Team Stag

This is the most intelligent way I've seen this explained! I will be totally using this when trying to explain the same thing to friends & family.

Similar to what others have said, I have found 4-5 day cruises have one personality, 7 day cruises have a different personality and 9+ day have their own personality. While 4-5 day cruises may be a little "festive" they definitely have a different vibe from Carnival, RC or NCL 4-5 day cruises. I think you will have a great time & look forward to you sharing your thoughts on Celebrity after your cruise.

Thank you for sharing your experience. The stories really seem to vary ship to ship. I'm curious if this is the first time tested positive for Covid?

We love Murano as well. Just another reason that S-Class is our favorite. I've enjoyed Tuscan in the past but like others have said; we have found it to be hit or miss as well. We always reserve Murano and occasionally will go to Tuscan (normally when we need to fill nights on a specialty dining package).

On our last Equinox cruise, we stayed in 1231 and absolutely loved the location. Close to the elevators and easy to get anywhere on the ship. Congrats on Concierge Class - we find the departure lunch in a sit down restaurant vs the buffet to be an excellent way start our cruise.

We just had our annual checkups & asked about this for our upcoming cruise (trying to be prepared just in case) and we were told the same thing. We have to show a positive test before our dr would prescribe it.

This right here. As well as, causing undue stress on the captain and crew as they get ready to leave realizing one person has not returned. "Do we wait 15 more mins, do we not?" plus by the way it reads - it might not be the entire party getting off. They will inevitably be left to answer questions to the whereabouts etc and most likely have to deal with any penalties etc. I would not suggest just not coming back as a course of action. And by the OP comments above, I don't think they would do that either.

We booked the alcoves on the Reflection last year during a Thanksgiving cruise. It was a sea day vs a port day. But yes, the volume was obnoxiously loud. They were showing football games (and I love football) but after about 2 hours of it - it was too much. The morning was great though.

This was always a part of our routine too!

I have never been in this situation directly but I'm trying to put myself in your situation with our best friends or even close family. If this was in a S class or M class, I think it's more manageable. We would be up front with our schedule and try to divide the trip with a balance of MDR, speciality dining, and Luminae (either dinner on our own or someone pays the surcharge for the guests). Then figure out the excursion piece. But if it's an E class ship (as you mentioned), I'm completely up front that we can do a speciality dining or two, we can do excursions together, see you at night for the theater, trivia, martini bar, or the casino; but for the most part, I'm hanging at the retreat. Especially the pool deck & I'm enjoying Luminae nightly. Sorry, not sorry.

We use to always line up with our luggage and walk off the ship. Especially on shorter cruises when I could get down the stairs with it. But as more and more passengers have gone that route, we have chosen to just check it the night before and go off at our assigned time. On our last two cruises, with the increased amount of people walking off and then backed up waiting on the elevator (whether with luggage or wheel chairs or scooters or whatever), we have just sailed by going down the escalator, pick up our luggage and beat the walk offs out of the terminal.

I have found the Retreat Servers up on the Retreat Deck to be extremely efficient. Both cruises were Caribbean based (warm weather - so Retreat Deck was full) and the Retreat was sold out for both cruises. I never felt like I had to wait an uncomfortable amount of time for a refill. As far as chair hogs, sadly they are an issue all aspects of cruising - including the Retreat Pool Deck. One morning about 7:00 am, I went there after visiting the gym for a stretch and little mediation & there were already people putting personal towels, shirts, books and other items to "claim their space" before heading off for whatever else they wanted to do. When I came back at 9:30 am; sure enough, no one was sitting in their claimed areas and their setup looked the same as it did 2 hours prior. Oh Well.

I don't know for sure but here is my guess: The tasting menu is the Eden experience. Or at least would be in line with the last 2 times I did Eden. You had a menu of 6 courses and just pick one from each course (of course my wife picked one & I get the other as I assume most would do to try everything). I have heard from some other travelers that the menu was confusing and they wish it just had appetizers and main courses instead. If enough people communicated this sentiment to the right people; it could explain the visual change.

One element to consider is the size of you luggage. Walking on the cruise, the bags you carry on will need to go through an xray scanner with you. While the xray machine appear slightly bigger than the ones in the airport, they are not necessarily the size of larger suitcases. We were on a cruise last year, where someone tried to walk on with a large roller bag. It didn't fit in the xray machine & security basically had to open it and go through it piece by piece. Slowed down the boarding process as well as all the clothes & items had to come out of the bag. Personally, it was the not the way I would want to start a cruise.

I think Celebrity needs to allow the crew to fill out surveys on the passengers. Then based on your rating, it determines if they let you book future cruises. 😂

This is exactly how we are in my household as well. I enjoy cruising and find it a great way to have a relaxing vacation. My wife constantly wants something new & different for vacations.

For us cruising began to lose the sparkle a while about 5 years before Covid (nothing cruising did - just expanded to different types of vacations). But came back to Cruising because it was a vacation that I knew I was guaranteed to return to the states even if I got covid (vs an airline requiring a negative test). We have lowered our expectations based on short staffing, supply chain issues and other challenges seen in the travel industry; and have had 3 amazing cruises since restart. However, eventually that pendulum will swing back to where the expectations will be raised some in the future. And that may influence the sparkle. But at the moment, we have been very happy with cruising.

I'm curious if you found the $15 higher end steak to be a higher end steak / worth it (although I think the term worth is subjective)? Rephrase - was it good enough that you would order it again.

Check out Pro Divers - St Kitts. Their scuba shop is very close to the cruise port. They have received a lot of good reviews from others who have dove with them. You also may want to check out the scuba / snorkeling page on Cruise Critic for more information. (Its under the heading of Cruise Discussion Topics).

You may want to post this question on the Scuba & Snorkeling Page (its listed under the Cruise Discussion Topics Page). They might be able to give you better feedback about this Dive Shop or other operators for your to consider.

Thanks everyone for your feedback!

I agree with OP 100%. We do not care for the IV or all the open air places on the E-Class. We did try it again in a suite & it felt like a completely different experience. We will only sail E-Class going forward when a suite is possible. My wife loves the art and design of E-Class but the balcony (and good AC) is too important of a part of our cruising experience. I also prefer the smaller bar areas than the giant open bars like the martini bar or eden bar on E-Class. Reminds me of those hotels near big convention centers (which then reminds me too much of work - the opposite of vacay 😂). But in the end we have choices which is great. For us now, the S-Class is our preferred ship.

We didn't get to pick. They were pre-assigned. However, they set them up around 9 a.m. So after I finished breakfast, took a walk up there, talked to the attendant and told him where I preferred to be (I wanted to be able to see the tv to watch the afternoon football game). He was very accommodating. Those that rent them for the week though - will have the same ones throughout. So you may not be able to move to the exact one you want.

There is also a difference between a 4 day cruise that runs Thurs-Mon and a 4 day cruise that runs Mon-Fri.

I don't know about that specific suite you are asking about but we were in a very forward sky suite last year (July) and it was one of the smoothest cruises we have been on. Captain Kate shared at her presentation that they have a new stabilizing system in the front of the Edge boats that really make them smooth. This was a Caribbean cruise & those rarely get overly rough.