Mike981

Oh, thank you for this. I will definitely give both of these a try.

You are man after my own heart. My whole family loves to take in storms, especially when we were camping. Thank you again for all of your work doing this live review. I have shared many of your stories with my wife and she has enjoyed them as well. No matter how long the cruise, the last day is a bummer. I wish only safe travels for you and your mother.

Put my DW and myself in the minority. Cheese; is a very big deal.

Love it and I am right there with you.

Keep it up, the dairy farmers need your support. My wife and I grew up in Wisconsin, so we are good supporters as well. Probably more on the cheese side, but I still love a good glass of milk. Oh I hear you on the weight gain. Years ago I went hard on the Keto diet and cut way back on my drinking before our cruise. In one week I gained 15lbs and both my wife and I were getting limited on clothes.

Thanks again for the great review. I am close to booking a 2025 January trip on Constellation and your attention to detail has made the choice easier. Since I have Irish blood in me, I love how they put the extra time and effort into celebrating the day. I would love to do an "inside tour" of all the stuff they need to store for holidays and special occasions, and the logistics of storing off site as well.

I have never done a move up bid because I like to know where my room is on the ship. That is more important to me than the type of room. That said, I have been tempted to do it to surprise my DW. If I got the room category in a bid and then Celebrity "changed their mind", I would be beyond upset. Especially with what was offered as compensation to the OP. I have had customer service reps tell me that I can't talk to their manager because they are out of the office for an extended period. My reply usually is, "and I am sure they deserve their time away because of their important job. So I am sure that there must be someone else covering for them while they are away, yes?" Once I had a rep tell me that they didn't know who was covering for their manager and I just said, "I understand, I'll wait while you find out." OP, only good wishes to a wonderful vacation for you and your spouse.

Sorry if you answered this already, how is the gym? Only made it to the gym once on our last cruise on the Silhouette, and that was only a walk through. But I thought it was nice. 😉

Yes on the Silhouette two months ago.

I got that as well Jim. I also like when a website/email asks you to just answer one question and when you go there it is a full survey. *Interesting issue with another website* Last week I tried to reach customer service for an appliance that is not working correctly. This is a major international company and i went through the proper channels (aka hoops) to contact support and when I went to hit enter with my all of my information I got one of those captcha boxes, "click the images that have a bus in them." No luck. I really wanted to move this forward so I tried at least six times and it never worked. Just a big waste of my time and I still have the same issue.

Thank you, I look forward to following along.

Years ago I booked our family of four on a cruise that left from Tampa. I read about how cool it was to cruise under the bridge and more than one person said you need to get your spot early because it will get crowded. So I made a huge deal out of us getting a good spot right away and then the wait. A very long wait, unfortunately by the time we cruised under the bridge it was anticlimactic and I felt more than a little embarrassed. Not to say it isn't a neat thing to see, but when you have two young kids and they are ready to go have fun it was a bit of a let down for them.

Only pointing out that there is a BIG difference from a multi-billion dollar company and an individual who is posting on a internet forum. In this case, Celebrity has shown time and time again that they just don't care like so many others.

Thank you for your wonderful review. My wife and I will most likely be sailing on the Constellation this coming January. "....for the elevator to spit my Mother out." 🤣

My wife has a side gig that she has done for years where she proof reads for a Doctors blog. The doctor is well known and does many speaking engagements where she will bring up my wife and say that DW makes the Dr. look better than she really is. Point being, she realizes that when you have silly grammar mistakes it lowers peoples opinion of you. BUT, it is also an easy item to cut from the budget. I believe grammar issues are so common that companies just go with the flow and don't get too worked up about it and save the money. I am still amazed that major news outlets can't even get their headlines correct. I do realize that a lot of our news is now AI generated and there is very little oversight. What a change over the course of my life when it comes to news. My town doesn't have a local newspaper anymore, local radio is pretty much gone, radio shows are recorded in different markets days ahead, or they are satellite feeds.

We print all documents and keep them in a folder, as well as having the documents on our phone/computer. I also use a feature with my password generator where I can store private information. I have health info, all credit card (card numbers and code) info including 800 numbers to call if there is a problem. Anything that you can smooth out any speed bumps that pop up on your trip. If you never need to use any of them, lucky you. Read your contract that you get from the cruise line. Most people don't and it is a shame because you are spending $$$$ and they won't have any idea what the passenger or the cruise line are responsible for. A little tip, when push comes to shove the cruise line isn't responsible for much. So much so it can be a little unsettling. BUT, you should know what you are buying and it answers a lot of questions you might have. Don't be afraid to call your cruise line with questions. Cruise Critic is a wealth of information but, there can also be a lot of misinformation. Not on purpose, it is just the nature of the internet. Lastly, roll with the flow and have a fantastic trip!

Thank you for your review, we sailed Milly over twenty years ago when she was still a youngen.

@islandwoman I'm sorry you have had to deal with this issue. I hope you have a wonderful vacation and it makes up for all of your headaches before your trip.

$13, not a huge deal. But since I have seen others mention the same type of issue, my hope is it might help fix the problem.

I don't know if this is germane to the topic, my DW and I had an interesting thing happen a month ago on our Silhouette cruise. We had the premium drink package, so I was surprised that I got a charge for my order of Canadian Club and water in Blu. I noticed a couple of days before we disembarked and my wife called down to customer service and they laughed and said "of course there is no charge, you have the premium package I will remove it." Then the morning we were getting off I checked our folio and the charge was still there, I figured I would give them a call when I get home instead of standing in line for ever. So I give them a call when I get home and got a very kind customer service rep, she said of course you should not have been charged, but she needed to go through the actual ship to get it reversed. BUT, she will call me back and she did. Except when she called back, she explained that it was from my drink order at Blu. "Yes and I had the premium drink package." She said that she will look into it and get back to me. And she did! She said that they reversed the charges and all is fine. Then I got another call a few days later from her to let me know that she now had proof that the charge was reversed and there was nothing to worry about. Yes it was a bit of pain trying to get it sorted, but the customer service rep was excellent.

I knew if it was an Apple question, @Jim_Iain would have the answer.

Love it!

Nice post @Hlitner You are reminding me of when I worked in an office and many coworkers would constantly complain about their job. I would get sick of hearing about it and say, "well you have two options; figure out how to make it work or leave. No sense in staying at a job that you hate." I worked in radio, so most people could have easily gone and gotten a job at a convenience store and not missed a beat.

I was feeling the same way as you about Celebrity a month ago. Then my DW and I went on the Silhouette for a 10 day in the Caribbean and loved it. I booked our last room this past April at what I considered a good rate, who knows if I will be able to find that again. The only reason we wouldn't go with Celebrity would be the cost to benefit ratio isn't there or a better offer/itinerary on another line. We certainly are not married to Celebrity. Our next cruise is up in the air, because our daughter is getting married in August 2025 in Iceland. So $$$$. If we are able to go on our usual winter vacation, it will be a scaled down version.

First cruise ever was on Mercury, followed the next year on Millennium. To this day even understanding it was our first cruise, Mercury is our favorite ship. Just loved the size and the look and feel.