Chitown12562

We have always dined in Blu. I laugh about taking a suit to wear as the only reason is the free dry cleaning coupon that I get thru the Captain's Club.

 

I wear it for dinner and most times am out of place walking thru the ship at 5:00 as many are wandering around in their bathing appeal or pool deck cloths. Many are also still in shorts and etc.

 

Besides those that dine in Blu there are also those that use the buffet or attend a specialty restaurant to avoid dressing up.

 

After seated at dinner I usually remove my jacket because it is too hot. Then after dinner I immediately go to the cabin and get into something comfortable for the night and blend in with many that have done the same. I could never understand sitting in a dark theater wearing a suit, attending a party on the pool deck, or sitting outside at the Sunset bar.

 

The next cruise also being in AQ I may take a sport jacket and if that doesn't need to be cleaned I would be doing the smart casual dress.

 

Happy cruising 🌊🇺🇸🚢🌞

I agree. If I'm going to go out by the pool after dinner or to see a late night hot glass show I'm outta that tux and into some shorts. Being on a cruise ship makes that easy to do.

OP wear what works for you in keeping with the ships policy. It's your vacation, so enjoy yourself.

Just don't give me dirty looks when I wear my tux on formal nights in Blu and the occasional suit and tie on non-formal nights. Other nights it may be a long sleeve shirt and slacks. I like to be comfortable too and it just depends on my mood that evening as to what I wear. That and having a beautiful woman on my arm makes me up my game!:D

Let's all enjoy ourselves, we're on vacation!!

I would blame the parents and not the children. If my child was unruly, or if you want to be cute "fussy", I wouldn't put them in a situation where they would cause others not to enjoy their vacations. I want to enjoy my vacation too and don't want to have to leave dinner to deal with my child.

If my child was not ready to be in a mature environment why would I force them to be there? Why would I place my needs above others and make them out to be bad, because I don't understand what environments my child is best suited for? With children growing up so quickly it was easy for us to take appropriate family vacations we could all enjoy during their first 4 years and mini adult vacations my SO and I could enjoy without the children. So quickly those years are gone and children grow up. Then they are ready for more mature environments.

Having said my piece I'll share 2 examples. The first was a Valentine's day dinner in a beautiful candlelight environment. 2 tables away a "fussy" child whose parents solved the problem by giving them a brightly glowing iPad mini with the sound turned up.

The second, 2 Celebrity cruises. Well behaved teens who I only saw during the muster. Younger 3-4 year olds walking hand in hand through the pool area with a kids club attendant, being asked nicely by the attendant to be silent as some adults were napping in the sun. Well behaved children enjoying a show at the theater as performers came out to greet them.

I love children, always will. Loved my children then, love my grandchildren now. But I will use my uncommon sense to deciding what is a comfortable and fun environment for them, me, and those around us.

Thanks for the information.

Rent acoustic guitars.

14 days with no guitar is insane!

I don't think anyone ever mention that the bag is pretty small. I took a picture of it that ill try to dig up. I think the bag was 12"X8".

I just found this video I made at breakfast the last morning. I made it to capture the morning music, which I really liked, but you can't hear it that well here. It is a good view around the restaurant, though.https://vimeo.com/122317453

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Thank you very much for posting the video!

The problem we americans have in these arguments, is we assume our lifestyle is the end all be all for the rest of the world, and we like to think the rest of the world needs to work like we do. It doesn't.

 

For US citizens, working on a Crusie ship is not going to make you rich, but will let you save your money. If you are hired on from the slums in India, you will be come RICH beyond your imagination after a few cruses.

 

Crusie ship work isn't; for everyone, if you have kids or family at home, not the best idea. If young and single, a great idea. Just likely a minimum wage McDonald's job should't be seen as a career if one wants to get rich, remaining a cabin steward on a ship isn't a lifelong career that will make you rich. Truth is some careers and jobs are meant for entry level staff and not as a way to provide for an entire family, others require time and experience in order to gain benefits and wages.

 

Each human no matter what country we re from, can make a decision to accept the pay scale, the benefits, and the difficulties with ship life. It's an individual decision, and not one I as an american citizen need to be making for another.

 

Ys crew spend some money while traveling, buying toiletries, clothing etc. These would still need purchased at home. And many ports provide discounts for crew of ships, so we can't assume all those come at a premium cost to the staff. I;ve been in NYC Times square, hanging with friends who are stagehands. go to any bar in the neighborhood, and as a theatre staff member, you drink 2 for 1 pricing. Walk in off the street as a tourist, you pay full price.

 

I;ve done work that required me to be at a venue at 8 am, stay till 10 pm, and do this for several weeks with no days off. Everyone chooses their own career and job, and takes both he perks and tot downfalls that come with it.

 

Who are we to be all high and mighty and so condescending that we need to take pity upon the poor, overworked cruise staff. Anyone of us who thinks our cabin steward is overworked, simply tell them next cruise you need no service the entire cruise, you'll just grab a few towels daily from them. Actually DO something about it, don't just talk about it.

 

When we consider wages of countries outside the US, we can;t just talk about currency converted to USD. You also need to consider government subsidies, local taxes, government provided insurance and services, local custom and commodity pricing. When I worked in Egypt for example, my staff received what they felt was a great wage - $200 a MONTH (yes, two-hundred a month). They had good clothes, iPhones etc. The government subsidized so much of their living expenses, their meager (compared to us) earned ages covered plenty of fun and allowed them to live as their peers lived.

Not that you need it said, but BRAVO!

On another note I have met those who have family back home, who are single, and who are married and their SO also works on the ship. All kinds doing an excellent job helping me have a wonderful vacation, just as I try to do an excellent job in my profession of keeping and growing cellular services across the U.S. We are all working hard for each other. And I have no problem giving extra money and respect to those who put forth an effort to do their job the best they can.

But agian I'm supposed to be on vacation. And while I find some of this conversation stimulating, some of it is taking me off topic on how to have the best vacation possible. Time for me to go.

TTFN

Thanks for posting them!

That is your opinion. To be quite frank, the last place on earth I count carbs is on a cruise! I happen to like risotto, at least if it's prepared properly. It's not my favorite, but the only thing even vaguely interesting on the menu.

That says to me that you should have definitely eaten in the MDR. It's great that there is something for everyone on the ship. I love Blu, but I have also had some nice items in the buffet.

Also it's possible that the person you made the comment in Blu was sincere in her comment. I don't know if people who dine in Blu automatically say something negative about how a person is dressed while those in the new suite dinning area automatically do not. Again it's nice that a person can wear whatever they want and fine a great place to dine.

Looking forward to the pictures!

Or...have them upgrade to an AQ cabin if one is available.

+ 1

Some find that Blu and the ather amenities are worth upgrading to AQ. Maybe they could get a deal on the upgrade. Then you could all dine in Blu.

I think the strippers name was Misty Fjord. :D

Anyway I thought the Sin City shows we saw last year on the Equinox were pretty good. Never imagined Celebrity doing a burlesque show.

I've been on NCL cruises where the comedian did an adult shows. People were yelling for him to swear, but no dice. In Celebrity's Sin City show the language was really adult in nature. Blushed a feel times.

The Antioxcident is one of our faves. We even bought the ingredients an home to we could continue to have it.

On our last cruise we noticed it was off the menu, but the bar just before the specialty restaurants on the S-class ships a little of one ingredient left so we order one.

While we enjoy the delicious and unique cocktails at the Molecular Bar, from our experience on the Solstice in January, it typically took about 20 minutes from the time the order was placed to the time it was delivered. Usually there is only one bartender. The recipes are often complicated and take a long time to make. If there are just six other people sitting at the bar, you can do the math. So, I do wonder if the bar is just not cost effective for Celebrity based on the staff time required to prepare each drink.

It's interesting that on this board some say that Celebrity has reduced their offering of Modern Luxtury. Some even say what is offer is not so modern or even luxurious. But if that is what we want we should understand that it comes at a price, and sometimes that price is time.

You're right in that it takes a while for those fancy drinks to be made and if Molecular bar is full and there is only one bartender,....you could well be there for a while. I say I think it's worth the wait. (If I don't have a show I'm trying to get to.):D

I've been there when there was one bartender (not so good, slow service) and when there were two (much better). I've never seen it filled with too many people, like the martini bar, and that works for me. The Molecular bar is why we upgrade to the premium package and we look forward to going there every night of every cruise. With the things that are being taken away it is (was) one of the few remaining venues and said "Modern Luxury".

I wish them luck with coming up with a replacement venue.

We've never been on Equinox, but we've been on other S class ships and the Molecular bar is seldom busy. The only time we've seen a lot of people in there was when they were having an art exhibit. it's a very cool concept, but the placement of the bar and the cost of the drinks makes it unpopular IMO.

 

Tom

The bar not being overly busy works, because it takes longer than the usual amount of time to make the drinks they serve.

It's our favorite bar also. One of the few places on the ship that delivers on its promise, which is to engage the senses. The drinks are also a work of art, so the location near the art gallery is fitting.

We hope the next venue can continue to brink an artful flare and delicious tastes to our future cruises.

I do not mean this to be picking on you but am asking it as a general question, If one is on a cruise, why would one spend it sitting in the stateroom watching movies? Can't figure out why.

 

DON

If one is naturally born with a delicious carmel color one may not feel the need to sit in the sun for 10 hours. And if one doesn't always feel the need to be with the crowd one might want to step away and enjoy a movie or enjoy ones balcony.

I think someone asked a while back about how many memory cards I took with me. Believe it or not, only one, a 32GB ScanDisk Extreme. I like to live on the edge. I shot in raw + JPEG and took my laptop so I could dump my photos each day. Then I re-formatted the memory card just to be safe.

 

Since I had two other cameras I also had two additional memory cards I could pull if I needed too, but I never had too. I figured if I had to take one of those it would be easy enough to replace on one of the islands.

 

Moving forward I'll probably only shot in raw since I now feel confident editing my raw images, but I like having the security of the JPEG images as well just in case. Then I'll just take a few more memory cards with me.

 

Ok, now I'm off to edit some photos so I can post again. :)

It was me who asked, so thank you for remembering the question. I took my laptop on our last cruise also. I was thinking that I would leave it at home on the next trip and just take enough memorie cards.

LOL, I am with you. Stay away from those buffet self service spigots.

Order your OJ, from waiter, in MDR if open for breakfast, Cafe Bacio, and room service.

Order your mimosa in any bar.

Funny thing is, I like the fruit punch drink from those spigots!:eek:

I expect on my next cruise, with my premium drink package on my my card, I will also be sipping on the delectable nectar that is the fruit punch drink. That said the OJ drink from those spigots is nasty!:D

I used a Debit Card when I signed in online for the Xpress pass. When checking in I brought cash, but they could not take it at the check-in counter. They asked me to go to guest services once I was on the ship. I went to guest services and gave them the cash and they used that cash. I got the remainder back the night before embarkation.

I did have a drink or two that final night after getting my remaining cash back. I do not remember if there was a hold on my card, but I know they never charged me for the drinks.

There is a big difference between fresh OJ - as in, squeezed from oranges very recently on board - and orange juice that's not from a concentrate. The presence of pulp in the orange juice is NOT necessarily an indication that it is freshly squeezed. We squeeze oranges and grapefruits at home for juice, and there's a certainly a difference in the flavour. Our 23 year old son won't drink the freshly squeezed OJ - he prefers the "not from concentrate OJ". He doesn't like the taste of the freshly squeezed - says it tastes funny. :p

 

Recently Marketplace (a national consumer affairs show here in Canada), on the CBC had an interesting show devoted to OJ:

 

The cartons say "100% pure and natural." But juice-drinkers who believe that premium juice is minimally processed and freshly made may find that their glass is only half full.

 

A joint investigation by CBC Marketplace and Radio-Canada's L'épicerie reveals that much of the premium not-from-concentrate orange juice on the market, including juices from Tropicana, Simply Orange, Oasis and others, is highly processed and may be stored for several months before making its way to supermarket shelves.

 

That processing may keep the juice from spoiling, but it also strips the flavour, which has to be put back into the product to give the juice its orange flavour.

 

"If you're paying premium thinking that it's a fresh-squeezed product, then there is a problem there, because it's not," Alissa Hamilton, author of the book Squeezed: What You Don’t Know About Orange Juice, told Marketplace co-host Tom Harrington.

 

PepsiCo, which owns Tropicana, told Marketplace in a statement that "our products meet the requirements of the food and drug regulations."

 

Juice drinkers in several U.S. states have filed class-action lawsuits, charging the makers of premium orange juice with deceptive practices for marketing their juices as fresh and natural.

 

 

You can read more of that story

 

That processing may keep the juice from spoiling, but it also strips the flavour, which has to be put back into the product to give the juice its orange flavour.

 

"If you're paying premium thinking that it's a fresh-squeezed product, then there is a problem there, because it's not," Alissa Hamilton, author of the book Squeezed: What You Don’t Know About Orange Juice, told Marketplace co-host Tom Harrington."

.....

 

Juice drinkers in several U.S. states have filed class-action lawsuits, charging the makers of premium orange juice with deceptive practices for marketing their juices as fresh and natural.[/indent'>

 

You read the whole story here

, if you're interested.

Fixed link for who every is interested. I was since I'm a part time dietician. ;)

http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/orange-juice-is-premium-juice-actually-more-natural-1.2902004

As others have stated it can get a little tiring. I think a lot of it comes down to how much you can handle and how active you like to be. For this cruise we really didn't have much down time and we had several early mornings/long days. As I said though I don't regret doing anything. In total we had 10 excursions over the 8 ports.

Thanks to you and everyone else for your answers. Good thing I'm an early riser in regards to early mornings. I'll have to pace my self as far as excursions go.

It looks like some picture have disappeared. Maybe they'll pop back up later.

Can I ask, how many memory cards did you bring (and what size) to capture the entire trip?

As stated previously, this was the longest cruise we have done. It was 14 nights with 8 ports and 5 sea days. A few people on our roll call had done this cruise before as a B2B. Prior to going on the cruise I couldn't imagine doing that, however now I get it. I easily could have stayed on.

 

Below is a map of our itinerary...

 

 

Having sailed on other S-class ships we had a pretty good idea of which Aqua class cabins to avoid. We were in cabin 1643 which is an A2. We could have been closer to the hump, however I wanted to avoid the cabins with the vent over the balconies. Noise was not an issue since there are cabins above this cabin. All and all we liked the location. It was our first time being so far back.

 

The planning that went into this cruise was rather extensive. I did a lot of research on CC and TripAdvisor since we were visiting several of the islands for the first time. There were also several people on our roll call who had done this cruise previously and shared some great advice. I organized a few excursions for our group of friends and two for the roll call. We did an excursion in every port which I would not recommend. This was one time where I will admit my DH was right, but lets keep that as our secret. That said, it was an amazing trip and I wouldn't change anything.

 

Since we both work full time we were not able to take off much time before the cruise due to its length. We flew down to Miami on American Airlines Friday night with the cruise leaving on Sunday. We are lucky enough to have made so many wonderful friends on CC that we stayed with our adoptive cruise parents prior to this cruise. They also came with us.

 

This will probably be it for tonight, but I promise to try and cover at least one aspect or day of the cruise each day. Since this is supposed to be a photo review I should probably also leave you with a photo. I would tell you where it was taken, but I don't want to give anything way. ;)

 

Just wondering why you wouldn't do an excursion everyday.

We're about to do the same cruise in a few weeks, but we haven't book all of our excursions yet.

And thanks for the upcoming photo review!

I prefer juice from "concentrate"...tastes better and is more uniform in flavor! And, no 'pits" or "pulp"! It's what I drink at home...it's what most folks drink at home!

We drink OJ that is "not from concentrate" in our home. Just saying.:D

Also the stores in our area have started selling fresh squeezed juice. Looks funny when it seperates, but OMG it's so good. It won't ruin my vacation if the just is squeezed elsewhere, but I notice those things and would prefere it was done on the ship.

As for eggs, they may not be powdered eggs, but they weren't fresh eggs my SO had in Blu last year when she ordered them scrambled. Too many business trips and eating at too many hotel buffets have taught me the difference. She ordered scrambled eggs from room service and they were not fresh eggs. Ordered them in Blu, not fresh. In both cases she did not like them. I figure you have to ask for fresh scrambled eggs.

Again, didn't ruin our cruise.:D

Some get upset when amenities get taken away. Some always excuse amenities being taken away.

I'm going to say this, Celebrity Cruises,...we see amenities going away and we see prices going up. It is being noticed. Its all being noticed.

It's very strange about AQ. Cannot figure out why on some sailings they sell out right away and others not. On our TA for 2015 AQ was sold out immediately (18 months out) ...did not manage to get one, and for the one in 2016 there are still tons in both categories available... got one

For us if AQ is not avaliable we look for another sail date or ship.

While we try to be conscious of what we eat we like to take the 3 winter months before a cruise and really concentrate on losing weight and learning new ways to have a healthy diet. Going to Blu becomes our reward for all our hard work, a reward that won't put too many pounds back on offer the cruise. When I read the menu I don't see an overstated fu-fu list of choices, but a list of ingredients used and how it is prepared. Nothing more. I also find Blu very relaxing for breakfast and dinner. The design of the room, the view from the windows, and the attitudes of my fellow diners reflect that relaxing mood. That's as it should be since I'm on vacation.

I find the shower amenities and the Perisan Garden spa options to also be conclusive to a relaxing vacation. The serenity offered in the saunas are just what I need. I find the Perisan Gardens to be very peaceful, except for when a passenger walks in that feels the need to talk loudly and non-stop.....I'll stop there before I say something I can't take back.

Once, stopping outside the MDR I saw two gentlemen reading the menu while waiting for their wives. When I looked at the menu I saw some interesting items, but nothing to sway me from Blu that night. The two gents we're excited about the menu options. One wanted the steak and the other chicken. Nothing overly interesting to me, but that's what they wanted. We were all happy and glad to be on a great vacation.

Something for everyone.