KathyC

I discovered something interesting this morning. The Celebrity APP has all, or at least most, of the activities for the whole cruise.
It also has all of the dinner menus for the main dining room and specialty restaurants.

I am so jealous!  We will definitely be following along.  While you're in St. Maarten, stop by The Blue Bitch and have some wings for me. 

Check out these blog posts for info: 
https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2018/12/20/best-cozumel-beach-resorts 
https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2017/11/29/excursion-focus-nachi-cocom-beach-break-review-cozumel-mexico 
https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2016/09/16/empress-of-the-seas-live-blog-day-4-cozumel-mexico 

I figured the first cruise out of North America would be a moving target, and that seems to be the case!
Today, I received an email from Celebrity.  They are reversing the order of the ports and Barbados will require a ship based shore excursion to go ashore.
None of this really surprises or bothers me, but it's worth noting for anyone that plans on taking this cruise in the near future.
The cruise is only 3 days away! ?

I'm so excited!  In just over a week I'm going to be on my first cruise in over a year.
This is also the first of the Royal Caribbean Group's cruises from North America.
Therefore, I figured people would be interested.  I'll do my best to document how it goes and what the conditions are on board. Please let me know if you want any more information.

The two big gotchas are:
Anyone who booked certain items in the old Cruise Planner and now may think they see a lower price in My Royal Cruises but gratuity is added separately. Taxes at Private Destinations. To that end if your cruise still uses the old Cruise Planner and you are thinking about a Cabana or any Royal excursion you may want to buy it now before your cruise is migrated to the new interface where taxes may apply.

So a bit of a setback. Not sure what the exact problem is, but this is not healing properly at all now. I'm getting some splits along the stitch lines where the wound was covered, and the graft appears to have basically failed in all but a couple tiny spots. If I was going to describe it, most of it looks like a bad burn wound right now, with other areas that don't look as bad but are refusing to form proper new skin.
Doc has put me on a new treatment regimen, applying gauze pads soaked in "Dakin's Solution" twice a day over the entire graft and flap site, and wrapping that up in rolled gauze and an ace bandage. "Dakin's Solution" is apparently just highly diluted bleach -- the one active ingredient is 0.25% sodium hypochlorite -- along with a couple of stabilizing agents in water.
Started it last night, and I will say that where the skin was getting progressively more itchy it's already calmed down a lot. Hopefully this will stabilize everything again and get me back on course with healing. Next appointment is a week from Friday.
Body, can you seriously get it in gear already? I've got a cruise in just under 3 months and I will be damned if I'm going to miss it because you can't manage to heal decently.

I have a FCC we got shorted on for a cruise last December.  That TA has worked very hard making calls on it, and they keep saying 2-4 weeks.  I'm getting to the point where I'm going to tell them to just ask for our money back and forget the 25%.  At this point, the stress and annoyance to the TA and us is not worth the extra money.  

Sorry, but Jestine's is closed.
There are a lot of "established" eateries around Charleston that have had to shut down, 
and that is super sad.   I live here and the new restaurants just keep popping up everywhere.
One of the best restaurants in Charleston is called Edmund's Oast (the restaurant, not the brewery).
LOTS of breweries here, many of which are within walking distance.
Fanatik has some excellent suggestions above.  The USS Yorktown is a wonderful piece of history
that needs to be experienced.  There is also a mock-up of a US Army camp during the Vietnam war.
So much to do here, it really is overwhelming.

I went to the market downtown yesterday in hopes of finding a proper Mother's Day gift for my wife.
Lemme tell ya - if there is a pandemic, you can't tell.  It was packed, and very few masks.  People were 
in much closer proximity than practically anywhere on a cruise ship.  Frustrating that we can't sail.

Same - that’s actually why I started cruising and cruising solo, to break out of my shell. I truly feel my non cruise friends would either not recognize me or be in absolute shock at seeing me on a cruise.. and for the most part, Vice Versa. 

Not really much new to report. I'm able to keep the leg lowered and sit normally for 20-30 minutes at a pop now before it gets too uncomfortable. But because it's still so limited I spoke with the doc about my return to work date. He agreed it would make sense to push that out a week to May 17 instead of this coming Monday, and we'll see about restrictions on initial hours if even that doesn't get me to a point where I could pull off an 8-hour day at my desk right off the bat.
In the meantime, I've found out that the guy on the airplane at the start of Die Hard was right. Making fists with my toes on the rug while I'm sitting really is a great stress reliever! ?

Second post-op visit today. All sutures are taken out now, except a few that will dissolve on their own over the next week or two. Graft site is still not healed enough, and did degrade a little bit at the lower end, but doc said it’s nothing of concern; he could see there is still healthy tissue growing in that spot, so it just needs another week or two to finish firming up. Everything else is looking great.
I’m able to sit normally for about an hour at a pop now before I feel like it’s time to put it back up again, so it seems I’m making some rapid progress on that front. I have another post-op visit in a week, and at that time I should be ready for a compression stocking.
And right after that, it’ll be time to get back to work! Maybe on reduced hours to start, but it’ll be good to get back to some normal day-to-day living again.

I certainly am not as experienced a cruiser as most of you here, but all my cruise vacations have been on Royal Caribbean except one on Celebrity.  I have to say that the Celebrity cruise was really spectacular.  The staff was so wonderful, they couldn't do enough to make our cruise special.  We always tend to be friendly people anyway, so do not think our 'behavior' made a difference. The food was better, in our opinion and the choices of onboard activities, such as talks and presentations, seemed to be geared more to our liking...less sports and more educational talks for example.  The all included pricing was not in effect at that time, however I recall that the prices were higher that we could have found on Royal.
That said, we always had a wonderful time on our RC cruises and I have a mother\daughter cruise on Royal booked for November that I  am really excited about,
I bet whichever line you choose, you will have a wonderful time. 

We thought the excursions were priced comparably when we sailed Summit in October 2019.  We didn't book any so I didn't pay close attention but I scanned through and the prices seemed pretty much what I would have expected compared to Royal.

How I miss the time when I started this strand and this was the thing I was worried about!  That vision cruise (solarium roof was open!) was the last cruise we were on!  Jane

We just cancelled this one today (bus tour) due to not making our August Bermuda cruise.  So sad.  It looks like a great option for first time visiting Bermuda.

In response to the CDC news last night, Celebrity executives are meeting today to start picking which ships will sail first.

Celebrity Beyond is.
Well Beyond my price tolerance.
Single balcony is $500+ per night.
I've had SilverSea bookings that were cheaper solo.    
For just a little bit more I've got Star Class solo bookings.
Single balcony on Beyond or Star Class on Oasis class?  Hmmm.  
The good news is that RCG will recover all losses from the pandemic in a single year from Beyond bookings.  

Some people use the electrolyte powder you put in water bottles.  

We were on Summit after the revolution, and I can agree with a lot of the comments.  Some design choices made absolutely no sense.  

The message boards here don't really do roll calls.  It isn't something @Matt has traditionally held a section for although the Adventure restart cruises are an exception.   
I'm not a big roll call fan as I don't like telling the world what my travel plans are.

We were on Summit after the revolution, and I can agree with a lot of the comments.  Some design choices made absolutely no sense.  

For my summer 2021 sailings (knowing almost for sure that they will get cancelled), I have been leaving my CP items in there on purpose because I want the 125% cruise planner OBC for my Norway sailing next July 2022.  I know I will spend a lot on excursions for that sailings, so I will take all the extra I can get. 
I see it as a short term investment.  And don't listen to me, I am not a good influence. ?

I’m seeing Kelly Hoppen’s name a lot in that video. When the M and S class ships were revolutionized, there was a ton of negative feedback over on “the other place” about her designs and the new furniture / knick-knacks / other elements. All to the effect of, “Has this woman ever actually sailed on a cruise ship before??”
The consensus being that her designs were far too neutral in color scheme in an environment that desperately needs some lively colors, and the materials used would never hold up well in a humid salt air environment. Even crew said they had to keep replacing cushions all the time because they got ruined after their first exposure to salt water mist.
Let’s hope Ms. Hoppen has learned some lessons as they build her designs for Beyond.