Eli_6

I was supposed to go on a land-based trip with my local museum by myself in 2020, but it was canceled due to Covid. Now my kids are old enough that I hate not to take them. Yet, I don't really want to do the "pack and repack" my family of 4 multiple times that goes along with a land-based vacation so I have been looking at cruises. I am interested in taking a cruise that goes to Egypt in 2024 or 2025. My kids will be 9 and 11 (2024) or 10 and 12 (2025). So far, it seems like Celebrity is the best option as it stays overnight in Alexandria allowing us to see the pyramids of Giza. I know the smaller ships that go up the Nile are preferable for this type of destination, but many do not allow children as young as my children. Anyone know of any cruises that would go to this region and allow kids under 12? Bonus points if it had a kid's program or facilities for kids. (That's why I was leaning towards Celebrity.)

Thank you for this information! I was hoping we would be able to do that.

Never mind about my last question. It appears that the "Fun Factory" is the Kid's Club.

Thank you for your response! My problem is that I have children and I don't think Viking allows you to take children. HAL does, though. I was hoping to find a ship large enough to have some amenities for the kids, but that may be a pipe dream. The main reason I liked the Celebrity cruise was because it had an overnight stay in Alexandria which I thought would be long enough to see the Pyramids of Giza.

I have never been on a Celebrity cruise before. I booked a European cruise on the Apex for our family and it was canceled due to Covid and we never rescheduled with Celebrity and ended up just doing the cruise on a different line in 2022. I am wanting to now take a cruise that goes to Egypt as I was supposed to take a land-based vacation there in 2020 that was also canceled due to Covid. It appears that Celebrity and HAL are my best options. In particular, I like the Celebrity sailing because it spends two days and a night in Alexandria which would allow us time to see the Pyramids of Giza. It also goes to Jerusalem which is a place I have always wanted to visit. It will be my husband, my two children, and myself on the cruise. (My husband is a physician with his own practice and we typically have to plan our vacations that involve going across the world well in advance since he has to get alternative coverage for 2-3 weeks at a time so that is why I am looking at cruises 2-3 years from now.) We typically get two staterooms when we go on a cruise. We prefer to either get two adjoining rooms or a room across the hall from the one in which our children stay in. We actually did a suite across the hall from an inside room on an Alaska sailing recently (non celebrity cruise) and I enjoyed that even more than the adjoining rooms. My kids are currently 8 and 10, but I am looking at taking this cruise in either 2024 or 2025 so they would be 9 and 11 -or- 10 and 12 by the time of the cruise...depending on when we take it. After looking at the Celebrity ship that sails to Alexandria (which appears to be the Infinity), I think my preference would be to get a veranda room across the hall from an inside room for my kids. Does anyone know what the rules are for kids being booked in rooms near their parents? I know, for example, Carnival allows kids to be booked in a separate room from their parents if the parents are directly across the hall. Alternatively, I suppose I could also book my husband and one child in a room and myself and the other child in another room. In this scenario, would Celebrity then allow us to swap (i.e. parent for child so parents have their own room) once on board or, at least, give both of us parents keys to both rooms? Also, does the Celebrity Infinity not have a kid's club? I looked at the ship deck plan and did not see anything that resembled a Kid's Club, but the website seems to indicate that this is something that Celebrity offers... I will concede that we normally cruise on lines that are "child/family focused" but none of those lines go to Egypt...or, if they do, the dates don't work for our kid's school. We are fortunate in that our children go to private school so we have a little bit of leeway in them missing school, but I can't pull them out for 3 weeks. The particular sailings on Celebrity fall on their spring break so would only have them missing a few days.

That is kind of how my husband and I were in reverse...he got really sick and I was only mildly sick. He is 47 and I am 42.

I think the answer is probably no, but I wasn't sure if it was perhaps a rare cruise like their Greenland cruises. I watched "Death on the Nile" and that got me interested in a cruise to Egypt. Plus, I was supposed to take a land-based vacation to Egypt in 2020 with the Houston Museum of Natural History, but it was canceled due to Covid. I found where both Celebrity and HAL go there. It looks like they have some nice cruises on those lines and it made me wonder if Carnival has ever ventured that way.

I own shares, but mainly for the stock holder benefit. They are not a major part of my portfolio.

The Havana area on the Vista class (Vista, Pan, and Horizon) is really big and has its own bar, a pool, and two huge hot tubs. The entire area is huge. The one on the Mardi Gras, Celebration and Jubilee is on the side of the boat, small, and just has one small hot tub. Not even worth doing Havana area on that class of ships. And we stayed in an Excel suite and the Loft 19 isn't that great either.

That is AMAZING news!

Is this a "for sure"? I saw a post about this a week or two ago on the MSC page but I didn't think it was definite. I will be so ecstatic if this comes to fruition! Vista has been our "go to" because they have the Havana area, but CCL has pulled her out of Galveston as of winter 2023 and the Havana area on Jubilee just isn't the same. Would love to cruise MSC in the Yacht Club.

I would love it if MSC comes to Galveston!

I saw this so much on the Pride this summer. I was left scratching my head.

I am seriously considering transitioning to MSC Yacht Club or Celebrity for any cruise where I have to get on a plane after this summer. Unfortunately, right now it is pretty much Carnival or Royal if I am cruising from home (i.e. Galveston). My husband won't step foot on NCL after he got noro on an NCL cruise and Disney comes in only a few times a year...so I think you could charter a yacht for the price of the handful of Galveston sailings they have. In my experience, Disney prices are more than any other cruise major cruise line.

To clarify, I didn't mean this in a snarky way. I just was saying for anyone who encounters this in the future. I asked about this in the past because my Mom gets casino offers but she is also elderly and has health issues so any time we book her a cruise, it is 50/50 whether she will end up going.

You should have just "no showed" rather than canceled. She should have just checked in and said you were coming later.

This is one reason I kept my maiden name once I got married. I already had degrees, a law license, was published, good credit, etc. in my maiden name and didn't want to confuse anything. Then my brother married a woman (who also was a lawyer) with my same first name and now there are TWO of us and we get confused. Even worse, I used to live at my brother's house before he got married so we have a record of the same address. I even get emails for her from her dentist's office. Now she shows up on my credit history as an alias like I am trying to scam someone when, in reality, we are two different people!!!

They also started allowing the Grand Suites to use the Havana area, too, which was originally not a bonus in the Vista's early days. Frankly, when I have cruised in Havana it never seems very busy at all. Almost weirdly so at times. There have been times when I was the only person out there and I honestly felt a little strange.

The Havana area was not very busy on the Vista (but was popular in terms of bookings--which they could upcharge for) so when they built Horizon, they added a few more of the aft view and corner balcony cabins. Otherwise, it is the same. People can look down on you from the pool on the lido deck in the Havana area anyway so it doesn't really matter if the people in balconies on deck 8 and 9 can see you. None of those balconies have much privacy so don't go out on them naked.

I don't know about Long Beach, but I disagree on Galveston. The only ones cruising regularly are RCCL and Carnival. Disney and NCL are only there part of the year and how many of tens of millions of people live within driving distance? My prices for Galveston are always higher than everywhere else.

I just got an ad for Icon of the Seas. It looks incredible, but then I read it will carry 10,000 including crew. No, thank you! That's insane. I want to book the Jubilee, but am scared because I thought MG was too full at 65 or 70 percent capacity or whatever it was in August 2021.

I guess I am the odd man out in that I really enjoy laying in bed and watching classic movies. I do not think that Europe had the pay per view movies or the recent movies either. We were so worn out by the "go-go-go" in port every day and having to get up at 5 or 6 am to get a tender ticket that the last thing I wanted to was go out and watch a show at night. We didn't even make it to dinner a couple of nights We ended up instead watching the travel channel which was basically nothing but that show on hauntings. And certainly no one was downloading anything off the internet given its slow speed.

I can't help but think that the issue is that the heat is broken and CCL isn't fixing it rather than the boat not having heat at all... I believe that is what the guests are being told, but I have been on the Pride when it was north of Scotland when it was cold and it had heat.

That is terrible! I am so sorry you went through this. I will definitely think twice before booking Legend on a cold weather sailing.

Erm...no.