sleepingcat

Yes agree, astern on E deck would be our choice too. We are currently aboard S of D on Ddeck as Ewas booked, so a slightly longer walk to the library and the prom deck.   But still fab  …..

Hi all live from S o D and using the WiFi . Seems good enough to me. And btw the satellite tv offering seems much better than our last trip 2 yrs ago. And need it today as sea conditions and weather poor. 

very timely postings above for me to learn that paper maps are no longer supplied. we are  boarding Discovery on thursday  and this morning I was looking out some old paper maps from previous visits/cruises, thinking, 'well any we havent got we can get from the ship'. I have to say, though, that we usually head direct for the local tourist info if we are making our own way in a port and local maps and advice has always been good. 

10 hours ago, Korimako said:

And on another topic - somewhere on these boards I remember seeing a thread about buying a SIM card just for Europe for basic calls and texts. Using my iPhone with a roaming package from home would be eye-wateringly expensive.

The EU took a very dim view of mobile providers charging EU citizens large roaming charges, so it introduced legislation which meant that a citizen of any EU country visiting another EU member state paid the same for their phone use as they did at home. I think this would probably mean that if you buy a temporary SIM card in any EU country you could use it in all EU countries. But note,  the UK is now not in the EU,  so while some UK providers have not introduced roaming packages, others have, so buy elsewhere to be sure. 

Be aware also that cruise ships provide their own  on ship networks which are veeerrrryy expensive, so when on the ship be sure to switch to airplane mode. do a search as lots of advice on this previously on these boards. 

Spurred on by this info I thought I would do a bit of research.  found this 

https://taxation-customs.ec.europa.eu/guide-vat-refund-visitors-eu_en

If on a  cruise ship it's not at all clear how the process described would work, in our case theoretically I would need to find customs officers in Madeira to stamp all my receipts as that is the last port of call.  In practise it's not going to be worth the bother for the amounts involved. 

But the link maybe helpful to others. happy new year everyone!

I had a message yesterday from London friends who should have been on the  MS Maud Christmas cruise and instead had a rapidly rearranged Christmas at home . I know they have already had an email with offers of future cruises they can transfer to. Best wishes to all concerned. 

@vmax thanks for your reply, looks like I dont need to do anything. cheers

now that the UK is out of the EU, do UK citizens get tax refunds on stuff we buy? and if so, how do we get a refund. sadly havent been out of the UK recently to know this. any advice appreciated. And we are on SaGa S of D next week to Canaries...

on a 2 day cruise ship stop in Sydney we had a do it ourselves day out in Manly.  took the commuter ferry from circular quay to Manly (so you see the whole harbour), had a swim then had fish and chips at one of the many pubs/cafes near the beach. just fab and easy to do.  cant comment on the snorkelling. 

Hi neighbour. Reids is walkable from the cruise docks if you are a reasonable walker, but for a special occasion you might prefer to arrive in a taxi as you suggest. we hope to be overnight in Funchal in January (with umm an other cruise line) and I m still trying to get to Reids for the tea, so if we do I will report........

On 12/5/2023 at 1:50 PM, Autumnz said:

*Are there other ships we should consider that are "Celebrity" budget?  We love the solarium/indoor pool area and want a ship with lots of access to sit and take in beautiful scenery (waterparks/casino is not our jam).  We do prefer smaller vs mega cruise.  We do have sea sick concerns (loved deck 6 midship balcony in calm Alaska Waters= no issues).

Well if you dont mind spending your cruise in the company of a mainly British set of fellow passengers, have a look at the British departure  cruise lines which do the fiords.  P and O UK has two new ships, which I havent been on btw, as we prefer smaller ships) which are regulars for fiord cruises. Smaller ships are Saga and Fred Olsen (UK departures but as you can tell, the Olsens are Norwegian).  There is also hurtigruten, Norwegian ferry company, which has new ships operating Fiord cruises from the UK.  I m now sure how any of these would compare price wise with Celebrity. Plenty of reviews and comment on these companies and itineraries on the relevant boards. Enjoy your planning...

oh, now I am getting a bit concerned.  Owing to rapidly changing family drama circumstances (a house sale fell through, argh), we ve just this week late booked for the 4 January cruise to canaries. Let's hope engineers are doing what is needed.   I will appreciate updates from those in the know.

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this looks like a useful strand

https://boards.cruisecritic.co.uk/topic/2963740-passport-query/page/2/#comment-66112377

but whoever handled your booking should have gone through this with you before you booked. I ve just booked a cruise with another line this morning, and I checked our passports and the rules before booking, the correct info is also in that cruise lines terms and conditions.

Hi, if you havent already done so, I would suggest you repost on the board for the cruise line you are travelling with? there you should find plenty of previous posts about travel time to Gatwick from fellow Americans who have done it before.  all I m thinking is the most of us  UK cruisers dont take an ongoing flight after disembarking, so apart from those who live near Gatwick, wont have the right info. 

But off the top of my head, it sounds too tight, especially for Gatwick rather than Heathrow. You dont mention time of year either, and adverse weather here can really slow up travel. Or maybe even delay the ship arrival to Southampton. Storms last month in the eastern Atlantic resulted in many cruise ship schedules going awry. 

P and O dont do the visas, you have to do it. the Australia ones you can do online easily. 

P and O gave us an all in price for our flights to NZ where we toured for a month and then boarded Arcadia in Auckland to do Australia and thence back to the UK , so half a world cruise. And only flying one way was a bonus. 

we flew from Birmingham with Emirates,  which might work well for you. We included a 24 hour stopover in Bangkok to make the flights a bit less tiring. P and O were quite happy to arrange whatever we wanted for the flights.

I ve seen discussions on here suggesting that booking your flights yourself, separate from the cruise,  can work out cheaper. At the time I didn't have the experience to be able to do that confidently. 

There are 2 species of penguins found on the South Island of NZ. The tiny fairy penguins come ashore at dusk to find places to roost for the night. the other ones,a bit larger, Ive forgotten the name, come ashore a bit earlier and at different beaches/locations from the fairy penguins. These tours have been discussed previously on this forum.  Plenty of people on these forums will have visited the various locations,  but you need to give a bit more detail, where is your tour going, and at what time of day?

 (nb I havent done a tour, as we were on a land trip when we were able to meet the penguins, it was one of the high points of our visit). 

Torbay: it will be by tender to land in Torquay. Are you an Agatha Christie fan? if yes, then a visit to her former house Greenway would be a good choice.

Otherwise the most favoured day out is the steam train from Paignton to Kingswear, cross the river to Dartmouth, boat up the river to Totnes and return by bus.  The company offers the whole thing as a 'round robin' tour. Scroll down for earlier detail on this tour as I and others have advised about it several times before.  

Torquay itself has Torre Abbey and gardens, museum etc. Or Kents Cavern if you fancy prehistoric human history. 

okay, yes , we did the South Island on a land tour, hiring a camper van and with 3 weeks we didn't see all we wanted to see.  BUT from the ship you can do a couple of things we did (1) in akaroa we did a boat trip to see the tiny dolphins and lots of other wildlife on the way, would recommend. (2) from Dunedin you can book a day tour down to the albatross sanctuary and you will see the New Zealand fur seals as well. and the scenery is gorgeous. Sadly,the fairy penguins in Oamaru are more difficult because you have to be there at dusk, we just walked over from the campsite and pretty much fell over them coming ashore, fab experience. 

I think you will love NZ however you visit, and maybe if you love it enough you can come back and do the land tour everyone is suggesting. go well ....

15 hours ago, yarramar said:

Can you tell me where you found this tour?  I’m having a hard time finding anything from Adelaide, even through the cruiseline.

our day in Adelaide was ship shuttle to middle of the city then a bus to the zoo where we spent a lot of the day including our lunch and meeting all the Australian wildlife ( I couldn't let my husband visit oz without seeing kangaroos and wallabies), bus back to the shopping district where I bought a fab handbag and back to the ship on shuttle. a low cost day out with everything we wanted. would love to explore Adelaide again, perhaps on another RWC, its a lovely place.

On 10/19/2023 at 7:16 PM, mhdubgal3645 said:

I am interested in taking a World Cruise when I retire and was wondering if they all charge the single supplement if you go alone?  Also do they have single cabins?

Fred Olsen out of the UK has already been mentioned.  P and O UK (its part of Carnival ) also does world cruises and they use their smaller ships Arcadia and Aurora which are not new but still really nice.  We ve done half a worldie on Arcadia and loved it. Not sure about single cabins, but we met quite a few solo travellers on our RWC. 

On 10/19/2023 at 1:31 PM, Scottishclover said:

3) We are keen hikers so would love some recommendations on good trails/routes in the New Forest? We plan to do a lot of hiking on our Arctic Circle Cruise so will have all the gear anyway.

Brockenhurst will be good base for walking, you just walk direct out of the village in any direction straight in to the forest. 

We had our own bikes with us there (as we were in our motorhome), and cycling was also good.  and we did the day trip to Lymington on the train.  Getting into Southampton is really easy by train. all recommended. 

On 9/26/2023 at 7:21 PM, janetmojo said:

We are booked on Celebrity Apex out of Southampton Aug 27th through Sept 18th on a B2B. 

the week before your cruise will be one of the busiest as UK schools are still on holiday and there is also a public holiday on the last monday in August.  Schools usually return on the monday following the monday of the public holiday. So after is likely to be somewhat quieter, and prices might be a bit lower. 

Same ship was in Falmouth this last summer:

hursday, June 1: Zuiderdam - arriving 8am, departing 4pm, approx. number of passengers: 2,000

So you can maybe check what happened on that visit. I would post on the HAL board, or see if anyone posted a review. 

Link below should give you the info you need about vessel size. 

https://www.falmouthharbour.co.uk/shipping-and-harbour-operations/cruise-destination/

as well as other insights for Falmouth. 

Re cabins, I am pretty fussy about location.  and agree that when Ive done dummy bookings lately I have seen that not many choices offered.  I would suggest to use the deck plans to make a short list of cabins you really like the look of, and then try phoning Fred to do the booking, as the phone booking person will be able to see all the cabins available on any particular deck. If you. ve got the deck plan open on on your computer while you discuss you can see exactly what you are being offered. 

On 9/21/2023 at 8:53 PM, FannyLiz said:

From bitter experience I’d advise your wife to take the sea sickness tablets as soon as the ship turns out of the English Channel, or before. Better have them in your system than take them too late.

I second that advice. Like FL we have many times used the ferry to spain in the middle of winter. And departed on cruises too.  I am never not seasick in the Bay of Biscay, so I take my tablets a few hours after we leave Southampton/Portsmouth, and I use those pressure point wristbands also.