AntjeG

I left Adelaide on the public airport bus at 7 AM the morning after my Kangaroo Island tour for my flight to Sydney. Arrived in Sydney around lunch time.

One of my friends has a daughter who had worked as an Au Pair in Sydney last year so I got lots of info from her about what to see and how to get around.

Based on her advice I bought a weekly ticket for the public transport which included trains as far as Katoomba in the Blue Mountains.

I stayed at an IBIS hotel near the World Square shopping mall. This is only a short 2 stops train ride from Circular Quay. So after unpacking I took the train to Circular Quay. First thing I did there was collecting my pre-ordered tickets at the opera house. I then had a nice little walk exploring The Rocks, which is the historic harbour quarter.

Back to the hotel to dress up and then I went to the Opera House for what they called a Projection concert. They showed the silent film „The Artist“ and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra was playing the film music live. This was really a great evening. I liked the film, the music and the architecture of the opera house.

When I left the opera house to go back to the hotel I had a magnificient view on the harbour bridge and opera house.

The next morning I did another one of my beloved HoHo Bus tours. My first stop was at the famous Bondi beach. On the way back to the city there were some nice views.

I found Sydney to be a fascinating city with a mixture of historic architecture and modern buildings.

Late in the afternoon I took the harbour ferry to Manly to have the view from the water. I´m so glad I did this because when I left Sydney on the Solstice the weather was awful and the view not half as nice!

Pictures here:

The Blue Mountains are a national park just 2 hrs by train from Sydney. The inhabitants of Sydney love to spend their weekends there. As this was also a long weekend with Monday being Australia Day and it was the last holiday weekend it was quite busy in the Blue Mountains.

I took the train at 7:20 AM from Central Station and arrived in Katoomba in the Blue Mountains around 9:30 AM. I had another pre-booked ticket for the Blue Mountains Explorer (the local HoHo Bus). At the tourist information I bought tickets for the Scenic rides and then off I went on my tour through the Blue Mountains. The HoHo Bus stops at various lookouts where you can also go on short or long hikes.

From a distance the Blue Mountains look really blue. I was told this is because of the Eukalypt oil coming up from the leaves in the heat.

I took all the Scenic rides which are ropeways and a steep railway.

I left Katoomba with the 5 PM train and was back to Sydney by 7 PM.

I really enjoyed the Blue Mountains and in my memories I enjoy them even more as I now know that it was the last day in good weather for a long time.

Pictures:

The night after my trip to the Blue Mountains a thunderstorm brought rain and cooler temperatures. It was still raining the next morning when I made my way to the promenade between Circular Quay and the opera house. For Australia Day there are several events taking place on the water between harbour bridge and opera house. I was there early and was lucky to find a spot in the front row.

There was a boat parade which engaged everything that was able to swim – harbour ferries, sailing boats, motor yachts, military ship, police boats, tug boats, firefighter ship, harbour cruise boats, tall ships, and 3 P&O cruise ships. Many boats were decorated. Fun to watch even in the rain.

Next was the Ferrython which is a race of the harbour ferries ending under the harbour bridge.

After that (at 11.55 AM) the military ship rang the typhoon and the canons based on the North Sydney shore gave a 21 shoot salute. A kids choir sang the National Anthem and „I am Australian“. And then 10 sailing boats danced Ravel´s „Bolero“ and Pontichelli´s „Dance of the hours“ together with 2 tug boats and 2 helicopters. Very impressive! I have a friend who is a sailor and she says it is not easy to turn sailing boats exactly in the same moment.

After this I had to go back to the hotel to change into dry clothes – I was soaked in spite of wearing my rain coat. Rested my feet for a while and then back on the train to Darling Harbour. Lots of street artists there and the place was packed with people even in the pouring rain.

Back to Circular Quay at 6:30 PM to board the harbour cruise boat. Some cruise critic members from the US had arranged a harbour cruise with buffet dinner to see the Australia Day fireworks and of course to meet the people we had been chatting with for several months pre-cruise. It was a fun evening. Met some nice people, enjoyed a tasty dinner and saw impressive fireworks. Unfortunately it was still raining so my pics of the fireworks didn´t come out too well. The fireworks were actually more beautiful than they seem on the pics.

I read later that this has been the wetest Australia Day for Sydney in 50 years. Yeah, and I was a part of it! (Kidding, of course. Would have been much more enjoyable with better weather – even a heat wave would have been better).

I felt sorry for the people who organized all this only to see it be washed off by the rain.

Back at the hotel very late and packed to board Solstice tomorrow.

The rain not only continued but even got worse the next day.

In the morning I went to the opera house again. I had a ticket for a guided tour. The tour was called the early bird tour and started at 9 AM. Good for me because I could easily fit it in before baggage drop off at the cruise terminal. And the ticket even was discounted (they discount all tickets for the 9 AM and 10 AM tours).

When I arrived at the opera house I was already soaked. Everybody else on the tour was, too, of course.

The guide was really great – knowleadgeable and passionate. I learnt a lot about architecture that morning!

Back to the hotel to check out. No chance to change into dry clothes as everything was already packed and I was 10 minutes before last check out time. Besides, dry clothes would have got wet after 2 minutes again. I felt it was raining cats and dogs that morning in Sydney.

When I arrived at the Overseas Passenger Terminal I was soaked, my baggage was soaked and I was all of a sudden very exhausted. I had planned to drop off the baggage and then go to Mrs Macquarie´s Chair which is a lookout in the Botanical Garden. This lookout can be reached with a long hike (nothing for me) or with a train-like public transport system which circles the Botanical Garden. This thing only runs if it is not raining – no lookout for me this morning. Next plan had been to go to the Australian Museum if it was still raining. There was an interesting exhibition about aboriginal people of Australia announced. But, beeing wet and cold and exhausted I didn´t feel like going anywhere except the ship this morning. I wanted something hot to drink and dry clothes. So I checked in fully – only to find out afterwards that due to new Sydney port authority regulations I would not be allowed to leave the ship again until the next port.

OK, as this was a new cruise line and a new ship for me I thought it should be fun to explore the ship until everybody would be on board. Had a hot drink and some lunch at the Oceanview Cafe before the cabins where announced to be ready. A hot shower and dry clothes later I was ready for a ship tour. I really liked the ship, as you can see from my review posted at the start of this thread.

To be on the outside deck to watch sail away is a must when cruising from a city like Sydney but as it was still raining heavily it was only half the fun. Nice views, though.

I had opted for the late dinner seating. I normally tend to eat dinner much earlier. But with the early seating starting exactly at sail away time most days I felt I would miss an essential part of my cruise if dining earlier (I love to watch sail away). I was assigned to a table with 5 other solo cruisers from Australia, the US and Britain. I really enjoyed spending some hours with these people every evening. We had a lot of fun.

After dinner there was a comedian at the theatre. As I don´t really like comedy shows and also felt I would not get most of the jokes when attending comedy in English I went back to my cabin. My suitcase had arrived there by now (after passing security check) so I unpacked and went to bed.

As this was a tour company who only offers hostel accomodation (shared in a dorm with 10 other people of both sexes in the same room!) or camping I had argued the original company into giving me a guarantee for a single room. I am already too old for that kind of accomodation!

Anyway, it was nice to have a small bus (that´s what the original tour would have been, too). There were 18 passengers half from Britain and half from Germany.

For the itinerary the 1st day was nearly as I had booked with the other company. We took the famous Great Ocean Road out of Melbourne with lots of photo stops. The sun was shining, the views were great and I enjoyed my day.

We met some Koalas in the Eukalypt trees along the road. Lunch was at a beautiful lighthouse which has a café and supper with a take away pizza at the beach at Loch Ard Gorge.

We saw the sunset at the 12 Aposteles before heading to the hostel.

As the hostel didn´t have single rooms I stayed at a nearby comlex with holiday apartments.

The next morning we had one last photo stop at the Great Ocean Road at the so-called London Bridge before heading inland to the Grampians National Park. We had some nice photo stops and even met an Emu and his young ones

We had a sandwich lunch at a picnic ground in the Grampians.

This is were the changes in the itinerary (compared to my original booking) began and nobody had bothered to notify me about them. I don´t think I would have booked this if I had known about all that was following. It was not the actual tour company´s fault as their itinerary was exactly as we did it. However, it was very different from now on from what I had booked.

The tourguide announced we should now put our hiking boots on as we would do a 4 km uphill hike to a viewpoint! I am handicapped and can´t walk long distances. Of course I was not able to do it. I had to stay at the bus and wait for the group to come back. I did a little walk around the parking lot on myself and that was my afternoon. After the group was back from the hike we went to the lodge we were to stay for the night. The lodge had a campground and log cabins (1 cabin for 5 people but I had my own). Unfortunately the bathroom in the cabin was not really clean.

We had a BBQ dinner with Kangaroo steaks which was nice.

The next morning after breakfast we were scheduled to do a 200 steps downhill hike to a waterfall. As this was also in my original tour I had been able to do some research before starting the trip. I found out (thanks to the internet) that there is a hiking trail which goes on the other side of the parking lot 2 km on even surface to the top of the waterfall. There were signs at the spot to find this trail easily. So I did that while the rest of the group went down to the base of the waterfall. The tourguide didn´t even know that this trail exists. A tourguide who claims to guide groups there every week doesn´t know about a public trail to a viewpoint….

We then continued by bus to the village of Horsham were we had a sandwich lunch on a picnic ground at the riverside. After lunch the tourguide then announced she would now start heading back on the highway to Melbourne (!). I would be dropped off at the local bus stop to take the public bus to Adelaide.

Again I was not told before that this tour was normally going back to Melbourne. My original tour would have been on day 3 to go from the Grampians to see the Adelaide hills and the village of Hahndorf before being dropped off at my downtown Adelaide hotel.

I had to wait for the public bus for nearly 1 hr. As I had all my luggage with me I was not able to do something like have a walk or find some coffee or go shopping. I sat at the bus stop. At least I had been equipped with a ticket and a reserved seat for the bus. It took the bus 5.5 hrs on the highway to go from Horsham to Adelaide Central Bus Station. No guided drive through Adelaide hills, no stop in Hahndorf, no tourguide. No hotel drop off, of course. I had to take a taxi to my hotel.

The hotel was just what I needed after this. My travel agent had found a deal for me to stay in a 5 star luxury hotel for the price of a nearby 3 star hotel! The room was big, the bathroom even had both shower and bathtub, there was a spa with a pool, sauna and gym and I had free WiFi so I was able to send my travel agent an email to tell her about my Melbourne to Adelaide trip. The local Adelaide tour company had kept their promise to notify me in advance about tomorrow´s pick up time (no need to call and explain my complicated name) and I had a relaxing evening in the pool and sauna.

The city sightseeing bus picked me up at the hotel at 8.30 AM (no HoHo-Bus this time as Adelaide doesn´t have one). I had a 3.5 hr guided city tour. I really liked Adelaide. Very nice houses (not so many skyscrapers) and lots of parks and gardens.

A tour of Haigh´s chocolate factory was included in the city tour – yummy!

In the afternoon I took the tram to Glenelg. Glenelg is Adelaide´s beach part. I had a relaxing afternoon there with a little beach walk with my feet in the water, some souvenir shopping and just sitting in the sun.

Back at the hotel I spent the evening in the pool/sauna again.

The bus picked me up the next morning at 6.15 AM at the hotel for the ride to the ferry terminal at Cape Jervis. The landscape we drove through was nice. Arrived at Cape Jervis 8.30 AM, boarded the ferry and left Cape Jervis at 9.00 AM. The trip to Penneshaw on Kangaroo Island was very beautiful and took 45 minutes.

In Penneshaw another bus was waiting to take the ferry passengers on a guided day tour of the island. Kangaroo Island consists of partly farm land and partly a national park and is also a bee sanctuary. The coastline is quite spectacular. We had a guided walk at a beach with a national park ranger to meet sea lions and fur seals.

We then continued the tour along the coast with stops at different lookouts. We stopped to see the Remarkable Rocks and Admirals Arch.

We saw Wallabies and Koalas along the road. In the late afternoon we went back to Penneshaw to catch the ferry to Cape Jervis where the bus to Adelaide was waiting. Back at the hotel at 9:30 PM and I then had to pack again.

pictures here:

Great Ocean Road:

Grampians, Adelaide, Kangaroo Island:

I left Ayers Rock Resort the day after the sunrise/rock paintings tour with another airport transfer bus for my flight to Melbourne. Arrived there at 4 PM and took the public airport bus to my downtown hotel. In the evening I walked to the Eureka Tower. This is a 86 storey residential building which has a viewing platform on the 86th floor. It is situated near the Southbank Promenade which is a modern promenade at the Yarra riverside with lots of restaurants and cafés.

The view from the Eureka tower is really nice.

The next morning after breakfast I phoned the company I had a booking for a 3 day bus tour to Adelaide with to ask what my pick up time for tomorrow would be. They didn´t find a booking and promised to call me back. I was not worried at this time as such a thing happened to me with almost every tour company. My name is just too complicated for English computers, I suppose. So I left the man at the phone with 3 different options how they could have spelled my name and went on my city tour with the HoHo-Bus.

I started the city tour at Federation Square which is a central place for both locals and tourists. It has very modern architecture (seems like it came with a time machine from the 22nd century) but I somehow came to like it after having been there some time. On the other side of the street is the old cathedral.

Around lunch time the tour company called me back to tell me that they had cancelled the tour as the tourguide was sick. That´s why they had not found my booking. They claimed to have notified my hotel yesterday but when I asked at the hotel reception if there was any message for me they said no. Now I was really shocked. I had another tour from Adelaide booked from Jan 20th and also had no chance to stay in Melbourne longer as all the hotels were fully booked from tomorrow due to the Australian Tennis Open. Besides, I wanted to see the Great Ocean Road and Grampians National Park and there was just no way to find another tour just by myself. The travel agent at home was of no help as she was, of course, asleep in the middle of the German night. I told the tour company that it was of no use for me right now that they promised to process a refund of my money to my travel agent at home. Some time later they called again to offer a booking with another tour company on a similar itinerary – just the hotels would be hostels and in other villages. They would refund the difference in the price. I had no other option than to agree to this.

This whole matter took nearly 2 hrs. After having received a text message to confirm the new details I went on the second half of my HoHo-Bus tour through Melbourne which took me to St. Kilda. St. Kilda is the beach part of the city.

When I returned to Federation Square there was a little party going on with lots of people dancing twist. Fun to watch!.

Last for today was a 1 hr boat tour on the Yarra river which I was able to enjoy again.

Here are the pictures:

The airport transfer picked me up at the hotel at 6 AM for my 7.30 AM flight from Cairns to Ayers Rock Airport. Another transfer bus took me from there to my hotel in the Ayers Rock Resort where I arrived at 11 AM.

The Ayers Rock Resort consists of 4 hotels, a campground, several restaurants, swiming pools, a spa and a central place with shops, cafés and a meeting place where different events take place. There are several lookouts, too. The resort is approx. 15 km from Uluru. A free shuttle bus circles the resort every 20 minutes or so so that you don´t need a rental car to get around.

I spent an hour exploring the central place and buying some groceries and lots of water. At 3 PM the tour bus picked me up for the Uluru sunset tour. First we went to the Kata Tjuta which I found to be impressive.

Next was a 2 km walk at the Walpa Gorge which I had to give up after 500 m or so because it was uneven, rocky surface. Some other people gave up because it was too hot for them.

Today´s highlight was of course the sunset at the Uluru which is an experience I will never forget. The changes of color are very impressive.

The next morning the tour bus picked me up at the hotel at 4.30 AM for the Uluru sunrise tour. This was even more impressive. As there are no street lights it was very dark and we could see the Uluru come to light.

From the sunrise viewing platform the bus went to the Mutitjutlu waterhole where we got to see the ancient paintings by the Anangu, the local indigenious people. The tourguide had some fascinating stories to share.

There was also a 1 hr guided tour in the Aboriginal Cultural Center (no photography allowed inside) which I enjoyed. The tour ended at the hotel at 10 AM. This gave me some time in the afternoon for a good swim in the pool, a massage in the spa and to listen to dreamtime stories and Didgeridoo playing at the central place.

Here are the pictures:

I arrived in Cairns at lunch time January 11. Some trouble with the airport transfer who had forgotten that I had a booking with them but a phone call got things straight.

I stayed at a very nice IBIS Styles hotel around the corner from the Esplanade. The Esplanade is Cairns´s beach walk. Also, the hotel is only a few minutes to walk from the Lagoon, a big public swimming pool, and the Reef Fleet Terminal for the boat rides to the Great Barrier Reef (GBR for short).

In the afternoon I had a nice little walk at the Esplanade, did some groceries shopping (my room had a kitchen so I was able to save money on restaurant meals which was great as I found the prices for food very high in Australia). I also went swimming in the Lagoon.

Late the next morning I boarded a catamaran boat for the 45 minutes ride to Green Island. This is a coral island on the GBR. They use it as a tourism base and also as a little National Park as there is some rain forest on it. Yes, it is a little touristy but I still loved it. I am not able to scuba dive so this was perfect for me as there is plenty to see and do. Besides, they use the money the tourists spend there to protect the GBR. I had a little walk in the rain forest until it started to rain. Spent the rainy time at the Melanesia. This is a family-owned museum about art from the Pacific Islands and they also have some reef fishes in aquariums and a big crocodile farm.

I then went on a ride with a glass bottom boat and a semi-submarine to see the GBR like the divers do. Loved especially the semi-submarine. It felt like a zoo with us people being watched by the fishes! You really got the impression that some fishes would come to say hello.

I spent a short time at the beach before going back to Cairns on the catamaran. Went swimming in the Lagoon again in the evening.

Next was a full day tour from Cairns to the rain forest. The bus picked me up at the hotel after breakfast to take me to the ground station of SkyRail. This is a ropeway which goes from Cairns above the trees of the rain forest to the village of Kuranda. It is 7 km long and has 2 stops along the way where visitors can get off to go on short walks with national park rangers. It takes 45 minutes plus the time for the 2 breaks to go from Cairns to Kuranda. You can hear the sounds of the rain forest which really impressed me and see down along the huge trees to the ground of the forest. I really enjoyed this ride!

In Kuranda, there is plenty to see and do. I only had 3 hrs there. When I booked this I was afraid of still being a little bit jet-lagged so I had chosen the option with a later hotel transfer. The early bus would have given me 5 hrs in Kuranda but I would have had to get up much earlier in the morning.

They have a wildlife park called Rainforestation there which I did not go to because of the limited time. You would need 2 hrs for this alone. So I went to Birdworld which is a little zoo that only has native Australian birds and to the Koala center which is another little zoo that has Koalas, Wallabies, snakes and crocodiles.

I had some time to stroll through the village and the crafts market before heading to the railway station to board the Kuranda Scenic Railway for the way back to Cairns. This trip takes 2.5 hrs and is really scenic –I enjoyed it very much.

The bus picked me up at the railway station to take me back to the hotel. Another swim in the Lagoon and then it was time to pack.

Here are the pictures:

As I was really afraid of being too jet-lagged to start sightseeing in Australia after arrival I had a one night stopover in Singapore.

Flight was British Airways Hamburg-London Heathrow-Singapore with the London-Singapore leg being 12 hrs and the time difference Germany-Singapore 7 hrs. I started in Hamburg January 8th at 2.30 PM and arrived at 3.55 PM Sinagpore time the next day. The aircraft was quite comfortable even in Economy Class and I even got some hrs of sleep. All went well with the transfer bus already waiting at the terminal. The hotel room was OK for one night but nothing fancy. But the location of the hotel was great – only 10 minutes walk to the metro and 15 minutes walk to the next HoHo Bus Stop.

I took the 7 PM metro to the Marina Esplanade to watch the light show. There is a laser light, fire, water and music show every evening at the Marina Esplanade. As I love laser light shows this was a must-see for me and it was really great.

Back to the hotel on the metro and the next morning I went on a sightseeing tour with the HoHo Bus. I love HoHo Busses. They give me a chance to see a lot without having to walk too much.

I hopped off the bus at the Marina Bay Sands Hotel. They have a viewing platform there called Sands Skypark. There is a magnificient view over Singapore from the top of the hotel.

I continued my HoHo Bus route from there without getting off again. I found Singapore to be a mix of fancy modern buildings, lots of parks and gardens and nice historic buildings.

Here is a YouTube picture show of my time in Singapore:

At 5 PM I took the airport transfer bus and at 8 PM I boarded my British Airways flight to Sydney. This 7 hrs flight was not so pleasant. I didn´t get any sleep as there were some little kids crying all night.

Immigration controls in Sydney had long lines and I also had to change from the international to the domestic terminal and check in again for my connecting flight to Cairns. I nearly missed that flight. Nobody had told me 2 hrs are too tight in Sydney. Arrived at the gate a few minutes before the final call.

Did you ever celebrate the anniversary of one of your cruises? Well, I did with this one as it was so super special. Great memories. I´d love to go again some day.

And I translated part of my blog into English for my English speaking friends in Canada who are tired of struggling with google translator. I thought I might as well share the translation here to make it a bit easier for you.

Translation to come in the next few posts. Enjoy.

Thank you so much for doing this blog! Brings back great memories of my AUS/NZ-cruise on the Solstice last year.

I did various Canary Islands cruises and go back there frequently. Here are my recommendations:

Malaga:

Alhambra is well worth a visit. But it is a long trip. If you feel jetlagged stay in Malaga.

Tenerife:

half-day tour to the Anaga Mountains

half-day tour to Mount Teide which is Spain´s highest mountain

La Laguna by tram as suggested by another poster

bus 103 or rental car to the city of Puerto de la Cruz in the north (beautiful but windy coastline, lovely zoo called Loro Parque)

Lanzarote

my favorite island

staying in Arrecife is a waste

take a rental car and visit as many of the following sites as you can:

Jameos del Agua

Cactus Garden

Mirador del Rio

La Geria (wine tasting)

Teguise

Timanfaya (National Park)

Gran Canaria

Las Canteras beach is in walking distance from the port

shopping center next to the pier

half day tour to Guayadeque

I did lots of Canary Islands reviews in German (I went there on ships with only Germa as on board language). The reviews have lots of photos of the sites mentioned. You may want to google my screen name and the name of one of the islands to find them.

I am a little confused because I don't remember saying that we were going to be porting in Germany.

Well, your signature says you are going to Germany and the British Isles on the Silhouette, that´s where I got the impression of a port stay in Germany.

Anyway, Brügge is great! I love Brügge.

 

 

 

Could you give me more detail on the transportation part of your journey? Where you catch the shuttle, how long it takes to get to the bus station. What bus you took and the time, etc? Exchange time?

 

I need to find the bus schedule to and from Canterbury before making the 1st plan. 2nd plan will be Dover Castle, only. I am an optimist, however. ;)

You may want to double check the following information as it is "fresh" from September of 2012:

We took the shuttle bus from the port to downtown dover (the company you mentioned earlier), the ride was only a few minutes (I´d say less than 15 minutes from my memory). The shuttle starts at the cruise pier. The walkway to the bus is marked - no chance to miss it even if you would try LOL Around the corner from where the shuttle stops in downtown there is a bus stop for busses to London and Canterbury. I recall walking through some sort of park to get there. There are signs so you can find the bus stop easily. The name of the bus stop is Priory Station.

We then took bus No 15 / 15A which gets you to downtown Canterbury in about 30 minutes. Busses run frequently. The schedule can be found here https://www.stagecoachbus.com/

Hope this helps.

A little bit off topic here but where in Germany do you stop - Warnemünde or Hamburg or Kiel? Need info for that port? I live around the corner of all of them...

 

AntjeG - Did you stop at the castle to sight see, or just go straight to Canterbury?

We took the shuttle right to the bus station and went to Canterbury. We loved Canterbury and in my opinion it is worth to spend as much time as possible there. But we love architecture and spent more than 2 hrs of our time in the cathedral. If that would not be for you maybe half day in Canterbury would do.

I will be back to Dover in October on my AIDAsol cruise and this time want to go to Dover castle.

I was in Dover port during my 2012 AIDAmar cruise and took this shuttle bus from the port via the castle to the central bus station. We thought it was good value. We took the bus to Canterbury and just loved our day in this beautiful city.

I would go to Etretat, Fecamp, Deauville etc. (the beach places) or take the approx. 1 hr. train ride to Rouen (beautiful city, capital of the province Haute-Normandie).

Paris is aprrox. 3 hrs. each way and I think this is too stressfull for a cruise port day. You spend most of your time on the transfer and miss out on so many attractive options closer to the port.

Plus (but this highly depends on your personal feelings re. this topic) the smaller places may feel safer right now (not just in France but in any tourist destination in the world). I don´t say Paris is less safe but there are people who feel less safe in big cities these days. (I am one of those.)

with like one exception( I think one of the British lines) there is ONE price per berth. age is not a factor.

 

Well, there are a lot more exceptions. But it would be good to speak a little bit of German as most German cruise lines offer reduced children´s fares (for example AIDA ages 0-2, next price group kids 2-17 and even a reduced youth rate age 18-24; TUI Cruises kids up to 14 or 15 I think). The on board language is German but all Crew members speak English and all safety announcements are in English, too.

Enjoying your review. Living in Northern Germany I´d like to explain the game of words in the ad on your photo. I had a good laugh when I saw this.

To us Germans, Escape is just the name of the ship. To you English speaking folks it means "to escape". "Schmuddelwetter" is a northern German term for really nasty, cold, windy, rainy weather (even the people in Southern Germany don´t have this word in their language - this kind of weather is supposed to only occur in the North). So the advertisement in your photo tells the people from rainy, cold, windy Northern Germany to escape our bad weather and book a Carribean cruise on this very ship!

I agree - I would love to see a Pacific Coastal itinerary for 2017 or 2018 on a Solstice Class ship.

Flixbus is a well known bus company which gets you almost everywhere in Germany for less money than the railway.

But if you want to go from Berlin to Warnemünde for a cruise I would not recommend this right now.

reasons are:

You would have to go from the Airport (Schönefeld I suppose as BER has not opened yet) to the central bus stop in Berlin (use Berlin City Train called S-Bahn). Flixbus from Berlin to Rostock. From Rostock central bus stop to cruise port Warnemünde S-Bahn in Rostock (Warnemünde is a part of the city of Rostock, the railway station Warnemünde is a few steps from the cruise port).

Lots of carrying your luggage around and a big risk of delays as right now there is a lot of construction on the highways (we call them Autobahn) around Berlin. The bus might get stuck in a traffic jam and not be able to keep it´s schedule. The bus can´t do the wonderful tour pompeji did due to it´s schedule.

I would recommend you take the train or if you want the bus arrive 1 day pre-cruise. Warnemünde is a great place to spend the day of embarkation.

Like others have said in my opinion it is OK for Celebrity to charge for room service at night time. I feel it is luxury to even have the option of room service at night. The crew members who have to work at night to provide room service deserve to be paid. And I don´t think the amount charged is surprisingly high.

As long as room service for breakfast and during the day is free I agree with this policy.

There should be no problem using the OBC for everything you wish. Simply connect the on board accounts of both cabins at check in. If your and your wife´s and your children´s accounts all go with the same credit card and you all have the same booking number all expenses from both cabins count for the OBC and your credit card.

If you don´t have free gratuities the OBC can also be used to pay those.

I have not yet connected different accounts on Celebrity but on some other lines. No cruise line so far had a problem either connecting accounts which had the same booking number or separating them (so my friend in the same cabin and I had each our own account even with the same booking number). All I had to do is tell the people at check in how we wanted the accounts to be handled.

as VERY FEW companies do, and those being generally ultra luxury lines with cabin fares to match.

 

Lines that add on a gratuity:

• Cunard
  
• Costa - and DOES NOT allow modifications
  
• Carnival
  
• RCL
  
• Celebrity
  
• MSC- no modifications without proving bad service
  
• Cruise & Maritime Voyages
  
• Disney
  
• HAL
  
• NCL - Does not allow modifications eff. 9/15/2015
  
• P&O - UK (intersting, P&O Australia does not)
  
• Princess
  
• Oceania
  
• Windstar
  

Lines that Include in Fare

• Saga Crusies
  
• Thomson Cruises
  
• Azamara
  
• Hapag Lloyd
  
• Regent Seven Seas
  
• Seabourn
  
• Sea Dream
  
• Silversea
  

Lines that allow full discretion

• P&O Australia
  

May I add AIDA Cruises and TUI Cruises to those who include in the fare and FTI Cruises to those that add on.

I, too, would prefer all lines to include in the fare. We in Germany are not used to tipping in the meaning you Americans do. Service is included in our prices and tip means that I pay extra for extraordinary good service if I feel like it.

I don´t spend much time in the stateroom because I always book inside staterooms.

I love music so I like to listen to the many different performers all over the ship.

On sea days I try to find a spot in the aft to relax and view the back wave of the ship. I always bring my book but most of the time just watch the world/sea go by.

I do shore excursions in almost every port and I try to do DIY.

I agree to what everybody said.

I loved the design and the feeling of never being on a crowded ship (well - except for muster drill :D).

Loved the size and design of the stateroom.

Solarium was great during all the bad weather we had on this cruise and I loved Sky Lounge for the same reason - great views during a rainy day at New Zealand´s fjords!

The music - there are so many guest artists who perform so many different styles of music that there is something for every taste. Loved the Solstice orchestra - all my other cruises only had canned music (with live singers).

What makes it best are the crew. Very helpfull, friendly, showing their passion for caring for their guests.

As you are Canadian you may want to pre-pay as much as possible if you pay for your cruise in Canadian Dollars. All the things you pre-pay are in the currency in which you pay your cruise. For me it helped a lot to be able to pre-pay in Euros. I even purchased some OBC because the exchange rate was in favor of me. And I was able to avoid being charged for use of foreign currency by my credit card company.

Terry, thank you so much for your comment - I really appreciate it. Your own review & report from your trip one year earlier is just stunning and worth to be published in a book! I read it over and over again.