DaKahuna

Yes, but only between Noon and 2 PM

Thank you for your service and your comments. Making friends with crewmembers is 100% the way to go. I made friends with the Beverage Manager on my last Millennium cruise and as a result there was a bottle of a beverage, that was no longer carried onboard at the time, given to the Retreat Bartender with instructions to hide it and only serve it to me. I am trying to talk my DW into letting me carry my hand mill and some beans with us on our upcoming cruise. Need to research how Japanese customs would feel about my bringing a container of roasted beans into the country.

yes, that is close to the recipe - Grey Goose vodka, Disaronno Amaretto, Licor 43, and lemon peel. No cherry in the one I was served.

Alexandra - So glad that you and MR both made it home safely and received a warm welcome from your furry Mafia. Good luck with your renovations and look forward to the upcoming journeys with the Queen.

It's apparently getting harder to get Guest Services to punch a hole in the card because the antenna for the RFID used for the electronic door locks is embedded in the card. Most people I see with lanyards these days have plastic pouches that contain the card affixed to the lanyar. I use the card holder they provide you when sailing in a suite. This, as mentioned above, has a pouch on both sides and I keep tip money in one and my card, and my spouses, in the other side. I have also seen people use business card holders as well, but outside of a lanyard, pockets are required.

I agree with @Mr. Click and your TA. By taking your name off the original booking, you are creating two new bookings. Additionally, the individual sailing solo would be subject to the solo passenger charges, which depending on ship and room, could result in paying almost double for the solo room. I do not believe you can be on two reservations at the same time so not sure how you would show up for one and be a no show for another. Unfortunately, I be the short answer is NO - there is no way to do what you are trying to do.

If you are looking at comparison between MSC's YC and the Celebrity Retreat there are number of recent reviews. Here is one And there is also one i did, link in my signature. p.s. Make sure you do a status match of your Celebrity Captains Club to MSC Voyagerss Club. Depending on your level with Celebrity there could be some added benefits, cruise discount for one. https://www.msccruisesusa.com/manage-booking/msc-voyagers-club/status-match

We tipped pretty much in the same manner as @Best Cat Mom. Those who provided us with great service we tipped using envelopes. In Le Muse we had the same waiter and assistant waiter for almost ever dinner. During lunch it was a variety of waiters and assistants and any of them that we though deserved it we tipped as well. We also tipped our stateroom attendant, who was our assistant butler. In the Top Sail Lounge we tipped our waiters when served or at the end of the evening. I also tipped the bartenders - there is usually a different one in the morning and the evening.

Not 100%. Thank you for that information. I was never able to put the theme together on this one. There seemed to be no plot to it at all. Just a bunch of songs thrown together. The silent disco has been 70's and 80's music the last time I went. I mean the 70's was the greatest ever and every still loves classic rock and roll.

Thank you for that idea. That had not come to mind. I will check it out.

Thanks. I will check with them. The one in Reston is the most convenient one for me. I do not have any Apple products to recycle at this time. Just traded in my iPad Air (Gen 3) for my iPad Gen 10. In my first round of cleaning out closet and storage bins of old, unused, unwanted electronics, I dropped a bunch off at a BestBuy's recycle bin. I had to call three local stores before I found one that was still accepting electronics for recycling.

I agree 100%. I do not mind Labadee though. The private Retreat areas is a place where we just like to sit and relax. It's also not that bad of a walk from the pier and lets me get a little exercise in walking there and, if I am not too tired, back.

@Northern Aurora All of the reports we have read speak highly of how they have enjoyed their Japanese cruise and the cultural experience. I live there for 10 years, met and married my wife, who is Japanese, while living there. We are both looking forward to a change of experience from what we normally have in our Caribbean cruises. We both have almost stopped cruising because we are tired of the same old thing from each of the ports there.

There have been a number of times when I have ordered this when nothing else on the menu appealed to me.

@Ex-Airbalancer Yes, the same here. I just trade in the old ones when I get a new one. I do have to old iPhone that I did not do that with for various reasons. I am just going to throw them away on my next trip to the dump (I have 30-lbs of old electronics boxed and ready to go).

You should also try the bar in the Retreat. I've always had good drinks there and it's quite easy to have a wide variety. Any liquor that I have found anywhere else on the ship, with the exception of sake and some wines in Cellar Master, I have been able to get in the bar in the Retreat.

This is the first I am hearing of it. I have used multiple devices one at a time for years on Celebrity, but my last sailing was last year. I know MSC does it that way but we've not experienced that on Celebrity. Hopefully someone sailing now can chime in on their experience.

This ^^^^^ -- After smashing some toes once or twice I am sure the message would have been conveyed. It's times like these when I also like to recline my seat back as far as it would go.

Sorry for all the questions but as you may assume I am pretty anxious about this cruise. It's been 34 years since I was last in Japan. One last question - Have they returned to the shared butler for the sky suites or are they still using the Butler Team approach? I am very surprised that someone would have this expectation. You would think people would do a little research concerning things that are important to them, as apparently the sink height must be to her, before booking a room. Yes, that is her. She was our Hotel Director on our Panama Canal transit cruise last year.. That sounds like a good mix of passengers. My DW is happy to hear about the number of Japanese onboard. We see so very few Japanese on cruises. I can't wait to try it. I love the Taiko drummer performances. We'll have to make sure an attend the 9 PM performance on the overnight. We have a very long tour, 10 hours, of Kyoto for the first night in Osaka and it's not scheduled to get back to the ship until around 7:30 pm. So a quick dash to Luminae for dinner then off to the show. Thank you so very much for answering my questions and sharing your experience with us.

Unfortunately Live results in a larger size file and I have had difficulty posting photo's taken in Live mode from shipboard WiFi, especially on our last cruise on MSC Divina. YMMV but for now I have turned off Live mode.

We had excellent service in the Retreat on Millennium, then again, we are not overly demanding. Usually a cocktail for me and a hot tea for my wife. That being said, we much prefer the ambiance of Michael's Club over the Retreat. The furniture in the Retreat is no where near as comfortable. Although brighter we think it is less welcoming.

It use to be the opposite around here. I have no idea how many of my previous devices ended up in our daughter or one of our grandkids hands.

You may want to try posting this on the Roll Call for your cruise. Try posting this here:

I guess I am a bit of an over achiever. As a result of my last career I have two desktops, three laptops, and two tablets, plus an active iPhone 15 Pro Max. I also have a couple of older iPhones laying around somewhere in addition to some old cellphones. One desk top is linux based, the other Widows. One laptop is linux, one is Windows, and one is a MacBook Air. I have an iPad and a Lenova Leafpad for tablets. Believe it or not, everyone of these is touched almost daily. I am having a hard time getting rid of any of them.

Yeah, been doing more Celebrity and a single MSC cruise .. exploring options.