Jaddy

Could someone please tell me what the onboard cooking classes cost, and when classes can be booked?

Thank you.

We are trying to arrange a private tour while we are in Berlin. We will be taking the train that Viking arranges from the Viking Sea (in August of this year) to get back and forth. Please tell me the approximate times the train arrives in, and departs from, Berlin. It would also be helpful to know the name of the station.

Thank you for your kind assistance.

Copenhagen is supposed to be the cycling capital of the whole wide world, so I was surprised to not be able to pull up an electric bike tour company. Have any of you used such? Can you recommend the company you used? Thanks.

We will be in Copenhagen for one day aboard Viking Sea.

Our first Viking cruise is coming up and we are a bit unsure of the drill. There is an Included "Berlin Your Way" train trip to Berlin, but the booking format lists Morning, Afternoon, and Evening departures. Given the distance involved, I assume all departures will be morning departures. Correct?

And I assume that the train trip is free. Correct?

BTW, in case it makes a difference, we are booked in the lowest stateroom category.

Thanks for the help.

We will be on the Viking Homelands cruise aboard the Viking Sea starting 8/21/18 in Stockholm. What time can we board on August 21, and at what time do they want us off the ship on the last day (Sept. 4) in Bergen? This information will help with our trip planning. Thank you.

We will be in Cozumel 2/7 aboard Celebrity Reflection. I would like to rent a jeep and do a circumnavigation of the island. There will be four of us. Is there a first class operation that you can recommend that will meet us at the dock (I don't want to have to find my way to town unless I absolutely have to) and have good quality jeeps.Thanks.

Thank you for your helpful comments Barneyboy and Helen Haywood. I like the fact that the balcony for this stateroom is larger than usual. Neither of you have mentioned noise issues so I assume the patrons of Blu don't get too wild and crazy during meal service.

We were on Reflection for a week 2 years ago and liked it a lot. This winter we will be aboard for 11 days.

Thank you once again.

Jaddy

Any comments on Reflection Stateroom #6305? It's kinda in a weird location way at the end of the ship.

Thanks.

The flyer is very clear it's for Caribbean cruises only. I don't have access to the email right now but I'm pretty sure it was there too

 

http://creative.rccl.com/Sales/Celebrity/Caribbean/Special_Offers/16053968_CEL_72hr_Sale.pdf

The email I received is different than what you received. I used to review (and create) fine print for a living and I can assure you that what I received did not mention applicability to Caribbean sailing only. In fact the CC rep I spoke to admitted the email made no such reference.

I just called Captains Club to book shore excursions on an upcoming Celebrity cruise we are taking in Asia. I told the representative that I wished to take advantage of the recent 20% discount offer (for shore excursions and liquor packages) I recently received from Celebrity via email. Despite the fact that the email I received made absolutely no mention of this (nor did any link as part of the promotion make mention of this) I was told that the offer only applies to certain Caribbean sailings on select ships.

I was told in no uncertain terms that the promotional offer that I received was "an informational banner only" and that the terms and conditions of the offer are held by Celebrity representatives only and are not part of the ad.

BTW-the ad did not say "subject to further terms and conditions; please speak a Celebrity representative" or any such thing.

Interesting.

I saw some older posts suggesting that taxis in Phuket were controlled by a mafia type group and that charges for even short trips were beyond exorbitant. Does anyone know what the current situation is?

When we arrive via Celebrity Constellation we want to take a taxi from Patong Beach (I think that's where the tender lets us off) to Avista Hideway Hotel. Any rough idea of what the taxi fare would be to there?

Thanks.

I recently received an email promo from Celebrity saying that we could get OBC applicable to our upcoming cruise (Eclipse 2/21) and reduced deposits if we book a future cruise while aboard. Will this work for a Galapagos cruise? I read the fine print and it didn't exclude a Galapagos cruise (nor did it exclude T/A's) but I'm suspicious.

Also, if we book something and get an immediate OBC, what happens if we have to cancel the future cruise.

Thanks.

Here's the hypothetical: We book our flight online: no travel agent. Our flight has been charged to our Chase Sapphire Preferred or our Amex card. Our flight is cancelled because of a snowstorm in a connecting city, let's say Chicago. There are flights going out through Atlanta or wherever, but there is a mile long line to get rebooked. Is there anyone I can call from the airport that can rebook us right then and there?

Don't say the airline because it will be impossible to get through to them when this situation presents itself. Also, we do try to fly to our destination a day before the cruise but that isn't always possible.

Any ideas???

When we renewed recently, we got a regular passport and a passport card. That way, we can easily carry the passport card with us when we're off the ship.

The port agent suggestion is a good idea. I would think that in the event you are cutting it close on getting back to the ship, and don't call the port agent early enough, it would be darn near impossible for him to get to the ship and load things up in time to leave things at the port.

We have the passport card. Per your suggestion, it does seem to be a good idea to just take that on tours. I just checked, tho, and found out that it WILL get you back into the U.S. if you are traveling from Canada, Mexico, Bermuda, or a Caribbean island. The bad new is that it most likely WILL NOT get you into another Caribbean island to catch up with the ship.

I think that we will take the cards, plus the port agent number, with us on tour and know that we can at least get back in the U.S. from the Caribbean when we are on the Eclipse in a couple of weeks. We will still have the original problem confronting us when we are in India a year from now, tho.

In the past we have always left our passports in the safe in our Celebrity stateroom when we are off the ship and on a tour. But I have been reading about the great difficulties passengers experience if they are on a tour and miss the ship. It appears that the greatest difficulty is getting a replacement passport so that they can fly to the next port and join the ship.

Also, if you have an accident and have to arrange a medivac flight after the ship has left, it's going to be difficult to get into the U.S. or wherever without a passport. At a minimum, it will certainly delay things just when you want to bug out of timbucktu and get somewhere with good medical care.

So do you experienced Celebrity people take your passports with you when you go on tour? It seems like it would be easy to have them stolen when you are at the beach or whatever.

I understand that the risk is reduced somewhat if you are on a ship sponsored tour. But we, and many of you no doubt, often set up our own tour.

So take or not?

Just booked this stateroom.I now see that it is directly across from the lift. Do you think it will be noisy or not good for any other reason?

Thank you.

We have a February trip booked thru the big internet TA that all of you are familiar with for Eclipse in February. Is it worth a call to them to see if our booking can be transferred to Xpedition in February (assuming availability, of course)?

Thanks.

The good news is that our ship will be in port (2/28) until midnight. The bad news is that this will be on Sunday. Will there be any local music on a Sunday evening? If so, where and how far from ship?

Thanks.

My wife and I will be in Curacao (for the first time) aboard Celebrity Eclipse Feb. 25. Actually the ship will be in port overnight. We were wondering if there is a nice open-air hillside restaurant where we could have sunset drinks and then dinner. Sunsets from up on a hill overlooking the ocean are almost always spectacular. I don't even know if there are any hills in Willemstad. The restaurant need't be fancy, but it does need to have good food.

Your thoughts on this would be most appreciated.

Please help me with the logistics here. Would it be feasible to do these 3 things in a day? What is the distance/taxi cost to go from the cruise port to the cave, and then to the bay, and lastly to the boardwalk? (3 separate rides.)

Our ship, Celebrity Eclipse, will be in port from 8am to midnight. We will be in port on a Sunday.

Thank you.

We will be on the 9/20 QM2 crossing. First time on Cunard or in London. Cunard has a coach service from Victoria Coach Station to Southampton. $50pp. The catch is that Cunard says we need to be at VCS between 10 and 11am, but that the coach doesn't leave until 12:30pm (unless there are sufficient passengers to run multiple buses). The problem is that we don't fancy hanging around the station for a minimum one and half hours. Should we pass up the Cunard transfer and take the train from Waterloo Station? We will be staying near Westminster Abby and it looks like VCS is a lot closer than Waterloo Station. And yes, we understand that we will need to take a cab to either starting location.

What do you recommend?

Thank you for your help. This message board has been of great help to us with our planning. It is a great resource.

Woops, I meant the September 20 passage.

We are U.S. citizens and are booked aboard QM2 for the August 20 passage from Southampton to New York. We haven't cruised with Cunard before. I notice that the prices have been reduced. Will Cunard reduce the price we originally agreed upon if I call them? We originally booked directly with Cunard. If they won't reduce the price can I cancel my original booking, receive a full refund of our deposit, and then rebook at the new price?

Thank you for your help.

We were aboard Reflection Feb. 7-14. I thought that those contemplating a cruise aboard Reflection might like a quick report card. In short, the cruise was a resounding success. REFLECTION IS A GORGEOUS SHIP. In any event, here goes:

Ship--Appearance & Design: A

Stateroom(7342)--Appearance & Design: A

Stateroom Attendant: B+

MDR--Food: A-

MDR--Server & Assistant: A-

MDR--Wine Steward: C+

Lawn Club--Food: A

Oceanview Buffet: B

Embarkation: A

Disembarkation: A

Entertainment: C-

Guest Relations: A

Crew/Staff: A

Cruise Director: B

Misc. Comments: If you like lamb, go to Lawn Club and order the lamb chops. The best I have ever eaten. The food in the MDR was much better than we had expected. The new brand of coffee served throughout the ship was very good. The cheesecake served for dessert in the MDR every nite was exceptionally good. Bar service during peak times was slow and needs better staffing. The ship is beautiful. The artwork in the staircases is wonderful. Do yourself a favor and start at the top of the staircases and work your way down. I think I took over 2 hours doing that one day taking pictures along the way. Lastly, the only downer was the next to awful entertainment. In comparison, the entertainment on the Equinox last winter, and on the Constellation T/A this fall, was surprisingly good.

OVERALL GRADE: A-

VALUE FOR MONEY: A

GOOD JOB CELEBRITY! KEEP UP THE GREAT WORK!

Hope this helps. Any questions?

Could someone please tell me which pier Grand Princess uses in Honolulu? I have set up a private tour and the vendor wants to know this. Cruise ships in Honolulu apparently use either pier 2/3 or 10/11.

Also, does anyone know which nights will be the formal night on the 15 nite GP cruise to Hawaii?

Lastly, does anyone know if Eula and David Cole are still scheduled to be on the March 4 GP cruise to Hawaii? I have been reading a lot of favorable comments about them so it sound like fun if they will be aboard.

Thank you in advance for your input.