cruisellama
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Posts posted by cruisellama
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21 hours ago, twangster said:
That's true until you consider the politics.
When they first talked about LNG in PCN there was a huge outcry from local residents convinced the port would blow up. So they went with barges that stay out at sea between bunkerings.
It's nearly impossible to accomplish anything in America due to special interest groups.
The same geographic area they've launched rockets for 50+ years. (and they do blow up occasionally)
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19 hours ago, jticarruthers said:
I learn new things ...
I recall hearing about LNG in Port Canaveral but turns out twangster is correct, they don't have LNG facilities but they do provide LNG refueling in Port Canaveral by transferring the fuel from another ship ... who knew.
https://www.portcanaveral.com/About/LNG-at-Port-Canaveral
Thinking about it, all fuels are moved via tanker if pipelines are not available. At many ports you'll see a refueling tanker position next to the ship to offload diesel. In the long term I would think storage infrastructure will be built so they wouldn't have to move fuel from GA. Is it safer and more cost effective to frequently move the fueling station a few hundred miles, or establish a nearby storage facility to offload LNG. Obviously some cost and risk management trades.
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On 4/27/2023 at 12:55 PM, JasonOasis said:
OMG!!!
If this is true that is awesome news I absolutely love Oasis Class ships can wait for Utopia to arrive.
Putting the ship on an all-Bahamas itinerary sounds temporary (probably until they find her a permanent home) but I've got my credit card ready to book a crown loft on a B2B cruise.
Isn't Utopia LNG? If so could fuel logistics be contribute to the proposed itineraries?
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On 4/17/2023 at 9:14 AM, Matt said:
I appreciate the kind words, and big thanks to @Curt From Canada for all the tips! I wasn't sure if it was worth upgrading the drink package or not.
If you plan to spend a lot of time at the martini bar, world class bar, or Eden bar, upgrade is worth a look as it opens up some interesting options.
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1 hour ago, RCIfan1912 said:
Thinking of possibly trying Celebrity cruises after the 3 Royal Caribbean cruises we have booked.
It's not as straight forward as booking a Royal Caribbean cruise. There is a "just cruise" booking and the inclusive booking but as far I could tell it was like 250 bucks difference and included a lot like drinks and gratuities. Again this is only going off visiting the website once or twice.
How is the Celebrity Eclipse? The cruise I was looking at was May 2025 on the Eclipse.
Please let me know anything I need to know about Celebrity cruises. Oh we have kids, right now they are 9 and 15 months. Kids are ok on Celebrity or is it kinda we are gonna get rude looks from the regular crowd? Thanks for any help or advice.
You would find more information on the Celebrity/Silverseas board in the discussion area.
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3 hours ago, Happy Cruisers said:
Since this blog now purports to cover Celebrity, too, this seemed relevant. Absolutely disgusting, heartbreaking and barbaric story coming out of Chicago from a cruise last August. Some poor lady lost her husband of 55 years at the start of the cruise, so Celebrity apparently stuck him in the cooler instead of the morgue. Morgue inop or not, the way this was handled was 100% unacceptable and likely amounts to abuse of a corpse. Shame on the parent company for even letting this lawsuit be filed - certainly, there would have been demand letters that pre-dated the lawsuit. Since the widow had to file a lawsuit to apparently get Celebrity's attention about letting her husband rot for a week, I hope it costs them a lot more than $1 million to settle this outside of court. Unfortunately, it probably will be that inexpensive. Simply disgusting by any and all involved - to the crew who decided to shove that man into a cooler for a week, all I can say is what Galatians already does - you reap what you sow. And boy am I glad I'm not them.
Yes the morgue fridge was broken so they used a beverage refrigerator. There was an opportunity for the family to disembark with the body in Puerto Rico, but they elected not to to save transportation costs. So they remained not he cruise for 6 days and the makeshift accommodations did not work out. Not cold enough.
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Yes - but they aren't necessarily functioning. Curious on why it took a week to remove the body. Was it to complete the cruise ? - yes
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17 minutes ago, SPS said:
I'm not sure it ever will. The Vitality Spa is actually a third-party business not run/managed by Royal Caribbean. While anything you book will show up in your website cruise planner calendar, their reservation system may not be able to sync up with the Royal Caribbean app.
We found this out just by chance because my wife wanted to return a skin product she bought onboard a few years ago. (I can't recall the parent company)
I also heard that from a concierge. The vendor's scheduling software was not linked to the app (but is connected through cruise planner). The concierge thought it would be fixed in a future release. Maybe not.
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Has anyone noticed if on-board booked spa treatments are syncing up with personal calendar? We've noticed an issue with that in the past.
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That's nonsense. Are they trying to be Southwest airlines?
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13 hours ago, Hunny1104 said:
Hi all!
Wanted to share our recent experience with Covid.
My mom started feeling bad on day 4 and we called the nurse day 5 AM and they immediately came with a wheelchair to take her down. She got in right away and was given a Covid test. Positive. For the first time ever! They gave her an IV to get her hydrated and kept her for about 2 hours.
For the rest of the cruise she was quarantined to the room. My son and I weren’t required to quarantine which was unexpected and when asked if we could be tested, we were told they only test with symptoms.
Disembarkation consisted of them sending us room service breakfast at 6:00 for a 6:30 debarkation. We were taken directly from where people exit for port days and there were only 4 other Covid groups with us though I know I heard a lot more coughing! Oh well.
When we got home, my son and I tested positive as well. So… there’s a lot of Covid boppin around those ships.
I have no complaints about how they handled it other than I think they should have tested us. They were all very nice, though!Appears it's now normalized. Glad it all worked well.
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13 hours ago, Galveston Steve said:
An Operating Agreement with Uber was unanimously approved by the Port of Galveston on 24 May 2023. Uber has finally agreed to the Port’s terms and the agreement is the same as Lyft's agreement, including a $2.00 fee for each pick up and drop off.
Good news.. Thought it was an odd restriction.
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13 hours ago, KathyC said:
I tried to play but couldn't get it to load. Will try again.
When I could access, I found the video very grainy with a lot of latency in the controls making it marginally playable. I'm guessing a bandwidth issue on my end or the server at the time.
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May want to check of Uber can service the port. I heard Lyft was credentialed for Galveston passenger terminal. (It may be an old rule and I don't know how they'd keep an Uber from the passenger drop).
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22 hours ago, JeffB said:
Thanks for the great Beyond review crusiellama. We've got 4 Edge Class cruises booked. Three on Apex and one on Beyond through January 2024. On our first Edge Class Cruise (Edge, Athens, June 2022) it took some getting used to the new design but we did. Just sailed Apex in January and had similar reactions to yours and another poster who found The Retreat "too crowded." Agree with that. Nice to hear Beyond has added a 3rd deck to The Retreat. The Retreat Lounge wasn't the "step above" you would expect for the premium being paid and Luminae was by far not our favorite restaurant - that would be Normandy. But as you noted, the staff that served us across the ship were outstanding and service at a high level. Glad to see the Martini bar improved as both Edge's and Apex's are small and there is insufficient seating. The special effects in the main theater were also a noteworthy addition to ship board entertainment.
There's no question that Celebrity's food quality has declined post COVID interruption but is entirely satisfying. I tend to stick to long time menu "favorites" and I enjoyed them. The roasted pork chops is one of them. The Chilean Sea Bass was Branzino and that particular fish filet was thin. Lobster tails on Lobster night in the mains are smaller (tender and succulent) but the Beef Wellington is still very good.
WIth Celebrity trying to position itself as a "premium" line, the concept of "X" signifying excellence, Lutoff-Perlo might want to consider shaving the company's margins a bit to preserve the concept of "X." I know that's not what stockholders want and she's under pressure to keep margins high. Still, tread cautiously there. Competitors are offering similar premium cruises at lower prices. We've got a Princess cruise scheduled in June (Caribbean Princess) and booked the equivalent of Celebrity's Sky Suite (not as big, same perks but fewer amenities and called Club Suites) for around 60% of the cost of Sky Suite on an Edge class ship. Don't know about others bu, given the premium, I'm loath to book a Sky Suite on Millenium or Solstice class ships given the plus-up of the "suite life" on Edge class.
Watch item: We sailed in a Sky Suite and gratuities are included. We watch our cabin balance while sailing, and we were seeing a $21/pd/pp charge on certain days, then later -$21 for each of the daily gratuity charges. Once we disembarked, we received the final folio which included a $21/pd/pp daily gratuity charge. I called Celebrity while I was still in the airport. The agent was congenial, but claimed a review couldn't be conducted until 4-5 days after the cruise (and she promises to research, then call back. She did, 4 day's later, and by the end of the conversation she agreed we were improperly charged and processed a refund for $294 after a lengthy apparently manual process. She noted I would see a refund in 4-5 weeks. Other observation, despite having a "final" folio summary charge posted to my credit card, I had 3 additional "pending" card charges that were already comprehended in the final folio summary, but still listed on the card account as "pending". So 3 in a "post status" while being told by the Celebrity agent, they'll drop because they were already comprehended in the "final statement". Still waiting for the drop, but this is the second time in 6 months something like this has happened with Celebrity. A comprehended charge will be carried for about a month, then drop. As this is the second occurrence in 6 months, I'm wondering if it's a nefarious scheme to bump/squeeze bump monthly revenue to show a higher review for period of time. Multiply by a couple of thousand of guests at sea and you're recording/churning a nice bank month-to-month on these floating (to be retired) charges. And sometimes, the guest won't watch expiration and they get a tip. Long story short - just watch the card charges as you're sailing..
Celebrity Beyond Comments 5-12 Mar 23
in Celebrity & SilverSea
Posted
Yes on reservations, but there isn't an early outreach email for Celebrity Sky Suite as in RCL Sky Suite level. There is an early outreach for suites above Sky. The suite concierge(s) in the Retreat can take care of requests. Magic Carpet dining is a premium venue. Lunch is a less expensive option than dinner. Also, offerings are "weather (wind)" dependent. La Voyage is unique to Beyond (and Ascent), very small and intimate dining experience. Found the atmosphere and service excellent, but we're not a fan of Dan Boilud menus (you can also get a sample in the Retreat overnight and Chef's table). As it's a small venue, reserve early. We've tried all the specialty restaurants to gauge preferences. Personally I prefer Fine Cut, Eden & Raw on 5. But IMPO - they're really not necessary for a great experience. In the future, we'll only do 1 or 2. The butler will take care of you so start thinking of preferences.