Ekelley8804

4 minutes ago, uktog said:

Unfortunately it’s an online operation but if you look at the thread on the website you will see there are problems. It’s no issue if you haven’t done it before arriving at the  Port

Thanks for your help!! I figured it might not be able to be accessed right now with the website update (that seems to be taking longer than anticipated). We fly out tomorrow. Hopefully we can get it done before we leave!

Can anyone tell me where I find the xpress pass? I see on our documents that it needs to be printed and brought with us but I don’t see where it has been emailed to us? We got the Guest Ticket Booklet with the luggage tags attached but I don’t see anything about the xpress pass anywhere. Thanks in advance!

Finally spoke with them! Received the same general info even though the website seems to say differently: any cruises leaving from US and Europe do not require vaccinations.

Thanks guys!

OK, I hesitate to even post this here. I am having difficulties getting through to Azamara, I’m sure partly due to the launching of their new site. However, without getting into the weeds, and without everyone’s opinions, we need to know, is there currently a Covid vaccine requirement or not? We leave next week, and were under the impression that there was no requirement after December 1, 2022, particularly on cruises that visited countries where vaccines and testing were no longer required. Which ours falls under. Now I feel like I am seeing conflicting information. Can someone clarify?

Thank you so much for such a fantastic review! We are boarding on April 1, 2023 and really appreciate the time you took to write this up. Gives us a good idea of what to expect. 

26 minutes ago, donaldsc said:

 

To me it makes absolutely no sense to take one of the excursions to Rome from Civitavecchia.  Assume that your port time is 8:00 to 5:00 which means that you theoretically have 9 hours in port except that you will hopefully get off the ship and onto the buses by 8:30 and have to be back at the ship by 4:30 at the latest.  That means that you have a total of 8 hours tour time.  The bus rides to and from Rome will be 3 to 4 hours leaving you 4 to 5 hours to see all of Rome.  Does this pay or make any sense.  

 

I have never done a cruise w a Rome port stop as the few times we were in Rome we were there for several days but I have to assume that there are places closer to Civitavecchia that are worth seeing.  If you want to "see" Rome don't do it off a cruise.

 

DON

Hi Don,

Sorry, maybe I miscommunicated. We get on the ship in Rome (Civitavecchia) and we will be spending a couple days in Rome ahead of time. So because of that, in the second part of that post, I was asking about transportation from Rome to the cruise port. Being an Azamara newbie, I wasn't sure what the best options were. Thank you for taking time to reply!

21 hours ago, uktog said:

We had a tendered Azamazing evening in Sorrento - we were transported up the the gardens of the Hilton hotel.  It all worked brilliantly and it was one of my favourite evening.  They had pizza dough spinning and huge tables of cheeses and wines as well as pizza slices.  There were also wandering minstrels round the gardens  The tender boats aligned very well to the buses to take us up to the hotel.  

This actually sounds amazing and so much better than music onboard that could happen any other night!

Does Azamara still provide shuttle service to town from cruise ports? This was one of the major reasons why we booked with Azamara because my mother has mobility issues and then after our booking the fine print mentioned that shuttles may be suspended due to covid. This seems a little odd/off to me, what is the difference between offering excursions where we shuttle together vs the complimentary shuttle to town? Maybe we won't even need a shuttle though? I haven't been to any of these particular ports. Our cruise is April 1 Rome - Athens on Pursuit. The ports are Rome, Sorrento, Amalfi, Siracusa, Argastoli, Olympia(Katakolon), Chania/Crete, and Athens. 

Also, does anyone have any suggestions of getting from Rome to the cruise port? I've come to realize it is over an hour away, if not almost 2 hours.

Is there at change that our Destination Celebration in Sorrento could get changed to an Azamazing Evening still? Our sailing is April 1 from Rome - April 8 in Athens. We were hoping to have a fun evening off the ship, but if not, we will go with adjusted expectations. We are Azamara newbies (my mom's first cruise ever) and were definitely looking forward to this activity.

Hi all,

I read on here somewhere that we were supposed to be given beach towels to take in port with us in our staterooms the night before we dock. So we didn’t bother packing any. We never received any and neither did our young adults in a separate room. When we got back to our room last night I thought hmm maybe they’ll be delivered in the morning. Nope. Then unfortunately I totally forgot in the hustle and bustle to check so now we’re sitting at the beach with no towels. Any idea what the deal is or where we can get some for Grand Cayman tomorrow?

Second question is I took my credit card off the young adults account and had them add theirs. Now they all have charges of $100-200. I’m assuming these are just holds on their accounts to be sure Celebrity gets their money at the end of the trip. Can anyone validate this?

Oh I also had read about an unofficial tea time? In Oceanview? We tried to find it yesterday but never saw it…

1 minute ago, jean87510 said:

The only reason I'd choose Grand Cayman snorkel over the other selection is the other one goes to Cali A which is at Eden Rock which you can get to easily from tender port.  Eden Rock I believe still rents equipment unless you have your own.  I suggest doing the Cali A on your own and the Grand Caymen with the ship excursion.  That area around Cali A is really good snorkeling.  If you like snorkeling, I suggest looking for the Cressi brands for face mask and fins.  Really good quality and lasts.  Also bring a little dish soap in a small container and use to defog your mask.  Just a dot and then rub around and rinse.  Good Luck!!

Sorry, I made that way more confusing than necessary 🙂 what I meant was what makes the one that you mentioned, the Sunken Ship and Snorkel, better than the Grand Cayman Snorkel?

On 9/28/2022 at 4:09 AM, jean87510 said:

The one with the shipwreck is the Cali A which is literally right next to the cruise port off of Eden Rock.  If you have your own gear you can do it yourself.  Or you can rent gear at the dive shop there.  If a choice between 2, I'd do the other.  If the excursion Sunken Ship and Snorkel is available, grab this.  Its the Kittiwake plus cheeseburger reef and is a tough trip to get minus the Stingrays by locals.  I have this reserved on my Beyond cruise.

Just curious what makes this one better than the better of the other two (“Grand Cayman Snorkel” as mentioned above)? I am happy to book it but wondering what the differences might be. You seem to have the experience! 

Have the leaves started to change? We are hoping to book a Canada/New England cruise next fall and would like to try to book around when the leaves start changing. We’re in Virginia and the leaves are just starting to change here. I would assume it would happen a little earlier there?

I get probably 2-3 per day as well. I will say it did hook me into booking Celebrity in the first place though so it must work sometimes ha!

22 hours ago, Rustyman said:

We just booked the Everglades tour a week ago at £55/person, today it’s £77, that’s some rise in a week!

This is definitely the same one I saw. Disappointing 😕 hoping it goes back down but not counting on it.

Hi all,

This is our first sailing with Celebrity on the Summit in December. I noticed that they are offering an excursion in Miami to go to the Everglades, take an airboat ride, and walk around the park for a bit before they drop you off at MIA or FLL to catch your flight. I haven’t booked our flights yet, as I am tracking them on Hopper. I wanted to book this excursion after I booked my flight so I knew I would be able to make it. The price of course said it was a certain percentage off of the onboard price. But I just noticed it went up almost $20/person from when I checked a few days ago. Is this normal? I would’ve assumed the price ahead would’ve stayed the same and the price onboard might be different but also stay the same unless they were desperately trying to fill spots at the last minute. Can anyone speak to this? Will the price go back down or did I miss out? It felt like a decent deal before, and we have 5 in our group so that adds another $100 onto our bill that we could’ve spent onboard

Hi all,

We are trying to decide what we will do in Grand Cayman on a port stop from 10-6PM with three late teen, early 20's. We aren't interested in the Stingray City excursions. I did post this on Celebrity forum since we’ll be arriving on Celebrity Summit I figured I would ask here as well. We've never booked an excursion through the ship before so we're not quite sure what to expect. I see two options that may interest us and was wondering if anyone had participated in either/both and what your experiences were. One is called Grand Cayman Snorkel, says it is 2 hours, and it starts at 1PM, says you visit two snorkel sites, you'll be at the first one for 45 minutes then you go off to the second. This one sounds a little more difficult for the less able bodied, according to description, which shouldn't be an issue for us. The second one we were looking at is called George Town Two-Stop Shipwreck Snorkel. Says its off the West Coast of Grand Cayman and you snorkel a famous shipwreck and then "glide over a tropical reef." This one sounds a tad bit easier for the less able bodied, according to description. Any experiences or suggestions welcome! 

Hi all,

We are trying to decide what we will do in Grand Cayman on a port stop from 10-6PM with three late teen, early 20's. We aren't interested in the Stingray City excursions. I may also try to post this on Grand Cayman forum but figured since we will be on Celebrity Summit I would ask here first. We've never booked an excursion through the ship before so we're not quite sure what to expect. I see two options that may interest us and was wondering if anyone had participated in either/both and what your experiences were. One is called Grand Cayman Snorkel, says it is 2 hours, and it starts at 1PM, says you visit two snorkel sites, you'll be at the first one for 45 minutes then you go off to the second. This one sounds a little more difficult for the less able bodied, according to description, which shouldn't be an issue for us. The second one we were looking at is called George Town Two-Stop Shipwreck Snorkel. Says its off the West Coast of Grand Cayman and you snorkel a famous shipwreck and then "glide over a tropical reef." This one sounds a tad bit easier for the less able bodied, according to description. Any experiences or suggestions welcome! 

Hi all,

We will be on our first Celebrity Cruise in December stopping at Grand Cayman and it seems there will be quite a few ships in port that day. We are hoping to get some information on the tendering process, as we have never been to a port in which tendering was necessary. Time in port is posted as 10:00AM to 6:00PM. We are trying to plan out our day and get a general timeline to figure out what is actually achievable without being too stressful, this is supposed to be a vacation after all! It might be that we just give up and go on a snorkeling excursion with the ship, which is usually not our first choice as we tend to find better deals. Does Summit/Celebrity use their own tender for this port or do they use one provided by the Caymans? Do we have to just line up early or do we need to get a ticket for a certain time frame somehow? Thanks for any help anyone can provide!

Thank you so much for all the information! It is greatly appreciated. That definitely feels too rushed I think. How long would it take to get to the 7 mile beach location instead of the airport for a vehicle? Would it be better to all go there together or send one person to pick up the car and come back for the others? Or is there public access to the beach nearby so maybe the rest of us can hang out there while someone picks up the car? I have no idea what the taxis are like or might cost. We’ve also never been to a port where we’ve had to tender so this will be a new experience for us, I have no idea how long that might take or how early we’ll be able to get onshore. I do believe there are supposed to be quite a few ships in port that day unfortunately. Do you have any other suggestions for a beach besides 7 mile or a spot there that might not be crazy crowded? 
I thought Stingray City might be interesting but the BF is not into it. I tried to explain that it’s pretty safe but he’s not convinced after the Steve Irwin incident.

Hey all, 

We will be in Grand Cayman in December from 10-6PM on a Tuesday. There are 5 of us, two adults and three young adults, one of whom is turning 21 the day we arrive in Grand Cayman. We are trying to find the best way to get around the island for the day. I’m concerned with tendering, and how long that will realistically take. The BF is interested in going to the caves, the rest of us may go to appease him but I’m not convinced since a few reviews I’ve read have mentioned bats. We are also hoping to go to one of the beaches and maybe the blowholes? I found a super cheap rate for a rental car from the airport. Is there enough time to pick this up, get back to the boat to pick everyone up and go around the island a bit, drop it off and get back to the ship? It feels too tight but never having been there before I’m not sure of the alternatives… or should we just give it up and snorkel with the cruise line for a couple hours?

Is it worth going to the airport for a rental car? Is 7 mile beach the only alternative?

The BF is interested in going the caves, we have caverns near us and to me they look similar. However, I am curious, are there (lots of) bats down there? I am terrified of them and am not sold on this whole thing yet because of that

1 hour ago, SarahJeanneSays said:

Last month my daughter and her boyfriends S&S accounts were under my credit card.  I set a limit of $100 for each of them at Guest Services.  Just to be safe...they are both over 21.

Really? That’s good to know because I did end up calling Carnival to switch things around and they told me that there is no way to set a limit for anyone 18 or older. Their suggestion was to attach the 18 year olds debit card to the account and they would put $100 hold on the card. Or else I had to put $200 on the cash account which is obviously way more than the $75/kid we are contributing toward their spending. If they want to add more that’s obviously fine, but I just don’t want to be the one stuck paying for it. So I may offer the debit card idea but if you think they will set a limit on the boat, that sounds like it may be the better  option.