Sprigs616

I just booked a 17-night cruise to Australia departing from Honolulu on October 1, 2024 and ending in Sydney. 

Celebrity Solstice / balcony cabin / single occupancy about $2800, including tax and gratuities (not including flights, wifi, drinks, or excursions).   Booked online directly with Celebrity.

Ports ... Honolulu (Oahu), Hawaii / Moorea, French Polynesia / Papeete, Tahiti / Raiatea, French Polynesia / Auckland, New Zealand / Bay Of Islands, New Zealand / Sydney, Australia. 

Definitely not a cheap cruise but I think it’s a good deal.

1 hour ago, latebuyer said:

Looks like princess pacific wine country oct 24 cruise has low single supplement.

2024?

On 7/18/2023 at 6:34 AM, Ourusualbeach said:

Cruise ends with an overnight in Quebec city.  Is it possible to disembark and leave the ship on the first day and not return for the overnight and disembark with everyone else the next day.

 

Thanks

You need to request a "Route Deviation" if you wish to disembark early.  

I don't have any experience with disembarking early in Quebec but I'm disembarking a day early from my Princess (British Isles) cruise next month.  Because I booked my cruise through a TA, my TA contacted Princess and requested the "Route Deviation" for me, which was approved.  My travel buddy (also disembarking early) booked directly through Princess so she had to request the Route Deviation directly through Princess (also approved).  It only took a day or two before we received our approval letters but I was advised to submit the request well ahead of time.  

Perhaps do some lurking on the Cruise Critic roll calls for each of your preferred itineraries to see if there are any solos that are active on the thread.  Roll Calls are a great place to learn about any private tours that have space available, too. 

@Jinn, @Keith1010,  Thank you for the advice.  It's good to know there will likely be plenty to keep me occupied during many simultaneious sea days. 

I wouldn't worry about being lonely.  I've cruised solo before and found it very easy to meet people, both solos and non-solos.  It helps if there's some type of ongoing agreement for solos to meet in a specific lounge at a specific time before dinner if they want company.  The roll calls are good for making that kind of initial arrangement. 

I'm considering two segments of the WC (San Diego > Tahiti > Auckland) but I'm concerned about so many sea days.  How do you keep occupied during those long stretches of sea days?  

43 minutes ago, mef_57 said:

 Anyone seen any routes and prices for this today?

Yes, their website has a link to the cruises being offered as part of this deal.  The offer is only good for 5 days.   

https://www.cunard.com/en-us/the-cunard-experience/solo-travellers

Terms & Conditions (copied from their website):

Taxes, Fees and Port Expenses ranging from $60 to $725 per person are additional and subject to change.

*New Single Occupancy Bookings only. Up to additional 25% off the single supplemental fare reducing the supplemental from 175% of the double occupancy fare down to 132% of the double occupancy fare.  Additional discount ranges from 14% to 25% and varies by voyage.  This offer is not combinable with, but not limited to, Past Guest offers, Flash, Interline, Travel Agent rates, recipient only offers, negotiated rates/offers, and travel agency exclusive offers.  This offer is capacity controlled and subject to change. Offer is available to residents of the 50 United States, Canada, Bermuda, Puerto Rico, Mexico and the District of Columbia who are 21 years of age and older. Fares quoted in U.S. Dollars. This offer expires March 5, 2023 Promotion code Z2G.

28 minutes ago, bones774 said:

Hi, would you mind keeping me informed of flight deals. I'm at Panama canal now, but have place in PD, sounds interesting

Thanks

I would but we're not allowed to post anything except solo cruise deals on this thread.  Sorry.

54 minutes ago, mainecruisefan said:

I think it is in the next step where I see the other promotions. 

I did an entire mock booking and got the same $1538 price for a solo balcony cabin (center, deck 7).  I actually put a 24 hour hold on it and am now researching flights.  Thanks for the great lead!

P&O has two ships that are only for adults ... Arcadia and Aurora.  I believe the rest of their fleet is family friendly.  

On 6/17/2022 at 7:43 AM, BEAV said:

Happy shopping, fellow Crystal Society winos! 😉

 

 

Thank you for the tip!  I stopped by Grocery Outlet in Sacramento this morning and picked up three bottles each of the Crystal C Cab and Chard (no Merlot or Pinot on the shelf).  I plan to taste them this evening and let the winos in my family know what I think.  We're all wine snobs but love to find good locally produced wine at bargain prices. 

New York to Quebec with a stop at Saint Anthony.  It would replace my cancelled cruise on now defunct Crystal. 

We disembarked the Panorama on April 30, 2022.  People carrying off their own luggage got off the ship before passengers who checked their luggage.  We were carrying off our luggage and were instructed to wait for our muster station to be called sometime after 9:15 am.  The gangway was mid-ship on deck 4 but no one was allowed to wait on deck 4.  It appeared that we docked in Long Beach a bit early so we waited on deck 5 until our muster station (B4) was called at 8:15 am (an hour earlier than expected).  We were off the ship and in our car by 8:30 am.  Everyone had to be off the ship by 10:45 am.  

Maybe these instructions for connecting to the Wireless Maritime Service (WMS) through the ship will help.   There might be a feature on your phone where you have to enable international roaming. 

https://www.wmsatsea.com/faqs.html

I recommend you call your service provider.  I checked with my cell service provider (Google Fi) and learned that they don't partner with Wireless Maritime Service, which means that I can't roam at sea using WMS. I hope you have better luck!

I'll only do a ship's excursion if I can't figure out how to do the same activity on my own.  It's pretty easy to get to a beach on your own if you're cruising the Mexican Riviera.  Check out the category "Ports of Call" here on Cruise Critic for advice on what you can do in the ports you'll be visiting.  Have fun!

11 minutes ago, Eggtuary said:

Thanks for this suggestion!  We have booked with Viator. Now I am thinking we may come out ahead vs what we had booked through Viking. We get two full hours in Sagrada Famiilia, versus fitting it in among a handful of locations scheduled on the Viking tour. And there will be a max of 9 people on our Viator tour. So thanks again!

I'm glad to hear you got this resolved.  I checked with my SIL and their excursion at 2:30 wasn't impacted so it seems maybe the cancellation was unique to your time slot.  I hope you get a chance to spend some time on Las Ramblas.  It's quite a hopping place.  I particularly love wandering through the Mercado de La Boqueria.  Definitely a feast for the eyes.  Enjoy!

3 hours ago, Eggtuary said:

Thanks for the trick, but it errored out at the same point in the ticket purchase process. 😞 

I think Peregrina651 might be right about your secruity settings.  If you haven't resolved the problem, maybe some of the following resources will help.  

These are direct links to the ticket order pages.  

(Without guide): 

https://tickets.sagradafamilia.org/ca/1-individual/4375-sagrada-familia

(With guide:

https://tickets.sagradafamilia.org/ca/1-individual/4374-sagrada-familia-amb-visita-guiada 

Per their website … “If you have any issues with the purchase of tickets or downloading the app, we make the Booking Management Center available to you, you can call 931 980 705 or send an email to reserves@ext.sagradafamilia.org .”  Note that the country code for Spain is +34.

Here’s a link to Viator’s page for Barcelona tours.  Viator is an approved ticket vendor for La Sagrada Familia.

https://www.viator.com/Barcelona/d562-ttd

9 hours ago, Eggtuary said:

 Looking at reviews of the app, this is apparently a common problem.  We'll try calling tomorrow, while we're on our way to Tuscany.  If we get tickets and can explore Barcelona on our own, maybe that will actually work better than a guided tour.  

I just checked the La Sagrada Familia website and had trouble on the English site so I went to the Spanish site and got in ok.  I then right-clicked and had Chrome translate the page.  That seemed to do the trick.  The entry times are 15 minutes apart and there appears to be plenty of slots on the 8th.  Tickets are 26 EU/adult (21 EU senior), without a personal guide.  You'll need to download the audio app. 

9 minutes ago, Heidi13 said:

 

I believe Sorrento is only a small boat harbour, so cruise ships must conduct tendering operations. I suspect the advantage of Naples is the ability to dock alongside, rather than tender. Most pax prefer docking to tendering.

 

The other consideration is that going alongside is less likely to be cancelled than a tender port due to weather.

That makes sense.  I just looked at Sorrento's port schedule on cruisemapper and can see that all of the ships scheduled to stop there are on the smaller side.  For some reason, I was thinking Azamara's ships are about the same size as Viking's ocean ships but I can now see that I was wrong.  Azamara's ship are smaller.  

Eggtuary and 20Cruise20, I'm thoroughly enjoying your live narratives along with the pictures my DB and SIL are posting on FB. They seem to be taking the same excursions.  I'm a bit surprised that Viking docked in Naples, though, when Sorrento would have been much more convenient.  When I sailed this area on Azamara, we docked in Sorrento, which made for an easy DIY port.  

Austinetc, If you have never been to Istanbul, I'm sure you'll love it.  It's also an easy DIY port.  We stayed overnight and took a cab to see a twirling dervish performance the night we were in port.  

9 minutes ago, lissie said:

Thanks you  -  i remember Baja being so empty and deserted south of Ensenada - so  'hectic" blows my mind LOL. Sounds like a trip up to Todos might be good - all the tours seem to be all about the shopping so I'm leaning heavily to hiring a car 

I've heard that it's more rustic as you travel east along the coast from San Jose but I don't have any first hand experience with that area. I don't think most cruisers venture very far from the port so you probably won't find information about the more rural areas on this board.  Maybe try TripAdvisor.  On one of my road trips, I did get up to Flora Farms for lunch one day.  FF is a bit outside of San Jose and off the normal tourist path.  Tamarindo is another farm in the same area; they offer cooking classes.  I hope you have a great visit.  

18 hours ago, lissie said:

Is hiring a car sensible in the area?  I'm comfortable driving on the wrong side of the road, is parking available?  Suggestions for a more authentic town ? 

 

The cruise has day tours to both Todos Santos and San Jose  unfortunately they are in opposite directions from each other - if you were interested in history, the beautiful desert and thought cacti were exotic - which would you pick? 

I've done two land-based trips to Los Cabos and have driven to both Todos Santos and San Jose, so I can't really speak to hiring a car as part of a port stop.  The drive to Todas Santos is relaxing and has more open landscape, whereas the drive to San Jose is mostly urban, commercial, and hectic.  I like both towns but I'd probably go with the tour to Todos Santos for what you are seeking.  TS still has a fairly sleepy little artist community vibe compared to SJ.  

1 hour ago, Mike45LC said:

I find it hard to believe that the webmasters are so incompetent, but I find it equally hard to believe that they don't use the main dining rooms and that they have no buffet.  

 

Thanks in advance.  

Definitely a clunky website.  Try going to this page and, in the left-hand column, sort on Panorama to see what dining is available.  There is definitely a main dining room, which is mostly free but it does have a few upscale items that cost extra.  The buffet is called the Lido Marketplace and is also free.  https://www.carnival.com/cruise-food

4 hours ago, Eggtuary said:

Day 4: Dubrovnik

 

Thank you for the update on your adventure. It's very gracious of you to take the time to do this.  I'm sure we all appreciate it.  I'm also enjoying pictures my sister-in-law is uploading to face book.  I'm sorry the weather turned bad.  I hope the weather report is wrong because it shows you will have rain and wind for the next few days. It appears the bad weather will clear up from Rome onward.  My brother and SIL have sailed Viking Ocean several times before and, when they get home, my brother always raves about the sushi. I'm glad to hear it's still available but I hope he leaves some for the other passengers.    😁 

Edited to add:  My brother also raves about a steak covered in powdered mushrooms but I don't recall where it was served.

24 minutes ago, austinetc said:

Are you suggesting that passengers go to the Cruise Terminal to check in, even though the ship WILL NOT BE at the Cruise Terminal? I've been assuming that people would have to get to where the ship is. Your assumption would be certainly make things easier.

 

 

Perhaps you overlooked post #28 which describes the check-in process???