DYKWIA

Some videos starting to appear in twitter - looks quite bad

3 minutes ago, villauk said:

 

Correct, and that’s what would concern me - that’s without any traffic issues along the way. It’s an unknown quantity in the current climate, irrespective of what’s happened in the past. 

...yes, for those people who are not following UK and European politics - there is a complete uncertainty about what the near future holds for the UK at the moment.  This is of particular note in relation to the mainland and Ireland (Northern Ireland part of the UK and EIRE, not part of the UK).  It remains completely unclear whether we will have crashed out of the European Union in the next 7 days or whether it will be in the next couple of months or if it will happen at all.  

Tensions are also rising in the country with one half of the UK seemingly hating the other half, worrying times.

I read a tweet earlier today which seems to sum the current situation up well. "As a nation we're basically at the point in a Scorcese film when Gimme Shelter starts playing and everything goes to s**t"....... 

On 3/21/2019 at 2:24 PM, dustball said:

I could use some advice.  We are on the 8/11-8/25 Silhouette Ireland/Iceland Cruise.  We are trying to find flights (boy are they expensive!) and we found an affordable one that leaves on 8/25 at 1:00 PM from LHR.  Has anyone had good luck with being the first off the ship at 6 AM (carrying our luggage), going through customs, having a car waiting and gotten to LHR (approximately 1 hour commute on a Sunday) in time?

 

I would love to hear opinions on this.  Thanks to all my fellow cruisers.  This forum is invaluable!

 

Stephanie

We have self disembarked at Southampton 3 times - IIRC we were off the ship by about 6 and in our car (parked on site) and driving off by about 6.15.  It's very easy and quick.  Under normal circumstances I think there's a very god chance you'll be in a taxi on your way within 15-20 mins of disembarking.  It's about 70-80 minutes on the motorway from Southampton to Heathrow.

The big unknown is what effect the political upheaval in the UK will have on customs & immigration, and customs at the port. 

6 minutes ago, Hlitner said:

The best dinner (or any) buffet we have ever had was at the Oriental Hotel in Bangkok.  It was at an outdoor restaurant that overlooked the river and many items such as different high quality steaks and lobster were cooked to order on outdoor BBQ grills.   Not sure if they still offer this pretty famous buffet (the restaurant is now closed for renovations) but it is something we would check-out on any visit to that fun city.

 

Hank

Ahh The Oriental Bangkok, proposed to my wife there at China House.  Wonderful hotel. 

The buffets in the top Asian Hotels particularly in Thailand and Hong Kong are the best in the world, particularly when the hotel groups get their chefs to travel to different hotels. I recall the buffet at the Island Shangri La in Hong Kong had a Thai chef from Bangkok with them for a couple of weeks preparing made to order Thai salads.

36 minutes ago, richsea said:

I agree that the buffet can seem repetitious, particularly on longer sailings, but how many different choices can they offer for breakfast? If anyone thinks they ate oatmeal too often, it must be because they don’t want eggs, waffles, pancakes, fruit, omelets, cold cereal, potatoes, toast, english muffins, bagels, or any one of otger breakfast foods that are available everyday. It even seems that salmon is available on most ships. 

I've stopped in hotels before that offer giant breakfast buffets and the classics (about 1/2 of what is on offer) will be on every day but the rest like a breakfast curries, kedgeree, kippers, haggis or other regional specialties is on a 2-3 day rotation. This can help with keeping breakfast less repetitious.  Another thing we will try and do is either change venue - Aqua Spa Cafe on sea days,  buffet on port days - cooked breakfasts on long port days, continental buffet on short port days.

23 hours ago, Hlitner said:

Just a thought, but perhaps we are also talking about "boring" eaters as well as a somewhat boring buffet :).  There is a pretty big selection in the lunch buffets, but many folks are only interested in a few items and dismiss everything else because it is not what they like.  One thing we have learned on our cruises (and from a close family member) is that the world is full of "picky" eaters.    That being said, we have our "issues" with the lunch buffets on Celebrity.  I am not a big fan of their sandwich station where they have too many kinds of "mystery meat" and not enough products like a decent ham, pastrami, roast beef, etc.  I would not feed some of those mystery meats to my dog (and my dog is dead).

 

....

 

Hank

 

 

This is a good point.  It reminds me of a few years ago when we were in Thailand and the hotel had a spectacular evening buffet featuring amongst what seemed like 100s of dishes lobster, fillet steak, octopus.  Three of us were in our elements but the fourth person ( a very fussy eater) wandered around and around and eventually after some time returned to the table with some lettuce and tomatoes, complaining that was all they could find and that the buffet wasn't very good

Budget is an important factor for hotels.

Three best areas IMO - Honk Kong Island either in Central or Admiralty.  Alternatively Kowloon in Tsim Sha Tsui.

If you can afford it I think Hong Kong is one of the best, if not the best, cities in the world to splurge.  There are several hotels that are are truly world class.  

For old school luxury in Central I think the Mandarin Oriental (not the Landmark) takes some beating.  In Kowloon you have the famous Peninsula Hotel. In Admiralty you have the Island Shangri La.

A slight notch down but still 5 star luxury - in Kowloon, the Kowloon Shangri La with excellent large Harbour View Rooms. There's also the Intercontinental (Not the Grand Standford Intercontinental) although that is die to close for a rebranding and refurb soon.

I'd personally be wary of the Ritz Carlton - yes it's the 4th tallest hotel in the world but it is in a slightly odd location.

Other notable hotels that I've heard are great but I'm less familiar with in Central - The Landmark Mandarin Oriental ad Four Seasons.  In Admiralty, The Upper House or one notch down The Conrad.  In Kowloon, The Langham.

So sorry to hear of your sad loss, many of us have traveled vicariously with you and your wife over the years.

What? Amber Lager?  Boddingtons and London Pride - these are ales.

CAMRA will be picketing Southampton as we speak 

30 minutes ago, Jim_Iain said:

We met a couple on our last cruise that have a strategy on Roulette.    They place two bets one on Red  Line and one on Black Line.    They claim you can come pretty close to beak even and came back with a handful of cash.   Not really sure how it works as I don't gamble.

Red and Blacks pay evens - so effectively if a Red comes in you lose your black bet, but win your red bet - getting your stake back plus same again in winnings (vice versa if black comes in).  So you don't win anything but you don't lose anything either and you have converted your non refundable OBC.  Sounds fine, but there is a risk of 0 or 00 comes in these are neither red or black and you lose both bets.  36 numbers, 18 red and 18 black and on US roulette tables 0 and 00 - so there's a 1/19 chance you lose your money. I believe this bet used to be frowned upon / banned in some UK casinos as it is an effective way for criminals to launder money.  There is a similar bet where you can bet on odds or evens, with zeros losing on all bets - same odds.

We play our non refundable OBC slots and on every win religiously  print the win out as a voucher as we are playing.  This way you never accidentally play your winnings your are always playing your non refundable OBC.  It is very easy if you are not careful to start playing your winnings.

18 hours ago, capsplace said:

LV lanyard!  Where to buy?  LOL!

We brought ours from here

I have the perfect Lanyard to end the oneupmanship

43 minutes ago, Orator said:

There's an idea here! Companies could produce advertising lanyards and pay people to wear them. Free enterprise at its best. This might shift focus from "status" to the need for money.

No need to do that.  Celebrity get people to buy them at a hefty premium!

18 minutes ago, Cruise a holic said:

Lanyards are used by many high level executives to enter work.  ...

 

Many clever doctors wear stethoscopes at work, but i'm sure none would want to wear one on holiday

In recent years wearing lanyards has become something associated with work (and even schools now) - I suspect that the vast majority of people who work in a corporate environment or in a public building have to wear these things.  Gone are the days when you could be rude and surely to someone and they wouldn't have a clue who you were.

Hope you touch lucky with the right tailor and fitting at Sam's - first time was great, second time nothing fitted very well unfortunately.  Good price and good materials though.  I was very impressed with James Chen at the Mandarin Oriental, not cheap for a Super 120 suit but a lot cheaper than what you would pay in the UK .  Staying at the hotel made it very easy to go for several fittings.  Can't understand why but despite fluctuations in my weight 15 years on that suit still fits, looks and feels great.

I wear a lanyard every day at work, identifying who I am and my right to be in that building, I really don't want to wear one on holiday - If I had the option I wouldn't wear one at work.  Other than when I'm using it to purchase something , leave the ship, return or when required to by Celebrity I would prefer to keep information like my name, status  etc private.

Lots of custom and practice I see on cruise ships I can't fathom out - decorating your cabin doors for example.

Each to their own.

36 minutes ago, jkgourmet said:

 

I'm not.  People will pay for that sunshine.  I don't expect Celebrity to be concerned with sun exposure except as far as it affects the bottom line.  And, as a capitalist, I agree with them.  Wear sunscreen. 

I worry more about their employees

1 hour ago, kwokpot said:

Sorry they're NOT meant to be taken home;however, you can always ask for extra bar soap and take that home!

Edit: I'm one of those hotel toiletries hoarders too, and I'm not ashamed to admit it!

 

Guilty as charged 🙂  - we love collecting decent toiletries from our stays as well. 

Best haul ever, probably our last stay at the MO in HK.  Twice a day they gave a full room replacement of about 8 Acqua Di Parma Colonia  items  - in 4 nights we got about 60 items.   Silly little things like the quality of toiletries makes a difference to us, although hopefully we would never be so mad as to pick a hotel based on toiletries . 

Cheap rubbish toiletries in upmarket hotels always feels like an example of Fur Coat no Knickers - (Wynn hotels Desert Bambu was probably the worst we've had in an upmarket hotel - I think Lather made that stuff).  Not a fan of most of the Gilchrist and Soames stuff, we don't bother bringing that back with us. 

Duplicate

On 2/3/2019 at 10:46 PM, maryshonkwiler said:

Please be aware that most of Europe is not air conditioned & a lot of Europeand do not wear deodorant!  With that said coming in at least a day earlier is very benificial.  We found the Amalie coat is a good place to start. Rome itself is a Full day of site seeing. Good luck!  I usee cruise critic for the ship ! Tripadvisor for hotels & tours.

 

What a load of nonsense.

Yosemite and all of the US National Parks aren't air conditioned.  Neither are the streets of any city.  As for a lot of Europeans not wearing deodorant, presumably meaning we stink? - what a dreadful ignorant remark.

Next you will be claiming that foreign men are about to run off with your daughters like the movie Taken.... Oh hang on too late, you already have.

6 hours ago, CeleryCruiser said:

I suppose that I know what you are trying to explain:  its like driving with BMW and comparing the experience with Peugeot....

Recently sold a lovely Lexus - that was a car that didn't creek once in 4 years for a BMW  - within 2 days realised I'd made a big mistake.  BMW are really nothing special (for the price they charge) and certainly not as good as the Pinafarina designed Peugeot my friend used to have.  Can't wait to get shut of it.

1 hour ago, podfir said:

Sailing on Equinox later this year, we have opted not to prepay gratuities. Can we go to customer services and ask them not to add the $15 per day/per person at the start of the cruise? We prefer to tip as we go for good service.

You can do, but we find by the far the easiest option is to pay the service charge up front.  No surprise bills at the end of the cruise, no fretting about who gets what etc and no obligation to tip extra.  It avoids the situation where someone behind the scenes who made a big difference to your holiday but who isn't on your radar misses out on a tip.  Not sure if the crew know if you've paid upfront or not.

4 hours ago, 3onTour said:

Thank you, I was wondering about this. This will be my first voyage on Celebrity. If you don’t mind may I ask the dimensions of your luggage that you were able to fit under the bed?

81cm x 54cm x 32cm

Celebrity site is running VERY VERY slowly on Chrome - almost to the point of being unusable.  Azamara and Oceania forums are slow but usable

23 minutes ago, MJSailors said:

Why did someone not speak up about the MC innovation ?

Remember the story of The Emperor’s New Clothes where all the king’ s men did not say a word even though the Emperor was being duped by unscrupulous tailors ?  They claimed they were making a new wardrobe for the Emperor while they were making imaginary clothes,but had the Emperor convinced of his magnificent outfit all the while he was walking about in his underclothes.

Seems to me that there had to be someone involved in the design process that saw the failings of the MC design, but might have been hesitant to voice concerns because others were so hung-ho about the design.

If someone did voice such an opinion, that person deserves a promotion.

The MC destroys the symmetry of the ship, that was evident 2 years ago and was always going to be controversial.  That should have been enough to make the powers that be think twice. As others have said, they must have designed it so it can be removed at the first Dry Dock