2chiefs

31 minutes ago, time4u2go said:

Is there sound?

According to Sallie, I snore pretty loud.

7 hours ago, boscobeans said:

<<SNIP>> 

It was actually DDT, which has been banned in the U.S.A. since 1972.

<SNIP>>

 

 

 

Unintended consequences? I read somewhere that the ban on DDT (in many places besides the US) actually caused more deaths than the of lives it supposedly saved. Evidently the argument was that the amount of people that died from Malaria rose sharply after DDT was banned. 

57 minutes ago, terrydtx said:

All the basic Wi-Fi is good for is e reading emails, You have to have the premium to do  anything more.  It is I think $10 per day more with the 20% for tips added of course.

Who are the tips going to? The IT department?

Weird

1 minute ago, hometoosoon said:

Is there a maximum number at a dining table? We have a large group and need to plan our dining arrangements. 

I think the largest table is 10 or 12 but I see large groups use multiple tables near each other. 

How's this for an experiment:

Free beer.

Just now, hcat said:

Oasis okay for families who do not mind more modest dining   Waiting on lines, crowded areas. Lots for the kiddos, wave pool and zip liners to enjoy

 

other than that.. just eh

Agreed! Some family members booked it and asked us to join them. We haven't made up our minds yet but we probably will. It will be fun regardless of the downsides you mention. (The family is bringing those "kiddos" LOL)

16 hours ago, phoenix_dream said:

<SNIP>>  As we age out, others will age in.  <SNIP>>

As we "Baby Boomers" age out, there will be less aging in than aging out. Just sayin......

17 hours ago, cruise wizard said:

 

We are almost exclusively Celebrity now. We have the Beyond for 12/2 & 12/13 for 2024 - maybe see you in Fort Lauderdale??

Us too. We have 3 Celebrity cruises booked. See signature block. We might book an Oasis out of FLL for Jan 25 because of a family get together otherwise Oasis would be really low on our list. 

2 minutes ago, cruise wizard said:

 

Sounds great!!!!! We are looking at January of 2025 as we are booked through 2024 and a couple in 2025

We're eyeballing December 2024 and possibly January 2025 as well. We've been booking Celebrity lately.

22 minutes ago, Saab4444 said:

I would not call it dumb or wasted money. This is scheduled when it fits best in the schedule of the ship and the yard and sometimes earlier because needed or just to keep a ship in even better shape.

I'm a Reliability Engineer so I hate to waste money on un-needed maintenance. (Ship's schedule I can understand but keeping the ship in better shape? - better than what? Shouldn't it be in good shape if it's within its periodicity window?) 

1 minute ago, cruise wizard said:

 

I heard that rumor..........maybe at Rusty's????

LOL. Yeah Rusty's .. Perhaps again sometime??

7 minutes ago, NutsAboutGolf said:

Many in the travel industry lifetime status if certain requirements are met.  I’m trying to get the Hilton so I know theirs which is 1000 nights and ten years of diamond status, extremely difficult to do unless you are staying for business purposes.  You can get the Hilton AMEX aspire card and get diamond status for as long as you keep the account open which requires paying a high annual fee. There are exceptions and a huge one was the Sheraton being absorbed by Bonvoy/Marriott where many received lifetime status as a result

So I must have had 1000 nights too. (Which would have been easy since I essentially stayed in a hotel 4 days a week except for my measly vacations and short weeks due to holidays). Let's see if I did 4 nights a week and 40 weeks a year average, that would be 160. So 160 times 10 that would be 1600 nights in that 10-year period. Thanks for reminding me of my miserable job!! 🙂

1 minute ago, Tom-n-Cheryl said:

 

The Reflection and Silhouette (last of the Solstice class ships) both were built with a Lawn Club Grill and Porch restaurants (both specialty) in lieu of the glass blowing place. The Lawn Club Grill has an amazing gourmet burger lunch on sea days, and The Porch is a great laid back place to enjoy a nice meal.

 

Tom

OK. Gotcha. I saw Lawn Club but missed the Grill/Porch reference. My bad....

Cheers

3 hours ago, cruise wizard said:

The restaurants and hotels around the port must be celebrating. We always enjoyed having an early dinner at one of the restaurants and watching the ships leave port. Most all of the hotels have cruise packages..........better book rooms early!!!!

Yep. Same here. Sometimes even with people on these threads.

8 hours ago, Tom-n-Cheryl said:

 

Thanks !
 

Being that it's just 20+ minutes from our home - looking forward to this FINALLY.

 

It would be better still had it been the Reflection or Silhouette (for Lawn Club Grill/Porch) or an Edge class ship, but we'll take it !

 

Tom 

The Equinox has a Lawn Club. Am I missing something?

6 hours ago, Oceangoer2 said:

In effect, all the longer cruises are toast (burned toast...lol), replaced by 7 nights around the Caribbean.  Transatlantic is still an option for longer cruises but if they could find a way to hydro-speed across in 7 days they would!  🚀

One of the things I like about Celebrity is the longer cruises. I hope they don't do this across the fleet.

7 hours ago, Saab4444 said:

No, required for classification is every five years for ships under 20 years age and two times in five years for ships older than 20 years. Of course it can be done earlier and more often but not later. 

OK. Thanks.

So it was still dumb and wasted money scheduling it for 4 years (if not needed for some other reason not stated)..

6 hours ago, tfred said:

absolutely.

 

Every airline and hotel makes you prequalify yearly to maintain status. They use stays/segments and money spent. It would really weed out the " I haven't sailed for 10 years but where's my free drinks?" crowd. 

 

Loyalty does go both ways and these programs do have a cost associated with them to administer and run. If X isn't getting a return why keep them as is ?

Absolutely true with one exception that I'm aware of. I'm retired now but I was a road warrior and one day I got a package and a letter in the mail from Hilton saying I was Diamond for Life. It was a nice letter and a gift, but I had no idea it was coming. In fact, I never heard of that level, so I called them to find out why. They told me it was because I made Diamond every year for 10 years straight. I knew then it was time to retire!! 🙂 

6 hours ago, Charles4515 said:

if you have a drink package you would not pay for drinks. The Elite happy hour drinks would be redundant. 

From the Department of Redundancy Department?

7 hours ago, DaKahuna said:

 

Thank you.  That is the first time I have heard of them doing it since the restart. I use to really enjoy sitting at the bar in the Sky Lounge having a drink and eating the pupu's while my wife got ready for dinner.   

 

We did a B2B on Reflection in 2021 and there was no Happy Hour in the Sky Lounge so I guess it could also depend on the itinerary as well as the ship. 

 

Woo hoo!. If we sail together, we will join you!!!

7 hours ago, Ex-Airbalancer said:

That is in correct , I think it depends on the ship 

our Spring TA on the Reflection they had Happy Hour in the Sky Lounge with crew serving d’oeuvres 

Woo hoo! Reflection just moved up in ship priority.

It needs to come back!! Not that it will help but I will put it on all post-cruise feedback.

19 hours ago, deliver42 said:

I stay for fre with a nice lounger and umbrella, and have a great burger and fries at the Snack Shack.

Yep it makes for a great day. (In our case it's tacos)

1 minute ago, DaKahuna said:

 

 Hate to be the bearer of bad news bu they have not served hors d'oeuvres since the restart from the COVID shutdown.  They no longer have it exclusively in the Sky Lounge but rather you just order happy hour drinks at most bars throughout the ship from 5 - 7 PM.

 

OK then. That is bad news..  Thanks

On 8/4/2023 at 9:11 AM, WestLakeGirl said:

<SNIP>

Today, for anyone who has a beverage package included in their booking, the happy hour is probably superfluous— <SNIP>

On 8/4/2023 at 9:47 AM, Charles4515 said:

<SNIP>The happy hour is something they don’t have to have at all <SNIP

Disagree. We always book all included but we still like the "Happy Hour" for the Hors D'oeuvres and especially the camaraderie with the other frequent cruisers. I hope they don't do away with it.

9 minutes ago, cruisequeen4ever said:

That makes sense if it’s a business trip because of “business need”, but choosing to work from a cruise ship doesn’t constitute “business need”. I’d have to pay for all added costs. 

I guess there should be some extra cost for combining business with pleasure?? 🙂