OBX-Cruisers

Interesting and timely question.

Although we would not be personally affected by the latest travel ban, wife and I have decided that 2017 might be a good year to not cruise in Europe/Mexico and S. America because of the enhanced potential for terrorist activities BECAUSE of the ban. As if Zika and Chikungunya weren't enough to worry about in the Caribbean, now we have something else animating terrorists, especially since our travel to cruise ports even in the US would involve flying.

There are no issues ordering from the MDR menu either

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That was what we found on two other cruises in Blu.

HOWEVER, on our TA in October last year we were NOT allowed to order off the MDR menu in Blu on the Equinox.

THAT was an unexpected surprise and NEGATIVE star for the extra money we paid for the Blu dining experience

Short answer is that yes you can "usually" make that connection easily IF you do the early walk off and get into the customs lines early. HOWEVER.........

IF the ship is delayed by fog, traffic or mechanical problems........you might want to consider if your blood pressure and trip insurance is up to the stress you will encounter in such a tight connection.

Agree with Essiesmom that the simplest thing for you is to park at the Pier parking lot. That would cost you approx. $30 more for the 3 day cruise than you would pay for off-site parking where you would have to take a shuttle both ways.

If you want to save that amount go with any of the nearby off site lots we have used often for longer cruises where the daily fee begins to add up for 10-12 day stints.

My husband got Chikungunya (or, as we call it, "chicken nuggets") in St. Lucia last July. We were on a land vacation and not a cruise. He had a fever and joint and muscle aches for about a week. Use good repellant anywhere you go in the Caribbean.

 

Thanks, good advice along with the CDC suggestion from another reply.

Wondering if your husband was using insect repellent and got bit anyway. Most recommendations are for DEET or PICARIDIN and that is what we will plan on.

"Chicken nuggets" as you call it can either be brief like your husband or last a LOOOOONG Time like our neighbor who never seemed to get well and is still suffering months after the cruise.

Are there any current warnings about mosquito born diseases in the Caribbean?

A local woman who went on a Caribbean cruise with her husband a few months ago is suffering from a mysterious disease that has just been finally diagnosed by experts in VA as Chikungunya virus.

Since this is not endemic in NC she probably got it in FL or in the Caribbean from a mosquito bite.

Any recent reports cruisers should be aware of. The symptoms apparently can last for years in some people and this person has already been suffering for months and antibiotics were useless in her case which would be expected since it is a virus.

I have looked all over on the X site, if you buy a Spec. Dining package how do you actually make the reservations ??? I am hoping it can be done online.

Easiest answer to your question would be available from the Captain's Club by simply calling them.........I have always found the people at that number to be both extremely knowledgable and helpful. Have your CC number handy or they will find it for you if you ask them.

Also, we usually only dine in the specialty venues when the menu in the MDR is not to our liking. Others have said that on day one/two that the Purser's desk will have menus for the entire cruise available for you to then plan when you want to go to those other venues and have the best of both dining experiences IMHO. You can easily make reservations on Celebrity either on your interactive TV or by simply walking by the restaurant when someone is there and they will enter it into their system............really easy and the way I usually do it.

One note is, if you go in June to early July -- it doesn't get dark until very late at night, so more viewing of Inside Passage if that's the route you choose. We saw very nice scenery last June!

Wife and granddaughter went in June and said it NEVER gets really dark and at most a dusky twilight before it starts getting light again. They also said the locals in Anchorage never seem to go to bed and made a lot of noise in the streets into the wee hours of the "night" that never got dark.

Great suggestions and we have done most of them and agree with your choices. You CAN book the train in Skagway yourself and get tickets in advance on their on-line site. Watching the salmon in the stream on Creek street in Ketchican is nice at the right time of year.........after the run you may see many that will never swim again. On this same walk there is a small museum that is fun to go into for a half hour or so.

One more bit of advice (given from someone who has cruised Alaska numerous times and also work there). Don't depart out of Seattle. Yes, it is nice. But do the true inside from Vancouver. I wouldn't feel bad about missing Hubbard glacier. Tracy Arm wouldn't be high on my priority list either. If you can do Glacier Bay; take the local bus to Mendenhall; do the longer boat tour out of Seward, then you might actually begin to wear of seeing so many glaciers;-)

In Ketchikan: walk Creek Street and take the local bus to the totem pole park.

Skagway: rent a car or do the train tour (might have to do this through the ship)

Juneau: Red Dog Saloon, Mendenhall and Harv and Marv's whale watch trip. Or rent a car and explore on your own.

Well, I lied... That was a bit more than one bit of advice.;-)

You shouldn't have to make reservations in Select Dining, which is what really messes up the concept and creates the wait times. Celebrity needs to drop that for Select as well as for Blu and Luminae. It should be first-come, first-served for the most efficiency.

 

You DO NOT have to make reservations in Select dining either if you have chosen that in a regular stateroom or if you want to eat in the MDR when you are in AQ class. In fact, I have often observed the line for people without reservations is shorter and moves faster than the reserved line [strange but happened often when we were Select Dining]. I NEVER made a reservation any night and if you want a particular waiter or section just show up at around the same time each night.

I checked with the hostess at the Select section of the MDR on our last Equinox cruise, when we were AQ class and dined in BLU, and she told me just to show up and they would accomodate us as soon as possible. We ended up NEVER going to the MDR because our menu was always better in AQ than in the MDR..............I checked every evening of our 12 day TA.

SHIP: Equinox

CABIN #: 1627

DECK #: 11

CLASS: AQ2

AREA: Just aft of Center Suites, Port side

BED NEAR: Verandah

QUIET?: Yes in cabin

BALCONY VIEW: Unobstructed

BALCONY SIZE: Regular size

WIND A PROBLEM?: No

SOOT A PROBLEM?: No

PROBLEMS/COMMENTS: Quiet but location parallel to one of the exhaust stacks leads to a constant very low frequency rumbling sound on the balcony which you either get used to or not. Cabin creaks in heavy seas. Bed has a 3-4 inch deep valley in mattress and needs replaced.....egg topper did not help

Had similar negative experience with Celebrity. Although my fare did not include ANY discounts or perks I was denied stockholder credit......they said I had some type of special fare that precluded giving the credit......No where could I find that I had any special bargain except my TA had booked some mysterious cheaper fare without my knowledge or telling me about it.

Celebrity sucks big when it comes to denying shareholder credit....Quite unlike Carnival and its associated lines.

Slightly off topic but should be easy question for you experienced travelers.

Can you buy a drink package for just one of the two people/cabin or do both people have to have a package??

Wife loves her coffee and would like to get her a non-alcoholic classic package but do not need that same fix myself.

Thank you in advance

Suggestion to the OP and others:

We have found that instead of 7:30 just go at 8:00. By then you will notice that many tables are being cleared, reset and availability is typically no problem, even the tables for 2....curiously if you wait until 8:30 the Europeans who dine later than Americans will start to impact availability again.

To Warmwinds...........Celebrity previously made prepayment of gratuities for the entire cruise mandatory if you chose Select Dining and I assume they still do.

Although our next cruise on X will be in Aqua Class and we will dine in Blu, our reservation shows Select Dining..........when you book strangely Blu is not an option and then gratuities are NOT added.

Strange indeed.......but they get you one way or another if free grats is not one of the cruise perks available.

If there is something on the MDR menu you want to eat........They WILL get it for you in Blu........Yes if you want that Prime Rib..........you WILL get it.....

Main advantage in Blu is that it is QUIET and refined dining and your waiters give EXCELLENT service

On our last TA on the Constellation, we were upgraded from Concierge to Aqua Class, giving us the opportunity to experience Blu. I guess I have different view of dining than most of the others on these posts. I will say that Blu does have better service than the MDR and is more intimate, but there are less food choices on the Blu menu for dinner. After the first couple of days, my wife and I would compare the Blu and MDR menus and choose our dining venue according to which menu we liked better. The biggest difference was in the number of choices between Blu and the MDR. I do not think that Blu compares in any way to a Celebrity specialty restaurant.

 

I will say that breakfast in Blu was very good and there was never a wait for a table at breakfast. However, I would not pay the much higher prices that Celebrity now gets for Aqua. We are currently booked on an Equinox TA in a nice Veranda cabin as the prices for Concierge and Aqua do not justify the added benefits.

 

There are other forums on Cruise Critic with many more opinions expressed on Blu vs the MDR. I would suggest that anyone contemplating paying for Aqua Class based solely on eating at Blu should look for one of those forums.

Early on in our relatively brief cruising experience compared to most all the rest of you much more experienced and seasoned travelers.... after sailing on NCL, RCL and HAL we tried Celebrity to see what that line was like.

Although we loved HAL a lot and still do (first cruise first love etc.) one thing was different and very noticeable to us on X............THE OFFICERS. The officers on X were very visible, very approachable and friendly..........much more so than on any of the other cruise lines we had been on. The rest of the crew were also great but not nearly so much as the difference in attitude of the officers on a daily basis when you encountered them.

We continue to love X and think they do offer a quality experience for the price. However, the price/day is creeping up because of all the perk programs I think. Perhaps they should offer a bare bones price w/o the drink and other packages that are bringing up that minimum some of retired folks have to aim at now that Verandahs and Aqua class have become that new minimum with my wife enjoying those naps at sea.

-Duplicate

We had a cruise on the Celebrity Millenium cancelled a few years ago that had a wonderful West coast multiple stop itinerary most cruisers dream about. THEY broke an azipod just to make us sad that we could not go on our cruise since that was the only ship scheduled for that itinerary.

Well, joking aside, since we had booked our own airfare to Vancouver, we decided to just go on a land tour of Western Canada instead. Rental car was $200 for the entire week and Canadians more plentiful than on Celebrity on a winter cruise to the Caribbean (smile), THAT was the BEST vacation we have had in many many years. Taking the week slow and easy turned out to be just as good or better than a cruise.

I have always wanted to see Banff, Lake Louise, the Icefields Parkway and Jasper..............WE DID.........WONDERFUL. Then one night in Whistler at the end of the trip topped off a really great trip.

Classic Lemons into Lemonade and the result was terrific.

You could mention that this cruise is RT Abu Dhabi...........and the airfare for most of us would be vastly higher than the cruise price.

So much for a bargain

There is actually a couple with similar pricing. Here's one. Admin, if this is not allowed please delete this post!

 

 

What I would say is ignore the alleged brochure prices! When this cruise opened an S1 was $5295. The CS is currently $3799 and the RS $4099.

 

I'm sure people will be quick to point out that these low prices only exist because it's now after final payment date which is obviously true. Other factors adding to the lower prices are the fact that it's just before Christmas and visas will be required by some (though they are really easy to obtain at least for us brits). You may also face an increase in air prices, though annoyingly for me flights from the UK flights there are very affordable still at just $530 return with KLM.

I find this perplexing. I've traveled in Italy for many years and have never been advised that I needed to carry my passport at all times. Not in guidebooks, by tour managers, hotel staff, or in cruise daily info (which usually will advise when you need to have your passport with you).

 

:confused:

ALSO, perplexed by the comments on this board. We were in Italy last year and the hotel held our passport the entire time!?

After boarding for our TA cruise, when we left the ship in various ports in Italy and Spain and one unexpected stop in France (alternate for Tunis), we NEVER took our passports and no one said we needed one.

WHERE does this information about carrying passports come from..............certainly not from any information we were given.

You will find many restaurants open long before 9 p.m. to cater for tourists who prefer to eat earlier than the Spanish traditionally do.

Thanks for that information. Anyone else with specific suggestions for restaurants etc. in this area that they have positive experience with from recent travels would also be appreciated.

This will be our first trip where we will be staying in Barcelona and be there for 4 nights pre-cruise in October

We will be staying right off the Placa Catalunya (side opposite of many who stay in Hotel Jazz). Suggestions for good restaurants for Lunch would be appreciated since I read that Lunch is often the main meal of the day and Dinner doesn't start until 9'ish which is typically too late for me to want to eat before bedtime. Tapas and a Spanish beer or wine in the PM would likely be a much better lighter meal I would think since you can control the incoming selections.

Thanks to all of you who have done this many times and have your favorites to share from those experiences.

Our first cruise was on the Maasdam in 2006. We were really impressed to have free cappuccino or lattes for dinner in MDR...........but more seasoned cruisers than us newbies complained about the "good old days" when the coffees at the coffee bar outside the Explorer's Lounge were also free.

.....................Times do change.........................Now there is a charge everywhere.........don't recall what the policy is in the Pinnacle on our latest cruise on the NA

If you book HAL, you know you might be exposed to second hand smoke while on your balcony. You know this going in. If balcony smoking bothers you, book another cruise line. God knows the other cruise lines have forced many smokers to switch to HAL because of their non-smoking policies.

Good point. THAT is why I have switched to Celebrity, no unknowns and balcony smokers ARE dealt with quickly by security.

HAL also has stupid rules for availability or ANY food in Lido before and after dinner.............NOTHING not even a cookie.

I was recently astounded by the significant improvements in the Celebrity website when I went in to do a precruise check in. GREATLY improved to say the least and many lines in the forms are pre-filled using your Captains club account information. Excursions were similarly easy.

However, I recently received a call from X informing me that I have a Future Cruise credit purchased 3 yrs ago I forgot about. This information is NOT linked in their computer system and too bad but you cannot use it for the current cruise you booked where we did not tell you about this credit.

Seems like a simple fix for a high school computer geek but this must be rocket science for Celebrity and their tech-challenged IT consultants.

We are usually on Princess or celebrity. We prefer on Princess the self service washers and dryers. Their website is very easy to use. On Celebrity, we prefer the adult experience in Solarium with enclosed pool. Princess charges a fortune for their "adult" area, which on the Royal which is similar in size to Solstice ships- and I don't think is any where as nice as Celebrity experience with that. Generally, I prefer Celebrity restaurant choices, but am disappointed that my favorite Bistro is now a sushi restaurant-- I don't eat that. Celebrity I have a found a bit classier overall than Princess. I have to say that I was on the Coral Princess last Dec. and the food was really quite good, though I like having more choices that Celebrity offers. I hate the Celebrity web site-- had an issue with a booked excursion cancelled and we were not notified--that was annoying to say the least.

 

In Feb. I will be on a ship I don't care for on Royal Caribbean, only because it is the only ship that does an itinerary that my dh really wants to do- unfortunately Princess only has that exact cruise over xmas at twice the price-- we try now to avoid school holidays when we can- so RC is getting our business for the first time in 16 years! I will say though that Princess and Celebrity are I think more alike than different. I would love to try HAL, but until they change their smoking policy, it isn't the cruise line for us.