. 😁

So it's true...doctors make the worst patients. 😁

This is the cruise that we were looking at due to Grand Cayman and Puerto Plata. Been to Grand Cayman once a long time ago and never been to Puerto Plata. We too avoid afts due to the long walk but it might be a good trade off in this case to avoid middle of the night noise. Strange that they would put all of the Sky Suites in a noisy area. Highest isn't always best.

Thanks George (and everyone else who answered)! Helpful thread. Looks like it's worth an extra $200 to choose a specific Sky Suite that has fewer noise issues. I added a question to that thread looking for help in picking such a suite. I think all Sky Suites are under the Ocean View Cafe, but some apparently are under carpeted areas that are much quieter than carts being rolled across hard floors. Any suggestions on specific Sky Suites that are quieter from members of this thread would be greatly appreciated.

We haven't purchased the drink package since turning D and getting the 4 free vouchers. We still get as many drinks as we want and have sometimes racked up a pretty good alcohol bill the end of the cruise, but we never spend as much as we would have buying 2 drink packages. We usually have access to the suite happy hour though. YMMV.

Building on this...what are the preferable Sky Suites in Equinox to minimize OVC noise? We were also thinking of booking a Guarantee but paying an additional $200 to pick our suite and avoid OVC noise seems like a bargain. First time cruising Celebrity and I appreciate the help!

I know there are a few Celebrity cruisers here, so I'll try this question here first before venturing to the Celebrity boards. We're looking at taking our first Celebrity cruise out of Port Canaveral (easy drive) sometime this winter. The only ship out of Port Canaveral at that time is Equinox. We want to try the Retreat. I'm considering booking a suite guarantee...which I'm guessing will almost certainly end up putting us in an entry level Sky Suite. That saves us about $200 vs. booking a specific Sky Suite. Are there any "bad" Sky Suite locations such that's it's worth spending an extra $200 to get a specific cabin location? Seems like all regular Sky Suites are on deck 12. Anything else worth considering before booking something on Equinox? We already have our Captain's Club numbers which translates from our Royal D+ to Elite Plus. Ken...look for an email when you get back from your Utopia cruise. 🙂

My logic would be...these are brand new chairs so the bands must have been in place for shipping to keep the chairs in an upright position. They must have forgotten to remove the "shipping bands" when putting the chair on the balcony. I will therefore help them out by cutting the band off for them. 😁

Is that the place that is famous for people getting married?

Maybe Johnny and Walker?

Even though I've not seen it in person, I'll already declare that the Pesky Parrot is 1000 times better than the Bionic Bar.

I've got a very old memory of Nantucket. Both sides of my family are from the Boston area and my mother's family almost all ended up migrating to the Cape as they got older. Truro, Wellfleet, and South Yarmouth, to be specific. One year when we were visiting (50+ years ago), we took the ferry from Hyannis to Nantucket for a couple of nights. While that was interesting, the memorable part was that my parents splurged for a plane ride back to the Hyannis airport. I remember squeezing 2 adults and 3 kids (plus the pilot) into a small prop plane for the short trip. It may have been my first ever plane ride??? The details have faded, but I remember that plane ride more than anything that we did while on the island. I imagine that the island has changed significantly since then...as has the Cape.

My daughter loves an Aperol Spritz. She spent some time in Northern Italy and that was what EVERYONE seemed to drink, at least in the summer. I think Aperol is a little less bitter than Campari, but I'm not sure. If you want to try a twist on the Enzoni, make a Garibaldi instead. It's similar to an Enzoni but with Rye instead of Gin. I haven't tried it (yet).

If only grown-ups could be more like children.

I'm not a fan either, but I found a cocktail that makes Campari drinkable, at least for me...The Enzoni. Muddle green grapes, add gin, Campari, a little lemon juice, and some simple syrup. It tones down the Campari bitterness nicely. It's one of those drinks that I wasn't sure that I liked while I was drinking it, so I had to make a second one to be sure. 😁

Like this?

You're doing it wrong Greg. Now that you're a movie star, you send your personal assistant to handle menial tasks like these. 😜

@Sea Dog Greg - Congrats on being selected to be an extra. I'm conflicted. On the one hand, I'd love to see you in the upcoming movie...even if it's just a shot of the back of your head. On the other hand, I'm not a big Hallmark movie guy and I've had more than my share of watching things on TV related to the Chiefs (which often ends poorly for me ☹️). I'll somehow suffer through though in support of you. I'm sure you know this, but this is what NOT to do as an extra. 😜

You will definitely be able to get a taxi at the airport from the taxi line, and at your hotel (likely waiting by the entrance). You will also almost certainly be able to hail a taxi if you're somewhere that has several taxis passing by. It looks like Boston taxis use the same Curb app that NYC taxis use. You might want to load the Curb app on your phone also in case you need it for some reason. We were in a place in NYC that didn't have any taxis and the Uber that we requested had some sort of problem. We cancelled the Uber and used Curb to get a taxi to come to us.

Uber is pretty easy. Download the app, create an account, add a payment method, and you are ready to go. This video shows how it works. It used to be that Uber had a few advantages over taxis...It was often cheaper, you never had to deal with payment for the driver (done in the app), you could see exactly where your car was and when it would arrive, you can track your journey while in progress, etc. When we were in NYC in January, the taxis there used an app that was similar to the Uber app and had many of the same advantages. I wouldn't be surprised if Boston also had an app for their taxis.

I thought the same thing but decided not to say anything so that I wouldn't risk going the way of the lighthouse cookie. Reminds me of an episode of Everybody loves Raymond where Marie took an art class and made an interesting sculpture.

I know you said that you'd rather not do it, but we would do the one-way car rental when we were flying in. We liked the freedom of having a car the night before. We stayed in the Orlando area a couple of times and drove to the port the next morning. If we did that, we used Enterprise since they are right by Gator's and it's easy to drop the luggage and everyone else first, before I returned the car and caught a shuttle back to the port. We now drive to the port (about 3 hours away) but our kids are flying in to MCO for our next cruise. They will get an Uber and stay near the port. I'm not sure about price difference between renting, Uber, and shuttle, especially with more than just a couple of people (since the shuttle cost is per person).

I appreciate the effort but nope. I can still see plenty. Ruins what otherwise looks like a great plate. 🤢