ShawninFL

I won't order a cake or celebration package again. We were on the Eclipse for my father's 95th birthday and I preordered a birthday cake and to have his room decorated for the big day. As of 8 PM and being in contact with guest services, his room still hadn't been decorated. The cake was delivered to his room at 9:45 PM.

In the past we always found FBC to have better pricing on international flights than we could find with published rates; however, in the last year, we have found FBC to be higher or no better than we could find direct. So we booked directly with the airline. This way, should something go wrong, we can deal directly with the airline.

We were there last year. We overnighted in Stockholm and took a private tour on day one. Our guide recommended going to the Vasa Museum on day two so we decided to do that (on our own). I purchased tickets online the night before and we took a taxi to and from the port. I believe the taxi was around $25 each way. We thoroughly enjoyed the Vasa and were very glad the guide suggested it, as we didn't think we wanted to to when planning our trip. There are elevators in the museum to get those that have difficulty walking up to all the levels.

We did the Flam railroad with zip line/bike ride back to Flam on our own back in 2022. The zipline is 1380 meters long. My 74 year old aunt went with us and to this day talks about how the zipline was the highlight of her trip. I was an amazing experience. The package (train, zipline and bike rental) cost us $175 per person in 2022.

Unless this in your only opportunity in life to get to Berlin, I would skip going to Berlin. It is incredibly far for a cruise excursion. I would say visit Rostock and roam around Warnemunde for the day.

We did the Norwegian Fjord in 2022 on RC Jewel OTS. I will list the ports we visited on our cruise, what we did and what the cost was (I maintain spreadsheets for all our trips to track cost). Flam: We booked the railroad, with zipline and bike ride back to town. We booked this on our own and the cost was $175.00 per person. Honningsvag: We booked a tour separately from the cruise line through Blue Puffin Tours called the North Cape Tour. It cost $146 per person and we thoroughly enjoyed the tour. Molde: We rented a car for the day. We had to take the bus to and from the airport, but it was easy enough to do and only required about 15-20 minutes each way. The cost of the rental with full coverage insurance was $282.00 for the day. We drove from Molde to the Atlantic Highway. We had a nice leisurely drive at our pace and enjoyed being able to stopp where we wanted when we wanted. Stavanger: We booked a boat tour through the fjords on our own separately from the cruise line. It left from right in the center of town where we disembarked the ship. I don't have the price listed on my spreadsheet for this tour as our friends booked the tickets for this an we reimbursed them, but I believe they were around $75.00 per person. This cruise was amazing, especially if your doing it around the summer solstice where there is 24-hour sunlight. I is really amazing being out an about on the ship at 2 AM and its still completely light outside. I hope this helps. Shawn

We live in Florida and quite a number of years ago, we decided, enough of the Caribbean. We needed to venture out. We've done quite a bit of the Mediterranean and then moved on from their. For us, I would suggest the following: 1. Japan and Korea 2. Iceland 3. Norwegian Fjords 4. Baltic Sea Japan absolutely blew us away. We were apprehensive due to the language barrier, but we hired private guides in all the ports and had the most amazing time. We are planning to return to Japan and feel completely confident in getting around on your own. It's safe, fascinating and the food is amazing. Our cruise had 3 stops in Korea and we loved them as well, but if I returned to Korea we use guides as we didn't feel as confident getting around. We've been to Iceland twice. Loved it both times. Next time we go it will be flying in and renting a car. It's so easy to get around, so much to do and explore. And as you travel around, the landscape changes from lush to something lookin like a lunar setting. There are wonderful waterfalls, thermal pool and hicking. Norway is probably the most beautiful landscape we've ever seen. Just absolutely beautiful. Other than Oslo, many of the ports are these tiny towns where the cruise in and out of port and the touring is the highlight. This cruise requires research and preplanning, but it is so worth it. Go during the summer up to the North Cape and experience 24 hours of sunlight for a few days on end. When we went we were lucky enough to have beautiful clear weather resulting is 5 straight days of the sun never setting. Finally the ports of the Baltic are great. Stockholm has an amazing sail in and sail out traveling through the archipelago. Tallin, Estonia was a unexpected gem for us. We loved it. Copenhagen is a great European city with so many things to choose from to explore. The main things is don't be scared to get our of your travel conform zone. Explore new places and eat new foods. Happy traveling!

You're going to end up flying into Heathrow in London. On our Baltics cruise in July, we only flew in the day before, so we hired a private transfer from Heathrow to our hotel in Southampton. we stayed at the Holiday Inn right next to the port. Walked to checkin the next morning. Easy as can be.

We did the Norwegian Fjords two years ago. We did a 12 night on Royal Caribbean going all the way up to the North Cape. There were very few children on the ship and we were the only ship in each port each day so we didn't have any issues with overcrowded ports. It was an amazing cruise. Experienced 5 days of complete sunlight...kind of crazy having to wear sunglasses at 2 in the morning. One piece of advice, is do your research and plan your days. We rented a car in two ports and drove ourselves (The Atlantic Highway and Langfoss Falls). In other ports we had pre-hired private guides to take us around for the day. In Flam we bought train tickets up the mountain and then zip-lined and biked back. We actually looking at a 7-night on Apex in 2025 that will get us to Geiranger and Bergen that were not on our itinerary 2 years ago. If you have any questions, I'm more than happy to answer if I can help.

I rarely drink in my day to day life, but when I'm on a cruise, I enjoy ordering what I want when I want it and not having to worry if it's over my covered limit. There are so many options at all the different bars and I like to try things I wouldn't normally try. I also made the decision a number of years ago, that since I drink so seldom that when I do, I'm only drinking the good stuff. So for me, the Premium Package is the way to go.

I really don't see the big deal in the change to a 10% deposit. Even if you're booking a $15,000.00 per person suite. It's still only a $1500.00 deposit per person. You'd still have another $13,500.00 per person due by final payment. In my opinion you can afford that level of vacation, you should certainly not bat an eye at the deposit.

I believe Ascent will have the upgraded Sunset Bar. The Sunset Bar on Edge (which Apex is the same design) was a major disappointment for us.

Last year for my Dad's 95th birthday dinner in Tuscan Grille, we had 9 people (4 couples and 1 single). We were directed to individually make and pay for the individual reservations through the website/app and then email celcruiseenhancements@celebrity.com. They said try to pick times close together, but just make the reservations and they'll coordinate with the ship to combine the reservations and time. Expect to be flexible with your reservation time.

Sixt Rent a Car

I completely agree. Our RC cruises are always more expensive than Celebrity when you get to the bottom line.