ASCENT..1/28/ 24 not quite live!

[hcat]

We both agree it was ALL good, great info and FUN!

 

Having been with BOEING and being a NASA insider  he had so much to share.  Hope others get to see his presentations in the future!

 

THANK YOU DR KEN!

[hcat]

On 2/10/2024 at 6:31 PM, Kelownadon said:

 

Thanks. Yes my concern was not being able to make the 3:30pm flight. I am no longer worried. Now the worry is what to do with all that extra time haha 

We lucked out.. had Breakfast in BLU. we lingered a bit..BLU is same level as the gateway off. Number 8  was called on time..off we went.. No worries. Also lucked out..Our porter agreed to take All our Luggage to the Parking Garage and helped load the car.  Big tip for him! (note to selves..pack less..wear some things  twice)

 

The walk offs went out thru an  exit at EDEN.. long line but well planned and moved quickly.. it was closed after the walk off!

 

[hcat]

sorry  loading upside down no matter what I do!   Argh!  help?

 

just a backed up line from EDEN exit  way past BLU!

[hcat]

sorry  loading upside down no matter what I do!   Argh!  help?

 

just a backed up line from EDEN exit  way past BLU!

[KLM3164]

[hcat]

thanks!

[hcat]

The Captains Presentation..

 

"OCEANS AHEAD: SECRETS OF SHIPS NAVIGATION WITH CAPTAIN DIMITRIOS" 

 

Description " Insights of our Ship operation and  how we navigate the 142,000 tons vessel across the oceans. Discover why Celebrity Ascent is a high performance navigation marvel.  Brought to you in  very personal and humorous way by our beloved Captain Dimitrios"

 

The presentation with power point did not disappoint!  (as seen on our stateroom TV)    Delivered with great humor, pride, perfect timing  and chockful of intetesting info without weighing things down! Highly Rec!

 

 

from Cap Club Feb Newsletter:

"Captain Dimitrios graduated from the Merchant Maritime Academy of Syros-Athens and received his Master’s license in 2001. He started as an Apprentice Officer on board Celebrity’s very first vessel, Horizon, in 1990, and has since sailed aboard every different class of ship in Celebrity’s fleet. He was part of the startup teams for Celebrity Millennium®, Celebrity Infinity®, Celebrity Silhouette®, was the take-out Captain for Celebrity Apex®, and will repeat the feat for Celebrity Ascent^SM this fall."

 

link to Newsletter which we seem to no longer receive??

https://www.celebritycruises.com/nz/captains-club/newsletter/exclusive-captains-club-newsletter-february-2023

Edited February 15 by hcat

[hcat]

our Cap for this cruise on right

[hcat]

coming next:  Fabulous NEVIS!

[trout62]

On 1/29/2024 at 7:35 PM, hcat said:

Afternoon..Roll Call get together in EDEN..

It was nice to.meet people in person after a long time on line.We each got a chance to say a few words. .Recognition of our Roll Call list keeper,  name tag  sign maker went well but our countdown person was mia!

I was busy playing golf by the bar.

 

Kidding.  This was our first time on X and Mrs. Trout had us constantly on the move...I can't remember what it was she dragged me to, but sorry I missed you all.

 

Trout

[trout62]

5 hours ago, hcat said:

coming next:  Fabulous NEVIS!

You have got to be kidding me...you went to Nevis?  Please tell me you weren't on Smoothies van.

 

[trout62]

6 hours ago, hcat said:

The Captains Presentation..

 

"OCEANS AHEAD: SECRETS OF SHIPS NAVIGATION WITH CAPTAIN DIMITRIOS" 

 

Description " Insights of our Ship operation and  how we navigate the 142,000 tons vessel across the oceans. Discover why Celebrity Ascent is a high performance navigation marvel.  Brought to you in  very personal and humorous way by our beloved Captain Dimitrios"

 

The presentation with power point did not disappoint!  (as seen on our stateroom TV)    Delivered with great humor, pride, perfect timing  and chockful of intetesting info without weighing things down! Highly Rec!

 

 

from Cap Club Feb Newsletter:

"Captain Dimitrios graduated from the Merchant Maritime Academy of Syros-Athens and received his Master’s license in 2001. He started as an Apprentice Officer on board Celebrity’s very first vessel, Horizon, in 1990, and has since sailed aboard every different class of ship in Celebrity’s fleet. He was part of the startup teams for Celebrity Millennium®, Celebrity Infinity®, Celebrity Silhouette®, was the take-out Captain for Celebrity Apex®, and will repeat the feat for Celebrity Ascent^SM this fall."

 

link to Newsletter which we seem to no longer receive??

https://www.celebritycruises.com/nz/captains-club/newsletter/exclusive-captains-club-newsletter-february-2023

True story.

[hcat]

8 minutes ago, trout62 said:

I was busy playing golf by the bar.

 

Kidding.  This was our first time on X and Mrs. Trout had us constantly on the move...I can't remember what it was she dragged me to, but sorry I missed you all.

 

Trout

...BTW glad you chimed in here.. We all missed you at the  Cruise Critic Roll Call Party. You were one of our VIPS recognized for OUTSTANDING COUNTDOWN POSTS!    They were Great!

[hcat]

12 minutes ago, trout62 said:

I was busy playing golf by the bar.

 

Kidding.  This was our first time on X and Mrs. Trout had us constantly on the move...I can't remember what it was she dragged me to, but sorry I missed you all.

 

Trout

Agree so much going on.. a back to back would hardly cover it all...but I loved our itin,  events, weather & smooth seas!

[hcat]

Our tour was the boat fiasco going over  thanks to Excursion Dept  lack of prep  It worked out okay. 

 

We had the Best Guide ever KENO  and " all hail to Alexander Hamilton.."..the man not the play. A truly  great American!

 

Will post  more about tomorrow!

[trout62]

16 hours ago, hcat said:

Our tour was the boat fiasco going over  thanks to Excursion Dept  lack of prep  It worked out okay. 

 

We had the Best Guide ever KENO  and " all hail to Alexander Hamilton.."..the man not the play. A truly  great American!

 

 

You mean the one where you walk all the way over to the pavilion on the right, then all the way back to the harbor area on the left just to try to board 36 people on a 24-passenger ferry?

 

Yeah, I've seen that done better,

 

But I will fight you over best guide...Smoothie was da' bomb.

 

He said he trained the other two, though 😉

Edited February 16 by trout62

[hcat]

yup.. that was the bad start.  Then all was forgiven once we got going.... but  same long  route back to the ship! 

 

Excursion Dept could do much better on both ends!

 

 I will post pics and excursion summary later today.  It was a highlight of our cruise!

 

[hcat]

St Kitts / Nevis. We have been to St Kitts many times and decided to do something different. That was a very good idea as it was one of the best days of this cruise..Highly rec. this trip!

 

We pre booked with Celebrity:

" A DAY TRIP TO NEVIS WITH LUNCH...". The official description includes a long list of places to see and  various stops . We hit most of them but each guide has latitude to customize and our guide KENO did a  great job! 

 

But first, we had to get from the ship to NEVIS.. and we did not get off to a great start....see Trout62 post # 191

 

[Lastdance]

On 2/13/2024 at 5:03 PM, calicakes said:

@hcat

 

I have no way to contact you.  Just wanted to let you know we had to cancel our Edge cruise for the 25th.  I broke my ankle/tib/fibula on Saturday.( dogs slammed into me at the dog park)  Had surgery. Beyond disappointed is putting it mildly. 

Gosh...so sorry about that.  I keep hearing about people and their mishaps.  My DH is finally starting PT; we had to cancel our Hawaii cruise..  Hopefully, since time really goes by fast when retired, you will be onboard soon!

[calicakes]

Just now, Lastdance said:

Gosh...so sorry about that.  I keep hearing about people and their mishaps.  My DH is finally starting PT; we had to cancel our Hawaii cruise..  Hopefully, since time really goes by fast when retired, you will be onboard soon!

Why did you have to cancel? Were you past final payment?  I hope your DH is on the mend.    Our next cruise is not until October, just a 4 day on Virgin.  It will be the first time on VV, I hope its all that its hyped up to be.   Still on the fence about rescheduling this Australia GBR cruise.  Waiting to hear review regarding the actual excursions to the reef.  We had 3 scheduled.  I was able to cancel all those with a full refund. 

[Lastdance]

Just now, calicakes said:

Why did you have to cancel? Were you past final payment?  I hope your DH is on the mend.    Our next cruise is not until October, just a 4 day on Virgin.  It will be the first time on VV, I hope its all that its hyped up to be.   Still on the fence about rescheduling this Australia GBR cruise.  Waiting to hear review regarding the actual excursions to the reef.  We had 3 scheduled.  I was able to cancel all those with a full refund. 

Skiing accident at Kirkwood, CA.  Since both legs were involved, the healing time will be 4-6+ months.  We were just a couple of days before payment, but we had just paid our TA, so it is taking forever to have our airfare returned.  We also canceled our October cruise on Ascent, but we just did the Caribbean in December.  Actually, we had previously scheduled a b2b from Sydney, but changed to just Hawaii.  We have been to New Zealand, but not Australia.  Next year it is all Europe-my happy place!

[hcat]

 Sorry this part will be wordy and cranky..but you may see why!

 

For several days, the Celebrity Today warned  that there would be a 10 min long walk (in their opinion)  to  the Port area.  It was a puzzle to us until we arrived..

 

On all  prior visits we walked straight from the dock into the Port area.  This time,  there were 2 docks and of course the Royal C ship had the better one.  We were docked with a large  MSC ship and with no trams in sight we  took that long walk..making a right turn to another long walk to the Port welcome area. 

 

  After we were assembled, our  Shore Exursion  rep then led us all the way back from whence we came..past a nice tented area where we could have gathered.  "Strike 1" as we say in baseball.

 

Next, our Celebrity rep led us on another big walk,  and left us where MOST of us boarded a small ferry type vessel.  Uh oh...NOT ENOUGH SEATS..over capacity!    "Strike 2"...

 

So we disembarked and stood in line in the hot sun for a very long time....Vessel One left and eventually a larger replacement arrived..No one from Shore Ex  was there  with us so we just stood..

 

From there all went well with the ferry.  Drinks, soda, water..helpful crew, calm seas. We were off on an amazing ride.

 

"Strike 3" came when we returned.. we were dumped off with no   Celeb Shorex greeter or instruction on how to get directly back to the ship.  Had to go on a long wal back through the port..no shuttles...so then the right turn...long walk and then left turn..long walk to the ship.  

 

Ok rant over..but I will be copying this over to Cap Club and Shorex in hope they can do a MUCH BETTER job beyond selling tickets.

 

so now..the real review is coming!

[Tyler414]

20 minutes ago, hcat said:

St Kitts / Nevis. We have been to St Kitts many times and decided to do something different. That was a very good idea as it was one of the best days of this cruise..Highly rec. this trip!

 

We pre booked with Celebrity:

" A DAY TRIP TO NEVIS WITH LUNCH...". The official description includes a long list of places to see and  various stops . We hit most of them but each guide has latitude to customize and our guide KENO did a  great job! 

 

But first, we had to get from the ship to NEVIS.. and we did not get off to a great start....see Trout62 post # 191

 

I'm doing this excursion in a couple weeks, was thinking of canceling it.  Sounds like I should not?

How long was the beach portion?  It's our last stop and I wanna go out with a "bang"

[calicakes]

18 minutes ago, Lastdance said:

Skiing accident at Kirkwood, CA.  Since both legs were involved, the healing time will be 4-6+ months.  We were just a couple of days before payment, but we had just paid our TA, so it is taking forever to have our airfare returned.  We also canceled our October cruise on Ascent, but we just did the Caribbean in December.  Actually, we had previously scheduled a b2b from Sydney, but changed to just Hawaii.  We have been to New Zealand, but not Australia.  Next year it is all Europe-my happy place!

Oh my gosh, I feel for your husband I can't even deal with one ankle and a tib fib fracture. How is he dealing with both legs?

[hcat]

17 minutes ago, Tyler414 said:

I'm doing this excursion in a couple weeks, was thinking of canceling it.  Sounds like I should not?

How long was the beach portion?  It's our last stop and I wanna go out with a "bang"

Oh no Do not cancel...just be prepared!  Once on NEVIS it was outstanding!!

 

Our beach time was long but I only walked down there  & did not swim.  I shopped, took pics,  Husb had a cigar at the great restaurant.

 

colors are not enhanced..just nature on my phone!

 

Edited February 17 by hcat