bbappel

We did the New England/Canada cruise in Sept/Oct 2014. We used Andy Smith’s Tattle Tours (Private). In 2014 it was $360 CDN/van (there was room for 6 of us). Begins, 9:00 AM, 5 to 5 1⁄2 hr. Peggy's Cove-Halifax Van Tour typically includessightseeing out to the very scenic Peggy's Cove area as well as through Halifax's historicdowntown area. Peggy's Cove is a traditional fishing village and the surrounding area isvery unusual geologically; offering stunning vistas of million year old rock formations.Along the way, you will learn about many important events in Canadian, North Americanand local history (Halifax's Titanic connection, the infamous explosion of 1917, etc.), aswell as odd facts and lots of local gossip. We visited Halifax's Fairview('Titanic') Cemetery where 120 Titanic passengers and crew lay buried. This tour istypically roughly 5-1/2 hours in duration. We booked directly with him, though he is available through some other organization I think. He was less expensive directly. He did an OK job, though we (the tour organizers) wanted a nice lobster lunch but one of the people on the tour didn't like lobster so we went to another place where the lobster wasn't the specialty. I still don't know why we couldn't have gone to a great lobster place that also served something else. It was a major disappointment since food is one of our hobbies.

I would like to know what your tour company is because we are looking for one. I think you can say if someone asks and I'm asking.

I'm friends with the neighbor of the family involved. The FBI is sending the girls home this morning. They're completely wrecked by this and have now lost both parents since the father is (obviously) in custody. Please keep them in your thoughts and prayers. They will need a lot of love, support, and therapy to help recover from this.

 

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If it is appropriate, at some time please let these girls know that there is a whole community that cares about them. People who have never met them and were touched by this tragedy. People who wish them well and people who pray for them. They are far from alone, sad to say.

Beth

We were also on this cruise. About Barcelona - we didn't walk it; we took the shuttle, then public transport - buses and subway - and it was fine. My husband did lots and lots of research and we bought pre-booked tickets to Parc Guell, Sagrada Familia and Casa Pedrera. Wonderful places. Parc Guell - good you didn't walk since the free parts are not as interesting as the parts where an entrance ticket is needed. And they are time limited.

Beth

1-Venice, an evening Celebrity ship tour; after hours with a guide visit to San Marco with a ride through the Grand Canal. We had a midnight departure so this ran from 7:00 pm to 10:00 pm. I don't remember what we did for dinner, but I think in 2003, there was a special dining area near the buffet and we ate a late dinner there. I could be remembering wrong - memory being selective.

2-St Petersburg, a 2-day tour with Red October. Six of us (3 couples who were strangers) were taken everywhere possible in the time by our Russian guide (teacher), and we opted for the in-home lunch with a retired ballerina, her mother (who spoke no English but was great fun) and her daughter (a graduating student who spoke English very well). We learned so much and our guide told us everything we could want to know.

Those are my favorites. We book ship and private tours, neither one exclusively. There is something to be said for each style of traveling.

Thanks for asking this question and for wording it this way. We need that focus on positive events in life.

Beth

It is pretty much personal choice. Have you compared the ship excursions for each cruise? That would give you an idea of the activities in each port.

I personally enjoyed Puerto Limon, Cartagena, and Cozumel. In Curacao (or onboard the ship) I ate something that kept me under the weather for 3 days - luckily it was a 14 night cruise and Celebrity was great about it.

We've never been to Bonaire and I'm not sure about George Town - I think we did a fun boat ride there, but they all blend together.

Also, check the Roll Calls to see if there are more compatible people on board.

Remember, which ever one you choose, you will have as much fun as you decide to have. So, I guess I'm saying, don't overthink it. Neither will be perfect and neither will be dreadful.

Beth

Boarding Reflection in 10 days. Anyone know Who's On Board? or will be?

One for each - the number of items varies depending on the cruise. I don't send my good tees because they wash and dry on hot. For anything that you wear where that works, it is a good service.

I have horribly uncomfortable wide feet with a high arch. Sometimes I have gout, which causes one toe to swell (yes, I could follow doctor's orders and avoid everything I love, but I'd rather wear Birkenstocks than give up wine and shellfish). I also have plantar fasciitis (PF) so when it isn't one thing it is the other. I've tried dozens of pairs of shoes - I think Zappos must be getting tired of me ordering and returning shoes. I found a pair that will work if the gout isn't troubling me and that sort of work with the PF. I also have a pair of dressy flip flops that I call sandals that I can wear for a time at dinner, 2 pair of Birkenstocks - one traditional, one more sandal looking, and a pair of Clarks. If the gout is acting up it will be the traditional Birkenstocks. I've given up on looking well-shod.

So if you see someone in shoes that you wouldn't wear around the house, have a little sympathy, it might not be a lack of style but a desire to be able to walk.

We booked Nigel Lucas for the Antrim trip - Giant's Causeway - and had a lovely pre-cruise conversation, but on the day of the cruise, another person showed up. He said Nigel had to do something else. Unfortunately, the car was a black cab and there were 4 of us and the cab fit 3 passengers in the back safely with seatbelts, and 1 passenger in a jump seat or up front with the driver inches from the front windshield and neither with a seatbelt. The driver was nice but we felt quite unsafe. Luckily nothing happened, but I would take care if booking with Mr. Lucas. Looking back, I don't see where he clarified what our vehicle would be - my mistake. Never assume. Get everything spelled out clearly. For all the private tours we've booked, there are only two that were a mistake - this one (and the mistake was not the tour but the vehicle) and one from Vigo to Compostela when we got a driver who didn't speak much English and didn't warn us that we couldn't take our small daypacks into the Cathedral. We could have left them in the van but because they were small, we figured it would be OK.

Have a wonderful trip.

Beth

I concur with Smith's. We also did a side trip to Winchester since our flight was quite late. It was only the two of us so we had a large sedan.

I like the thalassotherapy pool if it hasn't been removed.

Funny you should mention QI soap. Yes, the bar soap is good but the shampoo is very drying and the so-called "conditioner" is totally worthless IMO. Opinions, opinions, opinions. 🤔

I so agree. I take my Aveda shampoo & conditioner with me when I travel. I don't want to undo the hard work of my stylist.

That said, in the past I've been happy with the shampoo & conditioner in the Veranda cabins. I can't speak for other cabins. And they keep changing.

That's a pretty good summary of today's reality.... Actually, I'm not sure it's really that bad, but Celebrity has made a significant and successful effort to make us feel that we aren't important even though we're always in a 1A-A1 cabin (and we're elite plus so we've obviously sailed with them quite a bit).

 

I kind of liked the good ole days when everyone was an equal once they left their cabin.

I absolutely agree with you and with laslomas. We are in the same situation, and even though we save our pennies so we can book a better cabin (though not a suite), I don't think less of those who save even more pennies when they book inside cabins. I've met some great people who were in suites but my predisposition toward them tends to be a bit negative in that I fear that they have driven this elitist approach by Celebrity. One thing that would help is for those who stay in suites and think the separate dining, separate lounge, and separate other things are unnecessary would be for them to speak up to Celebrity. I dream.

Beth

You do know that answers to this question are all personal. What is good enough for me might not be good enough for you. What one person finds high end, another finds a mid-range. It is such a personal thing. For instance, do you like cilantro? I don't. Do you drink tequila? I don't. I like gin, some people don't. So you need a reference point. Oddly enough, when we travel, we stay in Choice hotels - not a high end hotel chain, but the Quality Inn - not the higher end of this mid-range hotel chain - has the best smelling soap anywhere. I like it as well as my expensive soap from Thymes. So you really need something to compare with. Do you use Aveda products at home? CVS Nuance products? L'Oreal? That would provide a point to compare with.

The term you are thinking of is "86'd"

No - there is a phrase "deep-six"

This phrase is derived from the noun “deep six,” meaning burial at sea and referring to the depth of water necessary for such a burial. The term was later used as slang for a grave (customarily six feet underground) and, by extension, as a verb meaning “to kill.”

86 something - is complicated but seems to have come from the restaurant trade and applies to refusing to serve someone. I thought it was a newspaper term referring to the last line of a teletype article but I didn't see that definition, so likely I am mistaken.

Beth

You never get anything free on a cruise. If you eat it, you have paid for it. There is no free lunch.

While this is true, we've managed to enjoy our cruise by deciding that we are paying for our cabin, and all the rest is free. That way we don't feel we need to maximize our dining opportunities. A friend said her brother felt that he had paid for all the food in the price of the cruise, thus he hit the buffet for breakfast, lunch, and ate as much as he could at dinner, as well as any of the little free snacks during the day. Three days into a week cruise, the only trousers he could wear were his tuxedo pants because they adjusted.

So yeah, we pay for that, but I'm happier not thinking of it that way.

Beth

My condolences - It is shocking. Maybe (I hope) he knew the risks and chose to do this.

For some people, I'm one of them, I expect that things will be as "advertised" or an explanation will be made. When a menu says the salad comes with sherry vinaigrette, I expect sherry vinaigrette to be available. It never is. Now it is a sort of joke. I wish they would just change it on the menus. My supposition is that The exec chef who designed the menus thinks the salad should be served w sherry vinaigrette but the ship's chef saves money by cutting it out perhaps he thinks no one will notice. I always notice because I make it at home and like it. It is a special treat.

I want the description on the menu to be what is served, or I want the waiter to say "we are out of the xxxx that is described but we are substituting zzzz". Then I can decide. I hope to enjoy food I don't make at home. Sauces that are too complex or have too many unusual ingredients to make. I like the vinegary mint sauce served in England with lamb. I don't bother to have it at home because no one else enjoys it. I always hope for it.

So forgive us, I suspect it is some form of OCD. Or we are all just jerks. I still enjoy the cruise but I do notice these little dings.

Beth

I like the Israeli couscous vegetarian meal, and I'm not a vegetarian, I just like couscous. One time, though, it was billed as Israeli couscous and it was regular couscous. Ok but not as good. I alway get my dessert with a scoop of ice cream on the side, even when it is ice cream - for instance I choose the fruity flavor or chocolate with a side of vanilla - because everything goes better with ice cream (unless you can't eat ice cream).

I like the dark bread that is sometimes available in the bread basket. One thing I didn't like on the Summit in 2014 (so if the same chef is there, don't order it) is the Moroccan Lamb Shank with harissa and Moroccan spices. 1) it was over cooked. 2) there were no Moroccan spices. 3) there was no harissa and our waiter had no idea what harissa was. His excuse for 2 was that "not everyone likes Moroccan spices" - which was ridiculous because you wouldn't order it if you didn't like or know what were Moroccan spices, and they should simply bill it as lamb shank. The lack of harissa - I don't understand, they think people won't notice? Anyway, that was the main menu disappointment for me on the Summit. A few months later we were on I think Equinox and it was on the menu again - different chef - much better meal. It wasn't overcooked, the spices were discernible and they had the harissa.

What fun. Maybe you can have people draw their role (participant, actor 1 etc.) That way you aren't held accountable if someone gets a role they don't like. If there are gender issues (i.e. some roles are definitely male, some definitely female, some either), you can separate them into those groups and people can draw from the appropriate bags. Wish I were on your cruise.

Beth

Whatever you do, I don't recommend changing to Select dining unless you are traveling with lots of others. We booked Select on our 2014 Equinox Caribbean cruise after having enjoyed Select dining on our 2013 Eclipse Azores-Canary Islands cruise. On the Eclipse, we were seated every night at a table for 6-8 - often there were repeats, but we never had trouble being seated at a large table. On the Equinox, our last ever Caribbean cruise, in part because of this, every single night when we checked in the hostesses said we could have a table for two (this despite our having made reservations for a table for 6-8). It resulted in my dreading going to dinner since I knew our wishes would be ignored. We have booked MDR early dining since then, despite the fact that Celebrity caters much entertainment to Select or Late diners. We can cope with that, but not with dining by ourselves every night. We do that at home.

Beth

You are probably more at risk driving to the supermarket or even to get to the cruise. We worry about these incidents because the news companies want you to keep watching. I've "subscribed" to a local internet paper and it seems that every day someone is being arrested for something or there is an overturned car. If you start to feel unsafe, you will stay home and in a big storm a tree will fall on your house - just kidding - but I hope you get my drift. I used to be concerned about going into NYC but then I started to work there and commute and recognized that as long as I didn't do really stupid things (like walk down a dark deserted street with $100 bills hanging out of your wallet), it wasn't likely to be a problem. All of that said, I wouldn't go to Syria right now.

Beth

I was a naive cruiser 14 years ago (our 3rd cruise) in the Baltics and in Finland I found the perfect steak knife & fork set. So I bought 4 of them. I think each box had one all metal steak knife and a coordinating fork. Hackmann if I remember correctly. They were lovely. Returning, I put my packages in my backpack and put my backpack through the scanner. I didn't notice but my husband said the Celebrity employee's eyes were huge when she saw what I was bringing on board. They confiscated them and on the last day, they brought them up, let me pack my suitcase, and then took my suitcase away. Again, the knives were no more dangerous than the ones on steak night.

Anyone know how to get a rental wheelchair from the Port in Seattle. Friends will be on Ruby Princess - an Alaska cruise in August and the father needs to use a wheelchair for the trip but doesn't need one often enough to own his own.

Thanks,

Beth