ian67

There was a guest choir on our Transatlantic Barcelona to Cape Liberty last October on Beyond. They gave a great performance!

I managed today to get through to the UK call centre to try to change our Australia NZ cruise this November on Solstice to  November 2021. The only option given was to shift to October 21 to a NZ cruise from Sydney on the Eclipse. 

So change of ship, change of end port (20 was to end in Auckland) and substantially changed itinerary.

Happy with the outcome regardless and £1 each extra in port charges with all the perks confirmed. Still awaiting the e-mail but change shown on website.

4 hours ago, Chrisclaire said:

Hi, 

I haven't changed to next year yet, but have asked questions.

The number I use is 01932835918

When it asks for the extension number, just use 6 zeros & that gets you to a Celebrity advisor!

Thanks - I'll give it a try next week

Has anyone in the UK managed to change a year ahead with your booking and if so what telephone number did you call?

Regarding Cagliari we visited there on an MSC cruise last October. We booked an independent tuk-tuk tour of the city. Unfortunately the island was hit by heavy rain storms and floods which continued during our morning tour. The tuk-tuk was fun and very suitable for the many hills and streets around the city - even if it leaked in the rain! Unfortunately too, views from high points were non existent due to cloud and rain.

Nevertheless Sardinia is a great island to visit preferably in sunshine.

Cruised on Millennium in late March. I recall 12 terminals inside the Internet lounge and two more in the corridor outside where it widens out. I never had a problem getting a place except when closed for classes and of course at cruise end. Indeed as we were delayed arriving at Shanghai due to fog - got in 7-8 hours late, free internet was provided in the Sky Lounge so that flight changes etc could be made. To control this people were called by deck or by departure group - I can't remember exactly which as we did not use the opportunity due to unlimited package.

By the way the internet worked very well for the whole cruise from Hong Kong to Shanghai.

As someone with a medical condition diagnosed five years ago I found every on-line site turned me down after years of annual world wide coverage beforehand. The only route left was to try a local insurance broker who was an immense help and knew where to source brokers who covered medical risks. I now have a year-round policy inc USA where grandchildren live - I pay roughly £40 extra to a specialist company whom I have to ring and have survey with each year.

We are so used to going on-line for everything - no good with medical conditions - look up a local insurance broker. It worked for me.

Not entirely sure what you mean. We very much enjoyed Le Muse on Divina (YC Exclusive restaurant). We also had from our Black Status (obtained through status match) a 'free' night at Eataly (or other paid restaurants) - excluding drinks. We very much enjoyed the steaks there but did not bother using our second coupon. No real idea what pre-ordered means.

I don't recall any pre-cruise services from YC - need to pay for WIFI on-line in advance same as everybody else. Biggest pre-cruise benefit I suppose is checking in at the tent and being accompanied on board by a butler.

Read my review on our YC cruise in December last and you will see we loved it and now are booked for Meraviglia in Europe in YC.

Cannot answer all your questions but we had Black Card on 16 Dec cruise through status match. In Eataly we were allowed to choose anything on the menu - we checked in advance if we could when booking. Had to pay for drinks but reasonably priced. We had bottled water so not sure if we could have got 'plain' water.

I know its too late for you now but we stayed at Hilton Downtown in mid December and it was excellent. Rates low at moment as being refurbished but did not impact on us apart from some mid afternoon building noise. Cab to dock was around $10 if I recall correctly. Hotel is a block from the free aerial tram to get around Miami - yes free amazingly to us from Europe

It really is the best value internet at sea at present. We found it totally efficient having bought the four device package - and for the last two days I spent a lot of time on line to make sure I used all the allowance. The connection was easy and the information on usage excellent. How do they manage this so well and have such a temperamental website?!

We came off Divina on Friday last with no reservations to get to airport. MSC had buses outside to Miami and FLL. Ten dollars each to get to Miami airport - very efficient service. For 2 of us this was ideal.

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Just back from Eastern Med cruise on Silhouette and we used the muesli cart almost every morning! Even on disembarkation day!

Back from Celebrity Silhouette cruise with 2 nights in Ashdod and 1 in Haifa. We used Guided Tours of Israel as we wanted to avoid the cruise lines 50 passenger excursions. GTI was well recommended here and they did not let us down. (16 seater coach) One day Tel Aviv - Jaffa, one day Jerusalem - Bethlehem and final day Nazareth - Galilee. The state funeral took place during our visit and GTI managed necessary changes very well. Our guide Yuval was informative, creative and objective and added immensely to our enjoyment. We recommend the company highly.

We had our first P&O cruise last Xmas and flew on Thomas Cook from Manchester. We booked Premium Economy and were rather surprised to find that another £50 per person per flight was required to sit together. There were only two seats together left at this point - front bulkhead - as presumably the high ranking cruisers had got in early.

Be aware!

As a first time P&O cruiser but long established on Celebrity we found Epicurean on the Xmas cruise to be outstanding - service, food quality and menu content. It was better in our view than Murano on Celebrity ships and a a little less pricey.

Worth doing once we thought - but we found Sindhu to be even more satisfying but could not get a second booking as it was totally booked out.

However another couple we were aware of did not rate one of the main courses in Epicurean - each to his own.

Paula

Could you send one to us too please?

address is henderson@ttcinternational.com

Ian & Katie

It appears clear that CDF are acquiring Century for 2015.

An article by journalist Kevin Griffin reads:

"Last week Croisières de France announced that it would be acquiring Celebrity Cruises’ Century for the French market in 2015, both companies being Royal Caribbean brands. So this week we have a quick look at the French cruise market for any further prospects of growth."

It will join Horizon and Zenith.

Absolutely excellent in all ways Mike. Just posted a short review on the CC Review Boards. A once in a lifetime itinerary.

Ian

We have just returned from an Azamara Quest Singapore to Hong Kong cruise. We had an overnight in Halong Bay and chose to do an independent tour which began with a Halong Bay cruise and then headed off to Hanoi arriving there in our minibus at 9.30pm having left at 5.30. We overnighted in Hanoi and spent a day touring - leaving at 3.30 pm to ensure we were back at the ship by 7.30 for 8pm sailing.

We would not advise a day trip unless it is booked through the ship - traffic delays do occur regularly we were told and with the poor driving standards evident this is not a surprise. Four hours each way now seems the norm.

Personally we would find a day trip much too tiring but Hanoi is well worth seeing. The Temple of Literature is fascinating as is the Peoples Army Museum and the streets of the old French Quarter. We chose to give the HCM Museum a miss.

Halong Bay is outstanding to visit although cold and damp when we were there but it is only a half day's destination.

Ian