Scuppersisontheboat

Thank you!  It’s just the 2 of us, I should have mentioned.  I will check out the rail link.  Given our limited time I think we will book specific trains.

For some of my other cruise stops listed, someone mentioned the HOHO buses would be a good option?

Thanks,

Mark

Hello!  After cruising around the canals of the Netherlands for a few days on a 40’ canal boat, we are doing a Celebrity British Isles cruise out of Amsterdam.  We have never been to Ireland or the UK so are quite looking forward to it.  We prefer seeing nature and the countryside, small towns to big cities, and touring by ourselves instead of in a group, and we rarely use ship excursions.  Some places we will just rent a car, but I was hoping someone may have a favourite Uber or taxi driver that does tours, or a highly recommended local tour guide?  
The other main question is regarding Dover.  Should we book train tix to London, the quick direct one is just over an hour each way.  Has anyone done this on a day trip?  I ain’t sitting on a bus 2.5 hours each way… I know I said we prefer small towns but figure we should get to see London.  I am interested in the Dover Castle and other sights there, but there will be many castles on this trip and this is the only stop where there is time to get to London.  What do you think?

for towns with guides (or ideas of must do’s - I do have a nice summary generated and fine tuned by ChatGPT): lots of time in each port, with departures at 6 or 7pm.

-Cork

-Belfast

-Greenock 

-Lerwick

-Liverpool

Thank you!

Mark

1 hour ago, dreamer321 said:

The other advantage with Club Orange is the free upgrade within a Meta-category of cabin. (i.e. pay for obstructed balcony and choose an aft balcony for free - subject to availability) The separate Club Orange dining room also get much better reviews for customer service even though the food is substantially the same. (One extra entrée to choose from for dinner, also free cappuccinos, expressos, Mimosas and fresh squeezed orange juice for breakfast)

 

I sailed on Beyond at the end of January. I will be sailing on Koningsdam at the end of May to Alaska. (I chose HAL for the better itinerary and cabin price at the time).  I will be interested to compare the two ships since they are representative of the latest class each line offers.

Hey Dreamer, so you were on the Beyond Jan 22-29?  So were we!  We did a back to back Jan 15/23.  If I recall correctly, there were 2900 on board, close to capacity but it didn’t feel too crowded to me.  Could you please comment to me how that felt compared to HAL at capacity?  I was getting a little spooked reading the HAL forum where there were like 600 kids on a holiday cruise..  I think it may be a function of Celebrity generally only having 2 per cabin, vs when I was poking around on the HAL site it would let me book 4 in most rooms, and even 5 in a suite, yikes!

On 4/2/2023 at 2:23 PM, Quo Vadis? said:

Until our September cruise on N Statendam, we had not sailed on HAL since Westerdam in 2008.  We cruised for two and a half weeks from Quebec and loved the ship, so much so that we booked another 8 weeks over Thanksgiving Christmas and New Year.  

The ship is rated at 2,666 (there is a meaning to numbers) but over the holidays up to 600 children boosted that capacity to nearly 3,000.  

There are places to hide, there are timings to consider to avoid crowds.

It is best to avoid vacation time and holidays but we loved our time on board.

Not trying to hijack the thread as my comment goes to the original crowding question - 600 children?!!  I’m super glad I read this thread - I had started one under Celebrity asking Celebrity’ers about their experience with HAL and particularly the music walk.  We’re fairly new cruisers and have been on Celebrity Beyond and Equinox.  On a back to back on the Beyond in January I was blown away by the Broadway quality main shows and stage, the food was wonderful and I never felt crowded except if we timed breakfast wrong on a port day.  We’re usually pretty good at avoiding the herds.  Our boys are 22, 19 and 19, and we all like good music so the HAL Music Walk seems like a very attractive feature, we felt this was something lacking on our Celebrity experience.  There were bands that would play in various locations at a variety of specific times, but not a dedicated space where music could always be found.  However, this post is reminding me why we like Celebrity - no water slides or sport court, usually 2 or max 3 in a room (searching on the HAL site it would have let me put all 5 of us in a suite, OMG!) and premium prices tends to mean less kids.  Don’t get me wrong, I don’t dislike kids but in a confined space like a boat, screaming kids running around would drive me nuts.  We watched a video of the Pinnacle class, I think the Statendam, and looking at pics of the MDR, the tables and chairs looked so close together I don’t see how people could even walk through?  None of the 4 MDR’s or Blu on the Beyond had seating this tight.  
Anyway, this thread is giving me second thoughts as it is a holiday cruise I’m considering (on the Equinox it was a holiday cruise, but not a fair comparison as it was like 50% capacity, the Beyond sailing was nearly at capacity).  Any of you who have been on both cruise lines, am I wrong?

What a great bunch of responses, this is golden, keep them coming!  I’m glad I started this on the Celebrity forum as well, it gives an interesting perspective.  Also I may be wrong, but I think more Celebrity cruisers have tried HaL but not the other way around.

In January on Celebrity Beyond I thought the choices of food, and the food itself was exceptional.  The theatre shows were Broadway / Vegas quality.  We did check out the bands and entertainers in various venues like Eden, etc, but I really like the idea of the dedicated Music Walk on HAL.  
Thanks for sharing your thoughts!

We have been on 3 Celebrity cruises, Equinox, Beyond and Beyond, and have really enjoyed the quality of food, the service and the ship itself.  On the River cruise forum when I mentioned music, someone nicely suggested the Music Walk on Holland’s 3 largest ships, so I checked out a few videos and it looks awesome.  I don’t understand why Celebrity doesn’t do a piano bar with a pianist who can take requests and play all the hits, it makes for a great evening.  
So anyway, we are thinking of doing a cruise on Holland America to check it out.  Those of you who have been on the Rotterdam or sisterships, would you say we should go for it, or no?  All our Celebrity sailings were moderately, but not completely full of PAX, everything else being equal will we notice more crowding?  The pics of the MDR on the Rotterdam look like they have jammed a lot more tables than on Celebrity.

Any thoughts will be appreciated, thanks!

Thanks all, many many good points!  We will not worry about age and concentrate on the destination, which realistically is what we usually do.

We always do stuff last minute, so looking for a late May / early June 2023 trip, with AMA, Scenic, Uniworld, or Viking depending on itinerary and cost.

thanks again for all the input.

9 hours ago, kwokpot said:

That reservation time is a booking system error. Blu doesn't have reservations period. Unfortunately the error can be confusing for the uninitiated. 

Yep something like that.  The lovely Celebrity person making our booking said it defaults to that.  We went whenever we wanted, but outside of normal herd times.  Ideally as the early show started or 5 min before it let out.

Blu menu Jan 18 on Beyond below, plus you could always order any of the Signatures from the other restaurants, just not their exclusives.  To each their own, overall we were just very impressed with Blu - there were a couple nights when we weren’t in the mood for what was on the menu, so we went elsewhere.

OBC refund?  Is that a Retreat only thing?

14 hours ago, Elgin8 said:

Hi,

 

I'm interested in this too, as my husband and I are travelling Aqua this year. We have travelled Aqua before, but I think there have been changes since then. The bow of the ship - what can we access, that others can't? 

Hi!  Ok, I had to look on the deck plan to make sure I was remembering correctly, and it’s not even shown.  Look at the Beyond plan on deck 14 you see the Sea Thermal suite that you have free access to with Aqua.  We only used it a couple of times but it is quite pleasant.  That area has full size windows facing the bow.  Port side, in the corridor of this Sea thermal suite there is a door leading directly outside to a nice area, a few hundred sq feet, directly in front of those windows.  I suspect people would use it for yoga if you bring a mat, there are no chairs and it is obviously windy, but it is a nice place to hang out leaning on the railing.

Again, we both really enjoyed Blu with the selection and quality of the menu.  We honestly couldn’t figure out why anyone would need to bother with ‘specialty’ dining when they had access to Blu.

They will assign you a reservation time at time of booking the cruise, ours was 6:00 and we never used it.  

Oh, and we never used a reservation for dinner.  Just timed showing up about 10 min before the first show started, or 15 min before it let out.  Everybody and their dog goes to eat at 6:00, just don’t go then.

13 minutes ago, Cruisegirl6 said:

I dont eat lamb, veal and seafood, two evenings that is what is offered, is it possible I can ask for something that is served in the MDR on these evenings?

Yes you can.  Or those might be nights when you will go to Normandie or Tuscan etc.  I’m with you on those - I’ll very rarely have lamb, never veal, only occasionally seafood.  You will always have a chicken choice too.  In Blu, I would have had no problem asking them for something different with a days notice.  They were all lovely.

Many shower heads yes.  The complementary heated tile loungers and steam rooms were nice, also access to the bow of the ship.  The biggest thing we enjoyed was Blu.  We really enjoyed the exclusivity (less crowded?) and the menu was wonderful.  Disclaimer - except the first night on both our B2B’s, but that is normal across the board.  If doing it again numerically, I would probably pay $500 each extra for aqua.

On 2/14/2023 at 5:49 PM, L75317 said:

We're cruising the Beyond in March and I see virtually no red meat on the various MDR menus in the App. Will anything possibly be added? I can't imagine this is it?!!! Trying to stay positive, but it's hard. 

We were just on the Beyond, B2B at the end of January.  The menu choices, and the food itself was fabulous.  There is plentiful red meat, every night, in every restaurant.  In Normandie, Tenderloin is on their everyday menu.  We had filet mignon at least 3 times.  On lobster night (they were small, I’m not a big fan, give me Dungeness crab anyday) I ordered an extra filet rather than another lobster tail.  We ate in Blu 70% of the time, we were very impressed with their menu.  You will have no issues getting your fill of meat.  By the way the meatloaf was great.  

Hello Miss G!  Thank you for that, I read your entire trip report, thanks for the detail and it looked lovely!  I also read the other thread and gained some good insight there as well.  Ok, age is a state of mind, and really is irrelevant for the trip, I should know this from our other trips.

You mention music walk; I’ll have to look that up.  The best entertainment by far we’ve encountered on a ship was the grand piano bar on the Horizon, with a player who could play any request people through out to him.

Thanks again!

Hello!  So my wife is thinking we should do a river cruise.  I’ve read the ‘River cruise’ pinned info, and searched key words but would like your comments please!  We haven’t done extensive cruising, but I know what I like - our first cruise was the inaugural 14 night cruise of the Carnival Horizon in the Med, awesome!  Then a Costa 7 day, Meh.  Then the Celebrity Equinox Holiday cruise 2021, fabulous except we kept missing ports because too many people on the boat went to sickbay.  Then we just got back from a B2B on the Beyond in Aqua, wonderful.  So, not that I care that much, but the target age does dictate the music and entertainment to some degree.  On Celebrity in our mid to late 50’s we were probably ‘average’, and our 20ish kids felt comfortable as well, without many little kids around.  The river cruise would just be my wife and I, we like the Viking reviews and itineraries, but is this the right choice of river cruise line?  Suggestions of others to look at?  Preferably in about the same price range as a Viking veranda, looking at 15 days. Give or take in June.

Thank you!

Hi!  We’re on the Equinox, getting to Dominica in 2 days.  I haven’t seen any recent posts about the ‘going ashore’ status.  Celebrity still has the ‘you must have a celebrity excursion’ vs the ‘you must have a celebrity excursion, or you can go into port and book a govt approved tour’.  (Like what’s with that wording LOL)

anyway, recent Dominica experience would be much appreciated!

11 hours ago, Roxxy said:

With Regards to Manulife.... I did wait on hold for 2 hours but once they picked up I was able to clarify that YES you will still be covered for COVID (if purchased that plan) with a 'Travel Advisory'.  If it changes to a 'Travel Ban' PRIOR to your coverage beginning you will NOT be covered.

If it changes to 'Travel Ban' mid trip, you are still covered for the insurance period purchased.

 

So as of now, all insurance remains instated.

 

 

perfect thanks!  I just bought the policy yesterday and read all the fine print, good to hear that verbally.

56 minutes ago, james_cruise said:

We’re from BC leaving next week. Because of the travel advisory, it seems like many insurance companies (specifically Allianz for me) will not be covering cruise ships and or level 3 advisories for MEdical Emergency.
 

Anyone know if any insurance company will cover cruise ships in BC? Only really looking for the medical emergency coverage.

you’re flying out of BC or cruising out of BC?  Just curious, I didn’t think there were winter cruises from Vic or Van.

anyway, check out Costco’s ‘COVID 19 pandemic travel plan’, here is a blurb pasted from the website.  Link is at the bottom of the Costcotravel.ca site.

33 minutes ago, cbr663 said:

There is the risk of getting sick and dealing with the insurance implications and of course the medical implications of recovering from the virus.

 

There is also the real risk of being quarantined on the ship and having your vacation interrupted.  Omicron is easily transmitted and can spread quite easily in a closed environment like a cruise ship.  The challenge is once anyone tests positive for COVID, they must quarantine.  The risk is that should you have a rapidly spreading virus outbreak on a ship that significant numbers of crew and passengers will be forced to quarantine.  Anyone travelling must be prepared for this risk.

 

What is the risk that should a certain threshold of cases is reached that the voyage is terminated and returned to the nearest port and people are quarantined in a local hotel?  

 

Local news stations are reporting that Trudeau wanted more restrictions but the provinces pushed back, but more restrictions are coming Friday.  What is the risk that you will not be able to return to Canada when you need to?  What is the risk that while you are away even more restrictions are imposed?

All very good points.. 

I need to weigh those risks against slipping on the ice, I just want to be South so bad, but at what cost is the question at hand.  I wish I had the answer.

Rent a car or Jeep and go hit some beaches and tourist sites, you don’t need to bother with a tour in St Thomas.

Leaving in 6 days, full on going, get me to the beach!  It will be glorious, low pax, no crowds.  Take advantage now, instead of waiting til ships are at full capacity plus.

1 hour ago, jandjcruisers said:

We returned home Monday night from our Celebrity Silhouette 10 day cruise and we hope to do it all over again in March if our travel conditions allow us.

Our pre flight tests were at SDM, Alta Vista Drive, Ottawa.  We waited in store and had our printed results in hand within 40 minutes.  Then came home and I did pre checkin.

When we arrived at Ottawa airport the next morning all we did was the usual printout of board passes, luggage tags at the kiosk.  Then showed our paperwork to the AC agent.  Our luggage went straight through to Florida and did not have to reclaim in Montreal.  The only thing we needed to show after that was to show our boarding pass and passport to board the plane both in Ottawa and Montreal.

Two days before our return home Celebrity arranged for our onboard tests.  (the rapid PCR test) and paper results were sent to our room within a few hours later.  I had previously downloaded the ArriveCAN app so all I had to do was download vaccines, etc into the app.  Received my QR code and made a photo of it. 

At Fort Lauderdale airport we lined up to show our QR code, test results, and vaccines.  We then checked in our luggage and off we went to screening and on to our wait for our flight.

Arriving inside the Montreal airport was very disorganized.  Only a couple agents checking the ArriveCAN app.  Our AC 330 300 wide bodied plane was packed so they were overwhelmed it seemed.  

After going through Canadian Customs we ended up walking by the testing area where they test people at random.  Unfortunately I was chosen but all worked out fine and we carried on to our Ottawa exit area.  I have no idea why they chose me because I had my booster shot before leaving Canada so I guess they really are random tests. To be fair I remember having trouble getting my Celebrity test results into the app so maybe that's why I was chosen.   I got my test result (negative) yesterday.

Good luck to all of you who are planning to travel.  It was a learning experience getting ready for the trip but it was all worth it.

thank you J&J!