Enrichment Activities

[RTanner]

My wife and I are taking our first «X» cruise in May (Baltic on the Constellation) and here's a subject I haven't seen addressed: What types of enrichment activities and lectures may we expect?

 

We aren't gamblers, afternoon drinkers nor poolside devotees and enjoy lectures and activities where we can broaden our knowledge. We've found this to be very hit and miss on other cruise lines. Will it be any different on the Constellation or can we expect more?

 

Any information will be helpful.

 

Bob & Norma

[chetsgenius]

We just got off the Summit for 14 days and were really impressed by the number of activities that they had, they had a scrapebooking class (I never made it to that one) almost every day (we weren't in a port) they had a cooking/culinary class or talk, or vegtable carving. The also had two "beyond the podium speakers" from the smithsonian lecture series who were both great. One talked mainly about North Africa (ie: WWII and hollywood were some of his talks) the other speaker did numerous talks on sea life, ranging from whales and sharks, to what lives on the bottom, to coral reefs. I thought both were very interesting and on our sea days (usually) each one gave one talk a day usually about 10am and 2pm. We were never bored on our 5 sea days across the atlantic. Hope you enjoy your trip!

[We're The Groupnors]

We've been on the Constellation once and the Summit twice (third time coming up). We have to say that one thing the Celebrity M Class ships do uncomparably well is provide a varied and interesting enrichment experience. We have listened to Business talks by CEOs, been entertained by retired verterans and retired astronauts, attended cooking demonstrations, participated in wine tastings, and the list goes on. We're not much into scrapbooking or bingo, not are we gamblers, but have always found tons to do on Celebrity. In fact, we did a 2 week cruise round trip from LA to Hawaii that had 8 days at sea, and we were not bored for even one minute!

 

Enjoy your cruise!

[mgcarnut]

How do you know what activities have a fee or charge? We are off on our first cruise next month (Panama Canal transit), and have seen references to Celebrity Life enrichment activities. In another thread someone mentioned going to a Digital Photography class, but left when they mentioned a $20 fee.

Cheers,

mgcarnut

[kitty9]

Basic lectures are usually free. You have to pay for most classes in the computer room and for the wine tasting. Come over to Crystal and you don't pay for anything, not even the wine tastings, LOL. Of course, they are a bit more expensive, but with their generous on board credits, it makes Crystal totally all inclusive.

 

Personally, I've never been at all impressed with Celebrity's so called enrichment activities. They really seem to be hit or miss, with a lot more misses. I've not seen all that many guest lecturers on board, and their cooking demonstrations are quite basic in scope.

[raudacruise]

We just got of a TA on Century last Friday. There were two main lecturers. One discussed the geology/vulcanism of Atlantic. Plate stuff and the volcanic area around the Canaries.

 

The other talked about various explorers that crossed the Atlantic at various times starting with Columbus.

 

Interesting and free.

 

We've been on other TAs and panama canal crossings and have had similiar experiences. They also have been known to through in some wild cards. We had a former CEO at SouthWest one time and a guy who studied late 50's TV (Honeymooners, I love Lucy ...).

 

Hopefully for your Baltic cruise will have good lecturers. I think what happens with these folks is they get discounted cruises for doing their stuff, so it might be luck of the draw.

[Cruising Domer]

When you receive the "Celebrity Today" in your cabin each night, which lists the activities for the following day, any activities that have an associated fee are typically denoted with an ** after the description. I just returned from a Panama Canal transit on the Infinity two weeks ago, and the programs offered were enjoyable. Most of the events that I attended were free, with the exception of some of the different tastings on board (ie, the wine tastings and a scotch tasting).

 

Enjoy your cruise!

[RTanner]

Thanks to all who took the time to answer my questions. We very much appreciate it. We are both education junkies and it seems as though «X» will be able to satisfy our cravings..