Kellie Poodle

if you get a suite , what does the butler do for you ?

 

Nothing that I couldn't do for myself a lot faster.

 

I think it's a matter of personal choice to have one. I didn't find any benefit to having one on a 15 day cruise.

I take some wire hangers. I also have those "as seen on TV" things where you can hang several items vertically. They are lightweight plastic and don't take up any room in the luggage. It is easier to see five shirts hanging than to imagine what's underneath other shirts if you put them all on one hanger.

 

I bring a power strip. DH uses a breathing machine and I do want it plugged into a surge protector. I have never had one confiscated.

 

I always pack our over-the-door shoe holder and hang it behind the bathroom door. We take a lot of "gear" with us and it's just so much easier for us to have things on hand and know where they are.

 

I also have a small first aid kit and another small bag with Shout packets, a sewing kit, a small bottle of Woolite and a couple of clothes pins.

 

For dirty clothes I have one of those large vacuum bags that you roll up to expel the air. They sell them in Target and WalMart in the luggage department. When we are ready to go home, I seal the bag and roll it up to expel the air. It fits find on the bottom of a suitcase.

 

I find this much better than a collapsible laundry basket as I don't have to repack the dirty clothes to take them home.

I'm pretty sensitive to strong fragrances as well ... Really strong perfumes give me allergy attacks. But I'm particularly sensitive to moldy, musty smells ... The sort of smells associated with damp, wet places. Just wanting to get a sense of how likely this is to occur on Celebrity and whether I need to bring a neutraliser (with a subtle fragrant undertone).

 

 

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Go to the automotive section of the store and buy a tiny can of Ozium. One little spray will take care of things and it's not heavily scented. I have allergies and it does not bother me.

I'm a just in case packer as far as extra items but I seriously need to cut back on the clothes I bring. Last year I brought a different outfit for everyday both daytime and evening. I ended up wearing the same 2 pair of skorts almost every day and only about 4 of the shirts. I don't need to wear a different dress to dinner every night either. I can probably cut the amount of clothing I bring in half. I did have a whole extra bag just for my shoes. That one will be hard to cut down on.

 

 

Here's how I control my packing.

 

I make a chart for the number of days of the sailing. Daytime clothes are listed on top. Evening clothes are listed on bottom. There is a top to match every bottom except when the item is a dress.

 

I pin the chart to the cabin wall with a magnet.

 

As I wear each ensemble, I cross it off the chart. Many tops cordinate with the same bottoms so I pack fewer bottoms, but I do like a fresh top every day.

 

For example: For evening, I only have two pairs of bottoms that are black pants. All the tops go with black pants. Most of the tops are floaty chiffon jacket-style (lightweight and not too prone to wrinkling) that I wear with any of three black tank tops or camisoles. I can go on a 14 day cruise and wear something different every night (excluding formal nights). I also wear the same pair of black sandals every night as they go with the black slacks.

 

This may not work for everyone, but it does keep me honest about packing and wearing.

We have cruised with AMA and Uniworld and have had memorable cruises.

 

There is an itinerary with a date that works for us on an Avalon cruise in the far east.

 

I had mentioned the possibility of booking this cruise to some friends who have done lots of river cruises and they told me that I would not like Avalon.

 

Is Avalon so different from AMA and Uniworld?

 

I'd like to hear from those who have traveled either AMA or Uniworld and Avalon as I am interested in the comparison.

I'm 5'1" and wear a petite. Dillard's has a good selection but not always in my price range.

 

JC Penney carries petite dresses as does my local Ross Dress for Less, but one has to rummage through the racks. Marshall's will sometimes have them but they are mixed in withe the regular sizes.

 

Bealls, which also goes under a couple of other names, carries a nice selection of petite dresses.

 

Probably the place where I find the best selection in dresses is Burlington. They are pretty much all over the US.

Just found this thread.

 

I got the email as well. There are no retail stores near me, so I shop online.

 

In the past I've gotten some fabulous jackets, slacks and tops from CC, but nothing recently has been up to the quality I was used to from them. I've had to return too many items in the past year because of poor quality of the material.

 

If they had announced bankruptcy two years ago, I might have been much more upset. Now, with the quality of their garments slipping so much, I can't say I'll be crying over it.

 

If Chico's went out of business, I'd be devastated. :)

I have a zippered, waterproof case that holds all my toiletries and hairbrush. I bring medium-sized shampoo, body wash and lotion with me as I am allergic to the products the ship provides. I have a small zippered case for make up as well.

 

DH and I are seniors and we travel with a lot of stuff so I always bring an over the door shoe holder with us. The medicine chest is usually filled with drugs so the shoe holder works great for our toiletries, hair products, tooth products, etc. Because the pockets are clear, I don't get the "where is" every fifteen minutes, either. :)

I have a jersey knit long skirt with a wide smocked elastic waist band. I put the elastic part around my bust. I find it great to wear to the spa as I can be au natural underneath and no one knows.

 

I also have some regular ones with sleeves and drawstring necks but the jersey skirt is my favorite.

I'm a just in case packer.

 

I pack two little bags with just in case items. One is for fabric care and one is for first aid. The cases are the ones that the eye doctor gave us when DH had cataract surgery. I think plastic sun glasses and perhaps eye drops came in them. They are not very big. They stay packed all the time, but I check expiration dates before each trip.

 

In the fabric bag I have a small bottle or Woolite and a couple of plastic clothes pins for hand washables. I also have a few packets of Shout which have come in handy more times than I can count for stain removal before the stain sets for good. There is a small peel-off lint brush, a sewing kit and a few pairs of extra shoe laces.

 

In the first aid bag are the usual band aids, antibiotic and anti-itch ointments in small tubes, antihistimins, Tylenol, stuff for constipation and Immodium.

 

We have learned that when traveling our bodies might not adjust to the foods which are different than what we eat at home. Most times it's a few days until our bowels find their rhythm, but once in a while a new food will cause loose bowels that are most definitely NOT Norovirus. If you go to medical for something, they will immediately quarantine you, as they should, so for the occasional belly ache, I always pack Immodium.

We are cruising in about 20 days and I am starting to stress. I cant find anything I like for elegant night without paying a lot. Any recommendations on where to look for a reasonable priced dress. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

 

Ross Dress For Less. I have several gowns that I bought there for under $35 each. They are jersey knits, very elegant and very lightweight and packable. The jersey knit does not wrinkle.

My H still brings a sportcoat on cruises for the dining room. Typically he wears it when flying so it doesn't add to the luggage weight. A sportcoat can go over a cloth shirt with or without a tie or over a polo shirt so spans that gap between casual and suit and tie. Maybe because we are alittle older, but still doesn't feel 'right' to go to a dining room with linens and formally set table dressed like we would for a chain restaurant. If you look, you can find really nice brand name navy sport coats for under $10 at Goodwill. In my opinion no man's wardrobe is complete without an all season navy sport coat.

 

He does bring a dark suit for formal nights, but no tuxes for him.

 

My DH has a tuxedo that packs beautifully for formal nights. He never brings a jacket though he has a lovely navy blazer. I haven't seen a "smart casual" night in years. It's been either casual or formal.

 

He will wear dockers and either a knit shirt with a collar or a Hawaiian shirt. I get many of the Hawaiian shirts at thrift stores.

 

We don't sail Caribbean cruises any longer and the European cruise demographic tend to be inclined to dress up more for dinner than on the casual Caribbean cruises, still DH has not needed a jacket.

I would say dressy flip flops are fine most people now a days even where jeans no one is going to say anything.

 

 

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Dressy flip flops are fine. I can't imagine them excluding a pair of $75 Yellow Box "sandals". I think the prohibition is against dollar store rubber, flat ones.

 

As for jeans, make sure they are in good condition and neat. Even though ripped up jeans can cost a fortune, they really don't belong in the MDR at dinner time.

 

A nice pair of dark indigo, black or white jeans with a pretty top are always acceptable. White jeans always look good, but wear nude colored panties underneath if they are the least bit transparent.

 

The concept is that you should not come into the MDR in the same kind of outfit you'd wear to wash the car. :D

Aside from a bottle of water, I never have anything to put in the fridge!

 

We use it for insulin and eye drops that need to be kept cool.

Have you checked your roll call? There are usually people organizing private tours that you might want to join. Pricing is better and much less crowded than the cruise line's big busload tours

In my personal experience the butler we had in a Sky Suite (only time we had a butler) was the worst trained crew member I've ever had on any cruise (other than one on NCL where none of them were properly trained).

 

I am independent and would rather do things for myself.

 

The only thing I asked for was one cup of espresso in the morning and it took four tries to get that right. The espresso always arrived cold, even though it was in a thermal cardboard cup.

 

The one time we requested some fruit and cheese trays and wine glasses for a party, the fellow was on his break and had given his stand-in the wrong time.

 

Those were our only requests for service on a 15 day sailing.

 

We could not train him to not deliver the canapes and sweets. Every day we told him we would not want them and not to bother bringing them and every day he turned up again like a bad penny intruding on our rest. (Do not disturb sign did not stop him from knocking anyway)

 

Unless I get another free suite upgrade, I won't be booking a cabin with a butler again.

We did one NCL Freestyle sailing and will never board one of their ships again.

Other than a few river cruises we cruise exclusively with Royal Caribbean and Celebrity. We stopped doing the Caribbean a while back so most of our cruises are overseas embarkations.

 

We did an Azamara Club cruise in February and were not impressed. I've had better food and service on Royal and Celebrity. It wasn't a bad cruise, it just wasn't as "amazing" as all the hype proclaimed.

 

We cruise for ports so some of the fancy stuff offered by the small ship lines isn't worth much for us. As long as there are Celebrity and Royal ships sailing where we want to sail, why bother trying something new?

A few years ago friends of ours were booked to do a Carnival cruise from San Diego to and around Hawaii and back. We were interested in the itinerary so I looked into the cruise.

I was comparing it to a Celebrity Century sailing a few days later.

In order to get an unobstructed balcony cabin on the Carnival ship, I would have had to pay a higher price than for a balcony cabin on Century. That really surprised me.

I lurked on the Carnival and the Century roll calls and found that there was a large group of people on the Carnival board who knew each other from different cruises who had booked the Carnival cruise as a group and most of the chatter was about alcohol and parties which are not really our speed.

I was much more interested in the tone of the Century roll call and, in fact, we are still close with people we met on that board and on the ship.

Having loyalty program perks on Celebrity also made it less expensive for us to book on Century.

Our friends who took the Carnival cruise (they book inside cabins) said they had a good time,but complained about sea days not having anything to suit their interest.

We are all in our late 60's early 70's.

We sail with Royal and Celebrity (and recently Azamara) because we get the best value from them. Just the price of a cocktail before dinner, internet minutes, laundry, etc. that we get as loyalty perks makes a difference to our budget.

I would not say I would "never" sail Carnival, I just don't see any reason to.

I will say that I'll never sail with NCL as my first Freestyle cruise was my last.:)

LOL! If/when I wear MY cabin card on a lanyard, it's only so I know where it is. In fact, one cruise, I got a different color card from my husband and didn't even realize that it meant something. (shows you how much status means to me!):o

 

I wear my card on a lanyard because if I don't I lose the darned thing every time.

 

I have never seen anyone examine the card for loyalty status level. They would be staring right at my bosom if they were. ;)

In Copenhagen we did the HOHO bus. In Stockholm we used public transport to get around, which was very easy. We had an overnight stop in Stockholm, so we bought a 24 hour pass to use on bus, trams and ferries. It also included the metro, but we didn't go on that.

 

The public transport was accessible and everybody very helpful. We visited the Vasa Museum by bus and it stopped very near. My partner got in FOC as 'carer goes free'. This is normal in many museums and attractions throughout Europe, so something to bear in mind.

 

We very rarely use ship excursions as we find them extremely overpriced.

 

Thanks for the info.

 

When we had planned this trip for last summer, I got info on the HOHO bus, but found there was another bus that would take us to the museum area.

 

If we had an overnight, HOHO would be worth considering, but our experience is that on a brief port visit, they are not worth waiting for and they stop their service long before we want to stop our visiting.

You should probably think about renting a scooter rather than a chair. Don't forget that someone has to push that chair and you don't want that to be you!

Yoletta

 

Thanks for the suggestion. It was considered.

 

I have pushed him in a wheel chair before. I think it would be easier to bring along a folding wheel chair than a scooter. Scooters are heavy and have to be taken down and put back together. A wheel chair is simply unfolded and the legs hooked on.

 

If there are curbs or other obstacles, he is able to walk, just not distances.

Kellie Poodle

 

I took a collapsible wheelchair on our Baltic cruise last September. We also booked with Alla in SPB. We booked the 2 day Comfort Tour and I had advised Alla about the wheelchair. She came back with exactly how far each place would be from where the bus would stop and exactly how many steps there are in each place.

 

I can manage steps and short distances, so am not confined to the chair. When we arrived in SPB there was only one other couple from our ship doing the tour with us. We had a small, modern mini bus for the 4 of us. The bus driver was very helpful and tried to park as close to the kerb whenever possibly so I could easily step up or down. He also took care of the wheelchair. The guide ensured we got into places easily and arranged for us to use lifts whenever appropriate. We were very impressed by the service from both the guide and the driver.

 

The most difficult port of call was Tallin. We took a taxi to the top of Tapea Hill and walked down. The first, steep part was OK as there is a pavement, but once get further down into the town it is all cobblestones. I spent more time walking than I did in the wheelchair. I ended up having a drink in a bar whilst my partner walked around and took photos. However, I am glad I saw what I did, but wouldn't rush to go back to Tallin because of the difficulties.

 

If you let me know your ports of call I'll tell you what we did in each one if they are the same as ours.

 

If you do a search there is quite a lot of info for disabled people visiting the Baltics.

 

 

Thank you so very much!

 

DH's disability is merely walking any distance without resting. He can do steps, slowly. He has a bad back and congestive heart failure. Downhill and cobblestones are usually not a problem.

 

We will be doing a private itinerary in SPB with Alla. We have been there before and there were specific places we wanted to see so it will only be the two of us.

 

I do know that the tour we had planned with her in Tallinn also started from the top of the hill and we had to walk down. It was also just us on the tour. DH has no problems walking down hill.

 

The other ports are Copenhagen, Helsinki, Stockholm and Visby, Sweden. I know that Alla does tours in some of these ports as well.

We have docked two places in Venice, and never had to walk down to get to the ship, nor take a bus. Which terminal were you at? EM

 

I don't know the name of the terminal. We were the only cruise ship there. It was Royal Caribbean's Grandeur of the Seas.

 

There were no wheel chairs and we had to walk down several flights of stairs. The only reason, they told us, that there was a bus was because it was raining. The walk would have devastated my DH if there had been no bus.

I use a collapsible scooter (travelscoot brand) and have had good fortune using private tours. I can transfer to a standard car/van which provides options not available if you must use accessible transport. When I make contact with an excursion provider I tell them about my mobility problems, describe the tour we wish to take, ask their opinion of the suitability of such a tour, and also give them the dimensions of the scooter in both collapsed and working format. When we took our Baltic cruise (never been on a transatlantic) we used SPB tours in St. Petersburg.

 

Thanks. We will be using Alla Tours. We had booked with her for last summer but we had to cancel due to illness. We intend to re-book with Alla. I will have to call the wheelchair rental company for dimensions.

 

May I ask, what were the limitations of your Baltic excursions using the scooter? I think it would help me plan my excursions.

 

If you prefer, you can email me at kelliepoodle at yahoo dot com.

I had a different experience in Venice. If you google "Accessible Venice" you will get one site with suggestions for routes which can be used by those with mobility problems. You can print maps that show these routes. I use a scooter and using the maps I found I could go where I wanted. I would not have been happy to have been cautioned about going to Venice by the cruise line. In fact we are going back this summer and expect to have another good experience.

 

I had information from Accessible Venice for touring in the city. I was addressing the port area only. If one can't walk down several flights of stairs to get to the ship, it's not mobility friendly. There is no elevator in the terminal.