mahdnc

No, I said that the writer was poorly informed. I found it hard to believe that a travel magazine publisher was reticent about taking a cruise because she imagined "a little tiny cabin and no window" and then discovered that "some cruise ships have spacious suites with floor-to-ceiling windows". Really? You're in the travel magazine publishing business and this is a surprise to you? So this epiphany was either made up (to make the article more interesting) or she is poorly informed, or maybe she is extremely specialized (e.g. expert on the best dog sled rides in Cambodia).

There have been multiple reports on this forum of people having the exact same problem.

A somewhat interesting article about a poorly informed travel magazine publisher: https://www.cnbc.com/2023/02/02/private-shore-excursions-how-to-get-away-from-cruise-ship-crowds.html

Thanks for posting your update.

That timing seems very tight although DIVI may be do-able. There is no guarantee that the ship will be docked at precisely 8 am and there is a delay in getting the ship cleared by Immigration before you can get off. I would suggest that you email the dive shop and explain your situation and see what they say. My family and I have done a lot of dives on our Celebrity cruises. We find that many of the small dive operators in the Caribbean will work with your cruise ship schedule. Some of the bigger shops are going to be inflexible and if you can't make it in time, they will not wait for you. Getting off the ship is pretty quick since you should be docked. The pier area is very commercial (stores, shops) and pretty large. Getting a taxi is not difficult but you have to walk a ways before you get to the taxis. The drive to DIVI or Simpsons Bay will take a while (15-20 minutes) and is traffic dependent. Again, I would contact them to see what they have to say. If they cannot accommodate you, don't give up and keep looking. Although we have done a lot of diving, we have not done it at St Maarten and so I don't have any specific dive shop recommendations to give you. Good luck. Lionfish hunting in Aruba, Jan 2019

I think you both will find Silhouette to be enjoyable. It is a nice ship.

In October we used Stefano's RomeCabs to transport 5 of us and our luggage from our hotel near the Pantheon to the Civitavecchia pier. Split 5 ways, it cost us 32 Euros each. Getting picked up in front of the Albergo del Senato hotel, Oct 22 2022

As mentioned earlier, this is a problem. You need to call Celebrity (or your travel agent if you used one) to get it straightened out.

At least you now know that you are not alone!

If someone's job was in jeopardy, it was probably saved by the famous cabin pricing error that soon followed.

We had an early check in time (11:30 am or so) for our Constellation TA in October. Our stateroom was ready by about 1pm, but you could drop off your bags in your cabin immediately.

Did you know that India Standard Time is offset by 30 minutes from its neighboring time zones? It's GMT + 5.5 hrs. I have a climbing friend that told me that Nepal's time zone is offset by 45 minutes!

It is eye opening that the hours of operation are expressed as the local time for the call center.

and luggage snafus.

Glad to hear that it worked out. Enjoy your cruise. We live in Chicago and have been able to schedule non-stop flights to the port city which avoids your problem unless the weather is bad in Chicago! I assume you were also flying in ahead of time enough that if you were delayed by a day or two, you would not have missed the cruise?

Sorry to read this. Get well!

https://robbreport.com/motors/aviation/flying-on-modern-airship-1234797717/ https://oceanskycruises.com/ Watch out for the IV cabins though.....

The stateroom TV channels include BBC, so you are good there.

You will also find that your kids won't be able to get enough of Celebrity's kids program (aka Camp at Sea). With a large number of kids on board your holiday sailing, Celebrity does increase the number of counselors on board to handle it. Facilities-wise to manage the large numbers, some of the kids activities will take place outside of the kids club.

Awesome. You are right--the efforts to change the itinerary are very much appreciated. I have been watching with great interest your roll call and there appears to be a great deal of effort also being made (actually more aggressive). My wife and I elected not to book a cruise to watch next year's eclipse this time. We will be in the USA on terra firma (maybe Texas). I am planning on photographing the eclipse and this time I need a stable platform from which to use my camera with its long telephoto lens and slow shutter speeds. Also I am planning on taking my family and perhaps friends and so it is more practical to plan this as a land vacation. I wish for you smooth seas and clear skies on eclipse day!

If you let the Future Cruise option lapse, the $100 is refunded (see first photo). Lately Celebrity has extended the option period from 90 days to a year. In fact for our recently completed transatlantic cruise, the option period was 18 months (2nd photo).

It would be extremely unusual for your sailing to be chartered out this close to the sailing date.

Having the bad luck of having the cruise cancelled because it has been chartered and taken private. Typically it occurs much earlier before sailing. However a Red Sox fan is conditioned to believe that anything bad happening is always possible.

Nice to be that prepared. I hope your sailing doesn't get chartered.....