CaptainSeaBreeze

I'm doing the Dec2 Ruby Princess voyage.

I like your style, it could be a good way to catch a luau

We'd like to rent a car in Hilo to drive to the volcano national park, etc...

It looks like most car rental companies are at the airport, is there a shuttle between the port and the airport? 

Any other advice? We've never rented a car in a cruise before. At least it's the US. We'd like of course to be in the road as fast as possible, and need to allow time for return.

At least if we missed the ship, we can catch it on Kona on the other side of the island the next day  🙂

Thanks for the input. We wrote down her sister at needs for her "file" but we found that it's easier to explain I person or explain once why she'll have this and not that with real examples.

I made reservations for 8:20, so hopefully after the first show, even if it's a little late for our preference. Well see if we can change it.

Someone else said you can do walk-in if your reserved time doesn't work that day, but in a way it wasted a slot.

I am very disappointed in my dining options on the Ruby Princess for a 16 day Hawaii cruise on Dec2.

My wife has dietary restrictions and we find that it's often easier to have the same waiter every night so she doesn't that to explain every time.

We were waiting to see the show program to schedule dinners accordingly, but they are not out yet (all I want is the times,  not even the acts).

After Princess confirmed in chat they don't know the show times and don't know when they'll know, we decided to book a table anyway, only to find out that the only times available are 5:00pm and 8:20. Nothing in between!

Dinners are a big part of our cruising experience, especially with this many cruise days, and Princess is well on its way to ruining that part of the experience. It looks like we will have to do walk-in (what's your experience with the wait?) and explain dietary restrictions every night. Sigh

We used to have a travel agent and they retired. We just booked a cruise on our own because we needed to commit quickly to another part of the trip, and didn't know how to find another agent so we booked directly.

It was Celebrity and was offering 75% off for the 2nd guest. i figured it would still likely be a "normal price", i.e t hey'd have another promotion of XX% off next moth that would work out to almost the same price, but since we needed to make a decision quickly we booked online.

The invoice shows "No Perk Rate with BOGO75", so it would imply that maybe we could have gotten a Perk Rate that wasn't exclusive of the discount and maybe my travel agent could have gotten a preferential rate.

Then today I discovered that I should have asked for one cabin level upgrade because we're part of the "Captain Club" (sailed with Celebrity once years ago). Fortunately I was able to chat with them online even though my purchase was complete and they honored the upgrade, but a cruise travel agent would have known to ask for it form the start.

Also while booking online we had to pick a cabin. Celebrity doesn't have a function to suggest the "next best available" online. I hear they do make suggestion if you call the cruise lime directly. but that's one thing I loved about our travel agent. They would be able to say "oh good, 1249 is open, it's a great room because it's next to the firewall and more quite, and because it's a slightly different shape, you get a larger couch and it's one of the few truly private balconies....". Without them it's a bit of a shot in the dark. decipher the floor plan and hope the "closet" next to your room with clicking all night long.

Of course after agonizing over which cabin lowly cabin to get, I got upgraded to a much better cabin when I called today, see above.

All this to say that booking just this one cruise without an agent makes me realize the value of the one we lost, and will be looking for someone new. (thanks for some of the oldie but goodie threads above, I'm also new to cruisecritic)

oh and once our travel agents were able to gift us 2 bottles of wine to complement the 2 we were bringing onboard ourselves, and on the last cruise they booked for us they were able to get us $80 on-board credit.

thanks John,

My cruise starts/end in Athens and only spends the day in Kuşadası (Ephesus) so not additional documents needed.

I'd love to visit İstanbul, but would be a dedicated trip or at least a multiple day stay as part of a larger trip as you recommend

I love you guys!

I used internet chat for the reservation I had just made and told them someone told me I should have called to ask for the upgrade and they upgraded me on the spot ("because I was Captain Club member", even though I have one cruise in 2027 on the book with them).

The rep upgraded me to 1143! It looks like a good cabin, better than in the bowels for sure!

Kudos to Celebrity for doing the right thing

How does one get eligible for one category upgrade? Just ask?

Deck 7 forward looks great if I can get the upgrade. It's only "worth" $100 but we've promised ourselves we would get the rock-bottom prices and not be tempted by the small incremental updates.

This was an unplanned trip due to a unique opportunity but is not really in budget.

we've decided to save money and go for the cheap inside, that means decks 2 and 3

I found the info a the Dept of State

https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/international-travel/International-Travel-Country-Information-Pages/Greece.html

https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/international-travel/International-Travel-Country-Information-Pages/Turkey.html

Neither of them mention ETIAS

Both of them mention "enough blank pages for entry and exit stamp". I'll check we have at least 4 blank pages in case? I'm guessing we will not get a stamp in turkey as part of the cruise excursion, but we will definitely get entry/exit from Greece since Athens is our port of entry into the country

US citizens traveling on Celebrity Infinity Greek Isles+ Turkey in May 2025

The cruise contract says they will deny boarding if we don't have the right documents, but don't seem to offer any help in figuring out what we need.

Greece is part of the EUs, so I think I need:

- Passport valid for 6 months after the cruise (from another section of the contract)

- ETIAS

Turkey is not part of the EUs. Can I still do shore excursions without a visa? where do I get that info?

Not concerned about ship movement, we don't get sea sick

It looked like it's in a "nook" that would get little traffic and be quiet due to little traffic, but are there mechanical/ship operation noises that we need to be aware of? I saw others mention dropping anchor being a concern for way upfront cabins. 

Right now the choice for inside cabins is pretty open (regular Inside, not Prime Inside), what would be a good choice for Inside cabin?

I just read https://boards.cruisecritic.co.uk/topic/107620-sideways-cabins/

I says that those cabins don't have a loveseat. that's a deal killer for us, my wife doesn't like to read on the bed.

so maybe 2005

yes all of them are

I'm also looking at 7210 and 8174 which are single lonely (Prime) inside cabins waaay aft

If I want to stick to regular Inside and save my $100 fora few martinis, anyone has experience with the "sideways" cabins like 2174 or 2004? the long dimension of the cabin is running with the hallway, some people say they are bigger or at least better arranged, but does more wall area mean more noise??

I'm liking 2004 because it is at in a section that likely gets little tracffic, although I'm not sure if the blank space behind it is noisy machinery for example.

Thanks, great feedback and great video! I read that Guarantee cabins are a bit of a lottery, sounds like you won this time.

I don't think that proximity to activities is a plus, I'm more worried about noise than a few more steps to dinner.

I finally looked at the price difference between Inside and Prime Inside, it's only $50 per person, so something I would consider even on our budget. Now I need to research ore of those Prime Inside cabins on upper decks. 9063 is booked, but 9055 2 doors down is free

Our cruise travel agent retired and one service they offered was to advise us on the best cabin for our price class.

We're going to sign up on our own for the Greek Isles cruise on May 31 on the Infinity. We're usually Balcony/Veranda kind of people but this trip is an additional unplanned trip and part of an unexpected trip in Greece, so we're like to give Inside Cabins a try, we'll likely spend most of our time on deck and in port and mostly sleep in the cabin.

I found the deck plan on cruisecritic: https://www.cruisecritic.com/cruise/celebrity/celebrity-infinity/deck-plans

It looks like Deck 4 has public areas, casino, etc... so we should avoid deck 3 to avoid noise from above and prefer deck 2? Not clear what's on deck 1, looks like the medical facilities at least, so should I assume that lower deck to not generate a bunch of noise?

There are no inside cabins on the left side in the middle (e.g. across 2112), what is there? would cabins 2108 be preferable to 2088 for example?

I'm thinking 2083 through 2148 may be might best choices, further from the elevators so hopefully less traffic

I see higher decks have "Prime Inside" but I didn't find info about the differences

Any advice on selecting a cabin?