Momof3gurlz

Thanks for the link Greg. I think I’m just going to bring the Mickey Mouse ones and hope they’re not needed!

I’m relieved every time I see you post Dani. 🙏

The only rain ponchos we have are from Disney with a big Mickey Mouse on the back 😂. (Heads over to Amazon to see what I can get delivered before Thursday)

And??? LOL, just kidding. We couldn’t pass up the opportunity to sail with a few new friends from Bella 1.0 along with a few others from CC we haven’t met yet. Plus Andy had his first free casino cruise certificate we were able to use. The timing wasn’t perfect coming right off our Med trip, but…..do it while ya’ can is my my new motto.

I’m really struggling with packing for this upcoming trip. Since the weather might be questionable, I feel like I have to be prepared for several possibilities. I hope the forecasters have a better idea by Wednesday as we fly to Ft Lauderdale Thursday and I’d like to not have to bring an extra bag.

I agree with both of you. The laundry is a great benefit IMO. Another one I forgot to mention is priority tendering in those ports; nice to not have to worry about getting a number and waiting to be called. Also, being able to go straight to your cabin upon embarking to drop off any carryons is a really nice Celebrity feature. This isn’t a Captain’s Club perk, it’s for all guests.

I don’t disagree with you George, I just think it can vary by ship. We’ve had great bartenders on some RC ships and not so great ones on others. Same with the Windjammer. I’m glad you’ve had a great staff at the martini bar on your cruises. It’s certainly what we expected but it didn’t happen on this particular ship.

Captains Club Benefits - this is what Celebrity calls their loyalty program. As Diamonds, Celebrity matched us to their Elite category. There are some similar discounts offered on things like internet, drink packages, spa services, etc. and these are comparable to RC’s. Instead of 4 drink vouchers, Celebrity has a nightly happy hour with free drinks for Elite members (only certain drinks are included). Our booking included the drink package so on this particular cruise the happy hour wasn’t any benefit to us. I think the 4 free drinks per day on RC is better because you can have any time of day. What I did love was the free bag of laundry each, this is a great benefit IMO. Advantage: None Overall - we found Celebrity to be much more organized with fewer lines for anything. The morning we disembarked we had not received a final statement either in our cabin or by email. I headed down to guest services expecting a wait but I was the only one there! Self disembark was as easy as embarking. We simply dinged our sea pass cards and walked off- no line whatsoever. Overall, if I had to describe the difference between the two lines I’d say Celebrity is more refined. Now is that because this was a Mediterranean itinerary instead of Caribbean, I’m not sure. I’d be interested in trying out Celebrity in the Caribbean to see if there’s more of a party atmosphere. So Celebrity came out with a slight advantage but the difference was not as substantial as I expected. I’m happy to answer any questions!

Now on to the stuff everyone really cares about! Oceanview Cafe - Celebrity’s version of the Windjammer. We had breakfast here every day and a couple of lunches. Food was plentiful and they had a good variety of regular items and daily specials. One odd thing is they would move the regular daily items around each day. For example, the salad bar was rarely in the same spot twice. Breakfast featured a made to order egg and omelette station. There was a decent amount of seating and the usual crowding at breakfast and in our one sea day. There’s a pizza station at the very back with 3 or 4 varieties and a daily calzone special. Advantage: None Main Dining - There are four main dining rooms, each with a theme, Tuscan, Normandy, Cosmopolitan and Cyprus. To be honest, I’m still a little confused about how the different menus work! There are rotating menus each night with dishes shared by all four dining rooms. Plus, each place has their own signature dishes. BUT you can order anything from any one of the restaurants (assuming you’ve looked at the other menus). Anyway, the overall dining experience is much better because there are no lines, no frenzied waitstaff, etc. You show up when you want to; they either seat you or give you a pager if a table isn’t immediately available. What a concept! Let’s face it, Royals My Time Dining is a broken system. There’s just no excuse for the long lines every night. As for the food, I will say the menus seem a little more interesting, but I’m not so sure anything was better executed. We only did one specialty dinner, Rooftop Garden Grill, and it was very good. Advantage: Celebrity due to the atmosphere & experience. Bars & Lounges - this was kind of a disappointment. We didn’t find any bar staff to be particularly friendly or engaging. In fact the bartenders on the Magic Carpet were borderline rude and the drinks were just, not good. Those at the Martini Bar were slightly more friendly. I just expected more from these two signature venues. The famous ‘show’ put on at the Martini Bar felt forced and staged. There’s no sports bar on the ship but they have TV’s and show some sports in the Casino bar. This venue called The Club is where they do all the games and trivia and they have musical performances there each night. Late night it becomes the nightclub. There’s a very large bar and two levels of seating. We actually spent no time here because it’s very dark and there are no windows. I called it The Cave instead of The Club, lol. Advantage: RC Pool & Solarium - the Solarium never appeared crowded and the main pool was crowded only on our one sea day. Piped in music was relaxing. There were no crazy games, just a guest vs staff pool volleyball contest. Serve yourself towels, no checking them in and out. Advantage: Celebrity Continued next post

Seems like a good time to post my final thoughts on how our first Celebrity cruise stacks up against RC. I’m going to do this by categories. Embarkation - very easy, no lines whatsoever. Probably less than 5 minutes from handing over our luggage to walking onto the ship. Advantage: Celebrity. Ship Appearance - the ship is beautiful, very modern and elegant. We didn’t notice any areas of wear, etc but there are quite a few dead ends and ‘can’t get there from here’ spots around the ship. I loved the Rooftop Garden area but it seems underutilized (see entertainment category below). Personally, I prefer RC ships with their promenades, they just feel much more open than the atrium style common areas. Advantage: None, it’s equal to a newer RC ship. Cabin - Infinite Veranda cabin is controversial. It definitely makes the room feel larger and I loved that. Cabin was beautiful, again very modern. Plenty of storage, a true king sized bed, the tube style shower is larger than any we’ve had on RC. Twice per day service. Advantage: Celebrity due to the larger shower and 2X per day service. Celebrity App & Internet - app worked fine. Internet was just okay, sometimes better than others. Advantage: None Excursions & Tendering - We had two excursions and the process was very, very organized. Tendering is done via the Magic Carpet which is lowered to deck 3 for the process. This was also very organized with no lines at all. Advantage: Celebrity Entertainment - the headliner show was a rock vocal harmony group called Rebel. They performed songs by various artists through the years and we really enjoyed it. There was also a female vocalist and a comedian which we didn’t get to. They had a musical duo performing what I’d call Top 40 songs, a Jazz band, a DJ, and a male acoustic guitarist/singer. The two main venues for this were the atrium area and The Club (more on this later). These performances rotated throughout the night in the atrium, but some of them (esp the DJ) seemed out of place there. The jazz band was best suited for the venue. Eden usually had a violinist playing in the evening. The Rooftop Garden area has a large open area which would be a great spot for live music, but I think only the acoustic guitarist was there and only one evening. Advantage: RC ( they seem to do a better job matching the performer & type of music to the venue) Continued in next post.

@dani negreanu there’s nothing more I can add that the others haven’t said. My thoughts and prayers are with you, your family and your country. I hope you find some small comfort from all the concerned people here, especially those who quietly read along but commented in the past couple of days to let you know of their well wishes. My thoughts and prayers for @BonTexasNY, Bonnie and Jacks family also. 🙏🙏🙏

At least one bit of good news Greg. So sorry to read about Linda’s brother, I hope things work out and she’s able to join you.

We’re sitting at the Barcelona airport waiting for our flight. I just had a 10 am croissant and this to calm my pre-flight jitters. We loved our Sagrada Familia tour yesterday. It was about an hour and 20 minutes with a good guide, then we could stay until closing if we chose to. I think it was @bobmacliberty who mentioned going in the late afternoon when the sun starts to set. This was an excellent piece of advice. Sagrada is amazing on its own, but the late afternoon sun through the stained glass created beautiful reflections. Next stop Chicago, then on to Philly. We’ll spend the night at our daughters and drive home tomorrow.

LOL. @Ocean Boy is the needier one, he wants to see lighthouse pics also. But not pictures of lighthouse cookies! 😉😇 Barcelona port light house for you OB.

Disembarking Edge yesterday was just as easy as embarking. Once off the elevator, we walked off and out of the port to the taxi line without stopping other than to ‘ding’ our sea pass cards. I’m shocked to say Barcelona is my least favorite of all the places we’ve been this trip! I say shocked, because I’ve always wanted to visit and expected to love it. We walked to La Boqueria after checking in at Hotel Jazz which is great and our room was ready at 9:30 am! Then ended up taking one of those touristy upper level bus tours and enjoyed seeing so many areas of the city (and giving our feet a rest). I waited too long to buy tickets for Park Guell and could only get 7 pm last night or tonight so we’ll miss that. We have a tour of Sagrada Familia at 4 pm today and just plan on exploring before that. Port of Barcelona lighthouse Stall in the market. Oldest DD’s name with the same spelling, which you don’t often see in the US What do I spy at the exit?? Restaurant I found for last night called My Way. Turns out it’s named for the Sinatra (who we love) song. Cool little place, decent food. Some tapas and roasted vegetable paella.

Thanks for the heads up on the menus Greg. Nights 3 and 7 are probably our least favorite, but it honestly doesn’t matter one bit which nights we do specialty dining. I usually order the Chops Filet from the premium selections when nothing appeals to me on the MDR menu. A group dinner is a great idea Jen!

Mostly 77 to 81. Our two hottest days were in Rome - 84. We haven’t had a drop of rain, sunny or partly cloudy every day. Greg, please take it easy and take care of yourself! @dani negreanu prayers for the continued safety of you and your family @DaniDanielle prayers for Charlie, too! @grapau27 I know I’m late but happy engagement anniversary to you and Pauline.

We can discuss in much more detail very soon on Adventure. I’m going to screenshot the menus from the app for you but don’t want to clutter up the thread posting them all here.

The food has been good, not great. It’s easy to think it’s better than Royal, but I think it’s more that the menus are different and a little more varied. Also, as I said initially, the overall dining experience is more enjoyable and relaxing. We only did one specialty dinner which was the Rooftop Garden. It was very, very good and like Royal’s specialty restaurants, definitely a notch or two above in quality. If you and Linda decide to do this one, don’t miss the dry rub smoked chicken wings!

Palma de Mallorca today, our last port. We end the cruise in Barcelona tomorrow. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Here are a few pictures from our ship excursion in France to the villages of Seillans and Feyonce. Two for @Ocean Boy, the first is the lighthouse at the port of Cannes. And of course the obligatory foot photo. It’s been a great cruise. I have quite a few pics from around the ship to share as well as my final thoughts on Celebrity vs RCI. Spoiler - it’s closer than I would’ve thought! Probably won’t get to that post for a while as we plan to make the most of our two days in Barcelona.

Sea day today, the weather is perfect once again. I typed out a whole long post with pictures but it went poof, so I’ll wait until tomorrow to try again. @helen haywood I finally visited the internet desk. Turns out it’s not a setting on my phone that prevents access to these boards, you need Premium WiFi. So right now I’m using some of my 90 minutes of Premium which is one of the Elite benefits.

@dani negreanu what a wonderful surprise you arranged for your grandsons, I’m sure the visit with the whole family was appreciated by all. By the way, such handsome men!

Also, great news @mo&fran. Best wishes for your continued healing and happy upcoming 80th birthday!

I’m reading quickly while on a bus tour into the French countryside, but had to comment here. Your words reminded me of one of my favorite sayings: ”Contentment is not the fulfillment of what you want, but the realization of how much you already have”.

@Ozark_Kid I. hope you have a great cruise and no more hiccups!