FJB

Yes I have - Lanzarote in the Canary Islands. Took a hike to the top of a volcano.

No tendering - docked. There were 2 smaller ships in port that day. I don’t attribute the traffic to the cruise ships but just local traffic and bad roads.

We were in Antigua last week. I highly suggest doing the zip lining excursion. I did mine thru the cruise excursion desk but you can probably find it with an outside vendor or maybe just show up and do it on your own. It is about a 20min trip from the port.

What happens when the kids come along and push multiple floors multiple times? Wife and I were just talking about “smart elevators” last nite. We haven’t experienced them yet, but if they are similar to “smart phones”, I say no thank you. Life is getting to complicated.

These are non refundable fares and deposits. I believe you can change to a different cruise date without penalty.

Too much traffic in St Lucia for me. We liked Tobago and Antigua was beautiful.

I think it’s as easy as going to catholicpriest.com, paying them $500 for the certificate, say 3 Hail Marys, and then buy a white cardboard collar for $19.99

We’ve only done anytime dining once or twice on other cruiselines. As someone said, we always had to wait 15 minutes or more, especially when we had a group of seven. We prefer fixed seating time at the later hour (8:30).

I normally upgrade to the premium package but on this last cruise, Celebrity changed its policy to require all adults in the same cabin to purchase the alcohol package. Since my wife drinks very little, it wasn’t worth $1700 for unlimited drinks for both of us, hence me saving $1000 since we only spent about $700 on alacarte drinks. Celebrity has always saved unfinished for the next nite. Not sure how other cruiselines handle half full bottles. Yes there are incentives for booking your next cruise while on the current cruise. The biggest perk is the $100 per person deposit.

Life was good 2 weeks ago - this was my first drink at the pool upon embarkation day on the Celebrity Silhouette- a Jameson & Ginger Ale.

If you are a Catholic priest, some cruise lines will give you free cruises for your services.

Got off of our 12nite Celebrity cruise last week and only spent about $700 total between wife & I for all alcohol, sodas, and water. My wife drinks very little - mostly Diet Coke. I drink every day on the other hand. Always 2 - 4 drinks by the pool in the afternoon, a drink or 2 before the show, another drink between the show and dinner (we prefer late dinner seating) and at least 2 glasses of wine at dinner, and sometimes another drink after dinner. I no longer drink coffee, so I don’t need any of those fancy coffee drinks from the coffee bar in the morning. I must add that we are elite members on celebrity so we do get free drinks between 5 and 7 each evening. We would usually get a bottle or 2 of water during this time, also free, to take back to our room and put in the fridge for later. Not that we drink much water - I’m ok with tap water. I also get a 20% discount on bottles of wine so I would order bottles at dinner to drink - cheaper than buying by the glass. If I don’t drink the bottle in one nite, they just save it for the next nite. So overall I figure I saved about $1000 by not purchasing the beverage package - almost enough for another cruise, which was booked while we were on this cruise!

We were on a 12 nite Celebrity cruise the last 2 weeks and not once did we use room service. And I still gained 4#s having to walk up 4 flights of stairs each morning to fetch my own breakfast. My oh my the horrors!

Just posted this in the other thread - Kids on Celebrity are very few and usually well mannered. It would not bother me if they were allowed in the solarium a couple hours a day. On our Celebrity cruise last week, there were probably less than 10 kids total on the cruise. I think the kids hours for the solarium pool was 4-6 or 5-7 - can’t remember exactly. Usually by this time the solarium is clearing out of the old people so not an issue. JMO And I will add that for those who can’t stand a few kids in an almost empty pool and solarium at 5pm are probably people I don’t want on my cruise to begin with. Probably the same cruisers who are rude to the bartenders and waitstaff and are always cutting in front of me at the buffet to use their hands instead of the tongs to grab the donuts and French fries….

Kids on Celebrity are very few and usually well mannered. It would not bother me if they were allowed in the solarium a couple hours a day. On our Celebrity cruise last week, there were probably less than 10 kids total on the cruise. I think the kids hours for the solarium pool was 4-6 or 5-7 - can’t remember exactly. Usually by this time the solarium is clearing out of the old people so not an issue. JMO

Looks like you just entered the bay. Another 8 hours and you should be in Baltimore - only about 20 hours late.

We have been on the sister ships but not this one. We had not been to St Lucia, Tobago, or Antigua before this cruise.

Celebrity Silhouette for 10 nites stopping at St Maarten, Grenada, St Lucia, Tobago, and Antigua.

I’m less than 5 days away from my next outing on the sea!

One person’s love is another’s hate, bamboo being my hate. It is very invasive! I have a farm I work that has bamboo on it that I am constantly fighting to keep out of the fields - it’s a losing battle without a bulldozer.

Happy to say my wife and I won’t be sleeping on the beach - booked a Marriott brand hotel room over the weekend for about $210 a nite. We had to sacrifice beachfront hotels ($375+ per nite) for something more affordable near the airport. I may regret being a cheapskate if I can’t sleep because of airplanes flying overhead….

Booked another excursion today for a cruise that is less than 3 weeks away. Last piece of the puzzle is to book a hotel for our pre-cruise stay. But man hotels are expensive in FLL right now! I may be sleeping on the beach….

On my upcoming cruise on Celebrity in February, I am not purchasing any beverage package, mainly because Celebrity changed their policy to now requiring everybody in the same cabin to purchase the same package. My wife doesn’t drink much so I don’t think it is worth me spending more than $1700 for drink packages for both of us. I will see how this works for us - we will drink what we want when we want and see what the final tally is at the end of the cruise. This is probably our first cruise in about 10 years that at least one of us didn’t have included drinks.

Underwear? No not really. Someone gave me a bamboo t-shirt bought while they were on a cruise. It got holes in it quicker than any other t-shirt I have owned. It was comfortable though, but not sure was anymore comfortable than my Jockey t-shirts.