Sujormik

Not much chatter about Celestyal here in cruisecritic.com, but I’m still gonna try to get some good advice!  We arrive in Santorini early in the morning but are not doing the ship excursions so I know we have to wait to tender until after their groups debark. And there will be other ships in port and I know we will have to wait at the cable car. We have a private guide meeting us and will spend the day with him seeing the sites.

Here’s my dilemma: our ship doesn’t leave until midnight. Which is good, but it means we have several hours after our guide leaves before we need to get back to the port. Also good.  I’d really like to get to someplace like Imerovigli for dinner and sunset (Santorini sunset!!!) but am worried about getting there and back to the port without a car.  Definitely don’t want to rent a car for half a day.  
 

Is anyone aware of reliable ways to get from the more remote parts of the island to the port?  I’m aware there are very few taxis.  Would really love for this to work!  Thanks.

On 4/9/2024 at 1:31 AM, sunshinem1987 said:

We really enjoy the flexibility of setting your own pace and schedule on our trips,that's why we booked a private tour.Our guide was waiting us at the cable car exit( we were lucky enough to be the only cruiseship that day )so we went directly to the car. Visited the most famous spots within 4 hours! 

I have a private tour scheduled for May, do you mind sharing who you used?  We will have ours for about 5 hours, but our ship doesn’t leave until midnight. I’d really like to find a restaurant with a sunset view for dinner but am getting worried about finding a taxi to get us back to the cable car after dinner.

3 hours ago, StartrainDD said:

Saturday, April 6, 2024, Disembarkation of the Journey

 

We had the alarm set for 6:40 but DW woke earlier.  I turned on the TV at 6:25 and the Journey was in the port but not yet tied up.  By the time I got the coffee and tea at 6:45, we were docked.

With our flight on Sunday at 7:05 I needed to check in for the flight home.  Working through the Lufthansa AP for the four of us it took over 15 minutes to complete the check-in.  We met our friends and went to breakfast in the dining room at 7:40. They “Close” at 8:00.  At 7:55 one of the waiters asked if we wanted anything else from the buffet.  We thanked them.  It was interesting to see that when most of the guests had left, the waiters were helping themselves to whatever breakfast items were still on the buffet.  We never noticed that before.  We were the third to last table to leave the dining room at about 8:15.

 

We sat in the deck six atrium and at 8:25 a first announcement was made for decks nine & ten to disembark.  I had looked outside just before and noticed folks were leaving despite no announcements having been made.  We called an “Up” elevator which took us all the way to deck twelve, and then non-stop down to deck three.  There was no line, and we had our cards scanned for the last time and left the Journey.

 

Upon entering the terminal, we quickly found our luggage.  Someone actually checked that our ship’s card matched the luggage tags, and we headed towards the street.  Our driver from George’s taxi was waiting for us.  He ran to retrieve his Mercedes van and was back in five minutes.  He brought us back to our Athens home, the Attalos hotel.

Thanks again for sharing your trip for us celestyal newbies!  I’d love to hear about your day in Athens too, if you’re up for it!

20 hours ago, StartrainDD said:

The problem is that so many of the ports are tender ports (Note, this is not indicated on Celestyal's website!) and of course none of the independent travelers get on the tenders until all the ship's tours are dispatched.  We had a nice island meal today!  Look into White Travel Tours for Ephesus, we have a great tour and stayed ahead of the cruise line buses!

Thanks for the tip, wish we could get off first, but I may arrange our tours to begin a little later and not rush to the tenders.

we are in St Petersburg, not sure if that’s near you in FL!

Your reports are so helpful, thank you.  I’ve already decided to go with private tours on each of the islands except Ephesus, just don’t want to deal with waiting around for other people to tell me how to spend my limited time!  Think we will try to eat meals on the islands as much as possible too!

Following, this is already so helpful.  We’ll be on Journey in May, and I’m surprised at how crowded Santorini was for you in March! We aren’t expecting much from Celestyal so thanks again for your detailed posts.

But wondering if anyone will be on Idyllic Aegean May 19-26. We are looking at private shore excursions/tours if anyone wanted to discuss sharing.  Maybe this thread will be allowed.

You need to let them know, and I don’t think they’ll discount your fare, but you should be able to disembark early.

I’ve been reading that it’s an absolute disaster.  Filthy ship, hanging electrical wires, no ac, toilets not flushing.  I came on to see what’s been reported, surprised nothing more here.

Your photos are gorgeous! I’ve asked a weird question on this forum, hoping you’ll take a look at it. Thanks.

My husband has a business meeting in LIsbon in May 2024. Because our air will be covered, we want to extend our travel to finally visit Greece!  But our dates are fixed and we don’t have a ton of flexibility.  The 7 night circle offered by Celestyal would work with a bit of tweaking and I wonder if anyone has any insight.

We’d like to do a 7 nights Athens-Athens but not actually board the ship until day 2 in Thessaloniki. We are willing to pay for 7 nights and only stay for 6. There will be people boarding at Thessaloniki so that shouldn’t be an issue, but I’m wondering if you who know the line think it’s worth asking about.  We could also simply board in Thessaloniki and exit Athens and miss the last night instead of the first, if that’s allowable.  
 

Does this sound insane? I welcome any insight. Thanks.

10 hours ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

There are four threads with Riverside in the title.  At the top of this page, at the right in the blue bar there is a Search box.  Enter Riverside, search 'in this forum,' then when the search completes click on 'Riverside in content titles only' to see the four relevant threads.

 

The short answer is that Riverside is an offshoot of a German hotel company that bought the former Crystal river ships and is operating them as a top-luxury line.  They are bilingual German and English.  Just starting up so few if any reviews yet – but here are two videos by an influencer (thanks to @steamboats😞

 

Didn’t realize about the title search option, I promise I did search Riverside in the main search function!

Anyone know anything about this line? Thanks.

On 7/9/2023 at 9:37 PM, Rainbow3fe said:

What do you mean kids everywhere? I have never seen more than 2 on an Oceania cruise.

There were at least a dozen on my cruise.

21 hours ago, grifdoglover said:

@SujormikHow is it that they know your room number and drink package?  Maybe after several days they recognize you but they still need you to sign off.  

When you check in at a restaurant they ask your name and room number. I just had wine/beer with meals, didn’t do the bar. The package includes unlimited wine & beer at meals.

I keep getting emails about the 3 free nights and $600/cabin OBC, and sale prices on upcoming sailings, but when I click to the website the lowest price is double or more than what’s advertised.  And nowhere to explore the extras without going through the whole rigmarole.  Has anyone actually gotten the sale prices on these upcoming trips? Specifically looking at the one in Croatia/Greece ending in Istanbul on October 4.

Just curious I guess.

4 minutes ago, rjscott said:

Curler Rob,

 

Very much appreciate your honest review. We will be taking our first Oceania cruise next month and have read a few reviews which were very negative about the line and the ship.  I feel relieved after reading your review. There are always pluses and minuses on every cruise, but I wasn’t seeing many pluses in the few reviews I could find.  My husband and I have cruised most of the “mainstream “ cruise lines and currently are loyal Viking cruisers.  We are looking forward to an enjoyable new adventure with Oceania. 
 

Becki

I have been posting on the On Marina Now thread from our first O cruise.  I’ve been fairly critical but you should know there were a lot of positives too! We loved our penthouse, the linens were great, towels replaced all day long.  We don’t drink soda but our ice bucket was refilled often, as requested.  Most of the food was really good. We had no issue with the decor. The gym was good. Etc. We may get on a Viking sometime, though no cruises for us now for awhile.

8 hours ago, SellaVee said:

I saw a programme once about a town that had fairly recently become a cruise port.  The staff in the charity shops (thrift stores?) were interviewed and they said ships' crew would come in and buy quite a lot.  Duvet covers were popular apparently.  Imagine they bring food aboard for variety.

That’s what we figured. I do wonder what the crew gets fed, not likely miso sea bass right?🤣

10 hours ago, SellaVee said:

@Sujormik , We're on Marina soon, and I do appreciate your posts, and hearing about the good and the bad.  I was though, surprised about the popcorn and pretzels comment.  Firstly, if I was really craving popcorn or pretzels I might look for some ashore, and, given that Oceania has a huge breakfast offering, Barista's for coffee and cookies, lunch in various venues, afternoon tea and then dinner, I don't know that it's reasonable to expect them to provide everyone's favourite snack as well. Would you expect them to pride Haribo, Maltesers, potato crisps in every variety, and that well known Scottish delicacy, tablet?  Sometimes you just have to make do.

I love me some Maltesers so that’s a trick question!  I think we saw popcorn at the bar on another cruise which got us thinking about it.  And you’re right about buying stuff ashore…we giggled about the crew members bringing huge bags of foodstuffs from shore.

2 hours ago, BrakeawayTakeaway said:

I probably wouldn’t use that cruise line again if I was upset about service like that.  Are you planning on cruising again with Oceania? 

No, at this point we are not looking to sail Oceania any time soon.  What I’m trying to convey (unsuccessfully it seems) is that I don’t really feel like I’m “complaining” in that I expect a response/remedy.  More I’ve been trying I guess to summarize the nature of the service we received which was so far below what we’d expected (and imo paid for). I know O isn’t Regent. But I expected just a step below that and I was disappointed.

As far as the manager approaching us in the GDR, which I saw you asked about and then deleted, someone above noted that after they said something their service improved considerably and people were all over to better provide.  I was surprised that we didn’t get ANY attention after that first day post-commentary from RedGinger. You know they take your room number when they seat you,  we were clearly flagged the first day but for the manager to NEVER stop at our table?  That’s just bad service and thus I can’t recommend O.

Also, we really enjoyed our trip. I see I’m coming across as a whiner and that’s not my feeling, I’m just conscious of things and wanted to share/track them.  We thought overall the food was quite good. Loved our PH. Enjoyed the private deck (much calmer than the pool deck with all the kids on this sailing) and especially the hot tubs, sauna and great towel service everywhere.

Another nitpick though, while I’m at it😉, we really craved some popcorn or pretzels a few times and there seemed to be nowhere to get that.  There was a movie one night and we nabbed some popcorn from there, but it seems like an easy thing to have around for an afternoon snack that’s not frou frou tea cakes and sandwiches! We weren’t drinking in the lounge so didn’t see they offered some nibbles in there.  
 

Had no idea room service menu was on the tv, our fault for not carefully looking at it but I don’t think we turned the tv on virtually the whole 10 days.  Not sure we would’ve eaten in our room but I’d think a paper menu or card suggesting we look at the tv wouldn’t be a bad thing.

I have no agenda, swear.  Wanted to love O and for now we were underwhelmed. After we try another “almost” luxury line maybe O will look great by comparison. Thanks for letting me express my thoughts, I do appreciate the forum.

1 hour ago, bradpole said:

Regatta Royale! My second favorite flavor after Elvis, The Fat Years!

Yes! Delicious!

The chocolate with orange peel was good, don’t recall the name.  Apple miso was not. Missed fat Elvis, sadly.  Jam and toast was ok.  Blood orange sorbet wasn’t super bloody but was tasty with chocolate shavings.

I found Red Ginger and Polo a bit darker than Jacque, GDR and Toscana. I always bring something to read too!

Not an influencer, just new to O and wanting to share good, bad, ugly.  Our final dinner in GDR was about on par with our other GDR experiences this past week.  First 2 of us were served the wrong appetizer (ordered A, served C), quickly replaced but weird. Entrees came out and my food (chateaubriand) was not hot. I didn’t want to wait further and asked if I could just get some hot (temperature) sauce and I’d be fine with the room temp meat.  Was offered Tabasco and finally someone understood me, insisted on bringing a new plate out. It was delicious.  No manager came to address the one person with no food.  In all the service issues we had, no manager ever came to our table.  Our friends were amazed, had never had the service issues we encountered all week but saw for themselves what we experienced.

2 minutes ago, sitraveler said:

10 days of almost perfect weather.   Crew was very responsive to my wants. 20 days if you count the prior segment.  Some glitches on excursions and I didn’t get a concierge bag.   But a wonderful time.  

What’s a concierge bag? The blue one with white handles?  You can have ours if you want it!